Physical Sciences

El origen de la Sociedad Mexicana de Historia de la Ciencia y la Tecnología (SMHCT) se encuentra asociado al Primer Coloquio Mexicano de Historia de la Ciencia (1963), organizado por el doctor Enrique Beltrán. Después de esta reunión, un grupo de historiadores de la ciencia encabezados por el doctor Beltrán y el doctor José Joaquín Izquierdo fundaron la SMHCT en 1964. De sus labores destaca la publicación de cinco volúmenes de la revista Anales de la SMHCT entre 1965 y 1979, y dos de la Memoria del Primer Coloquio.

This work is one of the most influential in history. The famous
phrase, "COGITO ERGO SUM" (I think, therefore I am) is a central
theme. Descartes' beliefs on that dual nature of mind and body,
and his emphasis on the role of doubt in all inquiry, formed the
basis for centuries of science and social thought.
This etext was created by Ilana and Greg Newby. They used a Mac
IIci and Apple One Flatbed Scanner donated by Apple. Caere text
scanning and character recognition software (OmniPage) was used.
Greg is a professor in the U. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in
the Grad. School of Library and Information Science. Ilana is a
reference librarian at the Urbana Free Library. Thanks to Apple
and Caere for their donations and to the Computer Service Office
of the University of Illinois for their unofficial support.

Edward O. Wilson is the founder of Sociobiology and is widely regarded to be the world's most famous living scientist. Recently, Wilson seized the word "consilience" from deep within the history of science and reintroduced it into our language by emblazoning it across the cover of his latest best-seller, Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge. In this book, Wilson offers to unify the "two cultures" of literature and science for once and forever, as "the way to renew the crumbling structure of the liberal arts" (12). It is an offer many of my colleagues find attractive, for Wilson carries enormous authority both as a natural scientist and as an eloquent speaker for the environmentally appealing concepts of "biophilia" and "biodiversity." He has well-nigh captured the Thoreau Society: for example, in June 1998 he joined Bill and Hillary Clinton as a featured guest at the opening of the Thoreau Institute, delivering a brief address which has been reprinted as the Preface to the Thoreau Society's collection of Thoreau's writings on science, which I edited and entitled Material Faith.

he Christian church has had a continuing concern for the for the relation between God, man, and nature. Western science emerged in cultures dominated by Christianity. The question arises how Christianity influenced attitudes toward nature and the practice of what was later to be called science. It is also important to discover the ways that an increasing knowledge of nature has influenced Christian thought.
Our keynote paper by English, Chemist-Historian Colin Russell aptly focuses on the value of history in understanding toady's science/faith concerns. American historians of science David Lindberg and Ronald Numbers offer a seminal statement on the 'conflict thesis' in Beyond War and Peace: A Reappraisal of the Encounter between Christianity and Science.

The Agnostic Christmas by Robert Ingersoll (1892)
Becoming a Freethinker and a Scientist by Albert Einstein (Off Site)
The Bigotry Of Colleges by Robert Ingersoll
The Brooklyn Divines by Robert Ingersoll (1883)
Conversation on Religion and Antisemitism by Albert Einstein (Off Site)
Crumbling Creeds by Robert Ingersoll
The Development of Religion by Albert Einstein (Off Site)
The Foundations Of Faith by Robert Ingersoll
Effect Of The World's Fair On The Human Race by Robert Ingersoll
Note About Einstein's use of the word "God"; Albert Einstein (Off Site)
On Prayer, Purpose, and the Soul by Albert Einstein (Off Site)
Religion and Science: Irreconcilable? by Albert Einstein (Off Site)

Stephen William Hawking was born on 8 January 1942 (300 years after the death of Galileo) in Oxford, England. His parents' house was in north London, but during the second world war Oxford was considered a safer place to have babies. When he was eight, his family moved to St Albans, a town about 20 miles north of London. At eleven Stephen went to St Albans School, and then on to University College, Oxford, his father's old college. Stephen wanted to do Mathematics, although his father would have preferred medicine. Mathematics was not available at University College, so he did Physics instead. After three years and not very much work he was awarded a first class honours degree in Natural Science.

Despite his relative obscurity, the greatest genius of all time may have been Nikola Tesla. With over 700 patents in his name, Tesla shaped our current technological landscape more than any other individual. How, then, did this great man end up dying destitute and in obscurity? Did Tesla's extraordinary mind decline into insanity... or was he simply far, far ahead of his time?

In this epic-length series, ParaScope takes a look at the early life and bizarre eccentricities of the great inventor, and his hard-fought first victory with the alternating current engine.

This transcript of the classic talk that Richard Feynman gave on December 29th 1959 at the annual meeting of the American Physical Society at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) was first published in the February 1960 issue of Caltech's Engineering and Science, which owns the copyright. It has been made available on the web at http://www.zyvex.com/nanotech/feynman.html with their kind permission.

A great American printer and publisher, author, inventor, scientist and diplomat, Benjamin Franklin stands in the front rank of the people who built the United States. He is the only person to sign the four key documents in American history: the Declaration of Independence, the Treaty of Alliance with France, the Treaty of Peace with Great Britain, and the Constitution of the United States. He was the leader of his day in the study of electricity, and is one of the most revered and beloved figures in American history.