Is it a bird? Is it a plane? D’Arcy Thompson on Flight, a talk by Kate Hindle (University of St Andrews)
Abstract
D’Arcy Thompson (1860 – 1948) is most remembered for his influential book On Growth and Form (1917), which looked to maths to explain why biological creatures take the shapes that they take. In January 1917, a few months before this book was released, Thompson had a letter to the editor published in Nature titled ‘Stability in Flight’. This short paper featured a call for discussion from his fellow scientists, which was answered in February 1917, with a letter to Nature by Herbert Maxwell (1845-1937) under the same ‘Stability in Flight’ title.
Using this exchange as a basis, this talk will investigate Thompson’s relationship with mathematics, uncovering his ideas on an ideological hierarchy of subjects, where mathematics informs biology, but the reverse case is not true. It will also explore the ideas of flight Thompson discusses in the article, from the aeronautical physics paper which inspired Thompson, to the ideas on modern ornithology which agree with his work.
About the Speaker
Kate Hindle is a PhD student at the University of St Andrews, studying the history of mathematics. She also did her undergraduate degree at St Andrews, and discovered her interest in maths history during the module on the subject run by the maths department.
Event Information
Non-members welcome, no charge is made to attend the talk.
Parking in North East multi-storey car park is free after 6.00 pm. Access is via Pritchatts Road (Sat Nav B15 2SA).
This event will take place in person at the University of Birmingham, and will also be broadcast online via Zoom. There is no need for in-person attendees to register. If you wish to join the event via Zoom, please contact Gemma Reeves by 4.00pm on the day of the talk.
After the talk, you are welcome to join the branch committee and speaker for a meal.
