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Quakers in science

Quakers in science is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Quakers in science rather than just read about it. In short: William Allen – more known for abolitionism and penal reform; a Fellow of the Royal Society and the Linnean Society of London James Backhouse – botanist and missionary; author abbreviation "Backh" Wilson Baker – organic chemist John Bartram – described as the "father of American botany"; founded Bartram Botanical Gardens in Kingsessing on the bank of the Schuylkill River Anna McClean Bidder – marine zoologist and fi…

Quakers in science — main illustration
Quakers in science — illustration

Key takeaways

  • Quakers in science belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
  • Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
  • Connect Quakers in science to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
  • Reproduce the core statement of Quakers in science from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

William Allen – more known for abolitionism and penal reform; a Fellow of the Royal Society and the Linnean Society of London James Backhouse – botanist and missionary; author abbreviation "Backh" Wilson Baker – organic chemist John Bartram – described as the "father of American botany"; founded Bartram Botanical Gardens in Kingsessing on the bank of the Schuylkill River Anna McClean Bidder – marine zoologist and first president of Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge Kenneth E. Boulding – systems theorist and economist Russell Brain, 1st Baron Brain – neurologist known for Brain's reflex; became a Quaker in 1931 and gave the Swarthmore Lecture in 1944, "Man, Society and Religion", in which he stressed the importance of a social conscience Jocelyn Bell Burnell – discovered the first radio pulsars with her thesis advisor Antony Hewish; raised Quaker in Northern Ireland; volunteered in local and national Quaker activities up to at least the 1970s; her Swarthmore Lecture was titled "Broken for Life"; still an active Quaker John Cassin – ornithologist Ezra Townsend Cresson – entomologist Peter Collinson – botanist with some interest in electricity; his family belonged to the Gracechurch meeting of the Religious Society of Friends Edward Drinker Cope – early paleontologist who took part in the Bone Wars and for whom Cope's Rule is named John Dalton – taught at a Quaker school, but is best known for work in atomic theory. Jeremiah Dixon – surveyor and astronomer known for the Mason–Dixon line Henry Doubleday – horticulturist and lace designer Arthur Stanley Eddington – astrophysicist known especially for the Eddington experiment and as a populariser of science, active in the Quaker Guild of Teachers, attended meetings regularly; his Swarthmore Lecture was titled "Science and the Unseen World" George Ellis – co-authored The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time with University of Cambridge physicist Stephen Hawking; won the 2004 Templeton Prize and got involved with the Quaker Service Fund John Fothergill – physician and botanist; Fothergilla (witch alder) is named for him Robert Were Fox the Younger – geologist active in the early days of the British Association for the Advancement of Science Ursula Franklin – metallurgist and physicist George Graham – clockmaker and geophysicist who discovered the diurnal variation of the terrestrial magnetic field John Gummere – astronomer Richard Harlan – naturalist Thomas Hodgkin – lived in the more ultra-orthodox era of Quakerism so wore plain clothes and spoke in a formal manner; Hodgkin's disease is named for him Rush D. Holt, Jr. – Congressman; former assistant director of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory; beat Watson; has a patent for a "method for maintaining a correct density gradient in a non-convecting solar pond" Luke Howard – meteorologist known for work in cloud types and nomenclature George Barker Jeffery – known for Jeffery's equations and translating works on the theory of relativity to English; his Swarthmore Lecture was "Christ, Yesterday and Today" Isaac Lea – conchologist born a Quaker Graceanna Lewis – ornithologist and social reformer Joseph Jackson Lister – known for his role in the development of the optical microscope; his son, Joseph Lister, 1st Baron Lister, was a pioneer in surgical sterile techniques, but left the Quakers and joined the Scottish Episcopal Church Kathleen Lonsdale – prominent crystallographer; discovered the planar hexagonal structure of benzene; became a Quaker in 1935, as such, she was a committed pacifist and served time in Holloway prison during World War II because she refused to register for civil defense duties or to pay the resulting fine; her Swarthmore Lecture was titled "Removing the Causes of War" Maria Mitchell – astronomer who was raised as a Quaker but later adopted Christian Unitarianism Frank Morley – mathematician specializing in algebra and geometry and known for Morley's trisector theorem. Was the son of two Quakers Frederick Parker-Rhodes – plant pathologist and linguistics researcher, also active in other fields William Philips – founder of the Geological Society of London Lewis Fry Richardson – meteorologist; his Quaker beliefs exempted him from military service during World War I Frederick Sanger – biochemist, two-time winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry; raised Quaker Lucy Say – naturalist, nature artist, and first female member of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia Thomas Say – entomologist, conchologist, and herpetologist Joseph Hooton Taylor, Jr. – astrophysicist and winner of the 1993 Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery with Russell Alan Hulse of a "new type of pulsar, a discovery that has opened up new possibilities for the study of gravitation" Silvanus P. Thompson – known for his book Calculus Made Easy; developed an idea of a telegraph submarine cable; his Swarthmore Lecture was titled "The Quest for Truth" William Homan Thorpe – President of the British Ornithologists' Union from 1955 to 1960; his Swarthmore Lecture was titled "Quakers and Humanists" Daniel Hack Tuke – expert on mental illness; came from a long line of Quakers from York who were interested in mental illness and concerned with those afflicted Caspar Wistar – anatomist in colonial America Thomas Young – polymath and child prodigy; raised Quaker.

See also List of Friends schools List of Quakers Relationship between religion and science Christianity and science

References

Further reading Quakers in Science and Industry by Arthur Raistrick. ISBN 1-85072-106-8 Thomas, Anne (April 24, 2000), This I Know Experimentally, Spring 2000 Monday Night Lecture Series: Science and Religion, Pendle Hill (published October 6, 2003), archived from the original on May 1, 2006, retrieved June 29, 2009

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Quakers in science

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Quakers in science claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Quakers in science before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Quakers in science ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Quakers in science

In research
Quakers in science appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry
Engineering practice reuses Quakers in science in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom
Quakers in science is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Christianity and science, Lists of Christian scientists, Quakerism-related lists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life
Look for Quakers in science outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.
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How to study Quakers in science in 20 minutes

  1. Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
  2. Close the page and write down what Quakers in science means in your own words.
  3. Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
  4. Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
  5. Explain Quakers in science out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Quakers in science in simple terms?

William Allen – more known for abolitionism and penal reform; a Fellow of the Royal Society and the Linnean Society of London James Backhouse – botanist and missionary; author abbreviation "Backh" Wilson Baker – organic chemist John Bartram – described as the "father of American botany"; founded Ba…

Why does Quakers in science matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Quakers in science?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Quakers in science.

Tags

  • Christianity and science
  • Lists of Christian scientists
  • Quakerism-related lists
  • Quakers

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