#histsci — Public Fediverse posts

05-Sep: On this day in 1831, Charles Darwin first met Robert FitzRoy, captain of HMS Beagle. Here’s the story… https://friendsofdarwin.com/beau-ideal/
#HistSci

She stopped going to church at thirty. Skipped her own father's funeral one floor above. And yet Emily Dickinson lowered gingerbread by rope to the neighborhood children she called storm-tossed pirates.

https://oddlet.com/p/5q7

#Histodons #HistSci #SciComm #History #SmallStories

#histsci and #cartography news!

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:ydycq3dngygk7n5kepavihuv/post/3mupod4za2s2r

A bird-headed prince eats souls on a toilet. A choir of the damned sings from sheet music tattooed on a sinner's bare buttocks. In 2014, a sophomore transcribed the notes. They play. Hieronymus Bosch, patient deposition-filer of Hell.

https://oddlet.com/p/c2d

#Histodons #HistSci #SciComm #History #SmallStories

RE: https://sciences.social/@NODE801/117202571261839984

Frances Julia "Snow" Wedgewood's article "The Natural and the Supernatural" (1871) for the Spectator comparing Lucretius and Darwin's theory using portions of this translation can be found here: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015038698000&seq=558&view=2up

#HistSTM #HistSci #CharlesDarwin

"A 200-year-old illustrated condom will go on display with Dutch golden age masters in Amsterdam this week, after the 19th-century “luxury souvenir” became the first-ever contraceptive sheath to be added to the Rijksmuseum’s art collection."
#histsci #histmed #histsex (#histnat?) #collections
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jun/03/rijksmuseum-condom-exhibition

At thirteen, a loom took her right ear, an eyebrow, and most of her scalp. At thirty-seven, she rode alone into the Valleys of the Assassins and corrected the British maps by hand. Freya Stark crossed the desert in a Dior cartwheel brim.

https://oddlet.com/p/65x

#Histodons #HistSci #SciComm #History #SmallStories

At thirteen, a loom took her right ear, an eyebrow, and most of her scalp. At thirty-seven, she rode alone into the Valleys of the Assassins and corrected the British maps by hand. Freya Stark crossed the desert in a Dior cartwheel brim.

https://oddlet.com/p/65x

#Histodons #HistSci #SciComm #History #SmallStories

At thirteen, a loom took her right ear, an eyebrow, and most of her scalp. At thirty-seven, she rode alone into the Valleys of the Assassins and corrected the British maps by hand. Freya Stark crossed the desert in a Dior cartwheel brim.

https://oddlet.com/p/65x

#Histodons #HistSci #SciComm #History #SmallStories

At thirteen, a loom took her right ear, an eyebrow, and most of her scalp. At thirty-seven, she rode alone into the Valleys of the Assassins and corrected the British maps by hand. Freya Stark crossed the desert in a Dior cartwheel brim.

https://oddlet.com/p/65x

#Histodons #HistSci #SciComm #History #SmallStories

Hmmm, no book reviews in August. Do you still have a pulse?

Yes, dear readers, I might have mentioned that once I get my teeth stuck in Darwin's Descent of Man, they would remain firmly lodged there. Here is a progress shot as I am grinding my way through over 700 pages of Victorian English and effectively a separate book of dense annotations. No shortcuts here, just reading books cover to cover before writing a review, so I beg your patience.

And those books on the left? I am settling in for a deep dive into this topic.

#Books #BookReview #Bookstodon #HistoryOfScience #ScienceHistory #Evolution #SexualSelection #CharlesDarwin #HistSci #Scicomm @bookstodon @princetonupress @princetonnature

Hmmm, no book reviews in August. Do you still have a pulse?

Yes, dear readers, I might have mentioned that once I get my teeth stuck in Darwin's Descent of Man, they would remain firmly lodged there. Here is a progress shot as I am grinding my way through over 700 pages of Victorian English and effectively a separate book of dense annotations. No shortcuts here, just reading books cover to cover before writing a review, so I beg your patience.

And those books on the left? I am settling in for a deep dive into this topic.

#Books #BookReview #Bookstodon #HistoryOfScience #ScienceHistory #Evolution #SexualSelection #CharlesDarwin #HistSci #Scicomm @bookstodon @princetonupress @princetonnature

Hmmm, no book reviews in August. Do you still have a pulse?

Yes, dear readers, I might have mentioned that once I get my teeth stuck in Darwin's Descent of Man, they would remain firmly lodged there. Here is a progress shot as I am grinding my way through over 700 pages of Victorian English and effectively a separate book of dense annotations. No shortcuts here, just reading books cover to cover before writing a review, so I beg your patience.

And those books on the left? I am settling in for a deep dive into this topic.

#Books #BookReview #Bookstodon #HistoryOfScience #ScienceHistory #Evolution #SexualSelection #CharlesDarwin #HistSci #Scicomm @bookstodon @princetonupress @princetonnature

Hmmm, no book reviews in August. Do you still have a pulse?

Yes, dear readers, I might have mentioned that once I get my teeth stuck in Darwin's Descent of Man, they would remain firmly lodged there. Here is a progress shot as I am grinding my way through over 700 pages of Victorian English and effectively a separate book of dense annotations. No shortcuts here, just reading books cover to cover before writing a review, so I beg your patience.

And those books on the left? I am settling in for a deep dive into this topic.

#Books #BookReview #Bookstodon #HistoryOfScience #ScienceHistory #Evolution #SexualSelection #CharlesDarwin #HistSci #Scicomm @bookstodon @princetonupress @princetonnature

Hmmm, no book reviews in August. Do you still have a pulse?

Yes, dear readers, I might have mentioned that once I get my teeth stuck in Darwin's Descent of Man, they would remain firmly lodged there. Here is a progress shot as I am grinding my way through over 700 pages of Victorian English and effectively a separate book of dense annotations. No shortcuts here, just reading books cover to cover before writing a review, so I beg your patience.

And those books on the left? I am settling in for a deep dive into this topic.

#Books #BookReview #Bookstodon #HistoryOfScience #ScienceHistory #Evolution #SexualSelection #CharlesDarwin #HistSci #Scicomm @bookstodon @princetonupress @princetonnature

New at Darwin Online translation of Lucretius for Darwin by his niece, the feminist writer Frances Julia 'Snow' Wedgwood. She also helped Darwin translate Linneaus.
Wedgwood, Frances Julia. 1871. 'Translation of Lucretius [De Rerum Natura] (Natural selection)' with marginal notes by Darwin.
#HistSTM #HistSci #CharlesDarwin

https://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?itemID=CUL-DAR47.77-79&viewtype=side&pageseq=1

He ran his engine on peanut oil and took a million in cash from Adolphus Busch. On 29 September 1913 he boarded the SS Dresden, asked to be woken at 6:15, and marked a small cross on his diary. Rudolf Diesel, the rational man.

https://oddlet.com/p/cy2

#Histodons #HistSci #SciComm #History #SmallStories

Mineral Cup Round 1 Match 2, Erythrite vs. Skutterudite.

Red Erythrite is an ore of cobalt, which is used in modern paints, but Skutterudite has been known since the Middle Ages & used in the production of smalt, a pigment in painting, glass making & ceramics, thus has a substantial contribution to art history.

https://www.mineralcup.org/2026/vote-results/vote-r1m02
Vote Skutterudite! 🧪⚒️ #histsci #MinCup26

My side quest to see how many times I can mention Rembrandt while talking about minerals is starting strong.

A remarkable write-up by Neal Stephenson (yes, that one!) on the physics of whip cracking and crucially, who it was discovered. Enjoy!
https://nealstephenson.substack.com/p/kdk-part-4-carrieres-amazing-experiment
#histsci #histphy #MaterialCulture #physics

Day 2 of #SciArtSeptember prompt is violet hence, William Henry Perkin (1838-1907)! This lino block print ‘William Henry Perkin Discovers Mauve’ is about how the British chemist & entrepreneur made the serendipitous discovery of the 1st synthetic organic dye: mauveine. ⁠
⁠
Perkin entered the Royal College of Chemistry in London in 1853 when he was only 15, studying with August Wilhelm von Hofmann. 🧵1/
⁠https://minouette.etsy.com/listing/955324548
#mastoart
#linocut #printmaking #sciart #histsci

He came back from Egypt cold. Wore several overcoats indoors, in summer, year-round. Napoleon's chief surgeon told him it would kill him. He declined. Joseph Fourier, whose equations run every JPEG, MP3, and MRI, wrapped himself like a mummy.

https://oddlet.com/p/ard

#Histodons #HistSci #SciComm #History #SmallStories

I never thought I'd see the day.

Charles Darwin is currently trending above two porn-related articles, Luke Evans, and Kit Connor in Attitude Magazine! 🙃

The power of #histsci . . .

Thank you, one and all — please keep sharing. Here's the article: https://www.attitude.co.uk/culture/literature/darwins-queer-creatures-532721/

#reading #writing #science #nature #animals #Darwin #evolution #history #histsex #queerhistory #queer #lgbt #lgbtq #lgbtqia #PrideInSTEM

He grew a beard, donned a turban, and crossed the Hindu Kush as an Armenian merchant named Servant of Jesus. He bought a jade boulder to fund the road, refused a king's prison or Islam, and reached China on Christmas. Bento de Goes, lay brother.

https://oddlet.com/p/tp6

#Histodons #HistSci #SciComm #History #SmallStories

I'm overjoyed to be the featured author in the latest issue of IFLScience's Curious Magazine!

Read a 'book bite' from QUEER ORIGINS and discover what inspired me to write it. 🐟️ 🌈 🦋 🏳️‍⚧️ 🐦️

As ever, the whole issue is fabulous . . .

https://www.iflscience.com/why-is-it-so-funny-watching-people-fall-over-find-out-more-in-issue-50-of-curious-out-now-84471

#book #books #reading #writing #science #nature #history #histsci #histsex #queerhistory #queer #lgbt #lgbtq #lgbtqia #PrideInSTEM

He translated commercial correspondence by day. By night he was a Horatian classicist, a Glasgow naval engineer, and roughly seventy-three other people, each with their own handwriting and horoscope. Fernando Pessoa, Lisbon's most crowded clerk.

https://oddlet.com/p/y0z

#Histodons #HistSci #SciComm #History #SmallStories

A retired Baptist preacher fixing a bicycle in Georgia in 1976 saw a face in a smudge of white paint on his fingertip. A voice said: Paint sacred art. God asked Howard Finster for five thousand paintings. Finster kept counting.

https://oddlet.com/p/lls

#Histodons #HistSci #SciComm #History #SmallStories

For weekend readers, a bit of history of genetic engineering, public engagement and bioethics #histsci makingsciencepublic.com/2026/08/28/a...

Asilomar 1975 and 2025: Speech...

She dropped pins into a tuba and made one glove last fifteen minutes. Between sets at Minsky's, she lived in a Brooklyn house with Auden, Britten, and McCullers and wrote a bestselling murder mystery. Meet Gypsy Rose Lee, headliner and novelist.

https://oddlet.com/p/r6d

#Histodons #HistSci #SciComm #History #SmallStories

Happy birthday to writer, statesman and polymath Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832). Made for the #printersolstice Fauvism prompt: This print is a hand-printed, limited edition, reduction block print portrait. While best known for his contributions to German literature, he pursued natural sciences, studying morphology, doing work which presaged evolution, 🧵1/

https://minouette.etsy.com/listing/1162543096

#linocut #printmaking #sciart #histsci #Goethe #NaturalScience #reductionPrint #printmaker #mastoArt

Queer history of science in Attitude Magazine — oh yes!

Read about some of the queer creatures that fascinated Charles Darwin, including the first fish discovered to be dual-sexed, butterfly species with multiple female forms, and good emu dads. 🐟 🌈 🦋 🏳️‍⚧️ 🐦

https://www.attitude.co.uk/culture/literature/darwins-queer-creatures-532721/

#reading #history #nature #animals #science #histsci #queerhistory #histsex #queer #lgbt #lgbtq #lgbtqia #PrideInSTEM

Fricassee chicken for a quarter, or nothing. No tobacco, no debt, no sex with your spouse, never the word "hello" — it contained "hell." Three thousand guests in an afternoon, all saying "Peace." Harlem's God went by Father Divine.

https://oddlet.com/p/7rk

#Histodons #HistSci #SciComm #History #SmallStories

He wore Kleenex boxes on his feet. He wrote a nine-step memo on opening a can of peaches. When the hotel tried to evict him, Howard Hughes bought it for $13.2 million and stayed four years without once leaving the suite. America's tallest shut-in.

https://oddlet.com/p/5p1

#Histodons #HistSci #SciComm #History #SmallStories

Friends and neighbours on the Sussex Coast (UK), I've signed some copies of QUEER ORIGINS for you at three Waterstones stores: Brighton, Eastbourne, and Worthing.

And, yes, there are a few of those coveted bookmarks too . . . if you get in quick! 🌈 📚 🌞 🌊 🍦

#book #books #bookshop #bookshops #reading #history #science #histsci #histsex #nature #queer #queerhistory #lgbt #lgbtq #lgbtqia #Brighton #Eastbourne #Worthing #Sussex #SouthCoast #UK

Happy birthday to mathematician and NASA scientist Katherine Johnson (née Coleman; August 26, 1918 – February 24, 2020). One of the first Black women employed as a NASA scientist (and its predecessor NACA), she was known for her mastery of complex manual calculations of orbital mechanics and played a pivotal role in the success of the US crewed spaceflights from the beginning. 🧵

https://minouette.etsy.com/listing/1305748672

#linocut #printmaking #sciart #womenInStEM #BlackInSTEM #histsci #physics #space #mastoArt

Happy birthday to Sophie Brahe (born either Aug 24, 1559 or Sept 22, 1556 -1643) horticulturalist, astronomer, genealogist, & alchemist with the gardens at her brother #astronomer Tycho Brahe’s Uraniborg estate, where she often assisted his research, alchemical tools & illustrations of the supernova she observed as Tycho’s assistant.

Tycho trained her in horticulture & chemistry but initially discouraged astronomy. 🧵1/
https://minouette.etsy.com/listing/1855052501

#womenInSTEm #histsci #sciart #mastoArt

This week's #NewBooks at the library: second-hand copies galore!
- The #Owl Who Liked Sitting on Caesar: Life with a Lovable Tawny Owl, published by Bantam Press, bought at a local recycling shop.
- Lyell: The Past is the Key to the Present, published by the Geological Society of London.
- Volcanoes in Human History: The Far-Reaching Effects of Major Eruptions, published by @princetonupress.

Books #Bookstodon #Scicomm #Birds #BirdsOfPrey #HistoryOfScience #ScienceHistory #HistSci #Geology #EarthSciences #Volcanoes #Volcanology @bookstodon

This week's #NewBooks at the library: second-hand copies galore!
- The #Owl Who Liked Sitting on Caesar: Life with a Lovable Tawny Owl, published by Bantam Press, bought at a local recycling shop.
- Lyell: The Past is the Key to the Present, published by the Geological Society of London.
- Volcanoes in Human History: The Far-Reaching Effects of Major Eruptions, published by @princetonupress.

Books #Bookstodon #Scicomm #Birds #BirdsOfPrey #HistoryOfScience #ScienceHistory #HistSci #Geology #EarthSciences #Volcanoes #Volcanology @bookstodon

This week's #NewBooks at the library: second-hand copies galore!
- The #Owl Who Liked Sitting on Caesar: Life with a Lovable Tawny Owl, published by Bantam Press, bought at a local recycling shop.
- Lyell: The Past is the Key to the Present, published by the Geological Society of London.
- Volcanoes in Human History: The Far-Reaching Effects of Major Eruptions, published by @princetonupress.

Books #Bookstodon #Scicomm #Birds #BirdsOfPrey #HistoryOfScience #ScienceHistory #HistSci #Geology #EarthSciences #Volcanoes #Volcanology @bookstodon

This week's #NewBooks at the library: second-hand copies galore!
- The #Owl Who Liked Sitting on Caesar: Life with a Lovable Tawny Owl, published by Bantam Press, bought at a local recycling shop.
- Lyell: The Past is the Key to the Present, published by the Geological Society of London.
- Volcanoes in Human History: The Far-Reaching Effects of Major Eruptions, published by @princetonupress.

Books #Bookstodon #Scicomm #Birds #BirdsOfPrey #HistoryOfScience #ScienceHistory #HistSci #Geology #EarthSciences #Volcanoes #Volcanology @bookstodon

This week's #NewBooks at the library: second-hand copies galore!
- The #Owl Who Liked Sitting on Caesar: Life with a Lovable Tawny Owl, published by Bantam Press, bought at a local recycling shop.
- Lyell: The Past is the Key to the Present, published by the Geological Society of London.
- Volcanoes in Human History: The Far-Reaching Effects of Major Eruptions, published by @princetonupress.

Books #Bookstodon #Scicomm #Birds #BirdsOfPrey #HistoryOfScience #ScienceHistory #HistSci #Geology #EarthSciences #Volcanoes #Volcanology @bookstodon

@temptoetiam @johannesylvestre le document est désormais sur #WikimediaCommons avec la cote et tout, et librement réutilisable 😋 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Affichette_relative_%C3%A0_l%27%C3%A9clipse_de_soleil_du_1er_avril_1764.png (le truc sur X est sans doute un post automatique de LinkedIn où figurait une (autre) cote)

#archivesnationales #eclipse2026 #eclipse #GLAMarchives #histsci #histastro

poke @daieuxdailleurs

Happy birthday to #geologist & oceanographic #cartographer Marie Tharp (1920-2006), whose pioneering, thorough & complete ocean floor maps with Bruce Heezen, made using realms of echo sounder data, revealed the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.⁠
⁠
After studying #geology & math, Maurice ‘Doc’ Ewing at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia hired her to draft 1000s of echo sounder profiles. 🧵1/5

https://minouette.etsy.com/listing/217247292

#sciart #printmaking #womenInSTEM #histsci #linocut

The audiobook of HUMANS: A MONSTROUS HISTORY is $0.99 on Amazon.com / 99p on Amazon.co.uk. Links in thread, plus links for 30% off from @[email protected] (valid for all books!).

Intro cliff-hanger in alt-text.

🧪💙📚 🗃 #ancient #medieval #earlymodern #histsci #histmed #18thCentury #politics #HAMH

The audiobook of HUMANS: A MONSTROUS HISTORY is $0.99 on Amazon.com / 99p on Amazon.co.uk. Links in thread, plus links for 30% off from @[email protected] (valid for all books!).

Intro cliff-hanger in alt-text.

🧪💙📚 🗃 #ancient #medieval #earlymodern #histsci #histmed #18thCentury #politics #HAMH

The audiobook of HUMANS: A MONSTROUS HISTORY is $0.99 on Amazon.com / 99p on Amazon.co.uk. Links in thread, plus links for 30% off from @[email protected] (valid for all books!).

Intro cliff-hanger in alt-text.

🧪💙📚 🗃 #ancient #medieval #earlymodern #histsci #histmed #18thCentury #politics #HAMH

The audiobook of HUMANS: A MONSTROUS HISTORY is $0.99 on Amazon.com / 99p on Amazon.co.uk. Links in thread, plus links for 30% off from @[email protected] (valid for all books!).

Intro cliff-hanger in alt-text.

🧪💙📚 🗃 #ancient #medieval #earlymodern #histsci #histmed #18thCentury #politics #HAMH

The audiobook of HUMANS: A MONSTROUS HISTORY is $0.99 on Amazon.com / 99p on Amazon.co.uk. Links in thread, plus links for 30% off from @[email protected] (valid for all books!).

Intro cliff-hanger in alt-text.

🧪💙📚 🗃 #ancient #medieval #earlymodern #histsci #histmed #18thCentury #politics #HAMH

#cfp Mineral Expertise: The Rules of Knowing Earthly Matter in the Early Modern World -- 4-6 February 2027 in Bologna.

Deadline for Submission: July 10th 2026

https://scarce.univie.ac.at/news/singleview/news/call-for-papers-mineral-expertise-the-rules-of-knowing-earthly-matter-in-the-early-modern-world/

#histsci #miningHistory

I spoke with @[email protected] from GEO Magazin about HUMANS: A MONSTROUS HISTORY. Gesa’s interview essay is out in the print edition of the May issue! Online version to come but the print mag is GORGEOUS. 💙📚 🗃 #ancient #medieval #earlymodern #histsci #histmed #18thCentury #politics #HAMH

I spoke with @[email protected] from GEO Magazin about HUMANS: A MONSTROUS HISTORY. Gesa’s interview essay is out in the print edition of the May issue! Online version to come but the print mag is GORGEOUS. 💙📚 🗃 #ancient #medieval #earlymodern #histsci #histmed #18thCentury #politics #HAMH