She rode through London in a coach pulled by eight white bulls, wore dresses that scandalized Samuel Pepys into near-incoherence, and published critiques of both Hobbes and Descartes. She also wrote science fiction 152 years before *Frankenstein*. Her name was Margaret Cavendish — the woman who kept writing the future while her century tried to close the door.
On this day in 1990, the Voyager 1 space probe took a photo of our planet from approximately 6 billion kilometers (3.7 billion miles) away.
"Commissioned by NASA and resulting from the advocacy of astronomer and author Carl Sagan, the photograph was interpreted in Sagan's 1994 book, Pale Blue Dot, as representing humanity's minuscule and ephemeral place amidst the cosmos."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Blu…
Image via bbc.com/news/science-environme…
#OnThisDay #OTD #history #space #science #nasa #PaleBlueDot #humanity
The US space agency reprocesses the Voyager probe's iconic "Pale Blue Dot" picture of Planet Earth.By Jonathan Amos (BBC News)
Another Cambridge History "First" Most Folks Don't Know About
#History #MA #Cambridge #Xmas #CambridgeDay
The History of Earth as a 24 hr clock. Humans have only just arrived.
Note: I first came across this image through UW-Madison geology. #science #history
When Other Scientific disciplines are brought in to bear along with a wider understanding of History the old theories fall apart.
The invention of the ox-drawn plough was a turning point in the #prehistory of #agriculture because it was the first time food production was decoupled from human labour (doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2019.105).
This is why, from Medieval Europe to the ancient Near East, farms were measured by the number of oxen (later horses etc.) working it, not people (doi.org/10.1002/9781118970959.…)
Yet it's surprisingly difficult to pinpoint when this actually happened.
Île Saint-Honorat (Fortified monastery of Abbey Lérins)
Bronica SQ-A Camera
Bronica 50mm f3.5 Lens
Kodak TMax 400 Film
Rodinal R09 Developer 1:49
Ilford Rapid Fixer 1:9
Fotospeed RA50 Wetting Agent 1:200
#ÎleSaintHonorat #SaintHonorat #Honorat #IleSaintHonorat #Bronica #BronicaSQ #BronicaSQA #ZenzaBronicaSQ #mediumformat #filmphotography #photography #zenzanon50mm #Kodak #tmax400 #kodaktmax400 #Rodinal #R09 #Ilford #architecture #history #abbey #monastery
Cambridge - Where the Continental Army First Formed In The American Revolution
#History #AmericanRevolution #MA #Cambridge #Washington #GeorgeWashington
Happy birthday to Dr. Cecilia Payne! Her 1925 PhD thesis has been described as “the most brilliant ever written in astronomy.”
At a time when few women entered academia, Payne discovered what the universe is made of. Her work began a revolution in astrophysics & more should know her name. #science #history
I don't know the source or year.
Labeled "Beatrix Potter and Xarifa" 🙂 💕
#BeatrixPotter and her pet #mouse #history
Beatrix Potter is best remembered for her charming tales of Peter Rabbit, but did you know she also studied #science?
Potter collected & examined beetles, butterflies, plants, bird eggs, shells, rocks, fossils & especially fungi. She conducted experiments & wrote a scientific paper with her own illustrations, presented at the Linnean Society of London. However, as a woman in the Victorian era, she couldn’t even attend the meeting.#history #art #books
There are currently over 8 billion people on Earth. Yes, that’s a lot BUT there are about 1.4 billion insects for every human. Combined, they weigh about 70x more than all of us.
And insects have been around for over 350 million years. That's longer than the dinosaurs. Modern humans only showed up between 200-300,000 years ago.
We need insects to survive. They don't need us. This is their world. #science #history
The history of Earth as the length of a human’s outstretched arm - representing 4.5 billion years of time.
At this scale, humans emerged so recently that we could be filed off from a microscopic slice at the very tip of a fingernail.
Born in 1914, Hedy Lamarr was a famous American actress who pioneered the technology that would lead to WiFi, GPS, cell phones & Bluetooth communication.
Lamarr was brilliant. Among many fascinating inventions, she developed a new communication system with composer George Antheil that used “frequency hopping” among radio waves.
Once called the “most beautiful woman in the world," Lamarr is now remembered as "the mother of Wi-Fi."
#OnThisDay, 8 Apr 1959, Mary K Hawes initiates a project to create the first universal programming language for computers used by businesses and government. Grace Hopper led the team that then created COBOL. Some mainframes are still using it.
#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #WomenInSTEM #Histodons
About 250M years ago, 90% of species on Earth died during the Permian extinction. All of that loss created a lot of vacant niches to fill.
And not long after, the first mammals, our ancestors, appeared.
Life on this pale blue dot will be resilient - whether we’re part of it or not. #science #nature #history
David Navarro and Martyna Sobecka have traveled the width and breadth of Eastern Europe, photographing the region’s unique brutalist architecture. "Eastern Blocks II," the duo's new book, captures some of these stark scenes.
thisiscolossal.com/2025/04/eas…
#books #brutalism #design #architecture #europe #photography #history
Zupagrafika's 'Eastern Blocks II' chronicles the brutalist housing estates and public structures of the Eastern Bloc.Kate Mothes (Colossal)
#OnThisDay, 24 Feb 1968, Jocelyn Bell Burnell - along with her male supervisor and three other men - published a paper confirming the discovery of pulsars. She had built the array, picked up the signal and argued it was not an anomaly. Hewish received the Nobel prize for it in 1974: Bell Burnell did not.
In 2018 Bell Burnell received a £3m prize for her work. She's used it to set up a foundation to improve the diversity in STEM.
The father of evolutionary biology, Charles Darwin, was born on this day in 1809.
Enjoy the videos and music that you love, upload original content and share it all with friends, family and the world on YouTube.youtube.com
A Piece Of Cambridge MA History Most Folks Didn't Know
#History #LocalHistory #Highlighters #Invention #Cambridge #MA
Enjoy the videos and music that you love, upload original content and share it all with friends, family and the world on YouTube.youtube.com
Vivian Maier was a nanny who, for decades, took photos she never expected anyone to see. She rarely looked at them herself, often didn't develop the negatives and kept the pictures in storage lockers that she eventually stopped paying for so the contents were auctioned off. @Smithsonianmag tells the story of how she came to be considered one of the great street photographers of the 20th century, with a major retrospective on view now at Fotografiska New York.
Link: flip.it/aadovS
#Photography #Photos #History @histodons #Culture
The self-taught artist is getting her first museum exhibition in New York City, where she nurtured her nascent interest in photographyEllen Wexler (Smithsonian Magazine)
I simply adore this photo of James Earl Jones & Big Bird.
Yes, he played a lot of memorable dads from Darth Vader to Mufasa to King Jaffe Joffer + countless other incredible roles on & offscreen.
And Mr. Jones also happened to be the very first celebrity guest on Sesame Street. #history #media #art
In case you need some inspiration, Mister Rogers, Julia Child, LeVar Burton, Bob Ross & the wonderful folks at PBS have you covered.
Enjoy the videos and music that you love, upload original content and share it all with friends, family and the world on YouTube.youtube.com
The hidden story of how ancient India shaped the west
"The flow of knowledge to Europe on maths, astronomy and much more has gone unacknowledged by historians"
theguardian.com/world/article/…
#astronomy #mathematics #history
The flow of knowledge from India to Europe on everything from maths to astronomy has gone unacknowledged by historiansWilliam Dalrymple (The Guardian)
Born in 1805 in Jamaica, Mary Seacole was a pioneering nurse.
As a child, Mary learned traditional healing methods from her mother. Her mixed race family had few civil rights & could not vote, hold public office or enter many professions.
Known as 'Mother Seacole’ during the Crimean War, Mary helped wounded soldiers heal & find comfort.
In 1857, she published her memoirs, 'The Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands'. maryseacoletrust.org.uk/learn-… #HistoryRemix #history #science
Photograph: Amoret Tanner/Alamy. The above picture depicts Mary seated in front of a wide valley, beside a tent, next to a camp stool and table full of medicine bottles. Mary is wearing a military looking outfit (thought to have been self-designed).Mary Seacole Trust, Life, Work & Achievements of Mary Seacole
Pioneering geologist & oceanographer Marie Tharp changed our understanding of the ocean.
When Tharp sought a geology job at Columbia in 1948, women couldn’t go on research ships. So she was hired to assist male grad students.
Back then, many scientists still assumed the bottom of the ocean was featureless. Tharp figured out how to use data to create sketches of the ocean floor. Her hand-drawn maps helped develop plate tectonic theory. ncei.noaa.gov/news/marie-tharp #science #history
Learn about Marie Tharp, a pioneering ocean mapper who discovered the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and proved the validity of the theory of continental drift.National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI)
Born in 1894, physicist Marietta Blau’s research led to a way to capture the tracks of speeding subatomic particles.
In 1937, Blau & Hertha Wambacher made a discovery that launched the field of particle physics. But she was forced to pause her work in 1938 bc of the Nazis.
Blau was nominated several times for the Nobel Prize but never won. Cecil F. Powell later built on her work & earned the Nobel Prize in Physics. sciencehistory.org/stories/mag… #history #science #historyremix
A scientist pitted hard work and ingenuity against the constraints she faced as a Jewish woman.Science History Institute
Born in 1750, Caroline Herschel worked as assistant to her astronomer brother William. But she also made her own discoveries of nebulae, stars & 8(!) comets.
In 1787, King George III employed Caroline as her brother's assistant, including a small salary that made her one of the first women paid for their contributions to #science.
Caroline submitted over 550 stars to the existing star catalog & received honorary membership in the Royal Society. space.com/17439-caroline-hersc… #history
Caroline Herschel was the first woman to discover a comet. She made several contributions to the field of astronomyNola Taylor Tillman (Space)
Ben Barres was a trailblazing transgender neurobiologist who promoted equity & diversity.
His pioneering research on glial cells changed science & he became the 1st #trans person admitted into the National Academies of Science.
Barres was a strong advocate for women, early career scientists & the #LGBTQ+ community at a time when few people openly discussed gender identity. forbes.com/sites/matthewherper… #history #science
Excerpt from his autobiography: stanmed.stanford.edu/ben-barre…
In an autobiography released after his death, transgender scientist Ben Barres describes the emotional process of becoming a manPatricia Hannon (Stanford Medicine Magazine)
When I post about #science & #history, I tend to highlight the trailblazers we don’t usually read or hear about in #HistoryRemix.
But tonight I want to share this beautifully composed piece about Nikola Tesla.
While his inventions are legendary, you may not know how Tesla’s OCD shaped his approach to science & ultimately led to his world-changing ideas. It also left him isolated & alone. But he still experienced deep connection by caring for birds. nautil.us/teslas-pigeon-460446…
