Tag Archives: history of science

"Just as the shadows in the hollows of the Earth diminish in size as the Sun rises higher, so also these spots on the Moon lose their blackness as the illuminated part grows larger and larger."

The information-design authority Edward Tufte is selling his multimillion-dollar collection of rare books, which together make up a "Museum of Cognitive Art." For most of us, the slideshow will have to do.

"Some flashes of lambent light, much like the aurora borealis, were first observed on the northern part of the heavens....as soon as the meteor emerged from behind the cloud, its light was prodigious."