On a Piece of Chalk

From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core
Jump to: navigation, search
On a Piece of Chalk
File:On a piece of chalk --- Thomas Henry Huxley.jpg
Hardcover edition
Author Thomas Henry Huxley
Genre Non-fiction
Published 1868 (Macmillan's Magazine)
1967 (Scribner)
OCLC 504632
Website aleph0.clarku.edu/huxley/CE8/Chalk.html

On a Piece of Chalk was a 1868 lecture by Thomas Henry Huxley to the working men of Norwich during a meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science.[1] It was published as an essay in Macmillan's Magazine in London later that year. The piece reconstructs the geological history of Britain from a simple piece of chalk and demonstrates science as "organized common sense".[2]

On a Piece of Chalk was republished by Scribner in 1967 with an introduction by Loren Eiseley and illustrations by Rudolf Freund.[1]

Reception

In 1967, Dael Wolfle of the AAAS gave a favorable review for On a Piece of Chalk, writing:

<templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />

That the lessons of paleontology are now so much more widely appreciated than they were when Huxley drew them from a piece of carpenter's chalk is in good measure a tribute to Huxley's genius. We have much more factual knowledge than he had, but we have no better exemplar of the art of explaining in compelling and understandable terms what science is about, nor a more vigorous example of the scientist's obligation to practice that art.[1]

In April 2015, physicist and Nobel laureate Steven Weinberg included On a Piece of Chalk in a personal list of "the 13 best science books for the general reader".[3]

See also

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links


<templatestyles src="Asbox/styles.css"></templatestyles>

<templatestyles src="Asbox/styles.css"></templatestyles>