Theophrastus was an Ancient Greek dude, whose imporance I hope to persuade you of. Living between 371-287 BCE, he was one of Aristotle’s besties, and even ran the Lyceum as Aristotle’s successor.The reason people know him today is because Theophrastus wrote some books about plants that were among the most important on that subject for […]
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Here is an example of a heavy wheeled plow, and if you’re thinking “so what?,” that might be because the ubiquity of our modern technology has made us jaded to more ordinary-looking inventions. But this plow was responsible for allowing major agricultural change in the Middle Ages, as a recent study focusing on farmland in
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Here’s a story about human evolution, and about how different human species have given us genes that allowed us to thrive in particular conditions.The study of ancient DNA has allowed scientists to figure out that two different human species that co-existed with Homo Sapiens interbread with us and passed along some of their genetic material.
This is a tale of two skeeters: perhaps the two most infamous individuals discovered to date. This predator surpasses peskiness – historian Timothy Winegard gives a ballpark statistic that mosquitoes have caused the deaths of 52 billion people, making them humanity’s most lethal killers by a very long shot.The first featured fiend is from 130
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The first known person to discover an element relied on pee and actually was looking for the Philosopher’s Stone. Henning Brand used up the financial resources of three people – himself, his first wife, and his second wife – in the focused pursuit of finding a way to turn base metals into gold. Alchemy favored
Alchemist Henning Brand and Phosphorous Read More »
This is a portrait of Emilie du Chatelet (d. 1749), a brilliant mathematician and physicist from the French Enlightenment. Multi-talented (by age twelve she knew six languages, she studied fencing and astronomy), Emilie supported her scientific interests like buying textbooks and lab equipment by using her math abilities to succeed at gambling. One of her
French Mathematician and Physicist – Emilie du Chatelet Read More »
Squint a bit, and you will be able to see things that look like white circles along a horizontal axis in the center of this photo. They are not raindrops, but six of the twenty-seven enormous radio telescopes that make up the Very Large Array. Located on a remote plain off Highway 60 in central
Very Large Array Telescopes of New Mexico Read More »
You are looking at the footprint of a giant sloth – one of the megafauna mammals that died out by the end of the last ice age over 11,700 years ago. Nestled inside is a contemporary human footprint, one of the first concrete pieces of evidence that giant sloths interacted with people. At eight feet
Ancient Giant Sloth Footprints Read More »
Astrolabes were the medieval version of a GPS. Although still fashioned today in various manifestations, the most famous versions were those created by Muslim scientists living in the Medieval Middle East. If you’ve ever seen one, this photo from the Islamic world circa 1480 CE might look different: usually astrolabes were two-dimensional celestial spheres. I
Medieval Middle Eastern Astrolabes Read More »
Rapunzel Syndrome gets its name from the fairy tale first published in writing in 1790, although earlier renditions go back to the early 1600s. Whereas the character Rapunzel uses her long hair to let a prince into her tower, in the syndrome, the person with the illness eats their hair. The hairball settles in the
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It might feel like the dog days of summer are upon us already, but if we’re going by the original use of the term, they don’t really begin until mid-July. The most sweltering days of summer in the Ancient Mediterranean take their name from the way that the Ancients recognized that these hot days echoed
Hot Days, Canis Major, of Ancient Mediterranean Summers Read More »
Many Ancient Greek and Roman physicians (male) developed intricate theories about the female body which dovetailed neatly with their assumptions of women being inherently flawed and lesser than men. Among the most hysterical (this is a pun: “hysteria” comes from the word for “uterus,” and hysteria was a medical diagnosis for a grab-bag of female
Physicians of the Ancient World Read More »
Great disoveries in mathematics and sciences ought to be celebrated, but a challenge for most of us non-specialists is understanding what exactly it is that we are supposed to be admiring. Amalie “Emmy” Noether (d. 1935) was, according to many great minds (such as Albert Einstein), the most important female mathematician in history. Her accomplishments
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The concentration of human-created beauty might be no greater than in Florence, where works by the greatest artists of the Italian Renaissance overflow. Across the centuries, travelers have made their way to immerse themselves in the visual spectacle that abounds. So overpowering was the sense of beauty to the French author Marie-Henri Beyle (d. 1842),
Marie-Henri Beyle and the Human-Created Beauty of Florence Read More »
This late 15th-c illustration shows a man preparing a mixture called “Theriac,” which for over a millennia was perhaps the most valued curative substance (or so it was advertised) across Eurasia. You can see the snakes unfurling under the man’s feet: they’re there representing the serpentine venom the ancient recipe demanded. Another crucial ingredient was
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One of the most important tools in the history of medical diagnosis has been urine. The examination of pee can legitimately be used to figure out whether a person is pregnant, or has diabetes, or kidney failure. For Medieval people, it was also thought to indicate widened “channels” into the kidney, which accidentally let blood
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The smallpox vaccination has been one of the greatest contributions science has made to better the human condition. Although Edward Jenner has justly earned credit for his development of the vaccine, an 18th-century British aristocratic woman named Mary Wortley Montagu (1689-1762) also deserves recognition. Montagu was a “Turkophile,” and published many writings critiquing the confining
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Leprosy, or Hansen’s Disease, was a scourge for many throughout the European Middle Ages. Although it spreads slowly throughout a population, it was pervasive enough in England between the 11th and 15th centuries that at least 320 caretaking facilities for lepers were established during this time. In its advanced expression, leprosy causes lesions, sores, and
Leprosy During the European Middle Ages Read More »
Malaria has been an extraordinary shaper of history. Dated as far back as 30 million years old, this protoza really took off after the agricultural revolution (not surprising, since it thrives in mosquitos, who love the standing waters that frequently accompany cleared out lands). Some scientists believe Malaria to be the single-biggest killer in human
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Slippery reasoning that produces horrible results is unfortunately a regular occurrence in human history. While the 17th century witnessed the Scientific Revolution in Europe, sloppy logic (mixed with lack of information) led to some gruesome human experimentation. William Harvey had recently discovered (for Europeans) that blood circulates in our bodies, pumped by the heart, but
Arthur Coga and Sheep’s Blood Transfusions Read More »
