Learning on ScreenEnlightening Science
Historians now recognise the key role played in the eighteenth century by the performance of what were often spectacular experiments. Giving lectures in European capitals and selling books based on them became a lucrative employment for many individuals, and brought together booksellers, instrument-makers university dons and a public that could not get enough of the Newtonian philosophy. Until the late eighteenth century, audiences at popular lectures were likely to get the same level of presentation as undergraduates would receive at university. In each case, Newtonianism could not have been as successful as it was without the ability to portray the central tenets of his scientific discoveries through exciting displays of prismatic lights, electric shocks, and representations of the solar system in planetaria.
What worked for the Enlightenment is worth trying three hundred years later. One innovation has been to use an actor in contemporary regalia to play the role of John Theophilus Desaguliers, Newton’s right-hand man in the early eighteenth century. This was one of the most popular features of the site and we would have extended the conceit further had the cost of hiring Desaguliers’s wig not been prohibitive.
There are some limitations in using the site for teaching science. Historians now place great stress on the centrality of instruments to the development of modern science, and virtual representations cannot replace the unique experience given by hands-on engagement with the physical devices themselves. Although this is a limitation of the digital form, the judicious use of filmed interviews in which the vital importance of instruments is emphasised can compensate for this. In any case, video greatly enhances what is otherwise a static and – in the case of Newton — forbidding medium of text. Another point worth making is that the site has been developed in conjunction with teachers who advised us that it was best to create chunks of material that could easily be copied for use in lessons. Thus, the materials are supposed to be used in conjunction with other teaching methods.
… the site has been developed in conjunction with teachers
The interdisciplinary aspect of the resource is supported by existence on the site of features that deal with what are strictly non-scientific aspects of Newton’s life and work. Films about Newton’s alchemical and theological interests, all of which involve members of the Newton Project, are already available on Google Videos. The Newton Project site itself has a ‘tour’ of the major non-scientific materials on the main site. However, Enlightening Science offers users even more accessible routeways into the same resources, with interviews on aspects of Newton’s religious beliefs and access to the millions of words written privately by Newton on religious topics such as early Christianity and the End of the World. There are also interviews relating to the biographies that were written in the decades following his death, and readers can freely access all written biographies, published or unpublished, that were written about Newton in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Finally, a series of vodcasts give a detailed picture of the culture of instrument-making and lecturing in eighteenth century London.
