astronomy

Sandra Herbert

Sandra Herbert is a astronomy 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 Sandra Herbert rather than just read about it. In short: Sandra Herbert née Swanson (born April 10, 1942 in Chicago) is an American historian of science with an international reputation as an expert on Charles Darwin. The Geological Society of London awarded her the 2020 Sue Tyler Friedman Medal.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Sandra Herbert née Swanson (born April 10, 1942 in Chicago) is an American historian of science with an international reputation as an expert on Charles Darwin. The Geological Society of London awarded her the 2020 Sue Tyler Friedman Medal.

Biography Sandra Lynn Swanson's father was an accountant and both her grandfathers worked at Chicago steel mills. She graduated in 1963 with a B.A. in Interdisciplinary Studied from Wittenberg University. At Brandeis University, she graduated in the History of Ideas with an M.A. in 1965 and a Ph.D. in 1968. Her Ph.D. thesis is entitled The Logic of Darwin's Discovery. In 1966 she married James Charles Herbert (born 1941), who received his Ph.D. in 1970 from Brandeis University and became an education executive. Sandra and James Herbert have two daughters. She became a professor of history at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and retired in 2009 as professor emerita. Sandra Herbert was from 2007 to 2008 a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Christ's College, Cambridge. From February 2012 to February 2013 she was a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley. Her 2005 book Charles Darwin, Geologist has become the basic reference for Darwin's research on geology. In 2006 the book won the Geological Society of America's Mary C. Rabbitt History of Geology Award, the History of Science Society's Suzanne J. Levinson Prize, the American Historical Association's George L. Mosse Prize, and the Albion Book Prize from the North American Conference on British Studies. In 2007 Sandra Herbert organized and led an expedition to the Galápagos Islands. There she and her colleagues in July 2007 on Isla Santiago located igneous rocks similar to the samples collected by Darwin. Thereby they gained a better understanding of how Darwin's field observations in geology are related to his research published in Geological Observations on the Volcanic Islands (1844). She was a Guggenheim Fellow for the academic year 1982–1983. In 2006 she was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She is also a Fellow of the Geological Society of America.

Selected publications

Articles Herbert, Sandra (1971). "Darwin, Malthus, and Selection". Journal of the History of Biology. 4 (1): 209–217. doi:10.1007/BF00356983. JSTOR 4330556. PMID 11609436. S2CID 38075809. —— (1974). "The place of man in the development of Darwin's theory of transmutation". Journal of the History of Biology. 7 (2): 217–258. doi:10.1007/BF00351204. PMID 11609300. S2CID 27605743. —— (1977). "The place of man in the development of Darwin's theory of transmutation. Part II". Journal of the History of Biology. 10 (2): 155–227. doi:10.1007/BF00572643. PMID 11615664. S2CID 45493836. —— (1986). "Darwin as a Geologist". Scientific American. 254 (5): 116–123. Bibcode:1986SciAm.254e.116H. doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0586-116. JSTOR 24975958. —— (1991). "Charles Darwin as a prospective geological author". The British Journal for the History of Science. 24 (2): 159–192. doi:10.1017/S0007087400027060. S2CID 143748414. —— (1995). "From Charles Darwin's Portfolio: An Early Essay on South American Geology and Species". Earth Sciences History. 14 (1): 23–36. Bibcode:1995ESHis..14...23H. doi:10.17704/eshi.14.1.76570264u727jh36. JSTOR 24137195. —— (2005). "The Darwinian Revolution Revisited". Journal of the History of Biology. 38 (1): 51–66. doi:10.1007/s10739-004-6509-y. PMID 25214416. S2CID 43064176. —— (2007). "Doing and knowing: Charles Darwin and other travellers". Geological Society, London, Special Publications. 287 (1): 311–323. Bibcode:2007GSLSP.287..311H. doi:10.1144/SP287.24. S2CID 146521336. —— (2015). "Creation and extinction: The geological background to the initial American reception of Charles Darwin's Origin of Species". Earth Sciences History. 34 (2): 243–262. Bibcode:2015ESHis..34..243H. doi:10.17704/1944-6178-34-2-243.

Books Herbert, Sandra, ed. (1980). The Red Notebook of Charles Darwin. London: British Museum (Natural History). ISBN 9780801412264. (published in the U.S.A. by Cornell University Press; online text from darwin-online.org) Barrett, Paul; Gautrey, Peter J.; Herbert, Sandra; Kohn, David; Smith, Sydney, eds. (19 March 2009). Charles Darwin's Notebooks, 1836-1844: Geology, Transmutation of Species, Metaphysical Enquiries. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521099752. (1st edition 1987, published in London by British Museum (Natural History) and in Ithaca, N.Y. by Cornell University Press) Herbert, Sandra (2005). Charles Darwin, Geologist. Cornell University Press. ISBN 9780801443480. Herbert, Sandra (28 January 2011). Charles Darwin and the Question of Evolution: A Brief History with Documents. Macmillan Higher Education. ISBN 9781319242671.

References

External links

"UMBC in the Loop: Sandra Herbert "Charles Darwin, Geologist"". YouTube. UMBCtube. December 2, 2009.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Sandra Herbert

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Sandra Herbert claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, 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 Sandra Herbert 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 Sandra Herbert 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 Sandra Herbert

In research: Sandra Herbert appears in astronomy 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 Sandra Herbert 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: Sandra Herbert is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1942 births, American historians of science, Brandeis University alumni, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Sandra Herbert 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 Sandra Herbert in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Sandra Herbert in simple terms?

Why does Sandra Herbert matter?

Because it connects several astronomy 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 Sandra Herbert?

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 Sandra Herbert.