OVERVIEW

The nineteenth century saw an expansive world of scientific engagment by the public through spectacles that combined education with entertainment, that brought scientfic experimentation into the home (as with zoetropes or chemistry sets), in which zoos and aquariums became established as major sites of pilgrimage, and that encouraged speculation on what was yet to be discovered about ancient peoples such as the Egyptians -- with the deciphering of the Rosetta Stone, that unlocked the meaning of hieroglyphics -- or the possibility of other planets in the solar system being populated by beings of some sort, such as Martians. The dynamics of the interplay between the professional world and the public world did not simply flow in one direction from the first to the second. Literary creation Sherlock Holmes was applying forensic science to solving murders well before the police adopted these techniques and science fiction writers were anticipating scientific feats such as the creation of submarines and journeys to the moon by generations.

LIST OF READINGS AND LEARNING ACTIVITIES

Reading Assignments:

Ede & Cormack, Chapters 7 and 8

Read these background articles:

- "Opinion: The fictional character who changed the science of solving of crime" Roy Schwartz, CNN (2022)
- "The Great Moon Hoax Was Simply a Sign of Its Time," Smithsonian Magazine (July 2015)
- Bess Lovejoy, "Fifteen Glowing Facts about the History of Radiation," Mental Floss (March 2016)

Watch this movie from the time period:

Le voyage dan la lune (The Trip to the Moon) / George Melies (1902) [12 mins]