Physico-mathematics and the life sciences: experiencing the mechanism of venous return, 1650s–1680s

This article deals with physico-mathematical approaches to anatomy in post-Harveyan physiology. But rather than looking at questions of iatromechanics and animal locomotion, which often attracted this approach, I look at the problem of how blood returned to the heart – a part of the circulation today known as venous return but poorly researched in the early modern period. I follow the venous return mechanisms proposed by lesser-known authors in the mechanization of anatomy, such as Jean Pecquet (1622–1674) and Nicolaus Steno (1638–1686), alongside the more famous Giovanni Alfonso Borelli (1608–1679). Their mechanisms differed only in small details. Yet, these minor differences highlight significant aspects of the mechanization of the life sciences in the seventeenth century. First, they relied more on observations than hitherto acknowledged, even if only indirectly. Second, their mechanisms drew more from the physico-mathematical disciplines than from the trending corpuscularian philosophies of their time. Finally, these mechanisms led to a more accurate understanding of the circulation that remains valid today, thus revealing their cognitive benefits. In short, through the single problem of how blood returned to the heart, this article portrays the increasing complexity of anatomy in the early modern period

Material piety: science and religious culture in seventeenth-century Portugal

In seventeenth-century Lisbon, Jesuit mathematicians taught their students how to build blood-ejecting crucifixes and similar religious devices. Together with the activities of experts in the canonization of Isabel of Portugal and in other contexts, these situations represent rare instances in which religious devotion interacted directly with science. Informed by the histories of science, art, and religion, this essay argues that a piety centered on materiality fostered these scientific practices, which became religious ministries in themselves. This analysis brings new light to lasting debates on science and religion and to the purpose of practicing science in the early modern period

Dissecting with numbers: mathematics in Nicolaus Steno’s early anatomical writings, 1661-64

At the height of his scientific career, the anatomist Nicolaus Steno published the Elementorum myologiæ specimen (Florence, 1667), a book unlike any other anatomy book until then. Rather than an anatomy book, it seemed more like a book of mathematics, with propositions, lemmas and corollaries. Steno is thought to have developed his mathematical interests in Florence with the school of Galileo. However, this article challenges this interpretation and argues that Steno’s turn towards mathematics was a gradual process that began earlier in Copenhagen and Leiden. By surveying Steno’s early anatomical writings, mathematical methods such as quantification measurements, mechanical analogies, and geometrical models come to light. More importantly, these methods are read in their own context, by considering what mathematics really meant in the early modern period and how anatomists have used it in history. As such, this article provides a more complete picture of Steno’s interest in mathematics and it sheds new light on the rise of mathematics in the early modern life sciences

Perturbation of the metric around a spherical body from a nonminimal coupling between matter and curvature

In this work, the effects of a nonminimally coupled model of gravity on a perturbed Minkowski metric are presented. The action functional of the model involves two functions $f^1(R)$ and $f^2(R)$ of the Ricci scalar curvature $R$. Based upon a Taylor expansion around $R = 0$ for both functions $f^1(R)$ and $f^2(R)$, we find that the metric around a spherical object is a perturbation of the weak-field Schwarzschild metric: the time perturbation is shown to be a Newtonian plus Yukawa term, which can be constrained using the available experimental results. We conclude that the Starobinsky model for inflation complemented with a generalized preheating mechanism is not experimentally constrained by observations. The geodetic precession effects of the model are also shown to be of no relevance for the constraints.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figure

Drawing muscles with diagrams: how a novel dissection cut inspired Nicolaus Steno's mathematical myology (1667)

In 1667, twenty years before Isaac Newton published his mathematization of physics, and more than ten years before the publication of Giovanni Borelli's De motu animalium, the Danish anatomist Nicolaus Steno published an entirely new geometrical theory of muscle motion in the book Elementorum myologiæ specimen. Historians of science have studied this book in recent decades, but the recent rediscovery of a seventeenth-century muscle atlas at the Bibliothèque interuniversitaire de Santé in Paris sheds new light on the largely overlooked origin of Steno's mathematical theory of muscles. In this article, we show that Steno's muscle diagrams result from a tension that Steno faced when combining his interest in illustrations with presenting his mathematical insights about the inner structure of muscle fibres. Furthermore, we argue that Steno's diagrams are deeply connected to observations through a new method of dissecting the muscles. The observational origins of Steno's mathematical insight are further confirmed by the strong correlation between Steno's depictions of the structure and function of skeletal muscles and the results of current biomechanical investigations

Dissecting with numbers: mathematics in Nicolaus Steno’s early anatomical writings, 1661-64

At the height of his scientific career, the anatomist Nicolaus Steno published the Elementorum myologiæ specimen (Florence, 1667), a book unlike any other anatomy book until then. Rather than an anatomy book, it seemed more like a book of mathematics, with propositions, lemmas and corollaries. Steno is thought to have developed his mathematical interests in Florence with the school of Galileo. However, this article challenges this interpretation and argues that Steno’s turn towards mathematics was a gradual process that began earlier in Copenhagen and Leiden. By surveying Steno’s early anatomical writings, mathematical methods such as quantification measurements, mechanical analogies, and geometrical models come to light. More importantly, these methods are read in their own context, by considering what mathematics really meant in the early modern period and how anatomists have used it in history. As such, this article provides a more complete picture of Steno’s interest in mathematics and it sheds new light on the rise of mathematics in the early modern life sciences

Catolicismo e devoção nos primeiros livros de Física em português, 1615-1645

In 1590, the Society of Jesus started a mathematics course in Lisbon where subjects now associated with physics and astronomy were taught. In this famous course, many teachers were Jesuits trained outside the country who then went on to their missions in the East. For this reason, historians have associated this academy of mathematics with the new scientific ideas in the Portuguese empire. But in this article, I show that this course also had a huge impact in continental Portugal. In short, it was at the origin of the first books of physics written in Portuguese, where new ideas such as the vacuum, the heliocentric model, and animal mechanics were taught quite early. Through a close reading of manuscripts, this paper also suggests that the Portuguese religious context was one of the driving forces of science in Portugal, due to a type of material piety where encounters with the divine happened through the most material things, including new technologies.Em 1590, a Companhia de Jesus deu início em Lisboa a um curso de matemática onde se ensinavam temas hoje associados à física clássica e astronomia. Nesta famosa Aula da Esfera, muitos professores eram jesuítas treinados fora do país que depois seguiam para as missões no Oriente. Por esta razão, os historiadores têm associado esta academia de matemática às novas ideias científicas no império português. Mas neste artigo mostro que a Aula da Esfera também teve um impacto enorme em Portugal continental por estar na origem dos primeiros livros de física escritos em português, onde se ensinaram ideias novas como o vácuo, o modelo heliocêntrico, e mecânica animal bastante cedo. Através de uma leitura atenta de manuscritos, este artigo também sugere que o contexto religioso português foi uma das forças motoras da ciência em Portugal, devido a um tipo de piedade material onde o encontro com o divino acontecia através das coisas mais materiais, incluindo novas tecnologias

Desafios para Moçambique, 2022

Este número do Desafios para Moçambique acontece quando o País enfrenta enormes desafios - a guerra em Cabo Delgado, com alguns sinais de expansão para outras províncias; os projectos de extracção e liquefação do gás da bacia do Rovuma, que concretizam alguns 24 Desafios para Moçambique 2022 Introdução dos maiores desafios da história económica de Moçambique; os efeitos prolongados da crise global, da explosão e implosão da bolha económica, de que a crise da dívida soberana foi uma manifestação, e as sequelas sociais e económicas da pandemia da covid-19. Estes desafios e crises estimularam pesquisa e resultaram em lições, algumas das quais são desenvolvidas nesta edição. Recentemente terminou, em Maputo, o julgamento de alguns dos agentes do Estado e agentes privados envolvidos nas transacções financeiras internacionais ilícitas que resultaram nas dívidas odiosas. O que já era claro antes - que estas transacções ilícitas são o reflexo de dinâmicas mais gerais de expropriação, privatização e financeirização do Estado para acumulação privada de capital, mesmo que tal seja feito com pesados custos sociais - mais claro, se era possível, ficou. A hipótese de que o processo legal, que tivemos a oportunidade de acompanhar durante cerca de um ano e meio, apenas tocava nos receptores de comissões de corrupção e de tráfico de influências, executores do grande calote contra o erário público, foi confirmada.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio