This is a post I have been hoping very much to be able to make. The Ordered Universe is absolutely thrilled to hear and share the news from the Arts and Humanities Research Council, UK (AHRC) that our grant application for further, and much more extensive support, has been successful. Continue reading “AHRC Funding: Ordered Universe”
Ordered Universe at the Royal Society Public Lectures: Open House
The Ordered Universe, in the persons of Brian Tanner and Giles Gasper, will be delivering a public lecture at the Royal Society as part of its Open House Weekend.Continue reading “Ordered Universe at the Royal Society Public Lectures: Open House”
Welomes: Joshua Harvey and Tim Farrant
The Ordered Universe is delighted to congratulate Joshua and Tim on their success in securing doctoral studentships as part of the Mental and Material Laboratories of 13th Century Science project, made possible through the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and TORCH at the University of Oxford. We look forward to welcoming them into the Ordered Universe team as well, as we delve further into the corpus of Grosseteste’s scientific texts, and into the 13th century conception of 
the world(s) around them. Continue reading “Welomes: Joshua Harvey and Tim Farrant”
Update: the Mental and Material Laboratory of 13th Century Science
The mental and material laboratory of 13th century science: an update from Clive
Carol Harrison, Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity, Christ Church
Clive Siviour, Engineering Science, Pembroke College
Hannah Smithson, Experimental Psychology, Pembroke College
Giles Gasper, Department of History, Durham University
The overwhelming misconception of modern science graduates is that prior to the development of the scientific method during the 16th century, natural philosophy was dominated by dogma, religious authority and superstition. Continue reading “Update: the Mental and Material Laboratory of 13th Century Science”
Our Latest Scientific Collaborator was a Medieval Bishop
Our Latest Scientific Collaborator was a Medieval Bishop.
Read Tom’s full version of the Ordered Universe Conversation article written in tandem with our presentation at the Cheltenham Science Festival. The transmission of ideas between cultures within the ancient and medieval periods, as well as within the modern, are key aspects to the whole project. They are also very sensitive and difficult phenomena to identify, let alone measure and assess. A combination of very broad brush-strokes and very detailed work is necessary. So, for example, the notion that Islamic science stopped in the twelfth century should be completely overturned, as should the general notion of western medieval scientific thinking as in thrall to the dictates of religious dogma. We do this both in the round and in detail!
Travelling Wisdom – Ordered Universe
Earlier this year in May, Ordered Universe team members participated in a extremely interesting conference organised at the University of Southern Denmark, in Odense. The theme of ‘Travelling Wisdom: Medieval Science in the North c.1000-1500’, proved irresistible, especially when the Ordered Universe team, led by Brian Tanner, was invited to make the opening keynote presentation by Christian Etheridge, the conference organiser. Continue reading “Travelling Wisdom – Ordered Universe”
AHRC-Ordered Universe at the Cheltenham Science Festival
It was a enormous privilege to represent the AHRC at the Cheltenham Science Festival. From the first application to take the Ordered Universe project to the Festival, to the intensive media and presentation workshop at Polaris House, and then to working with the AHRC and Festival co-ordinators, it has been an exciting and supportive journey. The session we presented, ‘Robert Grosseteste: The Greatest Scientist You’ve Never Heard Of…’, started with 
Tom introducing Grosseteste’s physics of light, and the impact of this on his cosmology, especially in the treatise On Light, the De luce. The 
Cheltenham audience were extremely receptive: when Tom outlined the creation of the medieval universe from a single point of light, expanding spherically….in its eerie echoing of the Big Bang you could see the audience lean forward. Continue reading “AHRC-Ordered Universe at the Cheltenham Science Festival”
Ordered Universe-AHRC at the Cheltenham Science Festival…in pictures
Tom, Hannah and Giles had an absolutely wonderful time at the Cheltenham Science Festival. As part of the AHRC partnership with the Festival the Ordered Universe presented Grosseteste’s scientific works and the collaboration between modern scientists and medievalists to an engaged and packed audience. Chaired by Professor Robert Winston, the talk and question and answer session was stimulating and wide-ranging. More to come but here are some pictures!
En route: the Malverns
Cheltenham
The Helix Theatre
The Speakers
The Event
Sunday’s Programme
You will have now…
Setting up
Hannah getting ready
Our AHRC event
View from the stage
Audience gathering
Professor Lord Robert Winston
Giles
Hannah
Discussion starts
with really good questions
Cheltenham Science Festival…Today!
The Ordered Universe will be presenting later today at the Cheltenham Science Festival. Tom, Hannah and Giles will talk with Lord Professor Robert Winston, and with the audience on the project, Grosseteste and Science and Humanities in collaboration. The project was selected by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) as part of its partnership with the Cheltenham Festivals, and the theme of Science in Culture will be very much to the fore in the reflections and discussions later today.Continue reading “Cheltenham Science Festival…Today!”
Team Members in Conversation
A new series of conversations with Ordered Universe team members form the colloquium on the Liberal Arts and the Generation of Sounds at Bishop Grosseteste University. Giles, Hannah, Tom, Jack, Nader and Ulrike talk about the project, the colloquium and their experiences! Available here.