Status Updates From Scientifica Historica: How ...

“…it’s transformation of the popular science market has enabled far more effective books to published” typo!!! Missing “be” following the “to”

“Richard Feynman observed that it was so accurate it was like predicting the distance from New York to Los Angeles to the width of a human hair.” Brother. Brother. Vocabulary terms. Omg.

“Science books have grown up.” Is an INSANE thing to say in a book that examines science communication as a broad field throughout history. We can pretend that we exist in a “grown up” phrase all we want, but we are just another dot on the timeline that will continue to extend forward. “I’m grown up,” says the 7 yr old in her mother’s heels, says the 12 yr old sipping coffee, the 20 yr old with rent

“[Rosalind Franklin and DNA] was published in 1975 — though [it] has been criticized by Franklin’s sister for overstating the level of sexism she faced.” Hey. Hey Clegg. Why would you include this detail hm? What’s your point. What’s the angle you’re trying to emphasize with that detail on that page. Did you have something to say perhaps.

The stance on DDT— hot take. I won’t say it’s a wholly bad take per se, I do see the logic, but it sure is.. interesting. In the Silent Spring discussion, the author skews dangerously pro-DDT/anti-DDT broadband ban.

Darwin to Caroline Kennard, 1881: “I certainly think that women though generally superior to men [in] moral qualities are inferior intellectually, and there seems to me to be a great difficulty from the laws of inheritance, (if I understand those laws rightly) in their becoming intellectual equals of man.’” Do you ever just want to go feral

“Wegner’s (literally) groundbreaking title setting out the concept of continental drift” okay this is funny. This one really got me. I love me a good geology pun.

“natural, and, under the circumstances, inevitable. For a power which influences, so mightily the intellectual and material action of the age, cannot fail to arrest attention and challenge imagination..” extracted from John Tyndall’s 1867 lectures. Note the focus on making the material “interesting” to audiences. 2/2

“In the following pages I have tried to render the science of Acoustics interesting to all intelligent persons, including those who do not possess any special scientific culture.… There is a growing desire for scientific culture throughout the civilized world. The feeling is…” 1/2

FINALLY MADE IT TO LYELL!!

Mmmmm this is losing me a bit. I’m hanging on for you, 24 books in 2024 challenge. I’m doing this for you.

I think Clegg kind of hates Ptolemy. This section is so much more pen-scribbling-furiously-on-the-page. CACKLING

“The title [Mathematical Treatise] might seem odd, given it dealt with astronomy, but we need to remember that until the 19th century, astronomy and cosmology were considered part of mathematics, not the physical sciences, where they have now been more sensibly reassigned.” More sensibly reassigned is CRAZY considering this whole book is about the progress of knowledge. This is gonna be really funny in 300 years

“All science is either physics or stamp collecting” from Ernest Rutherford is SO funny