Spring Break: Alchemical Texts and Darwin Art

I went to new Haven for spring break.

The Beinecke Rare book and Manuscript Library has several interesting past, current, and future exhibitions dealing with the history of math and science. For example, "Trees in Fact and Fable" examines its subject from several disciplines, including botany. There is one about mathematics in early modern England, an International Year of Astronomy exhibition called "Starry Messenger", and some works on alchemy in the European imagination. (I got to see that one.)

Also at Yale, the Yale Center for British Art is hosting an exhibition called "Endless Forms": Charles Darwin, Natural Science, and the Visual Arts (site here). It deals with the effect the publication of Origin of Species had on the arts world. It includes scientific diagrams, paintings depicting prehistoric humans and other creatures, fanciful illustrations of past humanity, Romantic depictions of "the struggle for existence", and photographs of non-European people meant for the scientific study of race. Or I might say pseudo-scientific.

Science and Math Tattoos

Check out the Science Tattoo Emporium. One interesting thing is that many people who get tattoos involving the DNA molecule use it for its heavy symbolic content. For example, here, here, here, and my favorite here.

A long, detailed, and nuanced discussion of the affair between Galileo and the Church may be found here. Part of the interest is in the exposure of some of the "mythology" that surround this issue. Such as this:

According to one of these readings, Galileo knew the Earth to go round the Sun, as Copernicus had written, rather than the converse as implied in several Biblical passages. The Church would not allow science to disprove the revealed truth of Scripture, however, and hence threw Galileo to the Inquisition where he was forced under threat of torture to disclaim this opinion and never speak of it again. He was then imprisoned under house arrest for the remainder of his life, a clear example of the conflict between scientific investigation of the world around us and the presumed infallible authority of the Bible.

Which is a story often cited as the truth of history.

A comic.

Double comic after a long break!

Double comic. There are two.

10 Remarkable Female Mathematicians

I wrote a post much like this one, a while back.
The post is here.

Mathy comics

In Questionable Content, Hannelore reveals one of her hobbies: theoretical knitting. If you've ever wondered why bubble-form tests ask you to use a #2 pencil, XKCD reveals the awful truth. And Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal pits A 17th Century Explorer vs. Calculus.