Otto Neurath compared science to a ship at sea on which the sailors have to repair their vessel as they keep it afloat. Metascience is a ship of a similar sort. Do not worry. There are no repairs to report. But changes are being made at Metascience on an ongoing basis, even as we work to meet our production deadlines. With this, our second issue, we would like to announce some further changes with the journal.Ties Nijseen and Christi Lue who (...) have long been responsible for many of the matters related to Metascience are handing over the responsibilities to Lucy Fleet. Ties has been the Publishing Editor for Metascience since 2009, and Christi has supported him as editorial assistant since 2012. Ties and Christi are still with Springer, but they have taken on other projects. We would like to take this opportunity to thank them for their years of service to Metascience.Lucy will be our new Publishing Editor. She has worked for Springer for 11 years. She is, in addition, .. (shrink)

David Oldroyd died in Sydney on 7 November 2014. Many readers of this journal would know of David’s impressive career as an historian of science and many would have also had the pleasure of knowing David personally. His academic career spanned across England, New Zealand and Australia, and his expertise in history of geology took him to several parts of the world for conferences and research, archival as well as geological, including Europe, China, Turkey, Russia and North America. His experiences (...) and research led to numerous books, edited volumes, journal articles and book chapters.He was also a prolific book reviewer. As those associated with Metascience over the past 30 years would know, he made countless contributions to this journal, all of outstanding quality and showcasing his extensive expertise. Aside from his many reviews, David’s most outstanding published contributions to Metascience include his 1989 analysis of Paul Feyerabend’s critique of empiricism, “The Art-Science Ana .. (shrink)

Galileo’s lessons on critical reasoning Content Type Journal Article Pages 1-3 DOI 10.1007/s11016-011-9541-5 Authors Luciano Boschiero, Campion College, PO Box 3052, Toongabbie East, NSW 2146, Australia Journal Metascience Online ISSN 1467-9981 Print ISSN 0815-0796.

Although historians have often believed that the Accademia del Cimento was as an exemplar of early modern experimental science, study of its unpublished letters and manuscripts reveals a different story. Instead of devoting themselves to the practice of an experimental method, the Cimento academicians seemed dedicated only to constructing experiments that could be interpreted in favour of their natural philosophical aims and interests. For example, their experiments pertaining to the properties and effects of heat and cold show an institution split (...) between the Aristotelian beliefs of two of its members, and the mechanistic commitments of others in the group, including the patron, Prince Leopoldo de'Medici. (shrink)