#science history

[rubiscodisco]

The US military has done thousands of unconscionable things, each one more evil than the last, but on top of all of those things, on a minor but more spiteful level, I'll also never forgive them for what they did to Lithium

[dndspellgifs]

look, I know I've talked about this essay (?) before but like,

If you ever needed a good demonstration of the quote "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic", have I got an exercise for you.

Somebody made a small article explaining the basics of atomic theory but it's written in Anglish. Anglish is basically a made-up version of English where they remove any elements (words, prefixes, etc) that were originally borrowed from romance languages like french and latin, as well as greek and other foreign loanwords, keeping only those of germanic origin.

What happens is an english which is for the most part intelligible, but since a lot everyday english, and especially the scientific vocabulary, has has heavy latin and greek influence, they have to make up new words from the existing germanic-english vocabulary. For me it kind of reads super viking-ey.

Anyway when you read this article on atomic theory, in Anglish called Uncleftish Beholding, you get this text which kind of reads like a fantasy novel. Like in my mind it feels like it recontextualizes advanced scientific concepts to explain it to a viking audience from ancient times.

Even though you're familiar with the scientific ideas, because it bypasses the normal language we use for these concepts, you get a chance to examine these ideas as if you were a visitor from another civilization - and guess what, it does feel like it's about magic. It has a mythical quality to it, like it feels like a book about magic written during viking times. For me this has the same vibe as reading deep magic lore from a Robert Jordan book.

[x-siren-song-x]

chien-shiung wu disproved a fundamental law of physics and the nobel committee pretended she didn't exist

let me tell you about the most disrespected physicist you've never heard of.

chien-shiung wu was born in china in 1912. her father was radical for his time — he believed girls deserved education and founded a school for them. wu thrived. she moved to the US in 1936 to pursue graduate studies in physics at berkeley. she never saw her parents again. they died during the turmoil in china while she was building a career on the other side of the world.

she became one of the foremost experts on nuclear physics. during the manhattan project — yes THAT manhattan project — she was recruited to help solve a critical problem with nuclear reactors. she fixed it. she was one of the few women involved and her contributions were quietly filed away while the men around her became famous.

but the real betrayal came later.

in 1956 two theoretical physicists — tsung-dao lee and chen-ning yang — proposed something wild. they suggested that parity — a fundamental symmetry law in physics that had been assumed true for decades — might not hold in certain nuclear reactions. basically they were saying the universe might not be symmetrical in the way everyone believed. it was a bold claim. but it was just theory. someone needed to prove it.

they went to wu. because she was the best experimentalist alive. they knew it. everyone knew it.

wu designed and conducted one of the most elegant and difficult experiments in the history of physics. she cooled cobalt-60 atoms to near absolute zero and observed their radioactive decay. the results were clear. parity was violated. a law of physics that had been treated as sacred was wrong. she proved it.

the physics world was shaken. this was a massive deal. one of those moments that reshapes how we understand the universe.

in 1957 lee and yang won the nobel prize in physics. the fastest nobel award in history at the time. they proposed the theory. wu proved it. guess who the committee left out.

chien-shiung wu.

the two men who said "hey what if this law is wrong" got the highest honor in science. the woman who actually demonstrated that it WAS wrong got nothing. not even a shared prize. not even a mention.

let that sit for a second. in physics, theory without experimental proof is just a guess. lee and yang's idea would have remained a hypothesis without wu's experiment. she didn't assist. she didn't support. she DID the work that made the discovery real.

and it's not like she was unknown. she was called "the first lady of physics." her colleagues respected her enormously. lee and yang themselves acknowledged her work was essential. but the nobel committee looked at three chinese-american physicists, picked the two men, and moved on.

she spent the rest of her career continuing to do extraordinary work. she became the first woman president of the american physical society. she received other awards eventually. but the nobel — the one that would have put her in textbooks forever — never came.

she once said "i wonder whether the tiny atoms and nuclei, or the mathematical symbols, or the DNA molecules have any preference for either masculine or feminine treatment." she knew exactly what was happening. she just kept working anyway.

wu died in 1997. her gravestone reads "she was one of the giants of physics." and she was. but the world made her fight for every inch of recognition while handing glory to the men standing next to her.

the next time someone tells you science is a meritocracy remember chien-shiung wu. remember that she broke the universe's symmetry and the system still couldn't see past hers.

[thebotanicalarcade]

Beatrix Potter

Writer, illustrator, conservationist, natural scientist

For the inaugural Arcade Feature, I'm excited to tell you about Beatrix Potter. Most people (including me) know her best for her picture books-

-which have sold over 250 million copies since they were published in the early 1900s.

Fun fact: In 1903, Peter Rabbit was the first fictional character to be made into a patented stuffed toy, making him the oldest licensed character.

But what really caught my attention is the work she was doing before Peter Rabbit came along.

Beatrix Potter had a scientific eye for detail, and was able to faithfully depict the world around her. In particular, she was interested in mycology.

In 1897, she put forward a paper to the Linnean Society in London... but as a woman was not allowed to be a member of the society nor attend the meeting when her paper was read. When the society's members did not pay much attention to her work, and fearing her samples to be contaminated, Potter withdrew her paper, which became lost. Only after Potter left hundreds of mycological artworks to a museum in the Lake District, UK, on her death in 1943, were her scientific talents recognized... Potter's precise and beautiful paintings and drawings of fungi are now helping modern mycologists in their efforts to identify species.*

Potter eventually moved away from books in favor of land management and farming. She was a prize-winning sheep breeder and a prosperous farmer, and bought several farms surrounding her own to preserve the unique hill country landscape. Much of that land now constitutes the Lake District National Park.

Keep an eye out for more Beatrix Potter throughout the month of February.

* Fry, C., & Wayland, E. (2024). Introduction. In The Botanists’ Library, The Most Important Botanical Books in History (1st ed., pp. 9–10). introduction, Ivy Press.

More

[chaosremlin1]

We all adore Laika the space dog, and she deserves it.

but no one talks about Félicette, a french cat sent into space. She was sent up with electrodes in her brain, and electrocuted during the flight to stimulate her legs and muscles to move. Félicette survived the flight only to be euthanised so that her brain could be studied.

Félicette was chosen on a mission, survived despite the challenge only to be put down.

Félicette had been trained with 13 other cats. one was sent up after her, but upon a failed launch, the second cat had been exploded. most did not survive.

A monument was only erected 50 years after her space flight.

[fake-etymology]

Ever thought to yourself, "fucking magnets, how do they work?" If you asked someone in Medieval Europe, they would say through pure charisma. The word "magnetic" originally meant "charismatic, influential, powerful," derived from the Latin word magnus meaning "great", and closely related to words like "magnate" and "magnanimous". Though originally only referring to people (and you can still say someone has a magnetic personality today!), the term was later used to anthropomorphise objects that appeared to attract other objects or even animals towards them. It was only after the practice of intentionally creating magnetised metal spread to Europe from China that such items were referred to as "magnets," and later still that "magnetic" took on its modern meaning.

[yeoldecryptid]

Ya know, sometimes a family is just a biologist, his brothers in Christ, and hundreds of pea plants.