Thony Christie

The image of 1612 shows an academic scene of early modern Europe: a lecture hall with a professor on a professorial chair at the upper centre, a large groups of students present. This is one from a series of eighteen plates by the workshop of Crispijn van de Passe, depicting scenes of academic life, more here: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1972-0722-6-3

Once upon a time in a university near you, in-person teaching was a thing, as you can see in this image of 1612. Young people with hats came together, regularly and voluntarily, prepared for classes, and enjoying a lively learning situation of *checks notes*, a 90 minutes monolog of someone else ...

One should never skimp on being cool!

I abjectly hate this, but it's the bitter reality: “We may reach a point where Indian history will be researched properly only outside of India. The real losers here will be Indian nationals.”

amp.scroll.in/article/1089...

London Group of Historical Geographers Since 1989, the London Group of Historical Geographers has organised fortnightly themed seminars that are interdisciplinary in focus.

The Spring programme for the London Group of Historical Geographers is now live. We start again on 13 January with Thermal Horizons: Energy and Infrastructures of British Global Power, c. 1830-1900. In person at the IHR, London and on Zoom. Free and open to the public. All welcome, please register.

It will have taken the amazing Voyager mission 49 years to travel that far.

For those of you wondering why aliens haven't visited us yet..please note that the nearest star to us is over 1500x that distance.

A thread about the contributions of pioneering astronomer Annie Jump Cannon, born #OTD in 1863. 🧪 👩‍🔬 🔭

Now *that's* how you do it

🤣🤣🤣

Piano Meets Raga in a Collaboration of Master Musicians Jazz pianist Vijay Iyer, sarod player Alam Khan, and tablaist Nitin Mitta meet at The Freight, in Berkeley on Dec. 13.

Bay area - see you Saturday!

www.sfcv.org/articles/pre...

I never write without my fancy hat

Are you interested or do you know someone who's interested in doing a PhD on Arabic translations of the Bible? The new #BibliaArabica long-term project is looking for candidates! (tbh, that would have been my dream position a few years back) Spread the word!

Enough about the cat As the year of quantum draws to a close, so should our cultural obsession with Schrödinger's cat

I just did a little post about Schrödinger's cat. I get why it is culturally iconic, but in terms of quantum physics it isn't very meaningful.
philipball86.substack.com/p/enough-abo...

I think Robert Low is correct and they are fabric shears rather than scissors

Exactly

ICE are thug scum.

ICYMI — “I identified myself as a U.S. citizen and a veteran, but that didn't matter. ICE Agents smashed my window, sprayed tear gas and pepper spray into my car, dragged me out… this experience violated the very principles I fought to defend.”

🚨 Today, I formally introduced articles of impeachment against Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

RFK Jr. has turned his back on science and the safety of the American people. Michiganders cannot take another day of his chaos.

Jammie Dodgers are with no ifs or buts biscuits and anybody who claims that they aren't needs their head examined

Cladogram showing Jaffa Cakes as pseudobiscuits.

For reasons that are too complicated to explain, I am reminded of Adam Stuart Smith’s 2005 paper “Are Jaffa Cakes Really Biscuits?”. Here’s his cladogram (it says they aren’t): Full paper here: plesiosauria.com/pdf/smith_20...

I was at Sadiah Qureshi's talk this summer at Cambridge as part of the BSHS Conference. It was the highlight of the entire conference! Do watch this equally awesome 'In Conversation'!

I don’t understand in my neurodivergent bones how you can be for civil rights for some people but not for everyone

Another day, another horrifying, ghoulish article about using A.I. to create a simulacrum of a dead loved-one.

Just FYI, nobody is stopping you from talking to your dead loved-ones. I talk to Steve every day. I just have to accept that he's not there to hear me & answer.

Let the dead stay dead.

Happy birthday, Johannes Stöffler! In addition to Thony's post below, he's also featured today on the Linda Hall Library site, along with links to a full scan of their recently acquired copy of his 1513 astrolabe book with its great foldout illustrations: www.lindahall.org/about/news/s... #HistSTM

The influence of a Renaissance mathematics teacher. Recent posts here have been all over the #histSTM map so I thought it was time to return to the roots and write something about a Renaissance mathematicus. It was first during the fifteenth century…

Renaissance German mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, priest, instrument maker and professor at the University of Tübingen, Johannes Stöffler, was born 10 December 1452 #histsci
thonyc.wordpress.com/2018/04/25/t...

From τὰ φυσικά (ta physika) to physics – LVI In a previous post in this series I looked at the life of Christiaan Huygens (1629–1695) in general and his contribution to the development of optics in particular. In that post I emphasised that H…

Christiaan Huygens' contributions to mechanics #histsci

thonyc.wordpress.com/2025/12/10/f...

Watt' first wife was called Margaret and his second wife Anne!

But was Heron's wife called Mary?

A very good point

That should, of course, read "pointed out"!