#history of science tag

[astriiformes]

Hi, i just learned about the scientific revolution in europe at school. Can you tell me why you dont think scientific revolutions exist? im curious!

So I feel like I have to lead with the fact that I'm kind of arguing two different points when I say scientific revolutions aren't really a thing

One is that I'm objecting to a specific, extremely foundational theory of scientific revolutions that was put forth by the philosopher Thomas Kuhn, which I think really misrepresents how science is actually practiced in the name of fitting things to a nice model. The other is that I think the fundamental problem with the idea is that it's too vague to effectively describe an actual process that happens.

It's certainly true that there are important advances in science that get referred to as "revolutions" that fundamentally changed their fields -- the shift from the Ptolemaic model of the Solar System to the Copernican one, Darwin's theory of evolution, etc. But there are historians of science (who I tend to agree with) that feel that terming these advances "revolutions" ignores the fact that science is an continuous, accretional process, and somewhat sensationalizes the process of scientific change in the name of celebrating particular scientists or theories over others.

Kuhn's model that he put forth in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (which is one of those books that itself stirred a great deal of activity in a number of fields) suggests science evolves via what he called "paradigm shifts," where new ideas become fundamentally incompatible with the old model or way of doing things, causing a total overturn in the way scientists see the world, and establishing a new paradigm -- which will eventually cave to another when it, too, ceases to function effectively as a model. This theory became extraordinarily popular when it was published, but it's somewhat telling who it's remained popular with. Economists, political scientists, and literary theorists still use Kuhn, but historians of science, in my experience at least, see his work as historically significant but incompatible with how history is actually studied.

Kuhn posits that between paradigm shifts there are periods of "normal science" where paradigms are unquestioned and anomalies in the current model are largely ignored, until they reach a critical mass and cause a scientific revolution. In reality though, there is often real discussion of those anomalies, and I think the scientific process is not nearly so content to ignore them as Kuhn thinks. Throughout history, we see people expressing a real discontent with unsolved mysteries the current scientific model fails to explain, and glossing over those simply because the individuals in question didn't manage to formulate breakthrough theories to "solve" those problems props up the somewhat infamous "great men" model of history of science, where we focus only on the most famous people in the field as significant instead of acknowledging that science is a social enterprise and no research happens in a vacuum!

Beyond disagreeing with Kuhn specifically though, I think the idea of scientific revolutions vastly simplifies how science evolves and changes, and is ultimately a really ahistorical way of thinking about shifts in thinking. Take the example of the shift from Ptolemaic, geocentric thought to the heliocentric Copernican model of the solar system. When does this supposed "revolution" in thought actually start, and when does it "end" by becoming firmly established? You could argue that the publication of Copernicus' De revolutionibus orbium coelestium in 1543 was the beginning of the shift in thinking -- but of course, then you have the problem of asking where Copernicus' ideas came from in the first place.

The "great men" model of history would suggest Copernicus was a uniquely talented individual who managed to suggest something no one else had ever put forth, but realistically, he was influenced by the scientists who came before him, just like anyone else. There were real objections to the Ptolemaic model during the medieval era! One of the most famous problems in medieval astronomy was the fact that assuming a geocentric model makes the behavior of the planets seem really weird to an observer on Earth, referred to as retrograde motion, which had to be solved with a complicated system of epicycles that people knew wasn't quite working, even if they weren't able to put together exactly why. There were even ancient Greek astronomers who suggested that the sun was at the center of the solar system, going all the way back to Aristarchus of Samos who lived from around 310-230 BCE!

Putting an end point to the Copernican revolution poses similar challenges. Some people opt to suggest that what Copernicus started, either Galileo or Newton finished (which in and of itself means the "revolution" lasted around 100-150 years), but are we defining the shift in terms of new theories, or the consensus of the scientific community? The latter is much harder to pinpoint, and in my opinion as an aspiring historian of science, also much more important. Again, science doesn't happen in a vacuum. Copernicus, Galileo, and Newton may be more famous than their peers, but that doesn't mean the rest of the Renaissance scientific community didn't matter.

Ultimately it's a matter of simple models like Kuhn's (or other definitions of scientific revolutions) being insufficient to explain the complexity of history. Both because science is a complex endeavor, and because it isn't independent from the rest of history. Sure, it's genuinely amazing to consider that Copernicus' De revolutionibus orbium coelestium and the anatomist Andreas Vesalius' similarly influential De humani corporis fabrica were published the same year, and it says something about the intellectual climate of the time. But does it say something about science only, or is it also worth remembering that the introduction of typographic printing a century prior drastically changed how scientists communicated and whose ideas stuck and were remembered? On a similar note, we credit Darwin with suggesting the theory of evolution (and I could write a similarly long response just on the many, many influences in geology and biology both that went into his formulation of said theory), but what does it say that Alfred Russel Wallace independently came up with the theory of natural selection around the same time? Is it sheer coincidence, or does it have more to do with conversations that were already happening in the scientific community both men belonged to that predated the publication of the Origin?

I think that the concept of scientific revolutions is an important part of the history of the history of science, and has its place when talking about how we conceive of certain periods of history. But I'm a skeptic of it being a particularly accurate model, largely on the grounds of objecting to the "great men" model of history and the idea that shifts in thinking can be boiled down to a few important names and dates.

There's a famous Isaac Newton quote (which, fittingly, did not originate with Newton himself, but can be traced back even further to several medieval thinkers) in which he states "If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants." I would argue that science, as an endeavor, is far more like standing on the shoulder of several hundred thousand other people in a trenchcoat. This social element of research is exactly why it's so hard to pull apart any one particular revolution, even when fairly revolutionary theories change the direction of the research that's happening. Ideas belong to a long evolutionary chain, and even if it occasionally goes through periods of punctuated equilibrium, dividing that history into periods of revolution and stagnancy ignores the rich scientific tradition of the "in-between" periods, and the contributions of scientists who never became famous for their work.

#SORRY FOR WRITING A NOVEL #i hope this makes sense and that i am not too deep in the history of science theory to give a good explanation #a much shorter tl;dr answer would be that my stance towards scientific revolutions is more skepticism than total rejection #but hyperbole gets the job done a lot faster haha #getting to the point that i really should have a #history of science tag

[gerardtweets]

whats ur favorite bird?

anon you have just opened pandora’s box

My favorite particular bird is the Pfeilstorch! This is a piece of taxidermy from the early 1800s currently on display at the University of Rostock in Germany.

In the early 1800s, natural historians and biologists did not know where birds went for the winter. They just disappeared. Some people thought they hibernated like bears, or turned into fish (!!) or flew to the moon (!!)

Cut to 1822 when a this bird was found in Germany. It was still alive, walking around with this spear in its neck. The spear was made from wood that only grows in central Africa. The German biologists determined that the bird had been speared in central Africa and then flew north to Germany. This was how they figured out that birds migrate with the changing seasons.

#cw animal death #lmk if i should tag further for taxidermy #i could talk about the history of science for actual decades #asks

[chemlock]

Forensic Odontology Overview

Forensic odontology is a subspecialty of dentistry that has its main focus on the identification of deceased victims. In simplest terms, there are two aims in forensic dentistry. The first one is the identification of the dead, and second is the identification of an assailant who has used his or her teeth as a weapon. But how? Let's see.

Let's start with corpse identification. Teeth can be used to identify corpses, as no two oral cavities are alike, and teeth are unique to an individual. The dental evidence of the deceased recovered from the crime scene is compared with ante-mortem records for identification. This is used in cases such as mass casualties, burn victims, or severely disfigured/decomposed corpses.

Forensic odontology can also be used to determine things like age, race, and sex. In cases where there is no blood or other DNA sources, teeth can also be used.

Age is determined by looking at X-rays of the permanent teeth and tooth roots within the bone. The crown of a tooth forms first, followed by the root, and scientists estimate age by comparing the stage of tooth formation in the X-rays and bone with known dental growth standards.

Race is found by comparing the shapes of the different teeth. Determining race using teeth isn't easy, but using common dental characteristics as indicators (like Caucasoids usually having narrow “v-” shaped arch giving rise to crowding of teeth) we can get a good guess.

To determine sex, we rely on sexual dimorphism. Generally, male teeth have significantly greater quantities of dentine than females, while female teeth are found to have greater enamel thickness than male teeth. This isn't always fully accurate, but when combined with other factors, it helps give an idea.

None of these are perfect, but they can help give us a good approximate description, which is better than none.

Now, Bite Mark analysis.

There's 4 steps to bite mark analysis. Photographs, saliva swabbing, impressions, and tissue samples.

In order to make a good comparison, a balanced, color, scale photograph should be made of the defendant’s teeth (which can be used for testimony in court) and of the victim’s bite. Because the dental expert will need to know the scale shown in the picture, some method of measurement (such as a ruler or tape measure) photographed alongside the bite mark and the defendant’s teeth is necessary. A plaster cast of the defendant’s dental impressions can also be used to prepare a plastic overlay. The plastic overlay is used to mark the points of contact and forms a representation of defendant’s bite marks or a pattern of the cutting edges of defendant’s teeth. This representation can then be compared with a scaled photograph of the bite mark on the victim as a means of determining common points of identification.

If the bite area was swabbed and saliva recovered, and it was a positive match to the subject, that could help identify the assailant, but it's not often that DNA can be recovered.

Bite analysis has its issues, as tooth marks are not always transfered accurately, and sometimes there's not enough difference in bite marks to tell reliably. Bitemark analysis is more often used for excluding someone as a potential assailant. Say the mark shows imprint of fully intact frontal incisors, and the proposed biter does not have all their front teeth. This means that the person being accused is not the probable assailant. This could also be used to tell if the bite was self-inflicted. But bite mark analysis is often not admissible due to it having been found to be unreliable in some cases. People have been rightly and falsely convicted because of it, and it can be an unreliable method for forensic examination.

As with all areas of forensics, it's under dispute for its reputability. Bite mark analysists have been shown to be unable to consistently agree on whether the bitemark was even human. Even minor distortions could lead to the mark matching a number of people.

And here's a little bit of interesting history I came across in my travels :)

There are many "first" uses of forensic odontology in history across the web, but as far as I can find the first documented use of teeth for identification began during 66 AD, with the Agrippina and Lollia Pauline case. (There's a bit to it, find it here.)

Recorded forensic identification in India started in 1193, where Jai Chand, a great Indian monarchy, was destroyed by Muhammad's army, and Jai Chand, Raja of Kanauji was murdered and he was identified by his false teeth.

Dr Ascor Amoedo is reputed as the father of forensic odontology and documented the first case of dental identification in which many individuals lost their lives in a disaster. 126 people were charred to death due to a fire accident in Paris 1897, and were identified using their teeth.

In 1979, a double bite mark played an important role in convicting Ted Bundy of murder as he'd bitten one of his last victims.

#forensics #forensic science #forensic ondontology #dentists #dentistry #sherlock #deductions #science #mortuary science #dexter #criminology #criminals #criminal minds #criminal #criminals minds #woo science #police #idk im kinda using everything #orthodontics #orthodontics near me #AHHAHA #why is that a tag #forensic odontology #odontology #teeth #tma #spencer reid #help im so tired #did this make sense someone tell me it does #history

[serethespider]

hey everyone! i recently compiled a bunch of useful links to various online archives, libraries, and the like, and i wanted to share the result since i feel like a lot of these resources would be very useful to people!!

feel free (enouraged even) to repost/share this wherever you want, or even take the links for your own masterposts or compiled resources or whatever. the goal i had in mind when making this was to share knowledge, not to take credit or anything, so go wild!

fair warning this is fairly targeted towards online leftist queer spaces since those are the circles i run in but this is tumblr so figured that wouldn't be a problem lol

also, if anyone has any cool sources or links they want me to add to make it more comprehensive, just hit me up!

#original #resources #online resources #archive #internet #science #culture #history #language #queer #queer history #lgbt history #marxism #communism #anarchism #adding as many tags as i can think of lol #kind of really want this to spread i was proud of it #and i think it would be useful to others #oh more tags hold on #project gutenberg #internet archive

[myothertardisisonthemun]

#i come at this with no agenda no not at all i definitely haven't written countless letters to MPs trying to save a similar museum no.... #there's no reason i am tagging this #powerhouse museum #i could be thinking about any #museum #like #questacon #or the #Museum of Science and Industry #or maybe im thinking of #London Science Museum #it could be any #technology museum #or #science museum #It's going to be the Tumblr #Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences #and we will never let a CEO earn half a million a year while she denies funds for essential maintenance and strips out educational content #if i had more spots i would have added in one for the history of communications exhibit and #the Emergence of AI exhibit the old founding director proposed but as you can tell #i am very much grinding an axe right now

[girlboccaccio]

Turin, 22 April 1909 - Rome, 30 December 2012

#italian tag #Rita Levi Montalcini #madame? sorry madame? sorry #science #women in science #women laureates #nobel in medicine #women in stem #stem #italian history

[hanakogames]

While her husband’s name was the only one on the box—the company crafted a mystique around Scott as a solo adventure-making genius—Alexis contributed to many of the titles Adventure International produced. Some games credit her as co-creator on their title screens, if nowhere else, and one gives her sole billing there: 1979’s Voodoo Castle. A few other women designers had published games by that year, including Carol Shaw at Atari, but Alexis was among the first to receive a visible credit. In a contemporary interview, Scott noted that she built the game “95% on her own” after learning how to use his database system; this also might make her the first nonprogrammer in history to use a domain-specific tool to make a digital game. She dedicated Voodoo Castle “to all moms!” and it featured multiple female characters, including “Medium Maegen,” a hint-dispensing spiritualist named after her daughter—maybe the first woman with dialogue in a video game.

from 50 Years of Text games, discussing Alexis Adams, wife of Scott Adams

I've never played a Scott Adams game. Honestly, I was mostly only familiar with him as an offhand reference, almost a joke, from the old text adventure community.

Back in the time period when I was involved with the yearly IFComp, most games were made with either Inform or TADS (my preference as it was closer to programming languages I was familiar with). There were always a few people who insisted on building their own awkward homebrew engines which lacked the features of the more mature toolsets, and would often be described as "Scott Adams-like", using simple prose and accepting parser commands of only two words at a time, no fluff. At least a few games claimed to be deliberately emulating that style.

Unfamiliar with the name and history, I misunderstood the context and assumed that Scott Adams was some sort of mad auteur, "giftedly bad", deliberately retro or wildly indie, cheerfully releasing games that lacked 'standard' polish and not caring about it because it was fun. I absolutely did not comprehend how old these first games were, nor how important in the history of home computer game sales. And I certainly never heard Alexis' name. Sadly, she's no longer with us.

#game development #text adventure #interactive fiction #scott adams #history #i WANTED to tag this 'invisible women' to talk about the phenomenon of female contributions to art/science achievements being erased #but unfortunately every tag i can think of leads straight into a bunch of unpleasant discourse about something totally different

[drthrvn]

i'm sorry but not many things regarding Polish culture annoy me as much as people calling Maria Skłodowska-Curie "Marie Curie".

she was born during the partitions, when Poland practically didn't exist cause our lands were divided between russia, Prussia and Austria, who were actively fighting Polish culture and national identity. there were places where it was illegal to even speak Polish. it lasted for 123 years and yet, our culture, our language, our identity survived.

yes, she was naturalized French because she married a French man and because Poland technically did not exist at the time. but Maria Skłodowska-Curie didn't call one of the element she discovered "polonium" so you could now erase her national identity.

so don't be fucking lazy and at least try to call her Skłodowska. even if you pronounce it a wrong way, at least fucking try. believe me, we Poles are aware how difficult our language is but we appreciate if a person at least tries.

#wow that turnt out longer then i had expected #poland #polska #polish tag #maria skłodowska-curie #science #history #culture #nobel prize winner

[astriiformes]

Feeling some kind of way about the existence of this 17th century history of medicine book

#history of science tag

[cringelordofchaos]

This guy

#poll #polls #my polls #my poll #tumblr poll #Tumblr polls #science #history #yada yada #i aint tagging other stuff

[jeena-says-hi]

Me and @overanalysingfandoms be like:

#I do science #I’ve got a rat dissection later today #edit: I did the dissection and it was rly cool very stinky tho and lots of blood #funny #meme #funny meme #art #cartoon sona #fanart of me and frend #idk what else to tag #biology #history #zoology

[sleepyyghostt]

obsessed with these insect facts i found at the very end of a pdf about insect pinning

#textpost tag #entomology #natural history #science #gonna be thinking about that last one for. a . while

[spyglassrealms]

"We're finally out of the cradle. Of the hundred billion humans who ever lived, we're the first to stand beneath an alien sky."

— CDR Anna Wilson's first words on Mars; Oct. 3, 2018 CE

The Ares program was a crewed spaceflight project led by NASA, in collaboration with other members of the United Nations Aerospace Coalition, that succeeded in its milestone goal of landing humans on the surface of Mars. From its announcement in 2010 it took another eight years of preparation, training, and construction before the first mission was ready to begin.

Ares 1 was launched in mid-2018 and reached the red planet a few months later. At 10:45:33 UTC on October 3rd, 2018, commander Anna Wilson of the United States became the first human being to ever set foot on Mars and the first living thing on the planet in almost four billion years. Ares 1, and the four missions to follow, greatly enriched humanity's understanding of Mars. Ares 5 returned home in early 2028, ending the first crewed Mars exploration phase and opening the door for the next.

The Ares program was the most exciting thing that had ever happened to humankind at the time, and captivated the public imagination for over a decade. Like its predecessors Apollo and Artemis, it is widely recognized across the 30th-century human diaspora as a key reason for humankind's modern status as adept starfarers, best expressed by Commander Wilson in her first words upon touching the Martian surface: "We're finally out of the cradle."

#spyglass’ realms #Astra Planeta #spy arts #spy writes #worldbuilding #mars #mars mission #please excuse the genre tags below #spaceflight #space exploration #futurism #future history #alternate history #science fiction #hard science fiction #science fiction writing #science fiction art #scifi #hard scifi #scifi writing #scifi art

[tired-yashika-core]

yeh jo bol rahe hai arts easy hai unhi ko 10th ke SS mai maut aa rahi thi 💀💀

#desiblr #desi tag #desi academia #desi dark academia #desi #desi girl #desi tumblr #desi things #rant #humanities #sociology #psychology #history #politics #political science #literature

[bijoumikhawal]

I keep forgetting to share this, but I found this article by Razan Idris really illuminating on some of the issues I have with other Egyptians and how we discuss Egyptology, and Egyptian identity from ancient to modern. Especially appreciated the mention of tahsin al-nasal.

#cipher talk #actually egyptian tag #Masr #I do get why Egyptians are Gung ho about a connection to ancient Egypt- its something Westerners are still fascinated by and by claiming it #It can feel like you're gaining respect in their eyes #I think it's overall had a pretty negative impact though especially as it influenced an adoption of race science #Like as a Copt I personally don't focus on it- I'll admit I don't focus on a lot of things other Copts do #My focus is usually more about the political reality of Copts and our development as a culture that began under the Roman Empire #And like. Art history and clothes and to an extent language

[peaceloveandhistory]

Today in 1996, the first-ever Pokémon video game, "Pocket Monsters: Red and Green," was released for the Game Boy console in Japan. The game was a role-playing game that introduced players to the world of Pokémon. The game was developed over a few years and set the standards for later Pokémon sequels. The game was a huge success in Japan and soon after its release, it was rebranded as "Pokémon Red" and "Pokémon Blue" for international audiences. The North American release of the game took place on September 28, 1998.

#histoire #history #history in the making #history is awesome #history of science #history stuff #historyposting #today in history #history lesson #pokemon #pokémon #pokéblogging #pokéblr #video games #gameboy #tag game #nintendo #game freak