John Herschel: Reformation of Science PDF

9/14/24, 9:38 PM Reviewer JOHN Herschel Reformation OF Science BY Stephen CASE REVIEWER – READING 1 his notation of dots over variables—and geometrical represe...

9/14/24, 9:38 PM Reviewer JOHN Herschel Reformation OF Science BY Stephen CASE REVIEWER – READING 1 his notation of dots over variables—and geometrical representation. JOHN HERSCHEL - REFORM OF SCIENCE  French—mathematics had, by contrast, BY STEPHEN CASE developed along lines forged by German polymath Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and used The son of the world’s most famous astronomer, the “d-ism” of differential notation (which is still Herschel helped liberate science from the realm used today) of aristocratic privilege.  To Herschel, however, and to other like- minded students that included Charles Babbage, the  March 7, 1792 – May 11, 1871 logical methods of analysis were necessary to  Only child of William Herschel and Mary restore the UK’s prominence in mathematics Baldwin Pitt  Herschel, even as he completed his university  Slough, England course of study, reserved his real intellectual eff orts for the Analytical Society Journey:  he passed his exams with top marks and  His sister, Caroline, had often assisted with and received highest honors at graduation in 1813. added to his observation and she even  the Analytical Society, Herschel published a composed William’s scientific papers for him. series of mathematical papers in the  As William recorded John also saw Saturn’s “Philosophical Transactions of the Royal strange curvature, marking a shape down on Society” slate that “exactly delineated the appearance”  He became one of the youngest fellows William saw. It was Herschel’s first recorded inducted into the Royal Society and was astronomical observation awarded its most prestigious prize, the Copley  William was best known for his method of Medal, in 1821 for his contributions to telescopic “sweeps,” by which he discovered mathematics. hundreds of new celestial objects Natural Philosophy in London:  What he lacked, however, was the advanced mathematical training to turn his observations  he learned an important lesson. The hidebound into coherent physical theories. university was not the place to institute reform. London, rather than Cambridge, was Mathematical Revolution: the center of the UK scientific world.  Herschel enrolled at the University of  But like mathematics at Cambridge, the practice Cambridge of science in London remained a conservative,  privately tutored in the advanced techniques hierarchical endeavor. Under the long developed by continental mathematicians like presidency of naturalist Joseph Banks, the Royal Pierre Simon Laplace, Joseph Louis Lagrange, Society. and Sylvestre François Lacroix.  As the drive for political reform gained  At Cambridge, Herschel found to his dismay an momentum in the 1820s, there was a parallel institution with little interest in mathematical push to make science more egalitarian. developments outside of the UK. Herschel was at the center of that effort, which  Instruction at Cambridge remained devoted to helped transform natural philosophy into the “dot-age” of Newton’s calculus—namely, modern science and the natural philosopher into the modern scientist. about:blank 1/3 9/14/24, 9:38 PM Reviewer JOHN Herschel Reformation OF Science BY Stephen CASE  In London, Herschel moved from pure to  Herschel decided to do just that. Along with applied mathematics and explored a science James South, a London surgeon, he began that still had no fi rm disciplinary boundaries revisiting all the double stars his father had  During that time, he discovered the properties cataloged. of sodium thiosulfate solution (Na2S2O3) and  With the new catalogs, astronomers could set the foundation for what would become the determine which doubles were truly binary. primary method of fixing images in Herschel would go on to publish double-star photography catalogs that included hundreds of additional  During visits to Paris in 1819 and 1821, Herschel doubles of his own discovery. worked with Jean Baptiste Biot and François  His observations made double stars an active Arago, who helped him realize how field for observers, and the data he gathered mathematical equations were embodied in the allowed mathematicians to calculate the interactions between crystals and polarized orbits of those bodies and make the first- ever light. measurements of stellar masses.  Later, when he became known as an  Measurements of nebulae and double stars astronomer, he would tell his wife, Margaret, were the observational frontier of astronomy, that “light was my first love.” and Herschel worked meticulously to bring  In France, Herschel was also exposed to a new uniformity and standardization to those difficult way of organizing science in which privilege was objects. replaced by professionalization. In the French At the Cape Academy of Sciences, natural philosophers were employees of the state and paid for full-  By 1833 Herschel had revisited all his father’s time research targets in the northern sky. But there was an  Like mathematics at Cambridge, Herschel found entire hemisphere not yet swept by telescope the scientific institutions of London moribund  Herschel decided the time had come. Because and in need of reform. And as at Cambridge, of a large inheritance, Herschel was able to Herschel’s strategy involved a group of scientific relocate his wife and three young children, rebels. along with their nurse and a workman to help him with his large reflecting telescope, to the A Sidereal Revolution UK colony at the Cape of Good Hope , at the  After an abortive return to Cambridge as a southern tip of Africa, where they arrived in tutor, Herschel finally acquiesced to become January 1834. his aging father’s apprentice and take up his  He ultimately spent four years at the Cape, observational program. where he continued his systematic sweeps and  Along with Babbage, he helped found the new discovered and mapped new nebulae and Astronomical Society of London in 1820 to double stars, and he became the first—and challenge the hegemony of the Royal Society perhaps only—person in history to closely  William observing program was suited to his survey the entire visible sky by telescope own unique instruments. Although his catalogs  Upon his return to England in 1838 , Herschel included hundreds of new nebulae and double took his place at the head of the pantheon of stars, they did not provide the accuracy or UK science. He was given the title of baronet organization for other observers to find them by Queen Victoria for his services to science, easily about:blank 2/3 9/14/24, 9:38 PM Reviewer JOHN Herschel Reformation OF Science BY Stephen CASE and a gala was thrown in London to welcome could not transform the practice of science in him home. the Royal Society, he would take his methods  The object numbers in that catalog, which was to the broader public.” revised posthumously into the New General THE BOOK THAT INVENTED SCIENCE Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars, remain the primary label by which  In the days leading up to his failed bid for the astronomers refer to deep- sky objects presidency, Herschel was approached by  At the time of Herschel’s death on 11 May science writer and editor Dionysius Lardner 1871, he was held in high- enough esteem that  For Herschel, that book—first published in 1831 he was buried in Westminster Abbey near and titled “A Preliminary Discourse on the Newton Study of Natural Philosophy”—was an opportunity to set out his vision of science REFORMATION OF SCIENCE  A Preliminary Discourse articulated the  Although his early work with the Astronomical relationship between mathematics and natural Society threatened the Royal Society’s control philosophy over UK science, Herschel was active in both  In all of Herschel’s pursuits—chemistry, societies before his South African expedition astronomy, optics, and more—he pushed  That year, the aristocratic wing of the society science toward standardization and pushed for the election of King William IV’s mathematical analysis and away from brother Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex. For traditions of prestige and privilege. the conservative leadership of the society, the  Yet that effort bore most fruit through his duke was an ideal candidate Preliminary Discourse, which brought the  He was interested in science and, as an ideals of science to the general public and aristocrat, had beneficial social connections. articulated scientific methodology for a new  For Herschel, those attributes were antithetical generation. to the scientific endeavor. “How could science  Although no theorem or discovery bears progress on a meritocratic basis with a Herschel’s name, his work molded the contours president who was royalty and whose mere of an age and helped shape the ideals of suggestions could be construed as modern science commands?”  So radical were Herschel’s views on the egalitarian nature of science that he suggested FOOT NOTES: the bookish Francis Baily  Natural Philosophy into Modern Science  Herschel’s reforming colleagues knew that Baily Natural Philosopher into Modern Scientist would not do – thus Herschel was only capable  The only person in history to clearly survey the doing that. entire visible sky by telescope.  Although it was a close race, the reforming coup failed. The Duke of Sussex was elected CONCLUSION: and the aristocratic party retained its grip on  His book “A Preliminary Discourse on the the society. Study of Natural Philosophy” was been the  But the crisis reaffirmed in Herschel his belief basis book of now famous scientist including that change must happen, and he channeled his Michael Faraday and Charles Darwin. efforts at reform into a new direction. “If he about:blank 3/3