(New Issue) (Re)thinking the history of mental disorder and psychiatry: an approach through the South(s) histoiresante.blogspot.com/2026/04/repe... #histpsych

Latest issue | The British Journal for the History of Science | Cambridge Core The British Journal for the History of Science

🌿 Learning botany at home 🔓️

In our latest BJHS issue, Brad Scott explores how the Talbot family studied mosses—by collecting, drawing, and naming—showing how botanical knowledge was shaped in domestic settings and through networks, even without formal structures.

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Palantir manifesto described as ‘ramblings of a supervillain’ amid UK contract fears Alarm caused by posts of Alex Karp, tech firm’s CEO, championing US military dominance and of AI weapons

“Palantir’s ‘manifesto’ sounds like the ramblings of a supervillain,” said Victoria Collins, a Liberal Democrat MP. “A company that has such naked ideological motivations and lack of respect for democratic rule of law should be nowhere near our public services.”

www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

By looking, you can observe Earthshine without a telescope, although Leonardo did make lunar observations with a single lens. He had an optical defect that makes it possible to use a single lens at arms length like a telescope

Fatness, Thinness & Embodiment: Interdisciplinary Perspectives This roundtable will initiate interdisciplinary conversations on the topic of fatness, thinness and embodiment.

This event brings together scholars in the fields of gender and social policy, the #medhumanities, and early modern history to discuss their research concerning body size and embodiment.
In person @ucl.ac.uk, London and possible to attend online

📆28 Apr 2026
🕰️16:30 – 18:30
To register 👇

Physical Disability and Deformity in Nineteenth-Century Britain | Clai Offering historical primary sources that outline both medical and experiential perspectives of physical disability, this book provides frequently mentioned but

Smashing! I notice that @claireljones.bsky.social's intro to her soon-to-be released #DisHist source collection is now available online as a 'preview pdf' via the publisher's site.

Definitely going on my must-read list!

www.taylorfrancis.com/books/edit/1...

Book review: Ancient Rome Infographics by Nicolas Guillerat, John Scheid and Milan Melocco There’s no real alternative to a good browse around a bookshop, this book Ancient Rome Infographics by Nicolas Guillerat, John Scheid and Milan Melocco is the result of just such browsing. I&…

Book review: Ancient Rome Infographics by Guillerat, Scheid, Melocco <- fun and pretty! ianhopkinson.org.uk/2026/04/book... #Roman

Latest issue | The British Journal for the History of Science | Cambridge Core The British Journal for the History of Science

🧪 Rethinking early modern method 🔓️

In our latest issue of the BJHS, Christian Henkel shows how Johann Christoph Sturm drew on Francis Bacon—revealing a surprisingly Baconian approach to experiment, hypothesis, and reforming scientific practice in a still largely Aristotelian context.

This is a wonderful source for cultural history!

Recently I delved into the cultural history of the mirror and found this great blog on this image of Marcia from Giovanni Boccaccio’s book, De Claris Mulieribus (Concerning Famous Women, ca. 1404).
artmirrorsart.wordpress.com/2011/11/22/d...

Michael Mästlin had already published the correct explanation for Earthshine in 1596. Leonardo da Vinci had given an almost correct explanation much earlier but it was not published

The real question is why this heap of total garbage became a cult film

Sidelit geezer looks wistfully at old portrait.

For those of you who didn't catch the first episode of this last night, it promises to be a grand little series full of special guests - especially (or so my spies tell me) episode three ... programme your VCRs immediately!

I think it's total crap

“Since the 1800 dawn of the age of vaccines, the life-saving miracles have had their opponents, decrying immunization to its public health advocates. The anti-vax arguments aren’t new, as Tom Levenson shows. Only the fear-mongering voices have changed, now led by RFK Jr. A Pox of Fools is your go-to guide for countering the mendacity and conspiratorial thinking.”—Laurie Garrett, bestselling author of The Coming Plague

Got a post up over at LinkedIn, celebrating some of the early praise for A Pox on Fools (see image below) and making a blog:

My hope is that the book can help advance our civic conversation re vaccines. To that end, if you'd like me to come to your institution to talk my book, I'd love to. DM me.

So next year the ”Who has the better drugs” competition is starting in England

@rmckee.bsky.social

Yes the WP is mostly terrible right now, but this is a very good piece on how neo-Nazi influencers make millions spreading fantasist histories, while the few adjunct profs who still have jobs struggle to make a living off $3K/semester courses in fact-based history & social sciences: wapo.st/4mERkhv

Francis Crick Was Misunderstood The Central Dogma is not a 'dogma,' and it has never been broken.

No because that’s not what Crixk argued. That was, as he later put it, “Watson’s dogma” (DNA-RNA-protein) www.asimov.press/p/crick

Thread, a discussion by those in the know

Walk softly and carry a big stick!

A printed figure with a hat, titles "Jupiter" in an almanac from 1500 (GW 1549).

What a badass! #Jupiter owns his place in this almanac from 1500. #skystorians

Christian Nationalism is a Cult of Convenience

That’s why we don’t need nuclear.

Technologies of Making and Knowing - HIAA Beyond its modern conceptualization, technology has always informed artistic production...

Call for Papers:
"Technologies of Making and Knowing"
Hosted jointly at Getty, LACMA, and UCLA
Los Angeles, California, March 4 - 6, 2027

www.historiansofislamicart.org/events-and-s...

I don't know if that's true. It's on Perl which appeared posthumously so it's possible. It is true that he just sang it through straight once in the studio and that's the version on the record.

I once had the pleasure/honour of doing live sound for Bob Neuwirth and he told me the story of how Mercedes Benz came to be written.

So honored to share this award with my good friend and #ScienceUnderSiege co-author @peterhotezmdphd.bsky.social.

Thanks @center4inquiry.bsky.social --means so much from you folks! centerforinquiry.org/press_releas...

19-Apr-1882: The death of a hero After decades of mysterious ailments, and a short, final illness, Charles Darwin died at 4 o’clock in the afternoon of Wednesday 19th April 1882, at Down House, Downe, in Kent.

19-Apr: ☹️ On this day in 1882, Charles Darwin died, age 73. Here’s the sad story…
friendsofdarwin.com/articles/dar...
#HistSci

Written by Bob Neuwirth on a bar napkin

The Necessary Pain Involved in Blogging (if you want your work to be preserved beyond your lifespan) I am thinking a lot these days about my own mortality. That’s not because I am obsessed with death or anything of the sort. It’s more that my health problems are accumulating and I do not know how long my body is going to hold out against them. It might be that I can clear all my current...

Blogging is painful but essential for preserving my work beyond my lifetime. I discuss the steps I take, from metadata to digital preservation, and why it's worth it.

eve.gd/2026/04/19/the-necessary...