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The author of Skulls in the Stars is a professor of physics, specializing in optical science, at UNC Charlotte. The blog covers topics in physics and optics, the history of science, classic pulp fantasy and horror fiction, and the surprising intersections between these areas. -
Category Archives: History of science
The Scientist and the Anarchist – Part II
The following guest post by Eric Michael Johnson is part of the Primate Diaries in Exile blog tour. You can follow other stops on this tour through his RSS feed or at the #PDEx hashtag on Twitter. If this is … Continue reading
Posted in History of science
3 Comments
Attack of the giant squid! (1874)
Last week, I ventured outside of my usual areas of expertise to discuss a paper I had stumbled across in a volume of the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, dated 1790, “letter relative to the kraken”. This prompted … Continue reading
Posted in Animals, History of science
19 Comments
Release the kraken! (1790)
This is a science topic that isn’t really my field, but it’s just so charming that I had to post about it. While browsing through the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh from 1790, I found a note titled, … Continue reading
Posted in General science, History of science
6 Comments
Cerenkov sees the light (1937)
This particular post serves a double purpose: highlighting an important event in the history of physics and highlighting an important moment of my personal interest in said history! The event in question is the publication of a letter in the … Continue reading
Posted in History of science, Physics
27 Comments
Welcome ThonyC as co-manager of The Giant’s Shoulders!
I’ve been thinking for a while that I would like to get some additional help and suggestions on how to keep The Giant’s Shoulders history of science carnival going and come up with new ideas for it. Well, I finally … Continue reading
Posted in History of science, Science news
2 Comments
“On the decline of mathematical studies, and the sciences dependent upon them”
I was browsing the internet a few weeks ago, and came across an opinion piece lamenting the poor state of mathematical education and the detrimental effect it has had on science. The provocative piece starts as follows: It is a … Continue reading
Posted in ... the Hell?, History of science
5 Comments
Shocking: Michael Faraday does biology! (1839)
(This is my entry to the first “special edition” of The Giant’s Shoulders, dubbed “The Leviathan’s Shoulders”, with an emphasis on oceans and ocean life. The post is actually about a river creature, but, hey, it’s still aquatic!) I’ve spent … Continue reading
Posted in History of science, Physics
24 Comments
Mythbustin’: 1808 edition (the incombustible man)
I swear that I’m not going through journals looking for old versions of the Mythbusters‘ experiments! After blogging about old scientific papers on myths such as “finger in the barrel” and “Archimedes death ray“, I figured I’d pretty much tapped … Continue reading
Posted in ... the Hell?, General science, History of science
20 Comments
Michelson and the President (1869)
I’m currently working my way through the book The Master of Light: a Biography of Albert A. Michelson (1973), written by one of his daughters, Dorothy Michelson Livingston. I typically find the beginnings of biographies to be rather slow-moving, with … Continue reading
Posted in History of science, Optics
7 Comments
Michelson and Margarite
My recent posts on Ada Lovelace Day (here and here) not only drove home the point that there were even more historically important women scientists and mathematicians than I had optimistically imagined, but that the smartest male scientists of their … Continue reading
Posted in History of science, Women in science
3 Comments
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