December 3: The Shape of the Earth

Finnish stamp commemorating Maupertius' expedition on which Celsius collected his data.

Anders Celsius shows up on today’s list of events, although it is neither the anniversary of his birth nor death, but of an event where he played a minor but crucial role. You may know the Celsius temperature scale from chemistry or biology, which portioned out 100 degrees between zero at water’s boiling point and… Continue reading December 3: The Shape of the Earth

December 1: Anna Komnene

Twelfth Century manuscript of the Alexiad, now in the Bibloteca Medicea Laurenziana

When I was in grammar school, I read a lot of biographies of men and women from different countries and time periods. While women frequently faced specific prejudices because they were women, men faced similar prejudices because they were poor, or from the wrong family, or not educated at the right university. It seemed that… Continue reading December 1: Anna Komnene

November 28: The Royal Society

Coat of Arms, Royal Society of London

In the 1640s, a group of natural philosophers led by Robert Boyle  exchanged correspondence and met informally to discuss scientific ideas. Influenced by Francis Bacon’s empirical emphasis in the “new science”,  he described in his essays and his New Atlantis, they exchanged data from their various experiments and observations, and sought rational explanations. Boyle called… Continue reading November 28: The Royal Society