Search results for "History of science"

LU darbinieku 1934. gada Ziemassvētku fotogrāfija

1934

A group picture of the University of Latvia staff taken at the 1934 Christmas celebrations. Belonged to Pēteris Ķiķauka (1886-1967), professor of classical philology. Second row from the left: 2nd is prof. Pēteris Ķiķauka, 4th is physics doc. Fricis Gulbis, 5th is Rector of the University of Latvia, chemistry prof. Jūlijs Auškāps, 6th is engineering prof. Mārtiņš Bīmanis. Fourth row from the left: 1st is history prof. Augusts Tentelis.

Arheologs Ēvalds Mugurēvičs un Latvijas Universitāte

2023

Raksts veltīts izcilam latviešu arheologam, emeritētajam profesoram Ēvaldam Mugurēvičam, kuram ir lieli nopelni Latvijas arheoloģijā. Lai gan E. Mugurēvičs par sevi ir uzrakstījis detalizētu autobiogrāfiju, rakstā tiek ieskicēta Ē. Mugurēviča saistība ar Latvijas Universitāti un viņa spēja pielāgoties pastiprinātai zinātnes ideoloģizācijai PSRS okupācijas laikā.

Einstein's Washington Manuscript on Unified Field Theory

2020

In this note, we point attention to and briefly discuss a curious manuscript of Einstein, composed in 1938 and entitled "Unified Field Theory," the only such writing, published or unpublished, carrying this title without any further specification. Apparently never intended for publication, the manuscript sheds light both on Einstein's modus operandi as well as on the public role of Einstein's later work on a unified field theory of gravitation and electromagnetism.

Science and technology in the European periphery: Some historiographical reflections

2008

Syntheticising Scandinavia: The Introduction of Synthetic Pesticides to Scandinavian Gardens, 1945-1952

2020

Abstract This study examines the introduction of prescriptive pesticide technologies into Scandinavian family gardens. It analyses pesticide propaganda and plant protection experts’ advice and instructions on the use of pesticides directed at amateur, home gardeners in Norway, Sweden and Denmark in the years between 1945 and 1952, the period when the new generation of synthetic pesticides was introduced in Scandinavia, and eagerly advocated by the leading experts of plant protection science. The sources investigated are gardening magazines and their special issues on garden instruction and the use of chemicals through the seasons, edited, published and distributed to a wide readership by na…

The interplay of various Scandinavian mathematical journals (1859-1953) and the road towards internationalization

2018

Abstract The merger of various Nordic mathematical journals in 1953 into Mathematica Scandinavica (for research) and into Nordisk Matematisk Tidsskrift (for the more elementary topics, from 1979 NORMAT) confirmed increasing cooperation between matured Scandinavian mathematical communities. The merger originated from practical considerations including the wish to have a critical mass for economically viable publications. The present paper presents the basic steps in the development of several Scandinavian mathematical journals from 1859, the year of the foundation of the first general mathematical journal in a Scandinavian language, the Danish Mathematisk Tidsskrift, through various convergi…

Václav Hlavatý on intuition in Riemannian space

2019

Abstract We present a historical commentary together with an English translation of a mathematical-philosophical paper by the Czech differential geometer and later proponent of a geometrized unified field theory Vaclav Hlavatý (1894–1969). The paper was published in 1924 at the height of interpretational debates about recent advancements in differential geometry triggered by the advent of Einstein's general theory of relativity. In the paper he argued against a naive generalization of analogical reasoning valid for curves and surfaces in three-dimensional Euclidean space to the case of higher-dimensional curved Riemannian spaces. Instead, he claimed, the only secure ground to arrive at resu…

The Body Politic from Medieval Lombardy to the Dutch Republic: An Introduction

2020

The “Circolo Matematico di Palermo” and the First World War: The crisis of scientific internationalism: a view through the unedited correspondence of…

2021

Abstract In this work the situation of the “Circolo Matematico di Palermo” between 1914 and 1928 is analyzed. It will be observed that during this time the Circolo was among the few European scientific associations with German as well as French associates. During the 1930s, the nationalist politics of Fascism and above all the racial laws dealt a deadly blow to the Circolo as an international scientific association. We will use the rich correspondence in the Circolo's archives to shed some light on this. In particular, the correspondence between M. De Franchis and E. Landau and other recently found documents will figure prominently.

Historical Origins of the nine-point conic -- The Contribution of Eugenio Beltrami

2020

In this paper, we examine the evolution of a specific mathematical problem, i.e. the nine-point conic, a generalisation of the nine-point circle due to Steiner. We will follow this evolution from Steiner to the Neapolitan school (Trudi and Battaglini) and finally to the contribution of Beltrami that closed this journey, at least from a mathematical point of view (scholars of elementary geometry, in fact, will continue to resume the problem from the second half of the 19th to the beginning of the 20th century). We believe that such evolution may indicate the steady development of the mathematical methods from Euclidean metric to projective, and finally, with Beltrami, with the use of quadrat…