Hobbes v. Boyle: Who Decides Scientific Facts

Hobbes v. Boyle: Who Decides Scientific Facts

In the 1600s, philoso­pher Thomas Hobbes and exper­i­men­tal sci­en­tist Robert Boyle clashed over a strange new machine, the air pump, and a dan­ger­ous ques­tion: when should soci­ety trust sci­en­tif­ic claims, and who gets to decide? Their dis­agree­ment wasn’t just about experiments … 

Washington, Adams, and Smallpox: An MHS Interview

Washington, Adams, and Smallpox: An MHS Interview

PODCAST TRANSCRIPTS [Gabrielle Bir­chak] I believe in the Unit­ed States. I believe in our resilience and I believe that this exper­i­ment that is known as Amer­i­ca can do so much bet­ter if we trust sci­ence. And after today, I hope you have the same rev­e­la­tion. Today’s very spe­cial episode includes an inter­view with the Direc­tor of Research at the Massachusetts

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Math, Logic and Paradoxes Explained

PODCAST TRAN­SCRIPTS­Does Math = Log­ic? Wel­come to Math, Sci­ence, His­to­ry, the pod­cast where we uncov­er the fas­ci­nat­ing sto­ries behind the num­bers, the equa­tions, and the dis­cov­er­ies that have shaped our world. I’m Gabrielle Bir­chak and today, we’re div­ing deep into the role of log­ic and argu­men­ta­tion in math­e­mat­ics. How do math­e­mati­cians prove their the­o­ries? What makes an argu­ment in math sound

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Gerard Desargue: A Genius Who Revolutionized Geometry

Gerard Desargue: A Genius Who Revolutionized Geometry

Lyon, France, was a bustling city in the late six­teenth cen­tu­ry. It was a hub for com­merce, bank­ing, and intel­lec­tu­al dis­course. And it was here, in 1591, that Gérard Desar­gues was born into a promi­nent fam­i­ly. His father, Éti­enne Desar­gues, was a mag­is­trate and a city offi­cial, which meant that young Gérard grew up in an envi­ron­ment sur­round­ed by influential

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Transgender Pioneers: Dr. James Barry and Angela Clayton

Transgender Pioneers: Dr. James Barry and Angela Clayton

Though it is Women’s His­to­ry Month today, I’m writ­ing about two incred­i­ble trans­gen­der indi­vid­u­als. First, Dr. James Bar­ry is his­tor­i­cal­ly sig­nif­i­cant because of his con­tri­bu­tions to med­i­cine and courage in liv­ing as a gen­der-non­­con­­for­m­ing indi­vid­ual dur­ing the eigh­teenth and nine­teenth cen­turies. Then, Angela Clay­ton, a trans­gen­der woman, was a tes­ta­ment to the pow­er of courage, bril­liance, and the unwa­ver­ing pursuit

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Fibonacci and His Rabbits

Fibonacci and His Rabbits

What do rab­bits, nature’s cutest fluff­balls, have to do with one of the most famous pat­terns in math­e­mat­ics? Well, imag­ine this: a sin­gle pair of rab­bits start multiplying—just two at first, but soon, the field is hop­ping with Rab­bit DeNiros, Luke Sky­hop­pers, Mar­i­lyn Bun-roes, and Jes­si­cas. Before you know it, you’re ask­ing your­self: How many rab­bits are there?’ And boom—you’ve

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