38 results found for history-of-science

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00:42:00

‘Sacrifice of a genius’: Henry Moseley’s role as a Signals Officer in WWI

by Elizabeth Bruton
‘Sacrifice of a genius’: Henry Moseley’s role as a Signals Officer in WWI
for 14-19 and upwards,
Lectures | 14-19 and upwards | 10 years ago | 2276 views
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Henry Gwyn Jeffreys Moseley (1887-1915) was one of the foremost English physicists of the early twentieth century. Probably best remembered for his immense contributions to chemistry and atomic physics in the years immediately prior to the outbreak o....

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00:47:00

‘Behold a New Thing in the Earth!’: Reflections on Science at the Great Exhibition

by Geoffrey Cantor
‘Behold a New Thing in the Earth!’: Reflections on Science at the Great Exhibition
for 14-19 and upwards,
Lectures | 14-19 and upwards | 11 years ago | 1336 views
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The Great Exhibition of 1851 has routinely been portrayed as a celebration of science, technology, and manufacturing. However, for many contemporaries – including Prince Albert – it was a deeply religious event. In analysing responses to the Exhi....

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00:39:00

Alchemy and patronage in Tudor England

by Jenny Rampling
Alchemy and patronage in Tudor England
for 14-19 and upwards,
Lectures | 14-19 and upwards | 11 years ago | 1470 views
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Dr Jenny Rampling, Dept. of History and Philosophy of Science, Cambridge.  In early modern England, alchemical practitioners employed a range of strategies to win the trust and support of powerful, even royal, patrons: from the preservation of healt....

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00:44:00

Defining nature’s limits: Prosecuting magic in sixteenth-century Italy

by Neil Tarrant
Defining nature’s limits: Prosecuting magic in sixteenth-century Italy
for 14-19 and upwards,
Lectures | 14-19 and upwards | 10 years ago | 1204 views
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Magic and science have traditionally been considered to have little in common. Yet for many sixteenth-century intellectuals, including churchmen, practising magic was based upon highly sophisticated knowledge of the natural world. For ecclesiastical ....

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01:02:00

Developing new solar cells – cheaper, or more efficient?

by Neil Greenham
Developing new solar cells – cheaper, or more efficient?
for 14-19 and upwards,
Lectures | 14-19 and upwards | 10 years ago | 1500 views
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Using solar cells to convert sunlight to electricity is an attractive way to reduce carbon emissions, but solar cells are still too expensive to be installed on the scale required. The next generation of solar cells aim to solve this problem using st....

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00:30:00

Dream to reality?

by Susan Mossman
Dream to reality?
for 18-22 and upwards,
Lectures | 18-22 and upwards | 11 years ago | 1430 views
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Plastics pioneers had great aspirations for their new materials. Roland Barthes called plastics “a miraculous substance . . . a transformation of nature”. Serendipity, careful experimentation and entrepreneurial skills have all played significant....

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00:57:00

Experimental misunderstandings: the precedent of Francis Bacon’s ‘Sylva Sylvarum’ and the beginnings of the Royal Society

by Guido Giglioni
Experimental misunderstandings: the precedent of Francis Bacon’s ‘Sylva Sylvarum’ and the beginnings of the Royal Society
for 14-19 and upwards,
Lectures | 14-19 and upwards | 10 years ago | 1418 views
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Guido Giglioni is the Cassamarca Lecturer in Neo-Latin Culture and Intellectual History at the Warburg Institute, University of London. By writing a number of natural histories and above all the Sylva Sylvarum, Bacon set an important but difficult pr....

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00:43:00

Ghosts of women past

by Patricia Fara
Ghosts of women past
for 14-19 and upwards,
Lectures | 14-19 and upwards | 11 years ago | 1392 views
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Dr Patricia Fara, Clare College, Cambridge.  "I do not agree with sex being brought into science at all. The idea of 'woman and science' is completely irrelevant. Either a woman is a good scientist, or she is not." So declared Hertha Ayrton over hun....

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00:49:00

Hero or villain? Nevil Maskelyne’s posthumous reputation

by Rebekah Higgitt
Hero or villain? Nevil Maskelyne’s posthumous reputation
for 18-22 and upwards,
Lectures | 18-22 and upwards | 11 years ago | 1202 views
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Nevil Maskelyne, 5th Astronomer Royal and Fellow of the Royal Society, is today best known as the villain of Dava Sobel’s Longitude. This talk will, however, look further back and examine how Maskelyne has fared since his death in 1811, attempting ....

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01:02:00

Heroes of science

by Roger Highfield
Heroes of science
for 14-19 and upwards,
Lectures | 14-19 and upwards | 11 years ago | 1334 views
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Scientists love them. Historians of science can't stand them. The view that science rests on the shoulders of heroes and on them alone cannot be defended. Nonetheless, the public are moved and inspired by the stories of astronauts who've risked their....

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00:55:00

Iron from the sky: the potential influence of meteorites on ancient Egyptian culture.

by Diane Johnson
Iron from the sky: the potential influence of meteorites on ancient Egyptian culture.
for 14-19 and upwards,
Lectures | 14-19 and upwards | 10 years ago | 1074 views
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Ancient Egyptian belief was frequently derived from observations of the natural world, where the gods were considered to control the forces of nature; and as a society, ancient Egyptians placed great value upon order and balance. So how would the app....

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00:53:00

John Evelyn’s ‘Sylva’ and the origins of the modern sustainability discourse

by Ulrich Grober
John Evelyn’s ‘Sylva’ and the origins of the modern sustainability discourse
for 14-19 and upwards,
Lectures | 14-19 and upwards | 10 years ago | 1579 views
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The idea of sustainability has deep roots in practically all cultures of the world. The term itself, however, so familiar in today's global vocabulary, was shaped in the 17th century European discourse on timber shortage. Initiated by the newly-estab....

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