Physical Sciences

The physicist and humanitarian took his place beside the great teachers with the publication of Relativity: The Special and General Theory, Einstein’s own popular translation of the physics that shaped our “truths” of space and time

For a number of years professor Niels Bohr at the University of Copenhagen was the central figure in the international work on the development of nuclear physics and his modest Institute for Theoretical Physics became the most important meeting place and place of learning for the world's young nuclear physicists. It has left permanent marks in the scientif-ic nomenclature. For instance, the element which has number 72 and which was long unknown was called Hafnium because it was discovered at Niels Bohr's institute and named after the Latin form of Copenhagen, Hafnia. 

An investigation was conducted by the FBI regarding the famous physicist because of his affiliation with the Communist Party. Einstein was a member, sponsor, or affiliated with thirty-four communist fronts between 1937-1954. He also served as honorary chairman for three communist organizations.

The most primitive electrical and magnetic phenomena -- the attraction of dry light material such as chaff to rubbed amber, and the attraction of iron to loadstone -- were no doubt observed before recorded history began. However, as far as I can find, these phenomena were not recorded by the Egyptians or any other pre-Greek civilization. The first definite statement is by Thales of Miletus (about 585B.C.) who said loadstone attracts iron because it has a soul. The prevailing view at the time was that movement of any kind indicated life, or a soul, or a god. In fact, it was advanced thinking on Thales’ part to think that the loadstone’s moving of the iron was caused by itself rather than by the intervention of some god. Actually Miletus was a very multicultural environment -- a flourishing commercial city in Asia Minor (now part of Turkey), trading with Babylon and also Egypt, where Thales travelled. This mixture of cultures meant that there was not a strongly repressive religious orthodoxy, as was often the case in primitive (and not so primitive) societies, so freedom of inquiry was tolerated. Sad to report, this did not lead to a more enlightened political system -- it was a slave based society, with bloody rebellion and repression.

Main topics of interest are: the problem of scientific realism; the relation between Science and Common Sense; the role of the "images of the world" in Science (and daily life); the conceptual foundations of Physics;

This brief history of the European Mathematical Society covers a period of slightly more than eight years, from the founding of the Society in 1990 to the end of 1998. The history was commissioned by the Society in order that an account could be composed before memories had faded, leaving only written records. Inevitably the many and changing participants in the activities to be described will have different views of these activities and their significance. The author has aimed to write an objective account - 'history' is really too grandiose a title - from the perspective of one who was present at, and involved in, all of the Council and Executive Committee meetings of the Society, with the exception of one meeting in Cracow. As is well known, proximity to events does not necessarily ensure freedom from prejudice in reporting - and so others must judge the degree of objectivity here achieved; notwithstanding the aim of impartiality, the author has allowed himself the liberty of an occasional subjective comment where it seemed to be particularly apposite.

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This article will tell you about the history of Japanese Mechanical Calculating Machines, mainly those of manual type. A time table is also provided.
Through this article you will have the opportunity to see a typical example of the industrial life cycle including:
Beginning stage: An innovative engineer invents a new technology which starts a new industry.
Growing stage: Many companies get into the new industry under a patent license or after the patent expires. The market is expanded.
Saturation stage: The market becomes saturated, many companies disappear after being merged by larger companies or fail due to the hard competition. A few big companies control the market.
New beginning stage: An innovative engineer invents a new technology.
This life cycle is repeated in many type of industries. You can learn where is your business now within such cycle.

John Knopfmacher- A Mathematical Biography
Compiled by Doron Lubinsky
John Peter Louis Knopfmacher was born in Johannesburg in 1937. He
attended primary school at Yeoville Boy's School, and high school
at Athlone Boys' High. He majored in Mathematics and Applied
Mathematics in his B.Sc. at Witwatersrand University, scoring
firsts in both, followed by firsts in two successive honours
degrees in Mathematics and Applied Mathematics. In recognition of
his academic merit, he was awarded the Rusterholz Memorial Scholarship
for his M.Sc. and then the J.H. Hofmeyr Postgraduate Scholarship to
complete his Ph.D.

This site contains HTML-versions of some original documents related to the early history of calculators.
For more information on the history of calculators, see Erez Kaplan's Calculating Machines, the pre-HP section of Dave Hicks' Museum of HP Calculators, James Redin's Vintage Calculators and Andrew Davie's Slide Rule Trading Post (and their lists of links).
If you are interested in the more recent history of computers, check out the document collections of Ed Thelen and the Computer History Museum.