DOCSLIB.ORG

Putting Science in Its Place Science.Culture a Series Edited by Steven Shapin

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Putting Science in Its Place Science.Culture a Series Edited by Steven Shapin Putting Science in Its Place science.culture A series edited by Steven Shapin Other science.culture series titles available: The Scientific Revolution, by Steven Shapin Putting Science in Its Place Geographies of Scientific Knowledge David N. Livingstone The University of Chicago Press Chicago and London David Livingstone is professor of geography and intellectual history at Queen’s University, Belfast. A Fellow of the British Academy and the Royal Society of Arts and a member of the Royal Irish Academy, Livingstone is the author of numerous books, including The Geographical Tradition: Episodes in the History of a Contested Enterprise. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637 The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London © 2003 by The University of Chicago All rights reserved. Published 2003 Printed in the United States of America 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 1 2 3 4 5 ISBN: 0-226-48722-9 (cloth) Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Livingstone, David N., 1953– Putting science in its place : geographies of scientific knowledge / David N. Livingstone. p. cm. — (Science.culture) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-226-48722-9 (acid-free paper) 1. Science—Social aspects. 2. Science and civilization. I. Title. II. Series. Q175.5 .L59 2003 303.48؅3—dc21 2003001355 ø The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992. For Frances Contents List of Illustrations ix Preface xi 1 a geography of science? 1 2 site: Venues of Science 17 3 region: Cultures of Science 87 4 circulation: Movements of Science 135 5 putting science in its place 179 Bibliographical Essay 187 Index 285 Illustrations 1 The Brazilian coast 9 2 View of Jaffa 11 3 “The Alchemist in His Laboratory” 18 4 Whitaker’s encampment in the Sahara 19 5 Museum of the apothecary Francesco Calzolari 20 6 Inner quadrangle of Glasgow College 28 7 Museum of Ferrante Imperato 31 8 The Outlook Tower 36 9 The Natural History Museum 39 10 Joseph Dalton Hooker in the Himalayas 46 11 The Garden of Eden 50 12 Plan of the botanical garden at Padua 53 13 Isidore Geoffrey Saint-Hilaire at the Jardin Zoologique d’Acclimatation 57 14 Plan of the Jardin Zoologique d’Acclimatation 59 15 A typical Nightingale ward 65 16 St. Thomas’s Hospital, London 67 17 Bedlam Hospital 70 18 The State Asylum for the Insane at Tuscaloosa 72 19 Frontispiece of Riccioli’s Almagestum Novum 95 20 Illustration of a New World medicinal plant 98 21 Gresham College 102 22 List of toasts to honor the British Association for the Advancement of Science 110 23 Cartoon depicting Thomas Wakeley as a jackdaw 112 24 Alexander von Humboldt in Venezuela 114 25 Caricature of William Robertson Smith 119 x illustrations 26 Cartoon of John Tyndall 120 27 Topographical map of Paris and environs 125 28 The Paris Observatory 127 29 Giraffe presented to the king of France 136 30 The Planisphere Terrestre by Cassini 144 31 A hypsometer or boiling-point apparatus 151 32 Wallace’s faunal and racial boundaries of the Malay Archipelago 162 33 “Inhabitants of the Island of Terra del Fuego in their Hut” 166 34 “A View of the Indians of Terra del Fuego in their Hut” 167 35 Photographic illustrations of typical racial types 170 36 The botanical garden on the island of St. Vincent 173 Preface There is something strange about science. Scientific inquiry takes place in highly specialist sites—high-tech labs, remote field stations, museum archives, astronomical observatories. It has also been pur- sued in coffee shops and cathedrals, in public houses and stock farms, on ships’ decks and exhibition stages. And yet the knowledge that is acquired in these places is taken to have ubiquitous qualities. Scien- tific findings, to put it another way, are both local and global; they are both particular and universal; they are both provincial and transcen- dental. To ask what role specific locations have in the making of sci- entific knowledge and to try to figure out how local experience is transformed into shared generalization is, I believe, to ask funda- mentally geographical questions. In large measure my interest in such questions arises from a re- versal of intellectual influence in my own thinking. That journey be- gan when I first embarked on the task of bringing the methods used by historians of scientific culture to bear on the history of geographi- cal thought and practice. My concern was to place the development of geography, as both discourse and discipline, in the wider context xii preface of social and intellectual history. At some point along the way I be- gan to wonder if influences might also move in the opposite direction. Could the craft competencies of the geographer, with interests in space and place, throw some light on the history of the scientific en- terprise? This book is my attempt to answer that question. Given my desire to convene conversations between geographers and historians of science, it is no surprise that I myself have benefited enormously from the stimulus and encouragement of colleagues in both communities. Accordingly, I am deeply indebted to Frank Gour- ley and Nuala Johnson for many helpful discussions, constructive crit- icism, generous reading, new leads, and fruitful suggestions. Besides the inspiration of his own work, the detailed observations of Steven Shapin on each of the chapters that follow were immensely profitable. Constructive engagement with the overall argument, as well as careful commentary on particular passages, by Adrian Johns, Robert Kohler, and Mark Monmonier was invaluable. Trevor Barnes, John Brooke, Stephen Williams, John Wilson, and Charles Withers acted as good friends should: they provided encouragement when I longed for it, criticism when I needed it, time when I asked for it, and advice when I sought it. Alas, despite their best efforts, the faults that remain in what follows are my own responsibility. To all these I must add Susan Abrams, who rendered welcome long-distance support by telephone and e-mail. I am most grateful to her for her belief in, and enthusiasm for, this whole undertaking. Christie Henry’s editorial expertise, Jennifer Howard’s efficiency in responding to queries and Gill Alexander’s skills in working with il- lustrations all did much to take the strain out of the final stages of the project. And I am much indebted to Alice Bennett for her deft and diligent copyediting. I am delighted too to acknowledge the support of the British Academy in the form of a two-year Research Reader- ship that allowed me space to inquire into the spaces of inquiry. 1 A Geography of Science? Scientific knowledge is made in a lot of different places. Does it mat- ter where? Can the location of scientific endeavor make any differ- ence to the conduct of science? And even more important, can it affect the content of science? In my view the answer to these ques- tions is yes. The suggestion that science has a geography goes against the grain. We can readily understand that there is a philosophy of science and a history of science, even a sociology of science. But the idea of a geography of science runs counter to our intuition. Science, we have long been told, is an enterprise untouched by local conditions. It is a universal undertaking, not a provincial practice. Of all the human projects devoted to getting at the truth of how things are, that venture we call science has surely been among the most assiduous in its efforts to transcend the parochial. It has been extraordinarily diligent in de- ploying mechanisms to lay aside prejudices and presuppositions and to guarantee objectivity by leaving the local behind. Credible knowl- edge, we assume, does not bear the marks of the provincial, and sci- ence that is local has something wrong with it. As one observer has 2 chapter one put it, “It was the end for cold fusion when people decided that it only happened in Salt Lake City.” Genuine science, after all, is carried on in much the same way everywhere from Boston to Beijing; experi- mentalists replicate each other’s results in Moscow and Melbourne; conference delegates from Paris and Prague can engage in scientific conversation. The places where science is conducted, then, seem to be of little or no consequence. Even geographers, despite their professional stake in matters of place and location, have been inclined to exempt science from the imperatives of spatial significance. To be sure, they have acknowledged from time to time that a geography of, say, as- tronomy could be written. But beyond such trivial circumstances as the fact that observatories are not erected in foggy valley floors or that the Pole Star is not visible in the Southern Hemisphere, there was re- ally nothing more to say. To suggest that the methods of astronomy, or the theories astronomers devised, might be influenced by their spatial settings was little short of absurd. Of course geographers— like everyone else—readily conceded that the diffusion of scientific discoveries and technical innovations could be charted over space and time. The paths by which a new agricultural technique or medical serum spread from its point of origin, for example, could be presented in map form. But beyond such platitudinous concessions, geography seemed to have little bearing on science. In adopting this hands-off attitude toward science, geographers have certainly not been alone. While sociologists—for long enough— were only too happy to socialize most everything from families and fi- estas to rituals and religions, they drew back from looking at science in sociological terms.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • General Index
    General Index Italicized page numbers indicate figures and tables. Color plates are in- cussed; full listings of authors’ works as cited in this volume may be dicated as “pl.” Color plates 1– 40 are in part 1 and plates 41–80 are found in the bibliographical index. in part 2. Authors are listed only when their ideas or works are dis- Aa, Pieter van der (1659–1733), 1338 of military cartography, 971 934 –39; Genoa, 864 –65; Low Coun- Aa River, pl.61, 1523 of nautical charts, 1069, 1424 tries, 1257 Aachen, 1241 printing’s impact on, 607–8 of Dutch hamlets, 1264 Abate, Agostino, 857–58, 864 –65 role of sources in, 66 –67 ecclesiastical subdivisions in, 1090, 1091 Abbeys. See also Cartularies; Monasteries of Russian maps, 1873 of forests, 50 maps: property, 50–51; water system, 43 standards of, 7 German maps in context of, 1224, 1225 plans: juridical uses of, pl.61, 1523–24, studies of, 505–8, 1258 n.53 map consciousness in, 636, 661–62 1525; Wildmore Fen (in psalter), 43– 44 of surveys, 505–8, 708, 1435–36 maps in: cadastral (See Cadastral maps); Abbreviations, 1897, 1899 of town models, 489 central Italy, 909–15; characteristics of, Abreu, Lisuarte de, 1019 Acequia Imperial de Aragón, 507 874 –75, 880 –82; coloring of, 1499, Abruzzi River, 547, 570 Acerra, 951 1588; East-Central Europe, 1806, 1808; Absolutism, 831, 833, 835–36 Ackerman, James S., 427 n.2 England, 50 –51, 1595, 1599, 1603, See also Sovereigns and monarchs Aconcio, Jacopo (d. 1566), 1611 1615, 1629, 1720; France, 1497–1500, Abstraction Acosta, José de (1539–1600), 1235 1501; humanism linked to, 909–10; in- in bird’s-eye views, 688 Acquaviva, Andrea Matteo (d.
    [Show full text]
  • Some Observations on Avoiding Pitfalls in Developing Future Flight Systems
    AIAA 97-3209 Some Observations on Avoiding Pitfalls in Developing Future Flight Systems Gary L. Bennett Metaspace Enterprises Emmett, Idaho; U.S.A. 33rd AIAA/ASME/SAEIASEEJoint Propulsion Conference & Exhibit July 6 - 9, 1997 I Seattle, WA For permission to copy or republish, contact the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics 1801 Alexander Bell Drive, Suite 500, Reston, VA 22091 SOME OBSERVATIONS ON AVOIDING PITFALLS IN DEVELOPING FUTURE FLIGHT SYSTEMS Gary L. Bennett* 5000 Butte Road Emmett, Idaho 83617-9500 Abstract Given the speculative proposals and the interest in A number of programs and concepts have been developing breakthrough propulsion systems it seems proposed 10 achieve breakthrough propulsion. As an prudent and appropriate to review some of the pitfalls cautionary aid 10 researchers in breakthrough that have befallen other programs in "speculative propulsion or other fields of advanced endeavor, case science" so that similar pitfalls can be avoided in the histories of potential pitfalls in scientific research are future. And, given the interest in UFO propulsion, described. From these case histories some general some guidelines to use in assessing the reality of UFOs characteristics of erroneous science are presented. will also be presented. Guidelines for assessing exotic propulsion systems are suggested. The scientific method is discussed and some This paper will summarize some of the principal tools for skeptical thinking are presented. Lessons areas of "speculative science" in which researchers learned from a recent case of erroneous science are were led astray and it will then provide an overview of listed. guidelines which, if implemented, can greatly reduce Introduction the occurrence of errors in research.
    [Show full text]
  • Mapping Robert Storr
    Mapping Robert Storr Author Storr, Robert Date 1994 Publisher The Museum of Modern Art: Distributed by H.N. Abrams ISBN 0870701215, 0810961407 Exhibition URL www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/436 The Museum of Modern Art's exhibition history— from our founding in 1929 to the present—is available online. It includes exhibition catalogues, primary documents, installation views, and an index of participating artists. MoMA © 2017 The Museum of Modern Art bk 99 £ 05?'^ £ t***>rij tuin .' tTTTTl.l-H7—1 gm*: \KN^ ( Ciji rsjn rr &n^ u *Trr» 4 ^ 4 figS w A £ MoMA Mapping Robert Storr THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, NEW YORK DISTRIBUTED BY HARRY N. ABRAMS, INC., NEW YORK (4 refuse Published in conjunction with the exhibition Mappingat The Museum of Modern Art, New York, October 6— tfoti h December 20, 1994, organized by Robert Storr, Curator, Department of Painting and Sculpture The exhibition is supported by AT&TNEW ART/NEW VISIONS. Additional funding is provided by the Contemporary Exhibition Fund of The Museum of Modern Art, established with gifts from Lily Auchincloss, Agnes Gund and Daniel Shapiro, and Mr. and Mrs. Ronald S. Lauder. This publication is supported in part by a grant from The Junior Associates of The Museum of Modern Art. Produced by the Department of Publications The Museum of Modern Art, New York Osa Brown, Director of Publications Edited by Alexandra Bonfante-Warren Designed by Jean Garrett Production by Marc Sapir Printed by Hull Printing Bound by Mueller Trade Bindery Copyright © 1994 by The Museum of Modern Art, New York Certain illustrations are covered by claims to copyright cited in the Photograph Credits.
    [Show full text]
  • Session Abstracts for 2013 HSS Meeting
    Session Abstracts for 2013 HSS Meeting Sessions are sorted alphabetically by session title. Only organized sessions have a session abstract. Title: 100 Years of ISIS - 100 Years of History of Greek Science Abstract: However symbolic they may be, the years 1913-2013 correspond to a dramatic transformation in the approach to the history of ancient science, particularly Greek science. Whereas in the early 20th century, the Danish historian of sciences Johan Ludvig Heiberg (1854-1928) was publishing the second edition of Archimedes’ works, in the early 21st century the study of Archimedes' contribution has been dramatically transformed thanks to the technological analysis of the famous palimpsest. This session will explore the historiography of Greek science broadly understood during the 20th century, including the impact of science and technology applied to ancient documents and texts. This session will be in the form of an open workshop starting with three short papers (each focusing on a segment of the period of time under consideration, Antiquity, Byzantium, Post-Byzantine period) aiming at generating a discussion. It is expected that the report of the discussion will lead to the publication of a paper surveying the historiography of Greek science during the 20th century. Title: Acid Rain Acid Science Acid Debates Abstract: The debate about the nature and effect of airborne acid rain became a formative environmental debate in the 1970s, particularly in North America and northern Europe. Based on the scientific, political, and social views of the observers, which rationality and whose knowledge one should trust in determining facts became an issue. The papers in this session discuss why scientists from different countries and socio-political backgrounds came to different conclusions about the extent of acidification.
    [Show full text]
  • The Opening of the Atlantic World: England's
    THE OPENING OF THE ATLANTIC WORLD: ENGLAND’S TRANSATLANTIC INTERESTS DURING THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII By LYDIA TOWNS DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements For the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at The University of Texas at Arlington May, 2019 Arlington, Texas Supervising Committee: Imre Demhardt, Supervising Professor John Garrigus Kathryne Beebe Alan Gallay ABSTRACT THE OPENING OF THE ATLANTIC WORLD: ENGLAND’S TRANSATLANTIC INTERESTS DURING THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII Lydia Towns, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Arlington, 2019 Supervising Professor: Imre Demhardt This dissertation explores the birth of the English Atlantic by looking at English activities and discussions of the Atlantic world from roughly 1481-1560. Rather than being disinterested in exploration during the reign of Henry VIII, this dissertation proves that the English were aware of what was happening in the Atlantic world through the transnational flow of information, imagined the potentials of the New World for both trade and colonization, and actively participated in the opening of transatlantic trade through transnational networks. To do this, the entirety of the Atlantic, all four continents, are considered and the English activity there analyzed. This dissertation uses a variety of methods, examining cartographic and literary interpretations and representations of the New World, familial ties, merchant networks, voyages of exploration and political and diplomatic material to explore my subject across the social strata of England, giving equal weight to common merchants’ and scholars’ perceptions of the Atlantic as I do to Henry VIII’s court. Through these varied methods, this dissertation proves that the creation of the British Atlantic was not state sponsored, like the Spanish Atlantic, but a transnational space inhabited and expanded by merchants, adventurers and the scholars who created imagined spaces for the English.
    [Show full text]
  • Downloading Physics Preprints from Arxiv Would Be Quite Unaware That a Paper in General Physics Has to Be Treated Differently to Papers in Other Categories
    1 The Ecology of Fringe Science and its Bearing on Policy Harry Collins, Andrew Bartlett and Luis Reyes-Galindo School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University1 emails: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] Introduction Fringe science has been an important topic since the start of the revolution in the social studies of science that occurred in the early 1970s.2 As a softer-edged model of the sciences developed, fringe science was a ‘hard case’ on which to hammer out the idea that scientific truth was whatever came to count as scientific truth: scientific truth emerged from social closure. The job of those studying fringe science was to recapture the rationality of its proponents, showing how, in terms of the procedures of science, they could be right and the mainstream could be wrong and therefore the consensus position is formed by social agreement. One outcome of this way of thinking is that sociologists of science informed by the perspective outlined above find themselves short of argumentative resources for demarcating science from non-science. The distinction with traditional philosophy of science, which readily demarcates fringe subjects such as parapsychology by referring to their ‘irrationality’ or some such, is marked.3 For the sociologist of scientific knowledge, that kind of demarcation comprises 1 This paper is joint work by researchers supported by two grants: ESRC to Harry Collins, (RES/K006401/1) £277,184, What is scientific consensus for policy? Heartlands and hinterlands of physics (2014-2016); British Academy Post-Doctoral Fellowship to Luis Reyes-Galindo, (PF130024) £223,732, The social boundaries of scientific knowledge: a case study of 'green' Open Access (2013-2016).
    [Show full text]
  • Ecology, a Romantic Science?
    CONEIXEMENT I SOCIETAT 11 ARTICLES ECOLOGY, A ROMANTIC SCIENCE? Josep M. Camarasa* Ecology is an unusual scientific discipline with characteristics which it shares with very few others (it is, for ex- ample, a science of synthesis, its multiple roots, holistic focus, etc.). These characteristics and the history of the discipline show ecology to be a science which is deeply marked by the Romantic thought of the late 18th and early 19th centuries and which has reached its high points in periods which coincided with a flourishing of Romantic thought –understood as a critique of contemporary civilisation from within, or a critique of modernity. Contents 1. Justification 2. ‘Normal’ science and scientific revolutions 3. Ecology, a Romantic science? A science that differs from others Romanticism and modernity: an ongoing dialectic Science and Romanticism: the emergence of ecology 4. Holism and reductionism in the history of ecology The protohistory of ecology: from Humboldt to Haeckel Ecology’s view of itself: from the name to the thing The ecology of the inter-war period: the emergence of key concepts The ecological revolution of the 1950s and 1960s: matter, energy and information Not yet a fully? ‘normal’ science: recent developments 5. What now? When is the next revival due? * Josep M. Camarasa is an advisor to the Scientific Secretariat of the Institut d'Estudis Catalans. 6 ECOLOGY, A ROMANTIC SCIENCE? 1. Justification ceda with Romanticism, not to mention Schubert, Schumann, Gericault and C. D. Friedrich. Howev- Ecology as a Romantic science? This affirmation er, few would manage to name even one Romantic will, no doubt, be greeted by many with a smile of scientist, despite the fact that the period generally condescension, confirming them in their view that associated with the Romantic movement (late 18th ecology is not a ‘serious’ science.
    [Show full text]
  • Twenty-First Century American Ghost Hunting: a Late Modern Enchantment
    Twenty-First Century American Ghost Hunting: A Late Modern Enchantment Daniel S. Wise New Haven, CT Bachelor oF Arts, Florida State University, 2010 Master oF Arts, Florida State University, 2012 A Dissertation presented to the Graduate Faculty oF the University oF Virginia in Candidacy For the Degree oF Doctor oF Philosophy Department oF Religious Studies University oF Virginia November, 2020 Committee Members: Erik Braun Jack Hamilton Matthew S. Hedstrom Heather A. Warren Contents Acknowledgments 3 Chapter 1 Introduction 5 Chapter 2 From Spiritualism to Ghost Hunting 27 Chapter 3 Ghost Hunting and Scientism 64 Chapter 4 Ghost Hunters and Demonic Enchantment 96 Chapter 5 Ghost Hunters and Media 123 Chapter 6 Ghost Hunting and Spirituality 156 Chapter 7 Conclusion 188 Bibliography 196 Acknowledgments The journey toward competing this dissertation was longer than I had planned and sometimes bumpy. In the end, I Feel like I have a lot to be thankFul For. I received graduate student Funding From the University oF Virginia along with a travel grant that allowed me to attend a ghost hunt and a paranormal convention out oF state. The Skinner Scholarship administered by St. Paul’s Memorial Church in Charlottesville also supported me For many years. I would like to thank the members oF my committee For their support and For taking the time to comb through this dissertation. Thank you Heather Warren, Erik Braun, and Jack Hamilton. I especially want to thank my advisor Matthew Hedstrom. He accepted me on board even though I took the unconventional path oF being admitted to UVA to study Judaism and Christianity in antiquity.
    [Show full text]
  • On the Distribution of Species from Humboldt and Darwin to DNA
    On the Distribution of Species From Humboldt and Darwin to DNA Sequencing and ‘Spatial Turns’ (Version: 12 – Feb – 2018) Dr. Nils Güttler & Dr. Bernhard C. Schär ETH Zurich Spring Semester 2018 Time Tue 13.15—15.00 Location HG F 26.5 Abstract How did life on planet earth not only evolve over time, but disperse across geographical space? This is one of the core questions of biogeography--a less known subdiscipline emerging around 1800 and continuing to the present. This seminar ask how biogeography came to shape our understanding of where animals, plants, people, and cultures on planet earth 'came from' and 'belong'. Objectives Much of the intellectual history of the life sciences--from the early days of Natural History to modern Biology--rests on two pillars: 1) the question of how life evolved over time, and 2) the question of how life dispersed across geographical space. While there is a vast historiographical literature on pillar no. 1 (mostly on Darwin and Darwinism), the spatial dimension of the life sciences has received far less attention by historians of science. Research into the distribution of life across space belongs to the little known subdiscipline of 'Biogeography'. Alexander von Humboldt, Alfred Russel Wallace, and Alphonse de Candolle count among the 'founding fathers' of the discipline. The aim of this seminar is to explore how theories, practices, and tools of biogeography changed from their inception in the 19th century to their more recent applications, e.g. in DNA sequencing and the environmental sciences. Students will engage with classical texts from the field and explore how their authors were both shaped by and shaped their changing social, cultural and political environments.
    [Show full text]
  • Atlas Miller
    16 5 INTERNATIONAL MAP COLLECTORS’ SOCIETY JUNE 2021 No. 165 Fine & Rare Antique Maps, Sea Charts, Town Views & Atlases R areMaps.com 7407 La Jolla Blvd. | La Jolla, CA 92037 [email protected] | 858.551.8500 FOR PEOPLE WHO LOVE MAPS JOURNAL OF THE INTERNATIONAL MAP COLLECTORS’ SOCIETY JUNE 2021 No.165 ISSN 0956-5728 ARTICLES Recently Discovered: Three eighteenth-century manuscript maps of Exeter by William Chapple 7 Ian Maxted The Atlas Miller (1519–1522): A Trojan horse against Magellan’s project 15 Alfredo Pinheiro Marques Revealing the Mysterious West: Claude and Guillaume Delisle’s maps of North America, 1700–1718 29 Wesley A. Brown REGULAR ITEMS Letter from the Acting Chairman 3 Editorial 5 New Members 5 IMCoS Matters 48 IMCoS Summer Lectures 38th IMCoS International Symposium, Brussels You Write to Us 54 Book Reviews 56 The Mappae Mundi of Medieval Iceland by Dale Kedwards, (P.D.A. Harvey) Historical Sea Charts: Visions and Voyages through the Ages by Katherine Parker & Barry Lawrence Ruderman, (Andrew Cook) Charles Booth’s London Poverty Maps by Mary S. Morgan and the London School of Economics, (Ljiljana Ortolja-Baird) Bristol in 1480 – A Medieval Merchant City by The Historic Towns Trust in association with the University of Bristol, (David Fletcher) Cartography Calendar 62 Front cover Lopo Homem, Pedro Reinel, Jorge Reinel, António de Holanda, detail from the manuscript map of the Indian Ocean from the facsimile of Atlas Miller. © M. Moleiro Editor (www.moleiro.com) www.imcos.org 1 THE ATLAS MILLER (1519 –1522) A Trojan horse
    [Show full text]
  • Searching for SETI: the Social Construction of Aliens and the Quest for a Technological Mythos
    Searching for SETI: The Social Construction of Aliens and the Quest for a Technological Mythos John Marvin Bozeman Dissertation submitted to the faculty of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy In Science and Technology Studies Janet A. Abbate, Co-Chair Shannon A. Brown, Co-Chair Lee L. Zwanziger Paul D. Renard March 24, 2015 Falls Church, Virginia Keywords: Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, SETI, Actor Network Theory, Social Construction of Technology, Rational Choice Theory of Religion, Transhumanism, Xenosalvation Copyright John M. Bozeman Searching for SETI: The Social Construction of Aliens and the Quest for a Technological Mythos John M. Bozeman ABSTRACT This dissertation uses Actor Network Theory (ANT) and Stark and Bainbridge’s rational choice theory of religion to analyze an established but controversial branch of science and technology, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). Of particular interest are the cultural, and sometimes religious, assumptions that its creators have built into it. The purpose of this analysis is not to discredit SETI, but instead to show how SETI, along with other avant-garde scientific projects, is founded, motivated, and propelled by many of the same types of values and visions for the future that motivate the founders of religious groups. I further argue that the utopian zeal found in SETI and similar movements is not aberrant, but instead common, and perhaps necessary, in many early- stage projects, whether technical or spiritual, which lack a clear near-term commercial or social benefit. DEDICATION In memory of my parents, James E.
    [Show full text]
  • Free Energy Scams
    Bad Science: Perpetual Motion There have been countless claims by quacks for the last 1200 years that machines could be built that would: # Provide energy with no energy input # Produce more energy than what was input into the system Both are clear violations of the 1st law of thermodynamics! The "Testatika" by Paul Bauman, a German engineer. Perpetuum Mobile of Villard de The device’s operation has been recorded as far back as 1960s at a place called Methernitha (near Berne, Honnecourt (about 1230) Switzerland). Supposedly, the community benefits from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_perpetual_motion_machines the invention. [38] “Free Energy” Scams There have also been many claims by con-artists who have claim to have built modern perpetual motion machines or technology that mysteriously extracts energy from the rotation of the earth, magnetic field of the earth, zero-point energy in vacuums, etc. Example: Check out http://www.steorn.com # $100,000 USD ad in “The Economist” claiming that this technology is developed, and they want a panel of scientists to test its validity (all test results will be held secret) # Scientist identities have not been revealed # Work not submitted for peer review, nor has been it been revealed in any form to the academic/research community at large # Incredible PR stunt, no science: the science of the con is to remove you from your wallet as quickly as possible! Pseudoscience & Voodoo science # Most well-trained scientists are extremely skeptical, as theory, experimentation and proof of concept are key elements of proper science Pseudosciences: parapsychology, homeopathy, phrenology, perpetual motion, flat earth, creation science/intelligent design, quantum mysticism, etc.
    [Show full text]