gender – Before Newton

Did plague doctors wear those masks?

I get asked this question a lot when I teach courses in the history of medicine or the history of science. Even more commonly, people tell me they “know” what plague doctors looked like: they had a mask with a long beak, goggles, gloves and a garment that covered them from chin to ankles. Indeed,Continue reading “Did plague doctors wear those masks?”

Faces of Aristotle

In my introduction to the course, I discussed Raphael’s painting “The School of Athens,” in which Aristotle is one of the two central figures. We will be spending a considerable amount of time in this course discussing the works of Aristotle, in the subject areas of astronomy, meteorology, physics and biology. In fact, we willContinue reading “Faces of Aristotle”