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Joyce Chaplin

@joycechaplin.bsky.social

5.6K followers 320 following 110 posts

Harvard professor, historian of science, technology, and medicine, plus food and environment 🜃 (https://history.fas.harvard.edu/people/joyce-chaplin) New book: THE FRANKLIN STOVE (https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374613808/thefranklinstove/)

history.fas.harvard.edu

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Joyce Chaplin @joycechaplin.bsky.social · Mar 6

Greetings! Since I’m a historian of science, I thought my first post in this space should celebrate the cyanometer, the device Alexander von Humboldt (among others) used to determine just how blue any sky actually is

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Joyce Chaplin @joycechaplin.bsky.social · Sep 5

“The Ministry of Peace concerns itself with war, the Ministry of Truth with lies, the Ministry of Love with torture and the Ministry of Plenty with starvation. These contradictions are not accidental…they are deliberate exercises in doublethink.” Orwell, “1984”

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Joyce Chaplin @joycechaplin.bsky.social · Sep 3

And the first week of the new academic year starts with some excellent news www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...

Judge Hands Victory to Harvard in Funding Lawsuit, Ruling Trump Administration’s Freeze Unconstitutional | News | The Harvard Crimson

A federal judge ruled that the Trump administration violated the Constitution when it froze more than $2.7 billion in research funding to Harvard, striking down the freeze in its entirety and deliveri...

www.thecrimson.com

Joyce Chaplin @joycechaplin.bsky.social · Sep 2

First day of the semester, first day of a new class, a freshman seminar on “Moby-Dick,” the novel and its significance for the history of resource extraction: “wonder ye then at the fiery hunt?”

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Reposted by Joyce Chaplin

Ben Franklin's World @bfworld.bsky.social · Aug 25

Franklin didn’t just invent a stove—he invented five. Each one was designed to conserve fuel and control smoke. His final models in Europe? Built to burn coal cleaner.

Sound familiar? 📻 Listen to @joycechaplin.bsky.social‬ break it down: benfranklinsworld.com/412

#EnergyHistory #History

412 Joyce Chaplin, The Franklin Stove

How did Benjamin Franklin’s stove save energy? What does it reveal about wood, trees, and attempts to control the climate?

benfranklinsworld.com

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Joyce Chaplin @joycechaplin.bsky.social · Aug 16

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Joyce Chaplin @joycechaplin.bsky.social · Aug 13

The first anti-vaxxers worried that the original vaccine, which used cowpox against smallpox, would turn them into cows, a bizarre fear depicted here by caricaturist James Gillray—today is his day.

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Joyce Chaplin @joycechaplin.bsky.social · Aug 7

Maybe it’s bad travel karma to travel with a novel whose manuscript was traveling on a train when it crashed?

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Joyce Chaplin @joycechaplin.bsky.social · Jul 29

E pur si muove…

The New York Times @nytimes.com · Jul 29

Breaking News: The EPA is planning to revoke the scientific determination that underpins the government’s legal authority to combat climate change. The agency’s administrator said the move would be “the largest deregulatory action in the history of America.”

E.P.A. Plans to Revoke the Legal Basis for Tackling Climate Change

The agency’s administrator said in a podcast that the move would be “the largest deregulatory action in the history of America.”

nyti.ms

Joyce Chaplin @joycechaplin.bsky.social · Jul 24

Thank you so much!!

Ben Waber @bwaber.bsky.social · Jul 22

Last was "The Franklin Stove" by @joycechaplin.bsky.social, who uses Ben Franklin as a lens into larger scientific, political, social, and industrial trends around heating/climate. This is one of the best histories I've ever read. Highly recommend

Full review: bookwyrm.social/user/bwaber/... (4/4)

The Franklin Stove

A Washington Post Noteworthy Book of March“[A] richly textured history . . . This story holds numerous lessons for our era.” —The New Yorker“From Joy...

us.macmillan.com

Joyce Chaplin @joycechaplin.bsky.social · Jul 22

You may not have noticed, but today is the second shortest day in history—if we get many more days like this, by 2029, atomic clocks may have to register a negative leap second www.space.com/astronomy/ea...

Earth will spin faster today to create 2nd-shortest day in history

Our planet has been rotating at its fastest since records began in 1973.

www.space.com

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Joyce Chaplin @joycechaplin.bsky.social · Jul 8

Many thanks!

Joyce Chaplin @joycechaplin.bsky.social · Jul 8

I am so sorry Joanne, but also glad there are still people who are kind when kindness is needed

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Joyce Chaplin @joycechaplin.bsky.social · Jul 7

If we include natural history, Rachel Carson, David Attenborough…

Joyce Chaplin @joycechaplin.bsky.social · Jul 4

Your annual reminder of science’s foundational role in US history: on July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was first publicly read, in Philadelphia, from a platform originally built for astronomers to observe the 1769 Transit of Venus—science was the literal platform for revolution

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Joyce Chaplin @joycechaplin.bsky.social · Jul 2

“More than 98 percent of [Harvard] faculty who responded to the survey supported the University’s decision to sue the White House.” www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...

Faculty of Arts and Sciences Overwhelmingly Backs Harvard’s Fight Against Trump, Survey Shows | News | The Harvard Crimson

A decisive majority of faculty who responded to The Crimson’s annual survey of Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences support the University’s lawsuit against the Trump administration’s federal fundin...

www.thecrimson.com

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Joyce Chaplin @joycechaplin.bsky.social · Jun 28

Bruce Lee, birthright citizen

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Joyce Chaplin @joycechaplin.bsky.social · Jun 25

Fantastic piece by @doctorvive.bsky.social about the climate crisis, a must-read and a necessary pushback to abundance-narrative delusions www.theguardian.com/environment/...

‘This is a fight for life’: climate expert on tipping points, doomerism and using wealth as a shield

Economic assumptions about risks of the climate crisis are no longer relevant, says the communications expert Genevieve Guenther

www.theguardian.com

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Joyce Chaplin @joycechaplin.bsky.social · Jun 7

Dogs and cats, living together… yaledailynews.com/blog/2025/06...

Yale backing Harvard in lawsuit against government

In a joint motion with 17 other universities, Yale argues that cutting federal funds to Harvard endangers the nation.

yaledailynews.com

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Reposted by Joyce Chaplin

Liz Covart @lizcovart.bsky.social · Jun 3

🔥Did you know colonial Americans worried about climate change during the Little Ice Age?

Benjamin Franklin had a solution: a stove that used less wood, produced more heat, and filled the room without smoke.

🎧 Episode 412: benfranklinsworld.com/412

#EarlyAmerica #History #ClimatePast #USHistory

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Joyce Chaplin @joycechaplin.bsky.social · May 23

“This splendid account offers a rich new perspective on the origins of climate science”—wow, and thank you @publisherswkly.bsky.social for the starred review of my new book on the FRANKLIN STOVE

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Joyce Chaplin @joycechaplin.bsky.social · May 22

Since Harvard’s founding, its international students have spoken a great many languages, each of which would have apt and colorful expressions for telling the Trump administration where to get off with this blatantly prejudicial statement
www.nytimes.com/2025/05/22/u...

Trump Administration Halts Harvard’s Ability to Enroll International Students

www.nytimes.com

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Joyce Chaplin @joycechaplin.bsky.social · May 21

Yes, and the blow-by-blow commentary is also withering

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Joyce Chaplin @joycechaplin.bsky.social · May 21

And today’s award for National Leader Maintaining Extraordinary Grace under Egregious Trump Pressure goes to South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa

www.nytimes.com/live/2025/05...

Trump Administration Live Updates: Meeting With South African Leader Turns Contentious Over False Genocide Claims

www.nytimes.com

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Joyce Chaplin @joycechaplin.bsky.social · May 18

This is bad www.wbur.org/news/2025/05...

Boston-area climate activists report visits from the FBI

Local climate activists are on edge after people claiming to be FBI agents visited at least six at their homes on the same day in Greater Boston in March. Weeks later, the motivations behind these vis...

www.wbur.org

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Joyce Chaplin @joycechaplin.bsky.social · May 14

Now we’re cooking

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