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21. A Sketch for a Socialist Transhumanism
By Sam Phoenix Clarke (@samjphoenix) ‘The chemical or physical inventor is always a Prometheus. There is no great invention, from fire to flying, which has not been hailed as an insult to some god.’ [1] The life of J. B. S. Haldane gives the impression of a man who made himself at home in his…
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The Stakes and Ends of Historicising Science
By Sam Phoenix Clarke (@samjphoenix) Science, broadly conceived, is the best instrument we have for understanding, predicting, and controlling the natural world in accordance with our needs. But science as it actually happens is messy, contingent, and fallible. The social processes by which science is done – the formulation of problems, the generation and testing…
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Science in Self-Defence: Doing Science in Public in 1930s Britain
By Sam Phoenix Clarke (@samjphoenix) Britain in the 1930s saw a surge in popular science-writing, with scientists and scientific journalists of all stripes attempting to publicise the revolutionary discoveries of early twentieth-century science. Biologists such as Julian Huxley and John Randal Baker took to radio to popularise the latest discoveries in genetics and the social…
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‘A Most Ignominious Thing’: Face-Paint and Cosmetics in Seventeenth-Century England
By Marlo Avidon, @MarloAvidon Today, when people hear the term ‘face-paint’, they typically envision children at street-fairs, or birthday party guests decorated as princesses, cats, or fairies. Yet, in seventeenth-century England, ‘painting the face’ was akin to modern make-up, with various pigments used to colour the face artificially and achieve the contemporary beauty standard of a…
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23. Perhaps the Most Famous New Year’s Gift in Science
By Floris Winckel It’s the season of gift-giving. Some of you might be cash-strapped or lost for ideas of what to give (or indeed both). In December 1610, Johannes Kepler, imperial mathematician to the Holy Roman Emperor and one of the most renowned intellectual figures of early modern Europe, found himself in exactly this position.…
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