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The Physical Tourist

Physics in Edinburgh: From Napier’s Bones to Higgs’s Boson

I provide a tour of Edinburgh focusing on famous contributors to the history of physics and related sciences, using them as a way to write about particular parts of Edinburgh. I proceed chronologically, from the seventeenth century to the Scottish Enlightenment of the eighteenth century and on to the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Among the notable individuals I discuss are John Napier (1550–1617), James Gregory (1638–1675), George Sinclair (ca. 1625–1696), Colin Maclaurin (1698–1746), Joseph Black (1728–1799), James Hutton (1726–1797), John James Waterston (1811–1883), William J. Macquorn Rankine (1820–1872), David Brewster (1781–1868), Peter Guthrie Tait (1831–1901), James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879), Charles Piazzi Smyth (1819–1900), Charles Glover Barkla (1877–1944), Max Born (1882–1970), Edward Victor Appleton (1892–1965), Charles T.R. Wilson (1869–1959), and Peter Higgs (b. 1929).

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Correspondence to John Henry.

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John Henry is Reader in the History of Science at the Science Studies Unit, University of Edinburgh. He specializes in seventeenth-century history but has published on topics from the Middle Ages to the nineteenth century. Although English he has lived in Edinburgh since 1986 and would like to be considered an honorary Scot.

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Henry, J. The Physical Tourist. Phys. perspect. 9, 468–501 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00016-007-0348-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00016-007-0348-0

Keywords:

  • Edinburgh
  • University of Edinburgh
  • Scottish Enlightenment
  • Royal Society of Edinburgh
  • Royal Observatory of Scotland
  • City Observatory
  • National Library of Scotland
  • Royal Scottish Museum
  • National Gallery of Scotland
  • Napier University
  • Heriot-Watt University
  • Forth Railway Bridge
  • John Napier
  • Nicholas Copernicus
  • James Gregory
  • David Gregory
  • John Keill
  • George Sinclair
  • Colin Maclaurin
  • Joseph Black
  • James Hutton
  • John James Waterston
  • William J. Macquorn Rankine
  • David Brewster
  • James David Forbes
  • Peter Guthrie Tait
  • James Clerk Maxwell
  • Fleeming Jenkin
  • Charles Piazzi Smyth
  • Charles Glover Barkla
  • Max Born
  • Edward Victor Appleton
  • Peter Higgs
  • James Ludovic Lindsay
  • Earl of Crawford
  • Nevil Maskelyne
  • Charles T.R. Wilson
  • logarithms
  • astronomy
  • mathematics
  • geology
  • natural philosophy
  • physics
  • history of physics