News from Mars: Mass Media and the Forging of a New Astronomy, 1860-1910 - Couverture rigide

Nall, Joshua

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0822945525 ISBN 13 : 9780822945529

Editeur : University of Pittsburgh Press, 2019

Synopsis

Mass media in the late nineteenth century was full of news from Mars. In the wake of Giovanni Schiaparelli’s 1877 discovery of enigmatic dark, straight lines on the red planet, astronomers and the public at large vigorously debated the possibility that it might be inhabited. As rivalling scientific practitioners looked to marshal allies and sway public opinion—through newspapers, periodicals, popular books, exhibitions, and encyclopaedias—they exposed disagreements over how the discipline of astronomy should be organized and how it should establish acceptable conventions of discourse.

News from Mars provides a new account of this extraordinary episode in the history of astronomy, revealing how major transformations in astronomical practice across Britain and America were inextricably tied up with popular scientific culture and a transatlantic news economy that enabled knowledge to travel. As Joshua Nall argues, astronomers were journalists, too, eliding practice with communication in consequential ways. As writers and editors, they played a pivotal role in the emergence of a “new astronomy” dedicated to the study of the physical constitution and life history of celestial objects, blurring harsh distinctions between those who produced esoteric knowledge and those who disseminated it. 

A propos du livre

À propos de l'auteur

Joshua Nall is curator of modern sciences at the Whipple Museum of the History of Science in the Department of the History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge. He is a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, where he serves as chair of the society’s Heritage Committee.
 

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: University of Pittsburgh Press
• Date d'édition: 2019
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0822945525
• ISBN 13: 9780822945529
• Reliure: Relié
• Numéro d'édition: 1
• Nombre de pages: 287
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
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