Biographical

Szilard, Leo (1898-1964)

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 11/08/2007 - 20:19.

URL:

http://www.dannen.com/szilard.html

Author:

Gene Dannen

Excerpt:

Welcome to the world of physicist, biophysicist, and "scientist of conscience" Leo Szilard (1898-1964). How do you say it? Say SIL-ahrd.

Szilard's ideas included the linear accelerator, cyclotron, electron microscope, and nuclear chain reaction. Equally important was his insistence that scientists accept moral responsibility for the consequences of their work.

In his classic 1929 paper on Maxwell's Demon, Szilard identified the unit or "bit" of information. The World Wide Web that you now travel, and the computers that make it possible, show the importance of his long-unappreciated idea.

Annotation:

This site is dedicated to the life and work of Leo Szilard, a European physicist who contributed to the development of the atomic bomb, but protested its use. The site focuses on Szilard's role in advocating arms control. The opening page is basic in design, with a couple of images, a small amount of text, and a list of links. A visitor must follow these links to find the bulk of the information. The site contains images, transcriptions of interviews and speeches, audio clips, a short bibliography, a biographical timeline, and links to external sources of information. Perhaps the most useful of these external links take a browser to the online index to the Leo Szilard papers housed at the University of California, San Diego.

RaceSci: History of Race in Science

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 11/08/2007 - 20:19.

URL:

http://www.mit.edu/afs/athena/org/r/racescience/

Author:

Evelynn Hammonds, ed., History of Science Program in Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Excerpt:

The RaceSci Website is a resource for scholars and students interested in the history of "race" in science, medicine, and technology. RaceSci is dedicated to encouraging critical, anti-racist and interdisciplinary approaches to our understanding of the production and uses of "race" as a concept within the history of science. Instead of assuming race as a natural category that science then uncovers, this site assembles scholarly works that look at how cultural processes of racialization have profoundly shaped knowledge about humanness, health, and even our understanding of "nature" itself.

Annotation:

RaceSci is a site dedicated to supporting and expanding the discussion of race and science. The site provides five bibliographies of books and articles about race and science. The section on current scholarship has 1,000 entries, organized into 38 subjects. A bibliography of primary source material includes 91 books published between the 1850s and the 1990s. Visitors can currently view 14 syllabi for high school and college courses in social studies, history of science, rhetoric, and medicine. The site links to 13 recently published articles about race and science and to 49 sites about race, gender, health, science, and ethnicity. This site will be useful for teachers designing curricula about race and for researchers looking for secondary source material.

German-American History and Heritage

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 11/08/2007 - 20:18.

URL:

http://www.GermanHeritage.com/

Author:

German Corner

Excerpt:

The first seeds of this country were planted at Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in what is today the United States of America. The first English settlers arrived at Jamestown in 1607; the first German, in 1608. Therefore, Germans were present at the creation of this nation. The Germans who came to Jamestown in 1608 and subsequently in 1620 were the forerunners of the largest nationality to immigrate to the United States since its founding in 1776.

Annotation:

Sponsored by the German Corner Store, the German-American History and Heritage contains biographies, essays, books, a bibliography, links, and a list of German-American organizations related to the German-American experience. The site has not been updated recently, however, and some links are dead.

Hippocrates

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 11/08/2007 - 20:18.

URL:

http://allsands.com/Science/hippocratesbiog_rtb_gn.htm

Author:

Pagewise

Excerpt:

Hippocrates was a very educated man and he was a pioneer in shifting the medical view of the world. Hippocrates was a key component in the movement to rid Ancient Greece of medical beliefs, which revolved heavily around the religious beliefs of the time. Demonic possession or evil spirits were seen as the main reason for an illness. The “doctors” would try to rid the patient of the demon causing the illness. Hippocrates shifted the cause of illness to a mostly scientific cause. Hippocrates had acquired immense knowledge of natural sciences including chemistry, physics, and biology. “

Thomas A. Edison Papers

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 11/08/2007 - 20:18.

URL:

http://edison.rutgers.edu/

Author:

Rutgers, State University of New Jersey, National Park Service, New Jersey Historical Commission, Smithsonian Institution

Excerpt:

The extensive collection of papers preserved in the archive at the Edison National Historic Site—approximately 5 million pages in all—is the product of Thomas Alva Edison's sixty-year career as inventor, manufacturer, and businessman. Until now, the sheer size and organizational complexity of the archive have deterred researchers from delving extensively into its wealth of documentary resources. With the publication of the selective microfilm and book editions, these historically significant papers are for the first time readily available to scholars and other researchers. Because the arrangement of the documents on the microfilm parallels the organizational structure of the archive itself, it is helpful to understand how the records of Edison's laboratories and companies were generated during his own lifetime and how the archivists entrusted with their guardianship have subsequently treated them.

Annotation:

This site is a vast database of Thomas Edison's papers including 71,000 pages of correspondence and 12,000 pages of technical drawings. Processes for searching the site are complicated and visitors are recommended to read a 3,000-word guide to searching it. The site may be searched by name, date, or document type, by Folder/Volume, or by Series notes. Series collect documents in groups, such as scrapbooks and legal papers. The site includes over 2,000 facsimiles of Edison patents from 1868 to 1931 for products such as the electric lamp and the phonograph. More than 7,000 clippings from 103 journals and newspapers discuss Edison's achievements. Journals range from the American Engineer to the Westminster Gazette. "Document Sampler" contains over 20 documents including Edison's wife's design for a light bulb and a list of 19 different possible names for the phonograph. A collection of photographs, maps, and prints depict Edison, his environs, and his inventions. There are two chronologies of Edison's life on the site, the longer one running 13,0000-word. The site offers an 8,000-word essay on Edison's companies and over 20 pages about Edison and the development of the motion picture industry. A 70-item bibliography and a shorter 10-item version direct visitors to books and articles about Edison. The site links to 20 Edison-related websites. Because it is somewhat difficult to search, this site will be most useful to experienced researchers.