The Giant’s Shoulders #53 is out!

The 53rd edition of The Giant’s Shoulders history of science blog carnival has appeared at The Scicurious Brain!  In this edition, you can read about:

• How politics and hurricanes have collided as far back as the 1600s,
• The historical “invasion of the body snatchers” epidemic!
• THE HORRIFIC CARNIVOROUS MASTODON (that never existed),
• and much more!

Many thanks to Scicurious for putting together an excellent and lovely edition of the carnival!

The next edition will be posted on December 16th at the Contagions blog, and as always entries can be submitted to the carnival organizers (Skulls in the Stars or Renaissance Mathematicus) or directly to the carnival host.

The Heroic #52 Edition of Giants’ Shoulders is up.

Heroes, Anti-heroes, No more heroes, “Loads More Heroes” the heroic #52 edition of The Giants’ Shoulders history of science blog carnival has been posted by Mr. “Friends of Darwin” himself, Richard Carter at his The Friends of Charles Darwin blog.

Go and find what heroic acts of bloggage have been perpetrated in the Intertubes in the last thirty days. Read about alchemical distillation in cookbooks, the astrological causes of syphilis, petrified legs, villains of biology and much, much more from the annals of history of science.

The next history of science blog carnival Giants’ Shoulders #53 will be hosted by Scicurious at her The Scicurious Brain blog on 16^th November, submission as always by the 15^th of the month. Submission can be made directly to the host or to me here at the Renaissance Mathematicus or Dr. SkySkull at Skull in the Stars.

Giants’ Shoulders scores a first!

We have a first! The Giants’ Shoulders history of science blog carnival for September is on The Scientific American Blog Network for the first time ever. The Internet’s best historian of geology, David Bressan, has hosted Giants’ Shoulders #51 on his History of Geology Blog at SciAm. So go over there and enjoy the best histsci bloggage from the last month.

Next month Giants’ Shoulders #52 will be hosted by the Internet’s best friend of Darwin, Richard Carter at The Friends of Charles Darwin Blog on 16^th October. Submission, as usual by 15^th October, either direct to the host or to me here or to Dr Skyskull at Skulls in the Stars.

 

The Giant’s Shoulders #51 is out! Tales of Patriotic Science-Nerds, Vortex Cannons and Nuking the Goat

The 51st edition of The Giant’s Shoulders is up at the History of Geology blog!  As its title suggests, within the carnival you can read about:

• Patriotic science nerd Thomas Jefferson, who defended America’s biological honor with a moose,
• A very old physics demonstration which has led to some unusual possible applications: the vortex cannon,
• The role of neurotic goats as test subjects in early nuclear testing,
• And much more!

Many thanks to David Bressan for taking the time to host and put together an excellent history of science blog carnival!

The next edition will be hosted on October 16 at the Friends of Darwin blog.  Entries can be submitted to the carnival managers, myself (Dr. SkySkull) or ThonyC via email, or directly to the carnival host, by the 15th of October.

The Giants’ Shoulders turns fifty.

History of aural medicine blogger Jai Virdi has put together the fiftieth edition of the history of science blog carnival The Giants’ Shoulders and a real humdinger it is too. If you want to read the very best in #histsci #histmed and #histtech bloggage from the last month then hurry on over to Jai’s blog From the Hands of Quacks and get stuck in but take plenty of time with you because she created a cornucopia of history of science goodness.

The Giants’ Shoulders #51 will be hosted by historian of geology David Bressan at his History of Geology blog at Scientific American Blogs on the 16^th September 2012. Submissions either direct to the host or to me here at The Renaissance Mathematicus or to Dr SkySkull at Skulls in the Stars by the 15^th of September at the latest.

The future of The Giants’ Shoulders is secured for the rest of this year and into the next with Richard Carter hosting at his Friends of Darwin blog in October, Scicurious hosting at her blog at Scientific American in November, Michelle Ziegler hosting at Contagions in December and Lisa Smith The History Beagle bringing in the New Year in January. However if it is to continue The Giants’ Shoulders will need new hosts in the months that follow so if you blog about the history of science or technology or medicine or have a blog and are just interested in these fields you too could host a carnival. If you are willing and able then please contact me, Thony C, here at The Renaissance Mathematicus and let see if we can fill the other half-century!

Just six days left to make those submissions for Giants’ Shoulders #50

The half-century edition of Giants’ Shoulders the history of science blog carnival will be hosted by Jai Virdi at From the Hands of Quacks on 16^th August. This means that you have just six days to submit the best of histsci, histmed and histtech bloggage from the last month. You can either make your submissions to me here or direct to Jai. Help to make this a special celebration history of science on the Internet.

Giants’ Shoulders #49: The “Crisis what Crisis?” edition.

Finally with more than somewhat of a delay you are reading the 49^th edition of the history of science blog carnival On Giants’ Shoulders. Should you not be aware of the significance of the title then please read the previous post here at The Renaissance Mathematicus and add your comments to the on going debate. Now on to the carnival!

Standing on the Shoulders of Bloggers: Carnival frustration searing my soul.

In the last few days I have had a few tweets inquiring about the present and future of Standing on the Shoulders of Giants the history of science blog carnival; what follows are some thoughts on the health (or better lack there of) and the future direction of the Internet’s only monthly round up of histsci goodness.

In June Giant’s Shoulders celebrated four completed years of existence but despite reaching this milestone your favourite histsci carnival is hanging in the ropes and is dangerously close to a KO. To exist a blog carnival needs three things. Blog posts to be collected, denizens of the Internet who read, find worthy and submit or nominate those posts and bloggers prepared to write up, present and host the carnival once a month.

As recent editions of Giants’ Shoulders have, I think, demonstrated there is no shortage of good histsci bloggage out there waiting to be read. However, what is probably not so obvious to the carnival readers, the other two requirements have become increasingly difficult to fulfil. Since at least a years and probably longer between about 90% and 95% of all the posts featured in the monthly roundup have been submitted by yours truly. Now I’m a confessed histsci obsessive and enjoy trawling the Internet looking for interesting posts to fulfil my own eclectic appetite for histsci information however if I’m almost the only person nominating posts for the carnival then I have to ask if anybody else is really interested in maintaining it. What should be more obvious are the extreme problems that we have had finding bloggers every month to host the whole show. Desperate series of tweets from myself and Dr SkySkull each month pleading and begging with the histsci community for somebody to come forward and take over the chore for the next month, which often ends with one of the small handful of faithfuls taking it on for the third, fourth or whatever time.

As should be obvious from the title of this post I am anything but happy with this situation and have been brooding about it for sometime, finally deciding to go public with my frustration with this post. What alternatives do I see? I could of course just pretend that everything is OK and carry on as before. The fact that you are reading this means that I have not chosen this course of non-action. Alternatively I could just give up on the whole thing, stop worrying and let other people decide if they want to take up the baton and try to rejuvenate Giants’ Shoulders. I must admit that in the last couple of months that has seemed the most attractive proposition and it is a course that I might yet choose. A third possibility is to ask the Internet community if they still want a history of science blog carnival and if they are prepared to become more actively involved in keeping it alive. This is basically what this post is about. If you read it and if you have an opinion about Giants’ Shoulders then please comment, make suggestions, make offers, or simply react in someway. Dr SkySkull suggested this morning making Giants’ Shoulders bi-monthly to reduce the stress of finding hosts. I personally don’t think that is the solution, maybe you do?

I haven’t given up yet but I do have to admit that at the moment I’m very close to doing so. I shall host Giants’ Shoulders #49 here at The Renaissance Mathematicus tomorrow to maintain the continuity. Jai Vidri, who has apparently successfully conquered the doctoral thesis summit and is returning to histsci blogging will host Giants’ Shoulders #50 at her blog From the Hands of Quacks on 16^th August. What happens after that will be determined by your reactions to this post!

Giants’ Shoulders #48 is up

Giants’ Shoulders #48 the history of science blog carnival hosted by Sienna Latham has been posted at Clerestories, lots to read and some things to see for all friends of the history of science. Go on a visit and read your fill.

Giants’ Shoulders #47 is visiting the Medical Heritage Library

The Medical Heritage Library has invited Giants’ Shoulders the history of science blog carnival to visit and has made its visitor feel very much at home. Hanna Clutterbuck has put together a bumper crop of choice history of science bloggage for your delectation. Pop over pull up a chair or a lectern and read the best history of science that the Internet has thrown up in the last month in Giants’ Shoulders #47.

Next months carnival Giants’ Shoulders #48 completes four years of histsci collected bloggage if we can only find a host! If you want the honour of hosting this historical edition then contact Thony C at The Renaissance Mathematicus or DrSkySkull at Skulls in the Stars.