History Of Science
All 11 records found.
Battle of the Dinosaur Bones: Othniel Charles Marsh vs Edward Drinker Cope
From the Series Scientific Rivalries and Scandals
In the 1880s, science witnessed a major shift: Charles Darwin proposed his theory of evolution. People dug up the first dinosaur fossils. And the field of paleontology—the study of ancient… Read More →
Bleed, Blister, Puke, and Purge: The Dirty Secrets Behind Early American Medicine
Riots over the medical use of cadavers, public access to institutions for the insane, and full-blown surgeries without the aid of anesthetics or painkillers. Welcome to the middle ages of… Read More →
Decoding Our DNA: Craig Venter vs the Human Genome Project
From the Series Scientific Rivalries and Scandals
In the mid-1980s, some geneticists proposed a daring project to sequence the human genome. That meant figuring out the exact order of the three billion chemical pairs that make up human DNA.… Read More →
Genomics: A Revolution in Health and Disease Discovery
Over the past 50 years, scientists have made incredible progress in the application of genetic research to human health care and disease treatment. Innovative tools and techniques, including… Read More →
Last of the Giants: The Rise and Fall of Earth's Most Dominant Species
Today, an ancient world is vanishing right before our eyes: the age of giant animals. Over 40,000 years ago, the earth was ruled by megafauna: mammoths, mastodons, saber-toothed tigers and… Read More →
Recentering the Universe: The Radical Theories of Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, and Newton
In the sixth century B.C.E., the Greek philosopher Anaximander theorized that Earth was at the center of the cosmos. That idea became ingrained in scientific thinking and Christian religious… Read More →
Science and the Skeptic: Discerning Fact from Fiction
Fake news, pseudoscience, and quackery have become scourges, spreading through society from social media all the way to Congress. The line between entertainment and reality, between fact and… Read More →
Shaking the Foundation: Charles Darwin and the Theory of Evolution
"I cannot think that the world, as we see it, is the result of chance; & yet I cannot look at each separate thing as the result of design." English naturalist Charles Darwin wrote this in Read More →
The Next Big Thing: A History of the Boom-or-Bust Moments That Shaped the Modern World
We are always hearing about the Next Big Thing. Whether it is a new iPhone or the New World, the freshest and newest inventions, discoveries, and fads always loom large in the public mind.… Read More →
The Race to Discover the AIDS Virus: Luc Montagnier vs Robert Gallo
From the Series Scientific Rivalries and Scandals
In the early 1980s, doctors sounded the alarm. A mysterious new disease—acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, or AIDS—was spreading around the world. While many of the first AIDS patients were… Read More →
War of the Currents: Thomas Edison vs Nikola Tesla
From the Series Scientific Rivalries and Scandals
In the early 1880s, only a few wealthy people had electric lighting in their homes. Everyone else had use more dangerous lighting, such as gas lamps. Eager companies wanted to be the first to Read More →