Danny Robb

My new article is up:
thespacereview.com/article/5093/1

One was boosted by military and Cold War interests and the other (on Naomi Oreskes's reading) was delayed by them. #histSTM

How Lunar Photography Brought the Heavens Down to Earth (Gift Article) No explorers ever traveled farther from home than the Apollo astronauts. As artists, they’re still underrated.

Whether you like science or art or history or space travel, I promise this will be the best thing you read all week.
🧪🔭

www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

The Erie Canal at 200 - JSTOR Daily Finished in October 1825, the Erie Canal connected increasingly specialized regions, altering the economic landscape of the northeast United States.

The Erie Canal was completed 200 years ago today. It was a major achievement for the early US, and for New York in particular. But the canal meant different things to different people, and over time, its significance evolved.

🗃️

daily.jstor.org/the-erie-can...

The Erie Canal at 200 - JSTOR Daily Finished in October 1825, the Erie Canal connected increasingly specialized regions, altering the economic landscape of the northeast United States.

The Erie Canal was completed 200 years ago today. It was a major achievement for the early US, and for New York in particular. But the canal meant different things to different people, and over time, its significance evolved.

🗃️

daily.jstor.org/the-erie-can...

On the left is a diagram from the same book published in 1794 in the quoted post below for its chapter on eclipses. On the right is the current diagram for the Wikipedia entry on eclipses. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it I suppose. 🔭

“Mad About Geology”: Charles Darwin’s Origin Story - JSTOR Daily At university and in the field, Darwin trained his scientific thinking as would a geologist, seeking causal explanations for observed natural phenomena.

Darwin's geological training shaped his scientific identity. He took classes from professors on opposite sides of a major geological debate. One was dull, the other exciting-but he learned a lot from both, and from field excursions in Wales.

#Histsci 🗃️ #geology

daily.jstor.org/mad-about-ge...

“Mad About Geology”: Charles Darwin’s Origin Story - JSTOR Daily At university and in the field, Darwin trained his scientific thinking as would a geologist, seeking causal explanations for observed natural phenomena.

Darwin's geological training shaped his scientific identity. He took classes from professors on opposite sides of a major geological debate. One was dull, the other exciting-but he learned a lot from both, and from field excursions in Wales.

#Histsci 🗃️ #geology

daily.jstor.org/mad-about-ge...

I have two articles in The Space Review this week. Here is one of them. thespacereview.com/article/5085/1

“Mad About Geology”: Charles Darwin’s Origin Story - JSTOR Daily At university and in the field, Darwin trained his scientific thinking as would a geologist, seeking causal explanations for observed natural phenomena.

When Charles Darwin joined the crew of the Beagle in 1832, one of their first stops was the island of St. Jago in Cape Verde. There, he confronted one of his first major scientific puzzles. https://bit.ly/3WjDAwl

“Mad About Geology”: Charles Darwin’s Origin Story - JSTOR Daily At university and in the field, Darwin trained his scientific thinking as would a geologist, seeking causal explanations for observed natural phenomena.

“Mad About Geology”: Charles Darwin’s Origin Story daily.jstor.org/mad-about-ge...

An erupting volcano in the dark with glowing lava flows and volcanic gases.

Today is going to be a good day to watch Kīlauea. Watch the live stream here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bqmp...

Part of an astronomical diagram from a mid 18th century French textbook. Descriptive text is in French. In the center is a diagram that looks like a group of circular swirls around small emoji looking suns. 🌞 🇫🇷 #Astronomy #HistoryofScience

“It assumes that each planet rotates in a vortex of fluid matter, & that the Sun occupies the center, around which the other vortices revolve.”

A closer view of Descartes’ système de tourbillons. All of these models provided working descriptions of the universe to different degrees of accuracy 🔭

Today my @nytimes.com colleagues and I are launching a new series called Lost Science. We interview US scientists who can no longer discover something new about our world, thanks to this year‘s cuts. Here is my first interview with a scientist who studied bees and fires. Gift link: nyti.ms/3IWXbiE

The Art of Deforestation - JSTOR Daily Landscape paintings show how quickly American forests changed in the early nineteenth century—and the mixed feelings people had about that change.

Painters of the Hudson River School understood what was happening to North American forests in the nineteenth century, and they didn’t like it. https://bit.ly/42tM7Ag

Arthur C. Clarke’s Scuba Adventures and Ocean Frontiers - JSTOR Daily Clarke’s interest in oceanic exploration in the 1950s was, like his undersea fiction, often neglected by an audience focused on the race for outer space.

#scuba

Today's article pick from Damn History, a free monthly newsletter for readers/writers of #popularhistory. Congrats to writer @inverting-vision.bsky.social & @jstordaily.bsky.social!

Read/subscribe to Damn History: damn-history-16d93f.beehiiv.com/subscribe

daily.jstor.org/arthur-c-cla...

We’re uncovering a remarkable treasure trove of scientific and historical data about the #WowSignal and the early days of #SETI. Your support can help us bring this history to light. #AreciboWow phl.upr.edu/wow/trip

A Practical Machine: The Wright Brothers in Dayton - JSTOR Daily Orville and Wilbur Wright wanted to create a practical machine—not a novelty or a gimmick—and they accomplished that at Ohio’s Huffman Prairie on October 5, 1905.

120 years ago, the Wright Brothers created a practical flying machine. Their test on October 5, 1905 may have been more significant, in some ways, than their 1903 Kitty Hawk flights. Today, you can visit the field in Ohio where it happened.

#histSTM 🗃️ #aviation

daily.jstor.org/a-practical-...

A Practical Machine: The Wright Brothers in Dayton - JSTOR Daily Orville and Wilbur Wright wanted to create a practical machine—not a novelty or a gimmick—and they accomplished that at Ohio’s Huffman Prairie on October 5, 1905.

A Practical Machine: The Wright Brothers in Dayton daily.jstor.org/a-practical-...

A Practical Machine: The Wright Brothers in Dayton - JSTOR Daily Orville and Wilbur Wright wanted to create a practical machine—not a novelty or a gimmick—and they accomplished that at Ohio’s Huffman Prairie on October 5, 1905.

120 years ago, the Wright Brothers created a practical flying machine. Their test on October 5, 1905 may have been more significant, in some ways, than their 1903 Kitty Hawk flights. Today, you can visit the field in Ohio where it happened.

#histSTM 🗃️ #aviation

daily.jstor.org/a-practical-...

The Bee Dance Debate - JSTOR Daily Can insects communicate? In the middle of the twentieth century, scientists disagreed on whether bees could possess a “language” expressed through motion.

Aristotle noticed that when bees returned to the hive, they shook or "danced" in front of a group. Millennia later, scientists debated whether it was a form of "language" amid shifts in scientific methods and philosophies in the 20th century.

#histsci 🗃️ #bees

daily.jstor.org/the-bee-danc...

The Bee Dance Debate - JSTOR Daily Can insects communicate? In the middle of the twentieth century, scientists disagreed on whether bees could possess a “language” expressed through motion.

Aristotle noticed that when bees returned to the hive, they shook or "danced" in front of a group. Millennia later, scientists debated whether it was a form of "language" amid shifts in scientific methods and philosophies in the 20th century.

#histsci 🗃️ #bees

daily.jstor.org/the-bee-danc...

SOFIA: A NASA History Office Report - NASA This report by Lois R. Rosson is the first retrospective look at SOFIA, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, since the mission’s conclusion in 2022.

My former student wrote a history of the SOFIA airborne observatory...check out her work :)

www.nasa.gov/history/sofia/

Arthur C. Clarke's Scuba Adventures and Ocean Frontiers - JSTOR Daily Clarke's interest in oceanic exploration in the 1950s was, like his undersea fiction, often neglected by an audience focused on the race for outer space.

Arthur C. Clarke’s undersea adventures are often overlooked, but his passion for scuba diving influenced his visions of the future. https://bit.ly/3Ko3zQv

#ArthurCClarke was *fascinated* by the mysterious Giant Squid, writing about it often. None had ever been seen, though it was a known enemy of the sperm whale.

I thought of him recently when video of a whale & giant squid turned up on Instagram. He would've loved it:

bsky.app/profile/rebe...

Arthur C. Clarke’s Scuba Adventures and Ocean Frontiers - JSTOR Daily Clarke's interest in oceanic exploration in the 1950s was, like his undersea fiction, often neglected by an audience focused on the race for outer space.

Arthur C. Clarke was an avid scuba diver for most of his life, which influenced his fiction and vision of the Earth's future. But mid-century interest in oceanic exploration and expansion was mostly lost in the glare of the space race.

#HistSTM 🗃️ #scuba

daily.jstor.org/arthur-c-cla...

Arthur C. Clarke’s Scuba Adventures and Ocean Frontiers - JSTOR Daily Clarke's interest in oceanic exploration in the 1950s was, like his undersea fiction, often neglected by an audience focused on the race for outer space.

Arthur C. Clarke was an avid scuba diver for most of his life, which influenced his fiction and vision of the Earth's future. But mid-century interest in oceanic exploration and expansion was mostly lost in the glare of the space race.

#HistSTM 🗃️ #scuba

daily.jstor.org/arthur-c-cla...

Speculative Fiction: Beyond a Novel’s Entertainment Value - JSTOR Daily The classroom is a place to equip students to better understand the world as it was and is. Speculative fiction can help.

How can teachers use the work of Octavia Butler, Ursula Le Guin, and other writers of speculative fiction to teach students about political and social theories? https://bit.ly/487g4JV

Underground Conquest: Cave Exploration and Nationalism - JSTOR Daily As cave exploration became more popular and speleology developed as an academic discipline, cave explorers were drawn into a problematic European nationalism.

There was a growing pantheon of heroes in the early twentieth century, as the new science of caves, speleology, emerged. But right-wing nationalism was also growing in Austria, and it changed the nature and purpose of speleology in central Europe. https://bit.ly/464hlQN

Underground Conquest: Cave Exploration and Nationalism - JSTOR Daily As cave exploration became more popular and speleology developed as an academic discipline, cave explorers were drawn into a problematic European nationalism.

When cave science emerged in the early 20th century, early speleological communities became entangled in right-wing nationalism. Cave explorers became nationalist symbols, as "conquerors" of an underground world.

#histsci 🗃️

daily.jstor.org/underground-...