History Of Science Research Articles

:The Age of Mammals: Nature, Development, and Paleontology in the Long Nineteenth Century. Intersections: Histories of Environment, Science, and Technology in the Anthropocene

:<i>The Age of Mammals: Nature, Development, and Paleontology in the Long Nineteenth Century. Intersections: Histories of Environment, Science, and Technology in the Anthropocene</i>

Origins

Abstract Scientific origins are information sources that transmit encoded information signals to receivers. Originary sciences identify information preserving receivers and decode the signals to infer their origins. Paradigmatic cases of scientific origination such as the Big Bang, the origins of species, horizontal gene transfer, the origin of the Polynesian potato, and ideational origins in the history of ideas are analyzed to discover what is common to them ontologically and epistemically. Some causes are not origins. Origination supervenes on causation, but has different properties. The unique properties of origins that causes do not share shield theories of origination from the kind of counterexamples and counterintuitive results that challenge comparable theories of causation. The epistemology of origination may serve as a basis for founding a novel epistemic and methodological division of the sciences into originary historical sciences and causal theoretical sciences.

Joseph G. Gall (1928-2024): Cell biologist, naturalist, and mentor extraordinaire.

Joseph Grafton Gall (1928-2024), a founder of modern cell biology, made foundational discoveries on eukaryotic chromosomes and RNA biogenesis. His major contributions include the development of in situ hybridization (later called FISH), demonstration of one DNA double helix/chromosome, isolation of the first eukaryote gene, localization of satellite DNA to centromeric heterochromatin, determination of the first telomeric DNA sequence, and elucidating the structure and functions of Cajal bodies. He was an expert microscopist, a scholar of science history, and an avid naturalist. These attributes, together with his ready embrace of new technologies, contributed to his remarkable success. He was also an early and strong supporter of women in science. His contributions to science and mentoring were recognized by numerous awards including the American Society for Cell Biology's E.B. Wilson Medal, the Society for Developmental Biology's Lifetime Achievement Award, the Albert Lasker Special Achievement Award in Medical Research, and the AAAS Mentor Award for Lifetime Achievement.

Classes as Clusters

This essay examines Charles S. Pierce’s critique of nominalism against the background of the debate about natural kinds at the time of the first reception of Darwin's Origin of Species. In the history of the so-called dispute over universals in Western philosophy, the phenomenon of species constancy has always been of central importance (since Plato). Darwin's historicization of species was seen by some of Peirce's contemporaries, including Chauncey Wright, as support for Mill's nominalism. Peirce believed the opposite, that Darwin's history of the origin of species supports realism about universals. This is so because for Darwin species arise independently of the human mind. Just as a history of science does not have to cast doubt on the reality of scientific disciplines, a history of species does not have to make their reality appear questionable. However, a concept of modifiable species is needed to understand this history. Peirce develops such a concept by understanding species, ahead of his time, as variable clusters.

“Materials of the School of ‘Mathematical and Navigational Sciences’ under the jurisdiction of the armory chamber” from N. P. Durov’s collection as a historical source

The School of Mathematical and Navigational Sciences, the first specialized technical educational institution in Russia, was founded on the initiative of Peter the Great in Moscow in 1701. Subsequently, the Maritime Academy in St. Petersburg (1715) was set up, based on the School’s Navigators’ Classes. Most of the School’s documents were lost during the fire in the Naval Cadet Corps in 1771. A set of manuscript documents bound together, comprising the Navigation School’s bookkeeping documentation, has been preserved in the personal fonds of N. P. Durov (1831–1879), professor at the Institute of the Corps of Railway Engineers (St. Petersburg) and historian of science and technology, deposited at the Russian State Library’s Manuscript Department. This manuscript has so far remained unpublished and little-known to researchers. Durov was a renowned bibliophile and collector of manuscripts and books. Many unique handwritten materials ended up in his library after the acquisition of a part of the book collection that belonged to a collector and amateur archeographer A. I. Sulakadzev. However, as our research proved, Durov obtained these Navigation School’s manuscript documents from the home library of the writer B. M. Fedorov. After Durovʼs death, these documents were purchased by the Moscow book dealer V. V. Gautier and subsequently acquired from him by the Library of the Moscow Public Museum. This manuscript is an important source on the history of the creation and early years of the Navigation School. It includes petitions to the Tsar from its future students and the documents of both the School and the Armory that contain information about the educational process organization and the first naval cadets’ everyday life.

29ᵗʰ Annual Scientific Conference of S. I.Vavilov Institute for the History of Science and Technology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, devoted to the 160th Anniversary of the Birth of V. I. Vernadsky

29ᵗʰ Annual Scientific Conference of S. I.Vavilov Institute for the History of Science and Technology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, devoted to the 160th Anniversary of the Birth of V. I. Vernadsky

‘Wundt's work is merely an incident in one of the challenging scholarly careers on recent history’: The media and academic reception of Völkerpsychologie, 1900–1920

Wundt's Völkerpsychologie (VP) is an exceptional case in the history of psychology. Outlined in 1863 in the second volume of Vorlesungen über Menschen- und Thierseele (Lectures on the Human and Animal Soul), VP was finally published 37 years later in 10 volumes during the last 20 years of the author's life. The work was characterized by an ambitious program of multimethod and transdisciplinary research. This article explores the intellectual and contextual reasons for the early successes and failures of VP. We analyzed n = 264 articles published in the German press and n = 220 books, reviews, and articles published in scientific journals that explicitly cited the 10 volumes between 1900 and 1920. VP received considerable criticism from linguists and philologists, who claimed that its results were of little practical use for their research. The first volumes of VP were criticized for their abstract character and psychological indifferentism; on the other hand, positive reviews emphasized their attempt to systematize and give a philosophical order to the individual investigations of philology, linguistics, comparative history, religious studies, and so on. The normative-methodological role that VP tried to play in relation to the other historical sciences was significantly criticized, and this was a determining factor in its diminishing impact over time. Some of Wundt's hypotheses were philosophically at odds with the project of German cultural imperialism that was being developed at the time and with which most of his intellectual enemies agreed.

Renaissance Goo: Senses and Materials in Early Modern Apothecary Taxonomies and Soft Matter Science

This essay brings together research in the history of science and soft matter physics to consider how early modern Italian apothecaries organised and communicated their knowledge from the fourteenth to the seventeenth century through an “apothecary taxonomy.” This was based on a what we call a “hylocentric” classification scheme (from the Greek hyle = matter, material, stuff) founded on a tactile understanding of materials. We will investigate how the behaviour of medicines under deformation and flow – their “rheology” – is a previously underestimated organisational principle, and consider the specialist vocabulary these author-practitioners used to describe different liquid and liquid-like formulations. We will also suggest that the rheology of these formulations – which today falls under the domain of “soft matter science” – affected the material culture of apothecary shops, in the arrangement and selection of drug bottles and jars, which presented this knowledge visually to visitors and clients. That soft matter scientists organise the substances they study in similar ways to early modern apothecaries suggests the agency of materials in affecting human categorisations.

«Ukrainian crisis» of the Society of Marxist Historians

The article is devoted to the discussion that unfolded at the turn of the 1920s-30s between "Moscow" and "Ukrainian" historians on the principles of interaction between the Society of Marxist Historians at the Communist Academy and the Ukrainian Society of Marxist Historians. The study of the discussion allows us to come to the problem of building a model of interaction between the center and the regions in Soviet historical science. New documents from the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences demonstrate that the Moscow Society of Marxist Historians, headed by M.N. Pokrovsky set a course to build a relatively centralized model, which was opposed by Ukrainian historians who defended the principles of national communism. The confrontation was open in nature, in which Ukrainian historians relied on the leadership of the Ukrainian SSR. During the so-called "Great Turning Point", a wave of political purges swept through, which hit the Ukrainian intelligentsia hard, among others. After that, the obstacles to the Society of Marxist Historians were removed. However, it also found itself in crisis due to the death of its leader, M.N. Pokrovsky. The fruits of the discussion have already been "reaped" by other institutions: first, the Institute of History at the Communist Academy, and then the Institute of History of the USSR Academy of Sciences. The consequences of the "Ukrainian crisis" were massive. The opponents of building a centralized model of historical science, in which the republican centers were subordinate to the Moscow ones, were eliminated. This directly affected the process of creating the histories of the peoples of the USSR: the overcoming of the territorial historical and cultural approach, associated primarily with the Ukrainian political and intellectual elite, began, and projects appeared to create not individual histories of the republics, but the all-Union history of the USSR.

Matteo Vagelli, Reconsidering historical epistemology: French and anglophone styles in history and philosophy of science, 2024. Springer.

Matteo Vagelli, Reconsidering historical epistemology: French and anglophone styles in history and philosophy of science, 2024. Springer.

Gravity’s eastern voyage: the introduction, transmission, and impact of Newtonian mechanics in late imperial China (1727–1912)

This study traces the intricate journey of Newtonian mechanics in Qing China from 1727 to 1912, elucidating the complex interplay of science, religion and politics in cross-cultural knowledge exchange. Initially introduced by Jesuit missionaries through lunar theory in calendrical reform, followed by cometary and heliocentric concepts, the dissemination of Newtonian mechanics gained momentum after the Opium Wars (1839–1842). Subsequently, Protestant missionaries and Chinese scholars collaborated to translate and propagate Newton’s laws of gravitation and motion, often contextualized within natural theology, through Western texts, popular science literature, and periodicals. This process culminated in the integration of Newtonian principles into national educational curricula in the early twentieth century. Significantly, Newtonian mechanics transcended its scientific realm, infiltrating political discourse as reformist thinkers leveraged mechanical terminology to advocate for sociopolitical change. This historical episode illustrates how the assimilation of Newtonian mechanics was influenced by missionary approaches, indigenous intellectual traditions, pragmatic national interests, and the tumultuous political landscape of Late Qing. By challenging Eurocentric narratives and highlighting Chinese agency in adapting Western knowledge, this study contributes to a more inclusive history of Newtonian science, offering a nuanced perspective on global scientific circulation.

Historian Ilya Evgenyevich Zelenin as shown through his scientific library

The article analyses the scientific biography of Ilya Evgenyevich Zelenin – an outstanding agrarian historian, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor, leading researcher of the Institute of Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The main source used are copies of books presented to Zelenin, devoted to the agrarian and political history of Russia in the twentieth century. On their basis, a conclusion is made about the key elements of the historian's research credo, namely: painstakingness in working out the historiography of the issue, a wide archival search, accuracy of scientific terminology and understanding of the formality of ideological stamps. There are two stages in the author's scientific work, connected with the study of the history of state farm construction in the USSR and the history of agrarian policy of I. V. Stalin and N. S. Khrushchev, in each of which the historian achieved serious successes.

Count D. A. Tolstoy – researcher of Catholicism

The review of the monograph by Inna Evgenievna Barykina, Doctor of Historical Sciences, under the title "A Typical St. Petersburg Officialو Count Dmitry Andreevich Tolstoy (1823-1889): the Experience of the Minister Biography" focuses on the characterization of D.A. Tolstoy as a researcher of Catholicism in Russia. It is noted that the monograph author is by no means inclined to exaggerate Count Tolstoy's contribution to the Catholicism historiography, however, his work served a valuable help to both the count's contemporaries and the 21st century scientists. I.E. Barykina convincingly showed that in all his positions, count D.A. Tolstoy proved himself not only as a statesman, but also as an intellectual and a historian who laid the foundations for studying the Catholicism history in Russia.

The history of science captured in paintings: what modern scientists can learn by studying the history of science?

The history of science captured in paintings: what modern scientists can learn by studying the history of science?

In memoriam José Chabás Bergón (1948–2024)

José Chabás Bergón (or simply José Chabás), professor emeritus at Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona), died on June 9, 2024 in Barcelona of complications following bypass surgery. His contributions to the study of astronomical tables significantly added to our knowledge of technical astronomy as practiced in the Middle Ages. Indeed, he was a leading scholar in this field. How to cite: Goldstein, B. R. "In memoriam José Chabás Bergón (1948–2024)". Aestimatio: Sources and Studies in the History of Science (2023) 4: mem01 1–8. https://doi.org/10.33137/aestimatio.v4.44041

Mathematics, Administrative and Economic Activities in Ancient Worlds edited by Cécile Michel and Karine Chemla

Reviewed by: Carlos Gonçalves Recently, we have been fortunate to see the start of a new research project, Mathematical Sciences in the Ancient World (the SAW Project), and the publication of a new book series, Why the Sciences of the Ancient World Matter. The SAW Project was funded by an advanced research grant from the European Research Council from 2011 to 2016, which had Karine Chemla as the principal investigator, together with Christine Proust and Agathe Keller, all researchers in the history of ancient mathematics of, respectively, China, Mesopotamia, and South Asia. The book series started in 2018 and it has been one of the most important vehicles to make public the extraordinary amount of material produced by the research project. How to cite: Gonçalves, C. rev. "Mathematics, Administrative and Economic Activities in Ancient Worlds" edited by Cécile Michel and Karine Chemla. Aestimatio: Sources and Studies in the History of Science (2023) 4: rev02 1–40. https://doi/10.33137/aestimatio.v4.43350.

Historical Geographies of Engineering: Knowledges, Practices, Identities

ABSTRACTDrawing on established scholarship in the historical geography of science, the history of technology and science and technology studies, this paper argues for the significance of an historical geography of engineering. Large‐scale and transformative infrastructure projects have been a common focus in historical geography, however comparatively little attention has been paid to the engineers responsible for designing and implementing them. This paper reviews recent work which has foregrounded engineers and their work across diverse times and places. It conceptualises engineering in three ways: as a form of knowledge about the world that is connected to, but distinct from, science; as a set of practices undertaken in specific locations; and as an identity that, since the profession's origin in the 18th century, has enabled individuals to claim expertise in relation to environmental management and therefore exert power over land, territory and people. The article reviews geographical inquiry that foregrounds these perspectives on engineering and suggests future directions for research in the field.

I. I. von Felbiger and the creation of the European school education system

Introduction. One of the most important conditions for the success of any type of activity is its systematic nature. This statement fully applies to such an important area of the spiritual life of society as education. The creation of the educational system in Europe is associated with the name of the outstanding teacher-reformer Johann Ignaz von Felbiger (1724-1788), who vividly proved himself as a scientist, founder of educational institutions, author of important documents and textbooks that for many decades determined the content and nature of schooling in European countries and in Russia. Materials and methods. The author uses the following research methods: analysis of historical and pedagogical literature, biographical and historical methods, an axiological scientific approach to the study of the value content in the activities of I. I. von Felbiger. The work uses publications by foreign and Russian authors. Results. The period of I. I. von Felbiger's life and his organizational activities coincided with the age of Enlightenment, which led to an increase in interest among a significant part of the population of many European countries in science and its practical use in the interests of society, as well as to the problems of educational development. I. I. von Felbiger acted as the organizer of educational institutions designed for various groups the population and the levels of training of students. He substantiated the idea of the first public school system in history and partially implemented it into practice. Over time, this system, which in some countries was called Sagan, became generally accepted in Europe. His ideas were developed in the process of creating a school education system in the Russian Empire. Discussion. Von Felbiger's activities in the field of education were multifaceted. He carried out the practical management of the educational institution, was a teacher, the general commissioner for education of the whole country, and finally, he created valuable legislative acts that received approval from the monarchs and ordinary teachers. He also authored methodological and educational manuals for teachers that corresponded to the current needs of society. Conclusion. The famous educational reformer von Felbiger left a vivid mark on the history of European science and culture. He went down in the history of pedagogy as the creator of the Sagan school system. The history of his life and work, as well as the genesis of the first education system he created in Europe, deserve further comprehensive study.

Multi-analytical study for the art historical science: The mystery of the “Portrait of a young man in a wide-brimmed hat with a feather”

Multi-analytical study for the art historical science: The mystery of the “Portrait of a young man in a wide-brimmed hat with a feather”

Venus’s phases: evidence supporting heliocentrism

Abstract The affirmation of the Copernican system marks a milestone in the history of science. However, in educational settings, theoretical and philosophical aspects are often prioritized, with less attention paid to the empirical and quantitative data supporting heliocentrism. The discovery of Venus phases by Galileo Galilei through his early telescope represents a compelling piece of evidence corroborating the Sun-centered model. A renowned drawing published in Galilei's treatise ‘Il Saggiatore’ (1623) illustrates this phenomenon and the anti-correlation between phases and apparent diameter. The analysis of the illustration reveals precise quantitative information comparable in accuracy to that which can be extracted from contemporary astrophotography. Inspired by this result, the galileian discovery has been revisited and tailored into activities suitable for both high school and college teaching levels. These activities invite students to construct their own empirical evidence for heliocentrism by analyzing digital images and using interactive digital tools for image manipulation. The topic has also been proposed at the university level through more advanced analysis techniques. The common aim at each level is to engage students in a dynamic ‘learning by doing’ experience, replicating pivotal moments from the history of science and transforming a topic traditionally confined to the history of ideas into a living, interactive subject.