What is a battery? Electricity
A Leyden Jar - an early kind of electric battery In the early 1800s AD, about 200 years ago, scientists in Denmark and Britain figured out another way to make magnets. [...]
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08, 2017
16
08, 2017
Races and racism – Skin color and history
An Egyptian portrait of two brothers (Roman period, about 150 AD) Biologically, there is no such thing as race. Sure, people come in a lot of different skin and hair [...]
16
08, 2017
What is a midwife? History of childbirth
A Roman carving of a midwife at a birth (Isola Della Sacra, Ostia, 1st century AD) Who delivered babies in the ancient world? A midwife is a woman who helps [...]
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08, 2017
Challenges and disabilities in the ancient world
(Bosch, the Ship of Fools) - medieval disabilities Were a lot of people disabled in the past? In the ancient and medieval worlds, many more people were physically and mentally [...]
15
08, 2017
Oil – American science
A homemade oil lamp Oil is a kind of liquid made out of hydrocarbon molecules. It is mostly fat. Lots of plants and animals make oil. In North America, people got most of their oil from salmon, bison, and sunflowers. [...]
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08, 2017
Early Native American science
Native American science: Sunflowers growing in a field Domesticating sunflowers Probably the greatest contribution of Native American people to science before 1500 AD was the domestication of several plants, especially sunflowers in eastern North America. These plants [...]
7
08, 2017
Renaissance Science in Europe
Copernicus, a Renaissance astronomer Starting in the 1200s AD, as Europe got richer, great universities got started there. In the later Middle Ages, West Asia and India suffered from the Mongol invasions. West Asian people were too poor to [...]
7
08, 2017
History of Bicycles – Steel and feminism
A velocipede Early wooden bicycles Bicycles were invented bit by bit in many different countries. They grew out of earlier inventions like wheels (from Central Asia) and wheelbarrows and cranks (from China), but Karl [...]
7
08, 2017
Enlightenment Science in Europe
Gottfried Leibniz, a German mathematician - Enlightenment science What set off the Enlightenment? By 1650 AD, Europeans understood Islamic algebra and trigonometry better. Then they combined that with the exciting invention of the telescope and microscope (thanks to [...]
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08, 2017
Science in Early Modern Europe
Early modern science: Tycho Brahe (He looks funny because his nose got cut off in a duel and he wore a false one made of brass.) New observatories in Europe [...]
