by Paige Madison | Jun 8, 2017 | History of Science
Readers of this blog are familiar with my fascination of the fossils of human ancestors. I’ve written about fossils’ beauty, their strange stories, and the ways they make us question our ideas. Despite these points, critics often ask: do the discoveries of...
by Paige Madison | May 25, 2017 | History of Science
Hesperopithecus, wikicommons In 1922, scientists announced the discovery of a “remarkable tooth” from a Nebraskan hillside. This tooth had the potential to change the story of the human past, scientists argued. The president of the American Natural History...
by Paige Madison | Mar 31, 2017 | History of Science
The story of an unexpected hobbit discovery on the Indonesian island of Flores is fairly well known (–and if you don’t know it, check out this piece by Ewen Callaway, or my post on the discovery). A team of interdisciplinary scientists led by archaeologist...
by Paige Madison | Mar 6, 2017 | History of Science
There’s a moment, I’ve realized, for each scientist I study, when they transform from an abstract, historical figure into a human being. This character-to-human transition happens quickly, and the shift is striking—as if they’ve transcended the two dimensional world...
by Paige Madison | Feb 12, 2017 | History of Science
Charles Darwin was born today (February 12), 208 years ago. The world he was born into would be entirely unrecognizable to us today. Bicycles had yet to be invented, steam engines were just beginning to appear, and slavery was commonly practiced in both England and...
by Paige Madison | Jan 15, 2017 | History of Science
When I began considering applying to graduate school, my mother told me I should read The New York Times to help build my vocabulary. So while studying for the graduate entrance exams, I started picking up the Sunday Times from a newsstand next to the burger joint I...
