Great science, uncomfortable history: Sir Gustav Nossal and the long tail of eugenics
“Dhoombak Goobgoowana has revealed the extensive influence of Nazi apologists, racists and massacre perpetrators in the history of the university – not referring to Nossal. It outlines how eugenic ideas about white superiority denigrated First Nations people, as well as non-white immigrants.”
Royal Society exhibition revives 18th-century debate about shape of the Earth
“Some members of the French Academy of Sciences interpreted measurements taken in Paris by scientists including Jacques Cassini as supporting the idea that the Earth was elongated at the poles, resembling a lemon or a melon.
By contrast, Isaac Newton had proposed that the centrifugal force caused by the Earth’s rotation would result in the planet being flattened at its poles, thus having a similar shape to an orange.”
Royal Society exhibition revives 18th-century debate about shape of the Earth
“_Some members of the French Academy of Sciences interpreted measurements taken in Paris by scientists including Jacques Cassini as supporting the idea that the Earth was elongated at the poles, resembling a lemon or a melon.
By contrast, Isaac Newton had proposed that the centrifugal force caused by the Earth’s rotation would result in the planet being flattened at its poles, thus having a similar shape to an orange._”