Event Archive

2023

May

• CHPSTM on-line Research Seminar: Ben Marsden (University of Aberdeen)

  24 May 2023, 11:00 - 12:00

  Details TBC

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  CHPSTM on-line Research Seminar: Silvia Casini (University of Aberdeen)

  10 May 2023, 11:00 - 12:00

  In search of a format: The strange case of the International Festival of Scientific-Didactic Film 1956-1975

April

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  CHPSTM on-line Research Seminar: Donald Gray (University of Aberdeen)

  26 April 2023, 11:00 - 12:00

  J W Goethe - The Scientist

March

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  CHPSTM on-line Research Seminar: Rachel Dishington (University of Nottingham)

  29 March 2023, 11:00 - 12:00

  'In the office... in the field... and at College': The Geographies of Engineering Training in Nineteenth Century Scotland

January

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  George Coghill - Donald MacCrimmon MacKay: Scientist and (accidental) Philosopher

  25 January 2023, 11:00 - 12:00

  Donald MacCrimmon MacKay (1922 - 1987) was an early pioneer in both Information Theory and Artificial Intelligence, who gradually moved into neuroscience. As a scientist he made significant contributions to each of these fields of specialisation, winning several fellowships and awards.   He was first and foremost a scientist. However, some of...

2022

December

• Mary Orr - It 'growed'! Reflecting on Interdisciplinary Research in the Project 'Sarah Bowdich Lee, 1791-1856: Pioneering Perspectives in Natural History

  07 December 2022, 16:00 - 17:00

  This paper looks back at key moments in the development and completion of this multi-connected project, how and why it ‘growed’, and how it was grown. I first present some of the highs and lows of work that has taken me nearly 20 years to complete. It needed that time!...

April

• Michael J. C. Davidson - 'A Failed Sojourn in the Sun': A Comparative Study of the Journals of Jonathan Troup of Dominica and Aberdeen (1786 - 1798)

  27 April 2022, 11:00 - 23:55

  Doctors’ journals can be an informative primary historical source. They provide not only details of contemporary diseases and healthcare but often offer a view of society and culture. The journals of Dr Jonathan Troup are an example. He practiced not only in Dominica but in Aberdeenshire recording clinical and social...

March

• SABA and the Commercialisation of Menstruation in Norway since 1940

  23 March 2022, 11:00 - 13:00

  During the mid-twentieth century, the ‘SABA-bus’ was a frequent sight in rural Norway, evangelizing the good news of modern ‘menstrual hygiene’ by advertising the novel technology of single-use pads. SABA became a fairy-tale business story in the post-war and pre-oil economic landscape of Norway, monopolizing the menstrual product market almost completely between the 1940s...

February

• The Challenge of Everyday Science: Disputes about the Voltaic Battery

  23 February 2022, 11:00 - 13:00

  Volta’s battery (the “Voltaic pile”, announced in 1800) was very easily replicated even by amateurs working at home, but the explanation of its workings remained a matter of great controversy for many years even among the leading experts.  It will come as a surprise to many people that even today the...

January

• Robert Stevenson, Thomas Smith and the Parabolic Reflector - Setting the Story Straight

  26 January 2022, 11:00 - 23:59

  Although Scotland lagged behind Trinity House in the ongoing development of an effective lighthouse illumination system, the Stevenson family, notably Robert Stevenson, consistently down-graded or ignored the achievements of earlier designers. Stevenson sought to establish the primacy in this field of Thomas Smith, both his step-father and his father-in-law, and his...