An instrumental collection
October 2019
Seventy-five years ago, R.S. Whipple donated an astonishing haul of antique scientific objects and books to the University of Cambridge. To mark the anniversary, the Whipple Museum is holding a special exhibition.
Comparing AI with the Manhattan Project
August 2019
In an article for 3 Quarks Daily, Marta Halina and Joe Martin consider whether the current development of artificial intelligence is analogous to the Manhattan Project:
Five ways AI is not like the Manhattan Project (and one way it is)
Lauren Kassell's Inaugural Lecture
June 2019
Professor Lauren Kassell gave her Inaugural Lecture, 'You, Me and the Moon: Magic, Medicine and the History of Science', on 28 June.
Rausing Lecture
May 2019
Ruth Oldenziel, Professor in the History of Technology at Eindhoven University of Technology, gave the Twenty-Fourth Annual Hans Rausing Lecture on 16 May.
Her lecture, 'Whose history of technology? Path dependencies, contested modernities, and pockets of persistence', took the bicycle as a focus for understanding the social history of technology.
Casebooks official release
May 2019
The Casebooks Digital Edition has been launched, together with a site showing selected cases in full.
All 80,000 cases recorded by Simon Forman, Richard Napier and their associates between 1596 and 1634 can be browsed and searched.
The Guardian and BBC News reported on the launch.
Casebooks game launched
May 2019
Astrologaster, a comedy video game inspired by the work of the Casebooks Project, is available now on iOS and Steam.
Created by Nyamyam, an independent game developer, Astrologaster is set in London at the end of the 16th century. Players take on the role of Simon Forman – unlicensed doctor of astrology, astronomy and physick – and use his astrological methods to treat his patients.
Whipple Museum reopens
May 2019
The Whipple Museum has reopened after 10 months of renovation work.
Skylights have been replaced, lighting improved and flooring overhauled.
The reopening has been covered by the Cambridge Independent and BBC News.
Congratulations to Catherine Eagleton
April 2019
Dr Catherine Eagleton has been appointed Director of Museums at the University of St Andrews. She will manage two museums – the University Museum and the Bell Pettigrew Museum of Natural History – and be responsible for the university's extensive collections.
Katie completed her PhD in Cambridge HPS in 2004, having previously been an undergraduate and MPhil student in the Department, and she also worked in the Whipple Museum. She has held positions at the Science Museum, British Museum and British Library in London, and at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington DC.
BSHS Postgraduate Conference
April 2019
More than 100 postgraduate students from across the UK and further afield took part in the 2019 British Society for the History of Science Postgraduate Conference, which was held in the Department on 10–12 April.
As well as 87 panel sessions, the conference featured a keynote lecture by Dr Sujit Sivasundaram, guided tours of the Whipple Museum's Astronomy and Empire exhibition, and a conference dinner at Gonville and Caius College.