Readers interested in the history of alchemy will be pleased to hear that Jenny Rampling’s long-awaited “The Experimental Fire: Inventing English Alchemy, 1300-1700” (University of Chicago Press) has now been published. Offering plenty of new original insights into the alchemical practices of figures such as John Dee (and fellow spirit conjuror, Edward Kelley), the book … Read more
The Swiss Renaissance physician and natural philosopher Theophrastus von Hohenheim (aka Paracelsus) has been praised as a ‘father’ of modern toxicology by some, and derided as a self-evident pseudoscientist and charlatan by others. Aspects of his supposed and actual ideas have been claimed by humanistic proponents of holistic medicine as well as by Nazism, and … Read more
Hasok Chang is Hans Rausing Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge, and the current British Academy Wolfson Research Professor. A past President of the British Society for this History of Science, Hasok is the author of Is Water H2O? Evidence, Realism and Pluralism (Springer, 2012), and Inventing Temperature: Measurement … Read more
Kees-Jan Schilt has a background in physics, astrophysics and history and philosophy of science (University of Utrecht), and is currently a doctoral researcher in early modern history of science at the University of Sussex. A member of the Newton Project, he specializes in early modern history, history of science and religion, and in the life … Read more