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The Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG) has published its format “Research Topics” since 2008. Every six to eight weeks, researchers present individual contributions of one relevant aspect of their research or present a new research project. Since 2017, scholars at the MPIWG have been contributing to “The Conversation,” a public platform for research content related to current topics, which are accessible on this page. 

Latest Research Topics

No 76
Drawing of paper sheets flying through the exhibition.

Leonardo's Intellectual Cosmos

The intellectual cosmos of Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) is seemingly inexhaustible. It echoes the diversity and cultural abundance of the Renaissance, which he embodies in all its facets like ...

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No 74
Engraved Frontispiece to John Palmer

Learning by the Book: Manuals and Handbooks in the History of Science

How do practitioners—of any form of specialized knowledge—learn technical skills, and how do they find knowledge deemed as solid and secure?

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No 73
Chapter from al-Māturīdī’s Kitāb al-Tawḥīd

Knowing the Unobservable: Analogies and Analogical Reasoning in Premodern Islamic Theology

Premodern Islamic theologians frequently employed analogies and analogical reasoning in their works—making comparisons between one thing and another for the purpose of explanation, clarificatio...

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Latest Articles on "The Conversation UK"

No 17
Dony Wardhana/Unsplash, FAL

Doctors only started measuring body temperature 200 years ago – here’s why

Over the past year, fever thermometers have become omnipresent. Body temperature is taken in front of shops, at airports, even before visiting a museum – often with ultra-modern devices. So-cal...

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No 16
Thumbnail

Terrorism: A Very Brief History

What is it that allows someone to be labelled as a terrorist? Recent acts of spectacular violence, such as the mail bombs sent to American anti-Trump critics, or the mass killings by Canadian “...

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