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Mass media in the late nineteenth century was full of news from
Mars. In the wake of Giovanni Schiaparelli's 1877 discovery of
enigmatic dark, straight lines on the red planet, astronomers and
the public at large vigorously debated the possibility that it
might be inhabited. As rivalling scientific practitioners looked to
marshal allies and sway public opinion-through newspapers,
periodicals, popular books, exhibitions, and encyclopaedias-they
exposed disagreements over how the discipline of astronomy should
be organized and how it should establish acceptable conventions of
discourse. News from Mars provides a new account of this
extraordinary episode in the history of astronomy, revealing how
major transformations in astronomical practice across Britain and
America were inextricably tied up with popular scientific culture
and a transatlantic news economy that enabled knowledge to travel.
As Joshua Nall argues, astronomers were journalists, too, eliding
practice with communication in consequential ways. As writers and
editors, they played a pivotal role in the emergence of a "new
astronomy" dedicated to the study of the physical constitution and
life history of celestial objects, blurring harsh distinctions
between those who produced esoteric knowledge and those who
disseminated it.
In this book the diverse objects of the Whipple Museum of the
History of Science's internationally renowned collection are
brought into sharp relief by a number of highly regarded historians
of science in fourteen essays. Each chapter focuses on a specific
instrument or group of objects, ranging from an English medieval
astrolabe to a modern agricultural 'seed source indicator' to a
curious collection of plaster chicken heads. The contributors
employ a range of historiographical and methodological approaches
to demonstrate the various ways in which the material culture of
science can be researched and understood. The essays show how the
study of scientific objects - including instruments and models -
offers a window into cultures of scientific practice not afforded
by textual sources alone. This title is also available as Open
Access on Cambridge Core.
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