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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
Kepler’s contributions to optics, at Renaissance Mathematicus
Those who follow this site for optics and history of science posts should take at look at this nice post by The Renaissance Mathematicus. It covers the contributions of Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) to the modern theory of optics. Kepler is … Continue reading
Posted in History of science, Optics
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Renaissance Mathematicus on the blogroll!
Just a short note that I’ve added Renaissance Mathematicus to the blogroll, a long overdue addition! For those readers here who like the history of science, I can highly recommend thonyc’s blog, if you haven’t been reading it already! A … Continue reading
Posted in History of science
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Lord Rayleigh on Darwin
There are lots of fascinating connections one can uncover by browsing the history of science. In my search for Lord Rayleigh’s invisibility research, I happened across a paper titled, “Insects and the colours of flowers,” published in Nature 11 (1874), … Continue reading
Posted in General science, History of science
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Lord Rayleigh’s comments on invisibility (1884)
Found it! I pointed out in my previous invisibility post that R.W. Wood attributes an early discussion of invisibility to Lord Rayleigh in his Encyclopædia Britannica article on optics; however, I couldn’t find the quote after browsing Rayleigh’s articles and … Continue reading
Posted in History of science, Invisibility
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The Discoverie of Witchcraft, by Reginald Scot (1584)
One topic that I’ve long had a fascination with is the history of skeptical and scientific thought. Human beings are naturally endowed with the ability to reason, but that reason is a far cry from a belief in a world … Continue reading
Posted in History of science, Religion
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The Giant’s Shoulders #14 is up!
The fourteenth edition of The Giant’s Shoulders is up at The Dispersal of Darwin! It’s a little tardy, but it’s got a lot of entries, and they’re all great! Many thanks to Michael for putting it together and hosting … Continue reading
Posted in General science, History of science
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Scientific cranks: Going strong since at least 1891
It is easy to assume that scientific crankery is a relatively new phenomenon, perhaps fueled by the completely non-intuitive, sometimes intimidating nature of many modern scientific theories. In physics, for instance, most cranks spend their time attacking Einstein’s theories of … Continue reading
Posted in ... the Hell?, History of science, Physics
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Thomas Levenson’s Newton and the Counterfeiter
About a month ago, I noted that Thomas Levenson’s book Newton and the Counterfeiter (2009) is now available: The book is the story of how the great scientist Isaac Newton, after making the discoveries which electrified the scientific world, took … Continue reading
Posted in History of science, Physics
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Maxwell on Faraday
I’m working on a few longer posts at the moment, but in the meantime I thought I’d share a nice little passage I came across while looking through James Clerk Maxwell‘s A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism (1873). Maxwell, of … Continue reading
Posted in History of science, Physics
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The Giant’s Shoulders #13: A day at the fair!
Welcome to the 13th edition of The Giant’s Shoulders, the history of science blog carnival! This carnival marks the one year anniversary since its inception, so I thought I’d take us somewhere special and historical — the fair! Not just … Continue reading
Posted in General science, History of science
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