Understanding Science

LONDON’S GLOBAL UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY STUDIES

Alchemy UNDERSTANDING SCIENCE

The newsletter of the Department of Science & Technology Studies /// Spring 2019 Welcome Undergraduate

Welcome to Alchemy Net Neutrality - undergraduates report! Second and third Year BSc students follow in the footsteps of Simon Schaffer and Helen Longino, by publishing an STS Occasional Paper.

This is the third edition of STS Alchemy. The third?!? Oh my, how time Net Neutrality (NN), is the concept that flies. It seems only yesterday when we were talking about creating an internet access should be available alumni newsletter. With characteristic STS ambitions, we decided to to all - that internet providers cannot take it up a notch and produce something we thought worthy of the offer faster access to preferred fantastic people, events, and ideas pulsing through our community. websites, creating a two-tier system. “Make it worth the stories it tells,” we agreed. This idea has been challenged in recent years, and STS students are So, here we present the third edition of STS Alchemy. I see it as among the first to tackle the subject. evidence of the landscape-gardening approach we have in our training and research. Some projects have been long in the making and carefully During the 2017-18 HPSC3032 cultivated. Others have grown closely tied to the soil underneath Gordon Investigating Contemporary Science Square. Still others are exotic imports, arriving flair and novelty, then leaving us much the better off for them having visited. module, STS students spent ten weeks using the analytical tools they I also see STS Alchemy as evidence of a strong community ethos. At a had learned in the department to recent event to celebrate publishing a book edited by and including some investigate the topic of Net Neutrality brilliant research by STS academics, the room was packed with current Professor Joe Cain and produce a report for policy The authors of Occasional Paper 8 - (l-r) Raphael Piccolin, Daniel Shuttlewood, Ho Cheung, Josh makers, with the individual chapters Huntley, Alice Conway, April Wheeler, Alia Asad, Ralitsa Tchobanova, and Jason Murugesu (Holly staff and students, alumni, friends, and sympaticos. Scanning the photos Clarke was unavailable) later, we noted with very pleasant surprise just how many of “us” we are. forming the basis of their assessment. and whether the US repeal of net The report is summarised by three This year will be rough for universities, for specialist subjects such Undergraduate This report has now been published neutrality will cause further problems recommendations, reached as a result as ours, and for many of the principles we hold dear. But the bonds we as an STS Occasional Paper - a step 3 - Net Neutrality Paper in the UK. Others analyse the evolution of the students' work. They are: develop in Gordon Square and the confidence we have in those who 4 - Student Summers previously taken in publishing works of the internet, and ask whether it was pass through our programmes give firm foundations for hope. We’re going 7 - Parliament /Seminars by Simon Schaffer, Helen Longino, ever neutral in the first place. The NN debate needs to be to make it. It’ll be tough, perhaps, but we’ll continue to be central to the Maja Horst and others following their reconsidered in light of technology’s subject. JBS Haldane lectures - see page The students involved - Alia Asad, inherent non-neutrality, so as to Masters 28 for more information on recent This is my last opportunity to introduce STS Alchemy. It’s the normal Ho Cheung, Holly Clarke, Alice attain a more adequate approach 8 - Image & Sound Haldane lectures. Conway, Josh A Huntley, Raphael to managing the Internet and its course of events at UCL for heads of departments to serve fixed terms, 9 - Restart then step aside for new energy and new ideas. This is essential for vitality, Piccolin, Daniel Shuttlewood, Ralitsa openness via acknowledging the 10 - Birthing a Monster Available via the STS Website, 'Net Tchobanova and April Wheeler - came presence of cultural assumptions and and it’s a protocol I strongly support. I became STS Head of Department Neutrality: Setting Sun or a New Dawn in 2011. After two terms, it’s time for me to step aside. STS is profoundly from a variety of courses around UCL, values underpinning it. PhD for the Internet?' looks at the very future and used their varied knowledge to different in 2019 compared with 2011 thanks to the hard work of many, of the internet. Chapters look at whether many people. But we’re also very much the same: high ambitions, absolute approach the issue from such a wide Governmental power over the commitment to teaching excellence, and hungry to engage the big 12 - STS in NYC new regulations will disproportionately range of perspectives. network’s core resources should be problems of this generation. My successors – the headship will be 14 - Singapore benefit Internet Service Providers recognized as necessary in light of it jointly held by Dr Emma Tobin and Professor Jon Agar – have exciting 16 - PhD news and online monopolies, the effect on providing some common rules of use, and ambitious plans. They officially begin in September. innovation and emerging technologies, THE CURRENT for as long as this is done openly, Alumni DEBATE AROUND democratically and responsibly. It Prof. Joe Cain - Head of Department should also not restrain the network’s 17 - Alumni news THE SUBJECT IS evolution beyond what is necessary to Staff TOO POLARISED, achieve regulatory aims. Alchemy - Issue 3 (Spring 2019) AND NEEDS TO BE As users can potentially impact 18 - Department projects and make informed decisions about 19 - Falling Walls Editor: Malcolm Chalmers Department of Science OPENED UP the Internet, a user-focused approach 20 - Book launches to the NN debate can be embraced, Head of Department: Prof. Joe Cain and Technology Studies Gower Street, London 21 - STS in the media Module Tutor Melanie Smallman where customers are clearly informed Alchemy is published annually WC1E 6BT | United Kingdom 22 - Staff News shorts congratulated the students on their about non-neutral features, processes, and is freely available in electronic 24 - New arrivals work. 'The publication of this paper www.ucl.ac.uk/sts and policies. User-led appraisal of format at www.ucl.ac.uk/sts/about_ demonstrates just how hard these non-neutral policies can best balance sts Twitter - @stsucl Facebook - STSUCL Department students worked. The final report consumer’s safety with innovation. concludes that the current debate Articles in this issue of Alchemy Instagram - ucl_sts 26 - BEAMS award / accesibility reflect the opinions of the authors, around the subject is too polarised, 27 - Teacher Inset Day "Net Neutrality - Setting Sun or not of UCL. and needs to be opened up to take a New Dawn for the Internet?" is 28 - JBS Haldane lectures account of nuanced arguments about Alchemy is available as a PDF via the STS website. available to read for free and can be 29 - Youtube / 1Book the kind of future we want - the kind In the PDF version, underlined words provide links to the relevant paper or page. found on the STS website. 30 - Book reviews of nuance that can be found in this 31 - 2019 Seminars report.' Words - Malcolm Chalmers

2 ALCHEMY SPRING 2019 UCL DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY STUDIES 3 Undergraduates Undergraduates Undergraduate summers ...... in Ukraine ...... Hong Kong ...

While our degree programmes pause during the summer, our students keep busy, and in 2018 Mohammad Shan and Wilfred Taylor took part in educational experiences overseas. You can hear the rest in their words...

Last summer, I had the During most of my time in Ukraine, to live with Marta and Sasha, who opportunity of spending six I lived in Chernivtsi, which is one treated me with so much kindness, weeks teaching English to young of the most beautiful and friendly and helped me to learn in detail children in Ukraine. Admittedly, I cities that I ever been to. The city is more about their country and their was slightly nervous and apprehensive located in western Ukraine by the daily lives. about living in Ukraine by myself for Moldova and Romania border. I was six weeks due to the current political based at School №22 and taught daily climate. However, I am so grateful that English lessons through a variety of THE EXPERIENCE OF I made the right decision and went on classroom and outdoor activities TEACHING ENGLISH this highly enjoyable and rewarding with the support of the lovely team experience. of native Ukrainian English teachers. ALLOWED ME TO I will never forget how on my last SEE THE REAL The programme is run by GoCamp, day of teaching, the teachers took the biggest volunteering organisation me out for dinner and ordered me UKRAINE in Eastern Europe, that hopes to bring almost everything off the menu! 1000 volunteers to more than 600 The highlight of the trip was schools, to teach 100,000 pupils all Each English teaching volunteer definitely when Marta and Sasha over the country. It is hoped that by is allocated a native Ukrainian host took me to their ancestral home in 2020, all children aged 10 to 15 will family to live with for the duration of the village for a weekend. I had the speak English. the program. I was extremely lucky chance to learn how to fish and

Photographs from Mohammad's 2018 trips to Ukraine (left page) and Hong Kong (right page)

experience what life is truly like THE TEACHING appreciated the global emphasis without good Wi-Fi! that was placed in each class by WAS WORLD CLASS the passionate lecturers. I had the The classes I taught had pleasure of meeting and working some of the most dedicated and AND I REALLY with such a diverse range of brightest young students I have APPRECIATED THE students from all across the world ever come across. I was impressed and learning about the countries by the enthusiasm and passion GLOBAL EMPHASIS that they come from. these children displayed towards THAT WAS PLACED learning English. I felt extremely Living in Hong Kong for an proud towards the end of the IN EACH CLASS BY extended period of time was teaching experience when many THE PASSIONATE definitely an interesting experience. of the students were able to have Hong Kong as a country is way confident conversations with me in LECTURERS more fast paced in comparison to English. my time spent in Ukraine. Moreover, London that evening, I was scheduled to I appreciated the many similarities take an 18h hour flight to Hong Kong the I was also blown away by the and differences the country has in next morning! kindness and generosity of the comparison to the UK. I got to try children who would constantly lots of the local cuisine and visited One of the main reasons why I was go out of their way and make me the famous attractions of Hong going to Hong Kong was to participate handmade gifts. The experience of Kong, such as the Victoria Peak in a summer school run by the Chinese teaching English allowed me to see and Victoria Harbour. In addition, University of Hong Kong. I was awarded the real Ukraine: a country that is I was able to go on many hikes to a fully funded scholarship by UCL that working extremely hard to reform places such as Lamma Island and was mainly based on my academic its image in line with modern times Dragon’s Back. through its commitment towards performance and extracurricular activities during my undergraduate investing in education. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed degree. my time in Hong Kong, even The six weeks of teaching with all the typhoons! English came to an end and I flew I took classes in International Business and Marketing Management. The back to London with a heavy heart, Words/Photos - Mohammad Shan knowing that soon after arriving in teaching was world class and I really 4 ALCHEMY SPRING 2019 UCL DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY STUDIES 5 Undergraduate Undergraduate / MSc

Looking at science, ...and South America! in government

During the 2018 summer On a personal level, attending the opportunity to experience the STS students visit the Houses break from my undergraduate course allowed me to fully engage culture of another country and of Parliament studies at UCL I attended the with Brazilian culture, travel across educational institution as well as to PUC-Rio (the Pontifical Catholic the country and make meaningful make lifelong connections with other The department organised two University of Rio de Janeiro) Intensive friendships and social connections outgoing people from all walks of trips to Westminster in the last year. Portuguese as a Second Language in Brazil, which would have been life and academia. The opportunity In January, Melanie Smallman took a course, alongside approximately exceedingly difficult if not impossible has broadened my perspective host of students from the HPSC2025 sixty other international students. to establish otherwise. My favourite on my education and future Science in Government module to visit feature of the programme was the career opportunities whilst the palace, in order to experience The course was a month long access it gave me to a huge variety simultaneously giving me a first-hand the processes that are and consisted of four hours of of new, interesting and likeminded refreshing and constructive undertaken in the creation of laws. classes with approximately two individuals both taking part in the break from my studies at UCL. Dr Simon Werrett then held a follow hours of coursework per day. Each course as well as other students up trip in January 2019 with students class had fewer than ten students and academics associated with Words/Pictures - Wilfred Taylor from the same module. at a time, and they were streamed PUC. accurately to accommodate varying Dr Smallman greatly enjoyed the levels of experience in Portuguese visit. “Visiting Parliament and seeing or close languages such as Spanish I WOULD HIGHLY what happens in the flesh was an and Italian. RECOMMEND THAT amazing experience for the students – and for me, particularly as my local Melanie Smallman (in red coat) with HPSC2025 students, with Martin Smith (far left) The course followed a logical, ALL STUDENTS MP dropped by to say hello! The challenging progression that took UNDERTAKE students were especially surprised why the Commons chamber often Martin Smith, the expert advisor to me from an entry-level understanding A SHORT- to see how busy the building was looks empty on the TV, the visit really the House of Commons Science and of Portuguese grammar to and how many different activities brought to life the concepts and ideas Technology Select Committee, was conversational proficiency within a TERM GLOBAL were happening at the same time, that we talked about in the lectures– the department's host and guide for month. Attending the course gave OPPORTUNITY with us having the chance to look in and I think that showed through in the the day. me access to all facilities and social on various committees, debates and quality of the students’ subsequent events hosted by the university, Travelling and studying in question times. As well as explaining work.” Words - Malcolm Chalmers specific events organised for Brazil carries its own unique attendees of the intensive course and unexpected challenges. (such as sightseeing opportunities Chief among these is the level of As part of the NSCI0007 Science across the city and state of Rio bureaucracy that one must navigate, Communication and Computing de Janeiro) as well as the option especially when dealing within the module, Dr Jean-Baptiste Gouyon to stay with a Brazilian host family federal government. However, the arranged for a range of speakers for the duration of the course, and high level of attendance on the from throughout the world of science longer if desired. course as well as the helpfulness of communication to come and speak to the administrators meant that I was The course has allowed me to students, giving them an insight into able to obtain useful guidance on how to develop a career in the field. finish my degree with legitimate how best to resolve such issues in confidence in my spoken and written all situations with relative ease. understanding and expression of a Beginning with podcaster and comedian Cerys Bradley, the series second language, thus providing I would highly recommend that me with future access to work and introduced communicators from all all students undertake a short- aspects of the media, including: study opportunities across the term global opportunity during their Portuguese speaking world. studies. In my experience, it provides Miriam Frankel - Science Editor of one with unparalleled access and The Conversation

Deborah Cohen - Science editor for BBC Radio Science communication - Prof. Muki Haklay - UCL learn from the experts! Geography

Steve Crabtree - former edior of Maria Ocampo-Hafalla - Francis sciences to journalism and comedy, Horizon, BBC Crick Institute or starting from a more multi- disciplinary, STS-style background. Ali Boyle - Keeper of Science Each speaker gave students a The seminars were a great success, Collections, Science Museum different viewpoint and insight into attended by students from all over how their career began, whether UCL, and we hope to run them again Steve Cross - The Talent Factory transferring from a career in the hard in subsequent years.

6 ALCHEMY SPRING 2019 UCL DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY STUDIES 7 MSc MSc

Watching movies. Seeing films. Going to the pictures. We habitually consider cinema Restarting your career as a primarily visual medium. The soundtrack is an added extra, a Recent MSc Graduate Isabel Lopez Lopez-Neira bonus element that is not essential to Image = Sound discusses her time on the course, and her work with the the experience of cinema – after all, Restart project silent movies can be perfectly well MSc student Elena Ktori looked at the use of sound comprehended when viewed without in experimental films. Can film convey the feeling of their musical accompaniment. I’ve always been interested While still at my course, I started synaesthesia - seeing sound, and hearing images? in the intersection between working part-time at The Restart But what if films could be science and society. However, Project, a charity that looks at people’s manufactured where image and sound coming from a background in relationship with technology, and at were of absolutely equal importance? flashed and scrolled, they produced footage. Every shot was therefore What’s more, the requirements of Biochemistry, STS first pushed me to how repair can fix the global issue What if the sounds somehow created buzzes, crackles, drones, and blasts like a single key being pressed on an the optical soundtrack reader force immerse myself in the world of social of electronic waste. I can’t imagine the images, and the images somehow of static. The effect was fascinating, electronic music keyboard. the films to utilize only abstract images sciences. Along with my personal working at Restart with a pre-STS created the sounds? Is it possible to hypnotic, not entirely pleasant, and in (shapes, steps, blinds), preventing development, I have quickly put perspective. make such synesthetic films where danger of inducing seizures. THE EFFECT WAS the film-maker from venturing into STS into practice in the professional sound and image are one and the even the most rudimentary narrative world. UCL IS A VIBRANT same thing? And if so, what would Guy Sherwin’s Musical Stairs FASCINATING, form – and, conversely, the blank- these films be like? (1977) applied the same technique HYPNOTIC, NOT tone sounds the images produce STS made me explore new PLACE, IN A but used live-action footage instead soon become monotonous and lack topics every day and struggle for DYNAMIC CITY, AND These questions were addressed of animation. He filmed a metal ENTIRELY PLEASANT, musical variety and complexity. months to find my unique most at the BFI’s recent presentation staircase from different perspectives, AND IN DANGER OF interesting research question for my STS IS A FANTASTIC Experiments in Synesthesia, Early variously over- or under-exposing For synesthetic films to develop dissertation. The course was a whole HOME Cinema and Artist Film. Amongst the the film. Depending on the angle INDUCING SEIZURES. and to offer the same opportunities set of challenges that has given me the stairs were filmed from, and the for film-makers to express their own the tools and confidence to examine dozen or so short films shown were Our work links closely with several that demonstrated how visual exposure of the print, different tones By editing his shots, Sherwin idiosyncratic artistic concepts as and discuss science and technology were produced when the footage was could produce different successions more regular film-makers can, it in a very different way. reflections and conversations had images could produce their own throughout the MSc, such as the sounds by use of optical soundtracks. scanned by the optical soundtrack of tones. The effect was less eye- seems to me that new techniques reader. The more steps were included splitting than Dresden Dynamo, but will be needed, perhaps by means of From my initial interest in public innovation process, the role of Sounds played into an oscilloscope industry or the importance of public can be expressed visually as in the frame, the higher the resultant the sounds produced were much new technologies. As things stand, health, I have become more captivated pitch. Under-exposed footage created harsher and uncompromisingly stark. synesthetic films lack some vital by the process of innovation, and engagement and grassroot initiatives waveforms. Optical soundtracks make to influence the path of technology. use of such waveforms by recording louder sounds than over-exposed ingredient to break out of their current the assumptions we make about The same procedure was employed limitations and establish themselves technological ‘progress’. I’ve had the sounds as wave-like shapes that can We even brought one of STS be printed along the edge of a strip of in a much more recent film, David more substantially as an art form. I for chance to develop these ideas within Leister’s Blinder (2014) where instead one would love to see cinematic the homely environment of STS. academics - Simon Werrett - to our movie film. When the film is projected, radio show! the light passing through the celluloid of stairs he filmed a set of Venetian synesthesia find its feet in the throws the visual images onto the blinds to generate his soundtrack. 21st Century. At the same time, being an Instead of changing the exposure of Academic Rep, I was lucky to learn Right after the course, I started screen and at the same time translates working at UCL Department of the (unseen) optical soundtrack back the film to alter the volume, the slats of Words and images - Elena Ktori about the inner workings of the the blinds were variously manipulated department, the vast array of courses Science, Technology, Engineering into synchronized accompanying and Public Policy (STEaPP). Here sound. to achieve the same effect. offered and the initiative from its staff, both lecturers and administrators. we look at the risks of domestic abuse associated with emerging By the early 1930s, animators As experimental shorts, these films are certainly fascinating examples technologies like the Internet of and artists were starting to see the Things. possibility of moving the optical of sound and image inextricably fused together. They offer the rare soundtrack onto the film-frame itself Once again, the STS perspective so that the waveforms were projected opportunity to see sound and to hear images. But there are drawbacks. makes this project particularly onto the screen at the same time interesting, as we try to assess they were being heard. Sound would Nearly forty years separate Blinder and Musical Stairs, and yet both films innovation processes critically and therefore become image, and image provide guidance for a more inclusive would become sound. use the same technique to produce by-and-large the same result. and responsible technological design. Of all the films shown at the BFI, UCL is a vibrant place, in a dynamic Dresden Dynamo (1971) by Lis Rhodes This seems to me to demonstrate the inherent limitation of synesthetic city, and STS is a fantastic home was the earliest example of a wholly to absorb knowledge and get synesthetic film. The highly coloured films being made in this way. Because the image both dictates and is dictated inspired. I can only recommend animation in the form of geometric you explore this, find your shapes rapidly flickered across the by the soundtrack – and vice versa – the film-maker is severely restricted in interests, and put your ideas into screen whist simultaneously being action. read as their own optical soundtrack. what material they can use and how to deploy it. There seems to be no room The end result looked and sounded Words - Isabel Lopez Lopez-Neira like a highly psychedelic TV set going to expand the technique into new Stills from Musical Stairs (1977), Dresden Isabel recording at the Restart Project - photo credit Mark Phillips massively on the blink. As the images Dynamo (1971) and Blinds (2014) territory.

8 ALCHEMY SPRING 2019 UCL DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY STUDIES 9 MSc

understand for both lay people and learned thinkers, and it offered an explanation without resorting to the Birthing a divine; a highly contentious issue in Reformation England. However, by lessening the emphasis on the will of God, blame was transferred to the monster mother if her child was born with a deformity. The continued popularity Having written a 5000 word essay for her Early Modern Science mod- of maternal impression theory and its ule, MSc student Kathryn Shaw succeeded in revising this into a 1000 place in midwifery books meant that word article for Viewpoint, the magazine for the British Society for the expectant mothers would have faced History of Science (BSHS), reprinted below. I asked Kathryn for her the pressure of policing their very THE BALLAD WAS advice for students looking to publish their work. thoughts, lest they harm their future child. ALSO INTENDED I had already been in touch with the BSHS team and knew of View- point via Twitter, and sent off an email asking whether they would AS A LESSON SO be interested in the work of a new MSc student. Which is the best THE STORY OF MARY, THAT LISTENERS lesson to learn - there’s nothing wrong with asking! Even if journals MARY AND MARTHA or magazines aren’t accepting submissions when you enquire, or are 'MAY LEARN TO only accepting PhD candidates or post-doc, the contact and commu- ALSO CONTRIBUTES FEARE GODS nication is invaluable - and they might be able to point you in the right TO A WIDER POINT: direction for a different publication to approach. THAT THE SURVIVING PUNISHMENT' I also managed to get my undergraduate dissertation published in SOURCES SHOULD 2017. I spoke to several of my lecturers at the time, and they advised researching journals run by PhD students and based at universities - I NOT BE USED TO In fact, shortly before Mary carried for nine months. In the early of male natural philosophers. However, submitted to the Journal of History and Cultures out of the University SPEAK FOR ALL OF Waterman birthed her ‘monstrous’ modern period it was understood that the invisible histories of the women at of Birmingham. Even though they are small and often online-only, jour- twins, she gave birth to a daughter, a foetus was given a soul, at the time of the centre of those births should not nals like this still offer the usual processes such as peer review and SOCIETY IN THE described as a ‘very comely Child in ‘quickening’ – usually at four months be assumed or overwritten by the copy-editing, which is great experience. EARLY MODERN all proportions.’ The ballad claims that – and from then was regarded as histories of those that have survived. PERIOD she cannot speak from sorrow, and being alive. To generalise experiences BSHS as a whole is also definitely worth checking out if you haven’t that this third child allows her to move denies this possibility, and also risks For women, the potential of already. They offer Masters bursaries and host great events - plus an on. ‘Natures Wonder’ describes this simplifying the diverse and often monstrous births was a real fear, It is true that cases such as Mary daughter as a comfort and cheer for contradictory understandings mothers and for those who did give birth to a annual postgraduate conference (held in Florence in 2017!!) Viewpoint Waterman and her children were in particular is a great option to consider. And of course, talk to your her mother after the birth of the twins, may have had about their children. deformed child, their ability to process symbolic of a wider change in beliefs and a normal child seems to offer the what had happened and provide tutors and lecturers with STS! Cutting or adding words to fit article- and understandings of science, religion length can be tricky, and they can definitely advise. parents life after the monstrous birth. potential explanations were based and human biology. However, the HOWEVER, BY on the information available to them. experiences of the women who birthed However, this reading is complicated LESSENING THE Ballads and broadside articles were In October 1664 in Fisherton revealed – which in turn worked to such children and the relationship by the reality of Mary and John’s published as a form of entertainment, near Salisbury, Mary Waterman, create a universal possibility of the EMPHASIS ON THE between mother and child – or indeed choice of names for their children. but for the women who could be wife of John, gave birth to three birth of a monster for all women if they contemporarily, mother and ‘monster’ As opposed to what is implied in the WILL OF GOD, BLAME affected still conveyed monstrous daughters including conjoined were to fall pregnant. – were far more complicated and have ballad, the ‘comelier’ daughter was births as both a direct punishment twins – or, a ‘strange monster’ with WAS TRANSFERRED been given far less attention. actually born first, and baptised as for transgressions and a seemingly ‘two Heads, foure Armes, and two Monstrous births were a well- Eefelet. The conjoined twins came TO THE MOTHER random and unavoidable act of God or Legs.’ The twins died after two or three established genre by the 17th century, On the surface, one of the strongest second, and were also baptised, given Nature. days and their body was embalmed with descriptions and explanations IF HER CHILD WAS relationships between parents and the names of Martha and Mary. The and taken to London for display and being offered for centuries from their deformed offspring could even practice of passing on names from BORN WITH A It is important to study such cases exhibition. For a growing popular Aristotle, Cicero, Pliny and Augustine be financial. The exhibition of the parent to child had grown steeply in from a different viewpoint in order press, rife with stories of marvels and to Bauhin, Liceti, Aldrovandi and Paré. DEFORMITY conjoined Waterman twins did offer a this period, so for Mary Waterman to to gain a richer perspective on how monsters, the case of Mary and the One of the most popular and sustaining financial incentive. A printed version choose to give her own name to one different parts of society understood, birth of her children was irresistible. theories was maternal imagination – The story of Mary, Mary and Martha of the ballad explained that when on of her ‘monstrous’ daughters instead processed and applied the changing that the thoughts of a woman at the also contributes to a wider point: that display in London ‘there hath been of the first-born ‘normal’ daughter is scientific and medical theories of A ballad, titled ‘Natures Wonder?’ time of conception could affect and the surviving sources should not be both Lords, Ladys and much Gentry highly telling. the time. While a narrative of the was published alongside the press deform the foetus. used to speak for all of society in the to see it; The Father (being a poore progression of ideas from doctors story, detailing the ‘monster of early modern period. This is particularly man) had twenty pound given him the The account of Mary Waterman and philosophers is useful, our misshapen Forme’ and meant that the The 17th century has often been pertinent in the case of women, and first day, by persons of Quality.’ Yet serves as a reminder that monstrous understanding is impoverished case could easily be spread by word- identified as a time of conflicting their uniquely female understandings it is ahistorical to define the parents’ births were human children, and without consideration of those of-mouth through communities. The theories, and monstrous births have of their own bodies, pregnancies, and relationship to their children by the despite popular press coverage who were most intimately ballad was also intended as a lesson been a useful case study to frame the children. Because there are so many money given to John Waterman. thatpotentially exaggerates accounts involved. so that listeners ‘may learn to feare debates between science, religion existing sources it is very possible to Instead, it is entirely likely that there in order to create interesting stories, Gods Punishment’. The monstrous and folklore. Maternal imagination write the history of the development of was love and attachment for a child, it would have still been possible for a birth was explained as a punishment was a particularly attractive theory thought thatrationalised and classified Words - Kathryn Shaw monstrous or not, and grief when they mother to be attached to the child she monstrous births from the perspective Twitter: @airborneobject from God, though the sins were never at this time because it was simple to died.

10 ALCHEMY SPRING 2019 UCL DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY STUDIES 11 PhD

possible to generalise these findings New York Public Library - Photo Em O'Sullivan to support women’s engagement with technology in other contexts.

Several months ago I contacted a makerspace in New York that I’d heard had a high proportion of women members. I sent them an email outlining my research and asking if I could visit them to find out how they support women’s engagement in their community. Two weeks later I got a reply: an invitation to be their first Researcher in Residence. There followed a huge STS in NYC amount of preparation to spend an extended period of time working in the US, navigating insurance forms, risk assessments, ESTA security STS PhD Em O’Sullivan reports back from The City That Never Sleeps, authorisations, and Craigslist where they spent two months as researcher in residence exploring ways to support women’s engagement with technology. apartment listings. While packing, I checked and double-checked my list of research equipment to take with me. Now, as I’m chauffeured The first thing that strikes me about New I’m in New York to conduct social and political future. However, through NYC traffic – sitting in the York is just how damn hot it is. fieldwork at a makerspace here. My for various reasons, women and girls front seat of the Uber so I can see that have been thrown at the nearly 100,000 visitors from PhD explores the global makerspace typically have fewer opportunities as much of the city as possible makerspace over the years, and around the world who come to see I walk out of JFK airport at 10pm on movement as a promising new to get involved with technology and – I think: 'and now the real work stickers from other makerspaces hundreds of makers exhibiting their an early September evening and a wall site for supporting women’s engineering than men and boys do. begins'. around the world. I’m given a tour coolest and most creative projects. of muggy heat hits me. I’m English: I’m engagement with technology. We and handed a set of keys. The There’s an overwhelming air of not used to it being hot at night. I find live in a world where technology Makerspaces can help with this. makerspace – and the people in excitement throughout the Faire, the Uber that’s going to drive me to the is pervasive, shaping everything A makerspace is a shared machine MAKERSPACES it – has a knack for helping you feel which is attended by many kids and apartment where I’ll be spending my first from our communications to our shop that provides a set of tools and ARE NOT JUST instantly at home in its cosy den families. My favourite area is a dark two weeks in New York, and as we start modes of travel. Being able to machinery for making things. This of technology, which is probably a room that houses the many light- the long drive I watch the orange and understand and critically engage usually includes digital fabrication COLLECTIVES large part of why they’ve been able based projects on display, because yellow blurs of city lights flash past the with technology is therefore essential tools like 3D printers and laser OF PEOPLE to engage a gender diverse group of if there’s one thing makers love it’s window and think about the two months for navigating everyday life and cutters, electronics tools, soldering members. LEDs. ahead of me. exerting agency over our collective irons, crafts tools, and wood-working SHARING A SET tools. A huge variety of things are OF TOOLS: THEY Over the next few weeks I split my As I near the end of my residency created within makerspaces, from time between conducting interviews the weather finally turns. The wooden tables and knitted scarves ARE COMMUNITIES and participant observation at the temperature drops and the trees in to bicycle-powered Scalextric makerspace and exploring New Central Park turn brown and orange. tracks and motorised life-size WHOSE MEMBERS York. I haul my laptop around coffee Porches are decorated with jack-o- replica Daleks. Makerspaces, unlike LOVE TO LEARN AND shops across Brooklyn and take lanterns and plastic skeletons for university engineering departments advantage of the warm weather to Halloween. I’m writing this in early or technology companies, do TO SHARE THEIR make use of the free Wi-Fi in the November, just before I return to the not have any formal barriers to KNOWLEDGE WITH city’s public parks. I spend thundery UK. As well as providing me with a entry: anybody can access them, afternoons writing up field notes mountain of data to work through regardless of their level of technical OTHERS under the vaulted ceilings of the when I get home, this residency knowledge. And most importantly, Rose Main Reading Room at the has opened up opportunities for makerspaces are not just collectives The next evening, while still New York Public Library. I reflect research collaborations and has of people sharing a set of tools: they not entirely adjusted to Eastern on the data I’m gathering and how expanded my network of academic are communities whose members Standard Time, I turn up at the it relates to my research questions: and practitioner contacts. Working love to learn and to share their makerspace for my first site visit. How are people interacting with with a research case outside of the knowledge with others. I’ve been to many makerspaces each other in the makerspace? UK has provided an opportunity over the years, and even used to be How are they using the tools and to compare data across different Unfortunately, however, women involved with running a makerspace machinery? How is knowledge national and cultural contexts. But are currently under-represented in my hometown of Brighton, so circulating within the makerspace? most importantly, this residency in most makerspaces. As part of I know roughly what to expect. What knowledges are being has shown me that there are my PhD research I’m working with The makerspace is cleaner and recognised and respected? groups of makers out there who are makerspaces who’ve bucked this tidier than most, and is thankfully passionately dedicated to improving trend and have been able to build a missing the resemblance to an A highlight of my trip is attending equity in technology engagement. I gender diverse group of members. e-waste disposal center that many the World Maker Faire, a key event am sure that there is a lot that can The views from Times Square and the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbour - The rationale is that if it’s possible makerspaces have. Members in the global maker community be learned from them. both photos: Em O'Sullivan to gain a better understanding of have covered the walls with LED calendar. Held annually at the New how they’ve achieved is, it may be art projects, posters from parties York Hall of Science, it attracts Words/Photos - Em O'Sullivan

12 ALCHEMY SPRING 2019 UCL DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY STUDIES 13 PhD

key holders in a basement vault in Paris. It is the kilogram against which all other kilograms are compared, but with the passing of time, the kilogram GYSS 2018 - gets slightly lighter all the time, which is not good for a standard, universal unit! Klaus’ work moves the unit of the kilogram from being this lump of SINGAPORE metal, to being a function of the well- defined universal Planck’s constant STS PhD Ellie Armstrong reports on her visit to (h), that von Klitzing has helped define GYSS 2018, and the talks and trips involved. to extreme precision.

Late in January 2018 I boarded to mimic this spectacularly good I particularly enjoyed this talk as it a very, very long flight leaving fit, as many researchers have been shows how important it is to think not behind the cold of the UK doing using computation models or just about the concepts and theories to attend the Global Young direct synthesis, Frances talked about that we build up in STEM, but about Scientists Summit 2018 at Nanyang mutating enzymes and selecting those the small base units that we rely on to Technological University, Singapore. that work best to mutate through make our modern world work. Representing UCL, and supported by further generations to accelerate the the STS Department, I was going for a rate of being able to find solutions. week to hear Nobel Laureates, Fields This reversal of the usual mode of THE CONFERENCE Medallists, Turing Award Winners, and development fascinated me, a change BROUGHT TOGETHER Millennium Technology Prize Winners that was almost a retro-step to how talk about their work, to see some of early modification trials were carried 2,000 EARLY CAREER the sights of Singapore’s research and out by Victorian botanists, but with a RESEARCHERS FROM innovation landscape. significantly faster throughput. AROUND THE WORLD, Two talks over the week stood out I was also captivated by Professor MEANING LOTS to me in particular. Professor Frances Klaus von Klitzing’s talk about a change Arnold talked about new methods in the standard measure of a kilogram OF INTERESTING in synthetic bioengineering utilizing in 2018. All SI units have standardized, CONVERSATIONS mutations to develop novel enzymes international definitions that many for potential applications in our lives. an unfortunate physical scientist ABOUT PEOPLE’S When I was studying chemistry, I (including myself) is forced to learn ACADEMIC WORK learnt about protein structures and by heart at some point in their career. the incredibly good fit they had with Of all seven, the kilogram is unusual in that it is still defined by an actual We didn’t just stay on the Nanyang their purpose (my personal favourite Campus, but went on field trips example that we looked at will always piece of metal “le grand K” – kept safe behind multiple locks held by different around the city as part of the summit be haemoglobin). Rather than trying throughout the week. On the final day, I was allotted a trip to the Botanical Gardens of Singapore – one of the oldest tropical botanical gardens in Ellie Armstrong (far left) with colleagues from GYSS Singapore 2018 the world. traders used them to weigh gold in We talked over dumplings at scientists talk about themselves and As someone interested in how standardised Ratti units; histories breakfast, while sitting outside in the their work. As a scholar my work looks science is shared with visitors, I was of gardeners and plants during the humid heat (or running inside during at how we present space science in inspired by the (literal) windows onto Second World War when Singapore sudden tropical storms!) drinking coffee museums, with particular attention to the different parts of the cultivation was occupied territory; and uses and between talks, and while out to drinks the stories we tell about scientists, as process for the orchid breeding cultivation of tropical plants within and dinner in downtown Singapore. As well as about their science, and this programme that the Botanical Gardens the gardens. Another personal (non- the only woman from UCL I ended up trip helped me frame some of these undertakes. Showing five different scientific) highlight was the tree-top sharing with a biomedical researcher ideas as part of a broader discussion steps, from artificial pollination, hammock we got to spend some time from the University of Cambridge about the way we talk about science through germination, to full growth of sitting in, suspended above a well- who was seconded to Harvard at in public. new varieties of orchid, visitors could tended tropical rainforest. the time, and I built friendships watch botanists through the window with researchers from the Physics None of this would have happened while being able to read about the Of course, I wasn’t doing this alone. Department at the Australian National without the support of the STS purpose of that step of the process. The conference brought together University, Chemists at Seoul National Department – from recommending me 2,000 early career researchers University and Medical therapists at to UCL to propose as an attendee, to We had an amazing tour around from around the world, meaning lots the University of Helsinki. providing a travel grant for the trip. It the extensive gardens, that covered of conversations about people’s was a fantastic experience, and it will things such as the use of the Abrus academic work, what it was like to This five-day programme of fantastic stay with me forever! precatorius seeds which have work in different universities, and of talks, trips, and new colleagues was a such uniform weights that Indian course, our varying degrees of jet lag! wonderful way to remind myself how Words/Photos - Ellie Armstrong

14 ALCHEMY SPRING 2019 UCL DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY STUDIES 15 PhD Alumni PhD News Alumni News STS Summer School - We know our alumni keep busy, but we're always happy to hear of iPhone, therefore I am! their successes. Here are a few things we're heard about this year. Ilan Goodman (MSc HPS 2017), not 'Essentially my job is to research Every year, UCL runs a series of non- content with his work in acting and elements of the collection and residential summer workshops for video production, has recently begun produce academic output while also teenagers, to open their minds to new a philosophy and neuroscience encouraging academic engagement ways of thinking, and to help prepare podcast entitled "Nous". with the collections', says Farrah. 'I them for later study. am looking at the mental and physical Despite being only four episodes spaces that medical technologies, This year, STS PhD Ellie Armstrong in, the podcast has already reached the dialysis machine and iron lung, will be running the workshop 'iPhone, number 2 on the US Podcast chart take up. My research is object and therefore I am!'. This Summer for philosophy. You can listen now patient focused'. Challenge takes a single aspect of via Soundcloud, iTunes, or their main science and technology familiar to site at nousthepodcast.libsyn.com Dr Raquel Velho, who wrote the students coming into the course – Recent PhD graduate Jacob Ward 'How to do a PhD' piece in the last the mobile phone - and explores it issue of Alchemy, is now an Assistant through a number of different science is also off to a flying start, as he has been awarded the prestigious Professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic and technology studies lenses to give Institute in New York. students an understanding of how Duncan Tanner Essay Prize for his science and technology concepts article 'Financing the Information Age: London TeleCity, the Legacy We've also hosted career podcasts can be used to interrogate the world in 2018 with former STS students around them. of IT-8s and the Selling of British Telecom'. The essay will be published Oli Usher, Ellie Blackwell, Adrien de later in 2019. Sutter, and Katherine McAlpine. You Over the six sessions students will PhD students at the 2018 Research Day (see p23) - clockwise from lop left: kat cecil, can find these podcasts now via the be thinking about: Jonathan Griffiths, Ben Weil and Claudia Cristalli Not to be outdone, recent PhD STS Careers Soundcloud. finisher Farrah Lawrence-Mackay • Technological development control: inventing the Elena Falco - How can we foster has already landed a position at Would you like to let the rest of of mobile phones by and for communications revolution in Post- good practices in crowdsourced the Science Museum, working as a STS know what you've been up to? particular people. War Britain. knowledge-production? Medicine Galleries Research Fellow. Get in touch at [email protected] • Mobile phone use in non-UK contexts (mixed methods). Dr Hannah Wills - The diary of Scott Keir - The Royal Institution and • Sociology of mobile phones. Charles Blagden: information COPUS: lessons from the 1980s and Made in STS - The WE WANTED • Teaching about sexting, and other management and the gentleman of 1990s to inform 21st century public A CHANCE TO mobile app-based concerns. science in eighteenth-century Britain. engagement. Best of the Best. • Histories of technological CELEBRATE THE developments in mobile phones. Dr Farrah Lawrence-Mackay - Tadfumi Kubota - The role of For years, STS Lecturers have BEST WORK OUR • Science Communication about Medical extractions in the 'Red' deliberation councils in science policy commented on the high quality of technological development in Atlantic: Translating A Mi'kmaq making: a cross-cultural comparison the essays, dissertations and other STUDENTS HAVE mobile phones. smallpox cure in the mid-nineteenth between the UK and Japan. assessments submitted by students, DONE century. hoping to find a way of publicising If you, or someone you know, is in Rakhshi Memon - Ethics and cluster Partial Birth Abortions, and religious their work more widely. Similarly, beliefs in the UCL student population; year 12 or 13 and is interested in Dr Hattie Lloyd - Rulers of Opinion: trials in postnatal health: the limits to new students have often struggled to taking part, you can find more details women at the Royal Institution of equipoise and evidence. films on the GM wheat controversy, find examples of good work to learn Down's syndrome testing and London on the UCL Widening Participation Great Britain, 1799-1812. from - especially students from a hard website, at www.ucl.ac.uk/widening- Henry Roberts - A History of air quality; policy papers on zoos and science background attempting to conservation and much more. participation/learners/year-12- Congratulations to all of the above, Audience Thinking at the Science write essays for the first time. 'We wanted a chance to celebrate and-13/year-12-summer-challenge. and especially to Hattie Lloyd, who Museum. the best work our students have We'll be contacting alumni regularly received a Dean's Commendation in done, and to give new students a With that in mind, the department to ask for permission to upload their Congratulations STS the MAPS Faculty Postgraduate John Van Laun - John Cooke Bourne chance to see the kind of work they has created a new website - made- work, so please respond promptly if Doctors! Prizes for 2018. Well done Hattie! (1814-1896), Lithographer 'Drawings are capable of producing. Currently in-sts-ucl.uk - which hosts a selection contacted - we will only make material of the London and Birmingham we've focussed on essays and of written work from past years. available with the author's permission. A number of STS PhD students have New Starters Railway, 1836-1839'. Every piece uploaded has received dissertations, but there are also successfully completed their PhD blogs, policy papers and several films a minimum grade of 75%, allowing Do you have a piece of highly- viva during 2018. These are: A host of New PhD students have Nathan Bossoh - A critical analysis - and we hope to increase the variety students to gain a feel for what the graded work which you would like to joined the department, and we look of Darwinian evolution and its cultural of assessments as we continue to best student work contains, without submit to Made in STS? Feel free to Dr Julia Sanchez Dorado - forward to seeing the results of their impacts in Victorian Britain through having to worry about plagiarism. build up our catalogue'. Scientific representation in practice: research. These include: the life and writings of George contact us via the department email at [email protected] and we'll be in touch. models and creative similarity. Douglas Campbell, 8th Duke of Argyll. STS Teaching Fellow Erman Today, the site includes Rebecca Coates - From Deficit dissertations on the history of Sozudogru, who has taken the lead on Words - Malcolm Chalmers Dr Jacob Ward - Information and to Dialogue? The role of the Royal Words/Photos - Malcolm Chalmers keeping the site updated, explains. Mendelian Genetics, the USA ban on Institution in COPUS from 1985-2002.

16 ALCHEMY SPRING 2019 UCL DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY STUDIES 17 Staff Staff New research in the department! Falling Walls Berlin - presenting awards A number of new projects received funding in STS in 2018 - including major research into In November 2018, STS Lecturer Melanie Smallman was invited to be a member of the jury and the Autonomous Vehicles (AVs), and two connected projects exploring modern co-creation practices. keynote speaker at the first ever ‘Falling Walls Engage’ conference in Berlin.

phenomenon of co-creation, currently The Falling Walls Conference is an flourishing in Europe. The first, annual global gathering of forward- SISCODE, runs until April 2021, and thinking individuals, marking the looks at the role of co-creation in the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin implementation of Public Engagement Wall. With speakers covering topics (PE) and Responsible Research and from Human-Robot interaction (Leila Innovation (RRI). Both PE and RRI Takayama, University of California) demand the early involvement of the and Artificial Intelligence (Bernhard public, but this rarely goes beyond Schölkopf, Max Planck Institute) to the consultation stage. Recycling (Veena Sahajwalla, UNSW Australia) and Coral Reef Ecology SISCODE has identified several (Terry Hughes, ARC Centre of barriers to social innovation, including Excellence), the event's remit spread a lack of awareness, the 'sectorialised' far and wide. approach to policy making, missing Dr Smallman opening the Impulse Workshop - photo credit Falling Walls competences and methodologies, Taking place the day before the main conference, Falling Walls Engage Photo Credit - Steve Jurvetson (Flickr) and the lack of a learning framework on an interactive learning website and to spread scientific literacy, with to support replication of the work. aimed to showcase forward thinkers to inspire both professionals and a special focus on “hard-to-reach” SISCODE plans to analyse and in science communication and public the general public. Following the target groups. compare 40 cases of co-creation engagement, with the presentation presentation pitches, co-learning Self-driving cars or automated A new collaboration between UCL ecosystems across Europe, develop of an award from the Robert Bosch workshops created an opportunity The two winning projects, which vehicles (AVs) promise to be and UWE Bristol, 'Driverless Futures' a learning framework for co-creation, Stiftung for projects that attempt to for further discussion, exchange of both had the opportunity to present one of the most disruptive began in January 2019, running until and to build a transnational system of 'tear down the walls between science expertise and cooperation. at the main Falling Walls Conference technologies of the 21st the end of December 2021. It will co-creation laboratories. and the public'. were “Colomba-Hypatia: Astronony Century. Proponents imagine be led by Dr Jack Stilgoe of STS, for Peace”, which is running The best submissions were invited THE BEST astronomy camps for children in the them as a solution to problems as alongside Dr Tom Cohen and Prof. Similarly, the SCALINGS project to share their science engagement UN buffer zone in Cyprus and 'I’m a varied as road safety, sustainability, Peter Jones from UCL, and Prof. also looks at co-creation and open SUBMISSIONS WERE projects in a fast-paced pitch scientist, get me out of here”, which traffic, and accessibility. Governments Graham Parkhurst and Prof. Alan innovation practices. The project INVITED TO SHARE competition in front of a peer audience aims to connect schools to scientists in the UK and elsewhere see the Winfield from UWE. The project aims brings together experts from the before two winners would be selected THEIR SCIENCE across the UK. potential to secure economic growth to work with the people developing Technical Universities of Munich, by a wide-ranging and distinguished and new high-tech jobs. The UK’s the technology as well as with public Eindhoven, Lausanne, Denmark and ENGAGEMENT jury. The full list of jury members Industrial Strategy, launched in 2016, groups, and will establish a hub Paris, alongside BOKU in Vienna, PROJECTS IN A included such luminaries as Johannes has AVs as a priority, backed by for international collaboration and Wroclaw University of Economics, Projects presented at the event Vogel (Director-General, Museum für substantial investments in science comparison. and STSUCL. Funded by Horizon FAST-PACED PITCH ranged from public science to pub Naturkunde Berlin), Daniel Glaser and engineering. Consultants and 2020, SCALINGS aims to be the science, from kindergarten education COMPETITION IN (Founding Director, Science Gallery investors are optimistic. Morgan first ever rigorous comparitive study THE HISTORY OF to VR experiences, and from citizen London), Imran Khan (Head of Public Stanley (2014) forecasts a multi- design of co-creation, and will focus FRONT OF A PEER science to journalism, with presenters Engagement, Wellcome Trust), Ivvet trillion dollar global market with SCIENCE AND on Robotics, Urban Energy and from countries including India, AUDIENCE Modinou (Head of Engagement, billions of extra dollars in productivity Autonomous Driving. For example, TECHNOLOGY Greece, Israel, Jordan, and more. British Science Association) and gains in a ‘New Auto Industry when engineers, doctors, patients The programme seeked to Gary Stix, Senior Editor of Scientific Paradigm’. KPMG (2012) calls AVs TELLS US THAT and their relatives co-develop a All participating projects were highlight the scientific community’s American. ‘The Next Revolution’. healthcare robot for a hospital in PARADIGM SHIFTS digitally documented and presented responsibility for the common good Munich, it might be optimally suited Commenting on her experience The history of science and AND INDUSTRIAL for this environment. However, it is as a Jury member, Melanie said: 'It technology tells us that paradigm uncertain whether the robot will fit REVOLUTIONS ARE was amazing to see such an array of shifts and industrial revolutions are the social, cultural, economic or science communication projects that, rarely smooth and never just about RARELY SMOOTH. organizational context of another as well as improving science literacy, science and technology. Policy hospital, city, region or country. reports have already identified the The project is now underway, were truly making the world a better and STS MSc student Saba Mirza place through public engagement'. potential for self-driving cars to worsen You can find out more about these has joined the project as Research inequalities by taking away millions projects by visiting their websites - and Impact Assistant, helping to Falling Walls Engage 2019 will take of driving jobs. The development of driverless-futures.com, www. strengthen the already powerful team. place on 8th November 2019, and the technology is not pre-ordained, scalings.eu and www.ecsite.eu/ First results should be visible by the will soon be open to applications. nor will it be unproblematic. As self- activities-and-services/projects/ end of 2019. Visit falling-walls.com for more details driving cars encounter pedestrians siscode and other vehicles on the road, new on the process, and about the Falling Walls conference more widely. questions of responsibility come to Two similar projects have also Words - Malcolm Chalmers Dr Smallman and the other conference attendees - photo credit Felix Zahn/Falling Walls the fore. begun in 2018, looking at the Words - M. Chalmers/M. Smallman

18 ALCHEMY SPRING 2019 UCL DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY STUDIES 19

Staff Staff

Book Launches STS in the Several books have been published by STS Staff members in the last year - resulting in a number of media successful launch parties... STS staff and students have made numerous appearances in the media during 2018. Here are just a few examples... STS MSc students - plus Dalek - at the BBC In September, Carina Fearnley and irreversibly entangled in Britain With the recent media discussion 'Fireworks for a Tudor Queen' on relating to Britain's nuclear weapons launched the open access over the past 300 years. It combines, on autonomous vehicles, it's BBC 4, helping Lucy and her viewers and atomic energy programmes. book 'Observing the Volcano for the first time, two perspectives no surprise that Jack Stilgoe's understand the meaning and creation Secondly, he appeared on Radio 4's World: Volcanic Crisis with much to say about Britain since Images from (above) the 'Imagining the Brain' expertise was frequently sought of fireworks during the 16th Century. PM to discuss recent moral panics Communication', published the industrial revolution: the history of launch at the UCL Pathology Museum, (below) out. The death of a pedestrian over the mobile phone. by Springer. Inspired by her PhD technology and environmental history. the 'Observing the Volcano World' discussion, in an accident with an AV led to The Sunda Strait tsunami in research, Carina saw that many and (bottom) the 'Histories of Technology' appearances on BBC, ITV and Sky However, our academics were not launch. Indonesia was news throughout the people involved in volcanic crises Various contributors to the book News, as well as writing articles world, which led to media appearances the only STS people to appear in the rarely published their experiences were on hand to celebrate the for the Literary Review, Gizmodo, for STS's resident disasters expert media. A group of STS MSc students on what worked well, or not, in order release, and Jon and Jacob gave Tech Review and more. Jack also Carina Fearnley, as she appeared have been working with the BBC to to improve volcanic crisis response. short speeches thanking those who contributed to Prof. Jonathan Ball's on BBC News, Saturday PM and create videos for BBC Future, including were present, and also those further documentary series 'Biohacking' on Istanbul's TRT World. short pieces on the health benefits of Consequently, the book brings afield. The book is available now, Radio 4, discussing the legalities coffee and cold water swimming and together more than 100 authors published by UCL Press, and a free behind technologies such as CRISPR the search for safe nuclear storage. from all over the globe who work with download is available from the UCL Gene editing, and was the subject of a Also appearing on the BBC was Bill Maclehose, as Radio 4's series 'When volcanoes, ranging from observatory Press website. piece for CBS News in the US - their Our PhD students have also made Greeks Flew Kites' looked at sleep as volcanologists, disaster practitioners feature on the 200th anniversary of themselves visible. Ellie Armstrong a source of preoccupation and worry. and government officials to NGO- Finally, just as 2019 began, the publication of Frankenstein led to featured in a Sunday Times piece on Bill provided a historical slant on sleep- based and government practitioners, Chiara Ambrosio and Bill Maclehose a film crew appearing in his class, to the "Queering The Museum" tours that based anxieties and mysteries. to address three key aspects of celebrated the publication of their give viewers a taste of what it's like to she runs, while Sadie Harrison volcanic crises communication: long awaited collection 'Imagining the study at STS. has been a regular guest on the Brain' by Elsevier with a celebration Finally, Jon Agar ended the year with BBC's 'Evil Genius' podcast with • Adapting Warnings for at the UCL Pathology Museum, Royal Elsewhere on the BBC, Simon a brace of appearances. Firstly, The Russell Kane. We look forward Volcanic Hazards Free Hospital. The book release -- Werrett was the main academic Guardian asked for his opinion on the to seeing more in 2019! • Observing Volcanic Crises held in a room full of bodily specimens expert consulted on Lucy Worsley's recent disappearance of archive files • Communicating into the - was celebrated by a number of Future contributors. The ebook is available online with IT COMBINES, FOR open access (free) on: https://link. springer.com/book/10.1007/978- THE FIRST TIME, With chapters on topics as diverse 3-319-44097-2. The launch event, TWO PERSPECTIVES as medieval attempts to map the which included a fascinating brain, Gertrude Stein's modernist panel discussion, was filmed and WITH MUCH approach to the brain, and the is available via the STS YouTube TO SAY ABOUT presence of patterns in neuroimaging channel. data, "Imagining the Brain" collects BRITAIN SINCE research on a wide range of historical Soon afterwards, Jon Agar and THE INDUSTRIAL and modern perspectives. Jacob Ward held a small launch for their collection 'Histories of REVOLUTION: The book is available to purchase Technology, the Environment, and THE HISTORY OF now via Elsevier - those with Modern Britain'. The book brings a UCL account can also left - Simon Werrett on together historians with a wide range TECHNOLOGY AND read individual chapters via BBC 4 with Lucy Worsley, of interests to take a uniquely wide- ENVIRONMENTAL ScienceDirect. right - Jack Stilgoe being lens view of how technology and the filmed for CBS environment have been intimately HISTORY. Words - Malcolm Chalmers

20 ALCHEMY SPRING 2019 UCL DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY STUDIES 21 Staff Staff

Staff news Staff news Melanie Smallman - New professors Sharing Diversity project Science, Art

- including first While UCL has a long record of and Politics in teaching and practice in science female STS communication and public Spain engagement, the experience of Prof! (l-r) Sarah Edwards, Emily Dawson, Brendan Clarke, Simon Lock and Carina Fearnley communicating science across the deep cultural, social and economic STS have seen great success Dr Brendan Clarke promoted to We're glad to see the hard work divisions in South Africa means that in the most recent round of UCL Associate Professor. and committment of our staff has approaches being developed here promotions, with the appointment been rewarded. All of the above staff promise valuable lessons for the rest of the department's first female Dr Simon Lock promoted to make considerable contributions to of the world. professor, and four members of Associate Professor, alongside the department, and we're happy to staff who have been promoted his appointment as Co-Director of have them at our side. The Sharing Diversity in Science to the new position of Associate qUCL (see next page). Communication project aims to Professor - a replacement title, More than half of STS's permanent bring together these two diverse combining the previous positions Dr Carina Fearnley promoted to staff now hold the title of Professor but complimentary perspectives, to of Senior Lecturer and Reader into Associate Professor. or Associate Professor - a sign of share learning and experience of one role. the level of expertise within the teaching and researching science As of October, STS academic department, and a percentage that we communication in the UK, while The STS promotions are as staff will include: hope to maintain. bringing the insight in engaging with follows: diversity from South Africa. • Six Professors The full list of UCL promotions can Dr Sarah Edwards promoted to • Five Associate Professors/ be found on the UCL HR Website. The This will involve exchange Professor - the department's first Senior Lecturers/Readers deadline for applications for 2019 visits between staff at UCL and female professor. • Five Lecturers occurred at the end of 2018, with Stellenbosch, as well as developing • Four Teaching Fellows results confirmed in July 2019 - we a possible joint teaching activity, on Dr Emily Dawson promoted to • Two Research Fellows hope to bring you news of yet more which students in Stellenbosch and Associate Professor. promotions next year! UCL could work together. We look forward to seeing the results, and congratulate Melanie on her success! Turing Fellowships STS Research Day (top) John Lidwell-Durnin, (mid) Frank James and the audience, (bottom) Dr Simon Lock left - returning Turing qUCL Co-Director Fellow Phyllis Illari The annual STS Research Day took place in May, with over 40 staff, stu- The Alan Turing Institute, founded in 2015 and named after Launched in 2014, qUCL is a mathematician and codebreaker Alan Turing, is the United dents, alumni and honorary fellows convening to discuss their recent university-wide initiative that brings Kingdom's national institute for data science and artificial together UCL staff and students with intelligence. The institute has just announced its third year of work. Taking place in the Medawar Building, the event provided a full day research and teaching interests in academic work, and now has a list of over 250 Turing Fellows from LGBTQ studies, gender and sexuality 11 universities around the UK - three of whom are now STS staff. of talks and demonstrations from the STS community. studies, queer theory and related fields. In addition to returning fellow Dr Phyllis Illari, Dr Jack Stilgoe and Dr Melanie Smallman have been announced as new Turing With presentations from PhD stu- dents including kat cecil, Jonathan In August 2018, Bob Mills stood Fellows, bringing the department total to three. The Institute will down as director of qUCL, and we also launch more than 50 new research projects in the coming Griffiths and Ben Weil, honorary fel- lows including John Lidwell-Durning are delighted to announce that STS's months, all generated in partnership with their expanded university Simon Lock has stepped up to take network. and Michaela Bella, and staff such as Brian Balmer and Frank James, the the position of qUCL Co-director, day provided a perfect encapsulation alongside Steven Vaughan from UCL Phyllis and Melanie will both be serving on the Data Ethics Laws. Group of the Institute, looking at issues around responsibility and of the varied work the department un- dertakes. social acceptability in AI and Data Science, in particular looking at We look forward to seeing the the role of new technologies in growing inequalities, and how future work of qUCL throughout above/left - new these issues can taken account of within ethical frameworks. If you're interested in taking part in fellows Melanie future research days, either sign up 2019. For more information, visit the Smallman and Jack for the STS Mailchimp mailing list via qUCL site at ucl.ac.uk/lgbtq-research, A full list of current Turing Fellows can be found via the Alan or follow the qUCL twitter feed @ Stilgoe Turing Institute Website. our website, or email us directly at [email protected] qUCL_research.

22 ALCHEMY SPRING 2019 UCL DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY STUDIES 23 Staff Staff New arrivals

Dr. Noemi Tousignant joined the department as Wellcome Trust University Award Research Fellow, Other new and is currently carrying out research in Senegal. Before she additions... left, she spoke to Alchemy. The ESRC-funded SISCODE and and to making the department a Having joined the department from SCALINGS projects (see p18), success. the University of Montreal, Noemi's new for 2018, have resulted in research project led her to depart two new Research Fellows in the Finally, as 2019 began, and the almost instantly to begin research, but department. Trupti Patel joins new Driverless Futures? project she will be based in London from late from her previous positions at commenced, STS MSc student 2019 onwards, and we look forward STEaPP and the London Centre Saba Mirza joined the department to her being a regular part of the for Nanotechnology, while Cian as Research and Impact Assistant. department. I asked her to describe O'Donovan had previously worked We hope you welcome them all to the work she was setting out to do. at the University of Sussex. We're the department. happy to add both to the team. New staff - Cian O'Donovan, Trupti Patel... 'My current project looks at the history and anthropology of liver Cian will also be covering for cancer in West Africa. Since at least Carina Fearnley as Teaching the 1950s, this region has been Fellow during term two, while known, albeit in varying ways over Alex Mankoo joins the teaching time, for a strikingly high incidence of staff, having just completed his liver cancer. This intensity of exposure PhD in the department. Other has enabled crucial research on Teaching Fellows in 2018-19 the causation and prevention of this include Cristiano Turbil, formerly of King's College and Brighton, and pathology, notably via hepatitis B Dr Noemi Tousignant - STS's new Research Fellow vaccination. Yet West Africans have Bex Coates, who returns to run the Science and Film Production been protected less or later than scientific progress generates uneven Once her initial research period is module. We thank all five for their others by knowledge of risk and global geographies of protection, completed, she'll continue her work contributions to our teaching, technologies of control (as well as of and how specific gaps in protection while lecturing in the department. I ... Cristiano Turbil, Alex Mankoo and Saba Mirza. care), while also shouldering some are made and maintained, explained, asked her how she felt about joining of the cost for others’ protection, endured, elided or protested'. STS and moving to London after notably through foreign regulation of spending time in Motreal and Senegal. aflatoxins in the groundnuts they have Noemi is a historian of science sought to export.' and public health in late-colonial and 'I’m thrilled to be joining such a In addition, she was postcolonial Africa, and much of her dynamic department, and especially ...and involved with, among other I HOPE TO LEARN research concerns the interaction looking forward to getting to know things, the regulatory body for between technoscience (biomedical, it properly. Having this time for departures chiropractors, and Save British FROM THE environmental and agricultural) and research is a privilege, and I’m Science/The Campaign for Sadly, the department also bid embodied risks, vulnerabilities and expecting to return with lots of stories Science and Engineering. In her DEPARTMENTAL farewell to Norma Morris, who exposures in Africa, particularly in and questions to wonder at and spare time, she enjoys travelling joined the department back in COMMUNITY NEW Senegal. 'I ask how, in and around puzzle through with students and and canoeing. Now reaching 1996 - despite already having these interactions, global inequalities colleagues. I hope to learn from the her second retirement, Norma WAYS OF SPEAKING retired - as an honorary research in health and in capacity are created, departmental community new ways of plans to spend far more time on fellow. Prior to joining the TO EVER BROADER experienced and called into question'. speaking to ever broader audiences the latter activities! about our work, and to bring to it new department, she worked for the AUDIENCES ABOUT UK Medical Research Council, Protection and unprotection ways of thinking about methods and Norma has long been reaching the position of executive OUR WORK, AND TO – i.e. the active production or how they can reveal and address an important part of the director. She continued to work preservation of gaps in protection – global inequalities. I aim especially to department, both in terms BRING TO IT NEW on a number of projects, writing are central themes in her work, as create and strengthen links between of research output, and in countless papers and bringing WAYS OF THINKING are infrastructure, temporality, toxicity STS and other parts of UCL and other contributing to the collegiate considerable research grants into ABOUT METHODS and immunity. 'I am particularly academic communities, notably in feel of the building, and while the department, and was awarded interested in how (un)protection African studies, anthropology, medical we'll no doubt hear more from a PhD in Science Policy in 2004 'By investigating histories of is, over time, defined, distributed humanities and global health'. her in future, the department is from the University of Twente biomedical and agricultural research, and (de)politicized in relation to the sad to see her go. Best wishes (Netherlands). food regulation and immunization, I production and uses of scientific Interview - Malcolm Chalmers for the future! hope to better understand how techno- knowledge and technologies'. Norma Morris, at her leaving party.

24 ALCHEMY SPRING 2019 UCL DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY STUDIES 25 Department Department

Departmental news Departmental news

Accessibility BEAMS-ing with pride STS Teacher problems Inset Day: Professional Services staff Women in solved recognised STS has taken a number of Science steps to improve the accessi- UCL BEAMS (The School of the The Department ran its first bility of its communications, by Built Environment, Engineering and Inset day for teachers in improving both the STS web- Mathematical and Physical Sciences) 2018, to help encourage site and its audio-visual mate- combines the various departments young women into STEM rial. Firstly, STS has been one from the Bartlett Faculty of the Built subjects. of the first UCL departments to Environment, UCL Engineering, move to a Drupal-based web- and the Faculty of Mathematics and A considerable gender gap exists site, and as a result the website Physical Sciences, which includes when looking at STEM subjects at is now much easier to use on STS. In an attempt to recognise the University, despite girls outscoring mobile devices, and has addi- positive attitude and commitment that boys in tests at school level. The 'THE SPEAKERS WERE tional benefits for those using individual professional services staff Malcolm (above) and Lori (below) field of STS, with its insight into screen readers and similar. in BEAMS bring to their work, and to receiving their awards from Rex Knight communication and policy, has ALL EXTREMELY This has been in place since celebrate how they are contributing to much to offer when trying to solve ENGAGING AND summer 2018, and will likely the UCL 2034 enablers, the BEAMS this issue, and so the department KNOWLEDGEABLE! undergo further improvements Professional Services Awards were decided to run its first Inset day to in Summer 2019. founded in 2017. help teachers find new approaches THANK YOU!' for encouraging young women to Free copies of the book were also Second, our popular STS Ca- This year, two members of the take up STEM subjects. given to attendees to help provide reers podcasts have all been STS Professional Services team were 'THIS WAS A REALLY inspiration for future classes. transcribed, and pdf versions recognised for their work. Department The day began with a brief USEFUL + INSIGHTFUL are available on the STS web- Manager Lori Coletti Campbell introduction from Dr Emma Tobin, WORKSHOP - THANK YOU Following a short coffee break, site. This makes the interviews was runner-up in the 'Valuing our covering the programme for the SO MUCH!' the group then moved to the UCL much easier to follow, both staff and delivering on equality and day, before Dr Emily Dawson held a Art Museum where Dr Chiara for those with hearing impair- diversity' category, while Operations The prize giving was followed by a session on 'The Co-construction of Ambrosio discussed using objects ments, and those unable to lis- Administrator Malcolm Chalmers was short speech from Rex Knight - Vice Gender and Science'. 'REALLY GOOD and informal science learning ten for other reasons. the winner of the 'Communicating and Provost (Operations), who thanked spaces to move beyond standard engaging effectively with the world' staff for their nominations, and Head of Department Prof. Joe DISCUSSION, GET TO teaching approaches. Using several Finally, our video content has award. praised the entire UCL Professional Cain then gave a talk on using THINK THINGS THROUGH artworks from the museum, Chiara increased in the last year, with Services group for their work, noting biographies to move beyond the PROPERLY. LOVE THE discussed ways in which historical recordings of our JBS Haldane that without their assistance and Nearly 80 separate nominations idea of the 'genius male scientist' - a BACKGROUND AND views of men and women can lectures, our Module Catalogue were submitted in total - to receive input, UCL would not have the global talk based around the book 'Women be countered, allowing for a less videos, virtual open days, semi- two awards for a relatively small reputation that it does. in Science' by Rachel Ignotofsky. LITERATURE.' gender-biased teaching method. nar recordings and more. STS department can be considered quite is now committed to including a success, and both Malcolm and Lori Nominations for the BEAMS After a brief tour around full closed captioning on all of were nominated by STS staff for their Professional Services award begin in UCL's 'Disrupters and Innovators' our video material. Our entire continued dedication to helping the May 2019. If you have a member of exhibition, the group then broke for module catalogue and all of department maintain its already high staff you wish to nominate, details will lunch, finishing off with a detailed our Haldane recordings and standards. be found on the UCL BEAMS website. session on using data analytics promotional videos are fully to make gender inequality more subtitled, with our seminar re- visible, held by PhDs students kat cordings next in line. cecil and Em O'Sullivan.

Do you have any suggestions Feedback from the event was for improving our accessibility, overwhelmingly positive, and future or have you noticed any issues inset days are planned. If you're a with our existing material? Let teacher and would like to take part, us know and we'll do our best or would like someone from STS to to improve - email [email protected] give a talk to your pupils, contact the department by email at sts@ucl. The combined winners of the BEAMS Professional Services Awards ac.uk

26 ALCHEMY SPRING 2019 UCL DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY STUDIES 27 Department Department

Departmental news Departmental news

JBS Haldane Memorial Lectures - Module-Tube Four in a row! The JBS Haldane Lecture Series is Changes in UCL policy have hugely the flagship lecture series held by restricted the time available for the Department. Launched in 2014, students to choose their modules the series has presented talks from and change their choices. Whereas experts such as Helen Longino and in previous years, students could Simon Schaffer, and in 2018, three attend a small number of lectures different lectures took place, each before finalising their decision, representing the varied work the modules must now be finalised in department covers. Term 1.

In January, just after publication To help students understand of the last issue of Alchemy, Prof. what they can look forward to, the Heather Douglas asked 'How can the department has recorded short Public Assess Expertise?'. Centred introductory videos for nearly every around the case of the earthquakes module available - a total of 41 at in L'Aquila, Italy, and the subsequent this point. These modules cover manslaughter charges, Prof. Douglas basic information about the course - analysed the position of experts STS1Book - Who is the tutor? What topics will be in society, and asked what tools covered? What is the assessment? non-experts could use to verify the Inferior Do I need to know anything in arguments presented to them. advance? - while also giving potential The STS 1Book for 2018- students a chance to encounter their As the academic year ended in 19 is Angela Saini's 'Inferior'. lecturers for the first time. June, Prof. Trevor Pinch (Cornell) Shedding light on controversial and the fantastical fictions of Poe presented his postponed talk on the how his instruments influenced the research and investigating the We also hope that these videos and Barnum history of the Moog Synthesiser as music of the time This was followed ferocious gender wars in biology, help publicise the department a Technological and Sound Object. at the start of the 2018/19 year with psychology and anthropology, more widely, with applicants to our As this issue goes to press, A professor in the emerging field an equally fascinating lecture from Saini takes readers on an eye- courses able to see for themselves the department has held the first of Sound Studies, Prof. Pinch's talk Prof. John Tresch of the Warburg opening journey to uncover how the kind of subject matter they might Haldane Lecture of 2019, with looked at the work of Bob Moog, and Institute. By drawing similarities women are being rediscovered. be introduced to as part of a degree Prof. Massimiano Bucchi of the between the lives and works of from STS. three figures - conman P.T. Barnum, University of Trento with his talk All students and staff, including 'Geniuses, Heroes and Saints: How polymath Alexander Dallas Bache, our incoming first years, were As our module catalogue varies the Nobel Prize has (re)invented and writer Edgar Allen Poe, Prof. invited to read this book over from year to year, we hope to keep the public image of science'. His Tresch suggested a harmonius link the summer in preparation for this resource updated with new, book on the history of the prize will between the public image of science, the new year. The aim is to give exciting module choices. If you'd be published by MIT Press later a common reference point for like to take a look at what STS has in 2019, and the talk provided a discussions during the first term. to offer, visit the STS UCL Youtube unique opportunity to hear Prof. As part of this Angela Saini will channel and search for the playlist 'THE SCIENTIFIC Bucchi discuss his work in person. be visiting the department to give 'HPSC Modules' COMMUNITY LEAPS a short talk and hold a Q&A on Details of forthcoming talks, TO THEIR DEFENCE. Wednesday 13th March. Words - Malcolm Chalmers and links to reserve your seat SCIENTISTS MESSED can be found on the STS website. Since choosing Inferior for UP, AND THEY MESSED Fully subtitled video of the 2018 our 1Book, it has received lectures can also be found on considerable publicity, including UP BADLY. THE the department YouTube channel, a campaign to place a copy in SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY with the recording of Massimiano every school in the country - so Bucchi due to follow - to be notified we expect this event to be very THEN CIRCLED THE of future talks, sign up to our busy. For more information, and WAGONS'. Mailchimp list by emailing sts@ucl. to reserve your place, visit the ac.uk or clicking the link on our STS 1Book event page on the website - www.ucl.ac.uk/sts STS website - www.ucl.ac.uk/sts/ HEATHER DOUGLAS, sts-events, or search Eventbrite l-r - John Tresch, Massimiano Bucchi, Heather Words - Malcolm Chalmers for '1Book'. Douglas, Trevor Pinch, and JBS Haldane. JANUARY 2018 (From top-bottom) Dr Cristiano Turbil, Dr Emily Dawson, Dr Simon Werrett, Dr Chiara Ambrosio, Dr Erman Sozudogru, Dr Carina Fearnley and Dr Bill Maclehose

28 ALCHEMY SPRING 2019 UCL DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY STUDIES 29 Department Department

STS Seminars BOOKSHELF In addition to the book launches discussed earlier, the following department-related books came out in 2018. The STS Seminar series continues Being Modern - Frank James (Editor) (UCL Press) to provide a showcase for recent THE In the early decades of the twentieth century, engagement with research across the whole of science was commonly used as an emblem of modernity. This Science and Technology Studies. phenomenon is now attracting increasing attention in different historical specialties. Being Modern builds on this recent scholarly Recordings of the talks are interest to explore engagement with science across culture from the end of the nineteenth century to approximately 1940. available via the STS website and Youtube channel, alongside Seventeen distinguished contributors from a range of fields including the cultural study of science and technology, art and recordings from previous years architecture, English culture and literature examine the issues involved. The book will be a valuable resource for students, and a spur to scholars to further examination of culture as an At time of publication, the following talks have taken place, and can be interconnected web of which science was a critical part, and to viewed on the STS website and STS Youtube Channel supersede such tired formulations as 'Science and culture'. Kathleen Vogel (UMD): ‘Bringing the National Security Agency into Thrifty Science - Simon Werrett (Chicago) the classroom: ethical reflections on academia-intelligence agency partnerships’ If the twentieth century saw the rise of “Big Science,” then the Anna Alexandrova (HPS, University of Cambridge): seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were surely an age of 'When well-being becomes a number' thrift. As Simon Werrett’s new history shows, frugal early modern experimenters transformed their homes into laboratories as Dr Ian Kidd (Nottingham): 'Feyerabend, science, and scientism' they recycled, repurposed, repaired, and reused their material Dr Alex Wragge-Morley (UCL History): 'Aesthetic Sciences: Empiricism possessions to learn about the natural world. and Embodied Intersubjectivity in the early 18th Century and Beyond'. Mark Johnson (University of Alberta): 'Why do people watch other people Thrifty Science explores this distinctive culture of experiment playing video games? The rise of the broadcasting and spectating of and demonstrates how the values of the household helped to digital play'. shape an array of experimental inquiries, ranging from esoteric Rebecca Wright (Northumbria University): 68 Degrees: Health, Energy investigations of glowworms and sour beer to famous experiments and Politics in New York City’s Residential Heat and Hot Water Code, such as Benjamin Franklin’s use of a kite to show lightning was 1918-1968 electrical and Isaac Newton’s investigations of color using prisms. Wendy Parker (Durham University): 'Attributing climate change: Risk, This thriving domestic culture of inquiry was eclipsed by new Storylines and Beyond' (not recorded) forms of experimental culture in the nineteenth century, however, culminating in the resource-hungry science of the twentieth. Audra J. Wolfe - 'Science, Freedom, and the Cold War: A Political History Could thrifty science be making a comeback today, as scientists of Apolitical Science' grapple with the need to make their research more environmentally FRUGAL EARLY Josie Gill (Bristol) - 'Handle with Care': Literature, Archaeology, Slavery sustainable? MODERN Evaluating Evidence of Mechanisms in Medicine: EXPERIMENTERS The following Term 2 talks are due to take place on the dates below: Principles and Procedures - B. Clarke, P Illari et al TRANSFORMED (Springer) • 6 March 2019 Elaine Leong, UCL History/Max Planck Institute for the THEIR History of Science The EEiM (Evaluating Evidence in Medicine) project, which HOMES INTO 'Learning medicine by the book in early modern England' ran for three years, looked at issues with the approach of EBM - Evidence-based Medicine. While EBM is great at weighing LABORATORIES • 20 March 2019 Rob Iliffe (Oxford) statistical evidence of associations, it can also be error-prone for a AS THEY ‘Creativity and the Invention of the Scientific Genius, 1740-1860’. number of reasons. For example, blood pressure trials are typically Talks begin at 4.30pm - for details including venues, abstracts and administered on clean populations, whereas the treatment is RECYCLED, usually given to people with multiple morbidities. Also, hardly any REPURPOSED, biographies of the speakers, visit the STS calendar at https://www.ucl. trials are done on pregnant women or for drugs with little financial ac.uk/sts/sts-events. If you would like to be informed of future seminars, promise. EBM+ tries to find a better way, by looking for evidence REPAIRED, AND sign up to the STS Mailchimp mailing list - email [email protected] for details. of mechanisms, rather than just results. REUSED THEIR Evaluating Evidence of Mechanisms in Medicine is available MATERIAL Kathleen Vogel, Alex Wragge-Morley and Ian now via open access - visit ebmplus.org to find out more. POSSESSIONS Kidd, giving their 2018 seminars.

30 ALCHEMY SPRING 2019 UCL DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY STUDIES 31 DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY STUDIES ALCHEMY SPRING 2019

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