Thony Christie

Interesting senior astronomy role going here @oxfordphysics.bsky.social for a two-year senior research post leading the growing Breakthrough Listen SETI effort. Happy to chat to anyone interested: my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru... 🔭 👽

The @exeter.ac.uk smallpox project has launched! Flemming's inaugural blogpost poses the central questions: what did Galen understand by the terms anthrax, erusipelas & herpēs? The project will give a model for putting ancient & modern disease concepts into dialogue. ccehexeter.org/anthrax-erus...

Another story impossible to imagine in any other administration: the president's son goes hunting with a Russian criminal who is part of Putin's security entourage

Well the first person to describe measles was Abu Bakr al-Razi, and he knew more about the disease than RFK Jr despite living >1000 years ago 🤷🏻‍♂️ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Bak...

Michael Atiyah 🇪🇬: Fields Medal 1966 (also Abel Prize 2004), for K-theory. Ahmed Zewail 🇪🇬: Nobel for Chemistry 1999, for his work on femtochemistry. Omar M. Yaghi 🇯🇴: Wolf Prize 2018, Nobel for Chemistry 2025, for his work on reticular chemistry Naguib Mahfouz 🇪🇬: Nobel for literature 1988

Formidable champion of women in medical profession: Elizabeth Garrett Anderson (1836-1917) Britain's first qualified woman physician & surgeon, co-founder & Dean of London School of Medicine for Women, first female Dean of British medical school. Portrait: John Singer Sargent 1900, NPG London

Don't forget to sign up for "The many faces of Sans Souci: Black watchmakers in the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Caribbean" if you're keen to join the friendly & welcoming London Group of Historical Geographers in person or online for this Tuesday's Institute of Historical Research seminar.

Director emerita Lorraine Daston in conversation with @histphilosophy.bsky.social​ on the first episode of “Pages of History.” They discuss the surprising parallels between #Philology & #Astronomy, & why philology is one of humanity’s oldest empirical sciences. 📜 🔗 https://bit.ly/4k4GP7K #HistSci

Not a minute too soon

ESA/Webb (@esa.int) images (Nov 25, 2024) A side-by-side comparison of Hubble and Webb’s views of the Sombrero Galaxy highlights the differences in mid-infrared and visible light observations. esawebb.org/images/weic2427b/

My friend Patrick Prominski and I are working on an edited volume on how now-discredited ideas involving biology (widely construed) were used in scientific fiction from c. 1825-1925. If you have any ideas for anything even broadly along those lines, please pitch them, we'd love to see them!

"Chris was generous with his time and expertise. He was a mentor to countless medievalists, historians of all periods, and scholars in other disciplines too, especially archaeology. He listened and he heard, and made real conversation happen." #Skystorians

There is a ninth level of hell.

#OTD 24 October 1851, British astronomer William Lassell discovered Ariel and Umbriel, moons of Uranus 🧪 🔭 @sci.esa.int en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariel_(... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umbriel...

C’est avec plaisir que j’annonce la parution de mon livre sur Simon Stevin (1548-1620), ingénieur mathématicien marchand prof étudiant courtisan magicien… Il y a de l’histoire des maths mais pas que, traitée notamment via l’histoire des techniques classiques-garnier.com/simon-stevin...

Diving into a book (interpreted by a flying fish in 1575).

When I was a child thousands of people died needlessly every year because seat belts were not compulsory.

Friends, it's Friday. You deserve a little treat. An eel history treat. So enjoy this 12th C. image of a medieval hulk. It may be the earliest illustration of one that we have. But ALSO there's a saucy upside-down eel in the water. And that's the important thing! 🗃️🧪

The Smithsonian Museum Conservation Institute is hiring a Preventive Conservator Fellow to work on questions around environmental controls for museum collections. trustcareers.si.edu/en/postings/...

Bible chronologist, James Ussher (1581–1656) Archbishop of Armagh dated the creation of the world to 6 pm on the 22 October 4004 BCE, which is actually the start of the 23rd because he was using the Jewish calendar. Total folly or rational calculation? thonyc.wordpress.com/2009/10/25/i...

UK friends... I've learned that A Pox on Fools is very hard to find in high street bookshops. If, by chance, you think combatting anti-vaccine advocacy is important, this book helps. And you can by asking your local libraries and bookshops to stock it. (And maybe even order a copy for yourself!)

Absolut wilde Story einfach…

🌍 The latest issue of the BJHS is out! Guest-edited by Matthias Heymann and Dania Achermann, this special issue explores the epistemology and politics of climate science through 6 historical case studies. bshs.org.uk/bjhs-septemb... Stay tuned for our spotlight posts!

Research Reels: 1 publication—3 minutes🏅 Postdoc Scholar Stefanie Rudolf presents her forthcoming article “Under the Sole: Rethinking Shoe Symbolism in Arabic and the Ancient Near East,” exploring how shoes have symbolized authority and social hierarchy across cultures. 👞 🔗 https://bit.ly/3WmnNjs

Just a reminder that I'll be talking about 'Darwin's Queer Theory' at Oxford's Museum of Natural History in two weeks' time. I'll be signing copies of QUEER ORIGINS, too. I'd love to see you there . . . 🌈📚🦋🗃️ #histsci #sts #queerhistory #Oxford @morethanadodo.bsky.social @yalebooks.bsky.social

Bible chronologist, James Ussher (1581–1656) Archbishop of Armagh dated the creation of the world to 6 pm on the 22 October 4004 BCE, which is actually the start of the 23rd because he was using the Jewish calendar. Total folly or rational calculation? thonyc.wordpress.com/2009/10/25/i...

The Ambassadors, by Hans Holbein the Younger, dated to Good Friday 1533 (annus horribilis). Painted in London, it portrays French envoys Jean de Dinteville & Georges Selve. Known for vanitas anamorphic skull, array of celestial & terrestrial objects & lute with broken string. National Gallery 1/2

📚🇩🇪 ‘Blackness in Interwar Germany: Jazz, Race and the Making of the Third Reich by @stefanihrig.bsky.social publishes today! The first comprehensive account of Blackness in Germany, spanning the late Empire, the Roaring Twenties & the aftermath of WWII. 25% off w/code Ihrig25 👉 tinyurl.com/yc5fydat

Available as open access, learn more about Christine Slobogin's Putting Plastic Surgery on Paper in this video blog post ➡️ buff.ly/mm9YOas #openaccess #OAWeek #BookSky @slobogin.bsky.social

Solid metaphor for the entire administration, honestly

Wittenberg professor of mathematics, Erasmus Reinhold, who calculated the first planetary tables based on Copernicus' De Revolutionibus, was born 22 October 1511 #histsci thonyc.wordpress.com/2012/10/23/t...

Illuminations by Evrard d'Espinque for a circa 1480 French translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus' 13th-century De Proprietatibus Rerum. More marvellous maps from the manuscript here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/despinque-anglicus-illuminations

"Trump thinks" is an oxymoron

Solar farms in the Gobi are cutting dust storms. A study of 17 farms found the panels slow surface winds by more than 9% and make soil up to 17% less erodible, reducing springtime dust by about 352,000 tonnes a month. RenewEconomy buff.ly/bambHT8 #ShareGoodNewsToo

Marjorie Mallik née Oates 1st female student @SheffMechEng taking degree in 1940s as mature student. Active member of @wes1919.bsky.social in 1960s, organised translators for 2nd International Conference for Women Engineers & Scientists in 1967 b. #OTD 21 Oct 1925 www.sheffield.ac.uk/mecheng/1.71...

New Review Article! Jo Edge @hagenilda.bsky.social on 'Magic, Witchcraft and the Occult in Pre-modern England' academic.oup.com/ehr/advance-...

The importance of knowing perspective: satirical engraving of perspective absurdities; by William Hogarth, innovative English painter, engraver, satirist (1697-1764).

Wittenberg professor of mathematics, Erasmus Reinhold, who calculated the first planetary tables based on Copernicus' De Revolutionibus, was born 22 October 1511 #histsci thonyc.wordpress.com/2012/10/23/t...

The Reduction Compass from Pompeii to Leonardo and Beyond thonyc.wordpress.com/2026/10/21/t...

The hobbit book is finally real and you can preorder it, which feels completely wild. Coming August 2027.

On 25 October 1786 the physicist Georg Christoph Lichtenberg happened upon the aspect ratio for the perfect piece of paper. ✍️ Mathew Lyons buff.ly/YOV3XMW

@rhiggitt.bsky.social one for you?

The FitMA team is (still) looking for a PhD-candidate with good Latin, a philosophical background, and a healthy curiosity for medieval manuscripts and digital editions. Don't procrastinate to apply! We might be looking for you! www.kuleuven.be/personeel/jo... #philsky #philosophysky #medievalsky

Even if Trump lies all the time, he has been very steady in his position on Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine: 1. He has persistently supported Putin & Russia. 2. He has always blamed Ukraine & Zelensky, the victim. 3. He has never protested against Russia's terror bombing. /1