Science History

Reconsidering the Wheel

We've all heard how the wheel is one of man's greatest inventions, and there are many theories or ideas regarding how it was achieved.  Certainly it seems rather plausible that rolling logs probably played a role in this development. However, the ...

Blog Post - Gerhard Adam - Aug 7 2009 - 2:52am

The Oxford Calculators

I have often found reference to medieval and early modern folks most helpful in debugging things that have bugged me since I did science when I was a student in the Sixties (for me they did not swing). One particular bunch are the Oxford Calculators, also ...

Article - Robert H Olley - Aug 8 2009 - 11:57am

The Voynich Manuscript Part 7: Scripts & Swallowtails

The Voynich Manuscript Part 7: Further Dating Studies I present here more evidence in support of my suggestion that the Voynich manuscript may date from a period between 1350 to 1450, perhaps even earlier.  This is part 7 of an occasional series which com ...

Article - Patrick Lockerby - Aug 19 2009 - 4:26pm

Science For Criminals- 19th Century Knowledge Helped Change Death Row

When did executions go from being functional example-setting to being more humane in method? Annulla Linders, a University of Cincinnati sociologist, examined newspaper accounts of 19th and 20th century Ohio executions to put more 'scientific' ex ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 10 2009 - 9:57am

The Voynich Manuscript: A Rip-Off

This is not an article in my continuing series about the Voynich manuscript.  It is a complaint about plagiarism. buckrogers2012 is a plagiarist. buckrogers2012, a blogger on blogspot.com has copied my entire series of Voynich articles into his blog, compl ...

Blog Post - Patrick Lockerby - Aug 11 2009 - 11:52am

Ancient Egypt: Recommended Resources

Ancient Egypt: Recommended Resources There are times when I find that anything I may write on a topic has already been written to a very high standard by someone before me.  In such cases, I prefer to refer my readers to those sources. Image from Project ...

Blog Post - Patrick Lockerby - Aug 11 2009 - 6:30pm

The Voynich Manuscript Part 8: Some Notes On Writing Systems

The Voynich Manuscript Part 8: Some Notes On Writing Systems ...

Blog Post - Patrick Lockerby - Jan 9 2010 - 4:33pm

Today In Science History: August 24th

Scientific happenings, big and small, on this day in history… But first, today’s quiz: What favorite American snack food was invented on this day by chef George “Speck” Crum in response to a picky customer that complained that the chef’s french fries were ...

Article - Kimberly Crandell - Aug 25 2009 - 10:07am

Gruesome Analysis

I have just read a letter in Chemistry World (September 2009, p40) by A J Dijkstra, who has just translated the first ever book on lipid chemistry from French into English. This book is Recherches chimiques sur les corps gras d'origine animale, Paris ...

Blog Post - Robert H Olley - Sep 2 2009 - 1:21pm

Nuclear Weapons, the Cold War, and the Art of the Status Quo

We had this question posed to us in one of my classes. Here is my answer: Did the existence of nuclear weapons cause a dramatic change in the conduct of foreign policy or the options available to nuclear states? Why or why not? To answer this I'll of ...

Blog Post - Sina Kashefipour - Sep 9 2009 - 10:03pm