DIO

The International Journal of Scientific History

Box 19935, Baltimore, MD 21211-0935 Tel: 410-889-1414. Email: dio.scientific@gmail.com.

What eminent scholars are saying about DIO:

• Charles Kowal (immortal discoverer of Chiron, 2 satellites of Jupiter, numerous asteroids, & Galileo's 1613 drawing of the planet Neptune),
  2007 New Year's greetings, at the outset of our 17th year of publication:

"keep up the good work with DIO."

• Paul Forman (History of Physics, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC):

"DIO is delightful!"

• E. Myles Standish (Prime creator of the solar, lunar, & planetary ephemerides for the pre-eminent Astronomical Almanac of the US Naval Observatory, orbits used by NASA to find its spacecrafts' planet & satellite targets; recent Chair of American Astronomical Society's Division on Dynamical Astronomy):

"I would like to congratulate Dennis Rawlins, publisher of DIO. He has created a truly intriguing forum, dealing with a variety of subjects, presented often with his unique brand of humor, but always with strict adherence to a rigid code of scientific ethics. As viewed by the history-of-science 'establishment', Rawlins is a maverick; however, more often than not, his 'unorthodox' claims turn out to be correct. He has an extraordinary mind which, without pre-conceived biases, he applies to a given subject. The result frequently provides a refreshingly candid aspect which is in direct contrast to the 'accepted' viewpoint … I encourage others to read DIO, and I encourage the publisher to continue this ambitious and valuable journal."

• B. L. van der Waerden (world-renowned University of Zurich mathematician, author of Dictionary of Scientific Biography's Babylonian mathematics & astronomy section), commenting on DIO's initially-startling, now universally-accepted discovery that the sole extant explicit Babylonian yearlength value (from c. 100 BC, Astronomical Cuneiform Text #210, British Museum) was based entirely upon well-known Greek solstice observations:

"just marvellous … [the analysis] is right on all points!"

• Sir Wally Herbert, 1st Sledger Across the Arctic Ocean & author of The Noose of Laurels:

"enjoyed reading your brilliantly cutting criticisms of [establishment] ‘experts’ — and I am happy to tell you that, on the evidence of [your analyses (University of Cambridge [2000] & DIO vol.10 [2000]) of Byrd's 1926 North Pole claim], you haven't lost your touch!"

• Hugh Thurston (MA, PhD mathematics, Cambridge University; veteran of of the heroic British World War II cryptography team that cracked the Axis codes, and author of the highly acclaimed Springer book, Early Astronomy)

"DIO is fascinating. With a combination of mathematical competence (I've thoroughly checked his calculations), astronomical insight, judicious historical perspective, an inductive ingenuity that particularly appeals to me as an ex-cryptographer, and a proper disregard for received 'wisdom', Dennis Rawlins has solved some tough problems in early astronomy that have resisted attack for centuries, as well as some newer ones that are equally imposing. Where did Eratosthenes's famous figure of 5000 stades for the distance from Alexandria to Syene really come from? Was differential spherical trigonometry used in late antiquity? Why does the distribution of degree-fractions in the southern part of Hipparchus's catalog of stars differ from that in the northern part? Were the peculiar attested figures 3144 and 3122 1/2 in Hipparchus's work derived from ancient heliocentrists? Was Ptolemy's large equation, 8523 years = 105416 months, based upon continued-fractions development of eclipse-cycle data? How valid is physicist Robert Newton's criticism of Ptolemy? The answers to these questions and others like them are in DIO — with some surprising by-products: e.g., the investigation of the stars revealed the location of Hipparchus's long-lost observatory."

• Elly Dekker (Faculty of Geographical Sciences & Cartography, University of Utrecht, Netherlands), reviewing DIO vol. 3:

"The importance of Tycho's star catalogue is beyond question, and the present critical edition … can only be welcomed … [DIO] has produced a thorough work, in which Tycho's [1004 stellar] positions have been compared with [modern-calculated ones for epoch 1601.03], and analysed in both ecliptic and equatorial coordinates … extensive [least-squares] error analysis … demonstrates that [Tycho's] accuracy … is much better than is generally assumed…. [DIO] deserves our congratulations for bringing this important result to the fore …. an excellent investigation." (July 1996 Annals of Science)

• John Fauvel, British Society for the History of Mathematics (Newsletter 1993 Spring):

"fearless…. [on] the operation of structures of [academic] power & influence … much recommended to [readers] bored with … the more prominent public journals, or open to the possibility of scholars being motivated by other considerations than the pursuit of objective truth."

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