Daniel Webster Hering (23 March 1850 – 24 March 1938) was an American physicist and university dean.
Biography
Hering was born near Smithburg in Washington County, Maryland, and graduated from the Sheffield Scientific School (Yale) with a Ph.B. in 1872.Annual Report - Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. (1938). Volumes 33-34. Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. p. 162 He occupied positions at Johns Hopkins University, McDaniel College (then Western Maryland College), the University of Pittsburgh (then the Western University of Pennsylvania), and New York University, where he was dean after 1902. He was the author of Essentials of Physics for College Students (1912). Hering is credited with taking the first human x-ray in the United States on February 5, 1896, at Bellevue Hospital.New York University presents 175 Facts About NYU
Foibles and Fallacies of Science
Hering's work Foibles and Fallacies of Science (1924) is considered one of the key original texts on matters concerning pseudoscience.Why Is There a Skeptical Movement? by Daniel Loxton The book was positively reviewed in the Nature journal as containing much "curious and interesting information."G. C. S. (1924). "Foibles and Fallacies of Science". Nature 114: 458–459. The book covered alchemy, astrology, divination, prophecies, perpetual motion devices, hoaxes and quackery.H. E. B. (1924). "Foibles and Fallacies of Science". Social Forces 2 (5): 789–790
A review in the Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences described it as a "serious study of pseudoscience" intended for the "layman in science and the professional student to whom we can highly recommend it."Raubenheimer, Otto. (1924). "Foibles and Fallacies of Science". Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences 13 (6): 587.
Hering was one of the original citations for Martin Gardner in his work Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science in which it is argued that he founded the modern scientific skepticism movement.Martin Gardner. (1957). Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science. Dover Publications. p. 8.
Selected publications
Essentials of Physics for College Students (1912, 1921) Physics: The Science of the Forces of Nature (1922) Foibles and Fallacies Of Science (1924)
References
External links