Science History

As a new Roman emperor, your risk of death was high, but it declined as time went on, according to a new analysis. And over 70 rulers, the progression was predictable.  Historical records show that of 69 rulers of the unified Roman Empire, 43 (62 percent) suffered violent deaths - assassination, suicide or combat. Historical accounts typically examine each death as a single, random event alongside individual contributing factors such as allegiances and wealth. The military got a bonus from a new Emperor so there were periods when turnover was linked to the financial effect, for…

Medieval doctors had to acquire a range of skills including an ability to read Latin texts, a working knowledge of the bodily “humours” and an understanding of the rudiments of blood circulation. Their diagnostic techniques were largely limited to examining a patient’s urine: they could match the colour of the urine to that on a chart, such as one now in the Bodleian Library, which offers an alarming spectrum of hues. After diagnosis, one of the most important treatments was bloodletting, for which physicians used detailed astrological charts. In the middle ages, stars were laden with meaning…

If you want to go into the clergy, study science It may sound strange to young scientists ot today who are thoroughly steeped in the culture wars before they get a bachelor's degree, but historically - the last 40 years are outliers - both academia and the clergy have had a great deal of synergy. This is why historically conservatives have embraced science so strongly. If you want to get paid to study at The Vatican and your degree is in theology, you are going to have a much tougher time because, let's face it, in modern times philosophy is easy while the standards for science have not…

The Titanic, the famed cruise liner that sunk to the North Atlantic Ocean floor in 1912, was discovered in 1985. But as was often the case, getting funding to find it was difficult, with every group assuming someone else must want to write a check for what was really just adventure. So former U.S. naval intelligence officer Bob Ballard went to the Navy’s Deputy Chief of Operations Ronald Thunman, who said he also wanted to see the wreck found. But the military needed some compelling reason to be involved - and they had one. A state-of-the-art submersible craft like Ballard was developing…

Years ago I enjoyed the wandering of James Burke in his Connections and Dya the Universe Changed books and documentaries. There seemed to be a chain of people involved with development of the many historical scientific and technological discoveries. This prompted me to is investigate whether there might be connections throughout history between myself and and these figures. This would be somewhat similar to the Kevin Bacon parlor game to identify an actor's connection to Kevin Bacon by a string of their movies. There is also a mathematical genealogical website listing the advisers and…

The number of articles retracted related to nutrition now numbers unlucky 13 - and that bad lack shares one name in common: Brian Wansink, Ph.D. Today, the JAMA organization retracted six more. The big question you will likely ask is, where was peer review? Well, peer review was never great and this shows why. Peer review was not even important until the 1980s when academics, hungry for more government funding and the appearance of "independence" they believed it brought, came up with peer-reviewed journals as the way to show academics were doing something useful with taxpayer money. "Publish…

If I had to pick one consistent complaint from the public about scientists it's that people feel like those who should know the most about a topic are often the least able to give people a straight answer. Instead of providing the answer they know to be true, they hedge and qualify. When scientists without media training show up to talk, its easy to feel like you will hear or read "on the other hand' so many times that researchers are an alien species full of tentacles. In defense of scientists, we all want the easy narrative, the definitive response, but that is not always realistic. However…

Blockchain is an emergent technology that may be as transformative as the internet, according to many predictions. But this innovative new technology has a surprising link to the days of medieval treasuries. Blockchain is a distributed ledger that uses cryptography — mathematical code — to chain together records of transactions in a tamper-resistant and transparent manner. It is being used as an alternative or replacement for national currencies, contracts, internet device authentication and more. This form of record-keeping, though technologically novel in the digital era, is not so new…

Patterns of Latin in the Voynich Manuscript The Voynich manuscript, more properly identified as Beinecke MS 408, has been a puzzle to many researchers for a few hundred years.  The first evidence of attempts to understand it consists of letters between owners and decryption experts.  There have been very many efforts made by linguists and cryptographers since the manuscript was brought to public attention in 1912. It largely disappeared from public record until 1912 when Wilfrid Voynich, an antique book dealer, bought it amongst a number of second-hand publications in Italy. Since…

The Voynich Manuscript in Latin [edit]  while I am unable to respond to comments here due to a bug, I am making use of Neven Curlin's Arctic Forum to exchange comments under the topic It is an ancient manuscript. The entire Voynich Manuscript has been converted into a readable text document which clearly shows that the underlying language is Latin.  The VM in Latin is released as a beta version at the foot of this article. The manuscript is clearly intended to be read by the author's contemporaries and is aimed at readers who are interested in the art of the apothecary as it applies…