Foundations

Subjects

Most Recent

TRUE BLUE: Digital copy of the cyanotype of Fucus vesiculosus var. linearis, scanned from the edition of Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions, Part XI, once owned by John Frederick William Herschel, inventor of the cyanotype process and neighbor of Anna Atkins. The volume, which now resides at the New York Public Library, is one of only 13 extant editions of the book.New York Public Library

Botanical Blueprints, circa 1843

By Cristina Luiggi | February 1, 2012

Anna Atkins, pioneering female photographer, revolutionized scientific illustration using a newly invented photographic technique.

Portrait of Barbara McClintock, 1947The Barbara McClintock Collection, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Archives

Before the Genes Jumped, 1930s

By Sabrina Richards | January 1, 2012

How Nobel Laureate Barbara McClintock nearly gave up genetics for meteorology

An interpretive drawing of William Buckland crawling into Kirkdale Cave where he found extinct cave hyenas and the remains of their prey. Drawn by Buckland’s friend William Conybeare.

The Hyena Den, discovered 1821

By Jef Akst | December 1, 2011

A 19th century geologist and minister investigates a prehistoric cave full of hyena bones in his native England.

Walter Bodmer, along with Walter Gilbert, a 1980 Nobel laureate in chemistry and a Harvard University professor, wrote opinions advocating for a project to sequence the human genome in the premier issue of The Scientist magazine, published October 20, 1986. See bigger version.

The Human Genome Project,
Then and Now

By Walter F. Bodmer | October 1, 2011

An early advocate of the sequencing of the human genome reflects on his own predictions from 1986.

Click to enlarge

The Scientist, Inaugural Issue, 1986

By Jef Akst | October 1, 2011

Twenty-five years later, the magazine is still hitting many of the same key discussion points of science.

This illustration, from Galvani’s De Viribus Electricitatis in Motu Musculari, published in 1791, shows the experimental setup Galvani used to study the effect of atmospheric electricity on dead frogs.

Animal Electricity, circa 1781

By Jessica P. Johnson | August 31, 2011

How an Italian scientist doing Frankenstein-like experiments on dead frogs discovered that the body is powered by electrical impulses.

Ernst Haeckel’s Pedigree of Man, or Stammbaum des Menschen, as it appeared in The Evolution of Man, an 1897 translation of Anthropogenie, oder Entwickelungsgeschicte des Menschen, published in Germany in 1874.

Ernst Haeckel’s Pedigree of Man, 1874

By Hannah Waters | August 1, 2011

The 19th century naturalist crafted numerous real evolutionary trees that organized the overwhelming number of species on Earth.

Wilhelm Röntgen took this radiograph of his wife’s left hand on December 22, 1895, shortly after his discovery of X-rays.National Library of Medicine

The First X-ray, 1895

By Hannah Waters | July 1, 2011

The discovery of a new and mysterious form of radiation in the late 19th century led to a revolution in medical imaging.

The Hygienic Laboratory at the Staten Island Marine Hospital Service building.National Cancer Institute

One-Man NIH, 1887

By Cristina Luiggi | May 28, 2011

As epidemics swept across the United States in the 19th century, the US government recognized the pressing need for a…

05_11_Foundations01

Medical Posters, circa 1920

By Edyta Zielinska | May 25, 2011

William Helfand began buying medically themed collectibles in the 1950s when he started working for Merck & Co. Over his…