The pioneering ‘great men’ of Victorian science were once attacked for being unmanly
The likes of Charles Darwin and Humphry Davy weren't always seen as the powerful, authoritative heroes they're portrayed as today.
Academic rigor, journalistic flair
Articles on History of science
Displaying 1 - 20 of 27 articles
The next scientific breakthrough could come from the history books
The case for neoclassicism in science.
Study suggests we reclassify the moon as a planet – reopening a centuries-old debate
Scientists first started disagreeing about whether the moon should be a planet in Galileo's day.
The tragic story of Soviet genetics shows the folly of political meddling in science
When politics meddles with science, it can lead to tragedy, as was the case with Stalin's favourite agricultural biologist Trofim Lysenko and his rival Nikolai Vavilov.
Before Nobels: Gifts to and from rich patrons were early science’s currency
People have always known science would advance faster with various incentives and rewards. As modern experimental science took off, these took the form of gifts and favors to and from wealthy elites.
Why science and engineering need to remind students of forgotten lessons from history
Research shows that students feel motivated when they learn more about the struggles and failures of the world's greatest scientists.
The Victorians had the same concerns about technology as we do
Many of us feel that technology threatens our relationships and 'usual' modes of human interaction. But so did the Victorians.
Copernicus’ revolution and Galileo’s vision: our changing view of the universe in pictures
We take our understanding of the solar system for granted, but it took centuries to figure out. The original writings of Ptolemy, Copernicus, Galileo and others show how they sparked a revolution.
The flower breeders who sold X-ray lilies and atomic marigolds
The relentless pursuit of showy flowers for garden display – as seen at Chelsea Flower Show – has seen some odd uses of radiation and chemicals .
Meet the real Frankenstein: pioneering scientist who may have inspired Mary Shelley
Mary Shelley’s diaries reveal that in 1814 she attended a lecture that Andrew Crosse, “thunder and lightning man”, delivered in London.
Today’s smart machines owe much to Australia’s first computer
It may have been big, slow and lacking in much memory but almost seven decades on we have a lot to thank the creators of Australia's first programmable computing machine.
Jesuits as science missionaries for the Catholic Church
As a Jesuit, Pope Francis is part of a long tradition of religious men of science. Will his leadership influence the Catholic Church's stance on contemporary scientific issues?
New Horizons brought our last ‘first look’ at one of the original nine solar system planets
In the long lead-up to our ultimate flyby of Pluto, space science has reconfigured our notions of what it means to be a solar system, a planet, a world.
Radiation in the postwar American mind: from wonder to worry
The first atom bomb test seventy years ago today marks the start of a change in Americans' thinking about radiation. On balance, our nuclear anxieties endure today.
Proposed 1920s orphanage study just one example in history of scientific racism
The history of race science is a history of racist science, as epitomized by this proposed but never carried-out experiment from the early 20th century.
Cutting funding for basic scientific research would be a big mistake
For all the exciting stories and developments that basic science research produces, there is one question that the public never tires of asking: “What are the possible applications of that discovery…
The most influential scientist you may never have heard of
Gaze at Alexander Von Humboldt’s 1814 self-portrait and you peer into the eyes of a man who sought to see and understand everything. By this point in his life, at age 45, Humboldt had tutored himself in…
Alan Turing’s legacy is even bigger than we realise
Alan Turing is one of the world’s best-known mathematicians, and probably the best known in the past century. This is partly for his work on cracking German codes in World War II, and partly for his arrest…
How the infamous Yellow Rain investigation has inspired a drug delivery innovation
The history of science is full of episodes when a seemingly ludicrous theory is ridiculed, but then slowly gathers evidence and support to move from the fringes to the heart of the scientific consensus…
Brain-training isn’t just a modern phenomenon, the Edwardians were also fans
Brain-training programmes are all the rage. They are part of a growing digital brain-health industry that earned more than US$1 billion in revenue in 2012 and is estimated to reach US$6 billion by 2020…
Top contributors
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Associate professor, Monash University
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Professor of Science Communication and Chemistry, University of Hull
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Professor of Physics and former Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research, Durham University
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Reader in Medieval History, Durham University
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Associate Professor in Experimental Psychology (Perception), University of Oxford
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Director, Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies, University of Western Australia
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Chancellor's Professor of Medicine, Liberal Arts, and Philanthropy, Indiana University
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Postdoctoral Researcher, Centre de Cosmologie Physique de Paris
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Honorary Fellow, School of Historical and Philosophical Sciences, University of Melbourne
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Royal Society Research Fellow and Senior Birmingham Fellow, University of Birmingham
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Head, Department of Computing & Information Systems, University of Melbourne
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Honorary Fellow, University of Leeds
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PhD student in Education & Psychology, University of Michigan
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Senior Lecturer, Lancaster University
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Lecturer, Harvard University
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