Who cares about the history of science?

The 2015 Wilkins-Bernal-Medawar Lecture was this year presented by Professor Hasok Chang, Hans Rausing professor of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge.
He looks at how we can learn from the radically different ways in which scientists have made sense of the universe over the ages.
Filmed: 6.30pm - 7.30pm on Tuesday 10 May 2016 at The Royal Society, London.
royalsociety.org/events/2016/...

[@williamtell5365]

I took several history of science courses as an undergraduate and graduate student. Fortunately for me, they were excellent. You simply cannot fully understand science and it's place in the world without understanding its history and the basic models that we now use to explain science.

[@rodwallace6237]

Starts at 2:35

[@MrPotterrable]

thank you so much for putting these lectures online!

[@royalsociety]

No problem, glad you like them Henry :)

[@MrGOTAMA420]

WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

[@angelotenfennicoladeli2987]

Great Lecture!

[@user-lp5qb3jc8q]

Clear and well organized lecture

[@SanadAlfadhel]

thanks for this lecture

[@therusher8]

The Newton-Apple story is first mentioned by William Stukeley, long after the event. It's likely a Biblical metaphor - forbidden fruit, knowledge of the mind of God, etc.

[@googleskype3490]

It might be insightful to investigate published results that contradict current models and attempt to diagnose the problems in those experiments, posthumously.

[@TwistedLemniscate]

Why are the stories of Newton and the Apple and Franklin and the Kite considered myths? Via the KZbin Channel Objectivity (episodes #1 and #21) I've seen convincing cases that both occurred in some form or another. Perhaps there exist detailed accounts for why both stories are myths that I've yet to see.

[@maaaaaaaaarcel]

Fundamentally, the issue is that whether or not an apple fell on Newton's head (and it might just have, who knows?) truly does not matter. It does not even begin to be relevant for the actual historical questions. The idea of gravity itself is not something Newton specifically came up with; Edmund Halley, Christop Wren, Robert Hooke, and many others all thought about gravity at the time. Newton's great achievement was to come up with the ingenious mathematical formalism that allowed him to provide empirically adequate and determinate descriptions of natural phenomena; a smart 10 year old could come up with the notion of gravity. Coming up with the mathematical theory is the hard part.

[@JCResDoc94]

49:00 hx of phil of sci

[@JCResDoc94]

46:00 phx climate models

[@googleskype3490]

This guy is literally getting paid to LARP as a scientist. A 19th century scientist at that.