Vol. 42, No. 1 ews January 2013 N of the Historyletter of Science Society Table of Contents Making a Difference (almost) ten ways history of science Notes from the Inside 4 makes a difference Article: The “Dinosaurs” Guide From the President, Lynn K. Nyhart 1. It puts a human face on science, reminding us that to Technology in the History Classroom 5 At the beginning of a new year, many of us resolve scientists are people like the rest of us. (In fact, it puts to make a difference in the world. We may seek to be many different human faces on science, which is a Article: That Was Then. This Is Now 8 kinder to others; to give more of ourselves; to work for good idea.) justice, democracy, health, and peace; to increase beauty. Article: Reaching Beyond the 2. It provides a long-term perspective on science-related Discipline 11 But how can we work as historians of science to make ideas and trends of which scientists themselves are Article: A Conversation with the a difference? Late December, as I write this, is a list- often unaware. It thus can reveal hidden connections making time of year. I have made two. American Historical Association’s to the past, and show how the past continues to bear Jim Grossman, 4 October 2012 13 The first aims at pithiness: a “top ten” list that we can on the present. Member News 15 post on our websites, blogs, and office doors. Something 3. It counters the naive view that “science = truth” by we can fall back on for friends, relatives, students treating science as part of particular cultures. Jobs, Opportunities, Fellowships 21 (and their parents!), people who walk into our offices, 4. It explores the historical contingencies by which Upcoming Conferences / Events 23 neighbors at parties — anyone who asks, “What is it scientific knowledge has been produced, stimulating you do? And what difference does it make?” News from the Profession 25 the insight that just as the past course of knowledge Sadly, though, I have come up with only nine ways. was not inevitably laid out, neither is the future. Please add one. Who knows, maybe we can generate 5. It investigates the place of science in the construction TWENTY ways! (Send your suggestions to me at of meaning—how we make sense of our world. [email protected]. Or post it on your blog, letting me 6. It broadens the humanities by showing their relevance know, and see what your friends come up with!) to science and industry. The second list is shorter, but less pithy: some of the 7. It attends to the relationships between science and changes we need to work on within the History of power, investigating both how science has come to Science Society to help us make more of a difference be culturally powerful and how people with power outside it, and what we’ve done so far. (whether financial, governmental, or religious) have shaped science. 8. It unearths and revivifies past cultural moments in which science has been made and used, shining a History of Science Society Newsletter History of Science Society Making a Difference Continued from Page 1 Executive Office light on our own time by revealing similarities four ways to make a difference History of Science Society and differences between past and present. 440 Geddes Hall in the history of science society University of Notre Dame 9. It invites reflection on the leading values (so we can make a difference Notre Dame, IN 46556 Phone: 574-631-1194; Fax: 574-631-1533 attached to science—the pursuit of greater beyond it) E-mail: [email protected] understanding of nature and the instrumental Web site: http://www.hssonline.org/ goal of improving the world. 1. Foster relationships with historians of Subscription Inquiries science outside of academia. Historians University of Chicago Press 10. ?? [Your statement here!] Phone: 877-705-1878; Fax 877-705-1879 of science who work outside academia are This list reflects the view that our main E-mail: [email protected] more apt to connect and communicate with Or write: University of Chicago Press, difference-making capacity lies in changing the Subscription Fulfillment Manager, PO Box different sectors of our society. Moreover, way people think about science and its place in 37005, Chicago, IL 60637-7363 in an age of PhD overproduction, we need our world (and for that matter, history and its Moving? to help history of science PhD and MA Please notify both the HSS Executive Office and place in the world), rather than precipitating holders prepare for and find work outside the University of Chicago Press. direct, immediate action. This sort of difference- academia. Since many of us who run things Editorial Policies, Advertising and making has few metrics, but it is vital to fostering in this profession have little or no experience Submissions a culture that values both history and science. The History of Science Society Newsletter is in this realm, we need to lean on those published in January, April, July, and October, There are no guarantees, however, that anyone who have such experience; we call on your and sent to all individual members of the Society. except historians of science will see this list or The Newsletter is edited and published in the practical advice and moral support. We need Executive Office. The format and editorial policies understand it. So how do we get the word out, to begin by discovering who you are. We are determined by the Executive Director in beyond the captive audience that many in our consultation with the Committee on Publications can make a start with our revamped HSS and the Society Editor. All advertising copy must profession have in the classroom? website, to be rolled out over the coming be submitted in electronic form. Advertisements are accepted on a space-available basis only, As I suggested a year ago in this space, I think months (thanks to Fred Gibbs and Alex and the Society reserves the right not to print a we need to change who we think of as “us.” To Wellerstein), where we plan a space for people submission. The rates are as follows: Full page (7 make a difference in the world, we need to make outside academia to give short accounts x 9.25”), $625; Horizontal or Vertical Half page (7 x 4.6”), $375; Quarter page (3.5 x 4.6”), $225. a difference in the history of science profession. of what they’re doing now. Tania Munz The deadline for insertion orders is six weeks So here’s another list: an interim report on what’s ([email protected]) and Carin prior to the month of publication and should be sent to the attention of the HSS Executive Office. going on in the History of Science Society that Berkowitz ([email protected]) The deadline for news, announcements, and job/ might facilitate broadening who “we” are. If are heading up an initiative for “HSS Outside fellowship/ prize listings is firm: Six weeks prior to the month of publication. Long items (feature you’re interested in helping out with one or more the Academy,” focused on people who have stories) should be submitted eight weeks prior of these initiatives, please contact Jay Malone at left the traditional academic path for other to the month of publication. Please send all [email protected] careers, whether history of science-related or material to the attention of the executive office: . [email protected]. not. The aims are multiple: to explore how © 2012 by the History of Science Society 2 History of Science Society Newsletter • January 2013 History of Science Society Newsletter

Making a Difference Continued from Page 2 the Society might continue to be relevant with the annual meeting. But there are other 4. Increase the diversity of the Society. We and interesting to such individuals; to open possibilities, too: perhaps we could open our can make more of a difference beyond our up a platform at meetings for broader ways plenary session to the public, or our Society community if we’re more diverse inside it. The of thinking about history of science and the lecture. How can we re-imagine the meeting responses to the climate survey that went out world; and to build a network of “Friends of to expand our sense of “us”? last fall are still being analyzed, but should the Field” that might serve as an important 3. Provide up-to-date educational resources give us a solid demographic baseline that resource for mentoring those who are facing on the web, for both college-level and K-12 we have hitherto lacked concerning gender, similar choices. The tasks are numerous: to teachers. Erika Milam reported at the 2012 sexuality, race, and ethnicity. Of course, simple develop an area on the website to showcase Women’s Caucus breakfast that the caucus’s observation at meetings shows that we lack work of historians of science that is not in syllabus project (a dozen syllabi on different racial diversity. Initiatives from a decade ago traditional academic book and article forms; topics in women and gender and STM: (and longer) did not take root. While changing to list jobs that relate to but are outside of http://hsswc.weebly.com/syllabus-project. this homogeneity probably needs to be fostered traditional history of science fields; and to html) had by far the highest traffic on the mainly at the level of individual graduate contact people who have “left the field” or Women’s Caucus’s new website. This suggests programs and even undergraduate programs, who remain anonymous within it to ask them that posting up-to-date teaching modules, HSS can help, for example by developing to reconnect. Carin and Tania could use some guidelines, and readings is not just useful to relationships with the Historically Black help. Please contact them and Jay if you have our own membership but might also be a Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Since thoughts and suggestions or would like to get crucial way for all kinds of people to find us, the Council has just voted to meet in Atlanta involved. and for us to shape how history of science is in 2016, a city within easy access of many 2. Use the HSS Annual Meeting itself as being taught in different kinds of classroom HBCUs, this may afford a goal and timeline an opportunity for increasing public settings. Some of the other forums and interest for working to develop some stronger ties. engagement. Our first foray in this direction groups also have such teaching resources Collecting and posting resources related to the was the “Blue Marble” event at Scripps, on their websites; see, e.g., the resources history of science, technology, (medicine?) and developed by a sub-committee of the provided by the Forum for the History of race may also provide an opening for recruiting Committee on Education and attached to the Science in Asia: http://fhsasiahss.wordpress. a more diverse membership into our ranks. HSS meeting in San Diego—an afternoon- com/2012/11/13/teaching-resources-web- Who would like to take this up? long collection of panel presentations links-and-podcasts/. The Science Education If you’re interested in helping out with any of and individual talks on the history of subcommittee of the Committee on Education these initiatives, please contact Jay Malone at oceanography and its connection to present- is also developing modules for teaching science [email protected]. day policy issues. It was a rousing success, through the history of science. One job of our and there is hope that this might provide a new website will be to make these teaching model for future public events in conjunction resources collectively visible and linked.

3 History of Science Society Newsletter • January 2013 History of Science Society Newsletter Notes from the Inside Make a Difference through Service As recent messages to the membership have on us trying to accommodate those who have indicated, the HSS is trying to make better use volunteered. The HSS’s committee structure has of our many volunteers. Lynn Nyhart’s “Making been the traditional landing place for volunteers. a Difference” piece in this Newsletter suggests So when we have asked people to help, it was ways that we will be trying to call on the diverse usually with the idea of placing them on one of our talents of our members. These calls for service six standing committees (Publications, Meetings represent a fundamental shift in the HSS, as we and Programs, Education, Finance, Research and reach out to the entire membership. Although the Profession, and Honors and Prizes) or on one we have been fortunate that a large number of of our prize committees (Pfizer, Levinson, Davis, independent scholars have been willing to serve, Reingold, Rossiter, Price/Webster, NASA, and HSS’s committees have been dominated by those Hazen). Making these committee assignments with strong ties to academic centers. And within is difficult for Executive Committee members Please join the AAAS that finite universe, there have been noteworthy because we aim for institutional and research in Boston for the representations from certain centers of learning diversity on each committee and it is essential that 2013 AAAS Annual Meeting (in the past six years, three presidents and two the person assigned be a good team member, which secretaries of HSS’s Executive Committee were means having some experience with an individual. 14–18 February all alumni of Indiana University, a condition And since the standing committee appointments Sarton Lecture by that prompted me to attend the 80th birthday range from two to five years and the prize and Silvan (Sam) Schweber celebration of Fred Churchill last month to try fellowship committees three years, we simply do Hans Bethe and Physics in the and figure out the magic of IU). not have enough slots for the many volunteers who 20th Century step forward. That is why we are reimagining the 16 Feb, 12 pm - 1 pm The Society is fortunate that its many volunteers process. The expansion of ad-hoc opportunities choose to give their time to the HSS (in the case requires coordination and that requires time, HSS members will be of the Executive Committee the commitment but we hope to put in place a structure that will is measured in thousands of hours). But now as eligible to receive AAAS make best use of the generosity of our members, a member registration rates. Lynn has so carefully explained, we are seeking process that reflects the value that we place on our to be more inclusive in our call for volunteers. members’ most precious commodities: your time Please contact the Executive We are grateful to those who have responded to and talent. our requests for help and ask for patience as we Office for more details. make the next step. That crucial step will center Thank you for your membership in the HSS. - Jay Malone, HSS Executive Director 4 History of Science Society Newsletter • January 2013 History of Science Society Newsletter The “Dinosaurs” Guide to Technology in the History Classroom Vassiliki Betty Smocovitis, The University of Florida

Like other historians of my generation, I am keep it minimal, simple and spare, otherwise it not entirely comfortable with the heavy use of ends up controlling us, when we are supposed to technology in my classroom. I do not teach the be controlling it—and just think of the amount kinds of courses that rely on huge amounts of data of time we spend learning to work some new interpretation or require the solution of complex piece of software if we try to stay current. In problem sets that one characteristically sees in the short, I aim for a minimalist approach, so I am sciences. I want students to concentrate on the down to two kinds of digital technology that I power of the spoken word, and to focus on the consider essential to my teaching, especially in a historical material I am presenting. I want to avoid large lecture format: (1) the use of PowerPoint, Google image from the title page of PowerPoint Lecture 8, the many distractions that come with too many preferably the latest version and (2) an e-learning Tuberculosis: The Romantic Disease from one of my classes. gizmos and gimmicks we commonly associate with platform, or a course and learning-management I chose “Ophelia,” by John Everett Millais (1852) to introduce technology, and I want my classroom to function as system or LMS (individual institutions may use the class to the nineteenth century artistic obsession with a kind of intellectual space that re-creates a feeling “Blackboard,” “Moodle” or “Sakai,” among consumption. Elizabeth Siddal, the model for this painting, was for the past, at the same time that it promotes the others). In my experience, both enhance the a famous consumptive and a favorite with Pre-Raphaelites. art of engaging it in a scholarly way1. learning process and add to the efficiency of instruction, making it worth the initial investment the past. I use images very heavily—paintings, I also find it a struggle to be working with of time and effort, and both are worth the risks photographs, illustrations, and even graphs where technology that is not always well supported at that come with reliance of technology. That is need be, along with some text to accompany my my institution and that often proves unreliable. why PowerPoint and LMSs are now considered lectures. I use a range of examples from well- Technology should be decreasing our “stress standard practices in university teaching all over. known paintings in art history many of which are load,” but all too often it is actually doing the Most students now actually demand them and available as Google images, to forgotten ephemera reverse. Besides the fact that it can be embarrassing think us dinosaurs if they do not find them! from popular culture, to original documents that when the technology fails in front of fifty or so can be shared immediately with students (just people, nearly all of whom know more about it PowerPoint: I’ve been a heavy user of PowerPoint think of the wonders of working with students than their teacher, it can be a serious time-waster since 2002 when my undergraduate students first on a digital image of an archival document). I in a classroom where meeting time is a precious introduced me to it. It is a powerful instructional scour digital archives for images that have never commodity. I really do not want to be futzing device that conveys information immediately, been published in print media. The National with my computer once I am in the classroom! So, and if used deftly, can literally evoke the kind Library of Medicine, for example, has marvelous my philosophy of technology, briefly stated, is to of historical experience that can take us into images as do a number of PBS web sites that are

1 At least one recent study suggests that students prefer effective lectures to technology: see Léo Charbonneau, “Students Prefer Good Lectures over Technology in the Class,” University Affairs, November 21, 2012. http://www.universityaffairs.ca/students-prefer-good-lectures-over-the-latest-technology-in-class.aspx 5 History of Science Society Newsletter • January 2013 Continued on Page 6 History of Science Society Newsletter The “Dinosaurs” Guide to Technology in the History Classroom, cont. designed for classroom use. There is nothing more completed the experience of learning is enhanced, The mere act of placing my syllabus on one of these exciting than to be engaging in original historical the teaching is greatly improved, and the slides (at UF we use “Sakai”) saved me dozens of e-mails research in your actual teaching. Combined with can be used in the next cycle of teaching, as they or phone calls, and I didn’t have to go through the a novel, lively lecture, each classroom becomes are easily modified each time the course is taught. ordeal of photocopying it over and over to replace the opportunity to convey the excitement of Unfortunately, in a number of places, formal misplaced copies. The best part of the system is that historical research, no matter how introductory PowerPoint instruction is increasingly hard to it enables you to upload pdf files for your reading the course may be. I think of it in terms of sharing find, and IT experts on campus may send you to materials that students can access immediately, as the excitement I feel when I find something in web sites that supposedly teach it to you, among well as uploading the class PowerPoint slides— the archives, and students do pick up on that other things. I found some of these “self-help” photocopies are increasingly things of the past excitement as they are introduced to the material. web sites frustrating and difficult and recommend as are course readers, or readings deposited in I also use music heavily, as well as excerpts from that you get a friend to show you the basics and libraries. Some teachers are reluctant to upload films and YouTube clips, that are easily embedded then teach yourself some of the add-on features (I their slides thinking students will slack off in class, in the PowerPoint presentation. Multi-media love to play with the transitions between slides for but I did not find this to be the case, especially if formats are especially effective ways to teach example, as a way of introducing dramatic special the slides have minimal text. My students used the cultural history—so much so, that I now wonder effects). There is an alternative presentation format PowerPoint slides I uploaded for their use, which how I managed to do this before 2002 (well, I do that is gaining popularity called Prezi that does they often downloaded to their cell phones as well remember having to lug film equipment and music not have the linear formatting of PowerPoint, and as iPads or other computing devices. The iPad players to class). The down side to scouring digital that has an active, more dynamic feel to it, but it method of note-taking is fabulous, incidentally. archives and You Tube is that it does take time, may not work for a lecture in history. The web Students were able to download the PowerPoint and entering the material on PowerPoint is in itself site that shows you what Prezi can do is located slides, and then insert their own classroom notes time consuming and sometimes frustrating, but a here: http://prezi.com/4jrranugjj6p/turn-a- in the original file, creating a customized digital great deal depends on how much information you powerpoint-to-prezi-prezihelpcom/ notebook that includes everything that happened want to put on the slides. My advice is to keep in the class, plus what they have read on their own. E-Learning or any other “LMS”: the text minimal; if too much text is included This is the Most of these course management systems also have students will spend their time writing it all down, name for a course or learning management system, an announcement page where you can post formal word for word, instead of listening to the lecture a kind of digital space where you can perform reminders of exam dates or to announce changes and processing the information being conveyed. virtually all the functions associated with teaching, of plans and readings. I use the announcement And it can be overwhelming. The preparation of and that can actually go beyond the traditional page heavily to add new links that point students a one hour lecture usually takes about five hours, classroom. It is much easier to use than a web to current events or provocative readings. It is also depending on how elaborate the slides become site and private so that you do not have to worry connected to an internal e-mail system. I found and how much novel material one is including. about cyberstalkers tracking your course and the it really useful because it allowed me to separate This is a serious investment of time, but once interactions you might be having with your class. messages from students from the blizzard of

6 History of Science Society Newsletter • January 2013 Continued on Page 7 History of Science Society Newsletter The “Dinosaurs” Guide to Technology in the History Classroom, cont. mailings I get on my ufl.edu account. This allowed kinds of e-learning platforms I am describing here, questions each semester, as unrealistic as that may me to respond to my students quickly, and even and may pose a new set of instructional problems. be in a course with a finite amount of material that more importantly enabled me to keep a clear record Students are often reluctant to open these accounts is taught repeatedly. And to make it worse we have of student communications, and in chronological and most universities and colleges are now in the yet another challenge, from a growing number of sequence, which is a good way to clear up any process of developing strict guidelines for their use. internet businesses that will write original papers misunderstandings should they take place. Course My own institution strongly discourages the use for students for a fee, capitalizing on the fact that management systems can also can be used to of social media for instructional purposes, except Turnitin and other plagiarism detecting software receive student papers, or assignments, which can for extenuating circumstances requiring formal is making it difficult to replicate existing work. be checked rapidly with a plagiarism-detecting permission from the administration, and many Suffice it to say that instructors now have to software package like Turnitin that is part of the schools do not permit “friending” between faculty actively revisit all kinds of learning and teaching LMS, and grading can be done digitally right then and active students. strategies over and over as new technologies and there. There is a gradebook feature to record are developed and that find their way into our grades that you can then program to calculate the The increased emphasis on on-line instruction classrooms. It is not unlike a kind of technological final grades, and there is a chat-room or discussion and the reliance on digital technology is of arms race, sometimes amusingly reminiscent of room capability if one wants to use it. So far, I do course posing other new challenges. Not only do Mad Magazine’s “spy vs. spy” cartoons. I say, get all my grading, recording and calculation in hard students have the opportunity to make all kinds used to it—this is teaching in the digital age! copy, but I am considering moving in that direction of embarrassing comments about their teachers in the near future. The down side of some of these on half a dozen websites out there, but they have My final comment is confessional in nature: I go is that they are not all intuitively easy to learn or created e-communities of various kinds that out of my way to learn from my students, especially to employ, and they all do things a bit differently. enable them to write papers together, or to share on the use of technology in the classroom. I come Some do not work well with the Mac world, or quizzes and examinations. Digital test-banks pose early and leave late. If there are breaks I take them work better with some browsers, or not at all with serious problems for the larger courses that use with my students. I develop close relationships others. Most campuses do offer formal instruction an examination format. My present solution is to with some—usually the ones in the front rows of on e-learning, and have some kind of support have students return exams to me after reading the class who I can watch closely as they take notes. system in place to help faculty trouble-shoot, them over (I do not use blue books but provide I ask them about their preferred devices, and I ask though they may close early on workdays and not them with a stapled bundle of paper). I explain them about what works for them. I respond to be available on the weekends, when one actually has to them that I am protecting the integrity of the criticism, and do what I can to facilitate the process the time to be figuring things out. Some of the same course for their sakes, and I make their exams of learning this way. And if I haven’t a clue what functions can be employed in some social media available should they wish to consult them. I try they are saying about the latest gizmo or software like Facebook, which is much easier to use, and to minimize opportunities for digital photography program, I ask them to teach me about it—we are more effective at rapidly creating a community of and digital sharing of the exam. This is in addition after all, members of a learning community, so learners, but they are not proper substitutes for the to, of course, trying to come up with novel why not have students teach us, for a change?

7 History of Science Society Newsletter • January 2013 History of Science Society Newsletter That Was Then. This Is Now2 Jonathan Minard

On Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania’s Penn Avenue, “We’re interested in what people do to living things Recombinant DNA inserted into a species’ a storefront labeled “Center for PostNatural on purpose. We’re not a biology museum, not a genome continues to function normally, History” (CPNH) goes quietly unnoticed. science museum,” explains Pell. The collection is providing the instructions for synthesizing Inside, one may find the answer to such questions “anthropocentric,” he says, “looking at human proteins. That is why the cells of a rabbit, with the as “What is the difference between a green culture through the lens of biology.” addition of a single jellyfish gene, produce Green fluorescent bunny and a GloFish®? One is furry: The 21st century has been heralded as “The Fluorescent Protein (GFP). Transgenic species the invention of an American bio-artist. The Century of Biotech.” And yet, genetic engineering are considered technologies. When artist Eduardo other is a trademarked product from Singapore, is hardly new. Since well before recorded history, Kac worked with Dr. Louis-Marie Houdebine outlawed in every country but the United States. humans have been pruning the tree of life. to invent Alba the Glowing Bunny, the two They share a single gene responsible for their Our interventions began with the advent of patented their creation. The patent behind Alba, bioluminescence originating in the jellyfish, agriculture, roughly ten thousand years ago, when number 5,792,902 describes “A transgenic rabbit Aequorea victoria. foragers transitioned to animal husbandry and expressing a protein capable of interfering with In the dimly lit exhibit hall of the CPNH, glass crop domestication: wild boar became pigs, and dyslipoproteinaemia-related liver diseases.” vitrines house familiar-looking specimens: an array teosinte became corn. Since the founding of CPNH in 2008, Pell has of fruit flies impaled on mounting pins; a flask of In the 1920s, food producers discovered new scoured science journals and patent records for live, fluttering Sea Monkeys; a cabinet marked methods of accelerating mutagenesis in fruits the latest additions to the transgenic tree. Many of Specimen Vault bearing corn kernels and slides and vegetables to yield a wider array of traits. these experimental life forms are ephemeral, one- of bacteria. Each specimen has a story encoded Irradiating crops with isotopes, such as cobalt-60, offs. Most go extinct before coming to term. in its DNA. Every microbe and vertebrate in the led to larger, sweeter, more attractive varieties. The “Maybe their germ plasm, their DNA survives on collection was designed to serve a human need. practice, known as mutation breeding continues in some long term freezer,” says Pell, “but virtually Typically, it is biodiversity loss that makes the to this day at facilities called gamma farms. nobody is preserving the body, the morphology, news. Less talked about is the fact that humans Modern genetics has developed to such an the physical forms of these organisms. So they just are creating the greatest boom in new species since extent in the past 35 years that scientists are able kind of fall in this blind spot.” the Cambrian Explosion. The Center has staked to make precise alterations. By deftly cutting Pell did not always take the role of objective its claim as the only institution in the world and pasting genes from one species to another, documentarian when it came to biotechnology. dedicated to cataloging postnature, i.e. life forms bioengineers approach genomics as a form of At first he approached biotech as an activist-artist, that result from humans tampering with DNA. computer programming—using base pairs rather with the intention of engineering “a provocative The man behind the Center is Richard Pell. than bytes. bacteria.”

2 A longer version of this article was published in Sage magazine on 2 March 2012.

8 History of Science Society Newsletter • January 2013 Continued on Page 9 History of Science Society Newsletter Then. Now, cont.

“I realized that what was already being done inadvertent record of American warfare.” How at the SUNY College of Environmental Studies [in biology labs] was far more provocative than these rodents were used to understand the effects and Forestry in an attempt to resurrect the anything I had to contribute. The politics I was of radiation is the subject of the current exhibit at decimated tree. interested in bringing to the table were already the Center, “Atomic Age Rodents.” None of the artist-researchers in Grover’s exhibit present and very loud.” Pell began envisioning “I find again and again that any living thing that have advanced degrees in science, yet they have a place to investigate genetic technologies and I look at long enough will yield an extraordinary cultivated expertise in peculiar niches, in some encourage public dialogue on biology and culture. story,” says Pell. In recent years, he has tracked cases inventing their own biotechnologies. While In 2008, the idea for a PostNatural History goats with spider genes to a remote military the artists spend “ninety percent of their time Museum was born. installation, visited the world’s only public grove outside of the lab,” says Grover, mastering the Pell visited the labs of scientists doing research of transgenic American elms, and delved deep language of science gives them special access to and development on transgenic species, and began into the story of Amazing Sea Monkeys™. Pell domains off limits to most artists. According to building his collection. His first acquisition was declined to give a full account of what he had Grover, “Scientists are very interested in what a jar of malaria-resistant mosquitoes from the discovered through research on the creation of they’re doing, and they have become valuable University of California, Irvine. Amazing Sea Monkeys™—the story was too contributors” to their chosen fields of inquiry. In 2011, the CPNH won Pell a summer complex, he said—but he mentioned that it In conversation, Pell will casually drop the full fellowship to poke around “America’s attic” at involved an adult film star from the 60’s; a Latin names of obscure bacteria. In describing the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History researcher trying to coax rare blue lobsters into one procedure, he makes synthetic biology in Washington D.C. Ignoring the more exotic mating; and a Jewish man who went on to sound frighteningly easy: “There are a number of species at his disposal, he chose to focus his become one of the primary funders of the Aryan companies that do gene synthesis. And you simply efforts exclusively on documenting the origins of Nation. “I think it will become a screenplay one send them an e-mail message full of the A’s, T’s, countless common white lab mice and lab rats— day,” said Pell. G’s, and C’s and in a few weeks turnaround time two of the most thoroughly domesticated and ******** you’ll get a styrofoam cooler full of dry ice, with genetically homogenous species on Earth. Pell is not the only artist of his generation exploring an eppendorf tube in the middle of it—that’s that Arrayed row upon row in stacks of drawers in the the social and cultural dimensions of genetic gene suspended in some kind of fluid.” Smithsonian, each identical rodent bears a little tag engineering. Curator Andrea Grover recently Every successful genetically modified organism is on its hind foot, specifying the date and location assembled a half dozen artists and researchers preceded by a series of miscarriages. The process of its death. Cross-referencing the tags with sites for a touring exhibit titled, “Intimate Science,” can get messy. And yet, most of the transgenic in the Pacific and Nevada desert, Pell began currently on display in Hartford, Connecticutt’s specimens in the collection look no different from to notice a pattern. Large numbers of mice had Real Art Ways gallery until 31 March 2013. their wild counterparts. None of them exhibit the come to the museum during periods of frequent CPNH’s exhibit in the show presents the story of extreme physical aberrations one might expect, nuclear testing. He describes the collection as “an the blight resistant American Chestnut, engineered such as extra eyes and appendages. 9 History of Science Society Newsletter • January 2013 Continued on Page 10 History of Science Society Newsletter Then. Now, cont. Seeing these modern chimeras in the flesh and NDXI learning their stories immediately defuses the expectation of monstrosity. It also removes the subject of biotechnology from the realm of abstraction and what-if scenarios. As the science of transgenics becomes a viable option for addressing ELEVENTH BIENNIAL heritable diseases, our very own genes will become the subject of debate, further complicating these slippery bioethical questions. HISTORY of ASTRONOMY While the collection currently has fewer than 100 unique species—a tiny fraction of the tens of thousands of transgenic organisms in the world— WORKSHOP the examples presented are as captivating as they are complex. Some species like the GloFish®, manufactured for aesthetic novelty, invite scrutiny; University of Notre Dame other organisms, designed to solve a problem, deflect criticism. It is not easy to wage an argument against a malaria-resistant mosquito with the potential to Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum save millions of lives. At the same time, the public will and should be wary of genetic innovations claiming to offer a panacea—in the delicate balance June 12–16, 2013 of ecology there are often hidden consequences.

Rather than providing easy answers, CPNH CONFERENCE THEME: Diffusion of Astronomical Knowledge across and within Cultures presents visitors with compelling stories, allowing them to contemplate the issues and slowly come INVITED SPEAKER: F. Jamil Ragep, Canada Research Chair in the History of Science in Islamic to their own nuanced conclusions. Societies and Director of the Institute of Islamic Studies at McGill University in Montreal, Contact information for the Center for PostNatural Canada History: http://www.postnatural.org 4913 Penn Ave CALL FOR PAPERS: Open through March 1, 2013. Please contact Stephen Case at [email protected] or visit the NDXI web page (below) for details. Proposals that address the theme receive preference, but all proposals Pittsburgh, PA 15224 will be considered. [email protected]

10 History of Science Society Newsletter • January 2013 www.nd.edu/~histast/ History of Science Society Newsletter Reaching Beyond the Discipline Melinda Gormley3, Reilly Center for Science, Technology, and Values, University of Notre Dame

A matter gaining traction among historians than taking an academic research project and About thirty scholars from Michigan State, the of science is the discipline’s isolationism and communicating it in new ways, these scholars University of Waterloo, Pennsylvania State, and impracticality. Steven Shapin lamented the embark on a project with the goal of addressing the Universities of Notre Dame and Michigan discipline’s hyper-professionalization in Isis in current social and political issues involving science, were in attendance, and many agreed that this 2005 (vol. 96, no. 2, pp. 238-43). In many cases, technology, and medicine. They interact with should be the first of many gatherings to discuss the scope of our topics has moved from the general those who have a problem that needs solving, and original contributions to and methodologies for to the specific, and we write not for the public but from these experiences they refine their research SRPoS. For more information see the 2010 issue for the profession. We have shrunk our audience. and dissemination methods. of Synthese devoted to the topic. In this Newsletter one year ago HSS president Lynn Socially-Relevant Philosophy of Science (SRPoS) Field philosophy, another area gaining attention, Nyhart echoed Shapin’s concerns. Why shouldn’t is the name given to an approach described by also engages stakeholders and aims to produce we write for the general public, contribute material Katie Plaisance and Carla Fehr of the University practical outcomes. It is especially relevant to policy. to science textbooks, and become film-makers? of Waterloo. SRPoS (pronounced sir-row-pose) J. Britt Holbrook with the Center for the Study of If we cultivate different styles of communication, projects analyze scientific research topics and Interdisciplinarity at the University of North Texas it will surely open up opportunities: from writing practices that bear on issues of public welfare. SRPoS states that field philosophy begins with a problem blogs and op-eds to giving interviews and expert can engage stakeholders, including members of in the real world. The field philosopher engages testimonies. Nurturing various styles of speaking the public and policymakers, and it uses practices with those who have a problem, ascertains the and writing, whether for print, radio, or TV/film, and venues that guarantee broad dissemination of underlying philosophical issues, and then works requires practice. Knowing your audience and the work. Plaisance and Fehr identify four themes: with the stakeholders to redirect the discussion. learning how to communicate your knowledge to “(1) developing collaborative relationships with Philosopher Adam Briggle, who is Holbrook’s them is pivotal. If you are not sure how to speak scientists, (2) addressing policy, regulation, and colleague, provides an example of field philosophy about your work in ways that make it relevant to institutional structure, (3) investigating the in action. Briggle hosts meetings to discuss various media, Nancy Baron’s Escape from the Ivory Tower relationships among scientific and non-scientific dimensions of fracking and drilling. He is chair has useful pointers. If you are looking to write communities, and (4) assessing the effectiveness of the Denton Stakeholder Drilling Advisory differently, read the style of writing that you want of the disciplinary norms, practices, and structures Committee, a group of concerned citizens and to create. Read it continuously and often and of philosophy of science itself” (Synthese 177.3, experts who advise the formation of drilling when writing emulate it. Dec 2010, p. 304). Plaisance and Fehr were two policy in Denton, Texas. He has written for the But is it enough to diversify your communication of nine presenters at a conference on SRPoS held local newspaper and the online magazine Slate. skills? Some philosophers do not think so. Rather at Michigan State University on 19 October 2012. Holbrook and Briggle presented this material at

3 Melinda Gormley is Assistant Director for Research of the Reilly Center for Science, Technology, and Values at University of Notre Dame. She fosters professional development through Notre Dame’s Graduate School and the HSS Graduate and Early Career Caucus. 11 History of Science Society Newsletter • January 2013 Continued on Page 12 History of Science Society Newsletter Reaching Beyond the Discipline, cont.

Science-Policy Interactions and Social Values, a promptly in newspapers, as op-eds, and on blogs. This is hardly an exhaustive guide to methods symposium held at University of Texas, Dallas on Largent, Oreskes, and Larson were panelists of in communication, research, and teaching of 13-14 April 2012. “Bringing Science to the Public: What Can the the history of science in the 21st century. As What are historians doing? In his article “Applied Science Studies Scholar Do?,” a session hosted by more individuals shift from making calls for History of Science,” John L. Heilbron proposed HSS’s Graduate and Early Career Caucus (GECC) action to explicating methods, we can expect to three ways for reaching beyond the discipline: at the 2011 annual meeting in Cleveland. see additional models for reaching beyond the general education, science education, and science Communication skills and research methods are discipline. policy (Isis, Dec 1987). A few recent examples two pieces. Another is pedagogical approaches. Bibliography come from other members of the HSS community. Nyhart is not alone in thinking that historians Nancy Baron, Escape from the Ivory Tower: A Guide to Making Daniel Kevles’s contributions to Inventing America: should train students for a wide array of careers, Your Science Matter (Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 2010). A History of the United States (2006) offers an such as teaching K-12 and working in museums, Leonard Cassuto, “OK, Let’s Teach Graduate Students example of applying one’s expertise to general the entertainment industry, and government. Differently. But How?,” The Chronicle of Higher Education (8 Jan 2012). education. This textbook’s first edition was adopted Today’s job market necessitates that university Anthony T. Grafton and James Grossman, “No More Plan B,” by more than 250 colleges and universities. Two and college professors reconsider the training that The Chronicle of Higher Education(9 Oct 2011). recent books provide models for contextualizing history Ph.D. candidates receive. There are too ---, “Time to Craft a Plan C,” The Chronicle of Higher Education recent public affairs and science policy issues. In few tenure-track jobs for the number of scholars (1 Nov 2011). Vaccine: The Debate in Modern America (2012) earning Ph.D.s, and there are many other careers John L. Heilbron, “Applied History of Science” Isis 78.4 (Dec Mark Largent uses the methods of an historian for which historians are qualified. Preparing 1987): 552-563. to explore an ongoing public health issue in the graduate students for a broad range of careers Jennifer Howard, “Historians Reflect on Forces Reshaping Their United States: government-required vaccinations requires a new approach to training. Students Profession,” The Chronicle of Higher Education (8 Jan 2012). and parents’ resistance to these requirements. need to cultivate skills in addition to expertise. Mark Largent, Vaccine: The Debate in Modern America (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012). He, like other historians, seeks to complicate A dialogue in The Chronicle of Higher Education Pauline Maier, Merritt Roe Smith, Alexander Keyssar, and what appears to be simple—or is depicted that spurred by the American Historical Association’s Daniel J. Kevles, Inventing America: A History of the United way in polemics—so that the reader gains a past president Anthony T. Grafton and executive States (New York: W.W. Norton and Company, Inc., 2006). more sophisticated understanding of the issue’s director James Grossman is a good starting point Lynn K. Nyhart, “From the HSS President: History of Science underlying features. Merchants of Doubt (2010) for those seeking more information on the problem Unbound,” HSS Newsletter 41.1 (Jan 2012): 1-2, 4. by Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway is another and possible solutions. For additional methods Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway, Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco example of using historical evidence to explore look to public history. Public historians have been Smoke to Global Warming (New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2010). issues surrounding controversial issues, such as preparing students for careers at museums and Kathryn S. Plaisance and Carla Fehr, eds., “Making Philosophy climate change. Edward Larson suggests using historical sites, in media and government, and of Science more Socially Relevant,” Synthese 177.3 (Dec 2010). historical narrative to explain ethical dimensions with private corporations and public agencies L. Maren Wood, “What Doors Does a Ph.D. in History of current events and then publishing your ideas since the 1970s. Open?,” The Chronicle of Higher Education (30 Oct 2012). 12 History of Science Society Newsletter • January 2013 History of Science Society Newsletter A Conversation with the American Historical Association’s Jim Grossman, 4 October 2012 Scott Gerard Prinster, University of Wisconsin, Madison

In light of the changing landscape of historical airport hub. Professors are now being encouraged critical mass of influential programs will convince research and teaching, James Grossman is using to bring pre-ABD students to the Annual Meeting other departments to gather and share their his position as the Executive Director of the at a discounted rate. The AHA is also hoping to statistics. Grossman and AHA President William American Historical Association to encourage increase its visibility by engaging more strategically Cronon are also beginning a conversation with a historians and students to think more broadly with public culture; for example, their webpage range of potential employers beyond the tenure about the professions we occupy within our regularly features a panel of historians reflecting— track and asking about the particular qualities and discipline. In an October 4 visit to the University not as pundits or ideologues, but as historians— competencies they are looking for in history PhDs. of Wisconsin campus, Grossman shared some of on current issues such as the Presidential debates. Understanding the actual state of the discipline the steps being taken in the AHA that the History will help us better prepare grads to succeed in a of Science Society might also consider in response Another persistent problem Grossman noted has variety of relevant careers. to shifting opportunities. been history departments’ inertia in addressing our changing discipline and how to prepare graduates Rather than panicking at the shifting career Since leaving his previous position as Vice to succeed in it. Grossman observes sadly that landscape, Grossman and the AHA leadership President for Research and Education at Chicago’s many departments, faculty, and graduate students are striving to think strategically about how Newberry Library, Grossman has made it one of continue to refer to non-tenure-track careers as the Association might respond. For example, his top priorities to remedy graduate students’ our “failures.” An important step forward was it has been suggested that the nature of the unfamiliarity with the AHA’s work. Quite a few the provocative conversation begun last year by dissertation must change to fit the demands of students did not know, for example, that the previous AHA President Anthony Grafton in The the job market. However, Grossman insists that American Historical Review is the journal of the Chronicle of Higher Education: http://chronicle. history students develop and refine necessary AHA, and a surprising number had never been com/article/No-More-Plan-B/129293/ and skills in the preparation of their dissertation to AHA’s Annual Meeting. Grossman encourages http://chronicle.com/article/Time-to-Craft-a- and in converting it to their first book. Others students to attend the Annual Meeting before we Plan-C/129587/. are urging that we rethink the requirements for are on the job market, so that our first impressions hiring and tenure, partly in response to changes can be of its content and opportunities, rather Grossman admits that one particular challenge in the academic publishing industry; Grossman than of the stress and chaos of the interviewing is the difficulty in gathering accurate statistics observes that, although it’s still relatively easy to experience. Hoping to make Annual Meeting about how history graduates actually fare in the publish in American History, for example, it has attendance simpler and more affordable,job market. AHA leaders are brainstorming become considerably more difficult to publish Grossman notes that this year’s gathering in New about how best to convince schools to report history about other times and places. AHA Orleans will be the last location that is not a major the percentages of their alumni in tenure-track leaders are organizing a committee to consider positions and in other careers, hoping that a 13 History of Science Society Newsletter • January 2013 Continued on Page 14 History of Science Society Newsletter Conversation with AHA's Jim Grossman, cont. tenure evaluation standards that include non- of the most pressing changes simply reflect attitudes become especially problematic when our book-publishing options, and Grossman notes the interdependent nature of the profession graduates also consider community colleges as a that the AHA is increasingly being asked to with developments in the publishing industry, career option; Grossman observes how poorly this provide guidance in these non-traditional fields, the evolving responsibilities of teaching and mindset and the preparation for the PhD equip such as digital history and public history. mentoring, and access to research materials, us for the actual teaching duties in a community all influencing one another in an ecology of college, where the typical teaching load is much In addition to these systematic changes, Grossman knowledge and communication. While research more diverse. If our Plan B is going to include also suggests that we respond creatively as activity was previously dominated by the other educational venues such as community individuals. For example, he urges graduate search for materials, for example, increasingly colleges, our approach to the teaching role of the students to think about the activities we love historians and history students have to focus on historian may need a significant adjustment. most in our work as historians—teaching, sifting through an overabundance of resources. archival research, writing, speaking, collaborating, Grossman is now creating a space on the AHA I found it reassuring to hear Grossman reflect course design, etc.—and seek out career options webpage called Teaching Tips, hoping to help us on our circumstances and share a variety of that allow us to exercise these skills. Creative stay abreast of changes in educational practices, concrete responses to what sometimes seems like organization may also help us to make the most such as video resources, online courses, etc. He a depressing employment future for emerging out of increasingly scarce resources. For example, also hopes that this feature will include more of historians. I know that the leadership of the HSS it’s not uncommon for graduate students to be a social networking element, such that users can is already taking these challenges seriously, and I part of a very small cohort; the Wisconsin History create their own collaborative groups and share hope that we and the AHA will continue to share department admitted only one Modern French resources more effectively. insights and resources as we make the most of History grad this year, but because we are part changing opportunities. of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation History educators’ attitudes toward teaching seem (CIC) (http://www.cic.net/Home.aspx), it to be as relevant to our success as the availability would be relatively simple to organize a virtual of resources, however. Grossman notes how he seminar for all of the Modern French History often hears historians speaking about our teaching students in the Big Ten and Chicago. The AHA “load” as if it were a burden or a distraction from may make itself available to support this kind of our real work: “I teach colonial and revolutionary organization for schools that do not belong to a American history, but my own work is in.…” consortium like the CIC. He observes that historians commonly dismiss our teaching activity as an inconvenience, and Grossman notes that the challenges historians he reminds us that these are the duties that the are facing today are due not only to dwindling state or college is paying us to carry out. These funding and resources for the humanities; many 14 History of Science Society Newsletter • January 2013 History of Science Society Newsletter Member News Janet Abbate (University of Maryland) published century Medical Revolution. It is a history of Paul Cech has published a review of Michael her new book Recoding Gender: Women's Changing variolation and shows that important medical Ruse's Science and Spirituality: Making Room for Participation in Computing (MIT Press). tools such as controlled clinical trials, evidence- Faith in the Age of Science in the November issue ………… based medicine, and the concept of induced of Skeptic, Vol. 17 No. 3. Pnina G. Abir-Am was the first among the 2012- immunity were all driven by variolation. ………… 2013 crop of Resident Scholars at Oregon State ………… Dawn Digrius (Stevens Institute of Technology) is University's SCARC (Special Collections and As of January 2013, Peter Byrne will serve a the series editor for the history side of a new book Archive Research Center) Program to deliver term as Writer-In-Residence at Kavli Institute for series by Pickering and Chatto: History and Philosophy a lecture there, on 9-5-12. For more details on Theoretical Physics at the University of California, of Biology. She also has a contribution (“Botany: Early this Program, its report of Pnina's lecture in Santa Barbara. His acclaimed biography, The Many History”) appearing in Michael Ruse's upcoming its Paulingblog of 11-21-12, and Pnina's own Worlds of Hugh Everett III, is now out in paperback Cambridge Encyclopedia of Darwin and Evolutionary comments on that report click on (Oxford University Press). And Princeton Thought, Cambridge University Press, March 2013. http://paulingblog.wordpress. University Press recently published The Everett ………… com/2012/11/21/dr-pnina-abir-am-resident- Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics: Collected scholar/ Works 1955–1980 with Commentary, co-edited by Nathaniel Comfort (Johns Hopkins University) ………… Byrne and Jeffrey A. Barrett. published his new book The Science of Human Perfection: How Genes Became the Heart of American ………… Lydia Barnett will begin a tenure-track Medicine (Yale University Press) last September. appointment as Assistant Professor of History Luis Campos has been appointed by the University ………… at Bates College in 2013. She is currently a of New Mexico as Assistant Professor of History Krishna Dronamraju (Foundation for Genetic Postdoctoral Fellow in the Michigan Society of and Senior Fellow of the Robert Wood Johnson Research) will be delivering a plenary lecture on Fellows. Foundation Center for Health Policy. He comes ………… the “Future of Biology” at the 100th anniversary from Drew University, where he was assistant meeting of the Indian Science Congress which was Leo L. Beranek with co-author Tim Mellow professor in the History & Culture and Medical held in Kolkata, India, from 3 to 7 January 2013. is the author of Acoustics: Sound Fields and Humanities graduate programs, and the Max Planck ………… Transducers, Elsevier 2012. This book is both a Institute for the History of Science in Berlin, where college text and a reference book. he was a postdoctoral fellow. He received his Ph.D. Nahyan Fancy received tenure and was ………… in the History of Science from Harvard University promoted to Associate Professor starting July in 2006. Campos is a historian of the life and 2012 at DePauw University. Arthur W. Boylston (Centre for Editing Lives environmental sciences, with a special interest in the ………… and Letters, Foster Court, University College history of genetics. He has most recently published London) has just published a book titled Defying an article in Biosocieties on the intellectual property Jacqueline Feke, a Collegiate Assistant Professor Providence: Smallpox and the forgotten 18th dimensions of contemporary synthetic biology. and Harper-Schmidt Fellow in the Society of 15 History of Science Society Newsletter • January 2013 History of Science Society Newsletter

Member News, cont. Fellows at the University of Chicago, will spend The Fellows of the American Mathematical astronomy and space science around the world and the summer of 2013 as a visiting fellow at the Society program recognizes members who have especially in developing countries. Max Planck Institute for the History of Science. made outstanding contributions to the creation, ………… ………… exposition, advancement, communication, and utilization of mathematics. Alexandra Hui (Mississippi State University) has Raymond Fredette (Université du Québec à published a book The Psychophysical Ear: Musical ………… Montréal) is preparing an annotated English Experiments, Experimental Sounds, 1840–1910 translation of Galileo’s De motu antiquiora, to Monica Green (Arizona State University) has (MIT Press). be published by the University of Chicago Press. been selected as Visiting Scholar at the World ………… Fredette is also working with Francesco Furlan, History Center at the University of Pittsburgh from Les Belles Lettres, to create a bilingual for the academic year 2013-14. She is also part Frank A.J.L. James (The Royal Institution) has Latin-French rendering of Galieo's early writings of a team that has just been awarded a $933,000 recently been elected a member of the Academia on motion, which will be a new edition of the grant from the Mellon Foundation for the Europaea. Latin text. Both should be out in 2014. development of digital editions of several key ………… ………… texts in medieval studies. She will be using her John Krige (Georgia Institute of Technology) portion of the funds to produce a critical edition On 1 January 2013, Miguel Garcia-Sancho with co-author H. Rausch has a new book of the Antidotarium magnum, an 11th-century Sanchez became a Chancellor's Fellow at American Foundations and the Coproduction pharmaceutical compendium that first brought the Department of Science, Technology and of World Order in the Twentieth Century Islamic medical practices into the western world. Innovation Studies of the University of Edinburgh (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht). (UK). He also published a book Biology, ………… ………… Computing and the History of Molecular Sequencing: Hans Haubold has co-authored “Space Weather Pierre Laszlo’s second book on salt has been From Proteins to DNA, 1945–2000 (Palgrave Societal Impacts Workshop and Seminar at the published. The new book is entitled Le sel pousse- Macmillan). Meeting of the United National Committee on t-il au soleil? (Does salt grow in the sun?). It was ………… the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space” (Space Weather, released on November 20th by Editions Quae, a Robin L. Gordon (Mount St. Mary’s College, vol. 10, S11007, doi:10.1029/2012SW000874, publisher for public institutions responsible for Los Angeles) has a new book, Searching for the 2012) and “The H-function” (Journal of oceanography, agricultural research, and the like. Soror Mystica: The Lives and Science of Women Approximation Theory, vol. 164 (2012), p. 1323. His first book on salt, which was also written Alchemists, published by University Press of The first article describes a workshop held in in French, was later published in English by America, and slated to appear in April 2013. Vienna in June 2012 and the second article Columbia University Press as Salt: Grain of Life. inspired an artist to interpret this hypergeometric ………… ………… function in an oil painting. He is also involved in Judy Grabiner (Pitzer College) has been named the United Nations Basic Space Science Initiative, Gildo Magalhães Santos (Cidade Universitária a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society. a long-term effort for the development of São Paulo) has published a new book: História 16 History of Science Society Newsletter • January 2013 History of Science Society Newsletter

Member News, cont. e Energia: memória, informação e sociedade Rebecca Priestley published a book Mad and the British Empire has now been published. (Alameda, 2012). on Radium: New Zealand in the Atomic Age It is part of the Palgrave Studies in Cultural and ………… (Auckland University Press). She also got a Intellectual History series. new position as a teaching fellow at Victoria David P.D. Munns (City University of New York) Julia Rodriguez’s (University of New Hampshire) University of Wellington. has published his new book: A Single Sky: How an article “A Complex Fabric: Intersecting Histories International Community Forged the Science of Radio ………… of Race, Gender, and Science in Latin America” Astronomy. His publisher is MIT Press. Joy Rankin (Yale University) is currently the in the Hispanic American Historical Review 91:3 ………… IEEE 2012-13 Life Members' Fellow in Electrical (August 2011) has won the 2012 Best Article Naomi Oreskes’ (University of California, San History. Rankin is a candidate for the Ph.D. in Prize from the New England Council on Latin Diego) and Keynyn Brysse’s research is featured the History Department at Yale University in the American Studies. in a recent Scientific American article (6 Dec Program in the History of Science and Medicine, ………… 2012): “Climate Science Predictions Prove Too and she is spending the current academic year David Rosner’s (Columbia University) and Conservative” by Glenn Scherer. http://www. as an Exchange Scholar with MIT's Program in Gerald Markowitz’ book, Lead Wars: The Politics scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=climate- History, Anthropology, Science, Technology and of Science and the Fate of America's Children will science-predictions-prove-too-conservative. Society. Her dissertation, supported by the IEEE be published by University of California Press/ fellowship, focuses on the transformation of ………… Milbank Fund in 2013. It looks at the intense computers from military, scientific, and industrial debates about low level exposures of lead and the Kathryn Olesko (Georgetown University) was tools to personal tools by examining interactive new definitions of good science and questionable featured recently in the “Member Spotlight” of computing projects which operated on time- research on young African American children. the AAAS. Go to http://membercentral.aaas. sharing systems during the 1960s and 1970s. org/blogs/member-spotlight/kathryn-olesko- ………… ………… retraces-history-modern-lens. Silke Fengler and Carla Sachse (Max Planck Shawn Reeves will become chair of the ………… Institute for the History of Science) have Committee on the History and Philosophy edited a new book titled Kernforschung in John Parascandola’s (University of Maryland) of Physics at American Association of Physics Österreich: Wandlungen Eines Interdisziplinären new book, King of Poisons: A History of Arsenic Teachers after their Winter Meeting in January. Forschungsfeldes 1900–1978. (Wissenschaft, Macht has been published by Potomac Books Inc. in He is interested in exploring the pedagogical und Kultur in Der Modernen Geschichte, Band 1, October 2012. implications of an open discussion of philosophy ………… Wien: Böhlau Verlag). in physics courses, as well as history's role in Stuart Peterfreund (Northeastern University) physics education. ………… published a new book Turning Points in Natural ………… Margaret Schabas (University of British Theology from Bacon to Darwin: The Way of the Peder Roberts’ (TEUS) new book The European Columbia) is the President-Elect of the History Argument from Design (Palgrave Macmillan). Antarctic: Science and Strategy in Scandinavia of Economics Society and will be hosting the 17 History of Science Society Newsletter • January 2013 History of Science Society Newsletter

Member News, cont. annual meeting at the University of British in bringing physicists into writing the history of science might play in the development of Columbia in Vancouver, 20-22 June 2013. of physics by helping to organize and develop sustainable scientific research. supporting institutions and publications.” It will be ………… Marilyn Wilhelm has published two new presented at the APS meeting in Denver, Colorado, books in 2012: Returning To Our Roots (Paideia David I. Spanagel (Worcester Polytechnic 13-16 April 2013, at a special ceremonial session. Institute) was chosen by the FHSA Steering Press) and Reversing the Tower of Babel (Paideia ………… Committee to be Ham Cravens' successor as Press). These books show how the Wilhelm the new Chair of the Forum for the History of Alain Touwaide (National Museum of Natural interdisciplinary, intercultural, interlingual Science in America. History) has been elected Vice-President of the Ecumenical Curriculum weaves the arts, the ………… International Society for the History of Medicine sciences, and the humanities together and relates (ISHM) for a 4-year term (2012–2016). He also them to Universal Timeless Principles. Frank W. Stahnisch (University of Calgary) was has published two articles: one in the German ………… awarded the inaugural 2012 Mary Louise Nickerson weekly magazine Der Spiegel and the other in Audra J. Wolfe’s (University of Pennsylvania) Fellowship in Neuro-History by the Osler Library Vesalius, the journal of the ISHM. of the History of Medicine at McGill University, book, Competing with the Soviets: Science, ………… Quebec, and he has also been reappointed in the Technology, and the State in Cold War America Alberta Medical Foundation/Hannah Professorship Martha H. Verbrugge (Bucknell University) will be published in February 2013 by the Johns in the History of Medicine and Health Care at the has authored a new book titled Active Bodies: Hopkins University Press. University of Calgary, Alberta. His book Medicine, A History of Women's Physical Education in ………… Life and Function—Experimental Strategies and Twentieth-Century America (Oxford University Adrian Wüthrich (University of Bern) has some Medical Modernity at the Intersection of Pathology Press, 2012). Further information about this forthcoming publications. His “Eating Goldstone and Physiology was published with Projektverlag book can be found here: bosons in a phase transition: A critical review of (Bochum—Freiburg, Germany) this year. http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/ Lyre’s analysis of the Higgs mechanism” will be subject/HistoryAmerican/Women/?view=usa& ………… published in the Journal for General Philosophy of ci=9780195168792 Roger H. Stuewer (University of Minnesota) has Science. He’ll also publish “Interpreting Feynman ………… been awarded the 2013 Abraham Pais Prize for Diagrams as Visualized Models” in Spontaneous History of Physics, which was established by the Simon Werrett has been appointed to a new Generations: A Journal for the History and Philosophy American Physical Society and American Institute position in the Science and Technology Studies of Science. His “Locality, Causality, and Realism in of Physics to recognize and encourage outstanding Department at University College London in the the Derivation of Bell’s Inequality” will be appearing contributions to the history of physics. It consists UK. He comes to London from the University in the Proceedings of “Current Interpretational of $10,000 and a certificate bearing the citation: of Washington in Seattle, where he was associate Problems of Quantum Theory,” as part of the Max “For his pioneering historical studies of the photon professor in the Department of History. Werrett Planck Research Library for the History and concept and nuclear physics, and for his leadership is currently studying roles that the history Development of Knowledge (Berlin).

18 History of Science Society Newsletter • January 2013 History of Science Society Newsletter

Member News, cont. Bibliography in the History of Science (American Institute of Physics), Ana Alfonso- Forum on the History of the Goldfarb and Márcia H.M. Ferraz (CESIMA, Mathematical Sciences (FoHMS) Stephen Weldon, the HSS's Bibliographer, Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo) has received a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan The Forum on the History of the Mathematical were the main participants. The international Foundation to hold a conference at the Sciences hosted a luncheon at the Society’s San project World History of Science Online University of Oklahoma in the spring of 2013. Diego meeting on Friday, 16 November 2012, was the subject of several discussions. It is That conference will bring together a group which afforded lively discussion of matters of being developed to provide reliable updated of experts in international bibliography and common interest to historians of mathematics. information on scholarly digital resources. digital humanities technology. The goal of the The twenty-one scholars—among them three conference is to create a detailed plan for a new HSS Interest Groups graduate students who were first-time luncheon type of research tool—the “Isis CB 2.0”—that attendees—not only exchanged updates on their will allow historians of science easier access to Re-formation of the Early Science individual research projects but also brainstormed information about both print and electronic Forum of the History of Science about possible session proposals for the next HSS resources in the discipline. By drawing on current Society meeting in Boston in 2013. ideas about collaboration and digital scholarship, We are pleased to announce the re-formation Now in its sixth year, FoHMS and its annual it is hoped that this tool will be able to foster a of the Early Science Forum of the History luncheons have been generously supported from new way of approaching research. It will feature of Science Society. The Early Science Forum the beginning by the Educational Advancement visualization tools that will make networks of highlights scholarship on the history of science, Foundation (EAF). It has been thanks to the information and scholarship more accessible. technology, and medicine from antiquity through EAF’s generosity that FoHMS has been able to In addition, social networking software will be the Renaissance. We seek to build connections serve to encourage and increase the participation integrated into the system to enable collaboration. among scholars of early science as well as of historians of the mathematical sciences, in In preparation for the conference, Weldon will emphasize the significance of their scholarship for general, and of mathematics, in particular, at survey the HSS membership on their use of the the history of science more broadly. meetings of the HSS. FoHMS has also actively Isis CB, the HSTM database, and other popular provided younger historians of mathematics research tools. We will convene a meeting of the forum at the and graduate students in the subdiscipline the next HSS meeting in Boston. Meanwhile, we opportunity to meet established scholars and Weldon also met with fellow bibliographers and are discussing potential initiatives and designing archivists in Athens, Greece, at the European to enlarge their circle of professional contacts. an online component of the forum to facilitate The EAF and FoHMS are committed to the Society for the History of Science conference conversations among our membership. If you this past fall to discuss online research tools in idea that the history of mathematics represents would like to join the forum—one need not be a a fundamental component both of the history the international community. Gavan McCarthy member of the HSS to join—contact Courtney (eScholarship Research Centre, University of science and of the broader mathematical Roby ([email protected]) or Jacqueline Feke community and, so, should have a visible presence of Melbourne), Birute Railiene (Lithuanian ([email protected]) for further information. Academy of Sciences Library), Joe Anderson both at meetings of the HSS and at the annual joint meeting of the American Mathematical 19 History of Science Society Newsletter • January 2013 History of Science Society Newsletter

Member News, cont. Society and the Mathematical Association of Executive Committee: following the 2013 FHSA America, where it has long been established. meeting, two of the four members will rotate off (including the Chair) to be replaced by two new I am the outgoing chair of the steering committee FoHMS maintains an e-mailing list of historians members. A new Chair will be chosen from the of the Forum for the History of Science in of the mathematical sciences and periodically remaining two original members. This procedure America. The new chair is David Spanagel at sends reminders about HSS deadlines and other will be followed each successive year. WPI. Our ongoing secretary-treasurer is Gwen matters arising. If you would like to be included Kay at SUNY Oswego. Both are excellent, well on that list, please contact Karen Parshall at Programs Committee: following the 2013 organized and motivated members. The Forum is [email protected]. meeting, one of the three members will rotate off lucky to have their services. (not necessarily including the Chair—to be Jenny FoHCS Breakfast Meeting Rampling for the coming year) to be replaced by Our book award went to David Kinkela, SUNY- a new member. This procedure will be followed Fredonia, for his marvelous book, DDT and the The Forum of the History of the Chemical American Century: Global Health, Environmental Sciences’ Breakfast Meeting was held on 17 each successive year. Politics, and the Pesticide that Changed the World November 2012, during the HSS-PSA joint Each committee is to have one graduate student as a (University of North Carolina Press). Our meeting in San Diego, California with 26 fully participant member, to serve a term of one year. distinguished lecturer was James R. Fleming, Colby members in attendance. In this breakfast meeting, College, who spoke on “At the Cutting Edge: Harry Seymour Mauskopf, Chair of FoHCS, introduced New members (including graduate students) Wexler and the Emergence of Atmospheric Science.” members of the Executive Committee present for each committee will be solicited from the We had an audience of about sixty people. (John Powers, Alan Rocke) and Programs list serv. Their selection will be handled by the Committee (Robert Bud, Yoshi Kikuchi, Jenny combined Executive and Programs Committees. For a number of years, Gina Rumore, a doctoral Rampling) and mentioned the FoHCS-sponsored This is to insure balance (gender, geographical, student at Minnesota, was the secretary- session, “Chemistry and the Public Sphere.” field) in the committees. treasurer, and, also, the institutional memory He also mentioned the communication of Jeff of the Forum. We thanked her profusely in the Forum for the History of Science in Johnson (CHMC–Commission in the History of meeting. Together with Gwen Kay, I worked Asia: Newly Designed Web site and Modern Chemistry) to co-sponsor with FoHCS a out a sketch of my job description as chair of the Facebook Page session at the 2013 HSS meeting in Boston. steering committee as a step towards creating an The Forum for the History of Science in Asia institutional memory for the Forum. Now that In the meeting, Mimi Kim suggested that (FHSAsia) web site is now designed in a much Gina is no longer secretary-treasurer, we have to FoHCS generate a registry of individuals more user-friendly form with new pedagogical make sure the Forum functions smoothly. This and their particular interests in the history of resources at http://fhsasiahss.wordpress.com/. was a step in that direction. the chemical sciences. This was deemed an There is also now an FHSAsia Facebook excellent idea and will be pursued. The issue of a Hamilton Cravens page at https://www.facebook.com/ “succession plan” for the FoHCS Executive and FHSASIA?ref=stream. Programs Committees was also raised:

20 History of Science Society Newsletter • January 2013 Interest Group News Continued on Page 29 History of Science Society Newsletter Jobs, Fellowships and Opportunities York STS Graduate Program The History of Science Society Fellowship in spaces sciences and scientific principles from Now Accepting Applications the History of Space Science, supported by the which it evolved have even earlier roots. National Aeronautics and Space Administration for 2013-14 Sciences of space and sciences affected by data (NASA) History Division, funds a nine-month and concepts developed in connection with The Graduate Program in Science & Technology research project that is related to any aspect of space exploration include astronomy, Earth Studies at York University, Toronto, is now the history of space science, from the earliest science, optics, meteorology, oceanography, and accepting applications for its MA (full and part- human interest in space to the present. The physiology. Space science has implications for our time) and Ph.D. programs. program is broadly conceived and includes understanding of the moon and planets, fields and We are a small, personable, and research-intensive the social, cultural, institutional and personal particles in space, celestial bodies beyond the solar program run by an enthusiastic faculty with context of space-science history. Proposals of system such as stars and galaxies, the Earth itself, interests drawn from across the human and social advanced research in history related to all aspects and the life sciences, especially exobiology. Some sciences. Our courses are diverse and innovative; of the history of space science are eligible. works on space science are listed at the NASA our students hail from around the world. York Sciences of space and sciences affected by data History Office Web site: http://history.nasa.gov/. STS houses the flagship History of Science and concepts developed in connection with Stipend and Expectations journal, Isis, and our campus is home to the one space exploration include astronomy, Earth of the largest state or provincial archives in North science, optics, meteorology, oceanography, and physiology. The fellowship is open to The Fellowship term is for a period of nine months America. Toronto's central location and status during the period 1 July 2013 to 30 June 2014. The as a major North American transportation hub applicants who hold a doctoral degree in history or a closely related field, or students who have Fellow will be expected to devote the term largely puts a vast array of research sites and professional to the proposed research project. The starting and gatherings within easy reach. completed all requirements for the Ph.D., except the dissertation, in history of science or ending dates within that period are flexible. Please [email protected] Deadline for applications is 30 January 2013. a related field. email for more details about the stipend. Funds may not be used to support Find out more at www.sts.yorku.ca, or contact What is Space Science? tuition or fees. Sources of anticipated support our Program Director, Kenton Kroker, at must be listed in the application form. [email protected]. The history of space science predates the founding of NASA. For example, the organizers of the The Fellow will be expected to present a paper of The History of Science International Geophysical Year (1957–1958) public lecture on the findings of the research, and Society Fellowship in the realized the important contributions spacecraft he/she shall provide to the NASA History Office History of Space Science data could make to science, and the launch of a copy of any publications that emerge from the research undertaken during the fellowship year. Please click here for information on applying Explorer I in 1958 demonstrated that feasibility with its discovery of the Van Allen radiation belts. The Fellow will also be responsible for providing for the 2013-14 Fellowship. In addition, scientific questions that motivated brief progress reports and a final report at the term's conclusion. 21 History of Science Society Newsletter • January 2013 History of Science Society Newsletter Jobs, Fellowships and Opportunities Continued from Page 21 By accepting the fellowship, the recipient incurs The prize commemorates the centenary of the 2013 Lakatos Award no obligations to NASA or HSS as regards future Isis Bibliography of History of Science, which publications. was started in 1913 by George Sarton. After Nominations can now be made for the 2013 Sarton, two bibliographers, Magda Whitrow at Lakatos Award, and must be received by Friday, 19 April 2013 Eligibility and Application Imperial College, London and John Neu at the . The 2013 Award will be for a book published in English with an imprint from 2008- Applicants must possess a doctorate degree in University of Wisconsin, carried on Sarton’s legacy. This prize recognizes the efforts of those 2013 inclusive. A book may, with the permission history of science or in a closely related field, or be of the author, be nominated by any person of enrolled as a student in a doctoral degree-granting two bibliographers to support history of science scholarship around the world. recognized standing within the profession. (The program and have completed all requirements for Management Committee is not empowered to the Ph.D., except the dissertation, in history of The Neu-Whitrow Bibliography Prize will be nominate books itself but only to respond to science or a related field. Eligibility is not limited awarded to a graduate student, postgraduate outside nominations.) to U.S. citizens or residents. Please note that fellow, independent scholar, or early career any participant receiving support under a NASA professional (professor, librarian, bibliographer, For further details of the nomination procedure grant may not concurrently hold another Federal archivist, or curator). The primary goal is to or more information on the Lakatos Award 2013, fellowship. To get more information about encourage the development of bibliographies and contact the Administrator, Tom Hinrichsen, at [email protected] http://www2. applying for the 2013-14 Fellowship, please archival finding aids. or visit lse.ac.uk/philosophy/LakatosAward/home.aspx go to: http://hssonline.org/about/society_ The prize is administered by the Commission NASAapp2013.html. All applications for the on Bibliography and Documentation (CBD) 2013-14 Fellowship are due by 2 April 2013. of the International Union of the History and Duke Fellowships The Neu-Whitrow Philosophy of Science (IUHPS)/Division of History of Science and Technology (DHST). The Center for the History of Political Economy Bibliography Prize The prize will be awarded every four years, during at Duke University is now accepting Fellowship A new prize has been established, to be awarded the International Congress of History of Science, Applications for the 2013-2014 academic year. For for the first time in 2013 for the best bibliography Technology, and Medicine. a complete description of the Fellowship Program and how to apply, please visit the Center website or manuscript finding aid in the history of science. For details, please see http://www.dhst- at: http://hope.econ.duke.edu/. Applications are The entries will be judged on their content, whso.org/blog/. Contact Stephen Weldon accepted on a rolling basis. usability, and precision. They can be either print ([email protected]) or Birute Railiene or digital. The deadline for submission is 1 April ([email protected]) for details about this 2013. Information about the prize can be found prize. at the website: http://www.dhst-whso.org/blog/.

22 History of Science Society Newsletter • January 2013 History of Science Society Newsletter Upcoming Conferences, Meetings, and Events On the contrary, the role of “falses” in the history and experience is seemingly subject to normative of science, while anecdotically known for specific and more stringent laws, such as mechanics, cases, has hardly been addressed as a general engineering, chemistry. Special attention will be question, especially as regards the early modern given to both to the use of fakes for ideological age. Fakes and forgeries, as well as the alteration or religious purposes as well as for the building of data, has probably been perceived, especially and enforcing of “scientific” theories. Questions by Whiggish narratives of science, as a shattering of trust and of the social value of science and infringement of the tacit assumption that science is learning are obviously crucial for the evaluation, in constant pursue of truth. While sciences dealing acceptance, and exposing of hoaxes, fakes and with mathematical methods, such as astronomy false results. However, far from endorsing a or physics, are seemingly more easily protected simplistic “constructivist” notion of the sciences from the dangers and incursions of conscious in the early modern age, the workshop (following or interested producers of false instruments or Nuncius’ line of enquiry) will specifically address results, hoaxes have been frequent, even common, questions such as the conditions and techniques F for Fakes: Hoaxes, in fields such as zoology, botany, earth sciences, of production, in general the “material” history of Counterfeits and Deception in anatomy—and obviously in the disciplines broadly false objects. One of the questions to be addressed Early Modern Science or loosely connected with antiquarianism. “False” will be the role played by “fakes” in shaping artifacts have been bought, collected, displayed learning and knowledge. Second Watson Seminar in the and have often contributed to myths and legends, The topics will be chosen so as to cover a History of Material and Visual as well as to scientific “mistakes.” chronology spanning from the Renaissance to the Science (Museo Galileo—Florence) The production of false objects (including texts) early modern age and the scientific revolution, and Organized by Marco Beretta and Maria Conforti represents an answer to different needs, and their a broad range of scientific fields and disciplines, 7 June 2013 quality and number arguably may tell us many with a special attention to specific case-histories. things about social contexts, artisanal practices, Preliminary Program The forgery or falsification of objects, as well as the the construction and sharing of knowledge and the creation or invention of artifacts consciously—if notion of creativity in different periods and places. • Owen Gingerich (Harvard University): The deceitfully—attributed to the remote or recent The notion of expertise has recently become a Greatest Myth in the History of Astronomy. past, has long been an object of enquiry for focus for science historians, especially as concerns Respondent Giorgio Strano (Museo Galileo) historians, and especially for philologists and art the medical and pharmaceutical disciplines, but • Didier Kahn (Université Paris-Sorbonne): historians. Images and texts are in fact among the it is still to be addressed as a central notion even A Tale of a Nail. Leonhardt Thurneisser’s most common hoaxes. for sciences and knowledge where expert learning 23 History of Science Society Newsletter • January 2013 History of Science Society Newsletter

Upcoming Conferences, cont. Transmutation in Rome (1586?). Respondent non-European history before the 20th century Enquiries to Ross Macfarlane (Wellcome Library: Antonio Clericuzio (University of Cassino). (antiquity, medieval and early modern history, [email protected] or Prof. Colin • Valentina Pugliano (Max Planck Institute some elements of 19th-century medicine). The Jones (Queen Mary University of London: for the History of Science–Berlin): Leone seminars are open to all. [email protected]) Tartaglini’s Basilisks: Fake Specimens and 2013 Events CFP, the 9th International Explorations in the Boundaries of Scientific Connoisseurship. Respondent Alessandro Tosi 22 January 2013 Conference in the History of (University of Pisa) Lisa Smith (University of Saskatchewan) Chemistry (9ICHC) Uppsala University, 21–23 August 2013 • Marjolijn Bol (Max Planck Institute for Fertility Troubles and Domestic Medical the History of Science–Berlin): Factitious Knowledge in Eighteenth-Century France and Registration has now opened for CHEMISTRY gemstones. Respondent Maria Conforti (La England IN MATERIAL CULTURE Sapienza–Rome) 5 February 2013 Keynote speakers: • Daniel Margocsy (Hunter College): “Of Alun Withey (University of Exeter) • Mary Jo Nye, Oregon State University, USA Outlandish Creatures of a Doubtfull Kind”: Politeness and Pogonotomy: Shaving and • Marta Lourenço, University of Lisbon, Imagination and Forgery in John Jonston. Masculinity in Georgian Britain Portugal Respondent Alexander Marr (University of 19 February 2013 • Lawrence Principe, Johns Hopkins Cambridge) Helen King (Open University) University, USA • Ingrid Rowland (University of Notre Agnodice's First Patient: Gendering Childbirth Please check in on the website http:// Dame): Athanasius Kircher’s Palingenetic in Antiquity and Early Modern Europe www.9ichc.se to register online and to obtain Plant. Respondent Sven Dupré (Max Planck 5 March 2013 information about the preliminary scientific Institute for the History of Science–Berlin) program, special exhibitions, social program Silvia de Renzi (Open University) and venue. This interdisciplinary conference History of Pre-Modern Hippocrates on the Tiber: Airs and Diseases in welcomes participants from a range of academic Medicine Seminar Series, the Making of Baroque Rome disciplines, including history of science and 2012–13 All seminars will take place in the Wellcome technology, economic history, cultural heritage A new academic seminar series organized by a Library, 2nd floor, 183 Euston Road, NW1 research and the STS-field, as well as participants group of historians of medicine based at London 2BE. Please deposit bags and coats in the ground from chemistry, material science and related universities and hosted by the Wellcome Library floor cloakroom and meet in the 2nd floor foyer. disciplines who have an interest in contributing began in 2012. The series focuses on pre-modern Doors open at 6pm prompt, seminars will start at to the writing of the history of their fields. medicine, which we take to cover European and 6:15. Chemistry is the premier science dealing with 24 History of Science Society Newsletter • January 2013 History of Science Society Newsletter

Upcoming Conferences, cont. News from the Profession the material world. From early modern times website http://www.9ichc.se. The submission After two successful rounds of competition, to the present, chemists have been involved deadline is 31 March 2013. in 2013 ORA will expand to include the SBE in the analysis and synthesis of materials, in directorate. manufacture and industrial production. Engaging New Doctoral Dissertations One of the chief objectives of ORA is to reduce in diverse fields such as medicine, metallurgy, Pertaining to the History of barriers to international collaborative research dyeing, agriculture, et cetera the science has Science and Medicine by making collaboration among the partners had an important part in the shaping of the as seamless as possible through a single review modern world, and was in turn shaped through Recent doctoral dissertations pertaining to process and joint decision-making. This is an its interactions with technology and industry. the history of science and medicine have been important goal as the growth of international http://www.hsls.pitt. Simultaneously, the chemical laboratory is a site uploaded on this URL collaborations has indicated that working with edu/histmed/dissertations by Jonathon Erlen where our concepts of reality may be redefined. the best scholars across national borders can (University of Pittsburgh). Historically, chemists have had an important role produce high quality research. in defining the relationship of modern culture The program will accept proposals for research with the material world. NSF's SBE Directorate to projects in any area of the social and behavioral Participate in International sciences involving researchers from any The conference will investigate all aspects of Social Science Funding combination of three or more of the participating the history of alchemy and chemistry in its countries. Bilateral applications are excluded. engagement with material culture, including the Collaboration Further, proposals must clearly demonstrate the chemistry of materials and the philosophy of The National Science Foundation's (NSF) added value of transnational collaboration. matter. Papers might address: Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Interested researchers are asked to contact the Directorate (SBE) has announced that it * Chemical sites, objects and practices as cultural NSF/SBE program officer for ORA, Elizabeth intends to participate in the Open Research heritage. * The philosophical meaning of Tran, ([email protected]) to discuss the fit of their Area (ORA). ORA was started in 2009 by chemical "materiality" * Chemical industry and proposed research to ORA. four European funding agencies: the Agence the commodification of chemicals * The cultural Nationale de la Recherche (ANR, France), The Call for Proposals is posted at http://www. and economic significance of elements and other Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, nwo.nl/ora. chemical "objects" * Museum collections of Germany), the Economic and Social Research chemical instruments and other chemistry-related Council (ESRC, UK), and the Nederlands objects * Laboratories and experiments. Proposals Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek for sessions, papers and posters are invited on any (NWO, Netherlands) as a joint funding scheme of these, or related topics. All submissions should for collaborative international research projects be posted through the form on the conference in the social, behavioral, and economic sciences. 25 History of Science Society Newsletter • January 2013 History of Science Society Newsletter

News from the Profession, cont. The Lloyd Library and Nelson Ashley to provide reference sources for Call for Papers— Lloyd Brothers Pharmacists, Inc., one of the Museum Holiday Exhibit: leading pharmaceutical companies of the period. Spontaneous Generations: A What Makes the Reindeer Today the library is recognized worldwide by Journal for the History and Fly? the scientific community as a vital research Philosophy of Science center. The library holds, acquires, and provides Cincinnati, Ohio, through 28 February 2013 access to both historic and current materials on Spontaneous Generations is an open, online, This exhibit, curated by Anna Heran and fungi the subjects of pharmacy, botany, horticulture, peer-reviewed academic journal published by expert Nik Money from Miami University, is herbal and alternative medicine, pharmacognosy, graduate students at the Institute for the History as much fun as it is informative. What Makes and related topics. Although the collections and Philosophy of Science and Technology, the Reindeer Fly explores the role of “magic,” or have a scientific focus, they also have relevance University of Toronto. It has produced six issues hallucinogenic, mushrooms both scientifically to humanities topics, such as visual arts and and is a well-respected journal in the history and and culturally from around the globe and how foreign languages through resources that feature philosophy of science and science studies. We they have a greater presence culturally than you botanical and natural history illustrations, invite interested scholars to submit papers for our ever imagined possible. In a vast array of rare, original artworks, and travel literature, thereby seventh issue, which will focus on the economic historic, and contemporary books, studies, and revealing the convergence of science and art. The aspects of science. images from the early 17th century through the Lloyd is open to anyone with an interest in these We welcome submissions from scholars in all 20th, many tales are told. These fungi show up topics. For more information, visit the Lloyd disciplines, including but not limited to HPS, quite often in children's literature and figure web site at www.lloydlibrary.org. STS, History, Philosophy, Women's Studies, prominently in popular stories and folklore. Sociology, Anthropology, and Religious Studies. For instance, many of the images, legends, Newton at the Worth Papers in any period are welcome. and decorations surrounding Christmas, such The journal consists of four sections: as Santa Claus and his sack of gifts, why he Library Online Exhibition is dressed as he is, why he comes down the Scholars may be interested in the following web 1. A focused discussion section consisting of chimney, and how his reindeer fly, come from site exhibition entitled “Newton at the Worth short peer-reviewed and invited articles many ancient traditions, stories, and cultures— Library.” This is one of a number of exhibitions devoted to a particular theme. The theme one of them being from the pre-Christian Lapps exploring the scientific and medical collections for our seventh issue is “Economic aspects of today's Finland. of the Edward Worth Library, Dublin, and is of science.” Recommended length for submissions is 1000-3000 words. The Lloyd Library and Museum, located at part of Dublin City of Science 2012's program of 917 Plum Street, downtown Cincinnati, was events. 2. A peer-reviewed section of research papers developed in the nineteenth century by the The URL is as follows: on various topics in the field of HPS. Lloyd brothers-John Uri, Curtis Gates, and http://newton.edwardworthlibrary.ie/Home Recommended length for submissions is 5000-8000 words. 26 History of Science Society Newsletter • January 2013 History of Science Society Newsletter

News from the Profession, cont. 3. A book review section for books published 1920–1939” (SOAS, University of London, • [Science Studies, Bioethics] Kris Weller, in the last 5 years. Recommended length for 2010), reviewed by Hans Pols (University “Defining Human: Species, Sanity, and submissions is up to 1000 words. of Sydney); http://dissertationreviews.org/ Legal Subjecthood” (University of California, 4. An opinions section that may include a archives/1750 Santa Cruz, 2010), reviewed by Rui Sa commentary on or a response to current • [Science Studies] Perrin Selcer, “Patterns of (Universidade Nova de Lisboa); http:// concerns, trends, and issues in HPS. Science: Developing Knowledge for a World dissertationreviews.org/archives/1779 Recommended length for submissions is up Community at UNESCO” (University • [Bioethics, Science Studies] Benjamin to 500 words. of Pennsylvania, 2011), reviewed by Poul Hurlbut, “Experiments in Democracy: The seventh issue of Spontaneous Generations Duedahl (Aalborg University); http:// The Science, Politics and Ethics of Human will appear in September 2013. Submissions for dissertationreviews.org/archives/1952 Embryo Research in the United States, the issue should be sent no later than 15 March • [Bioethics] Nathan Emmerich, “Taking 1978–2007” (Harvard University, 2010), 2013. For more details on the issue’s theme and Education Seriously: Developing Bourdieauan reviewed by Thomas Banchoff (Georgetown for further information, please visit the journal Social Theory in the Context of Teaching University); http://dissertationreviews.org/ homepage at http://jps.library.utoronto.ca/ and Learning Medical Ethics in the UK archives/2147 index.php/SpontaneousGenerations/ Undergraduate Medical Degree” (Queen's • [Science Studies] Hector Vera, “The Social University Belfast, 2011), reviewed by Sara Life of Measures: Metrication in the United Dissertation Reviews: Donetto (King's College London); http:// States and Mexico, 1789–2004” (New November 2012 (Sci/Med/Tech) dissertationreviews.org/archives/2075 School of Social Research, 2011), reviewed • [Science Studies] Joline Zepcevski, by Miruna Achim (Universidad Autonoma Dissertation Reviews features friendly, non-critical “Complexity and Verification: The History of Metropolitana-Cuajimalpa); http:// overviews of recently defended and unpublished Programming as Problem Solving” (University dissertationreviews.org/archives/1936 dissertations, as well as articles on archives and of Minnesota, 2012), reviewed by Christine • [Science Studies] Daniel Margocsy, libraries around the world. The following is a list http:// Aicardi (University College London); “Commercial Visions: Trading with of the posts from the Science Studies, Medical dissertationreviews.org/archives/1835 Anthropology and Bioethics series for November Representations of Nature in Early Modern 2012. • [South Asia, Science Studies] Michael Netherlands” (Harvard University, 2009), Slouber, “Garuda Medicine: A History of reviewed by Alix Cooper (SUNY-Stony • [Science Studies, Southeast Asia] Wan Snakebite and Religious Healing in South Brook); http://dissertationreviews.org/ Faizah Wan Yusoff, “Malay Responses to Asia” (University of California, Berkeley, archives/2137 the Promotion of Western Medicine, with 2012), reviewed by Dagmar Wujastyk (Zurich • [Talking Shop, Medical Anthro] Dori Beeler Particular Reference to Women and Child University); http://dissertationreviews.org/ (Durham University), “Phenomenology Healthcare in the Federated Malay States, archives/2081

27 History of Science Society Newsletter • January 2013 History of Science Society Newsletter

News from the Profession, cont. and Medical Anthropology”; http:// World-Wide Doctoral of science and medicine either organize or attend dissertationreviews.org/archives/2026 Dissertations Available from such exhibitions, it will be interesting to see if • [Archives Review, Science Studies] Kristen the graduate student (partnering with the Boston Ehrenberger (University of Illinois at Urbana- Dissertation Abstracts, 2010 University Art Gallery) behind the project meets Champaign), review of the Dresden City You can find the latest batches of recent doctoral the relatively modest goal of $2,500. There are Archive (Stadtarchiv Dresden), Dresden, dissertations world-wide harvested from the now several opportunities for members of the Germany; http://dissertationreviews.org/ November 2010 issues of Dissertation Abstracts at the general public to fund specific exhibitions and archives/1781 following URL: http://www.hsls.pitt.edu/guides/ this development may be of great importance histmed/researchresources/dissertations/index_ for museums, libraries and other venues that • [Archives Review, Science Studies] Kristen have had difficulties raising funds from corporate Ehrenberger (University of Illinois at Urbana- html. These dissertations pertain to the broad scope of the history of science. sponsors, their own institutions or foundations Champaign), review of the German National for such events and for historians hoping to Library (Deutsche Nationalbibliothek, DNB), curate such events. As crowdfunding gains http://dissertationreviews. Crowdfunding Employed Leipzig, Germany traction in academia, there is more competition org/archives/1784 to Fund an Exhibition for such funds as backers have to spare. For a complete list of ALL November 2012 on Artistic Anatomy posts, please visit: Histories of the Internet— http://dissertationreviews.org/archives/2059 Illustrations in America Call for Papers The “Dissertation Reviews” Editorial Board One method discussed by scholars to raise money http://dissertationreviews.org/about-us/ for various projects in the history of science, This is a call for papers for a Special Issue of editorial-board medicine and technology is to use crowdfunding. Information & Culture: A Journal of History (Volume One such recently launched project is a 50, Issue 1, February-March 2015). For the latest The “Dissertation Reviews” Advisory Board unique example of the use of crowdfunding: and most complete information on the special issue http://dissertationreviews.org/about-us/ Teaching the Body (http://www.kickstarter. please see www.sigcis.org/InternetIssue. Guest advisory-boards com/projects/1514650360/teaching-the- Editors are William H. Dutton, Professor of Internet If you are interested in having your dissertation body?ref=live) Studies, Oxford Internet Institute, University of reviewed, reviewing a dissertation, contributing This use of Kickstarter and crowdfunding is Oxford, and Professorial Fellow, Balliol College; an article, or helping our team in some other significant for historians of science in that it is Thomas Haigh, Associate Professor of Information way, please contact info@dissertationreviews. not, like so many scholar-led projects, a book- Studies, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee; and org or [email protected] publishing project but an attempt to sponsor an Andrew L. Russell, Assistant Professor of History, exhibition on the history of American art and College of Arts & Letters, Stevens Institute of human anatomy. Given that so many historians Technology.

28 History of Science Society Newsletter • January 2013 History of Science Society Newsletter

News from the Profession, cont. Member News, cont. Abstracts can be submitted to an editor of the special PSF Complementing the Forum will be a new issue for informal feedback until 1 March 2013: Humanities and Social Sciences Net (H-Net) e-mail: [email protected]. Full papers The Physical Sciences Forum met for the first time list, which will serve as a communication should be submitted to the managing editor, George at the 2012 HSS meeting in San Diego. At this channel providing announcements, calls for Royer, for review by 30 August 2013. inaugural meeting, Catherine Westfall was elected papers, book reviews, and job postings in chair and she selected Joe Martin and Greg Good addition to promoting discussion about current Lakatos Award Awarded for 2012 to serve with her on the Steering Committee. At research and the state of the field. For further the meeting those assembled also laid out three information on H-Net, contact Joe Martin, The London School of Economics and Political plans for the next year, and identified committees [email protected]. Science announces that the Lakatos Award, to implement each plan. Greg Good is of £10,000 for an outstanding contribution spearheading the effort for an annual meeting, the to the philosophy of science, has been won by In Memoriam first to be held in spring 2013, that will provide Wolfgang Spohn of the University of Konstanz an additional forum for early career scholars on Erwin N. Hiebert for his book The Laws of Belief: Ranking Theory the history of the physical sciences. With the help 1926—2012 and its Philosophical Implications (Oxford of Westfall, David Kaiser, and Suman Seth, PSF University Press, 2012). Erwin N. Hiebert, (Emeritus Professor at Harvard also plans to sponsor a Distinguished Lecture University) passed away on 28 November 2012. The Lakatos Award is given for an outstanding at the 2013 HSS meeting. At the meeting, the A former president of the HSS, Professor Hiebert contribution to the philosophy of science, widely forum also plans a session that will discuss future trained a generation of historians of science. He interpreted, in the form of a book published in directions in the history of the physical sciences. was preceded in death by his wife, Elfrieda. Both English during the previous five years. It was The associated committee members are Seth, Amy were fixtures at HSS meetings. A full notice will made possible by a generous endowment from Fisher, and Don Howard. appear in a future Newsletter. the Latsis Foundation. The Award is in memory The general aim of the PSF is to further scholarship of the former LSE professor, Imre Lakatos, and in the history of the physical sciences as broadly is administered by an international Management understood, including but not limited to: physics; Come join the HSS Committee organized from the LSE. earth, space, and atmospheric science; astronomy; in downtown Boston The Committee, chaired by John Worrall, and materials science. It will help forge a more for the 2013 conference as we decides the outcome of the Award competition coherent community for those with a core specialty on the advice of an international, independent in these sub-fields with a particular emphasis on celebrate the 100th anniversary of and anonymous panel of Selectors who produce developing the connections linking these sub- ISIS, 21-24 November 2013. detailed reports on the nominated books. For fields and exploring their resonance with wider MARK YOUR CALENDARS further information visit http://www2.lse.ac.uk/ scholarship. For further information, contact philosophy/LakatosAward/home.aspx Catherine Westfall at [email protected]. HSS & PSA in Chicago, 5–9 Nov 2014

29 History of Science Society Newsletter • January 2013