I get it. We would all like to have more illustrations of the plague. It is hard to fathom how a horrific event like the Black Death has left so few bonafide illustrations. Misidentified illustrations do not solve the problem; they compound the confusion. Three images commonly used to illustrate the Black Death have been proven misidentifications;... Continue Reading →
I have a weakness for good scientific graphics, especially zoonotic cycles. In his recent paper, Christos Lynteris looks at these diagrams with the eye of a visual anthropologist. He explains why zoonotic cycle diagrams work, and why they sometimes confer much more information that we intend (or want). Since these diagrams are intended for public... Continue Reading →
This fall was quite the chaotic jumble -- not all bad. One project successfully completed. A door closed but I think another better one may be opening. Somehow in the midst of all this I managed to do a little reading, so here is what that stood out for the fall (and early winter). My... Continue Reading →
by Michelle Ziegler Altmetrics recently released the Top 100 scholarly articles list for the year (captured on 15 Nov 2016). Their ranking captures the public discussion on academic articles judged by shares of the online edition, news articles, blog posts and tweets that include the digital object identifier code (doi). (So if you want to improve... Continue Reading →
Monica H. Green (monica.green@asu.edu,@MonicaMedHist) is a historian of medieval medicine. An elected Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America, she teaches both global history and the global history of health. She was the editor in 2014 of Pandemic Disease in the Medieval World: Rethinking the Black Death, the inaugural issue of a new journal, The... Continue Reading →
Welcome to the 66th edition of On Giant's Shoulders, the blog carnival for the history of science, medicine and technology! I wish I could pull a bunch of holiday posts out of Santa's bag, but the blogosphere does not appear to be in the festive mood yet. An anniversary and commemoration mood seems to be... Continue Reading →
Over the last few months, I've been talking quite a bit with historians. Many of them are starting to read more biology papers; some are perplexed by the format and brevity. So, I plan on occasionally writing posts that I hope will help non-science folks and students cope with science literature. A recent question: how... Continue Reading →
Contagions 