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Math! Science! History!

Math! Science! History!

Written by: Gabrielle Birchak
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About this listen

 Math! Science! History! is a podcast about the history of people, theories, and discoveries that have moved our scientific progress forward and spurred us on to unimaginable discoveries. Join Gabrielle Birchak for a little math, a little science, and a little history. All in a little bit of time.© 2025 Science World
Episodes
  • FLASHCARDS! The Archive that Survives

    FLASHCARDS! The Archive that Survives
    Mar 6 2026
    How does knowledge survive when libraries burn, devices are seized, and archives come under threat? In this Flashcards Friday episode of Math! Science! History!, Gabrielle Birchak takes a closer look at what it actually means to preserve knowledge in the present moment. Using three short flashcards, this episode explores redundancy, cloud storage, and practical threat modeling for scholars, journalists, and anyone responsible for research or records. From ancient libraries to modern reporting, this episode shows why preservation is not passive. It is an active, deliberate practice. What You'll Learn Redundancy Beats Regret – Why preservation works best as a system, not a single location, and how multiple copies in multiple places reduce the risk of total loss. The Cloud Is Helpful, Not Magical – How cloud storage improves access while still requiring planning for outages, lockouts, and long-term durability. Threat Modeling for Ordinary Work – How scholars and journalists can think realistically about loss, seizure, and disruption, and reduce risk without turning research into secrecy. Resources & Further Reading Freedom of the Press Foundation – Digital Security & Source Protection https://freedom.press/SecureDrop (for confidential submissions and journalism workflows) https://securedrop.org/Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press https://www.rcfp.org/ Explore more on our website: mathsciencehistory.com To buy my book Hypatia: The Sum of Her Life on Amazon, visit https://a.co/d/g3OuP9h 🌍 Let's Connect!Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/mathsciencehistory.bsky.social Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/math.science.history Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mathsciencehistory LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/math-science-history/ Threads: https://www.threads.com/@math.science.history Mastodon: https://mathsciencehistory@mathstodon.xyz YouTube: Math! Science! History! - YouTube Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/mathsciencehistory ☕ Support the Show: Coffee!! PayPal Leave a review! It helps more people discover the show! Share this episode with friends & fellow history buffs! Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform Check out our merch: https://www.mathsciencehistory.com/the-store Music: All music is public domain and has no Copyright and no rights reserved. Selections from The Little Prince by Lloyd Rodgers Until next time, carpe diem!
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    12 mins
  • When Knowledge Survives War: Adolphe Rome and Scientific Memory

    When Knowledge Survives War: Adolphe Rome and Scientific Memory
    Mar 3 2026
    What does it take to preserve knowledge when libraries burn, records disappear, and history itself is under threat? In this episode of Math! Science! History!, Gabrielle Birchak takes a closer look at the life and work of Adolphe Rome, a meticulous Belgian historian of science whose devotion to ancient mathematics and astronomy reshaped how we understand figures like Ptolemy, Hypatia, and Theon of Alexandria. Spanning from the destruction of the Library of Alexandria to modern data-rescue movements, this episode traces the fragile chain of scientific preservation. It is a story about persistence, philology, and the individuals who quietly ensure that knowledge survives political upheaval, war, and time itself. What You Will Learn in This Episode When Knowledge Is at Risk – Understand how moments of political instability, from ancient Alexandria to the modern United States, have repeatedly threatened scientific records, and how archivists, historians, and scholars have responded. How Ancient Mathematics Is Reconstructed – Discover how Adolphe Rome used linguistic analysis, statistical word usage, and dialect comparison to study ancient mathematical texts like Ptolemy's Almagest, even when original sources no longer existed. Why One Historian Still Matters - Learn how Rome's work survived censorship, war, and the destruction of his own research, and how his methods influenced later historians such as Wilbur Knorr and continue to shape the history of science today. ☕ Support the Show: Coffee!! PayPal 🔗 Resources & Further Reading Ptolemy, Almagest (overview): https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ptolemy Hypatia of Alexandria (historical context): https://a.co/d/g3OuP9h Wilbur Knorr, Textual Studies in Ancient and Medieval Geometry: https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691025979/textual-studies-in-ancient-and-medieval-geometry History of Science Society and Osiris journal: https://hssonline.org/publications/osiris 🔗 Explore more on our website: mathsciencehistory.com 📚 To buy my book Hypatia: The Sum of Her Life on Amazon, visit https://a.co/d/g3OuP9h 🌍 Let's Connect!Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/mathsciencehistory.bsky.social Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/math.science.history Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mathsciencehistory LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/math-science-history/ Threads: https://www.threads.com/@math.science.history Mastodon: https://mathsciencehistory@mathstodon.xyz YouTube: Math! Science! History! - YouTube Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/mathsciencehistory Leave a review! It helps more people discover the show! Share this episode with friends & fellow history buffs! Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform Check out our merch: https://www.mathsciencehistory.com/the-store Music: All music is public domain and has no Copyright and no rights reserved. Selections from The Little Prince by Lloyd Rodgers Jingle Synth 80s by Fabien Roch from Pixabay Cinematic Ambient Feeling by music_for_video from Pixabay Army Marching Steps by Alexander Jauk from Pixabay Apathias (Dark Ambient) by Vlad Bakutov from Pixabay Dark Hero by u_5gcdffq7mb from Pixabay From Page to Practice by Bryan Teoh – Free PD music Until next time, carpe diem!
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    19 mins
  • FLASHCARDS! Research that Sits in the Margins

    FLASHCARDS! Research that Sits in the Margins
    Feb 27 2026

    A clean success story is rarely the whole story. In this Flashcard Friday episode of Math! Science! History!, Gabrielle Birchak offers a simple method for spotting the people who made breakthroughs possible but did not become the headline.

    In the Margins episode gives you three practical questions you can use on any science story to find hidden contributors in author lists, acknowledgments, lab records, and patent filings. Save this episode and use it as your listening companion heading into Women's History Month.

    What you'll learn (because the footnotes have feelings)

    1. How to spot hidden contributors quickly by asking who touched the evidence, who did the work, and who kept the record.

    2. Where credit actually shows up in science writing, including author order, acknowledgments, methods sections, and contributor role statements.

    3. How the "simple story" gets rewarded and how that reward system can hide women's contributions.

    Explore more on our website: mathsciencehistory.com
    📚 To buy my book Hypatia: The Sum of Her Life on Amazon, visit https://a.co/d/g3OuP9h

    🌍 Let's Connect!
    Bluesky:     https://bsky.app/profile/mathsciencehistory.bsky.social
    Instagram:     https://www.instagram.com/math.science.history
    Facebook:     https://www.facebook.com/mathsciencehistory
    LinkedIn:     https://www.linkedin.com/company/math-science-history/
    Threads:     https://www.threads.com/@math.science.history
    Mastodon:     https://mathsciencehistory@mathstodon.xyz
    YouTube:     Math! Science! History! - YouTube
    Pinterest:     https://www.pinterest.com/mathsciencehistory


    Explore more on our website: mathsciencehistory.com

    ☕ Support the Show: Coffee!! PayPal

    Leave a review! It helps more people discover the show!
    Share this episode with friends & fellow history buffs!
    Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform

    Check out our merch: https://www.mathsciencehistory.com/the-store

    Music: All music is public domain and has no Copyright and no rights reserved.
    On Matters of Consequence from The Little Prince by Lloyd Rodgers

    Until next time, carpe diem!
    Show More Show Less
    10 mins
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