After seeing a wonderful automaton exhibition at the San Francisco Airport a few weeks ago, I was delighted to see an article on the Maillardet automaton at the Franklin Institute in today’s New York Times. The Maillardet automaton’s motions are controlled by dozens of slowly rotating brass disks. These disks contain all the data necessary [...]
Archive of posts filed under the History category.
Reviewed by Amy Ione: Helmholtz: From Enlightenment to Neuroscience
Helmholtz: From Enlightenment to Neuroscience by Michel Meulders; edited and translated by Laurence Garey, The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2010, 264 pp., illus. 32 b/w. Trade, $27.95/£19.95, ISBN: 978-0-262-01448-9. A recurring topic among those interested in art, science, and technology is the value of transdisciplinary approaches. In my view, those who gravitate to this area [...]
Institutional Critique: An Anthology of Artists’ Writings Reviewed by Amy Ione
Institutional Critique: An Anthology of Artists’ Writings brings together key documents related to institutional critique, a conceptual art movement that has raised questions about the workings of art institution (museums, galleries) since the 1960s. Alexander Alberro (one of the editors of this volume) calls it a “gesture of negation” (p. 3) that was adopted by [...]
Exhibition: The Magic and Myth of Alchemy
The Lloyd Library and Museum proudly announces a new online exhibit: The Magic and Myth of Alchemy (http://www.lloydlibrary.org/exhibits/alchemy/index.html), created in honor of the International Year of Chemistry, an event celebrated by chemists and chemistry associations throughout 2011. While the Lloyd does not hold the most ancient treatises from Asia or the Middle East, the Lloyd holds a wealth of materials from [...]
Recently published: Multiple Discovery article
Multiple discovery is the technical concept used to explain the difficulty in assigning independent priority when two or more scientists or inventors give expression to a similar theory, form, model, or invention. My updated article on this subject was recently published in the edition of the Encyclopedia of Creativity. Please email me for a pdf of the article.
Webinar Through History’s Lens: How history contributes to a better understanding of science
On 1 April at noon EDT, the AAAS is sponsoring a webinar, “Through History’s Lens: How history contributes to a better understanding of science” that is free but requires registration to view the event. From the announcement: “A panel of historians and scientists will give examples of how history has helped our human understanding of the natural world. The [...]
San Francisco in Color
The Smithsonian Institution has discovered rare color photographs of the ruins of San Francisco from the 1906 earthquake. The images, taken by photography pioneer Frederick Ives, appear to be the earliest color photographs of San Francisco ever taken. Read more
The Google Art Project
Definitely worth checking out The Google Art Project. It offers access to portions of the collections of 17 museums. Roberta Smith of the New York Times wrote a review today, here. The Wired Review is here.
Scientists Discover New Ancient Human Species
Scientists say an entirely separate type of human identified from bones in Siberia co-existed and interbred with our own species. The ancient humans have been dubbed Denisovans after the caves in Siberia where their remains were found. Read more.
