45 results found for history-of-science

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00:07:00

What is Color?

by Daniel Stribling
What is Color?
for 11-14 and upwards,
Teaching modules | 11-14 and upwards | 9 years ago | 2143 views
Rating:

FSU undergrad, Daniel Stribling, investigates the intimate relationship between light and color. Daniel discusses the history, physics, and theory of light to engage young learners and encourage them to be excited about science.

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01:11:00

The Royal Society and science fiction

by Farah Mendlesohn
The Royal Society and science fiction
for 14-19 and upwards,
Lectures | 14-19 and upwards | 9 years ago | 1114 views
Rating:

The lone (mad) scientist is a common trope in science fiction, but hidden away is a fascination with secret and semi-secret societies who work for the future of all mankind. This talk will look at the representation of the Royal Society in science fi....

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01:02:00

Vesuvius: volcanic laboratory or miracle of divine intervention?

by Gillian Darley
Vesuvius: volcanic laboratory or miracle of divine intervention?
for 14-19 and upwards,
Lectures | 14-19 and upwards | 9 years ago | 1068 views
Rating:

Commentaries on Vesuvius have, for some two thousand years, see-sawed between observers' fascination with the phenomenon, as an inexplicable expression of the earth's inner force, and the relationship of the unpredictable mountain to a religious popu....

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01:06:00

Staphylococcus aureus. The biography of a bug sometimes super, most often not

by Hugh Pennington
Staphylococcus aureus. The biography of a bug sometimes super, most often not
for 14-19 and upwards,
Lectures | 14-19 and upwards | 9 years ago | 1123 views
Rating:

Thirty percent of us carryÊStaphylococcus aureusÊup our noses. Boils and infections after surgery bring it to our attention. Mutant clones are called MRStaphylococcus Aureus,ÊorÊMRSA. All these things make it important today.Ê Hugh Pennington CB....

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01:00:00

Women’s work: Dorothy Hodgkin and the culture and craft of X-ray crystallography

by Georgina Ferry
Women’s work: Dorothy Hodgkin and the culture and craft of X-ray crystallography
for 14-19 and upwards,
Lectures | 14-19 and upwards | 9 years ago | 1081 views
Rating:

The year 2014 was celebrated as the International Year of Crystallography. A number of successful 20th century women scientists, of whom the Nobel prizewinner Dorothy Hodgkin is perhaps the most prominent, achieved their distinction in this field. Wh....

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01:09:00

The medieval science of light: uncovering meaning with an interdisciplinary methodology

by Tom Mcleish
The medieval science of light: uncovering meaning with an interdisciplinary methodology
for 14-19 and upwards,
Lectures | 14-19 and upwards | 10 years ago | 1785 views
Rating:

Can science today learn from thirteenth century literature? In the Durham Ordered Universe project, an interdisciplinary team (physicists, medievalists, Latin scholars and historians of science) has engaged with the great medieval English thinker Rob....

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01:02:00

Sir Henry Bessemer FRS: a life and a legacy

by Chris Elliot
Sir Henry Bessemer FRS: a life and a legacy
for 14-19 and upwards,
Lectures | 14-19 and upwards | 10 years ago | 1342 views
Rating:

This lecture aims to celebrate the bicentenary of the birth of Sir Henry Bessemer by reviewing his scientific and economic achievements in the context of his era, and also in terms of their ongoing impact on the world of today. As well as highlightin....

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00:59:00

Sisters in science: Hertha Ayrton, women and the Royal Society c.1900

by Claire Jones
Sisters in science: Hertha Ayrton, women and the Royal Society c.1900
for 14-19 and upwards,
Lectures | 14-19 and upwards | 10 years ago | 1584 views
Rating:

Although women were not admitted as Fellows until 1945, by the beginning of the twentieth century there were a number of female scientists working at the margins of the Royal Society and its masculine scientific elite. This talk will introduce some o....

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01:15:00

Physicians, chemists and experimentalists: the Royal Society and the rise of scientific medicine, c. 1600-1850

by Allan Chapman
Physicians, chemists and experimentalists: the Royal Society and the rise of scientific medicine, c. 1600-1850
for 14-19 and upwards,
Lectures | 14-19 and upwards | 10 years ago | 1068 views
Rating:

The period 1600-1850 saw fundamental changes in how we understand natural processes. Chemistry and medicine especially moved away from classical ideas of 'balance' and 'vital properties' - such as fire and water - to understanding nature as an integr....

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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
Rating:

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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01:00:00

The Great Melbourne Telescope

by Richard Gillespie
The Great Melbourne Telescope
for 14-19 and upwards,
Lectures | 14-19 and upwards | 10 years ago | 1072 views
Rating:

A joint project of the Royal Society and the British Association, the Great Melbourne Telescope was the result of both technical and organisational innovation in the design and manufacture of a large telescope. At the completion of its construction b....

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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
Rating:

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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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
Rating:

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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00:57:00

The popular reception of relativity in Britain

by Katy Price
The popular reception of relativity in Britain
for 14-19 and upwards,
Lectures | 14-19 and upwards | 10 years ago | 1162 views
Rating:

How did it feel to open a newspaper in November 1919 to be greeted by headlines about 'Light Caught Bending' and a 'Revolution in Space and Time'? Einstein's relativity reached a wide public audience in the context of social change. The theory's inte....

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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
Rating:

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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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
Rating:

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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00:57:00

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
Rating:

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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00:48:00

Unsung heroes: artistic contributors to the early Royal Society

by Sachiko Kusukawa
Unsung heroes: artistic contributors to the early Royal Society
for 14-19 and upwards,
Lectures | 14-19 and upwards | 11 years ago | 925 views
Rating:

This lecture discusses the contribution of draftsmen, engravers, artistic fellows and others whose graphic skills were indispensable for the meetings and publications of the early Royal Society (1660-1720). While some of the names of those who produc....

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01:00:00

Maritime science and the visual culture of exploration: the albums of a Victorian naval surgeon

by Felix Driver
Maritime science and the visual culture of exploration: the albums of a Victorian naval surgeon
for 14-19 and upwards,
Lectures | 14-19 and upwards | 11 years ago | 1058 views
Rating:

Naval officers in general, and surgeons in particular, played a significant role in the development of maritime science, through their observations and their collections. This richly-illustrated talk explores the visual culture of maritime science, f....

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00:48:00

Laputian Newtons: the science and politics of Swift’s ‘Gullivers Travels’

by Greg Lynall
Laputian Newtons: the science and politics of Swift’s ‘Gullivers Travels’
for 14-19 and upwards,
Lectures | 14-19 and upwards | 11 years ago | 1514 views
Rating:

GulliverÕs Travels (1726) contains probably the most famous satire on science in world literature, but the circumstances behind its composition are little known. In this talk, Greg Lynall explains how GulliverÕs ÔVoyage to LaputaÕ was shaped by J....

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00:45:00

The Royal Society and the Rothschild ‘Controversy’

by Neil Calver
The Royal Society and the Rothschild ‘Controversy’
for 14-19 and upwards,
Lectures | 14-19 and upwards | 11 years ago | 1125 views
Rating:

In the early months of 1971 the Heath government asked Lord Victor Rothschild to Ôthink the unthinkableÕ in his investigation into government policy. His subsequent report on research funding proposed something the Royal Society judged to be wholly....

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01:00:00

by Duncan Thorburn Burns

for 14-19 and upwards,
Lectures | 14-19 and upwards | 11 years ago | 1573 views
Rating:

2011 is the 350th anniversary of the publication of a Sceptical Chymist, by Robert Boyle which is considered to be the most important book ever published about chemistry.  Boyle was a leading intellectual figure of the 17th century and one of the fo....

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01:08:00

The Case of the Poisonous Socks

by Bill Brock
The Case of the Poisonous Socks
for 14-19 and upwards,
Lectures | 14-19 and upwards | 11 years ago | 1319 views
Rating:

Bill Brock entertains his audience with many little-known chemical anecdotes.

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00:22:00

International Symposium on Molecular Spectroscopy

by Jon Hougen
International Symposium on Molecular Spectroscopy
for 18-22 and upwards,
Lectures | 18-22 and upwards | 11 years ago | 1428 views
Rating:

Potential Rewards from the Beginning to the End of a Spectroscopic Career Derived from Attendance at a Graduate-student and Postdoctoral-Fellow Oriented Symposium

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00:30:00

High Precision in an Imprecise World

by David Skatrud
High Precision in an Imprecise World
for 18-22 and upwards,
Lectures | 18-22 and upwards | 11 years ago | 5879 views
Rating:

The importance of the Ohio State Molecular Spectroscopy Symposium to the Army.

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00:26:00

The Molecular Spectroscopy Symposium: A Personal Perspective

by Bob Curl
The Molecular Spectroscopy Symposium: A Personal Perspective
for 18-22 and upwards,
Lectures | 18-22 and upwards | 11 years ago | 1337 views
Rating:

Nobel Laureate Bob Curl gives his personal reminiscences on the Ohio State International Molecular Spectroscopy Symposia.

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00:32:00

65 years of Molecular Spectroscopy

by Brenda Winnewisser
65 years of Molecular Spectroscopy
for 18-22 and upwards,
Lectures | 18-22 and upwards | 11 years ago | 1830 views
Rating:

Brenda Winnewisser looks at the history of this important branch of science from the viewpoint of the Ohio State conferences.

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00:45:00

Publishing Faraday’s Candle

by Frank James
Publishing Faraday’s Candle
for 14-19 and upwards,
Lectures | 14-19 and upwards | 11 years ago | 1541 views
Rating:

Michael Faraday’s The Chemical History of a Candle is arguably the most popular science book ever published. Based on Faraday’s final series of Christmas Lectures at the Royal Institution, it has never been out of print in English since it was fi....

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00:45:00

Radiometers as buttonholes: the extraordinary material legacy of William Crookes

by Jane Weiss
Radiometers as buttonholes: the extraordinary material legacy of William Crookes
for 14-19 and upwards,
Lectures | 14-19 and upwards | 11 years ago | 1777 views
Rating:

William Crookes was a physicist, chemist, entrepreneur and spiritualist.  Being a consummate experimenter he designed precision instruments of great delicacy, in particular exquisite glass vacuum tubes. The radiometer, when first exhibited in 1875, ....

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00:42:00

Jonas Moore and his ‘Mapp of the Great Levell’

by Frances Willmoth
Jonas Moore and his ‘Mapp of the Great Levell’
for 14-19 and upwards,
Lectures | 14-19 and upwards | 11 years ago | 1894 views
Rating:

The mathematician and surveyor Jonas Moore was elected FRS in the 1670s, as a result of his close involvement in plans for the founding of the Royal Observatory. At that stage he was employed as  Surveyor General of the Royal Ordnance, but under the....

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00:45:00

Mary Somerville and the Empire of Science in the Nineteenth Century

by Jim Secord
Mary Somerville and the Empire of Science in the Nineteenth Century
for 14-19 and upwards,
Lectures | 14-19 and upwards | 11 years ago | 1483 views
Rating:

Prof. Jim Secord, Dept. of History and Philosophy of Science, Cambridge. Mary Somerville (1780-1872) was a leading mathematician and author of important books on the sciences: it was in connection with a review of one of these that the term "scientis....

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00:48:00

Niépce in England

by Philippa Wright
Niépce in England
for 14-19 and upwards,
Lectures | 14-19 and upwards | 11 years ago | 1360 views
Rating:

In October 2010 the National Media Museum hosted the 'Niépce in England' Conference where they could announce and share with the photographic, conservation and scientific communities the ground breaking findings which had been discovered during the ....

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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
Rating:

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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00:45:00

John Soane and the learned societies of Somerset House

by Gillian Darley
John Soane and the learned societies of Somerset House
for 18-22 and upwards,
Lectures | 18-22 and upwards | 11 years ago | 1172 views
Rating:

The architect John Soane became an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1795, a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1796 and, finally, a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1821. All three were then housed in Somerset House. Soane was an avid collector a....

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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
Rating:

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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00:48:00

Science and the Church in the Middle Ages

by James Hannam
Science and the Church in the Middle Ages
for 14-19 and upwards,
Lectures | 14-19 and upwards | 11 years ago | 3963 views
Rating:

It is commonly assumed that what little scientific advance there might have been in the Middle Ages was held back by the power of the Church.  But, in fact, there was important progress in science and technology during the medieval period.  And the....

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00:46:00

Paul Dirac and the religion of mathematical beauty

by Graham Farmelo
Paul Dirac and the religion of mathematical beauty
for 18-22 and upwards,
Lectures | 18-22 and upwards | 11 years ago | 1735 views
Rating:

For the great theoretical physicist Paul Dirac FRS, the importance of mathematical beauty was 'like a religion'. Although his first papers on quantum mechanics showed an acute aesthetic awareness, he first set out his principle of mathematical beauty....

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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
Rating:

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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02:00:00

Sir Andrew Huxley Memorial Lecture

by Various Presenters
Sir Andrew Huxley Memorial Lecture
for 14-19 and upwards,
Lectures | 14-19 and upwards | 11 years ago | 2239 views
Rating:

Sir Andrew Huxley, President of the Royal Society from 1980 – 1985, died on 30 May 2012. A memorial event in his honour will be held on 17 October 2012 at 6pm at the Royal Society. It will include presentations on various aspects of his scientific ....

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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
Rating:

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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00:49:00

Triangulating positions: Hevelius, Halley and the management of the open-sights controversy

by Noah Moxham
Triangulating positions: Hevelius, Halley and the management of the open-sights controversy
for 18-22 and upwards,
Lectures | 18-22 and upwards | 11 years ago | 1133 views
Rating:

When the decade-long argument between Johannes Hevelius, the Danzig astronomer, and Robert Hooke about the respective merits of plain and telescopic sights for astronomical instruments reared its head again in 1685, the resulting controversy threaten....

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00:54:00

Sir George Cayley (1773-1857), the father of flight

by Alan Morrison
Sir George Cayley (1773-1857), the father of flight
for 14-19 and upwards,
Lectures | 14-19 and upwards | 11 years ago | 1514 views
Rating:

This talk discusses Cayley's pioneering aviation work, and his roles as an inventor and as founder of the Royal Polytechnic Institution in Regent Street. Cayley's work will be related to the scientific and intellectual milieu of the day, and to debat....

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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 | 1200 views
Rating:

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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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
Rating:

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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00:59:00

Teaching language to the deaf in the 17th century: the dispute between John Wallis and William Holder

by David Cram
Teaching language to the deaf in the 17th century: the dispute between John Wallis and William Holder
for 14-19 and upwards,
Lectures | 14-19 and upwards | 11 years ago | 1274 views
Rating:

In the early years of the Royal Society an acrimonious dispute broke out between John Wallis and William Holder as to which of them had been successful in the ÔexperimentÕ of teaching the deaf child Alexander Popham to speak. Using evidence from th....

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