# kb

id: history-of-science-and-technology-in-africa-20260505-15
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_science_and_technology_in_Africa-15.md
category: reference
title: History of science and technology in Africa
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_science_and_technology_in_Africa
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:40:31.520269+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: history-of-science-and-technology-in-africa-20260505-0
summary:
=== Northern Africa and the Nile Valley === Africa's first writing system and the beginning of the alphabet was Egyptian hieroglyphs. Two scripts have been the direct offspring of Egyptian hieroglyphs, the Proto-Sinaitic script and the Meroitic alphabet. Out of Proto-Sinaitic came the South Arabian alphabet and Phoenician alphabet, out of which the Aramaic alphabet, Greek alphabet, the Brāhmī script, Arabic alphabet were directly or indirectly derived. Out of the South Arabian alphabet came the Ge'ez alphabet which is used to write Blin(cushitic), Amharic, Tigre, and Tigrinya in Ethiopia and Eritrea. Out the Phoenician Alphabet came tifinagh, the berber alphabet mainly used by the Tuaregs. The other direct offspring of Egyptian hieroglyphs was the Meroitic alphabet. It began in the Napatan phase of Nubian history, Kush (700–300 BCE). It came into full fruition in the 2nd century, under the successor Nubian kingdom of Meroë. The script can be read but not understood, with the discovery at el-Hassa, Sudan of ram statues bearing meroitic inscriptions might assist in its translation. === The Sahel === With the arrival of Islam came the Arabic alphabet in the Sahel. Arabic writing is widespread in the Sahel. The Arabic script was also used to write


id: history-of-science-and-technology-in-africa-20260505-16
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_science_and_technology_in_Africa-16.md
category: reference
title: History of science and technology in Africa
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_science_and_technology_in_Africa
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:40:31.520269+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: history-of-science-and-technology-in-africa-20260505-0
summary:
It is especially interesting that the form of writing that developed in Bunyoro was based on a floral code, as the absence of both writing and flowers in African culture have been used by Jack Goody as evidence of African culture's separateness from that of "Eurasia." Goody has written that African peoples generally did not make significant use of flowers in worship, gift-giving or decoration. He does "not know of any indigenous use of odours", nor of plants playing a role in stories or myths. This is thought to be because of Africa's "simple" agriculture, "non-complex" societies and absence of a "culture of luxury". This description of African life does not fit well with what we know of precolonial Bunyoro, a large, relatively ancient, and extremely hierarchical kingdom, and the analysis of the role of flowers was quite inaccurate. The ancient court music composers of Buganda discovered how human auditory perception processes a complex sequence of rapid, irregular sound impulses by splitting the total image into perceptible units at different pitch levels. They had made use of their discovery in composition, creating indirectly polyphonies of interweaving melodic lines that would suggest words to a Luganda speaker, as if some spirit


id: history-of-science-and-technology-in-africa-20260505-17
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_science_and_technology_in_Africa-17.md
category: reference
title: History of science and technology in Africa
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_science_and_technology_in_Africa
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:40:31.520269+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: history-of-science-and-technology-in-africa-20260505-0
summary:
=== West Africa === Between 3200 BP and 1000 BP, various Central Saharan rock art sites from the Horse Period were created depicting charioteers, mostly upon horse-driven chariots and rarely upon cattle-driven chariots; these painted and engraved depictions were distributed in 81 painted and 120 engraved depictions in Algeria, 18 painted and 44 engraved depictions in Libya, 6 engraved depictions in Mali, 125 engraved depictions in Mauritania, 96 engraved depictions in Morocco, 29 engraved depictions in Niger, and 21 engraved depictions in Western Sahara, and were likely created by the Garamantes, whose ancestors were ancient Berbers and Saharan pastoralists. Rock art engravings of ox-drawn wagons and horse-driven chariots can be found in Algeria, Libya, southern Morocco, Mauritania, and Niger. At Dhar Tichitt, there is Neolithic rock art that depicts a human figure with a link in their hand, connecting him to yoked oxen that are pulling a cart. At Dhar Walata, there is Neolithic rock art that depicts a human figure in relation to an ox cart. At Bled Initi, which is a hamlet near Akreijit, there are two depictions of ox carts that have been estimated to date between 650 BCE and 380 BCE, and are consistent with the


id: history-of-science-and-technology-in-africa-20260505-18
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_science_and_technology_in_Africa-18.md
category: reference
title: History of science and technology in Africa
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_science_and_technology_in_Africa
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:40:31.520269+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: history-of-science-and-technology-in-africa-20260505-0
summary:
=== West Africa === Fortification was a major part of defense, integral to warfare. Massive earthworks were built around cities and settlements in West Africa, typically defended by soldiers with bow and poison-tipped arrows. The earthworks are some of the largest man made structures in Africa and the world such as the walls of Benin and Sungbo's Eredo. In Central Africa, the Angola region, one find preference for ditches, which were more successful for defense against wars with Europeans. African infantry did not just include men. The state of Dahomey included all-female units, the so-called Dahomey Amazons, who were personal bodyguards of the king. The Queen Mother of Benin had her own personal army, 'The Queen's Own.' Biologicals were extensively used in many parts of Africa, most of the time in the form of poisoned arrows, but also powder spread on the war front or in the form of the poisoning of horses and water supply of the opponents. In Borgu, there were specific mixtures to kill, for hypnosis, to make the enemy bold, and to act as an antidote against the enemies' poison. A specific class of medicine-men was responsible for the making of the biologicals. In South Sudan,


id: history-of-science-and-technology-in-africa-20260505-19
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_science_and_technology_in_Africa-19.md
category: reference
title: History of science and technology in Africa
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_science_and_technology_in_Africa
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:40:31.520269+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: history-of-science-and-technology-in-africa-20260505-0
summary:
=== Northern Africa and the Nile Valley === Carthage imported gold, copper, ivory, and slaves from tropical Africa. Carthage exported salt, cloth, metal goods. Before camels were used in the trans-Saharan trade pack animals, oxen, donkeys, mules, and horses were utilized. Extensive use of camels began in the 1st century CE. Carthage minted gold, silver, bronze, and electrum(mix gold and silver) coins mainly for fighting wars with Greeks and Romans. Most of their fighting force were mercenaries, who had to be paid. Islamic North Africa made use of the Almoravid dinar and Fatimid dinar, gold coins. The Almoravid dinar and the Fatimid dinar were printed on gold from the Sahelian empires. The ducat of Genoa and Venice and the florine of Florence were also printed on gold from the Sahelian empires. Ancient Egypt imported ivory, gold, incense, hardwood, and ostrich feather. Nubia exported gold, cotton/cotton cloth, ostrich feathers, leopard skins, ivory, ebony, and iron/iron weapons. === West Africa and the Sahel === Cowries have been used as currency in West Africa since the 11th century when their use was first recorded near Old Ghana. Its use may have been much older. Sijilmasa in present-day Morocco seems to be a major


id: history-of-science-and-technology-in-africa-20260505-20
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_science_and_technology_in_Africa-20.md
category: reference
title: History of science and technology in Africa
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_science_and_technology_in_Africa
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:40:31.520269+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: history-of-science-and-technology-in-africa-20260505-0
summary:
=== West Africa === Igbo Olokun, also known as Olokun Grove, may be one of the earliest workshops for producing glass in West Africa. Glass production may have begun during, if not before, the 11th century. The 11th–15th century were the peak of glass production. High lime, high alumina (HLHA) and low lime, high alumina (LLHA) glass are distinct compositions that were developed using locally sourced recipes, raw materials, and pyrotechnology. The presence of HLHA glass beads discovered throughout West Africa (e.g., Igbo-Ukwu in southern Nigeria, Gao and Essouk in Mali, and Kissi in Burkina Faso), after the ninth century CE, reveals the broader importance of this glass industry in the region and shows its participation in regional trade networks (e.g., trans-Saharan trade, trans-Atlantic trade). Glass beads served as "the currency for negotiating political power, economic relations, and cultural/spiritual values" for "Yoruba, West Africans, and the African diaspora." == Science and traditional worldviews == Bandama and Babalola (2023) states: The view of science as "embedded practice", intimately connected with ritual, for example, is considered "ascientific", "pseudo-science", or "magic" in Western perspective. In Africa, there is a strong connection between the physical and the terrestrial worlds. The deities and gods are


id: science-and-technology-in-germany-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_and_technology_in_Germany-0.md
category: reference
title: Science and technology in Germany
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_and_technology_in_Germany
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:40:32.655595+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: science-and-technology-in-germany-20260505-0
summary:
Science and technology in Germany has a long and illustrious history, and research and development efforts form an integral part of the country's economy. Germany has been the home of some of the most prominent researchers in various scientific disciplines, notably physics, mathematics, chemistry and engineering. Before World War II, Germany had produced more Nobel laureates in scientific fields than any other nation, and was the preeminent country in the natural sciences. Germany is currently the nation with the 3rd most Nobel Prize winners, 115. The German language, along with English and French, was one of the leading languages of science from the late 19th century until the end of World War II. After the war, because so many scientific researchers' and teachers' careers had been ended either by Nazi Germany which started a brain drain, the denazification process, the American Operation Paperclip and Soviet Operation Osoaviakhim which exacerbated the brain drain in post-war Germany, or simply losing the war, "Germany, German science, and German as the language of science had all lost their leading position in the scientific community." Today, scientific research in the country is supported by industry, the network of German universities and scientific state-institutions such as


id: science-and-technology-in-germany-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_and_technology_in_Germany-1.md
category: reference
title: Science and technology in Germany
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_and_technology_in_Germany
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:40:32.655595+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: science-and-technology-in-germany-20260505-0
summary:
Johannes Kepler discovered the laws according to which planets are moving around the Sun, who were called Kepler's laws after him. With his introduction to calculating with logarithms, Kepler contributed to the spread of this type of calculation. In mathematics, a numerical method for calculating the volume of wine barrels with integrals was named former Kepler's barrel rule. He made optics to a subject of scientific investigation and confirmed the discoveries made with the telescope by his Italian contemporary Galileo Galilei (1564–1642). He worked on the theory of the telescope and invented the refracting astronomical or Keplerian telescope, which involved a considerable improvement over the Galilean telescope. Kepler also made the invention of the valveless gear pump, because a mine owner needed a device to pump water out of his mine. === Physics === Otto von Guericke (1602–1686) was a scientist, inventor, mathematician and physicist from Magdeburg. He is best known for his experiments on air pressure using the Magdeburg hemispheres. With the invention of the vacuum pump he laid the foundation of vacuum technology. Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit (1686–1736) was a physicist and inventor of measuring instruments from Danzig. The temperature unit degrees Fahrenheit (°F) was named after him. Gustav


id: science-and-technology-in-germany-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_and_technology_in_Germany-2.md
category: reference
title: Science and technology in Germany
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_and_technology_in_Germany
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:40:32.655595+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: science-and-technology-in-germany-20260505-0
summary:
Germany has been the home of many famous inventors and engineers, such as Johannes Gutenberg, who is credited with the invention of movable type printing press in Europe; Hans Geiger, the creator of the Geiger counter; and Konrad Zuse, who built the first electronic computer. German inventors, engineers and industrialists such as Zeppelin, Siemens, Daimler, Otto, Wankel, Von Braun and Benz helped shape modern automotive and air transportation technology including the beginnings of space travel. The engineer Otto Lilienthal laid some of the fundamentals for the science of aviation. The physicist and optician Ernst Abbe (1840–1905) founded in the 19th century together with the entrepreneurs Carl Zeiss (1840–1905) and Otto Schott (1851–1935) the basics of modern Optical engineering and developed many optical instruments like microscopes and telescopes. Since 1899 he was the sole owner of the Carl Zeiss AG and played a decisive role of setting up the enterprise Jenaer Glaswerk Schott & Gen (today Schott AG). These enterprises are very successful worldwide up to present time (21st century). The engineer Rudolf Diesel (1858–1913) was the inventor of an internal combustion engine, the Diesel engine. He first published his idea of an engine with a particularly high level of efficiency


id: science-and-technology-in-germany-20260505-3
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_and_technology_in_Germany-3.md
category: reference
title: Science and technology in Germany
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_and_technology_in_Germany
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:40:32.655595+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: science-and-technology-in-germany-20260505-0
summary:
Besides natural sciences, German researchers have added much to the development of humanities. Albertus Magnus (c. 1200–1280) was a polymath, philosopher, lawyer, natural scientist, theologian, Dominican and Bishop of Regensburg. His great, diverse knowledge earned him the name Magnus ("the Great"), the title of Doctor of the Church and the honorary title of doctor universalis. Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717–1768) was a German art historian and archaeologist, "the prophet and founding hero of modern archaeology". Heinrich Schliemann (1822–1890) was a wealthy businessman and a devotee of the historicity of places mentioned in the works of Homer and an archaeological excavator of Hisarlik (since 1871), now presumed to be the site of Troy, along with the Mycenaean sites Mycenae and Tiryns. Theodor Mommsen (1817–1903) is widely counted as one of the greatest classicists of the 19th century; his work regarding Roman history is still of fundamental importance for contemporary research. Max Weber (1864–1920) was together with Karl Marx (1818–1883) among the most important theorists of the development of modern Western society and is regarded as one of the founder of the Sociology. Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) was a philosopher of the Enlightenment and professor of logic and metaphysics in Königsberg. Kant is one


id: science-and-technology-in-germany-20260505-4
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_and_technology_in_Germany-4.md
category: reference
title: Science and technology in Germany
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_and_technology_in_Germany
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:40:32.655595+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: science-and-technology-in-germany-20260505-0
summary:
Benjamin List, Chemistry, 2021 Klaus Hasselmann, Physics, 2021 Reinhard Genzel, Physics, 2020 Joachim Frank, Chemistry, 2017 Thomas C. Südhof, Physiology or Medicine, 2013 Harald zur Hausen, Physiology or Medicine, 2008 Gerhard Ertl, Chemistry, 2007 Peter Grünberg, Physics, 2007 Theodor W. Hänsch, Physics, 2005 Wolfgang Ketterle, Physics, 2001 Herbert Kroemer, Physics, 2000 Günter Blobel, Physiology or Medicine, 1999 Horst L. Störmer, Physics, 1998 Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, Physiology or Medicine, 1995 Reinhard Selten, Economics, 1994 Bert Sakmann, Physiology or Medicine, 1991 Erwin Neher, Physiology or Medicine, 1991 Hans G. Dehmelt, Physics, 1989 Wolfgang Paul, Physics, 1989 Johann Deisenhofer, Chemistry, 1988 Robert Huber, Chemistry, 1988 Hartmut Michel, Chemistry, 1988 J. Georg Bednorz, Physics, 1987 Ernst Ruska, Physics, 1986 Gerd Binnig, Physics, 1986 Klaus von Klitzing, Physics, 1985 Georges J.F. Köhler, Physiology or Medicine, 1984 Georg Wittig, Chemistry, 1979 Ernst Otto Fischer, Chemistry, 1973 Karl von Frisch, Physiology or Medicine, 1973 Max Delbrück, Physiology or Medicine, 1969 Manfred Eigen, Chemistry, 1967 Feodor Felix Konrad Lynen, Physiology or Medicine, 1964 Karl Ziegler, Chemistry, 1963 Maria Goeppert-Mayer, Physics, 1963 J. Hans D. Jensen, Physics, 1963 Rudolf Mössbauer, Physics, 1961 Werner Forssmann, Physiology or Medicine, 1956 Polykarp Kusch, Physics, 1955 Max Born, Physics, 1954 Walther Bothe, Physics, 1954


id: science-in-the-enlightenment-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_in_the_Enlightenment-0.md
category: reference
title: Science in the Enlightenment
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_in_the_Enlightenment
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:40:33.858689+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: science-in-the-enlightenment-20260505-0
summary:
The history of science during the Enlightenment traces developments in science and technology as Enlightenment ideas and ideals were being disseminated across Europe and North America. Generally, the period spans from the final days of the 16th- and 17th-century Scientific Revolution until roughly the 19th century, after the French Revolution (1789) and the Napoleonic era (1799–1815). The scientific revolution saw the creation of the first scientific societies, the rise of Copernicanism, and the displacement of Aristotelian natural philosophy and Galen's ancient medical doctrine. By the 18th century, scientific authority began to displace religious authority, and the disciplines of alchemy and astrology lost scientific credibility. While the Enlightenment cannot be pigeonholed into a specific doctrine or set of dogmas, science came to play a leading role in Enlightenment discourse and thought. Many Enlightenment writers and thinkers had backgrounds in the sciences and associated scientific advancement with the overthrow of religion and traditional authority in favour of the development of free speech and thought. Broadly speaking, Enlightenment science greatly valued empiricism and rational thought, and was embedded with the Enlightenment ideal of advancement and progress. As with most Enlightenment views, the benefits of science were not seen universally; Jean-Jacques Rousseau criticized the


id: science-in-the-enlightenment-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_in_the_Enlightenment-1.md
category: reference
title: Science in the Enlightenment
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_in_the_Enlightenment
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:40:33.858689+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: science-in-the-enlightenment-20260505-0
summary:
Universities in France tended to serve a downplayed role in the development of science during the Enlightenment; that role was dominated by the scientific academies, such as the French Academy of Sciences. The contributions of universities in Britain were mixed. On the one hand, the University of Cambridge began teaching Newtonianism early in the Enlightenment, but failed to become a central force behind the advancement of science. On the other end of the spectrum were Scottish universities, which had strong medical faculties and became centres of scientific development. Under Frederick II, German universities began to promote the sciences. Christian Wolff's unique blend of Cartesian-Leibnizian physics began to be adopted in universities outside of Halle. The University of Göttingen, founded in 1734, was far more liberal than its counterparts, allowing professors to plan their own courses and select their own textbooks. Göttingen also emphasized research and publication. A further influential development in German universities was the abandonment of Latin in favour of the German vernacular. In the 17th century, the Netherlands had played a significant role in the advancement of the sciences, including Isaac Beeckman's mechanical philosophy and Christiaan Huygens' work on the calculus and in astronomy. Professors at universities in


id: science-in-the-enlightenment-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_in_the_Enlightenment-2.md
category: reference
title: Science in the Enlightenment
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_in_the_Enlightenment
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:40:33.858689+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: science-in-the-enlightenment-20260505-0
summary:
The limitations of such academic journals left considerable space for the rise of independent periodicals. Some eminent examples include Johann Ernst Immanuel Walch's Der Naturforscher (The Natural Investigator) (1725–1778), Journal des sçavans (1665–1792), the Jesuit Mémoires de Trévoux (1701–1779), and Leibniz's Acta Eruditorum (Reports/Acts of the Scholars) (1682–1782). Independent periodicals were published throughout the Enlightenment and excited scientific interest in the general public. While the journals of the academies primarily published scientific papers, independent periodicals were a mix of reviews, abstracts, translations of foreign texts, and sometimes derivative, reprinted materials. Most of these texts were published in the local vernacular, so their continental spread depended on the language of the readers. For example, in 1761 Russian scientist Mikhail Lomonosov correctly attributed the ring of light around Venus, visible during the planet's transit, as the planet's atmosphere; however, because few scientists understood Russian outside of Russia, his discovery was not widely credited until 1910. Some changes in periodicals occurred during the course of the Enlightenment. First, they increased in number and size. There was also a move away from publishing in Latin in favour of publishing in the vernacular. Experimental descriptions became more detailed and began to be accompanied by reviews.


id: science-in-the-enlightenment-20260505-3
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_in_the_Enlightenment-3.md
category: reference
title: Science in the Enlightenment
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_in_the_Enlightenment
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:40:33.858689+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: science-in-the-enlightenment-20260505-0
summary:
As an Encyclopédie, it is to set forth as well as possible the order and connection of the parts of human knowledge. As a Reasoned Dictionary of the Sciences, Arts, and Trades, it is to contain the general principles that form the basis of each science and each art, liberal or mechanical, and the most essential facts that make up the body and substance of each. The massive work was arranged according to a "tree of knowledge". The tree reflected the marked division between the arts and sciences, which was largely a result of the rise of empiricism. Both areas of knowledge were united by philosophy, or the trunk of the tree of knowledge. The Enlightenment's desacrilization of religion was pronounced in the tree's design, particularly where theology accounted for a peripheral branch, with black magic as a close neighbour. As the Encyclopédie gained popularity, it was published in quarto and octavo editions after 1777. The quarto and octavo editions were much less expensive than previous editions, making the Encyclopédie more accessible to the non-elite. Robert Darnton estimates that there were approximately 25 000 copies of the Encyclopédie in circulation throughout France and Europe before the French Revolution. The extensive,


id: science-in-the-enlightenment-20260505-4
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_in_the_Enlightenment-4.md
category: reference
title: Science in the Enlightenment
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_in_the_Enlightenment
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:40:33.858689+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: science-in-the-enlightenment-20260505-0
summary:
=== Popular science in print === Increasing literacy rates in Europe during the course of the Enlightenment enabled science to enter popular culture through print. More formal works included explanations of scientific theories for individuals lacking the educational background to comprehend the original scientific text. Sir Isaac Newton's celebrated Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica was published in Latin and remained inaccessible to readers without education in the classics until Enlightenment writers began to translate and analyze the text in the vernacular. The first French introduction to Newtonianism and the Principia was Eléments de la philosophie de Newton, published by Voltaire in 1738. Émilie du Châtelet's translation of the Principia, published after her death in 1756, also helped to spread Newton's theories beyond scientific academies and the university. However, science took an ever greater step towards popular culture before Voltaire's introduction and Châtelet's translation. The publication of Bernard de Fontenelle's Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds (1686) marked the first significant work that expressed scientific theory and knowledge expressly for the laity, in the vernacular, and with the entertainment of readers in mind. The book was produced specifically for women with an interest in scientific writing and inspired a variety of similar


id: science-in-the-enlightenment-20260505-5
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_in_the_Enlightenment-5.md
category: reference
title: Science in the Enlightenment
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_in_the_Enlightenment
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:40:33.858689+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: science-in-the-enlightenment-20260505-0
summary:
Despite these limitations, there was support for women in the sciences among some men, and many made valuable contributions to science during the 18th century. Two notable women who managed to participate in formal institutions were Laura Bassi and the Russian Princess Yekaterina Dashkova. Bassi was an Italian physicist who received a PhD from the University of Bologna and began teaching there in 1732. Dashkova became the director of the Russian Imperial Academy of Sciences of St. Petersburg in 1783. Her personal relationship with Empress Catherine the Great (r. 1762–1796) allowed her to obtain the position, which marked in history the first appointment of a woman to the directorship of a scientific academy. Eva Ekeblad became the first woman inducted into the Royal Swedish Academy of Science (1748). More commonly, women participated in the sciences through an association with a male relative or spouse. Caroline Herschel began her astronomical career, although somewhat reluctantly at first, by assisting her brother William Herschel. Caroline Herschel is most remembered for her discovery of eight comets and her Index to Flamsteed's Observations of the Fixed Stars (1798). On August 1, 1786, Herschel discovered her first comet, much to the excitement of scientifically minded women.


id: science-in-the-enlightenment-20260505-6
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_in_the_Enlightenment-6.md
category: reference
title: Science in the Enlightenment
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_in_the_Enlightenment
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:40:33.858689+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: science-in-the-enlightenment-20260505-0
summary:
The chemical revolution was a period in the 18th century marked by significant advancements in the theory and practice of chemistry. Despite the maturity of most of the sciences during the scientific revolution, by the mid-18th century chemistry had yet to outline a systematic framework or theoretical doctrine. Elements of alchemy still permeated the study of chemistry, and the belief that the natural world was composed of the classical elements of earth, water, air and fire remained prevalent. The key achievement of the chemical revolution has traditionally been viewed as the abandonment of phlogiston theory in favour of Antoine Lavoisier's oxygen theory of combustion; however, more recent studies attribute a wider range of factors as contributing forces behind the chemical revolution. Developed under Johann Joachim Becher and Georg Ernst Stahl, phlogiston theory was an attempt to account for products of combustion. According to the theory, a substance called phlogiston was released from flammable materials through burning. The resulting product was termed calx, which was considered a 'dephlogisticated' substance in its 'true' form. The first strong evidence against phlogiston theory came from pneumatic chemists in Britain during the later half of the 18th century. Joseph Black, Joseph Priestley and Henry Cavendish


id: history-of-scientific-method-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_scientific_method-0.md
category: reference
title: History of scientific method
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_scientific_method
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:40:35.120566+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: history-of-scientific-method-20260505-0
summary:
The history of scientific method considers changes in the methodology of scientific inquiry, as distinct from the history of science itself. The development of rules for scientific reasoning has not been straightforward; scientific method has been the subject of intense and recurring debate throughout the history of science, and eminent natural philosophers and scientists have argued for the primacy of one or another approach to establishing scientific knowledge. Rationalist explanations of nature, including atomism, appeared both in ancient Greece in the thought of Leucippus and Democritus, and in ancient India, in the Nyaya, Vaisheshika and Buddhist schools, while Charvaka materialism rejected inference as a source of knowledge in favour of an empiricism that was always subject to doubt. Aristotle pioneered scientific method in ancient Greece alongside his empirical biology and his work on logic, rejecting a purely deductive framework in favour of generalisations made from observations of nature. Some of the most important debates in the history of scientific method center on: rationalism, especially as advocated by René Descartes; inductivism, which rose to particular prominence with Isaac Newton and his followers; and hypothetico-deductivism, which came to the fore in the early 19th century. In the late 19th and early 20th


id: history-of-scientific-method-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_scientific_method-1.md
category: reference
title: History of scientific method
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_scientific_method
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:40:35.120566+00:00
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parent: history-of-scientific-method-20260505-0
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=== Aristotle === Aristotle's inductive-deductive method used inductions from observations to infer general principles, deductions from those principles to check against further observations, and more cycles of induction and deduction to continue the advance of knowledge. The Organon (Greek: Ὄργανον, meaning "instrument, tool, organ") is the standard collection of Aristotle's six works on logic. The name Organon was given by Aristotle's followers, the Peripatetics. The order of the works is not chronological (the chronology is now difficult to determine) but was deliberately chosen by Theophrastus to constitute a well-structured system. Indeed, parts of them seem to be a scheme of a lecture on logic. The arrangement of the works was made by Andronicus of Rhodes around 40 BCE. The Organon comprises the following six works: The Categories (Greek: Κατηγορίαι, Latin: Categoriae) introduces Aristotle's 10-fold classification of that which exists: substance, quantity, quality, relation, place, time, situation, condition, action, and passion. On Interpretation (Greek: Περὶ Ἑρμηνείας, Latin: De Interpretatione) introduces Aristotle's conception of proposition and judgment, and the various relations between affirmative, negative, universal, and particular propositions. Aristotle discusses the square of opposition or square of Apuleius in Chapter 7 and its appendix Chapter 8. Chapter 9 deals with the problem


id: history-of-scientific-method-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_scientific_method-2.md
category: reference
title: History of scientific method
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_scientific_method
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:40:35.120566+00:00
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parent: history-of-scientific-method-20260505-0
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=== Epicurus === In his work Kαvώv ('canon', a straight edge or ruler, thus any type of measure or standard, referred to as 'canonic'), Epicurus laid out his first rule for inquiry in physics: 'that the first concepts be seen, and that they not require demonstration '. His second rule for inquiry was that prior to an investigation, we are to have self-evident concepts, so that we might infer [ἔχωμεν οἷς σημειωσόμεθα] both what is expected [τò προσμένον], and also what is non-apparent [τò ἄδηλον]. Epicurus applies his method of inference (the use of observations as signs, Asmis' summary, p. 333: the method of using the phenomena as signs (σημεῖα) of what is unobserved) immediately to the atomic theory of Democritus. In Aristotle's Prior Analytics, Aristotle himself employs the use of signs. But Epicurus presented his 'canonic' as rival to Aristotle's logic. See: Lucretius (c. 99 BCE – c. 55 BCE) De rerum natura (On the nature of things) a didactic poem explaining Epicurus' philosophy and physics. == Emergence of inductive experimental method == During the Middle Ages issues of what is now termed science began to be addressed. There was greater emphasis on combining theory with practice in the


id: history-of-scientific-method-20260505-3
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_scientific_method-3.md
category: reference
title: History of scientific method
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_scientific_method
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:40:35.120566+00:00
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parent: history-of-scientific-method-20260505-0
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=== Al-Biruni === The Persian scientist Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī introduced early scientific methods for several different fields of inquiry during the 1020s and 1030s. For example, in his treatise on mineralogy, Kitab al-Jawahir (Book of Precious Stones), al-Biruni is "the most exact of experimental scientists", while in the introduction to his study of India, he declares that "to execute our project, it has not been possible to follow the geometric method" and thus became one of the pioneers of comparative sociology in insisting on field experience and information. He also developed an early experimental method for mechanics. Al-Biruni's methods resembled the modern scientific method, particularly in his emphasis on repeated experimentation. Biruni was concerned with how to conceptualize and prevent both systematic errors and observational biases, such as "errors caused by the use of small instruments and errors made by human observers." He argued that if instruments produce errors because of their imperfections or idiosyncratic qualities, then multiple observations must be taken, analyzed qualitatively, and on this basis, arrive at a "common-sense single value for the constant sought", whether an arithmetic mean or a "reliable estimate." In his scientific method, "universals came out of practical, experimental work" and "theories are


id: history-of-scientific-method-20260505-4
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_scientific_method-4.md
category: reference
title: History of scientific method
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_scientific_method
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:40:35.120566+00:00
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parent: history-of-scientific-method-20260505-0
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=== Renaissance humanism and medicine === Aristotle's ideas became a framework for critical debate beginning with absorption of the Aristotelian texts into the university curriculum in the first half of the 13th century. Contributing to this was the success of medieval theologians in reconciling Aristotelian philosophy with Christian theology. Within the sciences, medieval philosophers were not afraid of disagreeing with Aristotle on many specific issues, although their disagreements were stated within the language of Aristotelian philosophy. All medieval natural philosophers were Aristotelians, but "Aristotelianism" had become a somewhat broad and flexible concept. With the end of Middle Ages, the Renaissance rejection of medieval traditions coupled with an extreme reverence for classical sources led to a recovery of other ancient philosophical traditions, especially the teachings of Plato. By the 17th century, those who clung dogmatically to Aristotle's teachings were faced with several competing approaches to nature. The discovery of the Americas at the close of the 15th century showed the scholars of Europe that new discoveries could be found outside of the authoritative works of Aristotle, Pliny, Galen, and other ancient writers. Galen of Pergamon (129 – c. 200 AD) had studied with four schools in antiquity — Platonists, Aristotelians, Stoics,


id: history-of-scientific-method-20260505-5
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_scientific_method-5.md
category: reference
title: History of scientific method
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_scientific_method
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:40:35.120566+00:00
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parent: history-of-scientific-method-20260505-0
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The first modern science, in which practitioners were prepared to revise or reject long-held beliefs in the light of new evidence, was astronomy, and Tycho Brahe was the first modern astronomer. See Sextant, right. Note the explicit reduction of geometrical diagrams to practice (real objects with actual lengths and angles). In 1572, Tycho noticed a completely new star that was brighter than any star or planet. Astonished by the existence of a star that ought not to have been there and gaining the patronage of King Frederick II of Denmark, Tycho built the Uraniborg observatory at enormous cost. Over a period of fifteen years (1576–1591), Tycho and upwards of thirty assistants charted the positions of stars, planets, and other celestial bodies at Uraniborg with unprecedented accuracy. In 1600, Tycho hired Johannes Kepler to assist him in analyzing and publishing his observations. Kepler later used Tycho's observations of the motion of Mars to deduce the laws of planetary motion, which were later explained in terms of Newton's law of universal gravitation. Besides Tycho's specific role in advancing astronomical knowledge, Tycho's single-minded pursuit of ever-more-accurate measurement was enormously influential in creating a modern scientific culture in which theory and evidence were understood


id: history-of-scientific-method-20260505-6
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_scientific_method-6.md
category: reference
title: History of scientific method
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_scientific_method
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:40:35.120566+00:00
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parent: history-of-scientific-method-20260505-0
summary:
In 1619, René Descartes began writing his first major treatise on proper scientific and philosophical thinking, the unfinished Rules for the Direction of the Mind. His aim was to create a complete science that he hoped would overthrow the Aristotelian system and establish himself as the sole architect of a new system of guiding principles for scientific research. This work was continued and clarified in his 1637 treatise, Discourse on Method, and in his 1641 Meditations. Descartes describes the intriguing and disciplined thought experiments he used to arrive at the idea we instantly associate with him: I think therefore I am. From this foundational thought, Descartes finds proof of the existence of a God who, possessing all possible perfections, will not deceive him provided he resolves "[...] never to accept anything for true which I did not clearly know to be such; that is to say, carefully to avoid precipitancy and prejudice, and to comprise nothing more in my judgment than what was presented to my mind so clearly and distinctly as to exclude all ground of methodic doubt." This rule allowed Descartes to progress beyond his own thoughts and judge that there exist extended bodies outside of his own


id: history-of-scientific-method-20260505-7
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_scientific_method-7.md
category: reference
title: History of scientific method
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_scientific_method
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:40:35.120566+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: history-of-scientific-method-20260505-0
summary:
Both Bacon and Descartes wanted to provide a firm foundation for scientific thought that avoided the deceptions of the mind and senses. Bacon envisaged that foundation as essentially empirical, whereas Descartes provides a metaphysical foundation for knowledge. If there were any doubts about the direction in which scientific method would develop, they were set to rest by the success of Isaac Newton. Implicitly rejecting Descartes' emphasis on rationalism in favor of Bacon's empirical approach, he outlines his four "rules of reasoning" in the Principia, We are to admit no more causes of natural things than such as are both true and sufficient to explain their appearances. Therefore to the same natural effects we must, as far as possible, assign the same causes. The qualities of bodies, which admit neither intension nor remission of degrees, and which are found to belong to all bodies within the reach of our experiments, are to be esteemed the universal qualities of all bodies whatsoever. In experimental philosophy we are to look upon propositions collected by general induction from phænomena as accurately or very nearly true, notwithstanding any contrary hypotheses that may be imagined, until such time as other phænomena occur, by which they may


id: history-of-scientific-method-20260505-8
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_scientific_method-8.md
category: reference
title: History of scientific method
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_scientific_method
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:40:35.120566+00:00
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parent: history-of-scientific-method-20260505-0
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"In order to achieve completeness in our knowledge of nature, we must start from two extremes, from experience and from the intellect itself. ... The former method must conclude with natural laws, which it has abstracted from experience, while the latter must begin with principles, and gradually, as it develops more and more, it becomes ever more detailed. Of course, I speak here about the method as manifested in the process of the human intellect itself, not as found in textbooks, where the laws of nature which have been abstracted from the consequent experiences are placed first because they are required to explain the experiences. When the empiricist in his regression towards general laws of nature meets the metaphysician in his progression, science will reach its perfection." Ørsted's "First Introduction to General Physics" (1811) exemplified the steps of observation, hypothesis, deduction and experiment. In 1805, based on his researches on electromagnetism Ørsted came to believe that electricity is propagated by undulatory action (i.e., fluctuation). By 1820, he felt confident enough in his beliefs that he resolved to demonstrate them in a public lecture, and in fact observed a small magnetic effect from a galvanic circuit (i.e., voltaic circuit), without rehearsal;


id: history-of-scientific-method-20260505-9
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_scientific_method-9.md
category: reference
title: History of scientific method
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_scientific_method
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:40:35.120566+00:00
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parent: history-of-scientific-method-20260505-0
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In the late 19th century, Charles Sanders Peirce proposed a schema that would turn out to have considerable influence in the further development of scientific method generally. Peirce's work quickly accelerated the progress on several fronts. Firstly, speaking in broader context in "How to Make Our Ideas Clear" (1878), Peirce outlined an objectively verifiable method to test the truth of putative knowledge on a way that goes beyond mere foundational alternatives, focusing upon both Deduction and Induction. He thus placed induction and deduction in a complementary rather than competitive context (the latter of which had been the primary trend at least since David Hume a century before). Secondly, and of more direct importance to scientific method, Peirce put forth the basic schema for hypothesis-testing that continues to prevail today. Extracting the theory of inquiry from its raw materials in classical logic, he refined it in parallel with the early development of symbolic logic to address the then-current problems in scientific reasoning. Peirce examined and articulated the three fundamental modes of reasoning that play a role in scientific inquiry today, the processes that are currently known as abductive, deductive, and inductive inference. Thirdly, he played a major role in the progress


id: history-of-scientific-method-20260505-10
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_scientific_method-10.md
category: reference
title: History of scientific method
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_scientific_method
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:40:35.120566+00:00
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parent: history-of-scientific-method-20260505-0
summary:
Investigation, or the art of inquiring into the nature of causes and their operation, is a leading characteristic of reason [...] Investigation implies three things – Observation, Hypothesis, and Experiment [...] The first step in the process, it will be perceived, is to observe... In 1885, the words "Scientific method" appear together with a description of the method in Francis Ellingwood Abbot's 'Scientific Theism', Now all the established truths which are formulated in the multifarious propositions of science have been won by the use of Scientific Method. This method consists in essentially three distinct steps (1) observation and experiment, (2) hypothesis, (3) verification by fresh observation and experiment. The Eleventh Edition of Encyclopædia Britannica did not include an article on scientific method; the Thirteenth Edition listed scientific management, but not method. By the Fifteenth Edition, a 1-inch article in the Micropædia of Britannica was part of the 1975 printing, while a fuller treatment (extending across multiple articles, and accessible mostly via the index volumes of Britannica) was available in later printings. == Current issues == In the past few centuries, some statistical methods have been developed, for reasoning in the face of uncertainty, as an outgrowth of methods for eliminating


id: list-of-scientific-priority-disputes-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_scientific_priority_disputes-0.md
category: reference
title: List of scientific priority disputes
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_scientific_priority_disputes
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:40:36.340823+00:00
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parent: list-of-scientific-priority-disputes-20260505-0
summary:
This is a list of priority disputes in history of science and science-related fields (such as mathematics). == Astronomy == 1558 invention of the geoheliocentric system: Tycho Brahe, Nicolaus Raimarus Ursus 1609–1610 Galilean moons: Galileo, Simon Marius 1612 discovery of sunspots: Galileo Galilei, Christoph Scheiner 1846 prediction of Neptune: Urbain Le Verrier, John Couch Adams 2004–2005 controversy over the discovery of Haumea: José Luis Ortiz Moreno, Michael E. Brown. == Biology and medicine == 1652 discovery of the lymphatic system: Olof Rudbeck, Thomas Bartholin c. 1660 teaching a deaf-mute person to speak: John Wallis, William Holder c. 1667 first human blood transfusion: Richard Lower, Henry Oldenburg, Jean-Baptiste Denys c. 1859 development of the theory of evolution: Charles Darwin, Alfred Russel Wallace, Patrick Matthew 1877–1892 Bone Wars: Edward Drinker Cope, Othniel Charles Marsh. 1882–1889: Koch–Pasteur rivalry: Louis Pasteur, Robert Koch. 1899–1902 discovery of the life cycle of malarial parasite: Giovanni Battista Grassi, Ronald Ross 1953–1962 discovery of the DNA structure: Francis Crick, James D. Watson, Rosalind Franklin, Erwin Chargaff, Oswald Avery 1971–1973 discovery of opiate receptors: Candace Pert, Solomon H. Snyder1971–1975 invention of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI): Paul Lauterbur, Peter Mansfield, Raymond Vahan Damadian, and others (see 2003 Nobel Prize in


id: second-international-congress-of-the-history-of-science-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_International_Congress_of_the_History_of_Science-0.md
category: reference
title: Second International Congress of the History of Science
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_International_Congress_of_the_History_of_Science
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:40:41.574866+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: second-international-congress-of-the-history-of-science-20260505-0
summary:
The Second International Congress of the History of Science was held in London from June 29 to July 4, 1931. The Congress was organised by the International Committee of History of Science, in conjunction with the Comité International des Sciences Historiques. The History of Science Society and the Newcomen Society also supported the event. Charles Singer presided over the congress. Although organised by the International Committee of History of Science, it was during this congress that this organisation was transformed into an individual membership organisation called the International Academy of the History of Science. The inaugural session was held in the Great Hall of the Royal Geographical Society. This was opened by Hastings Lees-Smith, President of the Board of Education. The rest of the congress was conducted in four sessions held in the lecture hall of the Science Museum. == Sessions == === The Sciences as an integral Part of General Historical Study === This session was chaired by Gino Loria (University of Genoa). George Clark (University of Oxford) initiated the session pleading that science has a truer sense of history than any other sphere of human activity. William Cecil Dampier then presented a hierarchical approach to the history of


id: small-science-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_science-0.md
category: reference
title: Small science
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_science
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:40:42.729158+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: small-science-20260505-0
summary:
Small science (in contrast to big science) is science performed in a smaller scale, such as by individuals, small teams or within community projects. Bodies which fund research, such as the National Science Foundation, DARPA, and the EU with its Framework programs, have a tendency to fund larger-scale research projects. Reasons include the idea that ambitious research needs significant resources devoted for its execution and the reduction of administrative and overhead costs on the funding body side. However, small science which has data that is often local and is not easily shared is funded in many areas such as chemistry and biology by these funding bodies. == Importance == Small Science helps define the goals and directions of large scale scientific projects. In turn, results of large scale projects are often best synthesized and interpreted by the long-term efforts of the Small Science community. In addition, because Small Science is typically done at universities, it provides students and young researchers with an integral involvement in defining and solving scientific problems. Hence, small science can be seen as an important factor for bringing together science and society. According to the Chronicle for Higher Education, James M. Caruthers, a professor of chemical


id: stalin-and-the-scientists-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalin_and_the_Scientists-0.md
category: reference
title: Stalin and the Scientists
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalin_and_the_Scientists
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:40:43.998993+00:00
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parent: stalin-and-the-scientists-20260505-0
summary:
Stalin and the Scientists: A History of Triumph and Tragedy 1905–1953 is a 2016 popular science non-fiction book on the history of science in the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin by English novelist and science writer, Simon Ings. It is Ings' second non-fiction book, the first being The Eye: A Natural History (2007). He had previously published eight novels. Stalin and the Scientists was longlisted for the 2016 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction. == Background == Ings' inspiration for Stalin and the Scientists came from Soviet psychologist, Alexander Luria's book Mind of a Mnemonist, about the life of Russian journalist and mnemonist, Solomon Shereshevsky. Ings said in 2016 interviews that Luria is often referred to as the founder of modern neuroanatomy and "the godfather of the literary genre we call popular science". "Luria's account more or less set the template for modern popular science and ... pretty much set me on the path I'm on now." Ings had considered writing a biography about Luria, but felt that while Luria's achievements were "extraordinary", considering the climate of political repression he worked in, Ings was concerned that Western readers would consider his career too ordinary, and would miss the context in which


id: supersymmetry-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supersymmetry-0.md
category: reference
title: Supersymmetry
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supersymmetry
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:40:45.384774+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: supersymmetry-20260505-0
summary:
Supersymmetry is a theoretical framework in physics that suggests the existence of a symmetry between particles with integer spin (bosons) and particles with half-integer spin (fermions). It proposes that for every known particle, there exists a partner particle with different spin properties. There have been multiple experiments on supersymmetry that have failed to provide evidence that it exists in nature. If evidence is found, supersymmetry could help explain certain phenomena, such as the nature of dark matter and the hierarchy problem in particle physics. A supersymmetric theory is a theory in which the equations for force and the equations for matter are identical. In theoretical and mathematical physics, any theory with this property has the principle of supersymmetry (SUSY). Dozens of supersymmetric theories exist. In theory, supersymmetry is a type of spacetime symmetry between two basic classes of particles: bosons, which have an integer-valued spin and follow Bose–Einstein statistics, and fermions, which have a half-integer-valued spin and follow Fermi–Dirac statistics. The names of bosonic partners of fermions are prefixed with s-, because they are scalar particles. For example, if the electron existed in a supersymmetric theory, then there would be a particle called a selectron (superpartner electron), a bosonic partner


id: supersymmetry-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supersymmetry-1.md
category: reference
title: Supersymmetry
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supersymmetry
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:40:45.384774+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: supersymmetry-20260505-0
summary:
{ Q α , Q ¯ β ˙ } = 2 ( σ μ ) α β ˙ P μ {\displaystyle \{Q_{\alpha },{\bar {Q}}_{\dot {\beta }}\}=2(\sigma ^{\mu })_{\alpha {\dot {\beta }}}P_{\mu }} and all other anti-commutation relations between the Q {\displaystyle Q} s and commutation relations between the Q {\displaystyle Q} s and P {\displaystyle P} s vanish. In the above expression P μ = − i ∂ μ {\displaystyle P_{\mu }=-i\partial _{\mu }} are the generators of translation and σ μ {\displaystyle \sigma ^{\mu }} are the Pauli matrices. There are representations of a Lie superalgebra that are analogous to representations of a Lie algebra. Each Lie algebra has an associated Lie group and a Lie superalgebra can sometimes be extended into representations of a Lie supergroup. === Supersymmetric quantum mechanics === Supersymmetric quantum mechanics adds the SUSY superalgebra to quantum mechanics as opposed to quantum field theory. Supersymmetric quantum mechanics often becomes relevant when studying the dynamics of supersymmetric solitons, and due to the simplified nature of having fields which are only functions of time (rather than space-time), a great deal of progress has been made in this subject and it is now studied in its own right.


id: supersymmetry-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supersymmetry-2.md
category: reference
title: Supersymmetry
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supersymmetry
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:40:45.384774+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: supersymmetry-20260505-0
summary:
All stochastic (partial) differential equations, the models for all types of continuous time dynamical systems, possess topological supersymmetry. In the operator representation of stochastic evolution, the topological supersymmetry is the exterior derivative which is commutative with the stochastic evolution operator defined as the stochastically averaged pullback induced on differential forms by SDE-defined diffeomorphisms of the phase space. The topological sector of the so-emerging supersymmetric theory of stochastic dynamics can be recognized as the Witten-type topological field theory. The meaning of the topological supersymmetry in dynamical systems is the preservation of the phase space continuity—infinitely close points will remain close during continuous time evolution even in the presence of noise. When the topological supersymmetry is broken spontaneously, this property is violated in the limit of the infinitely long temporal evolution and the model can be said to exhibit (the stochastic generalization of) the butterfly effect. From a more general perspective, spontaneous breakdown of the topological supersymmetry is the theoretical essence of the ubiquitous dynamical phenomenon variously known as chaos, turbulence, self-organized criticality etc. The Goldstone theorem explains the associated emergence of the long-range dynamical behavior that manifests itself as ⁠1/f⁠ noise, butterfly effect, and the scale-free statistics of sudden (instantonic) processes,


id: supersymmetry-20260505-3
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supersymmetry-3.md
category: reference
title: Supersymmetry
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supersymmetry
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:40:45.384774+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: supersymmetry-20260505-0
summary:
Incorporating supersymmetry into the Standard Model requires doubling the number of particles since there is no way that any of the particles in the Standard Model can be superpartners of each other. With the addition of new particles, there are many possible new interactions. The simplest possible supersymmetric model consistent with the Standard Model is the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) which can include the necessary additional new particles that are able to be superpartners of those in the Standard Model. One of the original motivations for the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model came from the hierarchy problem. Due to the quadratically divergent contributions to the Higgs mass squared in the Standard Model, the quantum mechanical interactions of the Higgs boson causes a large renormalization of the Higgs mass and unless there is an accidental cancellation, the natural size of the Higgs mass is the greatest scale possible. Furthermore, the electroweak scale receives enormous Planck-scale quantum corrections. The observed hierarchy between the electroweak scale and the Planck scale must be achieved with extraordinary fine tuning. This problem is known as the hierarchy problem. Supersymmetry close to the electroweak scale, such as in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model, would solve the hierarchy


id: supersymmetry-20260505-4
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supersymmetry-4.md
category: reference
title: Supersymmetry
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supersymmetry
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:40:45.384774+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: supersymmetry-20260505-0
summary:
=== Searches and constraints for supersymmetry === SUSY extensions of the Standard Model are constrained by a variety of experiments, including measurements of low-energy observables – for example, the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon at Fermilab; the WMAP dark matter density measurement and direct detection experiments – for example, XENON-100 and LUX; and by particle collider experiments, including B-physics, Higgs phenomenology and direct searches for superpartners (sparticles), at the Large Electron–Positron Collider, Tevatron and the LHC. In fact, CERN publicly states that if a supersymmetric model of the Standard Model "is correct, supersymmetric particles should appear in collisions at the LHC". Historically, the tightest limits were from direct production at colliders. The first mass limits for squarks and gluinos were made at CERN by the UA1 experiment and the UA2 experiment at the Super Proton Synchrotron. LEP later set very strong limits, which in 2006 were extended by the D0 experiment at the Tevatron. From 2003 to 2015, WMAP's and Planck's dark matter density measurements have strongly constrained supersymmetric extensions of the Standard Model, which, if they explain dark matter, have to be tuned to invoke a particular mechanism to sufficiently reduce the neutralino density. Prior to the beginning


id: supersymmetry-20260505-5
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supersymmetry-5.md
category: reference
title: Supersymmetry
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supersymmetry
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:40:45.384774+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: supersymmetry-20260505-0
summary:
=== Extended supersymmetry === It is possible to have more than one kind of supersymmetry transformation. Theories with more than one supersymmetry transformation are known as extended supersymmetric theories. The more supersymmetry a theory has, the more constrained are the field content and interactions. Typically the number of copies of a supersymmetry is a power of 2 (1, 2, 4, 8...). In four dimensions, a spinor has four degrees of freedom and thus the minimal number of supersymmetry generators is four in four dimensions and having eight copies of supersymmetry means that there are 32 supersymmetry generators. The maximal number of supersymmetry generators possible is 32. Theories with more than 32 supersymmetry generators automatically have massless fields with spin greater than 2. It is not known how to make massless fields with spin greater than two interact, so the maximal number of supersymmetry generators considered is 32. This is due to the Weinberg–Witten theorem. This corresponds to an N = 8 supersymmetry theory. Theories with 32 supersymmetries automatically have a graviton. For four dimensions there are the following theories, with the corresponding multiplets (CPT adds a copy, whenever they are not invariant under such symmetry): === Supersymmetry in alternate numbers


id: history-of-synthetic-aperture-radar-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_synthetic-aperture_radar-0.md
category: reference
title: History of synthetic-aperture radar
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_synthetic-aperture_radar
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:40:46.679531+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: history-of-synthetic-aperture-radar-20260505-0
summary:
The history of synthetic-aperture radar begins in 1951, with the invention of the technology by mathematician Carl A. Wiley, and its development in the following decade. Initially developed for military use, the technology has since been applied in the field of planetary science. == Invention == Carl A. Wiley, a mathematician at Goodyear Aircraft Company in Litchfield Park, Arizona, invented synthetic-aperture radar in June 1951 while working on a correlation guidance system for the Atlas ICBM program. In early 1952, Wiley, together with Fred Heisley and Bill Welty, constructed a concept validation system known as DOUSER ("Doppler Unbeamed Search Radar"). During the 1950s and 1960s, Goodyear Aircraft (later Goodyear Aerospace) introduced numerous advancements in SAR technology, many with help from Don Beckerleg. Independently of Wiley's work, experimental trials in early 1952 by Sherwin and others at the University of Illinois' Control Systems Laboratory showed results that they pointed out "could provide the basis for radar systems with greatly improved angular resolution" and might even lead to systems capable of focusing at all ranges simultaneously. In both of those programs, processing of the radar returns was done by electrical-circuit filtering methods. In essence, signal strength in isolated discrete bands of Doppler


id: history-of-synthetic-aperture-radar-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_synthetic-aperture_radar-1.md
category: reference
title: History of synthetic-aperture radar
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_synthetic-aperture_radar
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:40:46.679531+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: history-of-synthetic-aperture-radar-20260505-0
summary:
=== Technical and scientific basis === The required data processing amounted to calculating cross-correlations of the received signals with samples of the forms of signals to be expected from unit-amplitude sources at the various ranges. At that time, even large digital computers had capabilities somewhat near the levels of today's four-function handheld calculators, hence were nowhere near able to do such a huge amount of computation. Instead, the device for doing the correlation computations was to be an optical correlator. It was proposed that signals received by the traveling antenna and coherently detected be displayed as a single range-trace line across the diameter of the face of a cathode-ray tube, the line's successive forms being recorded as images projected onto a film traveling perpendicular to the length of that line. The information on the developed film was to be subsequently processed in the laboratory on equipment still to be devised as a principal task of the project. In the initial processor proposal, an arrangement of lenses was expected to multiply the recorded signals point-by-point with the known signal forms by passing light successively through both the signal film and another film containing the known signal pattern. The subsequent summation, or


id: history-of-synthetic-aperture-radar-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_synthetic-aperture_radar-2.md
category: reference
title: History of synthetic-aperture radar
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_synthetic-aperture_radar
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:40:46.679531+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: history-of-synthetic-aperture-radar-20260505-0
summary:
=== Results === Michigan's chosen 5-foot (1.5 m)-wide World War II-surplus antenna was theoretically capable of 5-foot (1.5 m) resolution, but data from only 10% of the beamwidth was used at first, the goal at that time being to demonstrate 50-foot (15 m) resolution. It was understood that finer resolution would require the added development of means for sensing departures of the aircraft from an ideal heading and flight path, and for using that information for making needed corrections to the antenna pointing and to the received signals before processing. After numerous trials in which even small atmospheric turbulence kept the aircraft from flying straight and level enough for good 50-foot (15 m) data, one pre-dawn flight in August 1957 yielded a map-like image of the Willow Run Airport area which did demonstrate 50-foot (15 m) resolution in some parts of the image, whereas the illuminated beam width there was 900 feet (270 m). Although the program had been considered for termination by DoD due to what had seemed to be a lack of results, that first success ensured further funding to continue development leading to solutions to those recognized needs. == Public acknowledgement == The SAR principle was first


id: history-of-synthetic-aperture-radar-20260505-3
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_synthetic-aperture_radar-3.md
category: reference
title: History of synthetic-aperture radar
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_synthetic-aperture_radar
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:40:46.679531+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: history-of-synthetic-aperture-radar-20260505-0
summary:
== Digitisation == After the initial work began, several of the capabilities for creating useful classified systems did not exist for another two decades. That seemingly slow rate of advances was often paced by the progress of other inventions, such as the laser, the digital computer, circuit miniaturization, and compact data storage. Once the laser appeared, optical data processing became a fast process because it provided many parallel analog channels, but devising optical chains suited to matching signal focal lengths to ranges proceeded by many stages and turned out to call for some novel optical components. Since the process depended on diffraction of light waves, it required anti-vibration mountings, clean rooms, and highly trained operators. Even at its best, its use of CRTs and film for data storage placed limits on the range depth of images. At several stages, attaining the frequently over-optimistic expectations for digital computation equipment proved to take far longer than anticipated. For example, the SEASAT system was ready to orbit before its digital processor became available, so a quickly assembled optical recording and processing scheme had to be used to obtain timely confirmation of system operation. In 1978, the first digital SAR processor was developed by


id: table-turning-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table-turning-0.md
category: reference
title: Table-turning
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table-turning
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:40:47.940874+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: table-turning-20260505-0
summary:
Table-turning (also known as table-tapping, table-tipping or table-tilting) is a type of séance in which participants sit around a table, place their hands on it, and wait for rotations. The table was purportedly made to serve as a means of communicating with the spirits; the alphabet would be slowly spoken aloud and the table would tilt at the appropriate letter, thus spelling out words and sentences. The process is similar to that of a Ouija board. Scientists and skeptics consider table-turning to be the result of the ideomotor effect, or of conscious trickery. == History == When the movement of spiritualism first reached Europe from America in the winter of 1852–1853, the most popular method of consulting the spirits was for several persons to sit round a table, with their hands resting on it, and wait for the table to move. If the experiment was successful, the table would rotate with considerable rapidity and would occasionally rise in the air, or perform other movements. Whilst most spiritualists ascribed the table movements to the agency of spirits, two investigators, count de Gasparin and professor Thury (father of René Thury) of Geneva, conducted a careful series of experiments. They claimed to have


id: thought-experiment-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thought_experiment-0.md
category: reference
title: Thought experiment
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thought_experiment
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:40:49.296499+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: thought-experiment-20260505-0
summary:
A thought experiment is an imaginary scenario that is meant to elucidate or test an argument or theory. It is often an experiment that would be hard, impossible, or unethical to actually perform. It can also be an abstract hypothetical that is meant to test our intuitions about morality or other fundamental philosophical questions. == History == The ancient Greek δείκνυμι, deiknymi, 'thought experiment', "was the most ancient pattern of mathematical proof", and existed before Euclidean mathematics, where the emphasis was on the conceptual, rather than on the experimental part of a thought experiment. Johann Witt-Hansen established that Hans Christian Ørsted was the first to use the equivalent German term Gedankenexperiment c. 1812. Ørsted was also the first to use the equivalent term Gedankenversuch in 1820. By 1883, Ernst Mach used Gedankenexperiment in a different sense, to denote exclusively the imaginary conduct of a real experiment that would be subsequently performed as a real physical experiment by his students. Physical and mental experimentation could then be contrasted: Mach asked his students to provide him with explanations whenever the results from their subsequent, real, physical experiment differed from those of their prior, imaginary experiment. The English term thought experiment was coined


id: thought-experiment-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thought_experiment-1.md
category: reference
title: Thought experiment
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thought_experiment
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:40:49.296499+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: thought-experiment-20260505-0
summary:
challenge the prevailing status quo (which includes activities such as correcting misinformation (or misapprehension), identify flaws in the argument(s) presented, to preserve (for the long-term) objectively established fact, and to refute specific assertions that some particular thing is permissible, forbidden, known, believed, possible, or necessary) extrapolate beyond (or interpolate within) the boundaries of already established fact predict and forecast the (otherwise) indefinite and unknowable future explain the past facilitate the retrodiction, postdiction and hindcasting of the otherwise indefinite and unknowable past facilitate decision making, choice, and strategy selection solve problems, and generate ideas; move current unsolved problems into another more productive problem space (e.g. functional fixedness) attribute causation, preventability, blame, and responsibility for specific outcomes assess culpability and compensatory damages in social and legal contexts ensure the repeat of past success examine the extent to which past events might have occurred differently ensure the future avoidance of past failures == Fields == Thought experiments have been used in a variety of fields, including philosophy, law, physics, and mathematics. In philosophy they have been used at least since classical antiquity, some pre-dating Socrates. In law, they were well known to Roman lawyers quoted in the Digest. In physics and other sciences,


id: thought-experiment-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thought_experiment-2.md
category: reference
title: Thought experiment
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thought_experiment
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:40:49.296499+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: thought-experiment-20260505-0
summary:
=== Possibility === In many thought experiments, the scenario would be nomologically possible, or possible according to the laws of nature. John Searle's Chinese room is nomologically possible. Some thought experiments present scenarios that are not nomologically possible. In his Twin Earth thought experiment, Hilary Putnam asks us to imagine a scenario in which there is a substance with all of the observable properties of water (e.g., taste, color, boiling point), but is chemically different from water. It has been argued that this thought experiment is not nomologically possible, although it may be possible in some other sense, such as metaphysical possibility. It is debatable whether the nomological impossibility of a thought experiment renders intuitions about it moot. In some cases, the hypothetical scenario might be considered metaphysically impossible, or impossible in any sense at all. David Chalmers says that we can imagine that there are zombies, or persons who are physically identical to us in every way but who lack consciousness. This is supposed to show that physicalism is false. However, some argue that zombies are inconceivable: we can no more imagine a zombie than we can imagine that 1+1=3. Others have claimed that the conceivability of a scenario


id: traditional-knowledge-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_knowledge-0.md
category: reference
title: Traditional knowledge
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_knowledge
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:40:50.574157+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: traditional-knowledge-20260505-0
summary:
Traditional knowledge (TK), indigenous knowledge (IK), folk knowledge, and local knowledge generally refers to knowledge systems embedded in the cultural traditions of regional, indigenous, or local communities. Traditional knowledge includes types of knowledge about traditional technologies of areas such as subsistence (e.g. tools and techniques for hunting or agriculture), midwifery, ethnobotany and ecological knowledge, traditional medicine, celestial navigation, craft skills, ethnoastronomy, climate, and others. These systems of knowledge are generally based on accumulations of empirical observation of and interaction with the environment, transmitted orally across generations. The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the United Nations (UN) include traditional cultural expressions (TCE) in their respective definitions of indigenous knowledge. Traditional knowledge systems and cultural expressions exist in the forms of culture, stories, legends, folklore, rituals, songs, and laws, languages, songlines, dance, games, mythology, designs, visual art and architecture. == Characteristics and related concepts == A report of the International Council for Science (ICSU) Study Group on Science and Traditional Knowledge characterises traditional knowledge as: a cumulative body of knowledge, know-how, practices and representations maintained and developed by peoples with extended histories of interaction with the natural environment. These sophisticated sets of understandings, interpretations and meanings are part and parcel of


id: traditional-knowledge-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_knowledge-1.md
category: reference
title: Traditional knowledge
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_knowledge
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:40:50.574157+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: traditional-knowledge-20260505-0
summary:
International attention has turned to intellectual property laws to preserve, protect, and promote traditional knowledge. In 1992, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) recognized the value of traditional knowledge in protecting species, ecosystems and landscapes, and incorporated language regulating access to it and its use (discussed below). It was soon urged that implementing these provisions would require revision of international intellectual property agreements. This became even more pressing with the adoption of the World Trade Organization Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs), which established rules for creating and protecting intellectual property that could be interpreted to conflict with the agreements made under the CBD. In response, the states who had ratified the CBD requested the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to investigate the relationship between intellectual property rights, biodiversity and traditional knowledge. WIPO began this work with a fact-finding mission in 1999. Considering the issues involved with biodiversity and the broader issues in TRIPs (involving all forms of cultural expressions, not just those associated with biodiversity – including traditional designs, music, songs, stories, etc.), WIPO established the Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (IGC-GRTKF). WIPO Lex provides support for collections of


id: traditional-knowledge-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_knowledge-2.md
category: reference
title: Traditional knowledge
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_knowledge
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:40:50.574157+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: traditional-knowledge-20260505-0
summary:
=== Public domain === Literary and artistic works based upon, derived from or inspired by traditional culture or folklore may incorporate new elements or expressions. Hence these works may be "new" works with a living and identifiable creator, or creators. Such contemporary works may include a new interpretation, arrangement, adaptation or collection of pre-existing cultural heritage that is in the public domain. Traditional culture or folklore may also be "repackaged" in digital formats, or restoration and colorization. Contemporary and tradition based expressions and works of traditional culture are generally protected under existing copyright law, a form of intellectual property law, as they are sufficiently original to be regarded as "new" upon publication. Copyright protection is normally temporary. When a work has existed for a long enough period (often for the rest of the author's life plus an additional 50 to 70 years), the legal ability of the creator to prevent other people from reprinting, modifying, or using the property lapses, and the work is said to enter the public domain. Copyright protection also does not extend to folk songs and other works that developed over time, with no identifiable creators. Having an idea, story, or other work legally protected only


id: traditional-knowledge-20260505-3
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_knowledge-3.md
category: reference
title: Traditional knowledge
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_knowledge
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:40:50.574157+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: traditional-knowledge-20260505-0
summary:
The interpretation of these provisions has been elaborated through decisions by the parties (ratifiers of the Convention) (see the Convention on Biological Diversity Handbook, available free in digital format from the Secretariat). Nevertheless, the provisions regarding Access and Benefit Sharing contained in the Convention on Biological Diversity never achieved consensus and soon the authority over these questions fell back to WIPO. At the Convention on Biological Diversity meeting, in Buenos Aires, in 1996, emphasis was put on local knowledge. Key players, such as local communities and indigenous peoples, should be recognized by States, and have their sovereignty recognised over the biodiversity of their territories, so that they can continue protecting it. The parties to the Convention set a 2010 target to negotiate an international legally binding regime on access and benefit sharing (ABS) at the Eighth meeting (COP8), 20–31 March 2006 in Curitiba, Brazil. This target was met in October 2010 in Nagoya, Japan, by conclusion of the Nagoya Protocol to the CBD. The agreement is now open for ratification, and will come into force when 50 signatories have ratified it. It entered into force on 12 October 2014. As of August 2020, 128 nations ratified the Nagoya Protocol. The


id: troughton-scale-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troughton_scale-0.md
category: reference
title: Troughton scale
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troughton_scale
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:40:51.745029+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: troughton-scale-20260505-0
summary:
The Troughton scale is a measurement scale that de facto served as the first national standard of length in the United States, from 1832 until 1856. == Physical description == The measurement scale spans 82 inches and is subdivided to tenths of inches. It is marked on a silver inlay in a brass bar; the bar itself is about 86 inches long. == History == The scale was prepared for the Office of Coast Survey by Troughton of London and was brought to the United States in 1815 by F. R. Hassler, who a year later became first Superintendent of the Survey of the Coast and, in 1832, first Superintendent of Weights and Measures. At the time, the United States Government was principally financed by duties on imports and exports (the federal income tax did not become a permanent feature of the US system until 1913). The appropriate import and export taxes on commercial items were determined at customhouses maintained by the federal government at various ports of entry. A reliable and uniform system of weights and measure was necessary for this system to work, as well as for settling commercial disputes. In 1830, the US Senate requested the Secretary


id: universal-science-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_science-0.md
category: reference
title: Universal science
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_science
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:40:52.918644+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: universal-science-20260505-0
summary:
Universal science (German: Universalwissenschaft; Latin: scientia generalis, scientia universalis) is a branch of metaphysics, dedicated to the study of the underlying principles of all science. Instead of viewing knowledge as being separated into branches, Universalists view all knowledge as being part of a single category. Universal science is related to, but distinct from, universal language. == Precursors == Logic and rationalism lie at the foundation of the ideas of universal science. In a broad sense, logic is the study of reasoning. Although there were individuals that implicitly utilized logical methods prior to Aristotle, it is generally agreed he was the originator of modern systems of logic. The Organon, Aristotle's books on logic, details this system. In Categories, Aristotle separates everything into 10 "categories": substance, quantity, quality, relation, place, time, position, state, action, and passion. In De Interpretatione, Aristotle studied propositions, detailing what he determined were the most basic propositions and the relationships between them. The Organon had several other books, which further detailed the process of constructing arguments, deducing logical consequences, and even contained the foundations of the modern scientific method. The most immediate predecessor to universal science is the system of formal logic, which is the study of the


id: welbeck-academy-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welbeck_Academy-0.md
category: reference
title: Welbeck Academy
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welbeck_Academy
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:40:57.723946+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: welbeck-academy-20260505-0
summary:
The Welbeck Academy or Welbeck Circle is a name that has been given to the loose intellectual grouping around William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the first half of the 17th century. It takes its name from Welbeck Abbey, a country house in Nottinghamshire that was a Cavendish family seat. Another term used is Newcastle Circle. The geographical connection is, however, more notional than real; and these terms have been regarded also as somewhat misleading. Cavendish was Viscount Mansfield in 1620, and moved up the noble ranks to Duke, step by step; "Newcastle" applies by 1628. Newcastle was a royalist exile in continental Europe in the latter part of the First English Civil War and the Interregnum. He then returned to England and lived to 1676. His life shows many instances of cultural and intellectual patronage. == Science and mathematics == A scientific interest was optics. The group involved in these studies included Charles Cavendish (William's brother), Thomas Hobbes, Robert Payne and Walter Warner. This core "academy" group was disrupted when Newcastle took on responsibility for the Prince of Wales, in 1638. At a later point John Pell was in Newcastle's service. Charles Cavendish's circle included Henry Bond, Richard


id: western-esotericism-and-psychology-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_esotericism_and_psychology-0.md
category: reference
title: Western esotericism and psychology
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_esotericism_and_psychology
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:40:59.025054+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: western-esotericism-and-psychology-20260505-0
summary:
Western esotericism and psychology surveys the documented exchanges between Western esotericism—including Westernized hybrids of Asian traditions—and selected areas of psychology, psychotherapy, and popular psychology. From the late eighteenth century onward, conduits such as animal magnetism and early hypnosis (reinterpreted from mesmeric “somnambulism”), Spiritualism/psychical research, and fin de siècle occultism and comparative projects created channels by which esoteric repertoires (e.g., alchemy, astrology, and subtle body schemes) were translated into psychological idioms or embedded in therapeutic and self-development techniques. In the twentieth century, these exchanges were variously articulated in analytical psychology (including Jung’s alchemical hermeneutics), humanistic workshop cultures and the human potential movement, transpersonal psychology, and symbolic counselling that repurposed oracular media (e.g., tarot, astrology, or the I Ching). Rather than a single genealogy, historians emphasise plural processes of transmission, translation, and hybridisation across specific networks and publics—among them Theosophy (with codified chakras and subtle bodies), Anthroposophy (linking esoteric doctrines to pedagogical and para-clinical projects), the Eranos circle (mediating Jungian hermeneutics and history-of-religions), and late-modern markets often labelled “New Age”. Sociological accounts frame the broader diffusion via the late-modern “cultic milieu” and “occulture”, which describe how esoteric symbols and narratives circulate beyond formal religion through publishing, workshops, retreats and wellness/coaching niches, where


id: western-esotericism-and-psychology-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_esotericism_and_psychology-1.md
category: reference
title: Western esotericism and psychology
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_esotericism_and_psychology
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:40:59.025054+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: western-esotericism-and-psychology-20260505-0
summary:
=== Rejected knowledge by academic psychology === In this line of analysis, Wouter J. Hanegraaff introduced the notion of rejected knowledge to describe bodies of thought and practice that once claimed rational or scientific legitimacy but were later excluded from academic discourse. The concept provides historians with a tool for understanding why movements such as mesmerism, psychical research, or vitalist biophysics—though not self-identified as “esoteric”—nonetheless display structural affinities with the esoteric field through their use of subtle-force cosmologies, analogical reasoning, and transformative techniques. === Psychologization of esotericism (historiographical models) === Scholarship has used “psychologization” to describe how esoteric repertoires were reframed in psychological idioms or channelled through therapeutic formats. Wouter J. Hanegraaff proposed a bidirectional traffic—“psychologization of religion” and “sacralization of psychology”—as a lens for modern encounters between esotericism and psychology. Complementarily, long-duration histories of dynamic psychiatry (as theorized by the historiographer of psychiatry Henri Ellenberger) trace continuities from exorcism to mesmerism, hypnosis and the emergence of clinical psychologies, providing a background against which such reframings occurred. Recent work has refined “psychologization” by distinguishing several modes (e.g., complementary, terminological, reductive, idealist) and by analysing the appeal to a distinct “magical plane” (a separate-but-connected psychic locus) that insulates ritual practice from


id: western-esotericism-and-psychology-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_esotericism_and_psychology-2.md
category: reference
title: Western esotericism and psychology
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_esotericism_and_psychology
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:40:59.025054+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: western-esotericism-and-psychology-20260505-0
summary:
In the milieu of the Occult Revival of the 19th century in Western societies the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) became a key contact zone between séance cultures and emerging psychological inquiry. Its programmes covered hypnotism, dissociation, mediumship and “thought-transference” (later standardised as telepathy by Frederic W. H. Myers), with figures such as William James engaging controversy around mediums like Eusapia Palladino and critics like Hugo Münsterberg. Historians read these investigations as part of the broader traffic in which esoteric repertoires (trance techniques, oracular devices) and laboratory or literary methods cross-pollinated, even as medical framings recoded practice in secular psychological terms. Around 1900, currents grouped under modern occultism and comparative projects systematised repertoires that would become salient in psychological translation. Theosophy articulated a modern discourse on subtle bodies and diffused codified “chakra” schemes through handbooks and visual plates that circulated well beyond initiatory settings; these maps furnished a flexible idiom for inner states and “energy” later reframed in counselling and self-development. At the same time, Anthroposophy extended esoteric doctrines into education and para-clinical practice, associating imagination and development with disciplined movement and arts-based therapies (e.g., Eurythmy). Organisationally, anthroposophic centres linked doctrine, pedagogy and therapeutic experiments, creating channels by which symbolic


id: western-esotericism-and-psychology-20260505-3
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_esotericism_and_psychology-3.md
category: reference
title: Western esotericism and psychology
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_esotericism_and_psychology
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:40:59.025054+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: western-esotericism-and-psychology-20260505-0
summary:
Institutional and editorial hubs in this period The Eranos meetings (Ascona) interfaced Jungian circles with history-of-religions scholarship, stabilising psychological readings of premodern symbol-systems (including Asian corpora) in interpretive, non-realist frames. Mid-century workshop venues such as the Esalen Institute (Big Sur) structured experiential formats—encounter, movement, guided imagination—in which symbolic and ritual devices circulated alongside clinical and educational experimentation; associations and journals consolidated Transpersonal psychology as a field. At the boundary of psychology proper, parapsychology laboratories and surveys extended the nineteenth-century psychical-research agenda (e.g., studies of telepathy/clairvoyance) into experimental and questionnaire-based programmes. === Late 20th century to present: hybrids, wellness and coaching === From the late twentieth century, repertoires previously clustered in specialist milieus migrated into wider self-help, wellness and coaching cultures. Modern transpositions of yoga supplied somatic and attentional techniques that could be framed in secular or symbolic terms, sometimes retaining subtle-body vocabularies and sometimes recoded physiologically; posture-based systems and allied practices entered therapeutic and educational niches where they functioned as vehicles for self-regulation without requiring adherence to esoteric cosmologies. In counselling and workshop circuits, oracular media such as tarot, astrology and the I Ching were repurposed as projective tools within interpretive frames, foregrounding narrative construction and reflective dialogue rather than


id: western-esotericism-and-psychology-20260505-4
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_esotericism_and_psychology-4.md
category: reference
title: Western esotericism and psychology
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_esotericism_and_psychology
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:40:59.025054+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: western-esotericism-and-psychology-20260505-0
summary:
Founded by Roberto Assagioli, psychosynthesis articulated a developmental model integrating will, imagination and symbolic techniques (guided imagery, reflective exercises), framed for psychotherapy and education. While drawing selectively on religious and esoteric vocabularies (e.g., stages, higher/unifying self), psychosynthesis presented these as symbolic devices for integration and meaning-making rather than as doctrinal commitments, and established dedicated training and counselling contexts distinct from Jungian institutions. In workshop and clinical formats, psychosynthesis employed structured sequences (evocation of imagery, reflective processing, value clarification) that align with humanistic and transpersonal milieus in which ritualised settings and symbolic repertoires were redeployed for experiential learning. Reviews at the psychology–religion interface underline the need to separate genealogical description from empirical appraisal and to keep realist–occult claims distinct from interpretive, “as-if real” framings. === Somatic and bioenergetic psychology === Wilhelm Reich’s somatic psychotherapy, developed as vegetotherapy and later orgonomy, sought to integrate emotional release with muscular and respiratory dynamics. Although Reich presented his model as biophysics rather than spirituality, his concept of orgone—a universal life energy said to permeate both psyche and cosmos—echoed older vitalist and mesmerist cosmologies. Scholars such as Christopher Partridge and Egil Asprem interpret Reich’s system as part of the modern afterlife of esoteric vitalism, where notions


id: western-esotericism-and-psychology-20260505-5
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_esotericism_and_psychology-5.md
category: reference
title: Western esotericism and psychology
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_esotericism_and_psychology
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:40:59.025054+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: western-esotericism-and-psychology-20260505-0
summary:
=== Parapsychology (boundary-field interface) === Nineteenth-century psychical research evolved into twentieth-century parapsychology, which pursued experimental and survey studies of anomalous cognition (e.g., telepathy, clairvoyance) at the boundary of psychology proper. In this article parapsychology is treated as a historical interface with psychology—linked to case-genres on automatism and dissociation and intersecting selectively with transpersonal psychology debates on non-ordinary states—rather than as a psychological school; genealogical description is kept distinct from evidential claims. == Popular psychology and coaching == From the late twentieth century, repertoires associated with Western esotericism circulated widely through self-help and coaching markets. An American strand often labelled New Thought—later echoed in formulations such as the law of attraction—provided vocabularies of mental causation and affirmation that were readily repackaged as techniques for self-knowledge, motivation and optimisation. Historians read these idioms within the broader late-modern dynamics of occulture and the cultic milieu, which situate diffusion through publishing, workshops, retreats and media rather than through academic psychology. Early twentieth-century popular psychology also popularised relaxation-through-attention methods. Writers such as Annie Payson Call taught guided relaxation and posture–breath discipline for “nerves” and self-regulation in non-clinical settings, combining moral reform with bodily awareness (see relaxation techniques, guided imagery). Her work, including Power Through Repose


id: western-esotericism-and-psychology-20260505-6
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_esotericism_and_psychology-6.md
category: reference
title: Western esotericism and psychology
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_esotericism_and_psychology
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:40:59.025054+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: western-esotericism-and-psychology-20260505-0
summary:
== Esoteric-linked mental health hospitals == In Brazil, Kardecist spiritism (a French origins branch of Spiritualism) developed durable interfaces with mental-health provision through Spiritist psychiatric hospitals that combine conventional psychiatric care with complementary Spiritist practices (e.g., “passes”, mediumistic counselling). Historical and clinical overviews document this model as emerging in the early–mid twentieth century and concentrated in Brazil; surveys describe operating structures, staffing and modalities of care across leading centres. In this article such institutions are treated as regional institutionalizations of an esoteric repertoire within modern healthcare systems; genealogical description is kept distinct from evidential claims about clinical outcomes. A different pathway of institutionalization appears in anthroposophic hospitals in Germany to Anthroposophy—where integrative frameworks include psychiatry/psychosomatics alongside arts-based and movement therapies (e.g., Eurythmy). Reviews of anthroposophic medicine situate these hospitals within an integrative multimodal system, while institutional profiles list dedicated departments (e.g., Gemeinschaftskrankenhaus Herdecke). As elsewhere in the article, institutional presence is reported separately from clinical validation, and interpretive/symbolic framings are distinguished from realist–occult claims. == Comparative techniques and devices == This section surveys devices that operate across otherwise distinct schools—symbolic tools, altered-state protocols, ritual/dramatic/artistic expression formats, body–attention practices, and sound-based procedures—and documents how they were translated into psychological frames (interpretive,


id: western-esotericism-and-psychology-20260505-7
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_esotericism_and_psychology-7.md
category: reference
title: Western esotericism and psychology
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_esotericism_and_psychology
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:40:59.025054+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: western-esotericism-and-psychology-20260505-0
summary:
Sound-focused sessions—e.g., singing bowls and gong baths—are often framed through Pythagorean and (neo)hermetic (The Kybalion) narratives of hidden vibration and cosmic harmony (a Western esoteric lineage) while being presented with Asian aesthetics or branding (“Tibetan bowls”) in late-modern wellness markets. A parallel, secular rationale describes these formats as aids to relaxation, attentional focus and group containment. In either case, practice emphasises patterned sound, pacing and bounded ritual to scaffold meaning-making and regulation, with symbolic/interpretive efficacy foregrounded over realist claims. === Body and attention === Somatic and attentional practices—postures, movement sequences and contemplative exercises—were adopted in modern transpositions of yoga, Buddhist sati, and related repertoires, sometimes retaining Theosophical subtle body vocabularies and sometimes reframed in secular or physiological terms. Historical studies trace how posture-based systems and allied techniques entered wellness and therapeutic niches (e.g. relaxation techniques), where they could function as vehicles for self-regulation without adherence to esoteric or religious cosmologies. Earlier Western harmonial and breath-culture traditions (see Popular psychology and coaching) already framed breathing and relaxation as psychophysical techniques linking mind–body regulation and esoteric ideas of vital influx. === Energy-themed practices (subtle-body framings) === Under “energy” labels (e.g., reiki, “healing touch”, pranic variants), late-modern counselling and coaching milieus sometimes redeploy


id: western-esotericism-and-psychology-20260505-8
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_esotericism_and_psychology-8.md
category: reference
title: Western esotericism and psychology
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_esotericism_and_psychology
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:40:59.025054+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: western-esotericism-and-psychology-20260505-0
summary:
== Bibliography == Faivre, Antoine; Needleman, Jacob, eds. (1992). Modern Esoteric Spirituality. World Spirituality: An Encyclopedic History of the Religious Quest, 21. New York: Crossroad. ISBN 978-0-8245-1145-6. Flournoy, Théodore (1900). From India to the Planet Mars: A Study of a Case of Somnambulism with Glossolalia. New York: Harper & Brothers. Hanegraaff, Wouter J. (1998). New Age Religion and Western Culture: Esotericism in the Mirror of Secular Thought. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-11035-9. Hanegraaff, Wouter J. (2012). Esotericism and the Academy: Rejected Knowledge in Western Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-107-02112-9. Leadbeater, C. W. (1927). The Chakras (PDF). Adyar: Theosophical Publishing House. Partridge, Christopher (2004). The Re-Enchantment of the West, Vol. 1: Alternative Spiritualities, Sacralization, Popular Culture and Occulture. London: T&T Clark. ISBN 978-0-567-08408-8. Campbell, Colin (1972). "The Cult, the Cultic Milieu and Secularization". A Sociological Yearbook of Religion in Britain. 5: 119–136. Rush, M. J. (2016). "The Contribution of Western Esotericism to Transpersonal Psychology". Transpersonal Psychology Review. 18 (1): 32–43. doi:10.53841/bpstran.2016.18.1.32. Singleton, Mark (2010). Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture Practice. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-539535-8. Pittenger, David J. (1993). "Measuring the MBTI and Coming Up Short". Review of Educational Research. 63 (4): 467–488. doi:10.3102/00346543063004467. Moreira-Almeida, Alexander (2005).


id: western-esotericism-and-science-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_esotericism_and_science-0.md
category: reference
title: Western esotericism and science
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_esotericism_and_science
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:41:00.341863+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: western-esotericism-and-science-20260505-0
summary:
The relationship between Western esotericism and science (and particularly the origins of experimental science) is a historiographical overview intersecting academic study of Western esotericism and history of science about how learned esoteric currents (e.g., natural magic, alchemy, hermeticism) interacted with natural philosophy, artisanal knowledge, and later scientific institutions from Antiquity to the twentieth century. It summarizes major debates (e.g., the “Yates thesis”), the role of printing and learned/artisanal networks, and the transformations that led from alchemy and chymistry to early modern chemistry, it also traces nineteenth–twentieth-century continuities in mesmerism, spiritualism, and psychical research. == Scope and definitions == The scope covers learned currents conventionally grouped under Western esotericism and their interactions with natural-philosophical, artisanal, and later scientific practices. In current scholarship, “Western esotericism” functions as an analytic label devised by historians of ideas rather than a stable emic category across periods. Within this remit fall astrology (including astral/astrological magic), alchemy/chymistry, hermetic and theurgic philosophies, “natural magic”, Christian Kabbalah and related Christianized appropriations, and selected nineteenth–twentieth-century continuities (e.g., mesmerism, spiritualisms, psychical research) insofar as they engaged scientific methods, publics, or institutions. Following standard usage, esotericism is treated as a family-resemblance category centered on literate, textually mediated, often elite discourses and practices,


id: western-esotericism-and-science-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_esotericism_and_science-1.md
category: reference
title: Western esotericism and science
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_esotericism_and_science
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:41:00.341863+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: western-esotericism-and-science-20260505-0
summary:
=== From natural magic to infrastructures of credibility === Historians of ideas have charted the forms and fortunes of natural magic and learned magic from the Middle Ages through the seventeenth century, emphasizing ontologies of hidden properties, sympathies, and imaginal techniques, and their philosophical justifications and critics. Parallel research in the social history of science highlights infrastructures that filtered claims: manuscript and print circuits (including books of secrets), the Republic of Letters, early academies and learned societies, and the emergence of publication regimes such as the Philosophical Transactions. === Boundary-work and demarcation === Sociological approaches analyze how scientific communities drew boundaries against “occult” topics through norms of civility, replicable evidence, and credit allocation. Such “boundary-work” helps to explain why some esoteric claims were domesticated (e.g., elements of chemical practice) while others were marginalized, rebranded, or expelled. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, studies of animal magnetism, spiritualism, and psychical research show continued negotiations at the edges of emerging disciplines, from clinics and laboratories to voluntary associations. === Long nineteenth century: disenchantment and “scientification” === Recent work situates esotericism within broader narratives of secularization and the reconfiguration of “religion” and “science.” One line of analysis tracks how scientific naturalism rearticulated


id: western-esotericism-and-science-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_esotericism_and_science-2.md
category: reference
title: Western esotericism and science
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_esotericism_and_science
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:41:00.341863+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: western-esotericism-and-science-20260505-0
summary:
=== Recipe literature and channels of diffusion === Technical books and compilations of “books of secrets” connected artisanal practice with learned theorizing, creating conduits that printers would later expand in the Renaissance. These manuals aggregated procedures for dyes, metallurgy, pharmacology, and image-making and helped form publics attuned to experiment, collection, and disclosure. === Scholastic uptake and debate === The influx of Arabic–Latin materials reshaped natural-philosophical vocabularies and controversies. Astronomical and medical applications of astrology, debates over hidden properties, and programmatic alchemical claims were selectively integrated into university teaching and commentary while also provoking clerical scrutiny—setting the stage for later medieval distinctions between licit “natural” explanations and illicit invocations. == Medieval Latin world (11th–15th centuries) == Between the eleventh and fifteenth centuries, the Latin West integrated translated corpora on astrology, alchemy, and learned magic into monastic, scholastic, and urban settings, while developing classifications later grouped under the “occult sciences.” Texts such as the Latin Picatrix, the Pseudo-Geber alchemical corpus, lapidaries, and image-magic handbooks circulated alongside natural-philosophical commentaries, medical compendia, and technical recipes. === Monastic collections and clerical readership === Monastic libraries and clerical readers preserved and annotated works on natural and ritual magic even as ecclesiastical norms constrained their use. Collections


id: western-esotericism-and-science-20260505-3
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_esotericism_and_science-3.md
category: reference
title: Western esotericism and science
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_esotericism_and_science
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:41:00.341863+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: western-esotericism-and-science-20260505-0
summary:
Seventeenth-century practitioners reorganized late medieval and Renaissance repertoires into a mixed enterprise of alchemy and chemistry often labeled chymistry. Workshops and purpose-built laboratories standardized instruments (furnaces, crucibles, retorts, alembics) and procedures (calcination, distillation, sublimation, solution, precipitation), linking material operations to questions about analysis, composition, and medical utility. Programmatic attacks on Galenic medicine and defenses of chemical remedies by Paracelsian physicians fed a therapeutic and analytical turn that coexisted with transmutational ambitions. === Case-studies and overlapping repertoires === Studies of individual practitioners complicate linear stories of “disenchantment.” George Starkey (Eirenaeus Philalethes) developed furnace designs, protocols, and reagents that circulated widely; his collaboration and exchanges with Robert Boyle show how alchemical goals and experimental norms interpenetrated. Boyle’s experimental program drew on chymical skill and recipes while articulating new rhetorical and methodological expectations for public witnessing and replication, often highlighted in accounts of early modern experimental culture. At the mathematical end of natural philosophy, Isaac Newton pursued extensive alchemical reading and laboratory work—on metallic generation, “vegetation,” and the ignis secretus—integrating them with his broader investigations of nature. Rather than a clean break, scholarship depicts a spectrum of overlap in ends (medicine, analysis, perfection), media (glassware, heat management), and genres (notebooks, “secrets,” experimental reports)


id: western-esotericism-and-science-20260505-4
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_esotericism_and_science-4.md
category: reference
title: Western esotericism and science
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_esotericism_and_science
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:41:00.341863+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: western-esotericism-and-science-20260505-0
summary:
=== Egyptosophy and Egyptology === Scholars use the term Egyptosophy (Ägyptosophie) to denote the early-modern and modern Western construction of “ancient Egypt” as a reservoir of esoteric wisdom, a lineage that runs from late antique Hermeticism through Renaissance and Baroque syntheses and into nineteenth- and twentieth-century occult revivals. Within the historiography of science, this Egyptosophic imaginary is treated as a cultural precursor rather than a scientific ancestor: it sustained attention, collecting practices, and interpretive expectations (for example, Athanasius Kircher’s ambitious but largely erroneous readings), and it fed the broader current often labeled egyptomania. By contrast, Egyptology emerged in the 1820s as a distinct scholarly field grounded in philology and archaeology, following Jean-François Champollion’s phonetic decipherment of hieroglyphs (1822). In this sense, the relationship between Egyptosophy and Egyptology can be described—analogously to Astrology and Astronomy, or Alchemy and Chemistry—as a historical bifurcation: they share an object (ancient Egypt) and some early impulses, but diverge in method, evidentiary standards, and aims (soteriological and allegorical readings versus critical historicization and language-based analysis). Historians of science also interpret this shift as an instance of disciplinary boundary-making within the broader demarcation of science from non-science. == Nineteenth century: animal magnetism, spiritualisms, psychologies == Across the


id: western-esotericism-and-science-20260505-5
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_esotericism_and_science-5.md
category: reference
title: Western esotericism and science
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_esotericism_and_science
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:41:00.341863+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: western-esotericism-and-science-20260505-0
summary:
== Works cited == Asprem, Egil (2014). The Problem of Disenchantment: Scientific Naturalism and Esoteric Discourse, 1900–1939. Leiden: Brill. Copenhaver, Brian P. (1992). Hermetica: The Greek Corpus Hermeticum and the Latin Asclepius. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Copenhaver, Brian P. (2015). Magic in Western Culture: From Antiquity to the Enlightenment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Daston, Lorraine; Park, Katharine (1998). Wonders and the Order of Nature, 1150–1750. New York: Zone Books. Dear, Peter (2001). Revolutionizing the Sciences: European Knowledge and Its Ambitions, 1500–1700. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Debus, Allen G. (1977). The Chemical Philosophy: Paracelsian Science and Medicine in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. New York: Science History Publications. Eamon, William (1994). Science and the Secrets of Nature: Books of Secrets in Medieval and Early Modern Culture. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Faivre, Antoine (1994). Access to Western Esotericism. Albany: SUNY Press. Findlen, Paula (1994). Possessing Nature: Museums, Collecting, and Scientific Culture in Early Modern Italy. Berkeley: University of California Press. Fowden, Garth (1986). The Egyptian Hermes: A Historical Approach to the Late Pagan Mind. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Gieryn, Thomas F. (1999). Cultural Boundaries of Science: Credibility on the Line. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Gieryn, Thomas F. (1983). "Boundary-Work and the


id: william-phelps-ornithological-collection-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Phelps_Ornithological_Collection-0.md
category: reference
title: William Phelps Ornithological Collection
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Phelps_Ornithological_Collection
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:41:01.673245+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: william-phelps-ornithological-collection-20260505-0
summary:
The William Phelps Ornithological Collection, also known as the Phelps Ornithological Museum, is a museum of natural sciences dedicated to the study, exhibition and preservation of the birds of Venezuela and the rest of Latin America. The collection is located east of Caracas and in the geographic center of Greater Caracas, in the heart of the Sabana Grande district. The William Phelps ornithological collection is the most important in Latin America and it is also the most important private collection in the world in its research area. In this private museum one will find important Phelps family study books, as well as 8000 scientific volumes in the library, more than 83,000 anatomical specimens, more than 80,000 skins, etc. For the year 1990, it was said that the William Phelps Ornithological Collection contained more than 76,300 skins and a small number of anatomical specimens, in the Gran Sabana Building of Sabana Grande. The Phelps library in 1990 already had 6,000 books, 800 journals and 5,500 reprints, mostly from natural sciences. == History == The ornithological collection was born in 1938, although it did not have its own headquarters on the Boulevard of Sabana Grande until 1949. At the beginning of 2018,


id: scientific-instrument-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_instrument-0.md
category: reference
title: Scientific instrument
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_instrument
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:41:04.505820+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: scientific-instrument-20260505-0
summary:
A scientific instrument is a device or tool used for scientific purposes, including the study of both natural phenomena and theoretical research. == History == Historically, the definition of a scientific instrument has varied, based on usage, laws, and historical time period. Before the mid-nineteenth century such tools were referred to as "natural philosophical" or "philosophical" apparatus and instruments, and older tools from antiquity to the Middle Ages (such as the astrolabe and pendulum clock) defy a more modern definition of "a tool developed to investigate nature qualitatively or quantitatively." Scientific instruments were made by instrument makers living near a center of learning or research, such as a university or research laboratory. Instrument makers designed, constructed, and refined instruments for purposes, but if demand was sufficient, an instrument would go into production as a commercial product. In a description of the use of the eudiometer by Jan Ingenhousz to show photosynthesis, a biographer observed, "The history of the use and evolution of this instrument helps to show that science is not just a theoretical endeavor but equally an activity grounded on an instrumental basis, which is a cocktail of instruments and techniques wrapped in a social setting within a community


id: atmospheric-chemistry-suite-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_Chemistry_Suite-0.md
category: reference
title: Atmospheric Chemistry Suite
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_Chemistry_Suite
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:41:05.649411+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: atmospheric-chemistry-suite-20260505-0
summary:
The Atmospheric Chemistry Suite (ACS) is a science payload consisting of three infrared spectrometer channels aboard the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) orbiting Mars since October 2016. The three channels are: the near-infrared channel (NIR), the mid-infrared channel (MIR), and the far infrared channel (FIR, also called TIRVIM). The ACS was proposed in 2011 by Russian Academy Section and eventually accepted by the European Space Agency (ESA) and Roscosmos as one of two Russian instruments onboard TGO. The instrument was funded by Roscosmos and Centre national d'études spatiales (CNES) of France, and has components of both Russia and France. Its development and fabrication was under Russian leadership. The functionality of all the three channels was confirmed during cruise to Mars. == Objectives == The main objective of the ACS suite is to make an inventory and map minor atmospheric species or trace gases in the atmosphere of Mars. This will allow scientists to profile the upper limits on the methane contents, and to possibly to detect sulfur dioxide (SO2), a gas of volcanic origin. == Channels == The near-infrared channel (NIR), is a compact spectrometer operating in the range of 0.7–1.7 μm with a resolving power of λ/Δλ ~ 20,000


id: bailer-hydrogeology-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bailer_(hydrogeology)-0.md
category: reference
title: Bailer (hydrogeology)
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bailer_(hydrogeology)
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:41:06.866482+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: bailer-hydrogeology-20260505-0
summary:
A bailer in hydrogeology is a hollow tube used to retrieve groundwater samples from monitoring wells. The wells are typically built out of PVC casing which is slotted to allow groundwater to flow freely through the well. Bailers are tied to a piece of rope (usually made from nylon or polypropylene) or a piece of wire (composed of Teflon or stainless steel) and lowered into the water column. Once lowered, the bailer uses a simple ball check valve to seal at the bottom in order to pull up a sample of the groundwater table. Bailers can be disposable or reusable, and they are made out of polyethylene, PVC, FEP or stainless steel. There are advantages and disadvantages to using bailers for groundwater sampling. Bailers are simple devices to use and are relatively inexpensive. Disposable bailers are usually cleaned to United States Environmental Protection Agency specifications and individually packaged to protect sample integrity. In addition, bailers can be lowered to any depth while pumps have sharp limitations on the depth of the well. The main drawback of using bailers is aeration of the water as the sample is obtained, which could release volatile organic compounds that need to be tested. Also,


id: bathometer-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathometer-0.md
category: reference
title: Bathometer
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathometer
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:41:08.070047+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: bathometer-20260505-0
summary:
A bathometer (also bathymeter) is an instrument for measuring water depth. It was previously used mainly in oceanographical studies, but is rarely employed nowadays. The term originates from Greek βαθύς (bathys), "deep" and μέτρον (métron), "measure". == History == The earliest idea for a bathometer is due to Leon Battista Alberti (1404–1472) who sunk a hollow sphere attached to some ballast with a hook. When the ball reached the bottom it detached from the ballast and resurfaced. The depth was determined (rather inaccurately) by the time it took to surface. Jacob Perkins (1766–1849) proposed a bathometer based on the compressibility of water. In this instrument the movement of a piston compressing a body of water enclosed in its cylinder is dependent on the pressure of the water outside the cylinder, and hence its depth. The amount the piston moved can be measured when it is returned to the surface. A bathometer that did not need to be submerged was invented in 1876 by William Siemens, stimulated by the needs of the telegraph industry. Siemens' instrument was the first to come into widespread use and is so different and so much more practical than anything that had gone before that he


id: cary-14-spectrophotometer-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cary_14_Spectrophotometer-0.md
category: reference
title: Cary 14 Spectrophotometer
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cary_14_Spectrophotometer
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:41:09.286366+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: cary-14-spectrophotometer-20260505-0
summary:
The Cary Model 14 UV-VIS Spectrophotometer was a double beam recording spectrophotometer designed to operate over the wide spectral range of ultraviolet, visible and near infrared wavelengths (UV/Vis/NIR). This included wavelengths ranging from 185 nanometers to 870 nanometers. (The Cary Model 14B, almost identical in exterior appearance, measured wavelengths from .5 to 6.0 microns.) The Cary 14 spectrophotometer was first produced in 1954 by the Applied Physics Corporation, which later was named the Cary Instruments Corporation after co-founder Howard Cary. The instrument was a successor to the Cary 11, which was the first commercially available recording UV/Vis spectrophotometer. It was produced until 1980, and refurbished models can still be obtained. == Design and use == The double beam design of the Cary 14 provided rapid, simplified analysis by simultaneously measuring the transmittance of both the sample and the reference over the entire spectral range. The optics of the Cary 14 were a key feature. The double monochromator in particular was described and patented. The Cary 14 was one of the first instruments to incorporate high-quality gratings into its monochromators. To take readings in the ultraviolet or visible range, either a deuterium or tungsten lamp was used, with the light focussed


id: celloscope-automated-cell-counter-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celloscope_automated_cell_counter-0.md
category: reference
title: Celloscope automated cell counter
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celloscope_automated_cell_counter
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:41:10.653640+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: celloscope-automated-cell-counter-20260505-0
summary:
Celloscope automated cell counter was developed in the 1950s for enumeration of erythrocytes, leukocytes, and thrombocytes in blood samples. Together with the Coulter counter, the Celloscope analyzer can be considered one of the predecessors of today's automated hematology analyzers, as the principle of the electrical impedance method is still utilized in cell counters installed in clinical laboratories around the world. == History == The Celloscope was developed for the Swedish company AB Lars Ljungberg & Co under the direction of engineer Erik Öhlin at Linson Instrument AB. In an interview published in the Clinical Biochemistry in the Nordics, a membership magazine for the Nordic Association for Clinical Chemistry, Lars Ljungberg explains that he and his coworkers had been considering different solutions for counting blood cells for some time when they came across a method presented by the American Navy on how particles could be counted when allowed to pass a capillary hole through which a weak direct current was passed simultaneously. The Celloscope method exploits the feature of blood cells not being conductive and therefore make interruptions (pulses) to the current, which then can be counted. What Ljungberg and coworkers did not know was that Wallace H. Coulter in Chicago


id: colorimeter-chemistry-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorimeter_(chemistry)-0.md
category: reference
title: Colorimeter (chemistry)
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorimeter_(chemistry)
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:41:16.006496+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: colorimeter-chemistry-20260505-0
summary:
A colorimeter is a device used in colorimetry that measures the absorbance of particular wavelengths of light by a specific solution. It is commonly used to determine the concentration of a known solute in a given solution by the application of the Beer–Lambert law, which states that the concentration of a solute is proportional to the absorbance. == Construction == The essential parts of a colorimeter are: a light source (often an ordinary low-voltage filament lamp); an adjustable aperture; a set of colored filters; a cuvette to hold the working solution; a detector (usually a photoresistor) to measure the transmitted light; a meter to display the output from the detector. In addition, there may be: a voltage regulator, to protect the instrument from fluctuations in mains voltage; a second light path, cuvette and detector. This enables comparison between the working solution and a "blank", consisting of pure solvent, to improve accuracy. There are many commercialized colorimeters as well as open source versions with construction documentation for education and for research. === Filters === Changeable optics filters are used in the colorimeter to select the wavelength which the solute absorbs the most, in order to maximize accuracy. The usual wavelength range


id: cosmic-dust-analyzer-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_Dust_Analyzer-0.md
category: reference
title: Cosmic Dust Analyzer
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_Dust_Analyzer
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:41:17.386115+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: cosmic-dust-analyzer-20260505-0
summary:
The Cosmic Dust Analyzer (CDA) was a large-area (0.1 m2 total sensitive area) multi-sensor dust instrument included on the Cassini spacecraft, which was launched in 1997 and orbited Saturn from 2004 to 2017. The instrument included a chemical dust analyzer (time-of-flight mass spectrometer), a highly reliable impact ionization detector, and two high rate polarized polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) detectors. Over 7 years en route to Saturn, the CDA analysed the interplanetary dust cloud, the stream of interstellar dust, and Jupiter dust streams. During 13 years in orbit around Saturn, the CDA studied the E ring, dust in the plumes of Enceladus, and dust in Saturn's environment. == Overview == The Cosmic Dust Analyzer was the seventh dust instrument from the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics (MPIK), Heidelberg (Germany) following the dust detectors on the HEOS 2 satellite and dust detectors on the Galileo and Ulysses space probes and the more complex dust analyzers on the Helios spacecraft, the Giotto and VeGa spacecraft to Halley's Comet. The new dust analyzer system was developed by a team of scientists led by Eberhard Grün and engineers led by Dietmar Linkert to analyze dust in the Saturn system on board the Cassini spacecraft. This


id: deposit-gauge-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deposit_gauge-0.md
category: reference
title: Deposit gauge
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deposit_gauge
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:41:18.511040+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: deposit-gauge-20260505-0
summary:
A deposit gauge is a large, funnel-like scientific instrument used for capturing and measuring atmospheric particulates, notably soot, carried in air pollution and deposited back down to ground. == Design and construction == Deposit gauges are similar to rain gauges. They have a large circular funnel on top, made of a material that will not be corroded by acid rain (such as stone, in early versions, or anodized aluminium, in modern ones). This is mounted on a simple wooden or metal stand, which drains down into a collection bottle beneath. Typically the funnel has a wire-mesh screen around its perimeter to deter perching birds. They are made to a standardized design, which means the pollution collected in different places can be systematically studied and compared. The bottle is removed after a period of time (usually from a week to a month) and the contents taken away for analysis of water (such as rain, fog, and snow), insoluble matter (such as soot), and soluble matter. === Standard designs === The various standardized designs include: The standard deposit gauge, introduced in 1916 and formalized in a British Standard in 1951 The International Standard (ISO/DIS 4222.2) deposit gauge The Norwegian NILU gauge, which


id: dichroscope-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dichroscope-0.md
category: reference
title: Dichroscope
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dichroscope
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:41:19.758552+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: dichroscope-20260505-0
summary:
A dichroscope is a pocket instrument used in the field of gemology, and can be used to test transparent gemstones (crystals). Experienced gemologists, observing the pleochroism of some gems, can successfully detect gemstones from other artificial stones using this instrument. There are two types of dichroscopes available: calcite and polarizing. Of the two, calcite gives better results and is widely used by experienced gemologists. With the polarizing type, only one pleochroic color can be seen at a time. This makes the process time-consuming and difficult, though it is the most economical way to get results. The dichroscope has been used since at least the start of the nineteenth century. == Calcite dichroscope == A calcite dichroscope shows a gem's pleochroic colors in contrast with one another, allowing the viewer to easily determine whether the stone is singly or doubly refractive (uniaxial or biaxial, respectively). Singly refractive stones do not split light that enters them, leaving light as a single beam as it exits the stone. On the contrary, doubly refractive stones may split an entering light beam into two rays (an ordinary ray and an extraordinary ray) depending on the angle, a property known as birefringence. Calcite dichroscopes are effective


id: dna-sequencer-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_sequencer-0.md
category: reference
title: DNA sequencer
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_sequencer
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:41:21.028508+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: dna-sequencer-20260505-0
summary:
A DNA sequencer is a scientific instrument used to automate the DNA sequencing process. Given a sample of DNA, a DNA sequencer is used to determine the order of the four bases: G (guanine), C (cytosine), A (adenine) and T (thymine). This is then reported as a text string, called a read. Some DNA sequencers can be also considered optical instruments as they analyze light signals originating from fluorochromes attached to nucleotides. The first automated DNA sequencer, invented by Lloyd M. Smith, was introduced by Applied Biosystems in 1987. It used the Sanger sequencing method, a technology which formed the basis of the "first generation" of DNA sequencers and enabled the completion of the Human Genome Project in 2001. This first generation of DNA sequencers are essentially automated electrophoresis systems that detect the migration of labelled DNA fragments. Therefore, these sequencers can also be used in the genotyping of genetic markers where only the length of a DNA fragment(s) needs to be determined (e.g. microsatellites, AFLPs). The Human Genome Project spurred the development of cheaper, high throughput and more accurate platforms known as Next Generation Sequencers (NGS) to sequence the human genome. These include the 454, SOLiD and Illumina DNA


id: dna-sequencer-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_sequencer-1.md
category: reference
title: DNA sequencer
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_sequencer
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:41:21.028508+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: dna-sequencer-20260505-0
summary:
=== Roche === The 454 DNA sequencer was the first next-generation sequencer to become commercially successful. It was developed by 454 Life Sciences and purchased by Roche in 2007. 454 utilizes the detection of pyrophosphate released by the DNA polymerase reaction when adding a nucleotide to the template strain. Roche currently manufactures two systems based on their pyrosequencing technology: the GS FLX+ and the GS Junior System. The GS FLX+ System promises read lengths of approximately 1000 base pairs while the GS Junior System promises 400 base pair reads. A predecessor to GS FLX+, the 454 GS FLX Titanium system was released in 2008, achieving an output of 0.7G of data per run, with 99.9% accuracy after quality filter, and a read length of up to 700bp. In 2009, Roche launched the GS Junior, a bench top version of the 454 sequencer with read length up to 400bp, and simplified library preparation and data processing. One of the advantages of 454 systems is their running speed. Manpower can be reduced with automation of library preparation and semi-automation of emulsion PCR. A disadvantage of the 454 system is that it is prone to errors when estimating the number of bases in


id: dna-sequencer-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_sequencer-2.md
category: reference
title: DNA sequencer
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_sequencer
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:41:21.028508+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: dna-sequencer-20260505-0
summary:
=== Beckman Coulter === Beckman Coulter (now Danaher) has previously manufactured chain termination and capillary electrophoresis-based DNA sequencers under the model name CEQ, including the CEQ 8000. The company now produces the GeXP Genetic Analysis System, which uses dye terminator sequencing. This method uses a thermocycler in much the same way as PCR to denature, anneal, and extend DNA fragments, amplifying the sequenced fragments. === Pacific Biosciences === Pacific Biosciences produces the PacBio RS and Sequel sequencing systems using a single molecule real time sequencing, or SMRT, method. This system can produce read lengths of multiple thousands of base pairs. Higher raw read errors are corrected using either circular consensus - where the same strand is read over and over again - or using optimized assembly strategies. Scientists have reported 99.9999% accuracy with these strategies. The Sequel system was launched in 2015 with an increased capacity and a lower price. === Oxford Nanopore === Oxford Nanopore Technologies' MinION sequencer is based on evolving nanopore sequencing technology to nucleic acid analyses. The device is four inches long and gets power from a USB port. MinION decodes DNA directly as the molecule is drawn at the rate of 450 bases/second through a


id: du-spectrophotometer-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DU_spectrophotometer-0.md
category: reference
title: DU spectrophotometer
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DU_spectrophotometer
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:41:22.285535+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: du-spectrophotometer-20260505-0
summary:
The DU spectrophotometer or Beckman DU, introduced in 1941, was the first commercially viable scientific instrument for measuring the amount of ultraviolet light absorbed by a substance. This model of spectrophotometer enabled scientists to easily examine and identify a given substance based on its absorption spectrum, the pattern of light absorbed at different wavelengths. Arnold O. Beckman's National Technical Laboratories (later Beckman Instruments) developed three in-house prototype models (A, B, C) and one limited distribution model (D) before moving to full commercial production with the DU. Approximately 30,000 DU spectrophotometers were manufactured and sold between 1941 and 1976. Sometimes referred to as a UV–Vis spectrophotometer because it measured both the ultraviolet (UV) and visible spectra, the DU spectrophotometer is credited as being a truly revolutionary technology. It yielded more accurate results than previous methods for determining the chemical composition of a complex substance, and substantially reduced the time needed for an accurate analysis from weeks or hours to minutes. The Beckman DU was essential to several critical secret research projects during World War II, including the development of penicillin and synthetic rubber. == Background == Before the development of the DU spectrophotometer, analysis of a test sample to determine its


id: du-spectrophotometer-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DU_spectrophotometer-1.md
category: reference
title: DU spectrophotometer
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DU_spectrophotometer
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:41:22.285535+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: du-spectrophotometer-20260505-0
summary:
=== Model A (prototype) === The first prototype Beckman spectrophotometer, the Model A, was created at National Technologies Laboratories in 1940. It used a tungsten light source with a glass Fery prism as a monochromator. Tungsten was used for incandescent light filaments because it was strong, withstood heat, and emitted a steady light. Types of light sources differed in the range of wavelengths of light that they emitted. Tungsten lamps were useful in the visible light range but gave poor coverage in the ultraviolet range. However, they had the advantage of being readily available because they were used as automobile headlamps. An external amplifier from the Beckman pH meter and a vacuum tube photocell were used to detect wavelengths. === Model B (prototype) === It was quickly realized that a glass dispersive prism was not suitable for use in the ultraviolet spectrum. Glass absorbed electromagnetic radiation below 400 millimicrons rather than dispersing it. In the Model B, a quartz prism was substituted for the earlier glass. A tangent bar mechanism was used to adjust the monochromator. The mechanism was highly sensitive and required a skilled operator. Only two Model B prototypes were made. One was sold: in February 1941, to


id: du-spectrophotometer-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DU_spectrophotometer-2.md
category: reference
title: DU spectrophotometer
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DU_spectrophotometer
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:41:22.285535+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: du-spectrophotometer-20260505-0
summary:
When RCA could not meet Beckman's demand for experimental phototubes, National Technical Laboratories again had to design its own components in-house. They developed a pair of phototubes, sensitive to the red and blue areas of the spectrum, capable of amplifying the signals they received. With the incorporation of Beckman's UV-sensitive phototubes, the Model D became the Model DU UV–Vis spectrophotometer. Its designation as a "UV–Vis" spectrophotometer indicates its ability to measure light in both the visible and ultraviolet spectra. The DU was the first commercially viable scientific instrument for measuring the amount of ultraviolet light absorbed by a substance. As he had done with the pH meter, Beckman had replaced an array of complicated equipment with a single, easy-to-use instrument. One of the first fully integrated instruments or "black boxes" used in modern chemical laboratories, it sold for $723 in 1941. It is generally assumed that the "DU" in the name was a combination of "D" for the Model D on which it was based, and "U" for the ultraviolet spectrum. However, it has been suggested that "DU" may also reference Beckman's fraternity at the University of Illinois, Delta Upsilon, whose members were called "DU"s. A publication in the scholarly


id: du-spectrophotometer-20260505-3
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DU_spectrophotometer-3.md
category: reference
title: DU spectrophotometer
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DU_spectrophotometer
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:41:22.285535+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: du-spectrophotometer-20260505-0
summary:
The Beckman spectrophotometer was the first easy-to-use single instrument containing both the optical and electronic components needed for ultraviolet-absorption spectrophotometry within a single housing. The user could insert a cell tray with standard and sample cells, dial up the desired wavelength of light, confirm that the instrument was properly set by measuring the standard, and then measure the amount of absorption of the sample, reading the frequency from a simple meter. A series of readings at different wavelengths could be taken without disturbing the sample. The DU spectrophotometer's manual scanning method was extremely fast, reducing analysis times from weeks or hours to minutes. It was accurate in both the visible and ultraviolet ranges. Working in both the ultraviolet and the visible regions of the spectrum, the model DU produced accurate absorption spectra which could be obtained with relative ease and accurately replicated. The National Bureau of Standards ran tests to certify that the DU's results were accurate and repeatable and recommended its use. Other advantages included its high resolution and the minimization of stray light in the ultraviolet region. Although it was not cheap, its initial price of $723 made it available to the average laboratory. In comparison, in 1943,


id: du-spectrophotometer-20260505-4
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DU_spectrophotometer-4.md
category: reference
title: DU spectrophotometer
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DU_spectrophotometer
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:41:22.285535+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: du-spectrophotometer-20260505-0
summary:
=== Enzyme assays and DNA research === Gerty Cori and her husband Carl Ferdinand Cori won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1947 in recognition of their work on enzymes. They made several discoveries critical to understanding carbohydrate metabolism, including the isolation and discovery of the Cori ester, glucose 1-phosphate, and the understanding of the Cori cycle. They determined that the enzyme phosphorylase catalyzes formation of glucose 1-phosphate, which is the beginning and ending step in the conversions of glycogen into glucose and blood glucose to glycogen. Gerty Cori was also the first to show that a defect in an enzyme can be the cause of a human genetic disease. The Beckman DU spectrophotometer was used in the Cori laboratory to calculate enzyme concentrations, including phosphorylase. Another researcher who spent six months in 1947 at the Cori laboratory, "the most vibrant place in biochemistry" at that time, was Arthur Kornberg. Kornberg was already familiar with the DU spectrophotometer, which he had used at Severo Ochoa's laboratory at New York University. The "new and scarce" Beckman DU, loaned to Ochoa by the American Philosophical Society, was highly prized and in constant use. Kornberg used it to purify aconitase, an


id: dual-polarization-interferometry-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual-polarization_interferometry-0.md
category: reference
title: Dual-polarization interferometry
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual-polarization_interferometry
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:41:23.535305+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: dual-polarization-interferometry-20260505-0
summary:
Dual-polarization interferometry (DPI) is an analytical technique that probes molecular layers adsorbed to the surface of a waveguide using the evanescent wave of a laser beam. It is used to measure the conformational change in proteins, or other biomolecules, as they function (referred to as the conformation activity relationship). == Instrumentation == DPI focuses laser light into two waveguides. One of these functions as the "sensing" waveguide having an exposed surface while the second one functions to maintain a reference beam. A two-dimensional interference pattern is formed in the far field by combining the light passing through the two waveguides. The DPI technique rotates the polarization of the laser, to alternately excite two polarization modes of the waveguides. Measurement of the interferogram for both polarizations allows both the refractive index and the thickness of the adsorbed layer to be calculated. The polarization can be switched rapidly, allowing real-time measurements of chemical reactions taking place on a chip surface in a flow-through system. These measurements can be used to infer conformational information about the molecular interactions taking place, as the molecule size (from the layer thickness) and the fold density (from the RI) change. DPI is typically used to characterize biochemical


id: ecotron-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecotron-0.md
category: reference
title: Ecotron
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecotron
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:41:24.739815+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: ecotron-20260505-0
summary:
An Ecotron is an experimental instrument in ecology consisting of a controlled environment which makes it possible to simultaneously condition the environment of natural, simplified, or completely artificial ecosystems and measure the processes generated by living beings present in these ecosystems, in particular the flow of matter and energy. == Design == Its principle is to confine ecosystems in totally or partially waterproof enclosures which are permeable to energy flow and capable of generating a range of physical and chemical conditions applied to terrestrial or aquatic ecosystems, continental or marine. Environmental control and real-time measurements are precise enough to test hypotheses or operating models. For this purpose, the enclosures are fitted with significant equipment allowing continuous measurement of fluxes, states or biological characteristics. Other specific measurements, in situ and ex situ, on samples taken complete these online measurements. A sufficient number of independent confinement chambers is necessary to study several interacting factors in a framework of statistical inference. Depending on the case, we speak of a macrocosm when the space is large enough to study several m3 of reconstituted ecosystem over a period of time, generally measured in years (3-5 years or more for example), of microcosm for volumes measuring


id: filar-micrometer-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filar_micrometer-0.md
category: reference
title: Filar micrometer
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filar_micrometer
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:41:25.905991+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: filar-micrometer-20260505-0
summary:
A filar micrometer is a specialized eyepiece used in astronomical telescopes for astrometry measurements, in microscopes for specimen measurements, and in alignment and surveying telescopes for measuring angles and distances on nearby objects. "Filar" derives from the Latin filum ("thread"). It refers to the fine threads or wires used in the device. == Construction and use == A typical filar micrometer consists of a reticle that has two fine parallel wires or threads that can be moved by the observer using a micrometer screw mechanism. The wires are placed in the focal image plane of the eyepiece so they remain sharply superimposed over the object under observation, while the micrometer motion moves the wires across the focal plane. Other designs employ a fixed reticle, against which one wire or a second reticle moves. By rotating the eyepiece assembly in the eyetube, the measurement axis can be aligned to match the orientation of the two points of observation. At one time, it was common to use spider silk as a thread. By placing one wire over one point of interest and moving the other to a second point, the distance between the two wires can be measured with the micrometer portion


id: fourier-transform-infrared-spectroscopy-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourier-transform_infrared_spectroscopy-0.md
category: reference
title: Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourier-transform_infrared_spectroscopy
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:41:27.177904+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: fourier-transform-infrared-spectroscopy-20260505-0
summary:
Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) is a technique used to obtain an infrared spectrum of absorption or emission of a solid, liquid, or gas. An FTIR spectrometer collects high-resolution spectral data over a wide spectral range. This confers a significant advantage over a dispersive spectrometer, which measures intensity over a narrow range of wavelengths at a time. The term Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy originates from the fact that a Fourier transform (a mathematical process) is required to convert the raw data into the actual spectrum. == Conceptual introduction == Absorption spectroscopy techniques (FTIR, ultraviolet-visible ("UV-vis") spectroscopy, etc.) measure how much light a sample absorbs at each wavelength. The most straightforward way to do this, the "dispersive spectroscopy" technique, is to shine a monochromatic light beam at a sample, measure how much of the light is absorbed, and repeat for each different wavelength (this is also how some UV–vis spectrometers take measurements). Fourier transform spectroscopy is a less intuitive way to obtain the same information. Rather than shining a monochromatic beam of light (a beam composed of only a single wavelength) at the sample, this technique shines a beam containing many frequencies of light at once and measures how much of


id: fourier-transform-infrared-spectroscopy-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourier-transform_infrared_spectroscopy-1.md
category: reference
title: Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourier-transform_infrared_spectroscopy
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:41:27.177904+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: fourier-transform-infrared-spectroscopy-20260505-0
summary:
In a Michelson interferometer adapted for FTIR, light from the polychromatic infrared source, approximately a black-body radiator, is collimated and directed to a beam splitter. Ideally 50% of the light is refracted towards the fixed mirror and 50% is transmitted towards the moving mirror. Light is reflected from the two mirrors back to the beam splitter and some fraction of the original light passes into the sample compartment. There, the light is focused on the sample. On leaving the sample compartment the light is refocused on to the detector. The difference in optical path length between the two arms to the interferometer is known as the retardation or optical path difference (OPD). An interferogram is obtained by varying the OPD and recording the signal from the detector for various values of the OPD. The form of the interferogram when no sample is present depends on factors such as the variation of source intensity and splitter efficiency with wavelength. This results in a maximum at zero OPD, when there is constructive interference at all wavelengths, followed by series of "wiggles". The position of zero OPD is determined accurately by finding the point of maximum intensity in the interferogram. When a sample


id: fourier-transform-infrared-spectroscopy-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourier-transform_infrared_spectroscopy-2.md
category: reference
title: Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourier-transform_infrared_spectroscopy
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:41:27.177904+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: fourier-transform-infrared-spectroscopy-20260505-0
summary:
The separation is the inverse of the maximum OPD. For example, a maximum OPD of 2 cm results in a separation of 0.5 cm−1. This is the spectral resolution in the sense that the value at one point is independent of the values at adjacent points. Most instruments can be operated at different resolutions by choosing different OPD's. Instruments for routine analyses typically have a best resolution of around 0.5 cm−1, while spectrometers have been built with resolutions as high as 0.001 cm−1, corresponding to a maximum OPD of 10 m. The point in the interferogram corresponding to zero path difference has to be identified, commonly by assuming it is where the maximum signal occurs. This so-called centerburst is not always symmetrical in real world spectrometers so a phase correction may have to be calculated. The interferogram signal decays as the path difference increases, the rate of decay being inversely related to the width of features in the spectrum. If the OPD is not large enough to allow the interferogram signal to decay to a negligible level there will be unwanted oscillations or sidelobes associated with the features in the resulting spectrum. To reduce these sidelobes the interferogram is usually


id: fourier-transform-infrared-spectroscopy-20260505-3
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourier-transform_infrared_spectroscopy-3.md
category: reference
title: Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourier-transform_infrared_spectroscopy
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:41:27.177904+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: fourier-transform-infrared-spectroscopy-20260505-0
summary:
=== IR sources === FTIR spectrometers are mostly used for measurements in the mid and near IR regions. For the mid-IR region, 2−25 μm (5,000–400 cm−1), the most common source is a silicon carbide (SiC) element heated to about 1,200 K (930 °C; 1,700 °F) (Globar). The output is similar to a blackbody. Shorter wavelengths of the near-IR, 1−2.5 μm (10,000–4,000 cm−1), require a higher temperature source, typically a tungsten-halogen lamp. The long wavelength output of these is limited to about 5 μm (2,000 cm−1) by the absorption of the quartz envelope. For the far-IR, especially at wavelengths beyond 50 μm (200 cm−1) a mercury discharge lamp gives higher output than a thermal source. === Detectors === Far-IR spectrometers commonly use pyroelectric detectors that respond to changes in temperature as the intensity of IR radiation falling on them varies. The sensitive elements in these detectors are either deuterated triglycine sulfate (DTGS) or lithium tantalate (LiTaO3). These detectors operate at ambient temperatures and provide adequate sensitivity for most routine applications. To achieve the best sensitivity the time for a scan is typically a few seconds. Cooled photoelectric detectors are employed for situations requiring higher sensitivity or faster response. Liquid nitrogen cooled


id: fourier-transform-infrared-spectroscopy-20260505-4
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourier-transform_infrared_spectroscopy-4.md
category: reference
title: Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourier-transform_infrared_spectroscopy
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:41:27.177904+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: fourier-transform-infrared-spectroscopy-20260505-0
summary:
=== Microscopy and imaging === An infrared microscope allows samples to be observed and spectra measured from regions as small as 5 microns across. Images can be generated by combining a microscope with linear or 2-D array detectors. The spatial resolution can approach 5 microns with tens of thousands of pixels. The images contain a spectrum for each pixel and can be viewed as maps showing the intensity at any wavelength or combination of wavelengths. This allows the distribution of different chemical species within the sample to be seen. This technique has been applied in various biological applications including the analysis of tissue sections as an alternative to conventional histopathology, examining the homogeneity of pharmaceutical tablets, and for differentiating morphologically-similar pollen grains. === Nanoscale and spectroscopy below the diffraction limit === The spatial resolution of FTIR can be further improved below the micrometer scale by integrating it into scanning near-field optical microscopy platform. The corresponding technique is called nano-FTIR and allows for performing broadband spectroscopy on materials in ultra-small quantities (single viruses and protein complexes) and with 10 to 20 nm spatial resolution. === FTIR as detector in chromatography === The speed of FTIR allows spectra to be obtained from


