Science / General

Total 60 results found.

William Whewell

William Whewell

Victorian Polymath
William Whewell, the famous master of Trinity College in Cambridge, was a central figure in nineteenth-century British scientific culture and one of the last great polymaths. His influential work ranged from history and philosophy of science, education, architecture, mineralogy, and political economy to mathematics, engineering, natural theology, metaphysics, and moral ...
The Descent of Artificial Intelligence

The Descent of Artificial Intelligence

A Deep History of an Idea Four Hundred Years in the Making
The idea that a new technology could challenge human intelligence is as old as the warning from Socrates and Plato that written language eroded memory. With the emergence of generative artificial intelligence programs, we find ourselves once again debating how a new technology might influence human thought and behavior. Researchers, ...
Communities of Science in Nineteenth-Century Ireland

Communities of Science in Nineteenth-Century Ireland

The nineteenth century was an important period for both the proliferation of “popular” science and for the demarcation of a group of professionals that we now term scientists. Of course for Ireland, largely in contrast to the rest of Britain, the prominence of Catholicism posed various philosophical questions regarding research. ...
Typhoid in Uppingham

Typhoid in Uppingham

Analysis of a Victorian Town and School in Crisis, 1875–1877
After the Public Heath Acts of 1872 and 1875, British local authorities bore statutory obligations to carry out sanitary improvements. Richardson explores public health strategy and central-local government relations during the mid-nineteenth-century, using the experience of Uppingham, England, as a micro-historical case study. Uppingham is a small (and unusually well-documented) market town ...
Science and Eccentricity

Science and Eccentricity

Collecting, Writing and Performing Science for Early Nineteenth-Century Audiences
The concept of eccentricity was central to how people in the nineteenth century understood their world. This monograph is the first scholarly history of eccentricity. Carroll explores how discourses of eccentricity were established to make sense of individuals who did not seem to fit within an increasingly organized social and ...
Science and Societies in Frankfurt am Main

Science and Societies in Frankfurt am Main

The nineteenth century saw science move from being the preserve of a small learned elite to a dominant force which influenced society as a whole. Sakurai presents a study of how scientific societies affected the social and political life of a city. As it did not have a university or ...
Styles of Reasoning in the British Life Sciences

Styles of Reasoning in the British Life Sciences

Shared Assumptions, 1820–1858
Elwick explores how the concept of “compound individuality” brought together life scientists working in pre-Darwinian London. Scientists conducting research in comparative anatomy, physiology, cellular microscopy, embryology and the neurosciences repeatedly stated that plants and animals were compounds of smaller independent units. Discussion of a “bodily economy” was widespread. But by 1860, ...
Astronomy in India, 1784-1876

Astronomy in India, 1784-1876

Indian scientific achievements in the early twentieth century are well known, with a number of heralded individuals making globally recognized strides in the field of astrophysics. Covering the period from the foundation of the Asiatick Society in 1784 to the establishment of the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science in 1876, ...
Recreating Newton

Recreating Newton

Newtonian Biography and the Making of Nineteenth-Century History of Science
Higgitt examines Isaac Newton’s changing legacy during the nineteenth century. She focuses on 1820-1870, a period that saw the creation of the specialized and secularized role of the “scientist.” At the same time, researchers gained better access to Newton’s archives. These were used both by those who wished ...
The Making of British Anthropology, 1813-1871

The Making of British Anthropology, 1813-1871

Victorian anthropology has been derided as an “armchair practice,” distinct from the scientific discipline of the twentieth century. But the observational practices that characterized the study of human diversity developed from the established sciences of natural history, geography and medicine. Sera-Shriar argues that anthropology at this time went through a ...
The Medical Trade Catalogue in Britain, 1870-1914

The Medical Trade Catalogue in Britain, 1870-1914

By the late nineteenth century, advances in medical knowledge, technology and pharmaceuticals led to the development of a thriving commercial industry. The medical trade catalogue became one of the most important means of promoting the latest tools and techniques to practitioners. Drawing on over 400 catalogues produced between 1870 and 1914, Jones presents ...
The Making of Modern Anthrax, 1875-1920

The Making of Modern Anthrax, 1875-1920

Uniting Local, National and Global Histories of Disease
From the mid-nineteenth century onwards a number of previously unknown conditions were recorded in both animals and humans. Known by a variety of names, and found in diverse locations, by the end of the century these diseases were united under the banner of “anthrax.” Stark offers a fresh perspective on ...
Popular Exhibitions, Science and Showmanship, 1840-1910

Popular Exhibitions, Science and Showmanship, 1840-1910

Victorian culture was characterized by a proliferation of shows and exhibitions. These were encouraged by the development of new sciences and technologies, together with changes in transportation, education and leisure patterns. The essays in this collection look at exhibitions and their influence in terms of location, technology and ideology.
The Age of Scientific Naturalism

The Age of Scientific Naturalism

Tyndall and His Contemporaries
Physicist John Tyndall and his contemporaries were at the forefront of developing the cosmology of scientific naturalism during the Victorian period. They rejected all but physical laws as having any impact on the operations of human life and the universe. Contributors focus on the way Tyndall and his correspondents developed ...
Uncommon Contexts: Encounters between Science and Literature, 1800-1914

Uncommon Contexts: Encounters between Science and Literature, 1800-1914

Britain in the long nineteenth century developed an increasing interest in science of all kinds. Whilst poets and novelists took inspiration from technical and scientific innovations, those directly engaged in these new disciplines relied on literary techniques to communicate their discoveries to a wider audience. The essays in this collection ...

Total 60 results found.