Dark, clowdy and impertinent’ – Thomas Browne’s scientific language
Presenter: Claire Preston
Published: March 2013
Age: 14-19 and upwards
Views: 701 views
Tags: linguistics;words;scientific;
Type: Lectures
Source/institution: Royal Society
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Succulent, cretaceous, technology, parasitical, electricity . . . Scientific investigation in the seventeenth century generated new ideas, and scientists needed new words to express them. Experimentalists, observers, collectors, and technicians all contributed to a supple descriptive language for the new science and its related disciplines. Claire Preston is Professor of Early-Modern Literature at the University of Birmingham.