# kb

id: scientific-temper-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_temper-0.md
category: reference
title: Scientific temper
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_temper
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:45:48.591816+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: scientific-temper-20260505-0
summary:
The term scientific temper is broadly defined as "a modest open-minded temper—develop new light, new knowledge, new experiments, even when their results are unfavourable to preconceived opinions and long-cherished theories." It is a way of life (defined in this context as an individual and social process of thinking and acting) which uses the scientific method and which may, consequently, include questioning, observing physical reality, testing, hypothesizing, analyzing, and communicating (not necessarily in that order). Discussion, argument and analysis are vital parts of scientific temper. It aims to inculcate the values of scientific thinking, appreciate scientific development, and drive away superstition, religious bigotry, and all forms of pseudo-science. == Development of Scientific Temperament in World == Scientific temper as a notion existed for a long time, and the origin of the term is unknown. The exact terminology became frequently used in the mid-19th century. A Jesuit scholar Thomas Aloysius Hughes gave a short definition in 1893, saying, "A scientific temper... means a scrupulous and rigid exactness... [which] is the outcome of exact science." In his Conway Memorial Lecture in 1922, Bertrand Russell used the example of Albert Einstein to explain the meaning of scientific temper:We have had in recent years a


id: scientific-theory-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_theory-0.md
category: reference
title: Scientific theory
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_theory
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:45:49.802572+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: scientific-theory-20260505-0
summary:
A scientific theory is an explanation of an aspect of the natural world that can be or that has been repeatedly tested and has corroborating evidence in accordance with the scientific method, using accepted protocols of observation, measurement, and evaluation of results. Where possible, theories are tested under controlled conditions in an experiment. In circumstances not amenable to experimental testing, theories are evaluated through principles of abductive reasoning. Established scientific theories have withstood rigorous scrutiny and embody scientific knowledge. A scientific theory differs from a scientific fact: a fact is an observation, while a theory connects and explains multiple observations. Furthermore, a theory is expected to make predictions which could be confirmed or refuted with additional observations. Stephen Jay Gould wrote that: "...facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts." A theory differs from a scientific law in that a law is an empirical description of a relationship between facts and/or other laws. For example, Newton's Law of Gravity is a mathematical equation that can be used to predict the attraction between bodies, but it is not a theory


id: scientific-theory-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_theory-1.md
category: reference
title: Scientific theory
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_theory
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:45:49.802572+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: scientific-theory-20260505-0
summary:
It can be subjected to minor adaptations to account for new data that do not fit it perfectly, as they are discovered, thus increasing its predictive capability over time. It is among the most parsimonious explanations, economical in the use of proposed entities or explanatory steps as per Occam's razor. This is because for each accepted explanation of a phenomenon, there may be an extremely large, perhaps even incomprehensible, number of possible and more complex alternatives, because one can always burden failing explanations with ad hoc hypotheses to prevent them from being falsified; therefore, simpler theories are preferable to more complex ones because they are more testable. === Definitions from scientific organizations === The United States National Academy of Sciences defines scientific theories as follows: The formal scientific definition of theory is quite different from the everyday meaning of the word. It refers to a comprehensive explanation of some aspect of nature that is supported by a vast body of evidence. Many scientific theories are so well established that no new evidence is likely to alter them substantially. For example, no new evidence will demonstrate that the Earth does not orbit around the Sun (heliocentric theory), or that living things


id: scientific-theory-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_theory-2.md
category: reference
title: Scientific theory
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_theory
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:45:49.802572+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: scientific-theory-20260505-0
summary:
== Modification and improvement == If experimental results contrary to a theory's predictions are observed, scientists first evaluate whether the experimental design was sound, and if so they confirm the results by independent replication. A search for potential improvements to the theory then begins. Solutions may require minor or major changes to the theory, or none at all if a satisfactory explanation is found within the theory's existing framework. Over time, as successive modifications build on top of each other, theories consistently improve and greater predictive accuracy is achieved. Since each new version of a theory (or a completely new theory) must have more predictive and explanatory power than the last, scientific knowledge consistently becomes more accurate over time. If modifications to the theory or other explanations seem to be insufficient to account for the new results, then a new theory may be required. Since scientific knowledge is usually durable, this occurs much less commonly than modification. Furthermore, until such a theory is proposed and accepted, the previous theory will be retained. This is because it is still the best available explanation for many other phenomena, as verified by its predictive power in other contexts. For example, it has been


id: scientific-theory-20260505-3
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_theory-3.md
category: reference
title: Scientific theory
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_theory
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:45:49.802572+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: scientific-theory-20260505-0
summary:
=== Theories and facts === A scientific theory does not turn into a fact. Scientific facts are observations that theories organize and explain. As new facts appear, a theory may be revised or new theories may emerge that encompass these additional facts. While American vernacular speech uses "theory" as similar to a "guess" in opposition to a "fact", in science the word "theory" means a model that is expected to explain a wide range of facts. == About theories == === Theories as axioms === The logical positivists thought of scientific theories as statements in a formal language. First-order logic is an example of a formal language. The logical positivists envisaged a similar scientific language. In addition to scientific theories, the language also included observation sentences ("the sun rises in the east"), definitions, and mathematical statements. The phenomena explained by the theories, if they could not be directly observed by the senses (for example, atoms and radio waves), were treated as theoretical concepts. In this view, theories function as axioms: predicted observations are derived from the theories much like theorems are derived in Euclidean geometry. However, the predictions are then tested against reality to verify the predictions, and the "axioms"


id: scientific-theory-20260505-4
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_theory-4.md
category: reference
title: Scientific theory
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_theory
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:45:49.802572+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: scientific-theory-20260505-0
summary:
...it is incorrect to speak of an assumption as either true or false, since there is no way of proving it to be either (If there were, it would no longer be an assumption). It is better to consider assumptions as either useful or useless, depending on whether deductions made from them correspond to reality...Since we must start somewhere, we must have assumptions, but at least let us have as few assumptions as possible. Certain assumptions are necessary for all empirical claims (e.g. the assumption that reality exists). However, theories do not generally make assumptions in the conventional sense (statements accepted without evidence). While assumptions are often incorporated during the formation of new theories, these are either supported by evidence (such as from previously existing theories) or the evidence is produced in the course of validating the theory. This may be as simple as observing that the theory makes accurate predictions, which is evidence that any assumptions made at the outset are correct or approximately correct under the conditions tested. Conventional assumptions, without evidence, may be used if the theory is only intended to apply when the assumption is valid (or approximately valid). For example, the special theory of relativity


id: scientific-theory-20260505-5
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_theory-5.md
category: reference
title: Scientific theory
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_theory
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:45:49.802572+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: scientific-theory-20260505-0
summary:
It is easy to obtain confirmations, or verifications, for nearly every theory—if we look for confirmations. Confirmations should count only if they are the result of risky predictions; that is to say, if, unenlightened by the theory in question, we should have expected an event which was incompatible with the theory—an event which would have refuted the theory. Every "good" scientific theory is a prohibition: it forbids certain things from happening. The more a theory forbids, the better it is. A theory which is not refutable by any conceivable event is non-scientific. Irrefutability is not a virtue of a theory (as people often think) but a vice. Every genuine test of a theory is an attempt to falsify it or to refute it. Testability is falsifiability; but there are degrees of testability: some theories are more testable, more exposed to refutation, than others; they take, as it were, greater risks. Confirming evidence should not count except when it is the result of a genuine test of the theory, and this means that it can be presented as a serious but unsuccessful attempt to falsify the theory. (I now speak in such cases of "corroborating evidence".) Some genuinely testable theories, when


id: scientific-theory-20260505-6
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_theory-6.md
category: reference
title: Scientific theory
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_theory
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:45:49.802572+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: scientific-theory-20260505-0
summary:
A theory is something other than myself. It may be set out on paper as a system of rules, and it is the more truly a theory the more completely it can be put down in such terms. Mathematical theory reaches the highest perfection in this respect. But even a geographical map fully embodies in itself a set of strict rules for finding one's way through a region of otherwise uncharted experience. Indeed, all theory may be regarded as a kind of map extended over space and time. A scientific theory can also be thought of as a book that captures the fundamental information about the world, a book that must be researched, written, and shared. In 1623, Galileo Galilei wrote: Philosophy [i.e. physics] is written in this grand book—I mean the universe—which stands continually open to our gaze, but it cannot be understood unless one first learns to comprehend the language and interpret the characters in which it is written. It is written in the language of mathematics, and its characters are triangles, circles, and other geometrical figures, without which it is humanly impossible to understand a single word of it; without these, one is wandering around in a


id: scientism-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientism-0.md
category: reference
title: Scientism
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientism
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:45:51.099471+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: scientism-20260505-0
summary:
Scientism is the belief that science and the scientific method are the best or only way to render truth about the world and reality. While the term was defined originally to mean "methods and attitudes typical of or attributed to natural scientists", some scholars, as well as political and religious leaders, have also adopted it as a pejorative term with the meaning "an exaggerated trust in the efficacy of the methods of natural science applied to all areas of investigation (as in philosophy, the social sciences, and the humanities)". == Overview == Francis Bacon has been viewed by some scholars as an early proponent of scientism, but this is a modern assertion as Bacon was a devout Anglican, writing in his Essays, "a little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion." With respect to the philosophy of science, the term scientism frequently implies a critique of the more extreme expressions of logical positivism and has been used by social scientists such as Friedrich Hayek, philosophers of science such as Karl Popper, and philosophers such as Mary Midgley, the later Hilary Putnam, and Tzvetan Todorov to describe (for example) the dogmatic endorsement


id: scientism-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientism-1.md
category: reference
title: Scientism
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientism
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:45:51.099471+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: scientism-20260505-0
summary:
It is used to criticize a totalizing opinion of science as if it were capable of describing all reality and knowledge, or as if it were the only true method to acquire knowledge about reality and the nature of things; It is used, often pejoratively, to denote violations by which the theories and methods of one (scientific) discipline are applied inappropriately to another (scientific or non-scientific) discipline and its domain. An example of this second usage is to term as scientism any attempt to claim science as the only or primary source of human values (a traditional domain of ethics) or as the source of meaning and purpose (a traditional domain of religion and related worldviews). The term scientism was popularized by F. A. Hayek, who defined it in 1942 as the "slavish imitation of the method and language of Science". Mathematician Alexander Grothendieck, in his 1971 essay "The New Universal Church", characterized scientism as a religion-like ideology that advocates scientific reductionism, scientific authoritarianism, political technocracy and technological salvation, while denying the epistemological validity of feelings and experiences such as love, emotion, beauty and fulfillment. He predicted that "in coming years, the chief political dividing line will fall less and


id: scientism-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientism-2.md
category: reference
title: Scientism
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientism
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:45:51.099471+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: scientism-20260505-0
summary:
== Relevance to debates about science and religion == Both religious and non-religious scholars have applied the term scientism to individuals associated with New Atheism. Theologian John Haught argued that philosopher Daniel Dennett and other New Atheists subscribe to a belief system of scientific naturalism, which includes the dogma that "only nature, including humans and our creations, is real: that God does not exist; and that science alone can give us complete and reliable knowledge of reality." Haught argued that this belief system is self-refuting since it requires its adherents to assent to beliefs that violate its own stated requirements for knowledge. Christian philosopher Peter Williams argued in 2013 that it is only by conflating science with scientism that New Atheists feel qualified to "pontificate on metaphysical issues". Daniel Dennett responded to religious criticism of his 2006 book Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon by saying that accusations of scientism "[are] an all-purpose, wild-card smear ... When someone puts forward a scientific theory that [religious critics] really don't like, they just try to discredit it as 'scientism'. But when it comes to facts, and explanations of facts, science is the only game in town". Non-religious scholars have also


id: scientism-20260505-3
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientism-3.md
category: reference
title: Scientism
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientism
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:45:51.099471+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: scientism-20260505-0
summary:
Thomas M. Lessl argued that religious themes persist in what he terms scientism, the public rhetoric of science. There are two methods of describing this idea of scientism: the epistemological method (the assumption that the scientific method trumps other ways of knowing) and the ontological method (that the rational mind represents the world and both operate in knowable ways). According to Lessl, the ontological method is an attempt to "resolve the conflict between rationalism and skepticism". Lessl also argued that without scientism, there would not be a scientific culture. == Rationalization and modernity == In the introduction to his collected works on the sociology of religion, Max Weber asked why "the scientific, the artistic, the political, or the economic development [elsewhere] ... did not enter upon that path of rationalization which is peculiar to the Occident?" According to the German social theorist Jürgen Habermas, "For Weber, the intrinsic (that is, not merely contingent) relationship between modernity and what he called 'Occidental rationalism' was still self-evident." Weber described a process of rationalisation, disenchantment and the "disintegration of religious world views" that resulted in modern secular societies and capitalism. "Modernization" was introduced as a technical term only in the 1950s. It is


id: secondary-research-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secondary_research-0.md
category: reference
title: Secondary research
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secondary_research
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:45:52.254825+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: secondary-research-20260505-0
summary:
Secondary research involves the summary, collation and/or synthesis of existing research. Secondary research is contrasted with primary research in that primary research involves the generation of data, whereas secondary research uses primary research sources as a source of data for analysis. A notable marker of primary research is the inclusion of a "methods" section, where the authors describe how the data was generated. Common examples of secondary research include textbooks, encyclopedias, news articles, review articles, and meta analyses. When conducting secondary research, authors may draw data from published academic papers, government documents, statistical databases, and historical records. == Fields == The term is widely used in fields such as history, legal research, market research, and Wikipedia editing. The principal methodology in health secondary research is the systematic review, commonly using meta-analytic statistical techniques. Other methods of synthesis, like realist reviews and meta-narrative reviews, have been developed in the 21st century. Secondary market research includes the reuse by a second party of any data collected from a first party such as telephone interviews or surveys. Secondary market research can be broken up into two categories: information from internal sources such as an agency or company, and information from external sources held


id: selection-bias-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selection_bias-0.md
category: reference
title: Selection bias
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selection_bias
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:45:53.377239+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: selection-bias-20260505-0
summary:
Selection bias is the bias introduced by the selection of individuals, groups, or data for analysis in such a way that the association between exposure and outcome among those selected for analysis differs from the association among those eligible. It typically occurs when researchers condition on a factor that is influenced both by the exposure and the outcome (or their causes), creating a false association between them. Selection bias encompasses several forms of bias, including differential loss-to-follow-up, incidence–prevalence bias, volunteer bias, healthy-worker bias, and nonresponse bias. == Types of bias == === Sampling bias === Sampling bias is systematic error due to a non-random sample of a population, causing some members of the population to be less likely to be included than others, resulting in a biased sample, defined as a statistical sample of a population (or non-human factors) in which all participants are not equally balanced or objectively represented. It is mostly classified as a subtype of selection bias, sometimes specifically termed sample selection bias, but some classify it as a separate type of bias. A distinction of sampling bias (albeit not a universally accepted one) is that it undermines the external validity of a test (the ability of


id: selection-bias-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selection_bias-1.md
category: reference
title: Selection bias
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selection_bias
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:45:53.377239+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: selection-bias-20260505-0
summary:
=== Observer selection === Philosopher Nick Bostrom has argued that data are filtered not only by study design and measurement, but by the necessary precondition that there has to be someone doing a study. In situations where the existence of the observer or the study is correlated with the data, observation selection effects occur, and anthropic reasoning is required. An example is the past impact event record of Earth: if large impacts cause mass extinctions and ecological disruptions precluding the evolution of intelligent observers for long periods, no one will observe any evidence of large impacts in the recent past (since they would have prevented intelligent observers from evolving). Hence there is a potential bias in the impact record of Earth. Astronomical existential risks might similarly be underestimated due to selection bias, and an anthropic correction has to be introduced. === Volunteer bias === Self-selection bias or a volunteer bias in studies offer further threats to the validity of a study as these participants may have intrinsically different characteristics from the target population of the study. Studies have shown that volunteers tend to come from a higher social standing than from a lower socio-economic background. Furthermore, another study shows that


id: self-experimentation-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-experimentation-0.md
category: reference
title: Self-experimentation
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-experimentation
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:45:58.269443+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: self-experimentation-20260505-0
summary:
Self-experimentation refers to single-subject research in which the experimenter conducts the experiment on themself. Usually, this means that a single person is the designer, operator, subject, analyst, and user or reporter of the experiment. Self-experimentation is an example of citizen science since it can be done by patients or people interested in their own health and well-being, as both research subjects and self-experimenters. It is also referred to as personal science or N-of-1 research. == Biology and medicine == Human scientific self-experimentation principally (though not necessarily) falls into the fields of medicine and psychology. Self-experimentation has a long and well-documented history in medicine which continues to the present day. For example, after failed attempts to infect piglets in 1984, Barry Marshall drank a petri dish of Helicobacter pylori from a patient, and soon developed gastritis, achlorhydria, stomach discomfort, nausea, vomiting, and halitosis. The results were published in 1985 in the Medical Journal of Australia, and is among the most cited articles from the journal. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2005. Evaluations have been presented in the context of clinical trials and program evaluations. == Psychology == In psychology, the best-known self-experiments are the memory


id: self-experimentation-in-medicine-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-experimentation_in_medicine-0.md
category: reference
title: Self-experimentation in medicine
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-experimentation_in_medicine
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:45:59.502626+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: self-experimentation-in-medicine-20260505-0
summary:
Self-experimentation refers to scientific experimentation in which the experimenter conducts the experiment on themself. Often this means that the designer, operator, subject, analyst, and user or reporter of the experiment are all the same. Self-experimentation has a long and well-documented history in medicine which continues to the present. Some of these experiments have been very valuable and shed new and often unexpected insights into different areas of medicine. There are many motivations for self-experiment. These include the wish to get results quickly and avoid the need for a formal organisational structure, to take the ethical stance of taking the same risk as volunteers, or just a desire to do good for humanity. Other ethical issues include whether a researcher should self-experiment because another volunteer would not get the same benefit as the researcher will get, and the question of whether informed consent of a volunteer can truly be given by those outside a research program. A number of distinguished scientists have undertaken self-experimentation, including at least five Nobel laureates; in several cases, the prize was awarded for findings the self-experimentation made possible. Many experiments were dangerous; various people exposed themselves to pathogenic, toxic or radioactive materials. Some self-experimenters, like Jesse


id: self-experimentation-in-medicine-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-experimentation_in_medicine-1.md
category: reference
title: Self-experimentation in medicine
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-experimentation_in_medicine
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:45:59.502626+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: self-experimentation-in-medicine-20260505-0
summary:
== Ethics == As already mentioned, it is an ethical principle that the researcher should not inflict on volunteers anything that the researcher would not be willing to do to themself, but the researcher is not always a suitable, or even possible, subject for the experiment. For instance, the researcher may be the wrong sex if the research is into hormone treatment for women, or may be too old, or too young. The ethical question for the researchers is would they agree to the experiment if they were in the same position as the volunteers? Another issue that can lead researchers not to take part is whether the researcher would stand to gain any benefit from taking part in the experiment. It is an ethical principle that volunteers must stand to gain some benefit from the research, even if that is only a remote future possibility of treatment being found for a disease that they only have a small chance of contracting. Tests on experimental drugs are sometimes conducted on sufferers of an untreatable condition. If the researcher does not have that condition then there can be no possible benefit to them personally. For instance, Ronald C. Desrosiers in responding


id: self-experimentation-in-medicine-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-experimentation_in_medicine-2.md
category: reference
title: Self-experimentation in medicine
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-experimentation_in_medicine
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:45:59.502626+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: self-experimentation-in-medicine-20260505-0
summary:
=== Anaesthesia === Dentist Horace Wells made multiple experiments with nitrous oxide, diethyl ether, and chloroform while trying to determine their uses as anaesthetics. The first, conducted in 1844, consisted of having his assistant John Riggs dose him with nitrous oxide and then extract one of his teeth. His later self-experimentation of ether and chloroform took place in 1848, and he eventually became addicted to chloroform due to excessive use. He inhaled chloroform as an anaesthetic shortly before committing suicide on January 24, 1848. Lidocaine, the first amino amide–type local anaesthetic, was first synthesized under the name xylocaine by Swedish chemist Nils Löfgren in 1943. His colleague Bengt Lundqvist performed the first injection anaesthesia experiments on himself. === Asthma === Roger Altounyan developed the use of sodium cromoglycate as a remedy for asthma, based on khella, a traditional Middle Eastern remedy, with experiments on himself. === Blood === ==== ABO blood group system ==== Dr. Karl Landsteiner's discovery of the ABO blood group system in 1900 was based on an analysis of blood samples from six members of his laboratory staff, including himself. ==== Thrombocytopenia ==== In the Harrington–Hollingsworth experiment in 1950, William J. Harrington performed an exchange blood transfusion


id: self-experimentation-in-medicine-20260505-3
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-experimentation_in_medicine-3.md
category: reference
title: Self-experimentation in medicine
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-experimentation_in_medicine
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:45:59.502626+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: self-experimentation-in-medicine-20260505-0
summary:
===== Helicobacter pylori ===== In 1984 a Western Australian scientist, Dr Barry Marshall, discovered the link between Helicobacter pylori (at that time known as Campylobacter pylori) and gastritis. This was based on a series of self-experiments that involved gastroscopy and biopsy, ingestion of H. pylori, regastroscopy and biopsy and subsequent treatment with tinidazole. His only option was self-experimentation: ethical measures forbade him from administering H. pylori to any other person. In 2005, Marshall and his long-time collaborator Robin Warren were awarded Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, "for their discovery of the bacterium Helicobacter pylori and its role in gastritis and peptic ulcer disease". Marshall's experiment debunked the long-held belief of the medical profession that stress was the cause of gastritis. This cleared the way for the development of antibiotic treatments for gastritis and peptic ulcers and a new line of research into the likely role of H. pylori in stomach cancer. ===== Campylobacter jejuni ===== Marshall's investigation was preceded by David A. Robinson who, in 1980, ingested Campylobacter jejuni, a bacterium found in cow's milk, to investigate whether gastritis could be caused by drinking milk infected with C. jejuni. Robinson became sick as a result. Robinson needed to do


id: self-experimentation-in-medicine-20260505-4
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-experimentation_in_medicine-4.md
category: reference
title: Self-experimentation in medicine
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-experimentation_in_medicine
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:45:59.502626+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: self-experimentation-in-medicine-20260505-0
summary:
==== Disulfiram ==== In 1945, during the German occupation of Denmark, Erik Jacobsen and Jens Hald at the Danish drug company Medicinalco (which had a group of enthusiastic self-experimenters that called itself the "Death Battalion") were exploring the possible use of disulfiram to treat intestinal parasites, and in the course of testing it on themselves, accidentally discovered its effects (Disulfiram-alcohol reaction) when alcohol is ingested, which led several years later to the drug called Antabuse. ==== Furan ==== Chauncey D. Leake, in 1930, took furan as a possible substitute for aspirin but it just gave him a splitting headache and painful urination that lasted three days. ==== Grapefruit juice ==== David G. Bailey, in 1989, was researching the effects of drinking alcohol while taking the then experimental drug felodipine. It was usual in this kind of research to mix the alcohol with orange juice but Bailey did not like the taste of this drink so used grapefruit juice instead. Bailey found that there was three times more felodipine in his, and fellow researchers', blood than had been reported by other scientists using orange juice. It was later found that grapefruit juice suppresses an enzyme responsible for breaking down a large


id: self-experimentation-in-medicine-20260505-5
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-experimentation_in_medicine-5.md
category: reference
title: Self-experimentation in medicine
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-experimentation_in_medicine
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:45:59.502626+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: self-experimentation-in-medicine-20260505-0
summary:
==== Hanging ==== In the early 1900s Nicolae Minovici, a professor of forensic science in Bucharest, undertook a series of experiments into hanging. At first he put the noose around his neck while lying down and had an assistant put tension on the rope. He then moved on to full suspension by the neck. Finally, he attempted suspension with a slipping hangman's knot, but the pain was too great for him to continue. He could not swallow for a month. Minovici was determined to surpass a record set by Dr. Fleichmann of Erlangen, who in 1832, self-asphyxiated for two minutes. However, Minovici could not get close to this and disbelieved Fleichmann. Minovici and Fleichmann are not the only ones to self-experiment with strangulation. Graeme Hammond, a doctor in New York, tried it in 1882. Francis Bacon described an even earlier occasion in 1623 when the self-experimenter stepped off a stool with a rope around his neck, but was unable to regain his footing on the stool without assistance. ==== Rapid acceleration ==== John Paul Stapp, in 1954, sat in a rocket sled fired along rails in a series of steadily more violent tests. Speeds reached 631 mph, almost the speed


id: self-experimentation-in-medicine-20260505-6
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-experimentation_in_medicine-6.md
category: reference
title: Self-experimentation in medicine
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-experimentation_in_medicine
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:45:59.502626+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: self-experimentation-in-medicine-20260505-0
summary:
There have been several cases of surgeons operating on themselves, but most often it has been in the nature of an emergency rather than experiment. Such a case was Leonid Rogozov who was obliged to remove his own appendix in 1961 while stranded in Antarctica in winter. However, the first surgeon to carry out this self-operation, Evan O'Neill Kane in 1921, did so with an element of experiment. Although Kane's operation was necessary, it was not necessary to do it himself, so that in itself was experimental. More than that, Kane wished to experience the operation under local anaesthetic before trying the procedure on his patients. Kane advocated a reduction in the use of general anaesthetic by surgeons. In 2023, Michael Raduga, a Russian lucid dreaming researcher, performed self-neurosurgery that included trepanation, electrode implantation, and electrical stimulation of the motor cortex. ==== Sensory deprivation ==== John C. Lilly developed the first sensory deprivation tanks and self-experimented them with the intention to study the origin of consciousness and its relation to the brain by creating an environment which isolates an individual from external stimulation. ==== Temperature and pressure ==== Joseph Barcroft, in 1920, spent six days in a sealed glass chamber


id: serendipity-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serendipity-0.md
category: reference
title: Serendipity
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serendipity
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:00.971376+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: serendipity-20260505-0
summary:
Serendipity is an unplanned fortunate discovery. The term was coined by Horace Walpole in 1754. The concept is often associated with scientific and technological breakthroughs, where accidental discoveries led to new insights or inventions. Many significant discoveries in history were serendipitous, including penicillin, Post-it notes, Popsicles, and the microwave oven, arising from unforeseen circumstances that were then recognized and capitalized upon. == Definition == Christian Busch views serendipity as "active luck", where chance encounters and human action come together. A missed flight or a casual walk in the park can lead to new friendships, interests, or even career opportunities. While serendipity in popular usage is often understood as a matter of pure chance, scientific discussions emphasize the crucial role of human agency—recognizing, interpreting, and acting upon unexpected opportunities. This interaction between chance and conscious action has been a key theme in areas such as creativity, leadership, innovation, and entrepreneurship. == Etymology == The first noted use of "serendipity" was by Horace Walpole on 28 January 1754. In a letter he wrote to his friend Horace Mann, Walpole explained an unexpected discovery he had made about a painting of Bianca Cappello, which he recently received from Mann as a gift. The


id: serendipity-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serendipity-1.md
category: reference
title: Serendipity
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serendipity
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:00.971376+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: serendipity-20260505-0
summary:
Carbonated water was invented by Joseph Priestley, independently and by accident, in 1767 when he discovered a method of infusing water with carbon dioxide after having suspended a bowl of water above a beer vat at a brewery in Leeds, Yorkshire. He wrote of the "peculiar satisfaction" he found in drinking it, and in 1772 he published a paper entitled Impregnating Water with Fixed Air. Vulcanization was discovered by Charles Goodyear in 1839 when he accidentally dropped rubber mixed with sulfur on a hot frying pan. He noticed that the resulting rubber was stronger and heat-resistant. Corn flakes were invented in 1894 when John Harvey Kellogg unintentionally left a batch of wheat-berry dough out over night. The next day, he decided to figure out what could be done to salvage it, rather than throwing it out. John, Will, and Ella Kellogg then discerned what happened and realized that this process could be reliably recreated through a process known as tempering. Safety glass first originated when French chemist Édouard Bénédictus accidentally dropped a glass flask in 1903 and noticed that it did not shatter like traditional glass. He then sought to refine the material to create a safer form of glass.


id: serendipity-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serendipity-2.md
category: reference
title: Serendipity
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serendipity
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:00.971376+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: serendipity-20260505-0
summary:
== Related terms == Several uncommonly used terms have been derived from the concept and name of serendipity. William Boyd coined the term zemblanity in the late twentieth century to mean somewhat the opposite of serendipity: "making unhappy, unlucky and expected discoveries occurring by design". The derivation is speculative, but believed to be from Nova Zembla, a barren archipelago once the site of Russian nuclear testing. Bahramdipity is derived directly from Bahram Gur as characterized in The Three Princes of Serendip. It describes the suppression of serendipitous discoveries or research results by powerful individuals. In addition, Solomon & Bronstein (2018) further distinguish between perceptual and realised pseudo-serendipity and nemorinity. == See also == Browse Coincidence Felix culpa Insight Lateral thinking Multiple discovery Role of chance in scientific discoveries Serendipaceratops Serendipity Sapphire Side effect Synchronicity == References == == Further reading == Merton, Robert K.; Barber, Elinor (2004). The Travels and Adventures of Serendipity: A Study in Sociological Semantics and the Sociology of Science. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0691117546. (Manuscript written 1958). Hannan, Patrick J. (2006). Serendipity, Luck and Wisdom in Research. iUniverse. ISBN 978-0595365517. Roberts, Royston M. (1989). Serendipity: Accidental Discoveries in Science. Wiley. ISBN 978-0471602033. Isabelle Rivoal and Noel


id: solomon-four-group-design-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomon_four-group_design-0.md
category: reference
title: Solomon four-group design
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomon_four-group_design
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:02.115206+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: solomon-four-group-design-20260505-0
summary:
The Solomon four-group design is a research method developed by Richard Solomon in 1949. It is sometimes used in social science, psychology and medicine. It can be used if there are concerns that the treatment might be sensitized by the pre-test. In addition of the usual two groups (treatment and control), it has a second pair of groups who do not receive a pre-intervention evaluation. == Structure == The structure of the trial is shown in the table : The first two groups receive the evaluation test before and after the study, as in a normal two-group trial. The second groups receive the evaluation only after the study. The effectiveness of the treatment can be evaluated by comparisons between groups 1 and 3 and between groups 2 and 4.. In addition, the effect of the pre-treatment evaluation can be calculated by comparing the control group who received the pre-treatment evaluation with those who did not (groups 2 and 4). Various statistical treatments for the Solomon four-group design have been put forward, including Stouffer's Z and Monte Carlo. == References ==


id: source-criticism-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Source_criticism-0.md
category: reference
title: Source criticism
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Source_criticism
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:03.309305+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: source-criticism-20260505-0
summary:
Source criticism (or information evaluation) is the process of evaluating an information source, i.e.: a document, a person, a speech, a fingerprint, a photo, an observation, or anything used in order to obtain knowledge. In relation to a given purpose, a given information source may be more or less valid, reliable or relevant. Broadly, "source criticism" is the interdisciplinary study of how information sources are evaluated for given tasks. == Meaning == Problems in translation: The Danish word kildekritik, like the Norwegian word kildekritikk and the Swedish word källkritik, derived from the German Quellenkritik and is closely associated with the German historian Leopold von Ranke (1795–1886). Historian Wolfgang Hardtwig wrote: His [Ranke's] first work Geschichte der romanischen und germanischen Völker von 1494–1514 (History of the Latin and Teutonic Nations from 1494 to 1514) (1824) was a great success. It already showed some of the basic characteristics of his conception of Europe, and was of historiographical importance particularly because Ranke made an exemplary critical analysis of his sources in a separate volume, Zur Kritik neuerer Geschichtsschreiber (On the Critical Methods of Recent Historians). In this work he raised the method of textual criticism used in the late eighteenth century, particularly in


id: source-criticism-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Source_criticism-1.md
category: reference
title: Source criticism
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Source_criticism
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:03.309305+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: source-criticism-20260505-0
summary:
Empiricism evaluates sources by considering the observations (or sensations) on which they are based. Sources without basis in experience are not seen as valid. Rationalism provides low priority to sources based on observations. In order to be meaningful, observations must be explained by clear ideas or concepts. It is the logical structure and the well definedness that is in focus in evaluating information sources from the rationalist point of view. Historicism evaluates information sources on the basis of their reflection of their sociocultural context and their theoretical development. Pragmatism evaluate sources on the basis of how their values and usefulness to accomplish certain outcomes. Pragmatism is skeptical about claimed neutral information sources. The evaluation of knowledge or information sources cannot be more certain than is the construction of knowledge. If one accepts the principle of fallibilism then one also has to accept that source criticism can never 100% verify knowledge claims. As discussed in the next section, source criticism is intimately linked to scientific methods. The presence of fallacies of argument in sources is another kind of philosophical criterion for evaluating sources. Fallacies are presented by Walton (1998). Among the fallacies are the ad hominem fallacy (the use of personal


id: source-criticism-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Source_criticism-2.md
category: reference
title: Source criticism
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Source_criticism
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:03.309305+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: source-criticism-20260505-0
summary:
Photos are often manipulated during wars and for political purposes. One well known example is Joseph Stalin's manipulation of a photograph from May 5, 1920, on which Stalin's predecessor Lenin held a speech for Soviet troops that Leon Trotsky attended. Stalin had later Trotsky retouched out of this photograph. (cf. King, 1997). A recent example is reported by Healy (2008) about North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. === Internet sources === Much interest in evaluating Internet sources (such as Wikipedia) is reflected in the scholarly literature of library and information science and in other fields. Mintz (2002) is an edited volume about this issue. Examples of literature examining Internet sources include Chesney (2006), Fritch & Cromwell (2001), Leth & Thurén (2000) and Wilkinson, Bennett, & Oliver (1997). === Archaeology and history === "In history, the term historical method was first introduced in a systematic way in the sixteenth century by Jean Bodin in his treatise of source criticism, Methodus ad facilem historiarium cognitionem (1566). Characteristically, Bodin's treatise intended to establish the ways by which reliable knowledge of the past could be established by checking sources against one another and by so assessing the reliability of the information conveyed by them,


id: source-criticism-20260505-3
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Source_criticism-3.md
category: reference
title: Source criticism
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Source_criticism
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:03.309305+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: source-criticism-20260505-0
summary:
The most important legal sources are created by parliaments, governments, courts, and legal researchers. They may be written or informal and based on established practices. Views concerning the quality of sources differ among legal philosophies: Legal positivism is the view that the text of the law should be considered in isolation, while legal realism, interpretivism (legal), critical legal studies and feminist legal criticism interprets the law on a broader cultural basis. == See also == == Notes == == References == American Library Association (1994) Evaluating Information: A Basic Checklist. Brochure. American Library Association Anderson, Richard C. (1978). Schema-directed processes in language comprehension. IN: NATO International Conference on Cognitive Psychology and Instruction, 1977, Amsterdam: Cognitive Psychology and Instruction. Ed. by A. M. Lesgold, J. W. Pellegrino, S. D. Fokkema & R. Glaser. New York: Plenum Press (pp. 67–82). Anderson, Richard C. & Pichert, J. W. (1977). Recall of previously unrecallable information following a shift of perspective. Urbana, Il: University of Illinois, Center for the Study of Reading, April. 1977. (Technical Report 41). Available in full-text from: http://eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/31/83/58.pdf Bazerman, Charles (1995). The Informed Writer: Using Sources in the Disciplines. 5th ed. Houghton Mifflin. Bee, Ronald E. (1983). Statistics and Source Criticism.


id: source-criticism-20260505-4
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Source_criticism-4.md
category: reference
title: Source criticism
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Source_criticism
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:03.309305+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: source-criticism-20260505-0
summary:
== External links == The Source Compass: Source Criticism The History Sourcebook: The Need for Source Criticism


id: statistical-alchemy-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statistical_alchemy-0.md
category: reference
title: Statistical alchemy
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statistical_alchemy
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:04.534427+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: statistical-alchemy-20260505-0
summary:
Statistical alchemy was a term originated by John Maynard Keynes to describe econometrics in 1939. The phrase has subsequently been used by Alvan Feinstein to describe meta-analysis. It is generally regarded as a deprecatory term which undermines attempts to present such activities as meeting the rigorous standards of science. == Econometrics == Keynes (1939) wrote a review of Jan Tinbergen's Statistical Testing of Business-Cycle Theories. Although he praised Tinbergen for his objectivity, he however depicted his methodology as "black magic" which he regarded as essentially untrustworthy. He was unpersuaded that "this brand of statistical alchemy is ripe to become a branch of science" (emphasis in the original). Often this metaphor is seen as a way of suggesting that econometricians were following a foolhardy pursuit comparable to the alchemical quest of turning base metal into gold. However G. M. P. Swann points out that Keynes was well aware that such eminent early scientists as Isaac Newton. He rather proposes a more nuanced interpretation of the metaphor as referring to the Alkahest, a universal solvent, which, it was claimed could turn stone into water. He claimed that by restricting econometrics to theory, mathematics and statistics, econometricians had discarded other important applied techniques.


id: statistical-inference-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statistical_inference-0.md
category: reference
title: Statistical inference
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statistical_inference
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:05.679193+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: statistical-inference-20260505-0
summary:
Statistical inference is the process of using data analysis to infer properties of an underlying probability distribution. Inferential statistical analysis infers properties of a population, for example by testing hypotheses and deriving estimates. It is assumed that the observed data set is sampled from a larger population. Inferential statistics can be contrasted with descriptive statistics. Descriptive statistics is solely concerned with properties of the observed data, and it does not rest on the assumption that the data come from a larger population. In machine learning, the term inference is sometimes used instead to mean "make a prediction, by evaluating an already trained model"; in this context inferring properties of the model is referred to as training or learning (rather than inference), and using a model for prediction is referred to as inference (instead of prediction); see also predictive inference. == Introduction == Statistical inference makes propositions about a population, using data drawn from the population with some form of sampling. Given a hypothesis about a population, for which we wish to draw inferences, statistical inference consists of (first) selecting a statistical model of the process that generates the data and (second) deducing propositions from the model. Konishi and Kitagawa state


id: statistical-inference-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statistical_inference-1.md
category: reference
title: Statistical inference
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statistical_inference
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:05.679193+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: statistical-inference-20260505-0
summary:
Given the difficulty in specifying exact distributions of sample statistics, many methods have been developed for approximating these. With finite samples, approximation results measure how close a limiting distribution approaches the statistic's sample distribution: For example, with 10,000 independent samples the normal distribution approximates (to two digits of accuracy) the distribution of the sample mean for many population distributions, by the Berry–Esseen theorem. Yet for many practical purposes, the normal approximation provides a good approximation to the sample-mean's distribution when there are 10 (or more) independent samples, according to simulation studies and statisticians' experience. Following Kolmogorov's work in the 1950s, advanced statistics uses approximation theory and functional analysis to quantify the error of approximation. In this approach, the metric geometry of probability distributions is studied; this approach quantifies approximation error with, for example, the Kullback–Leibler divergence, Bregman divergence, and the Hellinger distance. With indefinitely large samples, limiting results like the central limit theorem describe the sample statistic's limiting distribution if one exists. Limiting results are not statements about finite samples, and indeed are irrelevant to finite samples. However, the asymptotic theory of limiting distributions is often invoked for work with finite samples. For example, limiting results are often invoked to


id: statistical-inference-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statistical_inference-2.md
category: reference
title: Statistical inference
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statistical_inference
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:05.679193+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: statistical-inference-20260505-0
summary:
This paradigm calibrates the plausibility of propositions by considering (notional) repeated sampling of a population distribution to produce datasets similar to the one at hand. By considering the dataset's characteristics under repeated sampling, the frequentist properties of a statistical proposition can be quantified—although in practice this quantification may be challenging. ==== Examples of frequentist inference ==== p-value Confidence interval Null hypothesis significance testing ==== Frequentist inference, objectivity, and decision theory ==== One interpretation of frequentist inference (or classical inference) is that it is applicable only in terms of frequency probability; that is, in terms of repeated sampling from a population. However, the approach of Neyman develops these procedures in terms of pre-experiment probabilities. That is, before undertaking an experiment, one decides on a rule for coming to a conclusion such that the probability of being correct is controlled in a suitable way: such a probability need not have a frequentist or repeated sampling interpretation. In contrast, Bayesian inference works in terms of conditional probabilities (i.e. probabilities conditional on the observed data), compared to the marginal (but conditioned on unknown parameters) probabilities used in the frequentist approach. The frequentist procedures of significance testing and confidence intervals can be constructed without regard


id: statistical-inference-20260505-3
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statistical_inference-3.md
category: reference
title: Statistical inference
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statistical_inference
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:05.679193+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: statistical-inference-20260505-0
summary:
Formulating the statistical model: A statistical model is defined based on the problem at hand, specifying the distributional assumptions and the relationship between the observed data and the unknown parameters. The model can be simple, such as a normal distribution with known variance, or complex, such as a hierarchical model with multiple levels of random effects. Constructing the likelihood function: Given the statistical model, the likelihood function is constructed by evaluating the joint probability density or mass function of the observed data as a function of the unknown parameters. This function represents the probability of observing the data for different values of the parameters. Maximizing the likelihood function: The next step is to find the set of parameter values that maximizes the likelihood function. This can be achieved using optimization techniques such as numerical optimization algorithms. The estimated parameter values, often denoted as y ¯ {\displaystyle {\bar {y}}} , are the maximum likelihood estimates (MLEs). Assessing uncertainty: Once the MLEs are obtained, it is crucial to quantify the uncertainty associated with the parameter estimates. This can be done by calculating standard errors, confidence intervals, or conducting hypothesis tests based on asymptotic theory or simulation techniques such as bootstrapping. Model checking:


id: stigler-s-law-of-eponymy-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stigler's_law_of_eponymy-0.md
category: reference
title: Stigler's law of eponymy
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stigler's_law_of_eponymy
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:06.846901+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: stigler-s-law-of-eponymy-20260505-0
summary:
Stigler's law of eponymy, proposed by University of Chicago statistics professor Stephen Stigler in 1980, states that no scientific discovery is named after its original discoverer. Examples include Hubble's law, which was derived by Georges Lemaître two years before Edwin Hubble; the Pythagorean theorem, which was known to Babylonian mathematicians and to Indian mathematicians before Pythagoras; and Halley's Comet, which was observed by astronomers since at least 240 BC (although its official designation is due to the first ever mathematical prediction of such astronomical phenomenon in the sky, not to its discovery). Stigler attributed the discovery of Stigler's law to sociologist Robert K. Merton, making "Stigler's law" an example of Stigler's law. In his paper, Stigler wrote: I have chosen as a title for this paper, and for the thesis I wish to present and discuss, "Stigler's law of eponymy". At first glance this may appear to be a flagrant violation of the "Institutional Norm of Humility," and since statisticians are even more aware of the importance of norms than are members of other disciplines, I hasten to add a humble disclaimer. If there is an idea in this paper that is not at least implicit in Merton's The Sociology


id: list-of-examples-of-stigler-s-law-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_examples_of_Stigler's_law-0.md
category: reference
title: List of examples of Stigler's law
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_examples_of_Stigler's_law
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:08.081898+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: list-of-examples-of-stigler-s-law-20260505-0
summary:
Stigler's law concerns the supposed tendency of eponymous expressions for scientific discoveries to honor people other than their respective originators. Examples include: == A == Aharonov–Bohm effect. Werner Ehrenberg and Raymond E. Siday first predicted the effect in 1949, and similar effects were later rediscovered by Yakir Aharonov and David Bohm in 1959. Ampère's circuital law was inspired by the experimental results of André-Marie Ampère, and named in his honor. However, it was James Clerk Maxwell who combined those results into a single mathematical law. Arabic numerals, first developed in India around 7th century. Archimedes' screw is known to predate Archimedes by at least three centuries in ancient Babylon. Argand diagram by Caspar Wessel in 1797, predating Jean-Robert Argand by nine years. Arrhenius equation. The equation was first proposed by the Dutch chemist J. H. van 't Hoff in 1884; five years later in 1889, the Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius provided a physical justification and interpretation for it. Auger effect. First discovered by Lise Meitner in 1922 and then, independently, in 1923 by Pierre Victor Auger. == B == Bailey–Borwein–Plouffe formula was discovered by Simon Plouffe, who has since expressed regret at having to share credit for his discovery. Bell


id: list-of-examples-of-stigler-s-law-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_examples_of_Stigler's_law-1.md
category: reference
title: List of examples of Stigler's law
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_examples_of_Stigler's_law
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:08.081898+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: list-of-examples-of-stigler-s-law-20260505-0
summary:
== C == Cantor–Bernstein–Schröder theorem (also known by other variations, such as Schröder-Bernstein theorem) first proved by Richard Dedekind Cantor set, discovered in 1874 by Henry John Stephen Smith and introduced by German mathematician Georg Cantor 1883. Carmichael number: Václav Šimerka listed the first seven Carmichael numbers in 1885; they are named after Robert Daniel Carmichael who subsequently discovered the first one in 1910. Cartan matrices, first investigated by Wilhelm Killing. Cardano's formula, the solution to general cubic equations. Cardano stated that it was discovered by Scipione del Ferro, who passed the knowledge to his student Antonio Maria Fior. Around 1535 Niccolò Fontana Tartaglia learned of this from Fior and re-derived the formula for the cubic, which he later shared with Cardano. Cassegrain reflector, named after a design published in 1672 which has been attributed to Laurent Cassegrain, but was already known to Bonaventura Cavalieri in 1632 and Marin Mersenne in 1636. Cartesian duality: Named for René Descartes, but Teresa of Avila and her contemporaries wrote about similar methods of philosophical exploration eight to ten years before Descartes was born. Cavendish balance for measuring the universal gravitational constant, first devised and constructed by John Michell. The Cayley–Hamilton theorem was proven


id: list-of-examples-of-stigler-s-law-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_examples_of_Stigler's_law-2.md
category: reference
title: List of examples of Stigler's law
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_examples_of_Stigler's_law
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:08.081898+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: list-of-examples-of-stigler-s-law-20260505-0
summary:
== G == Galileo's paradox: the property of infinite sets was known to Duns Scotus. Gauss's law: first described by Joseph Louis Lagrange in 1773, over half a century before Gauss. Gauss's theorem: first proved by Ostrogradsky in 1831. Gaussian distribution: the normal distribution was introduced by Abraham de Moivre in 1733, but named after Carl Friedrich Gauss who began using it in 1794. Gaussian elimination: was already in well-known textbooks such as Thomas Simpson's when Gauss in 1809 remarked that he used "common elimination." Gibbs phenomenon: named for Josiah Willard Gibbs who published in 1901. First discovered by Henry Wilbraham in 1851. Goodhart's law, with several earlier variations, like Campbell's law. The Graetz circuit, also known as the diode bridge, was invented and patented in 1896 by Karol Pollak a year before it was published by Leo Graetz. The Graham escapement is often erroneously credited to English clockmaker George Graham but it was actually invented by astronomer Richard Towneley. The Gregorian telescope is named after James Gregory, who published it in 1663, but was already known to Bonaventura Cavalieri in 1632 and Marin Mersenne in 1636. Gresham's law was described by Nicolaus Copernicus in 1519, the year of Thomas


id: list-of-examples-of-stigler-s-law-20260505-3
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_examples_of_Stigler's_law-3.md
category: reference
title: List of examples of Stigler's law
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_examples_of_Stigler's_law
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:08.081898+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: list-of-examples-of-stigler-s-law-20260505-0
summary:
== M == Maxwell's equations. The modern form of the equations in their most common formulation is credited to Oliver Heaviside, based on James Clerk Maxwell's original work. Madelung rule, describing the order in which electron orbitals are filled, named after Erwin Madelung but first discovered by Charles Janet. Magellanic Clouds, while observed by Antonio Pigafetta on one of Magellan's voyages there were previous reports made by 16th century Italian authors Peter Martyr d'Anghiera and Andrea Corsali and earlier reports by Arabic astronomers. Matthew effect, named by Robert K. Merton after the writer of the Gospel of Matthew quoting the words of Jesus. Meadow's law, the formulation that one cot death in a family is tragic, two suspicious, and three murder, originally described by D.J. and V.J.M. Di Maio. Metropolis–Hastings algorithm. The algorithm was named after Nicholas Metropolis, who was the director of the Theoretical Division of Los Alamos National Laboratory at the time of writing the paper Equation of State Calculations by Fast Computing Machines. However, Metropolis did not contribute to that study in any way, as confirmed by various sources. The research problem was proposed by Augusta H. Teller and solved by Marshall N. Rosenbluth and Arianna W.


id: list-of-examples-of-stigler-s-law-20260505-4
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_examples_of_Stigler's_law-4.md
category: reference
title: List of examples of Stigler's law
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_examples_of_Stigler's_law
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:08.081898+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: list-of-examples-of-stigler-s-law-20260505-0
summary:
== R == The Reynolds number in fluid mechanics was introduced by George Stokes, but is named after Osborne Reynolds, who popularized its use. Richards equation is attributed to Richards in his 1931 publication, but was earlier introduced by Richardson in 1922 in his book "Weather prediction by numerical process." (Cambridge University press. p. 262) as pointed out by John Knight and Peter Raats in "The contributions of Lewis Fry Richardson to drainage theory, soil physics, and the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum" EGU General Assembly 2016. Russell's paradox is a paradox in set theory that Bertrand Russell discovered and published in 1901. However, Ernst Zermelo had independently discovered the paradox in 1899. == S == The Sankey diagram was invented by Charles Joseph Minard The Schottky diode was neither discovered by Schottky nor its operation correctly explained by him. The actual nature of the metal–semiconductor junction was noted by Hans Bethe. The Schröder–Bernstein theorem in set theory was first stated without proof by Georg Cantor and first proved by Richard Dedekind Shuey's equation from 1985, which is an approximation of the Zoeprittz Equation first published in 1919. Simpson's paradox, a term introduced by Colin R. Blyth in 1972; but Edward Simpson did


id: strong-inference-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strong_inference-0.md
category: reference
title: Strong inference
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strong_inference
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:09.345306+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: strong-inference-20260505-0
summary:
In philosophy of science, strong inference is a model of scientific inquiry that emphasizes the need for alternative hypotheses, rather than a single hypothesis to avoid confirmation bias. The term "strong inference" was coined by John R. Platt, a biophysicist at the University of Chicago. Platt notes that some fields, such as molecular biology and high-energy physics, seem to adhere strongly to strong inference, with very beneficial results for the rate of progress in those fields. == The single hypothesis problem == The problem with single hypotheses, confirmation bias, was aptly described by Thomas Chrowder Chamberlin in 1897: The moment one has offered an original explanation for a phenomenon which seems satisfactory, that moment affection for [one’s] intellectual child springs into existence, and as the explanation grows into a definite theory [one’s] parental affections cluster about [the] offspring and it grows more and more dear .... There springs up also unwittingly a pressing of the theory to make it fit the facts and a pressing of the facts to make them fit the theory... The temptation to misinterpret results that contradict the desired hypothesis is probably irresistible. Despite the admonitions of Platt, reviewers of grant-applications often require "A Hypothesis" as


id: structuralism-philosophy-of-science-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structuralism_(philosophy_of_science)-0.md
category: reference
title: Structuralism (philosophy of science)
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structuralism_(philosophy_of_science)
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:14.259101+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: structuralism-philosophy-of-science-20260505-0
summary:
In the philosophy of science, structuralism (also known as scientific structuralism or as the structuralistic theory-concept) asserts that all aspects of reality are best understood in terms of empirical scientific constructs of entities and their relations, rather than in terms of concrete entities in themselves. == Overview == Structuralism is an active research program in the philosophy of science, which was first developed in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s by several analytic philosophers. As an instance of structuralism, the concept of matter should be interpreted not as an absolute property of nature in itself, but instead of how scientifically grounded mathematical relations describe how the concept of matter interacts with other properties, whether that be in a broad sense such as the gravitational fields that mass-produces or more empirically as how matter interacts with sense systems of the body to produce sensations such as weight. Structuralism's aim is to comprise all important aspects of an empirical theory in one formal framework. The proponents of this meta-theoretic theory are Frederick Suppe, Patrick Suppes, Ronald Giere, Joseph D. Sneed, Wolfgang Stegmüller, Carlos Ulises Moulines, Wolfgang Balzer, John Worrall, Elie Georges Zahar, Pablo Lorenzano, Otávio Bueno, Anjan Chakravartty, Tian Yu Cao,


id: structuralism-philosophy-of-science-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structuralism_(philosophy_of_science)-1.md
category: reference
title: Structuralism (philosophy of science)
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structuralism_(philosophy_of_science)
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:14.259101+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: structuralism-philosophy-of-science-20260505-0
summary:
=== Ontic structural realism === While ESR claims that only the structure of reality is knowable, ontic structural realism (OSR) goes further to claim that structure is all there is. In this view, reality has no "nature" underlying its observed structure. Rather, reality is fundamentally structural, though variants of OSR disagree on precisely which aspects of structure are primitive. OSR is strongly motivated by modern physics, particularly quantum field theory, which undermines intuitive notions of identifiable objects with intrinsic properties. Some early quantum physicists held this view, including Hermann Weyl (1931), Ernst Cassirer (1936), and Arthur Eddington (1939). Recently, OSR has been called "the most fashionable ontological framework for modern physics". Max Tegmark takes this concept even further with the mathematical universe hypothesis, which proposes that, if our universe is only a particular structure, then it is no more real than any other structure. == Definition of structure == In mathematical logic, a mathematical structure is a standard concept. A mathematical structure is a set of abstract entities with relations between them. The natural numbers under arithmetic constitute a structure, with relations such as "is evenly divisible by" and "is greater than". Here the relation "is greater than" includes the


id: suspension-of-judgment-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suspension_of_judgment-0.md
category: reference
title: Suspension of judgment
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suspension_of_judgment
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:15.441953+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: suspension-of-judgment-20260505-0
summary:
Suspended judgment is a cognitive process and a rational state of mind in which one withholds judgments, particularly on the drawing of moral or ethical conclusions. The opposite of suspension of judgment is premature judgement, usually shortened to prejudice. While prejudgment involves drawing a conclusion or making a judgment before having the information relevant to such a judgment, suspension of judgment involves waiting for all the facts before making a decision. == Law == Suspension of judgment is used in civil law to indicate a court's decision to nullify a civil judgment. Motions to set aside judgments entered in civil cases in the United States district courts are governed by Rule 60 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure which opens with the statement, "On motion and just terms, the court may relieve a party or its legal representative from a final judgment, order, or proceeding...". The rule is quite straightforward and court room application is mostly as stated. In the New York Law Journal David Bliven argues that suspended judgement ought to be an alternative disposition in family offenses (a type of civil case), particularly in cases where a family judgement is being used as behavior modification rather than


id: testability-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Testability-0.md
category: reference
title: Testability
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Testability
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:16.674581+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: testability-20260505-0
summary:
Testability is a primary aspect of science and the scientific method. There are two components to testability: Falsifiability or defeasibility, which means that counterexamples to the hypothesis are logically possible. The practical feasibility of observing a reproducible series of such counterexamples if they do exist. In short, a hypothesis is testable if there is a possibility of deciding whether it is true or false based on experimentation by anyone. This allows anyone to decide whether a theory can be supported or refuted by data. However, the interpretation of experimental data may be also inconclusive or uncertain. Karl Popper introduced the concept that scientific knowledge had the property of falsifiability as published in The Logic of Scientific Discovery. == See also == Confirmability Controllability Observability Scientific method Test method == Further reading == == References ==


id: twyman-s-law-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twyman's_law-0.md
category: reference
title: Twyman's law
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twyman's_law
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:17.935817+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: twyman-s-law-20260505-0
summary:
Twyman's law states that "Any figure that looks interesting or different is usually wrong", following the principle that "the more unusual or interesting the data, the more likely they are to have been the result of an error of one kind or another". It is named after the media and market researcher Tony Twyman and has been described as one of the most important laws of data analysis. The law is based on the fact that errors in data measurement and analysis can lead to observed quantities that are wildly different from typical values. These errors are usually more common than real changes of similar magnitude in the underlying process being measured. For example, if an analyst at a software company notices that the number of users has doubled overnight, the most likely explanation is a bug in logging, rather than a true increase in users. The law can also be extended to situations where the underlying data is influenced by unexpected factors that differ from what was intended to be measured. For example, when schools show unusually large improvements in test scores, subsequent investigation often reveals that those scores were driven by fraud. == See also == Extraordinary claims


id: violation-paradigm-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violation_paradigm-0.md
category: reference
title: Violation paradigm
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violation_paradigm
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:19.051542+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: violation-paradigm-20260505-0
summary:
A violation paradigm is a scientific method where the scientist perturbs an expected factor to look at the subject's following reactions. These reactions are believed to be relevant to the process studied. For example, creating wrong word segmentations in a text will destabilize the reader. This warns the researcher that the respondent's brain considers the characters are united into words, and not just as a succession of given sets of letters. The process was originally developed by Danks, Bohn & Fear (1983), and proved valid (Chen 1999). == See also == Danks, Bohn, Fear (1983), Comprehension processes in oral reading, The process of language understanding, pp. 193–223. Chen, H.-C. (1999), "How do readers of Chinese process words during reading for comprehension ?", Reading Chinese Script: A Cognitive Analysis, Routledge, pp. 257–278, ISBN 9780805824780


id: why-most-published-research-findings-are-false-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_Most_Published_Research_Findings_Are_False-0.md
category: reference
title: Why Most Published Research Findings Are False
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_Most_Published_Research_Findings_Are_False
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:20.229041+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: why-most-published-research-findings-are-false-20260505-0
summary:
"Why Most Published Research Findings Are False" is a 2005 essay written by John Ioannidis, a professor at the Stanford School of Medicine, and published in PLOS Medicine. It is considered foundational to the field of metascience. In the paper, Ioannidis argued that a large number, if not the majority, of published medical research papers contain results that cannot be replicated. In simple terms, the essay states that scientists use hypothesis testing to determine whether scientific discoveries are significant. Statistical significance is formalized in terms of probability, with its p-value measure being reported in the scientific literature as a screening mechanism. Ioannidis posited assumptions about the way people perform and report these tests; then he constructed a statistical model which indicates that most published findings are likely false positive results. While the general arguments in the paper recommending reforms in scientific research methodology were well-received, Ionnidis received criticism for the validity of his model and his claim that the majority of scientific findings are false. Responses to the paper suggest lower false positive and false negative rates than what Ioannidis puts forth. == Argument == Suppose that in a given scientific field there is a known baseline probability that a


id: why-most-published-research-findings-are-false-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_Most_Published_Research_Findings_Are_False-1.md
category: reference
title: Why Most Published Research Findings Are False
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_Most_Published_Research_Findings_Are_False
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:20.229041+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: why-most-published-research-findings-are-false-20260505-0
summary:
== Reception == Despite skepticism about extreme statements made in the paper, Ioannidis's broader argument and warnings have been accepted by a large number of researchers. The growth of metascience and the recognition of a scientific replication crisis have bolstered the paper's credibility, and led to calls for methodological reforms in scientific research. In commentaries and technical responses, statisticians Goodman and Greenland identified several weaknesses in Ioannidis' model. Ioannidis's use of dramatic and exaggerated language that he "proved" that most research findings' claims are false and that "most research findings are false for most research designs and for most fields" [italics added] was rejected, and yet they agreed with his paper's conclusions and recommendations. Biostatisticians Jager and Leek criticized the model as being based on justifiable but arbitrary assumptions rather than empirical data, and did an investigation of their own which calculated that the false positive rate in biomedical studies was estimated to be around 14%, not over 50% as Ioannidis asserted. Their paper was published in a 2014 special edition of the journal Biostatistics along with extended, supporting critiques from other statisticians. Leek summarized the key points of agreement as: when talking about the science-wise false discovery rate one


id: woozle-effect-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woozle_effect-0.md
category: reference
title: Woozle effect
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woozle_effect
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:21.411609+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: woozle-effect-20260505-0
summary:
The Woozle effect, also known as evidence by citation, occurs when a source is widely cited for a claim that the source does not adequately support, giving said claim undeserved credibility. If results are not replicated and no one notices that a key claim was never well-supported in its original publication, faulty assumptions may affect further research. The Woozle effect is somewhat similar to circular reporting in journalism, where someone makes a questionable claim, and a journalist unthinkingly accepts the claim and republishes it without realizing its dubious and unreliable origins. In turn, other journalists and the public then continue to repeat and duplicate the unsupported claim. == Origin and definition == A Woozle is an imaginary character in the A. A. Milne book Winnie-the-Pooh, published in 1926. In chapter three, "In which Pooh and Piglet Go Hunting and Nearly Catch a Woozle", Winnie-the-Pooh and Piglet start following tracks left in snow believing they are the tracks of an imaginary animal called a woozle. The tracks keep multiplying until Christopher Robin explains to them that they have been following their own tracks in circles around a spinney. Prior to the introduction of the specific term "Woozle effect", the underlying concept


id: woozle-effect-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woozle_effect-1.md
category: reference
title: Woozle effect
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woozle_effect
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:21.411609+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: woozle-effect-20260505-0
summary:
== Examples == In 1980, Gelles illustrated the Woozle effect, showing how work by Gelles (1974) based on a small sample and published in The Violent Home by Straus, who had written the foreword for Gelles's book, was presented as if it applied to a large sample. Both of these were then cited by Langley & Levy in their 1977 book, Wife Beating: The Silent Crisis. In the 1998 book Intimate Violence, Gelles and Straus use the Winnie-the-Pooh woozle to illustrate how poor practice in research and self-referential research causes older research to be taken as fresh evidence causing error and bias. One notable example of the effect can be seen in citations of "Addiction Rare in Patients Treated with Narcotics", a letter to the editor by Jane Porter and Hershel Jick published by the New England Journal of Medicine in 1980. The letter, which was five sentences long and unlikely to have been peer reviewed according to a NEJM spokesperson, reported findings from analysis of medical records regarding the use of pain medication for hospital patients and concluded that "despite widespread use of narcotic drugs in hospitals, the development of addiction is rare in medical patients with no history


id: natural-history-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_history-0.md
category: reference
title: Natural history
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_history
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:23.045729+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: natural-history-20260505-0
summary:
Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is called a naturalist or natural historian. Natural history encompasses scientific research but is not limited to it. It involves the systematic study of any category of natural objects or organisms, so while it dates from studies in the ancient Greco-Roman world and the medieval Arab world, through to European Renaissance naturalists working in near isolation, today's natural history is a cross-discipline umbrella of many specialty sciences; e.g., geobiology has a strong multidisciplinary nature. == Definitions == === Before 1900 === The meaning of the English term "natural history" (a calque of the Latin historia naturalis) has narrowed progressively with time, while, by contrast, the meaning of the related term "nature" has widened (see also History below). In antiquity, "natural history" covered essentially anything connected with nature, or used materials drawn from nature, such as Pliny the Elder's encyclopedia of this title, published c. 77 to 79 AD, which covers astronomy, geography, humans and their technology, medicine, and superstition, as well as animals and plants. Medieval European


id: natural-history-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_history-1.md
category: reference
title: Natural history
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_history
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:23.045729+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: natural-history-20260505-0
summary:
=== Prehistory === Prior to the advent of Western science, humans were engaged and highly competent in indigenous ways of understanding the more-than-human world that are now referred to as traditional ecological knowledge. 21st century definitions of natural history are inclusive of this understanding, such as this by Thomas Fleischner of the Natural History Institute (Prescott, Arizona): Natural history – a practice of intentional focused attentiveness and receptivity to the more-than-human world, guided by honesty and accuracy – is the oldest continuous human endeavor. In the evolutionary past of our species, the practice of natural history was essential for our survival, imparting critical information on habits and chronologies of plants and animals that we could eat or that could eat us. Natural history continues to be critical to human survival and thriving. It contributes to our fundamental understanding of how the world works by providing the empirical foundation of natural sciences, and it contributes directly and indirectly to human emotional and physical health, thereby fostering healthier human communities. It also serves as the basis for all conservation efforts, with natural history both informing the science and inspiring the values that drive these. === Ancient === As a precursor to Western


id: natural-history-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_history-2.md
category: reference
title: Natural history
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_history
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:23.045729+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: natural-history-20260505-0
summary:
Natural history museums, which evolved from cabinets of curiosities, played an important role in the emergence of professional biological disciplines and research programs. Particularly in the 19th century, scientists began to use their natural history collections as teaching tools for advanced students and the basis for their own morphological research. == Societies == The term "natural history" alone, or sometimes together with archaeology, forms the name of many national, regional, and local natural history societies that maintain records for animals—including birds (ornithology), insects (entomology) and mammals (mammalogy)—fungi (mycology), plants (botany), and other organisms. They may also have geological and microscopical sections. Examples of these societies in Britain include the Natural History Society of Northumbria founded in 1829, London Natural History Society (1858), Birmingham Natural History Society (1859), British Entomological and Natural History Society founded in 1872, Glasgow Natural History Society, Manchester Microscopical and Natural History Society established in 1880, Whitby Naturalists' Club founded in 1913, Scarborough Field Naturalists' Society and the Sorby Natural History Society, Sheffield, founded in 1918. The growth of natural history societies was also spurred due to the growth of British colonies in tropical regions with numerous new species to be discovered. Many civil servants took an


id: list-of-natural-history-dealers-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_natural_history_dealers-0.md
category: reference
title: List of natural history dealers
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_natural_history_dealers
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:24.303507+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: list-of-natural-history-dealers-20260505-0
summary:
Natural history specimen dealers had an important role in the development of science in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries. They supplied the rapidly growing, both in size and number, museums and educational establishments and private collectors whose collections, either in entirety or parts finally entered museums. Most sold not just zoological, botanical and geological specimens but also equipment and books. Many also sold archaeological and ethnographic items. They purchased specimens from professional and amateur collectors, sometimes collected themselves as well as acting as agents for the sale of collections. Many were based in mercantile centres notably Amsterdam, Hamburg, and London or in major cities. Some were specialists and some were taxonomic authorities who wrote scientific works and manuals, some functioned as trading museums or institutes. This is a list of natural history dealers from the 16th to the 19th century: here are names that are frequently encountered in museum collections. Johan Hans Abegg (fl. 1882–1885) Mineral collector and dealer in Zurich. Augustus Theodore Abel (?1802-1882); German Mineral dealer resident in Ballarat. Anton Franz Abraham Preparator and dealer in educational materials at " "Naturhistorisches Institut" on Beatrixgasse, Vienna, 1896, on Ungargasse, Vienna in 1903–1906.Supplied specimens to Archduke Franz Ferdinand.


id: list-of-natural-history-dealers-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_natural_history_dealers-1.md
category: reference
title: List of natural history dealers
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_natural_history_dealers
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:24.303507+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: list-of-natural-history-dealers-20260505-0
summary:
Edmund Reitter "Natural History Institute" 1879 -1880 Vienna, 1881-1891 Mödling, after 1891 Paskau and Munich (extant). Carl Ribbe Heinrich Ribbe (1832–1898) Entomologist and dealer in Berlin Hermann Rolle Berlin William Frederick Henry Rosenberg (1868–1957) 57 Haverstock Hill, London fl. 1920s. Claimed to hold 5,000 bird species as scientific skins (and to be the largest bird skin dealership in the world). Supplier to museums and private collectors. Traveller. Emil Adolf Rossmässler Natural History dealer Karl Rost Fritz Rühl Auguste Sallé L.W. Schaufuß else E. Klocke, Dresden Christian Julius Wilhelm Schiede Wilhelm Schlüter Gustav Schneider (1867–1958) Basel Gustav Schrader Wilhelm Schlüter Abraham Scrivener (fl. 1840s) naturalist and merchant with a shop at Deptford Bridge, Greenwich. Paul Smart Southwick & Jencks’ Natural History Store Providence, Rhode Island Otto Staudinger Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn Marine specimens. Wilh. Steeg "Dr. Steeg & Reuter" after 1879. Crystallographic microscope slides. Alexandre Stuer(fl. 1890s-1920?) Paris mineral dealer. Owner of Comptoir Géologique et Minéralogique, 40, rue de Mathurins and at 4, rue de Castellane. John Crace Stevens Covent Gardens auctioneer. Emanuel Sweerts (1552–1612) Dutch merchant and natural history dealer. Rudolf Tancré (1842–1934) Anklam, Pomerania Dealer in Lepidoptera mainly of Central Asia and Siberia. Georg Thorey - Hamburg pharmacist and


id: affinity-taxonomy-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affinity_(taxonomy)-0.md
category: reference
title: Affinity (taxonomy)
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affinity_(taxonomy)
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:25.545596+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: affinity-taxonomy-20260505-0
summary:
Affinity (taxonomy) – mainly in life sciences or natural history – refers to resemblance suggesting a common descent, phylogenetic relationship, or type. The term does, however, have broader application, such as in geology (for example, in descriptive and theoretical works), and similarly in astronomy (for example, see "Centaur object" in the context of 2060 Chiron's close affinity with icy comet nuclei.) == Basis == In taxonomy the basis of any particular type of classification is the way in which objects in the domain resemble each other. A resemblance of a type that seems appropriate to the classification that we propose, we may call an affinity, and when we decide how to classify say, a specimen of rock or butterfly, we justify our decision according to the affinities that we observe. Other resemblances we dismiss as being out of context or at least non-cogent; for example, in deciding whether to classify a lizard as having closer affinities to a snake than to a table, biologists rely on affinities such as the scales, blood, physiology, vertebral anatomy, and reproductive system as being more relevant than the possession of four "feet". == Application and obstacles == Analysing and determining the proper classification of


id: alfred-russel-wallace-centenary-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Russel_Wallace_centenary-0.md
category: reference
title: Alfred Russel Wallace centenary
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Russel_Wallace_centenary
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:30.972562+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: alfred-russel-wallace-centenary-20260505-0
summary:
The centenary of the death of the naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace on 7 November 1913 was marked in 2013 with events around the world to celebrate his life and work. The commemorations was co-ordinated by the Natural History Museum, London. Events between October 2013 and June 2014 were planned by the Natural History Museum and other organisations including the Zoological Society of London, Cardiff University, the University of Alberta, Dorset County Museum, Swansea Museum, Dorset Wildlife Trust, Ness Botanical Gardens (South Wirral), the Royal Society, the Linnean Society, the Harvard Museum of Natural History, the American Museum of Natural History, Hertford Museum and the National Museum of Wales. == Context == The naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist and biologist Alfred Russel Wallace (born 8 January 1823) died on 7 November 1913. He is principally remembered now for having independently conceived the theory of evolution through natural selection, which prompted Charles Darwin to publish On the Origin of Species. Some of his books such as The Malay Archipelago remain in print; it is considered one of the best accounts of scientific exploration published during the 19th century. Wallace is also remembered for recognizing the presence of a biogeographical boundary, now known as


id: botanical-expedition-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botanical_expedition-0.md
category: reference
title: Botanical expedition
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botanical_expedition
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:32.166275+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: botanical-expedition-20260505-0
summary:
A botanical expedition (sometimes called "Plant hunting") is a scientific voyage designed to explore the flora of a particular region, either as a specific design or part of a larger expedition. A naturalist or botanist would be responsible for identification, description and collection of specimens. In some cases the plants might be collected by the person in the field, but described and named by a government sponsored scientist at a botanical garden or university. For example, species collected on the Lewis and Clark Expedition were described and named by Frederick Traugott Pursh. While accounts of plant collection occur in antiquity, a scientific basis occurred during the Renaissance and was associated with the establishment of botanical gardens and the teaching of botany as a discipline. The practice of botanical expeditions reached a peak in the late 18th and during the 19th century with the systematic organisation of plants into taxonomic classifications. Plant collection has attracted a number of criticisms of exploitation and colonialism leading to the establishment of international regulations and safeguards. == Description == Botanical expeditions have often been referred to as "plant hunting" (or less commonly "botanomania"). They are mainly scientific journeys or voyages designed to explore the flora


id: conservation-and-restoration-of-insect-specimens-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservation_and_restoration_of_insect_specimens-0.md
category: reference
title: Conservation and restoration of insect specimens
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservation_and_restoration_of_insect_specimens
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:33.364540+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: conservation-and-restoration-of-insect-specimens-20260505-0
summary:
The conservation and restoration of insect specimens is the process of caring for and preserving insects as a part of a collection. Conservation concerns begin at collection and continue through preparation, storage, examination, documentation, research and treatment when restoration is needed. == Collection == Insect collecting can be done in many different ways depending on the kind of insects being collected and from which habitats. Both hobbyists and professional entomologist have found particular ways to collect with minimal damage to their specimens. Following established techniques helps begin the conservation of insect specimens from the beginning by eliminating as much potential damage as possible. It must be done delicately to ensure that neither the collector nor the live insect itself will cause harm to the distinctive features such as wings, legs and antennae that give purpose to the collection. Special collection nets, traps and techniques must be utilized in consideration of how easily breakage can happen. A kill jar is often used to immediately immobilize the insect before it can damage itself. == Preparation == The way an insect specimen is prepared is often the first step in their conservation. They have to be carefully prepared with the appropriate methods depending


id: conservation-and-restoration-of-insect-specimens-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservation_and_restoration_of_insect_specimens-1.md
category: reference
title: Conservation and restoration of insect specimens
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservation_and_restoration_of_insect_specimens
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:33.364540+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: conservation-and-restoration-of-insect-specimens-20260505-0
summary:
==== Safe handling ==== Proper handling for insect specimens prevents the excessive breaking of legs, antennae and other body parts that could then easily be lost. Curved forceps may be used to allow more precision and less chance of the brittle specimen coming in contact with the handler. The handler picks up the specimen by the pin, which is placed with enough space below the specimen for the handler to put in the pinning block and enough space above to grip without touching the specimen. ==== Integrated pest management ==== Integrated pest management (IPM) is a specialized modern pest control used in museums. All IPM systems begin with regular sanitation and monitoring of collections to detect castings from various pests, and checking insect traps laid out to capture and identify which pests are present. Some pests, such as carpet beetles and flour beetles, feed on dried insects. When an infestation is present, treatment may be necessary. Freezing is commonly used to rid insect collections of pests. Alternatively, inert gases may be used for an anoxic fumigation – depriving the pests of oxygen to exterminate, and in extreme cases chemical fumigation proven to be safe for collections and people may be


id: cymdeithas-edward-llwyd-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cymdeithas_Edward_Llwyd-0.md
category: reference
title: Cymdeithas Edward Llwyd
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cymdeithas_Edward_Llwyd
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:34.587725+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: cymdeithas-edward-llwyd-20260505-0
summary:
Cymdeithas Edward Llwyd (Welsh for 'Edward Llwyd Society') is a Welsh natural history organisation whose name commemorates the great Welsh natural historian, geographer and linguist Edward Llwyd (1660–1709). The Cymdeithas Edward Llwyd organises regular country walks throughout Wales in sites of interest of the Welsh environment, including SSSIs and post-industrial landscapes. These are Welsh-language walking groups, although learners are just as welcome. They also organise a variety of nature and environmental activities, including lectures, publications and conservation work. They have worked on collecting and documenting the names of natural species. In 2010, the society held a conference on Welsh toponymy, at which it was agreed to form the Welsh Place-Name Society. == References == == External links == Official site


id: field-guide-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field_guide-0.md
category: reference
title: Field guide
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field_guide
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:36.040876+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: field-guide-20260505-0
summary:
A field guide is a book designed to help the reader identify wildlife (flora or fauna or funga) or other objects of natural occurrence (e.g. rocks and minerals). It is generally designed to be brought into the "field" or local area where such objects exist to help distinguish between similar objects. Field guides are often designed to help users distinguish animals and plants that may be similar in appearance but are not necessarily closely related. It will typically include a description of the objects covered, together with paintings or photographs and an index. More serious and scientific field identification books, including those intended for students, will probably include identification keys to assist with identification, but the publicly accessible field guide is more often a browsable picture guide organized by family, colour, shape, location or other descriptors. == History == Popular interests in identifying things in nature probably were strongest in bird and plant guides. Perhaps the first popular field guide to plants in the United States was the 1893 How to Know the Wildflowers by "Mrs. William Starr Dana" (Frances Theodora Parsons). In 1890, Florence Merriam published Birds Through an Opera-Glass, describing 70 common species. Focused on living birds observed


id: flying-and-gliding-animals-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_and_gliding_animals-0.md
category: reference
title: Flying and gliding animals
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_and_gliding_animals
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:37.316378+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: flying-and-gliding-animals-20260505-0
summary:
A number of animals are capable of aerial locomotion, either by active flight, by passive gliding or, in rare occasions, by kiting/ballooning. Such animals typically have appendages that interact with air to generate lift in order to overcome the weight of their own body and any payload they are carrying (e.g. food/prey, nesting materials). Majority of flying and glide animals are terrestrial, while species from one extant taxon, i.e. the flying fish, are aquatic. The ability to fly or glide has appeared via convergent evolution many times throughout the history of life, and has evolved prominently in at least four terrestrial clades: insects, pterosaurs, birds and bats. Gliding and kiting, which are essentially controlled, prolonged free falls, have evolved on many more occasions, especially among arboreal species. Usually the aerial trait is to aid animals leaping directly across extended distances from one tree canopy to another without having to descend to the ground, which will otherwise expose them to risks from ground predators, although there are other reasons why aerial locomotions have developed. Gliding, in particular, has evolved among forest animals, especially in the rainforests in Asia (most especially Borneo) where the trees are tall (making it costly to descend


id: flying-and-gliding-animals-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_and_gliding_animals-1.md
category: reference
title: Flying and gliding animals
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_and_gliding_animals
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:37.316378+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: flying-and-gliding-animals-20260505-0
summary:
=== Gliding and parachuting === While gliding occurs independently from powered flight, it has some ecological advantages of its own as it is the simplest form of flight. Gliding is a very energy-efficient way of travelling from tree to tree. Although moving through the canopy running along the branches may be less energetically demanding, the faster transition between trees allows for greater foraging rates in a particular patch. Glide ratios can be dependent on size and current behavior. Higher foraging rates are supported by low glide ratios as smaller foraging patches require less gliding time over shorter distances and greater amounts of food can be acquired in a shorter time period. Low ratios are not as energy efficient as the higher ratios, but an argument made is that many gliding animals eat low energy foods such as leaves and are restricted to gliding because of this, whereas flying animals eat more high energy foods such as fruits, nectar, and insects. Mammals tend to rely on lower glide ratios to increase the amount of time foraging for lower energy food. An equilibrium glide, achieving a constant airspeed and glide angle, is harder to obtain as animal size increases. Larger animals need


id: flying-and-gliding-animals-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_and_gliding_animals-2.md
category: reference
title: Flying and gliding animals
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_and_gliding_animals
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:37.316378+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: flying-and-gliding-animals-20260505-0
summary:
Powered flight has evolved unambiguously only four times—birds, bats, pterosaurs, and insects (though see above for possible independent acquisitions within bird and bat groups). In contrast to gliding, which has evolved more frequently but typically gives rise to only a handful of species, all three extant groups of powered flyers have a huge number of species, suggesting that flight is a very successful strategy once evolved. Bats, after rodents, have the most species of any mammalian order, about 20% of all mammalian species. Birds have the most species of any class of terrestrial vertebrates. Finally, insects (most of which fly at some point in their life cycle) have more species than all other animal groups combined. The evolution of flight is one of the most striking and demanding in animal evolution, and has attracted the attention of many prominent scientists and generated many theories. Additionally, because flying animals tend to be small and have a low mass (both of which increase the surface-area-to-mass ratio), they tend to fossilize infrequently and poorly compared to the larger, heavier-boned terrestrial species they share habitat with. Fossils of flying animals tend to be confined to exceptional fossil deposits formed under highly specific circumstances, resulting


id: flying-and-gliding-animals-20260505-3
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_and_gliding_animals-3.md
category: reference
title: Flying and gliding animals
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_and_gliding_animals
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:37.316378+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: flying-and-gliding-animals-20260505-0
summary:
Unlike most air vehicles, in which the objects that generate lift (wings) and thrust (engine or propeller) are separate and the wings remain fixed, flying animals use their wings to generate both lift and thrust by moving them relative to the body. This has made the flight of organisms considerably harder to understand than that of vehicles, as it involves varying speeds, angles, orientations, areas, and flow patterns over the wings. A bird or bat flying through the air at a constant speed moves its wings up and down (usually with some fore-aft movement as well). Because the animal is in motion, there is some airflow relative to its body which, combined with the velocity of its wings, generates a faster airflow moving over the wing. This will generate lift force vector pointing forwards and upwards, and a drag force vector pointing rearwards and upwards. The upwards components of these counteract gravity, keeping the body in the air, while the forward component provides thrust to counteract both the drag from the wing and from the body as a whole. Pterosaur flight likely worked in a similar manner, though no living pterosaurs remain for study. Insect flight is considerably different, due


id: flying-and-gliding-animals-20260505-4
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_and_gliding_animals-4.md
category: reference
title: Flying and gliding animals
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_and_gliding_animals
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:37.316378+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: flying-and-gliding-animals-20260505-0
summary:
==== Most maneuverable glider ==== Many gliding animals have some ability to turn, but which is the most maneuverable is difficult to assess. Even paradise tree snakes, Chinese gliding frogs, and gliding ants have been observed as having considerable capacity to turn in the air. == Flying animals == === Extant === ==== Insects ==== Pterygota: The first of all animals to evolve flight, they are also the only invertebrates that have evolved flight. As they comprise almost all insects, the species are too numerous to list here. Insect flight is an active research field. ==== Birds ==== Birds (flying, soaring) – Most of the approximately 10,000 living species can fly (flightless birds are the exception). Bird flight is one of the most studied forms of aerial locomotion in animals. See List of soaring birds for birds that can soar as well as fly. ==== Mammals ==== Bats. There are approximately 1,240 bat species, representing about 20% of all classified mammal species. Most bats are nocturnal and many feed on insects while flying at night, using echolocation to home in on their prey. === Extinct === ==== Reptile: Pterosaurs ==== Pterosaurs were the first flying vertebrates, and are generally agreed


id: flying-and-gliding-animals-20260505-5
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_and_gliding_animals-5.md
category: reference
title: Flying and gliding animals
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_and_gliding_animals
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:37.316378+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: flying-and-gliding-animals-20260505-0
summary:
==== Fish ==== Flying fish. There are over 50 species of flying fish belonging to the family Exocoetidae. They are mostly marine fishes of small to medium size. The largest flying fish can reach lengths of 45 centimetres (18 in) but most species measure less than 30 cm (12 in) in length. They can be divided into two-winged varieties and four-winged varieties. Before the fish leaves the water it increases its speed to around 30 body lengths per second and as it breaks the surface and is freed from the drag of the water it can be traveling at around 60 kilometres per hour (37 mph). The glides are usually up to 30–50 metres (100–160 ft) in length, but some have been observed soaring for hundreds of metres using the updraft on the leading edges of waves. The fish can also make a series of glides, each time dipping the tail into the water to produce forward thrust. The longest recorded series of glides, with the fish only periodically dipping its tail in the water, was for 45 seconds (Video here). It has been suggested that the genus Exocoetus is on an evolutionary borderline between flight and gliding. It flaps


id: flying-and-gliding-animals-20260505-6
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_and_gliding_animals-6.md
category: reference
title: Flying and gliding animals
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_and_gliding_animals
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:37.316378+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: flying-and-gliding-animals-20260505-0
summary:
Flying squirrels (tribe pteromyini). There are more than 50 living species divided between 16 genera of flying squirrel. Flying squirrels are found in Asia (most species), North America (genus Glaucomys) and Europe (Siberian flying squirrel). They inhabit tropical, temperate, and Subarctic environments, with the Glaucomys preferring boreal and montane coniferous forests, specifically landing on red spruce (Picea rubens) trees as landing sites; they are known to rapidly climb trees, but take some time to locate a good landing spot. They tend to be nocturnal and are highly sensitive to light and noise. When a flying squirrel wishes to cross to a tree that is further away than the distance possible by jumping, it extends the cartilage spur on its elbow or wrist. This opens out the flap of furry skin (the patagium) that stretches from its wrist to its ankle. It glides spread-eagle and with its tail fluffed out like a parachute, and grips the tree with its claws when it lands. Flying squirrels have been reported to glide over 200 metres (660 ft). Anomalures or scaly-tailed flying squirrels (family Anomaluridae). These brightly coloured African rodents are not squirrels but have evolved to a resemble flying squirrels by convergent evolution.


id: flying-and-gliding-animals-20260505-7
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_and_gliding_animals-7.md
category: reference
title: Flying and gliding animals
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_and_gliding_animals
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:37.316378+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: flying-and-gliding-animals-20260505-0
summary:
== Further reading == Davenport, J. (1994). "How and why do flying fish fly?". Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries. 40 (2): 184–214. Bibcode:1994RFBF....4..184D. doi:10.1007/BF00044128. S2CID 34720887. Saidel, W.M.; Strain, G.F.; Fornari, S.K. (2004). "Characterization of the aerial escape response of the African butterfly fish, Pantodon buchholzi Peters". Environmental Biology of Fishes. 71 (1): 63–72. Bibcode:2004EnvBF..71...63S. doi:10.1023/b:ebfi.0000043153.38418.cd. S2CID 11856131. Xu, Xing; Zhou, Zhonghe; Wang, Xiaolin; Kuang, Xuewen; Zhang, Fucheng; Du, Xiangke (2003). "Four-winged dinosaurs from China" (PDF). Nature. 421 (6921): 335–340. Bibcode:2003Natur.421..335X. doi:10.1038/nature01342. PMID 12540892. S2CID 1160118. Schiøtz, A.; Vosloe, H. (1959). "The gliding flight of Holaspis guentheri Gray, a west-African lacertid". Copeia. 1959 (3): 259–260. doi:10.2307/1440407. JSTOR 1440407. Arnold, E. N. (2002). "Holaspis, a lizard that glided by accident: mosaics of cooption and adaptation in a tropical forest lacertid (Reptilia, Lacertidae. )". Bulletin of the Natural History Museum, Zoology Series. 68 (2): 155–163. doi:10.1017/s0968047002000171. S2CID 49552361. McGuire, J. A. (2003). "Allometric Prediction of Locomotor Performance: An Example from Southeast Asian Flying Lizards". The American Naturalist. 161 (2): 337–349. Bibcode:2003ANat..161..337M. doi:10.1086/346085. PMID 12675377. S2CID 29494470. Demes, B.; Forchap, E.; Herwig, H. (1991). "They seem to glide. Are there aerodynamic effects in leaping prosimian primates?". Zeitschrift für Morphologie und Anthropologie. 78


id: geologic-time-scale-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geologic_time_scale-0.md
category: reference
title: Geologic time scale
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geologic_time_scale
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:38.551417+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: geologic-time-scale-20260505-0
summary:
The geologic time scale or geological time scale describes how geologic time is divided into standardised intervals. It uses the rock record together with the principles of chronostratigraphy to place rock sequences into their relative age positions, and geochronology techniques, such as radiometric dating, to precisely date the boundaries between them. It is used primarily by Earth scientists (including geologists, paleontologists, geophysicists, geochemists, and paleoclimatologists) to describe the timing and relationships of events in geologic history. The time scale has been developed through the study of rock layers and the observation of their relationships and identifying features such as lithologies, paleomagnetic properties, and fossils. The definition of standardised international units of geological time is the responsibility of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS), a constituent body of the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS), whose primary objective is to precisely define global chronostratigraphic units of the International Chronostratigraphic Chart (ICC) that are used to define divisions of geological time. The chronostratigraphic divisions are in turn used to define geochronologic units. == Principles == The geologic time scale is a way of representing deep time based on events that have occurred throughout Earth's history, a time span of about 4.54 ±


id: geologic-time-scale-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geologic_time_scale-1.md
category: reference
title: Geologic time scale
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geologic_time_scale
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:38.551417+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: geologic-time-scale-20260505-0
summary:
=== Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) === Historically, regional geologic time scales were used due to the litho- and biostratigraphic differences around the world in time equivalent rocks. The ICS has long worked to reconcile conflicting terminology by standardising globally significant and identifiable stratigraphic horizons that can be used to define the lower boundaries of chronostratigraphic units. A Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) defines the lower boundary of a stage as being at a precise point in a specific rock succession in a particular geographic location. These reference points are known informally as "golden" spikes. All the beds above the spike belong to one time interval and all those below it to another. This allows beds of a similar age around the world to be correlated with the strata that contain the golden spike. For example, the iridium anomaly produced by the Chicxulub asteroid impact marks the lower boundary of the Paleogene System and thus the boundary between the Cretaceous and Paleogene. Whilst the GSSP is defined at Oued Djerfane in Tunisia, strata containing the iridium anomaly are found worldwide. The Proterozoic (apart from the Ediacaran), Archean and Hadean are subdivided by absolute ages (Global Standard


id: geologic-time-scale-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geologic_time_scale-2.md
category: reference
title: Geologic time scale
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geologic_time_scale
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:38.551417+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: geologic-time-scale-20260505-0
summary:
=== Early history === The most modern geological time scale was not formulated until 1911 by Arthur Holmes (1890 – 1965), who drew inspiration from James Hutton (1726–1797), a Scottish Geologist who presented the idea of uniformitarianism or the theory that changes to the Earth's crust resulted from continuous and uniform processes. The broader concept of the relation between rocks and time can be traced back to (at least) the philosophers of Ancient Greece from 1200 BC to 600 AD. Xenophanes of Colophon (c. 570–487 BCE) observed rock beds with fossils of seashells located above the sea-level, viewed them as once living organisms, and used this to imply an unstable relationship in which the sea had at times transgressed over the land and at other times had regressed. This view was shared by a few of Xenophanes's scholars and those that followed, including Aristotle (384–322 BC) who (with additional observations) reasoned that the positions of land and sea had changed over long periods of time. The concept of deep time was also recognized by Chinese naturalist Shen Kuo (1031–1095) and Islamic scientist-philosophers, notably the Brothers of Purity, who wrote on the processes of stratification over the passage of time in


id: geologic-time-scale-20260505-3
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geologic_time_scale-3.md
category: reference
title: Geologic time scale
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geologic_time_scale
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:38.551417+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: geologic-time-scale-20260505-0
summary:
Respectively, these are the principles of superposition, original horizontality, lateral continuity, and cross-cutting relationships. From this Steno reasoned that strata were laid down in succession and inferred relative time (in Steno's belief, time from Creation). While Steno's principles were simple and attracted much attention, applying them proved challenging. These basic principles, albeit with improved and more nuanced interpretations, still form the foundational principles of determining the correlation of strata relative to geologic time. Over the course of the 18th-century geologists realised that: Sequences of strata often become eroded, distorted, tilted, or even inverted after deposition Strata laid down at the same time in different areas could have entirely different appearances The strata of any given area represented only part of Earth's long history === Formulation of a modern geologic time scale === The apparent, earliest formal division of the geologic record with respect to time was introduced during the era of Biblical models by Thomas Burnet who applied a two-fold terminology to mountains by identifying "montes primarii" for rock formed at the time of the 'Deluge', and younger "monticulos secundarios" formed later from the debris of the "primarii". Anton Moro (1687–1784) also used primary and secondary divisions for rock units


id: geologic-time-scale-20260505-4
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geologic_time_scale-4.md
category: reference
title: Geologic time scale
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geologic_time_scale
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:38.551417+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: geologic-time-scale-20260505-0
summary:
=== Modern international geological time scale === The establishment of the IUGS in 1961 and acceptance of the Commission on Stratigraphy (applied in 1965) to become a member commission of IUGS led to the founding of the ICS. One of the primary objectives of the ICS is "the establishment, publication and revision of the ICS International Chronostratigraphic Chart which is the standard, reference global Geological Time Scale to include the ratified Commission decisions". Following on from Holmes, several A Geological Time Scale books were published in 1982, 1989, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, and 2020. However, since 2013, the ICS has taken responsibility for producing and distributing the ICC citing the commercial nature, independent creation, and lack of oversight by the ICS on the prior published GTS versions (GTS books prior to 2013) although these versions were published in close association with the ICS. Subsequent Geologic Time Scale books (2016 and 2020) are commercial publications with no oversight from the ICS, and do not entirely conform to the chart produced by the ICS. The ICS produced GTS charts are versioned (year/month) beginning at v2013/01. At least one new version is published each year incorporating any changes ratified by the ICS since


id: geologic-time-scale-20260505-5
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geologic_time_scale-5.md
category: reference
title: Geologic time scale
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geologic_time_scale
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:38.551417+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: geologic-time-scale-20260505-0
summary:
==== Van Kranendonk et al. 2012 (GTS2012) ==== The book, Geologic Time Scale 2012, was the last commercial publication of an international chronostratigraphic chart that was closely associated with the ICS and the Subcommission on Precambrian Stratigraphy. It included a proposal to substantially revise the pre-Cryogenian time scale to reflect important events such as the formation of the Solar System and the Great Oxidation Event, among others, while at the same time maintaining most of the previous chronostratigraphic nomenclature for the pertinent time span. As of April 2022 these proposed changes have not been accepted by the ICS. The proposed changes (changes from the current scale [v2023/09]) are italicised: Hadean Eon (4567–4030 Ma) Chaotian Era/Erathem (4567–4404 Ma) – the name alluding both to the mythological Chaos and the chaotic phase of planet formation. Jack Hillsian or Zirconian Era/Erathem (4404–4030 Ma) – both names allude to the Jack Hills Greenstone Belt which provided the oldest mineral grains on Earth, zircons. Archean Eon/Eonothem (4030–2420 Ma) Paleoarchean Era/Erathem (4030–3490 Ma) Acastan Period/System (4030–3810 Ma) – named after the Acasta Gneiss, one of the oldest preserved pieces of continental crust. Isuan Period/System (3810–3490 Ma) – named after the Isua Greenstone Belt. Mesoarchean Era/Erathem (3490–2780


id: geologic-time-scale-20260505-6
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geologic_time_scale-6.md
category: reference
title: Geologic time scale
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geologic_time_scale
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:38.551417+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: geologic-time-scale-20260505-0
summary:
== Further reading == Aubry, Marie-Pierre; Van Couvering, John A.; Christie-Blick, Nicholas; Landing, Ed; Pratt, Brian R.; Owen, Donald E.; Ferrusquia-Villafranca, Ismael (2009). "Terminology of geological time: Establishment of a community standard". Stratigraphy. 6 (2): 100–105. doi:10.7916/D8DR35JQ. Gradstein, Felix M.; Ogg, James G. (June 2004). "Geologic Time Scale 2004 – why, how, and where next!". Lethaia. 37 (2): 175–181. Bibcode:2004Letha..37..175G. doi:10.1080/00241160410006483. Gradstein, Felix M.; Ogg, James G.; Smith, Alan G., eds. (2005). A Geologic Time Scale 2004. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511536045. ISBN 978-0-521-78673-7. Gradstein, Felix M.; Ogg, James G.; Smith, Alan G.; Bleeker, Wouter; Laurens, Lucas, J. (June 2004). "A new Geologic Time Scale, with special reference to Precambrian and Neogene". Episodes. 27 (2): 83–100. doi:10.18814/epiiugs/2004/v27i2/002. CORE output ID 11773078.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) Ialenti, Vincent (28 September 2014). "Embracing 'Deep Time' Thinking". NPR. NPR Cosmos & Culture. Ialenti, Vincent (21 September 2014). "Pondering 'Deep Time' Could Inspire New Ways To View Climate Change". NPR. NPR Cosmos & Culture. Knoll, Andrew H.; Walter, Malcolm R.; Narbonne, Guy M.; Christie-Blick, Nicholas (30 July 2004). "A New Period for the Geologic Time Scale". Science. 305 (5684): 621–622. doi:10.1126/science.1098803. PMID 15286353. Levin, Harold L. (2010). "Time and Geology". The Earth Through Time.


id: humboldtian-science-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humboldtian_science-0.md
category: reference
title: Humboldtian science
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humboldtian_science
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:41.092440+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: humboldtian-science-20260505-0
summary:
Humboldtian science refers to a movement in science in the 19th century closely connected to the work and writings of German scientist, naturalist, and explorer Alexander von Humboldt. It maintained a certain ethics of precision and observation, which combined scientific field work with the sensitivity and aesthetic ideals of the age of Romanticism. Like Romanticism in science, it was rather popular in the 19th century. The term was coined by Susan Faye Cannon in 1978. The example of Humboldt's life and his writings allowed him to reach out beyond the academic community with his natural history and address a wider audience with popular science aspects. It has supplanted the older Baconian method, related as well to a single person, Francis Bacon. == Brief biography == Humboldt was born in Berlin in 1769 and worked as a Prussian mining official in the 1790s until 1797 when he quit and began collecting scientific knowledge and equipment. His extensive wealth aided his infatuation with the spirit of Romanticism; he amassed an extensive collection of scientific instruments and tools as well as a sizeable library. In 1799 Humboldt, under the protection of King Charles IV of Spain, left for South America and New Spain,


id: humboldtian-science-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humboldtian_science-1.md
category: reference
title: Humboldtian science
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humboldtian_science
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:41.092440+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: humboldtian-science-20260505-0
summary:
insistence on accuracy for all scientific instruments and observations; a mental sophistication in which theoretical mechanisms and entities of past science were taken lightly; a new set of conceptual tools, including isomaps, graphs, and a theory of errors; the application of accuracy, mental sophistication, and tools not to isolated science in laboratories, but to greatly variable real phenomena. == Humboldt's "terrestrial physicist" == Humboldt was committed to what he called 'terrestrial physics.' Essentially Humboldt's new scientific approach required a new type of scientist: Humboldtian science demanded a transition from the naturalist to the physicist. Humboldt described how his idea of terrestrial physics differs from traditional "descriptive" natural history when he stated, "[traveling naturalists] have neglected to track the great and constant laws of nature manifested in the rapid flux of phenomena…and to trace the reciprocal interaction of the divided physical forces." Humboldt did not consider himself an explorer, but rather a scientific traveler, who accurately measured what explorers had reported inaccurately. According to Humboldt, the goal of the terrestrial physicist was to investigate the confluence and interweaving of all physical forces. An incredibly extensive array of precise instrumentation had to be readily available for Humboldt's terrestrial physicist. The expansive amount


id: humboldtian-science-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humboldtian_science-2.md
category: reference
title: Humboldtian science
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humboldtian_science
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:41.092440+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: humboldtian-science-20260505-0
summary:
== Transformation of Humboldtian science == Ralph Waldo Emerson once dubbed Humboldt to be "one of those wonders of the world… who appear from time to time, as if to show us the possibilities of the human mind." When Humboldt first began his studies of organisms and the environment he claimed that he wanted to "reorganize the general connections that link organic beings and to study the great harmonies of Nature". He is often considered one of the world's first genuine ecologists. Humboldt succeeded in developing a comprehensive science that joined the separate branches of natural philosophy under a model of natural order founded on the concept of dynamic equilibrium. Humboldt's work reached far beyond his personal expeditions and discoveries. Figures from all across the globe participated on his work. Some such participants included French naval officers, East India Company physicians, Russian provincial administrators, Spanish military commanders, and German diplomats. As was mentioned previously, Charles Darwin carried a copy of Humboldt's Personal Narrative aboard H.M.S. Beagle. Humboldt's projects, particularly those related to natural philosophy, played a significant role in the influx of European money and travelers to Spanish America in increasing numbers in the early 19th century. Sir Edward Sabine,


id: insect-collecting-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insect_collecting-0.md
category: reference
title: Insect collecting
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insect_collecting
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:42.275675+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: insect-collecting-20260505-0
summary:
Insect collecting refers to the collection of insects and other arthropods for scientific study or as a hobby. Most insects are small and the majority cannot be identified without the examination of minute morphological characters, so entomologists often make and maintain insect collections. Very large collections are preserved in natural history museums or universities where they are maintained and studied by specialists. Many college courses require students to form small collections. There are also amateur entomologists and collectors who keep collections. Historically, insect collecting has been widespread and was in the Victorian age a very popular educational hobby. Insect collecting has left traces in European cultural history, literature and songs, e.g., Georges Brassens's La chasse aux papillons (The Hunt for Butterflies). The practice is particularly common among Japanese youths. == Capture and kill techniques == Insects may be passively caught using traps such as funnels, pitfall traps, bottle traps, malaise traps, or flight interception traps, some of which are baited with small bits of sweet foods (such as honey). Entomologists collecting nocturnal insects (especially moths) during faunistic survey studies might utilize ultraviolet light traps such as the Robinson trap. Aspirators, sometimes called "pooters", suck up insects too small or delicate


id: insect-collecting-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insect_collecting-1.md
category: reference
title: Insect collecting
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insect_collecting
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:42.275675+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: insect-collecting-20260505-0
summary:
Direct pinning. Direct pinning is the insertion of an entomological pin directly through the thorax of a specimen. The insects are pinned vertically through the thorax with a suitably sized pin, but by convention they are not pinned on the midline, but to the right, so as to leave at least one side undamaged. Point. A point is a triangular piece of white card. Specially designed point punches permit the production of large numbers of points of standard sizes as required. To use a point, a pin is inserted through the broad base of the triangle. To mount the specimen, a tiny amount of glue is placed on the tip and applied to the right side of the insect's thorax. If appropriate the tip of the point may be bent at the necessary angle to hold the body of the specimen horizontal when the pin is vertical, with the long axis of the insect at right angles to the point. Minuten pins. Insect pins without heads, 12mm long. They are used for double mounting (staging) very small insects. They also may be used profitably for staging insects of moderate size, where they have the advantage of being less damaging to


id: list-of-natural-history-articles-by-gerard-krefft-in-the-sydney-mail-20260505-0
category: reference
title: List of Natural History articles by Gerard Krefft in The Sydney Mail
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Natural_History_articles_by_Gerard_Krefft_in_The_Sydney_Mail
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:43.487446+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: list-of-natural-history-articles-by-gerard-krefft-in-the-sydney-mail-20260505-0
file:
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Natural_History_articles_by_Gerard_Krefft_in_The_Sydney_Mail-0.md

summary:
Johann Ludwig (Louis) Gerard Krefft (1830 – 1881), one of Australia's first and most influential zoologists and palaeontologists, was an artist, draughtsman, scientist, and natural historian who served as the curator of the Australian Museum, in Sydney, New South Wales, for 13 years (1861–1874). The following is a list of Krefft's articles that were regularly published in the "Natural History" Section of The Sydney Mail between 4 March 1871 and 26 June 1875. Although a small number of relevant items written by others appeared in The Sydney Mail's "Natural History" section from time to time — e.g., John William Brazier (2 March 1872), George Bennett (9 August 1873), Georgen Mivart (7 March 1874), "Anonymous" (16 May 1874), etc. — the section's very first article was Krefft's 4 March 1871 contribution, and its very last was Krefft's 26 June 1875 contribution: == See also == Krefft's "Natural History" articles in The Sydney Mail


id: kunstformen-der-natur-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunstformen_der_Natur-0.md
category: reference
title: Kunstformen der Natur
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunstformen_der_Natur
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:48.673201+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: kunstformen-der-natur-20260505-0
summary:
Kunstformen der Natur (known in English as Art Forms in Nature) is a book of lithographic and halftone prints by German biologist Ernst Haeckel. == Publication == Originally published in sets of ten between 1899 and 1904 and collectively in two volumes in 1904, it consists of 100 prints of various organisms, many of which were first described by Haeckel himself. Over the course of his career, over 1000 prints were produced based on Haeckel's sketches and watercolors; many of the best of these were chosen for Kunstformen der Natur, translated from sketch to print by lithographer Adolf Giltsch. A second edition of Kunstformen, containing only 30 prints, was produced in 1914. == Themes == According to Haeckel scholar Olaf Breidbach, the work was "not just a book of illustrations but also the summation of his view of the world." The over-riding themes of the Kunstformen plates are symmetry and level of organization. The subjects were selected to embody these to the full, from the scale patterns of boxfishes to the spirals of ammonites to the perfect symmetries of jellies and microorganisms, while images composing each plate are arranged for maximum visual impact. Among the notable prints are numerous radiolarians,


id: list-of-parson-naturalists-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_parson-naturalists-0.md
category: reference
title: List of parson-naturalists
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_parson-naturalists
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:49.903144+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: list-of-parson-naturalists-20260505-0
summary:
Parson-naturalists were ministers of religion who also studied natural history. The archetypical parson-naturalist was a priest in the Church of England in charge of a country parish, who saw the study of science as an extension of his religious work. The philosophy entailed the belief that God, as the Creator of all things, wanted man to understand his Creations and thus to study them through scientific techniques. They often collected and preserved natural artefacts such as leaves, flowers, birds' eggs, birds, insects, and small mammals to classify and study. Some wrote books or kept nature diaries. == Parson-naturalists == == See also == List of Christian thinkers in science Science in the Age of Enlightenment == References == == Bibliography == Armstrong, Patrick (2000). The English Parson-naturalist: A Companionship Between Science and Religion. Gracewing Publishing. ISBN 978-0-85244-516-7.


id: marine-counterparts-of-land-creatures-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_counterparts_of_land_creatures-0.md
category: reference
title: Marine counterparts of land creatures
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_counterparts_of_land_creatures
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:51.190306+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: marine-counterparts-of-land-creatures-20260505-0
summary:
The idea that there are specific marine counterparts to land creatures, inherited from the writers on natural history in Antiquity, was firmly believed in Islam and in Medieval Europe. It is exemplified by the creatures represented in the medieval animal encyclopedias called bestiaries, and in the parallels drawn in the moralising attributes attached to each. "The creation was a mathematical diagram drawn in parallel lines," T. H. White said a propos the bestiary he translated. "Things did not only have a moral they often had physical counterparts in other strata. There was a horse in the land and a sea-horse in the sea. For that matter there was probably a Pegasus in heaven". The idea of perfect analogies in the fauna of land and sea was considered part of the perfect symmetry of the Creator's plan, offered as the "book of nature" to mankind, for which a text could be found in Job: But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds of the air, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish of the sea inform you. Which of all these does not know that


id: natural-history-of-australia-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_history_of_Australia-0.md
category: reference
title: Natural history of Australia
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_history_of_Australia
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:52.520128+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: natural-history-of-australia-20260505-0
summary:
The natural history of Australia has been shaped by the geological evolution of the Australian continent from Gondwana and the changes in global climate over geological time. The building of the Australian continent and its association with other land masses, as well as climate changes over geological time, have created the unique flora and fauna present in Australia today. There are many species of flora and fauna that are unique to Australia, and do not exist in any other part of the world. The natural history of Australia begins with rock formation, followed by geological development, life evolution, and continues to change today. == Precambrian == Three areas of the Australian landmass that are made of Archaean rocks are more than 2.5 billion years old, among the oldest known rocks. These igneous and metamorphic rocks are found in the Yilgarn (West) and Pilbara (North) cratons in today's Western Australia and the Gawler (South) craton which makes up the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia. During the Proterozoic, 2,500 to 545 Ma, continent building took place around the existing cratons; the accretions include sedimentary deposition of the banded iron formations and the formation of Australia's major orebodies – sources of gold, copper,


id: natural-history-of-australia-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_history_of_Australia-1.md
category: reference
title: Natural history of Australia
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_history_of_Australia
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:52.520128+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: natural-history-of-australia-20260505-0
summary:
During the Carboniferous glaciation, erosion by ice extended into the Early Permian. Crustal extension and subsidence around 295 Ma formed shallow basins in which thick coal deposits were formed. During the Mesozoic, when the Earth became much warmer, 251 to 140 Ma, the Australian landmass was covered with riverine plains. Humid conditions allowed the formation of peatlands, particularly in the east. Dinosaurs, reptiles and primitive mammals were present in Australia. Between 140 and 99 Ma, sea levels rose, and much of the continent was covered. In the same period (between 120 and 105 Ma), there was more volcanism in eastern Australia, leading to uplift creating the Tasman Sea to the southeast and the Coral Sea to the north. The earliest land plants preserved in Australia occur in deposits from the Upper Silurian and the Lower Devonian in marine sediments in Victoria, named the Baragwanathia Assemblage for its most prominent element, the simple vascular plant the lycopod Baragwanathia. The assemblage also included Rhyniophyta, Zosterophyllophyta, and Trimerophyta in addition to other lycopods. All these plants were herbaceous, coastal and required an aqueous environment for reproduction. During the Devonian the first shrub-sized to tree-sized lycopods appeared in Australia and Antarctica; they dominated the


id: nature-center-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nature_center-0.md
category: reference
title: Nature center
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nature_center
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:53.639096+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: nature-center-20260505-0
summary:
A nature center (or nature centre) is an organization with a visitor center or interpretive center designed to educate people about nature and the environment. Usually in a protected open space, nature centers often have trails through their property. Some are in a state or city park, and some have special gardens or an arboretum. Their properties can be characterized as nature preserves and wildlife sanctuaries. Nature centers generally display small live animals, such as reptiles, rodents, insects, or fish. There are often museum exhibits and displays about natural history, or preserved mounted animals or nature dioramas. Nature centers are staffed by paid or volunteer naturalists and most offer educational programs to the general public, as well as summer camp, after-school and school group programs. These educational programs teach people about nature conservation as well as the scientific method, biology, and ecology. Some nature centers allow free admission but collect voluntary donations in order to help offset expenses. They usually rely on support from volunteers. Environmental education centers differ from nature centers in that their museum exhibits and education programs are available mostly by appointment, although casual visitors may be allowed to walk on their grounds. Some city, state and


id: nature-writing-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nature_writing-0.md
category: reference
title: Nature writing
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nature_writing
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:54.821129+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: nature-writing-20260505-0
summary:
Nature writing is nonfiction or fiction prose about the natural environment. It often draws heavily from scientific information and facts while also incorporating philosophical reflection upon various aspects of nature. Works are frequently written in the first person and include personal observations. Nature writing encompasses a wide variety of works, ranging from those that place primary emphasis on natural history (such as field guides) to those focusing on philosophical interpretation. It includes poetry, essays of solitude or escape, as well as travel and adventure writing. Modern-day nature writing traces its roots to works of natural history that initially gained popularity in the second half of the 18th century, and continued to do so throughout the 19th century. An important early figure in nature writing was the parson-naturalist Gilbert White (1720–1793), a pioneering English naturalist and ornithologist. He is best known for writing Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne (1789). William Bartram (1739–1823) was another significant American pioneer naturalist who became a respected figure in literary and scientific communities after his first work was published in 1791. == Early history == The tradition of clerical naturalists can be traced back to the monastic writings of the Middle Ages, although under modern-day


id: nature-writing-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nature_writing-1.md
category: reference
title: Nature writing
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nature_writing
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:54.821129+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: nature-writing-20260505-0
summary:
== 20th century to date == The second half of the 20th century saw a significant increase in nature writing in fiction and non-fiction in Britain. One of the earliest of these works was John Moore (1907–1967), a best-selling pioneer conservationist. Writing from the 1930s to 1960s, he was described by Sir Compton Mackenzie as the most talented writer about the countryside of his generation. Moore's contemporaries included Henry Williamson (1895–1977), best known for Tarka the Otter, whose imaginative prose won him the Hawthornden Prize in 1928. Other 20th century writers included American authors Edward Abbey (1927–1989), Aldo Leopold (1887–1948) and Indian author M. Krishnan (1912–1996). After World War II, other writers emerged including English teacher and naturalist Margaret Hutchinson (1904–1997), who strongly advocated for raising children as naturalists from an early age. American author Rachel Carson (1907–1964) is known for Silent Spring, published in 1962. Carson heralded a new and pointed style of nature writing that carried stronger warnings of environmental loss as pesticide use in industrial agriculture became an increasing concern after World War II. Relevant contemporary nature writers in Britain include Richard Mabey, Roger Deakin, Mark Cocker, and Oliver Rackham. Rackham's books included Ancient Woodland (1980) and


id: naturhistorieselskabet-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naturhistorieselskabet-0.md
category: reference
title: Naturhistorieselskabet
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naturhistorieselskabet
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:56.048785+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: naturhistorieselskabet-20260505-0
summary:
Naturhistorieselskabet (lit. 'the Society for Natural History') was a private society that was the only institution to offer education in natural history in Denmark in the late 18th century. The spirit of the Age of Enlightenment and an escalating agricultural crisis, led the king and the Danish elite to call foreign experts on economy, including botany and silviculture, to the country. The autonomous University of Copenhagen, on the other hand, was reluctant to employ foreign experts in little-established disciplines. Naturhistorieselskabet was formed in 1788 in order to ensure education in botany, zoology and mineralogy based on private funds. For example, Martin Vahl lectured in botany. After the appointment in 1795 of a professor in geology and in 1797 one in botany, the society gradually lost its importance. It was soon abolished and its collections donated to the state (much later united with the university collections). == Sources == Wagner, P.H. 2001. Institutionaliseringen af botanik og geologi i Danmark-Norge i det 18. århundrede (colloquium). Institut for Videnskabshistorie.


id: peterson-identification-system-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peterson_Identification_System-0.md
category: reference
title: Peterson Identification System
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peterson_Identification_System
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:57.310517+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: peterson-identification-system-20260505-0
summary:
The Peterson Identification System is a practical method for the field identification of animals, plants and other natural phenomena. It was devised by ornithologist Roger Tory Peterson in 1934 for the first of his series of Field Guides (See Peterson Field Guides.) Peterson devised his system "so that live birds could be identified readily at a distance by their 'field marks' without resorting to the bird-in-hand characters that the early collectors relied on. During the last half century the binocular and the spotting scope have replaced the shotgun." As such, it both reflected and contributed to awareness of the emerging early environmental movement. Another application of this system was made when Roger Tory Peterson was enlisted in the US Army Corps of Engineers from 1943 to 1945. “...plane identification—the aircraft spotting technique—was based on Roger’s bird identification method-the Peterson system.”. == The system == Created for use by amateur naturalists and laymen, rather than specialists, the "Peterson System" is essentially a pictorial key based upon readily noticed visual impressions rather than on the technical features of interest to scientists. The technique involves patternistic drawings with arrows that pinpoint the key field comparisons between similar species. == Influence == Since the


id: plant-collecting-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plant_collecting-0.md
category: reference
title: Plant collecting
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plant_collecting
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:58.571386+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: plant-collecting-20260505-0
summary:
Plant collecting is the acquisition of plant specimens for the purposes of research, cultivation, or as a hobby. Plant specimens may be kept alive, but are more commonly dried and pressed to preserve the quality of the specimen. Plant collecting is an ancient practice with records of a Chinese botanist collecting roses over 5000 years ago. Herbaria are collections of preserved plants samples and their associated data for scientific purposes. The largest herbarium in the world exist at the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, in Paris, France. Plant samples in herbaria typically include a reference sheet with information about the plant and details of collection. This detailed and organized system of filing provides horticulturist and other researchers alike with a way to find information about a certain plant, and a way to add new information to an existing plant sample file. The collection of live plant specimens from the wild, sometimes referred to as plant hunting, is an activity that has occurred for centuries. The earliest recorded evidence of plant hunting was in 1495 BC when botanists were sent to Somalia to collect incense trees for Queen Hatshepsut. The Victorian era saw a surge in plant hunting activity as botanical adventurers


id: plant-collecting-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plant_collecting-1.md
category: reference
title: Plant collecting
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plant_collecting
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:58.571386+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: plant-collecting-20260505-0
summary:
=== Preservation without pressing === Some specimens cannot be compressed, degrade when dried, or require other techniques for preservation and storage. Large seeds or fruits may be stored in boxes without compression. Aquatic plants and delicate plants may be stored in a liquid preservative. Cacti may be stored in ethanol. In cases where drying or pressing a plant may destroy or alter a plant feature being studied, 50-75% ethanol can be used to preserve the specimen for up to 4 weeks. This is commonly used when sectioning tissue samples. If a collector wishes to preserve a flower in its natural shape they will use a desiccant. The most commonly used desiccant is silica gel. To do this flowers are placed in a box, and the desiccant is added till the flowers are covered. After 2–7 days the desiccant is removed, revealing the preserved flowers. == Collection of herbarium specimens == Herbarium specimens of plants are collected for a number of different uses. They can assist in accurate identification and provide a species record for a time and place that can be used in distribution maps. They can also provide biological material for researchers, a reference point to document scientific names


id: plant-collecting-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plant_collecting-2.md
category: reference
title: Plant collecting
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plant_collecting
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:58.571386+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: plant-collecting-20260505-0
summary:
Another Victorian craze known as Orchidelirium similarly led to a drastic decline of several species of orchids. The lady's slipper orchid Cypripedium calceolus was declared extinct in the UK in 1917 and later rediscovered in 1930 as a single wild plant in the Yorkshire Dales, the only remaining site in the UK for these plants. Once found, the plant was guarded 24 hours a day. ==== Summer lady's-tresses orchid ==== In 1956, the UK's last remaining plants of the Spiranthes aestivalis, summer lady's-tresses orchid, were stolen. The orchid is still classified as extinct in the UK. === Modern examples === Many botanical gardens have been the target of plant theft, given the nature of their collections, which often house rare and valuable plants. ==== Kew Royal Botanic Gardens (2014) ==== In 2014, Kew Royal Botanic Gardens saw the theft of one of twenty-four of their Nymphaea thermarum, the world's smallest water lily ever discovered. There are about 100 of these species left, which survive solely in botanical gardens, last seen in the wild in 2008. ==== Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden (2014) ==== In 2014 in two separate incidents, a total of twenty four cycads were taken from the Kirstenbosch National


id: regius-professor-of-natural-history-aberdeen-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regius_Professor_of_Natural_History_(Aberdeen)-0.md
category: reference
title: Regius Professor of Natural History (Aberdeen)
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regius_Professor_of_Natural_History_(Aberdeen)
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:46:59.789536+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: regius-professor-of-natural-history-aberdeen-20260505-0
summary:
The Regius Professor of Natural History is a Regius Professorship at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. It was originally called the Regius Professor of Civil and Natural History at Marischal College until in 1860 Marischal College and King's Colleges merged to form the University of Aberdeen, and the title changed to Natural History. == References ==


