23 APR 2012 by ideonexus
Discoveries Open Doors to More Discoveries
Every discovery opens a new field for investigation of facts, shows us the imperfection of our theories. It has justly been said, that the greater the circle of light, the greater the boundary of darkness by which it is surrounded. Folksonomies: discovery
Folksonomies: discovery
1 Quote from Humphry Davy, "...the greater the circle of light, the greater the boundary of darkness by which it is surrounded."
02 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Davy Poem Using Laws of Conservation and Thermodynamics
In a thoughtful mood Davy wrote a new kind of metaphysical poem, ‘The Massy Pillars of the Earth. It reflects on the human condition, and suggests that since nothing is ever destroyed in the physical universe, only transformed (the First Law of Thermodynamics), then man himself must be immortal in some spiritual sense. It also returns in a new way to Davy’s early Cornish beliefs about starlight as the source of all energy in the universe:
Nothing is lost; the ethereal fire,
Which from the fa...
1 A poem found in Humphry Davy Works.
02 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Humphry Davy Proves Diamonds are Made of Carbon
In Florence, while the guest of the Grand Duke, Davy performed an impressive carbon-based experiment which proved that the most apparently precious of objects — the diamond — could also be the product of nature’s simplest processes. With the Duke’s permission, he commandeered the huge solar magnifying lens at the Florentine Cabinet of Natural History, and subjected an uncut diamond to intense and continuous heat. The diamond eventually burst into flame, leaving a fine crust of black carbon, t... 1 
notes
notesBy setting one on fire.
02 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Humphry Davy Accepts and Award from France While England ...
Some people say I ought not to accept this prize; and there have been foolish paragraphs in the papers to that effect; but if the two countries or governments are at war, the men of science are not. That would, indeed, be a civil war of the worst description: we should rather, through the instrumentality of men of science, soften the asperities of national hostility. 1 notes
notesHe says that while their countries may be at war, their men of science are not.
02 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Humphry Davy's Wife Doesn't Like Michael Faraday
She in turn may also have found Faraday physically awkward, and even irritating. He was small and stocky — not more than five foot four — with a large head that always seemed slightly too big for his body. His broad, open face was surrounded by an unruly mass of curling hair parted rather punctiliously in the middle (a style he never abandoned). His large, dark, wide-apart eyes gave him a curious air of animal innocence. He spoke all his life with a flat London accent (no match for Jane’s ele... 1 notes
notesAn amusing description of the physicist, who was widely respected as a lecturer, but disliked by the social woman.
02 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
A Mastectomy Without Anesthesia
In September 1811 the Herschels’ old friend Fanny Burney, by then the married Madame d’Arblay, underwent an agonising operation for breast cancer without anaesthetic. It was carried out by an outstanding French military surgeon, Dominique Larrey, in Paris, and so successfully concluded that she lived for another twenty years. What is even more remarkable, Fanny Burney remained conscious throughout the entire operation, and subsequently wrote a detailed account of this experience, watching par... 1 notes
notesFanny Burney's horrific account of undergoing surgery to have a breast removed.
02 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Humphry Davy Describes Nitrous Oxide
This is the published version: ‘By degrees as the pleasurable sensations increased, I lost all connection with external things; trains of vivid visible Images rapidly passed through my mind and were connected with words in such a manner, as to produce perceptions perfectly novel. I existed in a world of newly connected and newly modified ideas. I theorized; I imagined that I had made discoveries. When I was awakened from this semi-delirious trance by Dr Kinglake, who took the gas-bag from my ... 1 notes
notesTwo accounts from his journals and published descriptions of his first experience with laughing gas.
19 APR 2011 by ideonexus
Scientists Create and Thrive in a Stable Civilization
I take a different view of science as a method; to me, it enters the human spirit more directly. Therefore I have studied quite another achievement: that of making a human society work. As a set of discoveries and devices, science has mastered nature; but it has been able to do so only because its values, which derive from its method, have formed those who practice it into a living, stable and incorruptible society. Here is a community where everyone has been free to enter, to speak his mind,...Folksonomies: science culture science virtue
Folksonomies: science culture science virtue
There's a question of cause and effect in considering Bronowski's observation.
