Science History

Alfred Russel Wallace And The Inselaffen

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Article - Robert H Olley - May 16 2013 - 8:50am

Wilhelm Sinsteden- Inventor Of The Lead-Acid Battery

Most people, including many scientists and electrical engineers, have never heard of Wilhelm Josef Sinsteden.  He invented the lead-acid battery and published his findings in 1854.  In 1860 an improved construction by Gaston Raimond Planté was the first co ...

Article - Patrick Lockerby - May 17 2013 - 6:29pm

NSA Global Data Gathering (Old News)

News (?), Top-Secret (?), Latest revelation (?) Strange, the EU was aware of the NSA (spying) global gathering of electronic data since 2001.  Sorry folks, this is not news.  I wrote about this several years ago in this forum under the title: Quantum Phys ...

Blog Post - Jim Myres - Jun 7 2013 - 10:22am

Batteries électriques- By A. Volta

Batteries électriques- by Alexander Volta In 1800 the Royal Society published Alexander Volta's description of how he built his batteries. It is not widely known that Volta invented both the 'wet' and the 'dry' battery.  Most writ ...

Article - Patrick Lockerby - Jun 23 2013 - 5:24pm

Electric Batteries- By A. Volta

Electric Batteries- by A. Volta In this article I present my translation of Alessandro (Alexander) Volta's original French paper, which I published as- Batteries électriques- By A. Volta ...

Article - Patrick Lockerby - Jun 23 2013 - 5:31pm

Bruno Was A Martyr For Magic, Not Science

The contrarian in me forces me to argue against sides I would ordinarily agree with when the argument is made from a flawed premise; California's Proposition 37 got a thumbs down from me because there's no reason a terrifically unhealthy Whole Fo ...

Article - Hank Campbell - Jun 27 2013 - 3:53pm

When A New Technology Saved The French Wine Industry

Amy Harmon's  excellent, recent article in the New York Time s describes how the Florida orange juice industry may soon be wiped-out because of a new bacterial disease spread by an introduced insect.  It looks like there could be a technology-fix for ...

Article - Steve Savage - Aug 23 2013 - 9:21am

Galileo’s Own Wine Jug?

A few days ago, I was watching an episode of the Antiques Roadshow.  People were bringing their treasured objects for expert examination to the grounds of a stately house in St Ives, Cambridgeshire.  The items included an early pocket calculator by Sinclai ...

Blog Post - Robert H Olley - Aug 24 2013 - 10:04am

Laura Bassi: The First Female Professional Scientist That Few People Know Of

Technology may not seem like more of a woman's world than science, but in some ways it is- Ada Lovelace is revered by computer programmers and is well-known in popular culture, while Laura Bassi, the first women to forge a professional scientific car ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 2 2013 - 9:50am

That's Not The Brain Of Carl Friedrich Gauss

In 1855, a specimen of the brain of mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss was taken and preserved. But the over 150-year-old slice of his brain, which scientists had long been examining in the belief that it was Gauss's brain, turns out to not be his br ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 29 2013 - 1:45pm