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Download Report 2010-12 RESEARCH REPORt 2010—2012 MAX-PLANCK-INSTITUT FÜR WISSENSCHAFTSGESCHICHTE Max Planck Institute for the History of Science Cover: Aurora borealis paintings by William Crowder, National Geographic (1947). The International Geophysical Year (1957–8) transformed research on the aurora, one of nature’s most elusive and intensely beautiful phenomena. Aurorae became the center of interest for the big science of powerful rockets, complex satellites and large group efforts to understand the magnetic and charged particle environment of the earth. The auroral visoplot displayed here provided guidance for recording observations in a standardized form, translating the sublime aesthetics of pictorial depictions of aurorae into the mechanical aesthetics of numbers and symbols. Most of the portait photographs were taken by Skúli Sigurdsson RESEARCH REPORT 2010—2012 MAX-PLANCK-INSTITUT FÜR WISSENSCHAFTSGESCHICHTE Max Planck Institute for the History of Science Introduction The Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG) is made up of three Departments, each administered by a Director, and several Independent Research Groups, each led for five years by an outstanding junior scholar. Since its foundation in 1994 the MPIWG has investigated fundamental questions of the history of knowl- edge from the Neolithic to the present. The focus has been on the history of the natu- ral sciences, but recent projects have also integrated the history of technology and the history of the human sciences into a more panoramic view of the history of knowl- edge. Of central interest is the emergence of basic categories of scientific thinking and practice as well as their transformation over time: examples include experiment, ob- servation, normalcy, space, evidence, biodiversity or force. Because the research of the Institute pursues questions of philosophical epistemology historically, the com- mon perspective of the diverse research activities is often called “historical epistemol- ogy.” This Research Report describes in detail the work of all of the MPIWG’s research units 2010–12. This work would not have been possible without the support of our Advisory Board. We hope that the results presented in this report will reward the reading. At any given moment, there are approximately seventy-five scholars working at the MPIWG, from pre- and post-doctoral fellows to senior visiting scholars. Their back- grounds are multi-disciplinary and international; their projects engage topics from ancient cosmologies to the acoustical design of modern theatres, from Renaissance alchemical laboratories to the sciences of Big Data. Although many are working on individual projects (a dissertation, an article, a monograph), all are part of the larger thematic research projects described in these pages. Since its inception, the MPIWG has encouraged collective research and publication in the humanities in the form of Working Groups that combine the expertise of many specialties and encourage sus- tained discussion on topics that cut across continents, centuries, and disciplines. The three Departments of the Institute approach questions of historical epistemology in different ways. The Departments are organized neither along disciplinary lines, nor according to historical periods. Their work embraces numerous scientific disciplines and large historical timescales. Department I, directed by Jürgen Renn, focuses on Introduction structural changes in systems of knowledge and investigates long-term processes of changes in scientific knowledge. Longitudinal studies examining the development of scientific knowledge from ancient to modern times are complemented by transversal studies dedicated to global processes of knowledge transfer and transformation. Department II, directed by Lorraine Daston, investigates the history of the ideals and practices of rationality: epistemic categories and associated practices that have be- come so fundamental for the modern natural and human sciences that they seem- ingly defy history, including scientific objectivity, observation, and data. Department III, directed by Hans-Jörg Rheinberger, studies experimental systems and spaces of knowledge. The scope of its historical subjects is broad, with special emphasis on the history of the modern life sciences and the epistemology of experiments. Department III completed its work in January 2011 with a festive retrospective of its many pro- jects; Hans-Jörg Rheinberger himself will remain at the Institute until 2014. Professor Dagmar Schäfer, formerly of the University of Manchester, U.K., has accepted the directorship of Department III and will begin building up its research program on “Artefacts and Action in Systems of Knowledge” as of August 1, 2013. Department III will study the history of knowledge and action. Its topics will be the processes and structures that lead to varying configurations of collaborative and indi- vidual bodies of knowledge as well as the changing role of artefacts — texts, objects and spaces — in the creation, diffusion, and use of scientific and technological knowl- edge. Research cases will include Asian cultures and the Pre-modern era. In 2011, Professor Glenn W. Most (Scuola Normale, Pisa, Italy/ University of Chicago, USA) was elected External Member of the MPIWG by the Max Planck Society. Together with Professor Anthony Grafton (Princeton University, USA), he organized a Working Group on the “Learned Practices of Canonical Texts” at the MPIWG in 2012 (see p. 82–83). As of this writing, the MPIWG is proud host to seven smaller independent research groups, variously funded, led by Sabine Arnaud, Jochen Büttner, Vincenzo De Risi, Sven Dupré, Elaine Leong, Veronika Lipphardt, and Viktoria Tkaczyk. All MPIWG research units cooperate with one another both for- mally and informally, as common interests dictate. Over the past years, local cooperation with Berlin universities has intensified, result- ing in a formal cooperation agreement in 2007 involving the Max Planck Society, the Free University and the Humboldt University and extending to the Technische Uni- versität Berlin in 2011. The result has been shared independent research groups be- tween the MPIWG and the Berlin universities as well as the creation of new positions in the history of science at the universities. Additionally, the MPIWG is part of the Excellence Cluster TOPOI (see p. 46) and the Berlin School of Mind and Brain. These developments have led to an extraordinary concentration of scholarly talent in Berlin, representing the most diverse specialties in the history of science, technology, and medicine. But the whole is still less than the sum of the parts. The next step toward greater integration of MPIWG and university resources in the history of science would be the creation of a Berlin Center for the History of Knowledge. The Center would pursue three closely connected goals: encouraging an interdisciplinary dia- logue with the goal of developing a comprehensive cultural history of knowledge, promoting exchanges among natural, social, and cultural sciences, and supporting 6 MPIWG RESEARCH REPORT 2010–2012 Introduction the creation of international research networks. As a first step in this direction, the MPIWG and the three Berlin universities will jointly advertise eight postdoctoral fel- lowships in the history of science and knowledge in 2013 with support of a Network Grant from the Max Planck Society. The MPIWG has undertaken collaborative research projects with other Max Planck Institutes such as the Bibliotheca Hertziana in Rome, the Max Planck Institute for European Legal History in Frankfurt am Main, the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florence, the Fritz Haber Institute in Berlin, the Albert Einstein Institute for Gravita- tional Research in Golm, and the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg. International cooperations have been extended beyond the well-established close partnerships in Europe, with universities and research institutions in Brazil, Canada, China, India, Israel, Mexico, Mongolia and the United States. Although the MPIWG aims to innovate first and foremost in research, it has also pio- neered new forms of publication and the exploitation of new source materials. The MPIWG has created a new genre of publication, “Working Group volumes,” which are the result of years of collaborative research by teams of scholars, in contrast to the more familiar conference proceedings or edited volumes. Sources of the Max Planck Research Library for the History and Development of Knowledge, a new series that makes volumes available by print-on-demand and as open-access online, exploits the rapidly evolving electronic facilities that are transforming scholarly publication. Supporting the scholars at the MPIWG is an unusually friendly and efficient, if chron- ically over-worked staff. The Library (which has now grown to some 70,000 volumes plus many digitalized sources), the IT Group, the secretaries, the student research assistants, the Research Coordinators, and the Administration make our research possible, and we take this opportunity to thank them warmly. Berlin, April 2013 MPIWG RESEARCH REPORT 2010–2012 7 Obituaries Obituaries Peter Damerow (1939–2011) We mourn the loss of Peter Damerow, mathematician, philosopher, educational re- searcher, and historian of science, as well as the first senior scientist of this institute. He substantially contributed to its development from its foundation to the last days of his life. It is impossible to overestimate
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