ABSTRACT: Long before GPS, humans devised curiously effective means of navigation across long distances. These cultures of navigation have the elements of theory and empiricism that we often associate with scientific reasoning. In this seminar, I examine the underlying cognitive and environmental linkages associated with human navigation. In particular, I discuss the tradition of wave piloting in the Marshall Islands, the use of the sun in the Norse expansion in the North Atlantic circa AD 1000, and the emergence of celestial navigation. An examination of a medieval table of latitudes and longitudes reveals a surprise about the known world in the 12th century.
SPEAKER: John Edward Huth was born in London, England in 1958. He is currently the Donner Professor of Science at Harvard University. Professor Huth's main research interests focus on the experimental study of elementary particle physics. He teaches in the Harvard University Physics Department, and teaches a General Education class, Primitive Navigation. Prof. Huth was a member of the CDF experiment at Fermilab and worked on the discovery of the top quark there, among other topics. More recently, Prof. Huth is currently a member of the ATLAS Collaboration and participated in the discovery of the Higgs boson. A second research topic of interest is cultures of navigation found in different regions of the world, and the particular intersection of cultural practices and the environmental influences on how people navigate. Some focus is on the cultures of the Pacific Islands, the Norse, and the rise of western European celestial navigation from its roots in astrology and astronomy. His first book on this topic, The Lost Art of Finding Our Way, explores this subject. The General Education class, Primitive Navigation, taught at Harvard, uses a variety of real life exercises to teach the subject.