The Jane Goodall Institute advances the power of individuals to takeinformed and compassionate action to improve the environment for all living things. With Dr. Jane Goodall's words and example as guiding principles, the Institute inspires hope for a brighter future.
Beginning in the 1960s, evolutionary biology was significantly transformed by the incorporation of ideas and techniques from molecular biology. This led to many novel views (and as many controversies) about phylogenetic relationships, rates and mechanisms of evolutionary change, and standards of inference and hypothesis testing.
This interactive website is devoted to recounting, documenting, and analyzing the history of molecular evolutionary biology. This is not just an activity for historians and philosophers. We especially encourage contributions and reactions from biologists.
The Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) provided reliable real-time control for the Apollo spacecraft that carried US astronauts to the moon, 1969-1972. It was designed by the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory (now The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Inc.) and manufactured by Raytheon Corporation.
The AGC was significant for its tight coupling of human and machine, its early use of integrated circuits, and its reliable, mission critical software. The history of the AGC project provides a window into the history of technology in America during the space race and the Cold War. This site is devoted to documenting the machines, people and institutions that made this achievement possible.
Fifty years ago, in 1947, it was common knowledge that there was a "Wall of Air" at the speed of sound. As an airplane neared this critical point, shock waves would buffet its wings and tail. The pilot would lose control, a condition then called "compressibility." Often, the airplane would shatter into pieces
Described as one of the 8 true geniuses, Von Kármán's inspiration for aeronautics came about during doctoral study at one of the world's foremost universities in the 1900s, Göttingen. After an all-night party in Paris, a friend suggested that, instead of going to sleep, they watch the French aviation pioneer Henri Farman fly his machine. Farman successfully completed a 2-kilometre (1.25-mile) course as Von Kármán embarked upon a long career in the aeronautical and astronautical sciences.
My criteria for selecting documents to annotate are admittedly fluid. I give emphasis to studies which emerged as important to later planning, but also include those that help to illustrate the wide range of moon and Mars options. Romance to Reality is meant to be a primer for building the future, not merely a catalog of unrealized dreams. - David S. F. Portree
Mars and moon exploration and settlement plans from 1950 to the present are annotated in detail on this site. More than 330 documents are divided into 14 subject categories. Categories include Apollo projects, advanced propulsion, cyclers, stations, and Lagrange points, surface suits, vehicles, and activities, surveys of mission scenarios, risk reduction and human factors, high-profile reports, and many others. Author David S. F. Portree is an independent science writer and historian.
The Armillary Sphere
A drawing of a demonstrational armillary sphere, from Libros del saber de astronomia del rey D. Alfonso X De Castilla.
Large image (188K).
Very large image (1.6M).
Armillary spheres can be divided into two main categories: the observational armillary, as used by Ptolemy and Tycho Brahe; and the demonstrational instrument. Both types consist of a number of rings (Latin: armillae) which are arranged so as to model the circles of the celestial sphere. Typically, armillary spheres used for observation were larger and possessed fewer rings than those which served as demonstrational instruments; this made them more accurate and easier to use. Often the rings of demonstrational armillaries, like those of the observational spheres, were divided, and some incorporated sights which could be used to orient the instrument appropriately.
In the 1820s, Rochester's mortality rate was high; nearly three out of every 100 people died of disease each year, and almost half the deaths were children under three years old. The patient’s family met early community healthcare needs; treatment was in the home, and if the family was too poor the city physician was called to attend the sick.
In 1822 a concerned group of women, the Rochester Female Charitable Society, began visiting the poor and sick.
This detailed site provides a history of Rochester City Hospital and Rochester General Hospital between 1847 and 1997. The eighteen essays that make up the history of these hospitals contain images, photos and links to primary documents. The site also includes a chronology and biographies of 26 leading figures in the history of medicine in Rochester. Of most use to scholars will be information about accessing the physical archives of the collection and a bibliography around which this web site was created. Navigation for the site is clean and easy to use and so researchers should find their way quickly to pages they may find useful.
The Victorian biologist and early social philosopher Herbert Spencer was a great rival of Charles Darwin's. His theory of evolution preceded Darwin's own, but was soon overshadowed because of the absence of an effective theory of natural selection - although it was Spencer, and not Darwin, who popularized the term "evolution" itself and coined the now-ubiquitous phrase, "survival of the fittest". Although no longer influential in biology, his extension of his theory of evolution to psychology and sociology remains important. His "Social Darwinism" was particularly influential on early evolutionary economists such as Thorstein Veblen, but, more contemporaneously, it was adopted with gusto by American apologists such as William Graham Sumner and Simon Nelson Patten.
These web pages are the result of a project for Dr. Phillips's Psychology of Women class, Spring 1999. Originally these biographies of women in psychology were displayed as a bulletin board recognizing March as Women's History Month. When we searched the web and found almost no information on women in psychology, we decided to make it a resource that the world could share.
In chosing women to write about, we tried to include women of various races, ages, and sexual orientations. Some of these women are famous, some are not. Some are modern, and some are from the past. We feel they all share one trait, however: They are all remarkable women who have made an impact on psychology. We hope you enjoy reading about them.
