Wikipedia:WikiProject History of Science/Projects

Images / Source Material

 * Create as many free-to-distribute history of science related images as possible, as high a quality as possible. Wikipedia's identity and value could be substantially raised by this, I think. Without meaning to toot my own horn, the sorts of things I have in mind are the Image:Ptolemaic elements.svg, Image:Rutherford gold foil experiment results.svg, and Image:Nuclear fission.svg (some of them look small here, but they can be enlarged to arbitrarily large sizes because they are saved as svg vector files). I'm happy to help with this in any way I can when I have the time, and very interested in suggestions for future illustrations. --Fastfission 01:23, 15 January 2006 (UTC)
 * Suggestions:
 * The Tychonic System, a more legible and informative version of Image:Tychonian.gif
 * Done. --Fastfission 00:45, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

See also WP:RI


 * Improve categorization on Wikimedia Commons for History of Science material. Most History of Science images are very poorly categorized, making it very difficult to find all the files on a given topic actually present.  Starting from those Wikipedia articles with links to related Commons material, a search for that term on Commons typically reveals many additional images.  And many needed categories do not even exist.--ragesoss 03:14, 21 January 2006 (UTC)

Selected Anniversaries

 * Create entries for an "Anniversaries" section of Portal:History of science. The following link will change every day, and by clicking it you can create an anniversaries entry for that day.  Eventually, a system like the selected anniversaries on Portal:War can be put in place.


 * I have started on this today (1 December) by taking births and deaths from December 1. I'll try to do this daily from now on- if others could chip in with events and anything I miss that'd be great. DavidCBeck (talk) 18:34, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

This links to today's selected anniversaries in the history of science page- Portal:History of science/Selected anniversaries/July 29

Today's date, July 29, is a good place to start for content.--ragesoss 23:04, 13 May 2006 (UTC)

Sub-categories to create or improve

 * Populate the new Category:History of earth science. Earth science is also a dead link in the history of science box on pages like History of science.  Furthermore, the closest thing to a history of geology or history of earth science article is historical geology, which has very little content.--ragesoss 02:57, 14 January 2006 (UTC)


 * Thanks for creating this category. History of oceanography and history of meteorology ought to be developed as members of this category as well. --Arkuat 03:21, 8 March 2006 (UTC)


 * Ah, coincidentaly I've just added Histories of meteorology/oceanography to my to-do list, so thought I'd put my name down as a participant to this WikiProject. Deditos 13:08, 6 April 2006 (UTC)


 * The entire cluster of articles regarding the early history of chemistry (18th and early 19th century) is in need of a review. Many discoveries and theories are attributed to several people. Moreover, some scientists seem to be given a very hagiographic treatment, while others are barely mentioned. I think this may come from a long tradition of exaggerating the achievements of fellow countrymen and suppressing others'. (In the main Chemistry article it says that Antoine Lavoisier "invented" chemistry in 1783!). Biographical articles of these chemists often contain contradicting claims - compare for example Lavoisier, John Dalton, Jöns Jakob Berzelius, Carl Wilhelm Scheele and Joseph Priestley.


 * Populate the category Category:Public health, either by categorizing or writing new articles including those on the history of public health (for instance, how many of you know what the village pump refers to in the history of public health?). Make sure information there is up to date, well referenced, and meets NPOV standards. Museumfreak 15:33, 16 May 2006 (UTC)


 * I just started a child project, WikiProject History of Biology to help sort out problems with articles like Monera and Ernst Haeckel. It seems that most of the participants in this current wikiproject lean toward history of the physical sciences, and it might be worthwhile to assemble a more focused group to help deal with problems in articles such as these two. --arkuat (talk) 03:10, 20 May 2006 (UTC)


 * I have been working over the past couple of months to expand and organize the hypothetical astronomical objects category, especially hypothetical Objects of the Solar System. There is a lot of cleanup and sourcing that needs to be done, as well as research and general copyediting. It's a facinating study and it might warrent its own wikiproject. We need some help here, so anyone with a little time on their hands should visit these pages and check them out. Mrwuggs 21:20, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

Articles to create or improve

 * Turn Johannes Kepler into a feature-quality article. (This is my personal goal, but any help would be appreciated.  My draft in progress is here).--ragesoss 05:51, 14 January 2006 (UTC)


 * Fix history of astronomy. In particular, add content to the empty Mesopotamia section and rewrite (and retitle) the "Physics marries astronomy" section, which is just plain wrong as written.--ragesoss 21:04, 15 January 2006 (UTC)
 * Mesopotamia done. Maestlin 22:50, 10 March 2006 (UTC)
 * "Physics marries astronomy" redone as "Uniting Physics and Astronomy" MikeMorley 15:50, 14 April 2006 (UTC)


 * Reorganize Hipparchus. This page is far too long given what's known about Hipparchus, and his relative importance. I've begun this process, but there's a lot more work to do. --Dantheox 07:05, 19 January 2006 (UTC)


 * Ensure that appropriate texts in the field get placed on Wikisource. Apwoolrich 19:07, 21 March 2006 (UTC)
 * Also, make sure texts already on Wikisource get categorized History of science.--ragesoss 06:07, 8 May 2006 (UTC)


 * I wikified the History of wound care article 10 days ago, and it has grown. Possibly this wikiproject could help make it better, and add some pictures possibly. -- [[Image:Flag_of_the_United_States.svg|17px]]  Mac Davis ] ⌇☢ &#xE0D;&#x19B;. 11:06, 29 April 2006 (UTC)
 * Guys we can do way better than this. We're Wikipedians for pete's sake. General Eisenhower [[Image:Wikipedia minilogo.gif|20px]] (talk of my war years) (talk here) (Help ME Improve) (war or Magic) (History here) (Kokomo) (Espanol) (Military) (Thank you for Victory in World War II) (A girl I am in love with) (Need Help?) (General Eisenhower) 21:31, 12 May 2006 (UTC)


 * Could do with new article on history of information storage, retrieval and management, including social impact thereof. There are plently of articles about technology or business applications relating to information, but these are almost all about the immediate present. Of those with a little historical context, few go earlier than 1970 (Information retrieval and Library Science being exceptions). In particular, I can't find much on how changes in media/technology have affected information handling.


 * I'm not knowledgeable enough to write it, but I'd guess it would start with "wise wo/men" (people within a community who hold info mentally or have a mental index of documents), go on through early libraries, arrival of printing and/or literacy, structured mass data (like census data), and cover the problem of high-tech media/software becoming obsolete and records thus unreadable (hence UK continues using printed parchment for parliamentary records). And of course the development of ways to analyse data, once you've got lots of it, and the social/business effects of this.


 * NB As so often, lots of terms in this field have developed specialist meanings, so I can't even tell what the safest title should be. I'm posting a link here on Talk pages in the field, so hope will have a good response. JackyR | Talk 17:59, 4 December 2007 (UTC)


 * Science in the Age of Enlightenment. Add sections on biology, medicine, mathematics, physics, and geology (and relevant others) to 'Science in the Age of Enlightenment'. Considering there was a section on the main History of Science page called 'Age of Enlightenment', it seemed 'Science in the Age of Enlightenment' was in dire need of creation. I focused mainly on the scientific community and institutions in creating the page, but if the article is to remain as it is, further sections on specific disciplines would be necessary. The section on 'Age of Enlightenment' on the History of Science page does require editing, but it might be better if someone who hadn't created the parent page made such changes (I'd inevitably want to add everything.)-- Carpe Carpio (talk) 11:02, 11 January 2009 (UTC)


 * Prehistoric medicine. This is a really difficult article to work on because it covers a wordwide view, lacks real sources of information and has to be worded to fully appreciate the fact that solid evidence does not exist. Really it requires a few more hands and brains to get the job done, and possibly an GA (currently B). MasterOfHisOwnDomain (talk) 18:53, 3 March 2009 (UTC)


 * Willem de Sitter. This biography is essentially a stub. de Sitter deserves more than this. Grandma (talk) 01:13, 7 December 2014 (UTC)


 * History of medicine. I'm proposing an overhaul of this article, both to improve the quality of its discussion of Western Medicine, and to improve its world view of other medical traditions in the rest of the world.  All are welcome to join in the discussion.  Hi-storian (talk) 23:36, 4 January 2016 (UTC)