Discovering the Universe - Science through biography
I wrote this course outline for the Richmond Adult and Community College in 1990.
Unfortunately, because of the prejudices of the then Head of Department, it appeared
in the course catalogue under the title of "History and Philosophy of Science".
Discovering the Universe only attracted five students and did not run!
But it seemed to me, and it still seems to me, to be an interesting
subject and important for educated people to know about. So it also
seemed appropriate to put the material into the public domain.
1. What do scientists do?
Inductionism, Kuhn, Lakatos and Popper's paradigm.
Science, technology, gadgets and public health.
Reproducibility, models and mechanisms and peer review. Publish or perish.
2. Proto-scientists.
What was known in the ancient world. Ancient astronomy, time and the seasons, eclipses and the
Antikythera device. Euclid, Archimedes, Hero
3. Harvey and the circulation of the blood.
Man as machine. Herbs, witches and the rise of rationalism.
4. Galileo, Copernicus, Kepler and Tycho Brahe.
The harmony of the spheres and the universe of the middle ages.
5. Newton, Wren, Halley and the Royal Society.
Tides, projectiles, comets and the new world view af the 17th century.
6. Darwin, Mendel, Galton, Fisher and development.
Collecting and counting in the natural world. The design and anaysis of experiments.
7. Mendeleef and systematic chemistry.
The periodic table of the elements, from alchemy to designer drugs.
8. Marie Curie and Radium.
Physical medicine x-rays, ultrasonics and tomography.
9. Einstein, quanta and the astrophysicists.
Waves and particles, matter and light. The strange death of the ether.
10. Babbage and Byron's sister.
Eckert, Mauchly and von Neumann. The dream of the mechanisation of thought. Data processing
and artificial intelligence.
11. Gilbert, Faraday, Maxwell, Helmholtz, Marconi and Edison.
Communications in the modern world. Transistors everywhere.
12. Florey's magic bullets.
Penicillin, sulphonamide bacteria, viruses and immunology.
13. Crick, Watson and Franklin.
The twisted strands of life itself.
Last updated 6th March 1999
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