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Marking the anniversary of the telescope’s invention, these collected essays highlight a number of significant historical episodes concerning this well-loved instrument, which has played a crucial role in Man’s thinking about his position – literally and philosophically – in the universe.
This volume illuminates how philology and its focus on the critical examination of classical texts began an accelerated process of specialization in Dutch scholarship of the 1800s.
Cabinets of Experimental Philosophy in Eighteenth-Century Europe is an ambitious contribution to the growing interest in how science came to engage the attention of a public outside the academic and professional spheres and how collections of instruments played a formative role in this development. Collections of physical instruments for research and demonstration appeared throughout Europe in the eighteenth century and the coverage of the book is correspondingly broad. While collections in different cultural and geographical locations had much in common, there were significant local modifications. The essays in this book illustrate how science, sometimes thought to be monolithic and universal, can maintain core intellectual characteristics and practical techniques while adapting to particular sites and circumstances. Contributors include: Jim Bennett, Sofia Talas, Huib J. Zuidervaart, Hans Hooijmaijers, Ad Maas, Tiemen Cocquyt, Inga Elmqvist Söderlund, Paola Bertucci, Marta C. Lourenço, David Felismino, Ivano Dal Prete, Ewa Wyka, Martin Weiss, and Paolo Brenni.
"Felix Meritis, the remarkable 'Temple of Enlightenment', adorns the Amsterdam canals since 1788. The building accommodated the most ambitious attempt in the Netherlands for the integration of activities regarding literature, music, the visual arts, commerce, and the sciences. What so far went unnoticed is that, from the very start, Felix Meritis was also equipped with an astronomical and meteorological observatory. In fact, it was the first scientific observatory in the Netherlands designed from the drawing board. This book describes the history of the observatory (which functioned until 1889), with a special focus on the tensions between the objectives formulated by its founding fathers and the ultimate difficult practice of scientific research. The Felix Meritis-Observatory was crucial for the training and early careers of various eighteenth- and nineteenth-century astronomers, among which Nieuwland, Van Beeck Calkoen, Moll, Keijser, Uylenbroek, and Kaiser (the father of modern Dutch astronomy)."--Cover.
Situated along the line that divides the rich ecologies of Asia and Australia, the Indonesian archipelago is a hotbed for scientific exploration, and scientists from around the world have made key discoveries there. But why do the names of Indonesia’s own scientists rarely appear in the annals of scientific history? In The Floracrats Andrew Goss examines the professional lives of Indonesian naturalists and biologists, to show what happens to science when a powerful state becomes its greatest, and indeed only, patron. With only one purse to pay for research, Indonesia’s scientists followed a state agenda focused mainly on exploiting the country’s most valuable natural resources—above ...
NATO Advanced Institute Ottawa, Ontario/ Canada, July 26 - August 6, 1982
This is a thorough, very readable and excellently illustrated biography of Willem de Sitter (1872-1934), one of the most influential astronomers of his time, and also a co-author and correspondent of Einstein. Authored by a physicist and skilled writer, the book gives a beautiful and accessible description of the physics debated by Einstein and de Sitter, as well as the latter's alternative cosmological model, later known as the De Sitter Universe. But this is just part of a fascinating and varied life story involving numerous contributions to astronomy, as well as many places and personalities of early 20th century physics. The book will appeal to all those interested in astronomy and physics and their history.
Simulation in healthcare education has a long history, yet in many ways, we have been reinventing the wheel during the last 25 years. Historically, simulators have been much more than simple models, and we can still learn from aspects of simulation used hundreds of years ago. This book gives a narrative history of the development of simulators from the early 1700s to the middle of the 20th century when simulation in healthcare appeared to all but die out. It is organized around the development of simulation in different countries and includes at the end a guide to simulators in museums and private collections throughout the world. The aim is to increase understanding of simulation in the pro...
Adriaan Reland (1676-1718), Arabist, Cartographer, Antiquarian and Scholar of Comparative Religion covers the intellectual achievements of a remarkable man: Adriaan Reland, professor of Oriental languages (1701) and Hebrew Antiquities (1713) at the University of Utrecht from 1701 to 1718. Although he never travelled beyond the borders of his home country, he had an astonishingly broad worldview. The contributions in this volume illuminate Reland’s many accomplishments and follow his scholarly trajectory as an Orientalist, a linguist, a cartographer, a poet, and a historian of comparative religions. Reland, although a devout Protestant, believed that religions should be examined objectively on their own terms with the help of reliable and authentic documents, which would dispel the prejudices of the past. Contributors: Lot Brouwer, Ulrich Groetsch,Toon van Hal, Jason Harris, Bart Jaski, Christian Lange, Richard van Leeuwen, Remke Kruk, Anna Pytlowany, Henk J. van Rinsum, Dirk Sacré, Arnoud Vrolijk, Tobias Winnerling and Jan Just Witkam