JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post I think that this is the first time I've seen E=mc^2 incorrectly written in the same journal article. It occurs in a filler article in a 1950 slug filler piece in the New York Times (sorry I do not have the exact date/page) reporting on a church near Cologne incising its bell with the world's most famous equation but getting it wrong.

JF Ptak Science Books. I think that it is difficult to overstate the importance and long-term significance of Dr. Seuss' (Theodor Seuss Geisel, 1904-1991, son and grandson of brewmasters) contribution to childhood. I think that it is impossible to calculate the overall impact of his bringing young people to the joy of reading, and to the familiarization …

A Daily History of Holes, Dots, Lines, Science, History, Math, Physics, Art, the Unintentional Absurd, Architecture, Maps, Data Visualization, Blank and Missing Things, and so on. |1.6 million words, 7500 images, 4.9 million hits| Press & appearances in The Times, Le Figaro, Mensa, The Economist, The Guardian, Discovery News, Slate, Le Monde, Sci American Blogs, Le Point, and many other places ...

JF Ptak Science Books Post 2532. I was thinking about the opening line from Dicken's Tale of Two Cities, yesterday, one of the author's great books, and probably one of his greatest sentences, period.This longish, single-sentence opener is 115 words long and punctuated with 16 commas, most of which are in the first half of the sentence, and all of which seem to work together like a piece of music.

Welcome! This blog started in January 2008 as a history of science blog that related to my bookstore, but within the first two months the content spilled over into all sorts of unexpected areas, and I've happily not tried to steer a clear course since then. The categories bar makes sense of the mass ...

JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post J.W. Conway launched this missive into the world in 1935--at a time when left-handedness was deemed to be unacceptable and curable--adding his anti-left-handed sentiments to a teetering pile of other alien attacks. Mr. Conway's...

JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post Evidently M. Vaudoyer was a very early proponent of the spherical house, though (at least outside of architectural circles) his name is not nearly well known as Etienne Boulle, though perhaps if there was a movie 1 constantly invoking a godlike reverence to his name he might be better known. The images below come from his time in Rome at the French Academy, and ...

JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post Having a go at Pinterest I came across a very interesting image--a satirical, and very biting, portrayal of a woman as a scholar (here, with thanks to Whitney Trettien).The artist gives the woman a very monkey-ish feeling, a trained animal aspect, sitting there trying to figure our the words in a book with a right …

Posters Fine Reproductions of Unusual and Rare Cover Art. This blog is a part of JF Ptak Science Books on the History of Holes, Dots, Lines, Science, History, Math, the Unintentional Absurd & Nothing |1.6 million words, 7000 images, 3.5 million hits| Press & appearances in The Times, The Paris Review, Le Figaro, The Economist, The Guardian, Discovery News, Slate, Le Monde, Scientific American ...

JF Ptak Science Books Quick Pos I'm not that convinced that a lot of "cooling off" was being done down in the tunnels of the Comstock Lode, though I guess it is all relative, and so perhaps these guys were able to enjoy themselves a little compared to swinging a pick axe or shoveling with a shovel in a cramped, damp, loud, dark place, underground.