Science: A Peculiar History

You can listen at historyofscience.podbean.com/e/forbidden-experiment-2/

I also explore the rumour's context in terms of Frederick's life, personality and reputation, and Medieval ideas about the origin of language.

This episode concerns a similar experiment allegedly carried out by Frederick II, King of Sicily and Holy Roman Emperor, one of the most remarkable figures of the European Middle Ages.

The image is a depiction of Frederick II with a falcon, from a late 13th century manuscript copy of his ornithological treatise De Arte Venandi cum Avibus

There's a new episode out.

This episode continues from the last episode's look at an allegation that the Pharaoh Psamtik I had two children raised without exposure to language to find out what language they would speak, looking at another, similar rumour from centuries later.

August Kekulé discovering the structure of benzene

Conservatives: "Haha stupid liberals compare everyone they disagree with to the Nazis"

Also Conservatives: "We're going to behave like the Nazis"

I still need to start adding pages for individual episodes, with sources and transcripts and things like that, but there's a website there, and I've also got an email address, you get in touch with corrections or suggestions or anything you like really at admin@scienceapeculiarhistory.co.uk

The podcast now has a functioning website at scienceapeculiarhistory.co.uk

Inspired by the last few episodes of @thebhp.bsky.social

Galileo Galilei, I put it to you that you did, in your volume "Dialogue Concerning The Two Chief World Systems", commit the most pernicious heresy of representing his holiness the Pope as a soyjak and yourself as a chad

It's going to be brilliant, and have links to all the episodes, with extra information, images (including diagrams that would make the Flat Earth miniseries much easier to follow), sources, and episode transcripts.

Been making a website. It's technically on the internet already but not fit for human consumption. It's going to take a while because I felt like building it from scratch (learning HTML as I go).

The chapter about religious doubt among Puritans (while not relevant to the podcast) is extraordinary, with stories of Puritan teenagers psychologically one-shotted by Predestination. Some of the strongest emotions I've ever felt reading a History of Religion book. Absolutely would recommend.

I've been re-reading "Unbelievers" by Alec Ryrie, largely because I remembered that there was some stuff in it about Frederick II of Sicily and the Medieval moral panic about "Epicureans" that would be relevant to the second episode of the current miniseries on language deprivation experiments.

The first episode looks at a report from the Ancient Greek historian Herodotus, of the Pharaoh Psamtik I investigating the origins of language, and the alleged experiment's relationship to linguistic thought in antiquity and the early development of experimental science.

An 1800 engraving by Lambertus Antonius Claessens, showing Psamtik witnessing the result of his experiment. Held in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and available from lookandlearn.com/history-images/YR0095837/Linguistic-experiment-by-Pharaoh-Psammetichus The caption translates as "Language experiment of Psammetichus"

I have finally got round to publishing the first episode in a new miniseries on four rumours of kings from Scotland to India, over more than 2000 years, conducting the same depraved experiment.

The first episode is available at historyofscience.podbean.com/e/8-the-forb...

Progress update on Episode 8

(From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton)

Honestly thinking of writing a book about these experiments. There doesn't seem to be one at the moment, but if anyone knows of a book specifically about these four language deprivation experiments I'd be very interested (it might delay the episode even further because I'd have to read it)

The Partially Examined Life Podcast's explanation of Plato's dialogue "Cratylus", concerning the origin of language, has been extremely helpful for my writing about ancient Greek debates about the origin of language. partiallyexaminedlife.com/2023/09/04/ep324-1-plato-cratylus/

The children, having only had contact with goats for two years, apparently said "bekos", the Phrygian word for bread.

The picture is an engraving from 1800 by the Dutch printmaker Lambertus Antonius Claessens, showing the first of these experiments, which the Ancient Greek historian and geographer Herodotus reports was carried out in the 7th Century BCE by the Pharaoh Psamtik (or Psammetichus).

The series is going to look at four experiments allegedly conducted by four Kings, in which they are reported to have had children raised without exposure to language, in order to determine what language, if any, they would end up speaking.

I'll probably record the first episode of the miniseries next week after I get back (unless I find more things to write about). Thank you for your patience.

The series is almost finished, but I'm currently in the Scottish Highlands with no access to my computer (my hiking plans have been disrupted by the fact that I'm not quite insane enough to camp in the Cairngorms in 60 mph winds).

The image is held in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and available from lookandlearn.com/history-images/YR0095837/Linguistic-experiment-by-Pharaoh-Psammetichus The caption translates as "Language experiment of Psammetichus"

I suppose the question you're probably all wondering about is when the next episode is coming out. The research for it sort of got out of control as I kept finding more things to write about.

5 (Continued). This probably comes from Aristotle's Physics, where he says Anaxagoras, a different Pre-Socratic Philosopher, used clepsydrae, as well as inflated wine skins, to demonstrate that air exists (there's also no particular reason to think this is what initially gave Anaxagoras the idea).

5. Sagan says that these devices are how Empedocles discovered that air is a physical substance. This is wrong. Empedocles used these in an analogy to illustrate a completely different point about respiration (although this does presuppose the existence of air).

(Continued...)

5 (Continued). In Aristotle's Physics, he mentions how a different Pre-Socratic Philosopher, Anaxagoras, used clepsydrae, as well as inflated wine skins, to demonstrate the existence of air (there's no reason to believe this is what initially gave him the idea that air is a thing)

3. I relate so hard to the girl that Empedocles talks about. These things look so fun, I could get hours of entertainment out of playing with one.

4. Obviously Empedocles is totally wrong about the circulation of blood, but it's a very respectable guess for the 5th century BCE.

YouTube video by Saganism Carl Sagan And The Discovery Of Air

1. Why don't they still write science books in verse?

2. The "water clock" here is a mistranslation. Κλεψύδρα (klepsydra, literally "water-thief") usually refers to water clocks, but here it's a device that used air pressure to pick up liquids. Carl Sagan demonstrates: