Purabi Mukherji; Atri Mukhopadhyay. History of the Calcutta School of Physical Sciences. xix + 170 pp., bibl. Singapore: Springer, 2018. $119.99 (cloth). ISBN 9789811302947.

Isis ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 111 (1) ◽  
pp. 195-196
Author(s):  
Rajinder Singh
Keyword(s):  
Physical Sciences ◽  
History Of

Locke's review of the Principia

1965 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 152-161 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual History ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
John Locke ◽  
Periodical Press ◽  
Physical Sciences ◽  
Political Exile ◽  
French Speaking ◽  
History Of ◽  
Independent Account

The publication in July 1687 of Newton’s Principia mathematica gave rise to only four reviews in the European periodical press. The first was Edmond Halley’s pre-publication notice in the Philosophical Transactions (1). Then a year elapsed before the Bibliothèque Universelle (2), the Acta Eruditorum (3), and the Journal des Sçavans (4), approached the book. Of these reviews that which appeared in Jean Leclerc’s widely read Bibliothèque Universelle has received least attention from historians. This is unfortunate because, of several merits, two in particular are important for the intellectual history of the period: it was written specifically for the large and growing intellectual class (5) of western Europe who for the most part were interested in the new physical sciences, but were untrained in the mathematics necessary to understand many of the newest advances in them. And the author of this review, which was the first independent account of Newton’s book to reach this Continental (largely French-speaking) audience, was John Locke, then a voluntary political exile in Holland (6).

General Relativity and Cosmology

2020 ◽  
pp. 227-360
Author(s):  
P. J. E. Peebles
Keyword(s):  
Constant Velocity ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Reference Frames ◽  
Physical Sciences ◽  
Inertial Frames ◽  
Moving Body ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Freely Moving ◽  
The Universe

This chapter discusses the development of physical sciences in seemingly chaotic ways, by paths that are at best dimly seen at the time. It refers to the history of ideas as an important part of any science, and particularly worth examining in cosmology, where the subject has evolved over several generations. It also examines the puzzle of inertia, which traces the connection to Albert Einstein's bold idea that the universe is homogeneous in the large-scale average called “cosmological principle.” The chapter cites Newtonian mechanics that defines a set of preferred motions in space, the inertial reference frames, by the condition that a freely moving body has a constant velocity. It talks about Ernst Mach, who argued that inertial frames are determined relative to the motion of the rest of the matter in the universe.

Historical analysis of the neural control of movement from the bedrock of animal experimentation to human studies

2004 ◽  
Vol 96 (4) ◽  
pp. 1478-1485 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter B. C. Matthews
Keyword(s):  
Neural Control ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Animal Experimentation ◽  
Physical Sciences ◽  
New Techniques ◽  
Magnetic Brain Stimulation ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
Neural Control Of Movement ◽  
Opening Up

The history of the investigation of the sensorimotor control of movement is outlined from its inception at the beginning of the 19th century. Particular emphasis is placed on the opening up of new possibilities by the development of new techniques, from chronophotography to magnetic brain stimulation, all of which have exploited developments in technology. Extrapolating from history, future advance in physiological understanding can be guaranteed to require seizing the new tools provided by the physical sciences and refining these to our particular need. The ever-present danger is that these are then deployed with triumphal optimism rather than critical doubt and earlier methods either jettisoned prematurely or used incautiously. The new techniques have enabled experimentation to become ever less intrusive, permitting a progressive shift from animal to human work, thereby offering the prospect of an increasing clinical reward.

Towards a History of Biology in the Twentieth Century: Directed Autobiographies as Historical Sources

1988 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Russell
Keyword(s):  
Biological Sciences ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
History Of Biology ◽  
Physical Sciences ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
Darwinian Revolution ◽  
Significant Development ◽  
Relative Neglect ◽  
History Of ◽  
Scientists And Engineers

Interest in contemporary scientific history has concentrated on physics and engineering and its most obvious growth has been in America. By contrast, there has been a relative neglect of the biological sciences, especially in Great Britain. This concern with contemporary scientific history has been an autonomous growth among physical scientists and engineers. There has not yet been any significant development of an historical dimension among modern biologists. Most of those who do study the history of biology are concerned with natural history in the nineteenth century and before, with the largest group concentrating on the Darwinian Revolution. Students of the history of twentieth century biology are just beginning to emerge, but may find themselves uniquely disadvantaged compared with observers of the sciences from earlier centuries, or even of the physical sciences and engineering in the twentieth century, unless certain things are done rather quickly.

Physical Sciences and History of Physics. R. S. Cohen , M. W. Wartofsky

Isis ◽  
1986 ◽  
Vol 77 (1) ◽  
pp. 110-111
Author(s):  
Edward MacKinnon
Keyword(s):  
History Of Physics ◽  
Physical Sciences ◽  
History Of
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