Mary Somerville: Science, Illumination, and the Female MindCambridge University Press, 2001 M10 22 - 263 pages In an era when science was perceived as a male domain, Mary Somerville (1780-1872) became both the leading woman scientist of her day and an integral part of the British scientific community. Her scientific writings contributed to one of the most important cultural projects of Victorian Britain: establishing science as a distinct, integral, and unifying element of culture. By the time of her death, Somerville had achieved near-mythic status in Britain. Her works reflect both the power of science to capture imagination and the influence of cultural factors in the development of science. They provide a window into a particularly lucid and illuminated mind and into one of the most formative periods in the evolution of modern scientific culture. This retelling of Somerville's story focuses on the factors that allowed her to become an eminent scientist and argues for rethinking the story of women's participation in science. |
Contents
Perceiving What Others Do Not Perceive The Peculiar Illumination of the Female Mind | 1 |
Head among the Stars Feet Firm upon the Earth The Problem of Categorizing Mary Somerville | 11 |
Creating a Room of Her Own in the World of Science How Mary Fairfax Became the Famous Mrs Somerville | 45 |
Science as Exact Calculation and Elevated Meditation Mechanism of the Heavens 1831 Preliminary Dissertation 1832 and On the Connexion of the P... | 86 |
The Earth the Sea the Air and Their Inhabitants Physical Geography 1848 and On Molecular and Microscopic Science 1869 | 130 |
Mary Somerville on Mary Somerville Personal Recollections 1873 | 169 |
Common terms and phrases
ability accomplishments achieved aesthetic animals associated astronomy autobiography believe Brougham Burntisland Cambridge Caroline Herschel century Connexion cosmic platform culture David Brewster demonstrates describes descriptive patterns developed discoveries discussion earth epic theater established example feminine Frances Power Cobbe gender Greig heavens history of science human imagination important intellectual interesting interpretive frame John Herschel knowledge Laplace Laplace's living manuscript Maria Edgeworth Maria Mitchell Martha Somerville Mary Somerville Mary Somerville's mathematics Mécanique Céleste Mechanism Microscopic Science Molecular and Microscopic narrative nature notion offered passage perceived perception Personal Recollections phenomena Philosophical Physical Geography Physical Sciences planets poets Preliminary Dissertation present published pursuit reader reflected revealed rhetoric of science role Samuel Greig scientific sublime scientific writing scientist seems sense significant social Somerville Collection Somerville's writing space story strategy themes tion tracing the mazes universe Victorian Whewell William Somerville William Whewell woman women