Conferences  >  Didactics, History and Philosophy of Science and Technology  >  History and Philosophy of Science and Technology

Institute of Physics (IOP)

The five naked­eye planets, bright, conspicuous, and not fixed relative to the stars, have piqued the interest of humanity from the first civilisations to the present day. In this talk I will look at how our models of the solar system have evolved over time, from the first attempts to make sense of the planets' motions to the present day focus on the early history of the planetary system.

Courses and Events for Physics Students,    Public Lectures and Outreach

Institute of Physics (IOP)

The study of extraterrestrial matter, from meteorites passing by cosmic dust to sample returned from asteroids, has a long and fascinating history. For centuries, humans have been intrigued by stones from the sky,” but it was only relatively recently that scientists began to understand the true nature and significance of meteorites and cosmic dust. This talk explores the development of the science of meteoritics, tracing its evolution from early observations to the modern era of sophisticated analyses. We will examine key discoveries that revolutionized our understanding of these celestial messengers, particularly focusing on the “Antarctic meteorite revolution” – a period of unparalleled discovery driven by the unique conditions of the frozen continent. During this talk, I will explore this history and explain how scientists have learned to decipher these celestial objects. This journey reveals how meteoritics has helped us unravel the mysteries of the early solar system, shedding light on the formation of planets and the building blocks of life.

Courses and Events for Physics Students,    Public Lectures and Outreach

Centre for Logic and Philosophy of Science (CLPS)

In his commentary on Aristotle’s Physics, Robert Grosseteste (ca. 1175-1253), Oxford theologian and Chancellor of the University, wrote: "Moreover, [God] created everything by number, weight, and measure, and He is the first and most accurate Measurer. By infinite numbers which are finite to Him, he measured the lines which He created. By some infinite number which is fixed and finite to Him, He measured and numbered the one-cubit line; and by an infinite number twice that size, He measured the two-cubit line; and by an infinite number half that size, He measured the half-cubit line." In Grosseteste's account the numerosity of the points in a finite line segment covaries with the length of the line segment. This position gave rise to an interesting number of debates in the XIIIth century especially as a consequence of a challenge raised by the Oxford theologian Richard Fishacre (1205-1248) who set up a one to one correspondence between the points in line segments of different lengths. I will reconstruct some aspects of this medieval debate, connect it to later intuitions (Bolzano and Cantor), and then discuss recent results from the theory of numerosities to the effect that the counting of points in a line segment preserving the part-whole principle is compatible with Lebesgue measure. I conclude that Grosseteste's intuitions can find a suitable mathematical implementation.

Beilstein-Institut