Vol. 49, No. 2 April 2020

Newsof the lHistoryetter of Science Society Table of Contents

Coronaviruses and the History of Coronaviruses and the History of Science Science COVID-19: Lessons From History? 1 What the Plague Can Teach Us COVID-19: Lessons from History? About the Coronavirus 3 By Robin A. Weiss Why Food Matters 5 Q&A with Megan Raby, 2019 Pauly “The low transmissibility of the virus, combined with Prize Winner 8 infectiousness after the onset of clinical symptoms, Bill Clark or the Ironic Analyst of made simple public health measures, such as isolating homo academicus 12 patients and quarantining their contacts, very effective in the control in the control of the SARS epidemic. We Innovations in Education: Teaching with the Isis Bibliography 15 were lucky this time round but may not be so with the next epidemic outbreak of a novel aetiological agent.” Member News 17 The above statement appeared in a chapter by Roy In Memoriam: Marilyn Gaull, Aaron S. Moore 20 Anderson and colleagues following the 2003 SARS Diagram of COVID-19, courtesy of the U.S. Centers for outbreak published in SARS: A Case Study in Emerging HSS News 23 Disease Control and Prevention Infections (Oxford University Press 2005) as the News from the Profession 24 augmented proceedings of a meeting on the topic held Editor’s note: We open this issue with two articles at the Royal Society. In the concluding chapter, Angela Donations to the HSS for 2019 27 pertaining to the current pandemic crisis: one by a virologist McLean and I advised that we should “expect the and the other by a historian of science & medicine. Despite unexpected” and alas, seventeen years later, we are not their differing perspectives the two pieces have a surprising so lucky with the outbreak of COVID-19. It is caused number of things in common. Both contain an allusion to by a virus formally named as Severe Acute Respiratory the same medieval work literature, and both highlight the Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) because practical value of our discipline in the wider world, serving its genetic sequence is closely related to the SARS as a timely reminder that we imperil ourselves when we coronavirus, but it’s more commonly referred to in the ignore history. media and by the World Health Organization (WHO) as “COVID virus” or “Coronavirus.”

Continued on Page 2 History of Science Society Newsletter Coronaviruses, cont. History of Science Society Executive Office History of Science Society The high rate of virus transmission before Complacency about the spread of COVID-19, 440 Geddes Hall symptoms appear has allowed COVID virus together with the desire of local authorities to University of Notre Dame to spread much faster in the community than downplay the significance of the outbreak, has Notre Dame, IN 46556 Phone: 574-631-1194; Fax: 574-631-1533 SARS, although its virulence in most infected resulted in the international spread of this virus. E-mail: [email protected] individuals appears to be lower. At the time However, once they realized the gravity of the Web site: http://www.hssonline.org/ of writing (March 8), the global mortality situation, the Chinese seem to be managing to Subscription Inquiries University of Chicago Press threat appears to be lower than the 1918/19 flu contain the epidemic at its original epicenter, Phone: 877-705-1878; Fax 877-705-1879 pandemic (the “Spanish” influenza pandemic that Wuhan in Hubei province, in contrast to, say, E-mail: [email protected] claimed ~50 million deaths) but might eventually Italy. Mathematical modeling for predicting the Or write: University of Chicago Press, Subscription Fulfillment Manager, PO Box overtake the 2009 flu pandemic (~280,000 course of novel epidemics has also become much 37005, Chicago, IL 60637-7363 deaths). more sophisticated since the SARS outbreak Moving? and has informed contingency planning. But Please notify both the HSS Executive Office and During the past 40 years, advances in the the University of Chicago Press. politicians are reluctant to allocate large budgets technology of virus identification and for pandemic preparedness against something Editorial Policies, Advertising and Submissions characterization have proceeded apace. The History of Science Society Newsletter is that hasn’t happened yet; funding to the Centers published in January, April, July, and October, Following the appearance of AIDS in 1981 as for Disease Control and Prevention in the USA, and sent to all individual members of the Society. a novel affliction it took two years to identify and support for the WHO declined in real terms, The Newsletter Editor is Neeraja Sankaran. The the causative agent, HIV-1, and a further 18 format and editorial policies are determined by the until this month. Editor in consultation with the Society Editors. All months before its genome was fully cloned and advertising copy must be submitted in electronic sequenced. With the advent of SARS in 2003, Despite the rapidity of developing genome- form. Advertisements are accepted on a space- available basis only, and the Society reserves the it took only 2 months to characterize it as a based diagnostic tests, it takes time to scale up right not to print a submission. The rates are as member of the Coronavirus family whereas and distribute them in countries with advanced follows: Full page (10 x 7”), $625; Horizontal or Vertical Half page (5 x 7”), $375; Quarter page (5 in January 2020, Chinese scientists obtained economies let alone in poor and middle-income x 3.5”), $225. The deadline for insertion orders is the full genetic sequence of the newly isolated nations. An effective vaccine may well be devised six weeks prior to the month of publication and COVID-19 virus within 3 days. Yet therein lies based on the virus’s “S” protein since similar should be sent to [email protected]. Please send photographs in a jpeg format, with a maximum one of the unlearned lessons: because the genetic constructs have proved effective in pre-clinical size of 1024 pixels and file size of 1 MB to maintain sequence turned out to be 70% similar to the tests with the SARS virus, but that will take years quality during sizing and printing. The deadline for news, announcements, and job/fellowship/prize SARS virus, investigators in Wuhan initially rather than months to roll out across the world. listings is firm: four weeks prior to the month of assumed that the transmission dynamics would In a report on Research in Global Health publication. Long items (feature stories) should be submitted eight weeks prior to the month of also be similar, and they lost a crucial window of Emergencies published on January 28, the publication. Please send all material to the attention opportunity to nip the epidemic in the bud. Nuffield Council on Bioethics emphasizes the of the Executive Office:[email protected] . © 2020 by the History of Science Society Continued on Page 3 2 History of Science Society Newsletter • April 2020 History of Science Society Newsletter Coronaviruses, cont. need for clinical trials to proceed ethically even in What the Plague Can Teach emergencies. Us About the Coronavirus Antiviral drugs are being investigated that might by Hannah Marcus help to ameliorate severe disease. I favor testing existing, licensed, inexpensive drugs that might This article originally appeared in The New York be repurposed to fight COVID-19. For instance, Times op-ed pages on March 1, 2020. we already know that this coronavirus docks onto the same cell surface molecule as the SARS The city that gave us the word quarantine nearly virus, namely, angiotensin converting enzyme 600 years ago is once again facing an epidemic. type 2 (ACE-2). Drugs such as Valsartan and On Feb. 23, officials in Venice canceled the final Losartan are ACE-2 receptor antagonists, taken days of its Carnival festival, which brings hordes by millions of people (including myself) to lower of tourists to the notoriously overcrowded lagoon blood pressure. But be careful, for while they city. The coronavirus COVID-19 had arrived. might help protect against COVID-19, they may exacerbate the situation instead. Faced with a novel virus, it’s worth reconsidering Italy’s long experiences with epidemics and What else can we fall back on in the face of this heeding the lessons. Though the etiologies of emergency? Well, traditional historic methods: plague and the present coronavirus differ hugely, quarantine and personal hygiene. Boccaccio and the social consequences of these outbreaks his friends self-isolated outside Florence against resonate in alarmingly similar ways. the Black Death in 1348, as did the altruistic villagers of the Eyam in Derbyshire, England As a historian of medicine, my research focuses Image of a collection of the Bills of Mortality during the plague epidemic of 1665. And, as on Italy in the early modern period, from 1400 for London in the plague outbreak of 1665, Ignac Semmelweis railed against his unheeding to 1700. In this period, many of our current published the same year by E. Cores in London medical colleagues in the 1840s: “Now wash your public health approaches, including tallying and attributed to a John Graunt. For further hands.” fatalities, emerged in response to outbreaks of information see: https://www.christies.com, from where the image was obtained. Robin Weiss is an Emeritus Professor of Viral plague. The word quarantine derives from the From the 1450s in Milan and the 1530s Oncology, Division of Infection & Immunity at Venetian word for 40 days, the length of the University College London. isolation period imposed on ships during times in Venice, all deaths in these cities were of plague. City officials during the Renaissance, systematically recorded to monitor outbreaks. In faced with recurring bouts of plague, developed 17th-century England, these tallies were printed our statistical approach to tracking outbreaks. weekly as broadsheets, which counted plague 3 History of Science Society Newsletter • April 2020 History of Science Society Newsletter Coronaviruses, cont. deaths by parish under the gloomy headline showing signs of strain. In addition to closing coronavirus. The Italian interior ministry “Lord have mercy upon us.” off certain towns with clusters of infections, announced that the 276 migrants who were regional governments are working to isolate rescued off the coast of Libya last week would The distant past is not our best source of advice themselves from the rest of the country. Most be placed in mandatory quarantine in Pozzallo, for pathogen containment. But it does offer clear notably, the province of Basilicata has imposed Sicily, though they had no connection to people lessons about human responses to outbreaks of a 14-day quarantine on all citizens entering or locations affected by the coronavirus. Leaders infectious disease. from Piedmont, Lombardy, the Veneto, Emilia- of the far-right Lega Nord party are stoking the In the Renaissance, Italy was made up of many Romagna and Liguria. These measures are about flames of fear and fury, protesting that even in small territorial states, and travel between them much more than health controls. They highlight the face of the coronavirus crisis, with cities and was regularly curtailed because of outbreaks of regional identities and emphasize the tensions towns under lockdown, Italy has not closed its plague. Travelers moving between regions during between local and national actions being taken to ports to migrants. This kind of slippage from these times had to carry health passes issued contain Italy’s outbreak. disease to blaming a vulnerable social group, is an outcome that we have seen throughout history— by local governments testifying that they were Beyond the exacerbation of regionalism traveling from places free of plague. as foreigners, prostitutes, Jews and the poor were in Italian society, we should be on guard blamed for outbreaks of plague. In the opening to The Decameron, the 14th- against the ways that outbreaks of disease century poet and scholar Giovanni Boccaccio have historically led to the persecutions The predictable turn to xenophobia, racism and described reactions in his native Florence to of marginalized people. One of the best persecution represents the breakdown of our an outbreak. He lamented that “the reverend documented social outcomes of the plague in society’s laws and morals in the face of fear and authority of the laws, both human and divine, late-medieval Europe was the violence, often disease. It, too, is a symptom of disease, if not a was all in a manner dissolved and fallen into directed at Jews, who were accused of causing biological one. plague by poisoning wells. decay.” We should take Boccaccio’s account as In the coming months the coronavirus may a warning. Despite Machiavelli’s call in 1513 Since the eruption of the coronavirus, we continue to spread. We will need to be on guard The for Italian unification in the final pages of have witnessed widespread, global anti-Asian against contagion, but we will also need to be on Prince , Italy only became a single nation in discrimination and numerous acts of violence guard against our own human instincts. 1861; its deep regional divisions are still felt against Asians. We should learn from the past, Hannah Marcus is an assistant professor in the politically, linguistically, gastronomically and in identify these violent attacks as the scapegoating Department of the History of Science at Harvard the infrastructure of its transit systems. they are, and condemn them swiftly and harshly. University. In this time of coronavirus, Italy’s national In Italy, anti-migrant sentiment is also being identity—and that of Europe more broadly—is conflated with anxieties about the new

4 History of Science Society Newsletter • April 2020 History of Science Society Newsletter Why Food Matters by Emma Spary and Anya Zilberstein food in the late eighteenth century, and what epistemic debates did it provoke before the [Editor’s note: TheHSS Newsletter is pleased to emergence of the modern sciences of nutrition? offer our readers a sneak peak into the upcoming Secondary literature on food history had (2020) volume of Osiris, titled Food Matters. scarcely engaged with these issues, particularly Issue editors Emma Spary, Reader in the History of in relation to problems of labor, power, skills, Modern European Knowledge at the University of expertise, race and globalization that historians Cambridge and Anya Zilberstein, Associate Professor of science were addressing for other disciplinary of History at Concordia University, Montreal, offer domains. The essays in Food Matters constitute insights about the exciting synergies between our a set of explorations around such questions, for discipline and the burgeoning field of food studies, example Lu’s reflection on the caterpillar fungus as well as an idea of what we can look forward to. as a boundary object; Pohl-Valero’s study of Stay tuned for the announcement of the release of chicha in Bogotá; Chaplin’s exploration of the the issue.] imperial-scientific transformation of “waters” Our interest in the history of food in relation to into the chemical object “water”; and Guerrini’s the history of science stemmed from our previous investigation of the kitchen as a liminal space inquiries into the history of natural history, which between eating and natural history. led us to various eighteenth-century scientific While food has emerged as an autonomous forays into perfecting foods, experimenting with area of historical inquiry, it still remains largely novel foodstuffs, and dramatically expanding outside the history of science, medicine, and what counted as appropriate or desirable technology. Yet even many canonical scientific nourishment. This pervasive interest in subjecting figures—Boyle, Lavoisier, and Ampère to name food to scientific scrutiny prompted many just three—experimented on food. We want to questions. What counted as an “improvement” Workers using a “New-Invented INGENIO or MILL, for the more expeditious making of CIDER.” From argue that the history of food and the sciences in a given foodstuff? Why did certain foods, John Worlidge, Vinetum Britannicum: or a Treatise does not simply boil down to the history of like the breadfruit, become iconic objects of of Cider, and other Wines and Drinks extracted dietetics or “nutrition science,” nor to the state investment to secure, cultivate, and perfect from Fruits Growing in this Kingdom. London: reinsertion of food within histories of “great them? Who was positioned to prescribe foods for Thomas Dring, 1678, frontispiece. Biodiversity men” or ideas. Rather, the historian of food particular categories of body, in decades when Heritage Library, Creative Commons Attribution- enters a terrain that resists reduction to the NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) industrialization was proceeding in parallel with positivist “scientific method.” The neglect of license. expanding European consumption of imported, food by earlier generations of scholars is perhaps particularly colonial, foods? What even was a 5 History of Science Society Newsletter • April 2020 Continued on Page 6 History of Science Society Newsletter Why Food Matters, cont. explained by the assumption that because food be “pure” in order to travel in this way, or to political power and scientific expertise after preparation and consumption occurs outside reshape our bodies and identities. In fact its very the eighteenth century. Attempts to regulate, the laboratory, knowledge-claims over food were hybridity and mundanity is what gives food its reform, and “improve” public diet were integral not commensurate with knowledge-claims about peculiar epistemological purchase: an entrypoint to scientific programs undertaken within a elementary particles or complex instruments. into our selves via the mouth. governmental framework from the early modern Eating and drinking have long been viewed as too period (McCormick, Treitel, Simmons). But individual, sensuous, or irrational to be observed Although we still know too little about how new industrial culture and attendant transformations and measured, or based on imponderables such as knowledge-claims about food find an audience in food production, processing, preservation and taste or custom. Yet as shoppers, cooks, and eaters or secure authoritative status, it is clear (for transportation offer equally profound moments ourselves, we all know that our dietary choices example in the essays of Thoms, Treitel, and of change and rupture in foodways. During the and habits are powerfully shaped and constrained Fitzgerald) that certain transformations were nineteenth century, the laboratory became an not only by socioeconomic status and geography, facilitated by increasingly tight linkages between important site for producing new foods, even but also by the range of forms of expertise and while it was also the site of emergence of entirely regulatory regimes, which become entangled in new kinds of food knowledge (Cobbold, Woods, subjectivity. Even when we eat alone, we eat as a Wurgaft). So the history of food offers a critical collective. site for constructing arguments about how, when, and where forms of expertise and knowledge have Food Matters is intended to signpost some future interacted. research directions. The essays progress through a series of conjunctures, moments, or spaces Yet who was expert about food? Our diets are where the making of knowledge was linked to structured by earlier regimes of knowledge, such food and drink in non-trivial ways—from the as humoral medicine, in ways we no longer links between cannibalism and the Eucharist in articulate or recognize. The invisibility of this early modern Rome (Bouley) to the centrality Student food scientists testing the fat content process reflects the fact that multiple actors— of breakfast meetings at an iconic Silicon Valley of cream. From E. H. Farrington and F. W. Woll, home cooks and professional food preparers, diner in shaping technoscientific innovation Testing Milk and its Products. A Manual for Dairy family members and friends, as well as politicians, today (Shapin). Food is thus an excellent Students, Creamery and Cheese Factory Operators, bureaucrats, and military officials—possess food interface for the historian of science seeking to Food Chemists, and Dairy Farmers. Madison, Wis.: expertise. Even as each generation takes on or explore how knowledge-claims travel among Mendota Book Company, 1911, p. 75. Biodiversity rejects new foods and claims about them, these laboratory, field, factory, and table. From the Heritage Library, Creative Commons Attribution- sources of expertise serve to perpetuate past NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) perspective of the historian of science, food practices, tacit skills, or prejudices of taste. In the license. underscores that knowledge does not have to process, it is rare for one body of food knowledge

6 History of Science Society Newsletter • April 2020 Continued on Page 7 History of Science Society Newsletter Why Food Matters, cont.

Just earned your PhD in the history of science? Congratulations! Here’s a free e-membership to HSS. Neil Armstrong’s diet sheet from the Apollo 11 Mission (left) and a color photograph of the food supplies (right). Courtesy NASA. Leaving the student world to displace another completely, as Mukherji’s volume with the troubling topic of entomophagy. can present challenges. essay underscores. As a food, insects have hovered on the boundary between edible and inedible, pure and polluted The HSS would like to recognize your Food is also, and perennially, an object of for Western eaters over many centuries, yet they signal achievement by providing a deep disquiet. Epistemological controversy are a dietary staple in other cultures. Food Matters free electronic membership (one year) and public concern have long characterized demonstrates that it is only by examining the to those who graduated in 2018 or in 2019. attempts by knowledge experts to intervene in sources and expressions of our own stubborn the food supply. Scientific encounters with food prejudices about or willingness to self-experiment offer salient case studies of the contestations Please go to https://subfill.uchicago.edu/ with food do the stakes of producing normative JournalPUBS/HSSpromotion.aspx for attendant upon the transformations of everyday knowledge about what and how others should eat details. life produced by the alliance of centralized become clearer. state power or corporate culture with scientific expertise. And it is no accident that we begin the

7 History of Science Society Newsletter • April 2020 History of Science Society Newsletter Q&A with Megan Raby, 2019 Pauly Prize Winner

these discussions is usually 1985, when the term “biodiversity” was coined. There is actually a much deeper history at work. My book traces the relationship between field ecology, the expansion of U. S. hegemony in the circum-Caribbean during the 20th century, and the emergence of the modern concept of biodiversity. Tropical field stations are central to this story. They enabled U.S. biologists to develop place- based research practices and a deep knowledge of local ecologies that was never possible through expeditions alone. At these stations, self-styled “tropical biologists” developed a range of practices for documenting and theorizing the diversity of life that we take for granted today. At the same time, however, these stations also tied tropical biologists to U.S. colonial and neocolonial interests. These institutions depended on ongoing, long-term access to land and patronage––from U.S. plantation owners in Megan Raby, Canopy tower, Parque Nacional Soberanía, Panama. Photo by Eric Williams, 2016. Cuba, for example, or authorities in the Panama Canal Zone. These ties shaped how tropical Editor’s Note: The HSS Newsletter is pleased to What is the main thing you would like biologists framed the diversity of tropical life as a feature an interview with Megan Raby, author readers to take away from your book? potential resource to be developed. of American Tropics: The Caribbean Roots of Many scholars have explored the effects of the Ultimately, stations made “tropical nature” Biodiversity Science, winner of the second annual biodiversity paradigm on conservation priorities accessible, but only in certain ways and Philip J. Pauly Prize, which was established in in recent decades. In the Global South, some only to certain classes of people. Ironically, 2018 for the best first English-language book on the have critiqued biodiversity conservation as a tropical biology has been a place-based science For what the history of science in the Americas. new form of “green” imperialism for the way it traditionally practiced by people from outside prize committee had to say about the book click has served as a rationale for U.S. involvement that place––one that until recently developed here; read on to see what Megan has to share. in tropical countries. But the starting point for largely in isolation from local and national 8 History of Science Society Newsletter • April 2020 Continued on Page 9 History of Science Society Newsletter Q&A with Megan Raby, cont. scientific communities within the Caribbean and plant experiment station to a station for a range worked at them. Maybe I came at it backwards! Latin America. The legacies of this history remain of biological research. McCook’s book focused Anyway, I’m glad I did, because I think a more embedded in how and what we know about the on the agricultural side, but I wondered about traditional intellectual history approach would global environment today. what this other biological research had looked have missed these connections. like––in terms of the styles of field practice, What drew you to this project in the first local collaborations, and research problems. What is at stake in placing the Caribbean place? It also made me realize how the literature on at the center of global environmental science and popular ecological narratives? the history of biology in the U.S. really treated

It was a bit of a winding road. This book grew tropical research as marginal, even research by This is an important question. The Caribbean, out of my dissertation research, but it took me U.S. scientists in colonial territories like Puerto and the Global South more generally, is too a long time to decide what that should be. (So, Rico or the Panama Canal Zone. Early on, I often assumed to be a region where science now I have a lot of patience for grad students at ran into a few very brief references to Barro is applied rather than where it emerged and that stage right before writing the dissertation Colorado Island, in Rob Kohler’s work, for continues to take place. Although the idea of proposal!) I knew I wanted to work on the example, but it seemed to me that the political biodiversity has many different roots, the main history of field science––that idea grew out of my context of tropical stations like this must be more champions of biodiversity conservation in the original undergraduate training, not in ecology, significant. If place really matters in field science, 1980s, including E. O. Wilson, all had very but in paleontology and the earth sciences. While then this was not just going to be the story of direct institutional connections to tropical doing research for my master’s degree at Montana MBL transplanted to Panama (which, by the way, stations––particularly Soledad, Barro Colorado State University, I had become interested in the is what one NSF reviewer wrote when rejecting Island, and the Organization for Tropical Studies’ intersection of place, practice, and ideas. Working funding for my dissertation!). When I realized stations in Costa Rica. This connection had in the U.S. West, I was also concerned with the that the stations at Soledad and Barro Colorado been overlooked. Their alarm about biodiversity relationship between U.S. imperial expansion Island had been directed by the same person, loss at that moment developed not only out and science. I wanted to find a new project the Harvard zoologist Thomas Barbour, during of immediate environmental changes, but when I moved to the University of Wisconsin to the 1920s–1940s, I knew I had something. also as a response to political and institutional complete my PhD, but I was still interested in Here was not just a scattering of institutions, developments that had been in the works for the similar questions. but a network. And it was a network connected previous two decades. Including, importantly, by a community of people who came to call I flailed around for a while, but then a few local objections to U.S. imperialism that themselves tropical biologists. random encounters got me interested in tropical threatened the institutional stability of long- field stations as a sites of scientific research. So, I did not come to this project from a question standing stations. Biodiversity is very flexible as Reading Stuart McCook’s States of Nature, I about the origins of the idea of biodiversity. That a conservation ethic, as many other scholars have came across his discussion of Harvard’s station at aspect emerged much later, after tracing this shown, but centering on the Caribbean makes it Soledad in Cuba, which expanded from being a network of sites and the people who visited and clear that form the start it was never neutral. 9 History of Science Society Newsletter • April 2020 Continued on Page 10 History of Science Society Newsletter Q&A with Megan Raby, cont.

What are the main ideas about ecological work; it seemed that the closer biologists looked, research—a literature that began just a few science and tropical biology that emerge the more species they found––such as William decades ago in reaction to our previous focus on from the work of your historical actors in Beebe’s census of hundreds of species in just four science in laboratory settings. I’m excited about the Caribbean? square feet of rainforest floor. how the field of “science in the field” is really exploding, and how it brings us into conversation After World War II, biologists including Robert Much like field stations in the temperate United with work in environmental history. My other MacArthur, H. T. Odum, and Theodosius States and Europe, tropical stations played a key intention was also to connect the vast literature Dobzhansky began to use species diversity role both in the rise of experimental biology and on the history of science and empire to more as a quantitative index, comparing it with in the development of place-based ecological field recent scholarship on U.S. Empire. methods. But, in part because the researchers other variables in order to try to explain global who visited these stations were, overwhelmingly, patterns. These three men are famous figures in This book also connects with the rapidly foreigners who traveled from the comparatively the history of biology—much more so than most growing field of Latin American and Caribbean species-poor temperate zones, their experiences of the people I wrote about. Although their ideas environmental history, specifically by tracing working at tropical stations led them to focus are not usually placed in the context of their the intellectual and cultural history of the especially on investigations into the ecological fieldwork, they worked at long-standing U.S. relationship between environmental ideas and evolutionary causes of the great numbers and tropical field stations, as well as newer stations about tropicality and the modern discourse of variety of species they encountered in tropical in Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, and Brazil. This is biodiversity. the context out of which “species diversity”–– environments. Finally, I’ve been enormously gratified to find the most direct intellectual predecessor to that ecologists and conservationists are interested Working in situ at field stations allowed biodiversity––emerged as a central theoretical in this book. I think it can give them some researchers from the United States to intensively concern for biologists, and not just tropical deeper historical context to think about their study living tropical plants and animals in their biologists. Tropical studies fueled a theoretical field sites and practices. This includes the colonial natural environments for the first time during the turn in the 1960s and 1970s toward explorations legacies that remain today. Where ecologists early 20th century. Stations allowed researchers of the ecological and evolutionary mechanisms do their fieldwork, and what countries these to combine lab and field practices. But in driving global patterns of species diversity addition, focused, in situ research also enabled researchers are from––there are geographic researchers to develop new, intensive practices for Who do you see as your main audience, patterns and biases that we can only really monitoring and census-taking in nature. These within the HSS community and more understand by looking at these questions more practices, in turn, revealed longer-term changes, broadly as well? historically. And this should matter to anyone such as population fluxes, which were significant who cares about conservation and equity. because tropical forests were initially assumed to Within the HSS community, I see this book, be ancient, stable, and unchanging. Place-based as first, contributing to the history of the research also enabled very fine-scale taxonomic field sciences and place-based environmental 10 History of Science Society Newsletter • April 2020 Continued on Page 11 History of Science Society Newsletter Q&A with Megan Raby, cont.

What was the most enjoyable part of grateful for conversations with my mentor there, things I had to leave out to keep a tight narrative. working on this project? Pam Henson, who reminded me to start writing The most obvious thing is that I followed U.S. and organizing my thoughts early while working biologists and ecologists who traveled to work Despite the environmental angle, most of through the material. in the region. While one of my main original my research time was indoors. But when I’m goals was to examine collaboration and exchange But I also just want to acknowledge a challenge working through archival material, there is a between U.S. and Latin American scientists, that wasn’t necessarily specific to this book, sense of tracing out connections and events, the historical reality on the ground at these but to writing any book: writing is hard. I’m a and personalities––I’m driven by curiosity and I stations ended up making such interactions pretty slow writer, and writing under the time really find it hard to stop when it is closing time! unfortunately rare. Although there were some pressure of the tenure track wasn’t easy. But slow Then again, I was also lucky that my research important exceptions, these stations were, and steady wins the race, I guess. I couldn’t have also took me to places that were very nice outside until recently, quite exclusionary. Focusing on gotten through it without good mentorship, of the reading room. It is hard to beat seeing other communities and other kinds of sites of writing groups, and a supportive partner. toucans, howler monkeys, leaf cutter ants, and knowledge production would illuminate different blue morpho butterflies in Panama! Walking in The Pauly Prize is awarded for a “first kinds of relationships and interactions. the Arnold Arboretum or the Fairchild Tropical book,” which begs the question, what do Second, read work by historians of this region, Garden after a day of research was certainly not you have in mind for your next book? and read well beyond the history of science. bad either! Historians of the Caribbean and Latin America I’m currently researching the biologist and What were some of the biggest have been dealing with questions about power, environmental writer Marston Bates. I’m challenges or hurdles that you faced while as well as about flows and migrations of people, considering his life and fieldwork as a way doing research for this book? ideas, and commodities for a very long time. to trace the changing role of science and This is work that can inform how historians of environment in U.S. relations with the Global The biggest hurdles were probably organizational. science think about how knowledge travels and South during the 20th century. Focusing on research stations was fantastic not how science is embedded in power structures at only because of the questions they raise about the What advice would you offer to junior various scales. Work on the Caribbean and Latin nature of scientific practice and place, but also scholars starting projects in US- America demands attention to the transnational because, as institutions, they can produce lots Caribbean/Latin American histories of and to asymmetries of power. I’m looking and lots of archival records. But that’s a double- science? forward to the continued growth of this field edged sword! When I was at the Smithsonian and its increasing visibility within the history of Institution Archives, I had the luxury of really First, please do work in this area! There are so science community. immersing myself in these records, but it is many important stories to tell! I feel like I just also way too easy to get drowned in details. I’m scratched the surface. And there were so many

11 History of Science Society Newsletter • April 2020 History of Science Society Newsletter Bill Clark or the Ironic Analyst of homo academicus by Alix Cooper and Wolf Feuerhahn Humboldtallee! This street name—evoking the the topic…. A historian of science has to be able famous von Humboldt brothers, Alexander and to look ironically at his or her own productions. Editor’s note: In this tribute to the late Bill Clark Wilhelm—seemed to us to be just the perfect (1953-2017), Alix Cooper (Stony Brook University, Bill didn’t overtly theorize on this methodological address! New York) and Wolf Feuerhahn (CNRS, Centre and ethical question, preferring to suggest it Alexandre Koyré, Paris) reflect on the scholarship During the academic year 1994-95, the two of us more obliquely. He nevertheless mentioned in a and career of their late mentor. As a service to had the incredible luck to be hosted at number sentence of his book Academic Charisma and the HSS members and indeed, historians of science 11, Humboldtallee under the roof of an institute Origins of the Research University (2006), that, everywhere, they have also provided access to a full for the history of science in Göttingen, Germany. “irony is for me, moreover, an essential academic bibliography—supplemented with abstracts where The host was not an old and strict German attitude about academia, that is, the essence of available—of his works. mandarin, but a young, humorous and brilliant reflexivity.” And at the end, the question remains: Californian researcher: William—better known as Was it not in order to promote another kind Bill—Clark. Despite his youth, he knew, perhaps of academic sociability that he scrutinized the more than anybody else, about the historical history of the academy in the way he did? Bill figure of the German “Prof. Dr.” He was able would probably have smiled at such a “serious” to bring this figure to life, to sketch out all the conclusion. But indeed, the preface of Little Tools rituals, habits, and practices of this odd type of of Knowledge suggests it: human being: not in order to caricature it, but to One fine evening in the autumn of 1992, understand it better and, of course, to understand finding that they had not only made too himself and help us understand ourselves better. much pasta and dessert, but also had more than enough wine, Becker and Sabean As Bill’s work showed so clearly, given how the called up Clark. Though usually resisting German academic system became a model on invitations entailing he be somewhere a global scale during the 19th century, looking within fifteen minutes, Clark found this at its practices is crucial in understanding how an offer he could not refuse, as Sabean it has continued to structure our own manners, was departing Göttingen the next day for customs, and unconscious behaviors or taboos. Ithaca. Unused as they all were to wine, One of the lessons he taught was, therefore, much of the evening quickly became a that it is not actually possible for one to be a blur. Two things however still stand out. “serious” historian of science. That is, one cannot First was Becker’s dessert, which Clark and reproduce the academic manners one analyzes Sabean, with heavy hearts, had to admit without any distance or irony. A seminar on the Bill Clark, date uncertain; Photograph courtesy was the only truly inedible dessert they had history of the seminar has to be of a different Patty Clark ever encountered (and, worse, for a good type; the same for a PhD, an article, a book on 12 History of Science Society Newsletter • April 2020 Continued on Page 13 History of Science Society Newsletter Bill Clark, cont. time thereafter they had other suspicions). Bill excelled in the seminar, that form of teaching seminar) while also serving as an ironic guide to Second, were the plans they all laid that whose origins he probed in one of his earliest them. eventually led to this volume. articles, “On the Dialectical Origins of the In some ways, the objects of his study seemed Research Seminar.” Grinning widely, he would This wasn’t just a rhetorical flourish; indeed, to be very traditional and canonized ones: the hold up his mug of coffee and ask us and the with his co-editor, Peter Becker, he invited an history of the German research university, of the assembled students to provide an Aristotelian anthropologist (Heidrun Friese) to the conference research seminar, of the doctor of philosophy, analysis of it, working out its material, formal, to study it as a field and published the latter’s of “the death of metaphysics.” Working on efficient & final causes, so that we could prove we article at the end of the book, making the volume the history of the German university and of understood a text we had just read. Or he might doubly reflexive. academics and that during the Enlightenment? request that we explicate the reasoning of an What a traditional topic! How could he manage In 2006, he added in his magnum opus Academic eighteenth-century German author who posited not to make it boring? The answer is that Bill Charisma that: that there might be varying numbers of lawyers had read a lot: not only his primary sources—the on different planets in the solar system, based famous as well as the much less well known, This book contains criticism of the on the degree of heat and agitation of particles sort of academic life and labor that has the philosophical as well as the ministerial— on that planet. The experience was spellbinding. but also an enormous number of volumes on descended upon us from the German Both of these examples come from a seminar university system. Part of this critique may the social sciences: Friedrich Nietzsche, Max he taught on “Cosmology and Anthropology in Weber, Norbert Elias, Michel Foucault, Pierre be motivated by a vague nostalgia for a the German Enlightenment.” With his colleague golden age of college life. Such nostalgia Bourdieu, Bruno Latour, Clifford Geertz, and Michael Hagner from the Institute for the Gérard Genette, to name but a few. But here can perhaps lead one to the antipodes of the History of Medicine, he also co-taught a seminar Germanic university as potential resources again, he didn’t take them as gurus. He was not on “Mad Scientists,” where the texts read ran the Weberian, Foucauldian, or Bourdieuxian; he read to help remedy the ills of contemporary gamut from the sixteenth-century Faust-Buch academia. But that is another matter and them all, but he also read literature and watched to the twentieth-century shamanic intellectual TV series. As a result, he had a very singular exceeds the rationale of this book, albeit outsider Carlos Castaneda. Was the mad scientist desiring to offer a history of the present, but and self-educated gaze. So the main thesis in an outlier from the academic norm, he asked, Academic Charisma was in no way a Weberian still a history, and not a manual of action. or rather the personification of it? Seminar Nostalgia must thus be leavened with irony. one. In contrast to Robert Merton, who tried meetings were intense. Outside the seminar to decipher the Protestant ethic of seventeenth- As a result of enormous archival labors, to help room, he gave generous and earnest counsel on century English science, Bill showed that us be able to laugh together about our academic the rites and rituals of academic life, for example, bureaucratization of science didn’t produce the habits: this is maybe one of the key contributions on the relationship between orality and literacy end of charisma in academia but on the contrary, of William Clark’s work, echoing that of David in the conference talk. The entire time, he was fixed charisma as a norm. The “modern” type Lodge. simultaneously within and without the university, of homo academicus was no mere bureaucratic taking part in its rites and rituals (like that of the 13 History of Science Society Newsletter • April 2020 Continued on Page 14 History of Science Society Newsletter Bill Clark, cont. Seeking HSS Ombudsperson Successor officer, but rather, a charismatic and original As previously announced, HSS seeks a successor to ombudsperson is not intended to substitute figure. No orthodox Weberian would have Sally Gregory Kohlstedt, the first Omsbudsperson, for a complainant either making use of accepted such an iconoclastic thesis. whose term will expire in June 2020. their affiliated institution’s mechanisms for The Ombudsperson is a volunteer position for an HSS addressing complaints of discrimination or Thanks to what we call with caution his deep member whose main task will be to receive inquiries for consulting expert legal advice. Moreover, learning or “culture”—here again he would and complaints relating to HSS’s Respectful it is not the role of the HSS ombudsperson to probably have laughed at such a serious word, Behavior Policy. Speaking with the ombudsperson assist individuals through their institution’s which itself affords an historical undertaking in about an issue in no way obligates any further internal mechanism for pursuing a complaint order to deflate it—he was able to read differently action (as is the case at some university campuses) of discrimination. not only the Gesammelte Werke of Kant or and the intention is to provide information. Thus, The ombudsperson contributes to HSS efforts in Fichte, but also the ministerial registers like the ombudsperson will also serve as a resource to informing/educating HSS’s membership about the Vorlesungsverzeichnisse or course catalogs (which meeting attendees regarding respectful behavior and HSS’s Respectful Behavior Policy. The ombudsperson he called “little tools of knowledge”) as epistemic general questions regarding the Society’s support consults, as needed, with the Executive Director, genres. of, and advocacy for, diverse constituencies of its Council, and the Respectful Behavior Review membership, especially students and early careerists. Committee, and also serves ex-officio on the Diversity Bill would almost certainly have read our text The ombudsperson’s role is to and Inclusion Committee. The ombudsperson should, with an ironic eye. Is our text a vain undertaking? (i) review with any interested member of HSS if necessary, be able to consult with a complainant In its failure to grant him tenure, the academic or meeting attendee the Respectful Behavior rapidly, within a 24-hour period, and therefore is world revealed itself to be unable to see the Policy, to which every meeting registrant agrees expected to attend the annual conference. The duties importance of having, within its walls, such a during the registration process; of the ombudsperson concerning discrimination and (ii) listen to the concerns brought forward by sexual harassment, as well as contact information (a clever and distant man, able to be simultaneously a person, and review with them the formal secure email address) will appear on the HSS website. serious and funny. But Bill’s gaze should be complaint process; The ombudsperson will be appointed by the HSS known, and his writings should be read and (iii) carry out a formal complaint investigation if Council for a 3 year term (July 2020 to June 2023, re-read. Not like Tablets of the Law, but rather the complainant so desires, which includes or extended by at least 60 days after an HSS annual as propositions and therefore to be discussed, interviewing both the complainant and the meeting), on the recommendation of the Executive debated, and engaged with. We very much hope accused party or parties; and Committee, which shall solicit input from the that even though he never found a tenured (iv) present to the Respectful Behavior Review Respectful Behavior Review Committee, Graduate position within academia, his writings will Committee the findings. The ombudsperson and Early Career Caucus, Diversity and Inclusion continue to spark the recognition they deserve. shall prepare an annual report for the HSS Committee, and Women’s Caucus. Council, detailing activity (or lack thereof) A complete bibliography of Clark’s publications, over the previous year, being careful to If you are interested in serving as ombudsperson, some annotated by Drs. Cooper and maintain anonymity of all persons. The please contact HSS Executive Director, Jay Malone Feuerhahn, is available here on the HSS ombudsperson shall make clear to all parties ([email protected]) to express interest. You may also contact the outgoing ombudsperson Dr. Kohlstedt, website. that the ombudsperson is not providing legal advice and that the availability of an HSS who has very kindly agreed to share information. 14 History of Science Society Newsletter • April 2020 History of Science Society Newsletter Innovations in Education Editor’s note: This contribution about the creative discovered that even the teachers who do use it Less common is using the CB as an in-class use of our very own Current Bibliography (CB), seldom employ it the way I do. Most commonly, resource to train students (see charts 2 & 3), yet it which is published regularly in Isis, actually serves people turn to it for course prep (see chart 1), is in this latter use where I think the CB can shine. a dual purpose. Not only does it fit nicely into which in most cases probably means finding Say, for instance, your students are working on this column about innovations in education—as sources to help prepare a lecture or locating items a research paper with history of science content. you will see, Stephen Weldon, HSS Bibliographer for the syllabus. There are great advantages to telling them to and associate professor of history of science at the go there first. Let me be even more radical: Tell University of Oklahoma, has provided several your students to bookmark the “IsisCB Explore” innovative ways to integrate this valuable resource (and any other go-to sources you have!) on their into the classroom—it also kicks off a brand new cell phone. I do it myself, and more than once it column about Isis CB and related matters. has been a lifesaver in answering a question at a reception or helping me connect the dots when Teaching with the Isis I’m listening to a paper at a conference. Bibliography Two resources students should know about are by Stephen P. Weldon IsisCB Explore, which is free, and the HSTM I am the Society’s Bibliographer, but I also teach database hosted by EBSCO—if your library undergraduate and graduate classes in history has a subscription. “Explore” is the easiest to of science. I have integrated the CB into my Chart 1: Usefulness of CB for Course Preparation classroom in several ways and would like to encourage more of you to do the same. In a survey that I co-developed last year, we asked HSS members to tell us how useful they found the Isis CB in both its print and online forms. The questions about pedagogical use were divided into three distinct activities: course preparation, encouraging student use, and actual use by students. The survey showed that a lot of you who do use the Bibliography do not do so for teaching. Only a minority of respondents found the CB “very useful” or “essential” in pedagogy. Moreover, I Chart 2: Usefulness of CB for Teaching Students Chart 3: Student Use of CB for Classwork

15 History of Science Society Newsletter • April 2020 Continued on Page 16 History of Science Society Newsletter Innovations in Education, cont. access and work with, so I take students there better because they pick up everything that is managers—Zotero and Endnote are the two first. There is no required login and it has discussed in articles and books, whereas resources most common—do a lot of work. With the powerful search features that make it fast and like the CB cannot. But that’s not what I find. touch of a button, you can grab citations from easy to use. Moreover, it is updated daily, so you Although these full-text searches have their the IsisCB, HSTM, or pretty much any other are getting the latest material we have. If your place in the research process, I find that many reference database. Not only do these apps format library has a subscription to EBSCO’s HSTM students who start with these databases often get citations, which is a great time-saver, they also database, students with history of medicine and disappointing results. This is primarily because build up a personal library on your computer and history of technology topics may find that to be they can’t find the historical work that is so often help you organize it. Of course, students using a more comprehensive starting point, although buried under scientific papers and non-historical these tools need to be wary. The data they grab is even “Explore” can get you a lot of those same articles. not always in good form, so they must learn to be citations. Also EBSCO is usually tied in to your JSTOR is a case in point. It is a go-to source for active users. They must, for example, proofread academic library’s other databases, making it many students, but it seldom gives them more the data that is collected. part of the bigger information ecosystem. If your than a list of works with historical content. The IsisCB remains limited in some ways—it library does not have a subscription, remember You can look in JSTOR or Google Scholar for only has the metadata content, non-English that HSS members receive complimentary access Isaac Newton or influenza of 1918, and you scholarship is underrepresented (though I am to the HSTM database. are presented with hundreds of hits, but many in the process of changing that), and the CB But what lessons can you teach? are not suitable for a historical research paper. doesn’t have the huge swaths of material that the First, you can introduce students to the discipline. Start in the IsisCB space, however, and nearly big databases get. So, I am the last person to say Explain how important it is to find reliable, peer- everything you find is potentially relevant. Not that you should do all your research with the CB. reviewed material that is historical. I don’t need only that, the CB shows you what’s hot in the And students need to learn this as well. Tracing to tell most of you that far too few students— field by featuring the most recent items. At footnotes and using other databases helps them even advanced undergraduates and, dare I say, the very least, if your students start here, your become independent researchers. Good research some graduate students—can navigate their way work as a teacher is drastically reduced when involves a lot of footwork. My point, however, is to reliable historical sources online. And when you look at their bibliography; there’s less of a that the CB can get students started on the right they lose their way, Google becomes their default chance you’ll have to reorient them to an entirely foot because it puts the leading scholarship of the search and it’s usually downhill from there. different set of literature. history of science community at your fingertips. Second, you can explain the difference between Third, you can use the CB to encourage another This is only the beginning of what you can do full-content indexes like JSTOR and Google good practice: organizing around evidence. with the CB. In the next issue of the Newsletter, I Scholar and metadata-only indexes like the CB, Citations are the historians’ bricks and mortar, will get down into the weeds and explain how to which only has titles and abstracts. It is tempting and there are several good tools out there that take advantage of its many useful features. to think that full-text searches will always be help students work with them. Bibliographic

16 History of Science Society Newsletter • April 2020 History of Science Society Newsletter Member News Ellen Abrams (Cornell University) has won the Sullivan, and Virginia Trimble, all members Melinda Gormley (University of California, British Society for the History of Mathematics of the History of Science Society, were recently Irvine) shares her career path from history of Taylor and Francis Early Career Prize. The appointed as Fellows of the American science PhD to Research Development Officer prize is awarded every two years to the author Astronomical Society. with the University of California, Irvine’s School of an essay on any aspect of the history of of Biological Sciences, and her perspectives on mathematics. The winning essay, “‘An Inalienable The American Astronomical Society (AAS), the federal funding for scientific research. Prerogative of a Liberated Spirit’: Postulating major organization of professional astronomers American Mathematics,” was commended for in North America, has established a new ………… accolade, Fellow of the AAS, to honor members “its combination of strong research and accessible Edward Gosselin (Emeritus Professor, California style, noting in particular the author’s ability for extraordinary achievement and service. AAS Fellows will be recognized for original research State University, Long Beach) completed papers to contextualize mathematics without loss of on “‘You Barbarous Dog’: Bruno’s Opening readability.” and publication, innovative contributions to astronomical techniques or instrumentation, Poem to ‘The Ash Wednesday Supper’ as a Guide ………… significant contributions to education and public to The Meaning of Bruno’s Italian Dialogues” Somaditya Banerjee (Austin outreach, and noteworthy service to astronomy and “Starry Messengers: Chapters and ‘Excursi’ Peay State University) will and to the Society itself. on Exact Mathematical Astronomy from 350 publish The Making of Modern BCE to 1905 CE, with a Look into the State of Physics in Colonial India An initial group of more than 200 Legacy Earth under Peril and the Future of the Human (Routledge, 2020). Fellows has been designated by the AAS Board of Condition.” Trustees. These include past recipients of certain awards from the AAS or its topical Divisions, ………… distinguished AAS elected leaders and volunteer Judy Grabiner ………… (Professor Emerita, Pitzer committee members, and previously unrecognized College) and her work were celebrated in an Jean De Groot (Catholic University of America) individuals with long histories of outstanding article: Dumbaugh, Della and Adrian Rice. “A will spend the academic year, 2020–2021 as a research, teaching, mentoring, and service. Template for Success: Celebrating the Work Fellow at the Dumbarton Oaks Libraries and ………… of Judith Grabiner.” Notices of the American Collections in Washington DC writing a book on Mathematical Society 67, no. 3 (March 2020): the history of mechanics in antiquity. Ryan Feigenbaum (Society Coordinator, History 336-44. of Science Society) delivered a talk, “The Limits ………… of Force to Explain Life,” at the Form-und ………… David DeVorkin, Steven J. Dick, Stephen Bewegungskräfte Conference, as part of the DFG- McCluskey, Sara Schechner, Woodruff Kolleg-Forschungsgruppe “Imaginarien der Kraft.”

17 History of Science Society Newsletter • April 2020 History of Science Society Newsletter Member News, cont. Margaret Jacob (University Pamela O. Long’s Joris Mercelis (Johns of California, Los Angeles) Engineering the Eternal Hopkins University, co-edited Clandestine City: Infrastructure, Department of History of Philosophy: New Studies Topography, and the Culture Science and Technology) on Subversive Manuscripts of Knowledge in Late published Beyond Bakelite: (University of Toronto Press). Sixteenth-Century Rome Leo Baekeland and the (University of Chicago Press, Business of Science and 2018) has been awarded the Invention (Cambridge, MA: ………… Sidney M. Edelstein Prize MIT Press, 2020). from the Society for the History of Technology; Gladys Kostyrka (Independent scholar, Paris) the Bridge Book Award (category American ………… Neeraja Sankaran and (editor, HSS Newsletter), non-fiction) by the Casa della Letteratura (Rome) Tiffany Nichols (Harvard University) was published “From Obstacle to Lynchpin: The and the Center for Fiction (New York); and awarded a National Science Foundation NSF Evolution of the Role of Bacteriophage Lysogeny the Howard R. Marraro Prize awarded by the Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement in Defining and Understanding Viruses,” in American Catholic Historical Association. Grant for her research on the history of the Laser The paper Notes and Records of The Royal Society. Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory is currently available online ………… and is slated to (LIGO) and the epistemology of gravitational appear in December as part of a special issue on Rachel Maines (Columbia University Seminar in wave signals. Tiffany was also awarded a 2020 bacteriophages, which grew out of a session held the History and Philosophy of Science) published, American Physical Society (APS) Five Sigma at the 2017 HSS meeting in Toronto. “Socks at War: American Hand Knitters and Physicist Award for her advocacy work in ………… Military Footwear Production for the World support of the passage of the Combating Sexual Wars.” Studia Historiae Oeconomicae 37, no.1 Harassment in Science Act of 2019 in the U.S. Edward J. Larson (Dec 2019): 67-92. “Socks at War” is about the House of Representatives. (University Professor, intersections among military medicine, producer Pepperdine University) logistics, and home front handcraft production. ………… Franklin & published Joseph Pitt (Virginia Tech) Washington: The Founding ………… published Heraclitus Redux; Partnership (New York: Technological Infrastructures HarperCollins, 2020). and Scientific Change (London: ………… Rowman and Littlefield, 2020).

18 History of Science Society Newsletter • April 2020 History of Science Society Newsletter Member News, cont. Glen Rodgers (Allegheny Frank W. Stahnisch (University of Calgary) Simon Werrett (University College London) has College) published Traveling received the 2020 Dimitrije Pivnicki Award in won the Paul Bunge Prize. with the Atom: A Scientific Neuro and Psychiatric History from McGill official Guide to Europe and Beyond University, Montreal, PQ, Canada. The following in an excerpt from the Press Release (Royal Society of Chemistry, : 2020). He also published an encompassing monograph, Simon Werrett convinced the Thrifty titled A New Field in Mind: A jury with his work History of Interdisciplinarity Science: Making the Most of ………… in the Early Brain Sciences Materials in the History of Experiment (McGill-Queen’s University , which calls for a Mark Solovey (University of Toronto) rethink of the way experimental has three new publications. First, he and Press, 2020), which examines the neglected organizational science deals with materials Deborah Weinstein are editors of “Living and equipment. The author Well: Histories of Well-Being and Human and research origins of the first interdisciplinary centers for the brain sciences. looks at the history of scientific Flourishing,” Journal of the History of the instruments and apparatus in a new way and Behavioral Sciences 55, no. 4 (Fall 2019): 272- He also published, with Diana describes the material cycles of the early modern 372. Second, with Deborah Weinstein, he J. Mansell and Paula Larsson, period (“thrifty science”—“economical and published, “Introduction: Histories of Well- an edited collection Bedside economical natural research”). Back then, science being and Human Flourishing,” Journal of the and Community: 50 Years of reused materials, repaired or rebuilt equipment, History of the Behavioral Sciences 55, no. 4 (Fall Contributions to the Health and used instruments and materials for purposes 2019): 275-281. Finally, he has a forthcoming of Albertans by the University other than intended. Werrett presents the book with MIT Press, Social Science for What? of Calgary. It is an inside story contrasting cycle of instruments and materials of Battles over Public Funding for the “Other of fifty years of healthcare and industrial equipment today—devices are supplied Sciences” at the National Science Foundation health research at the University of Calgary in ready for use and instruments that are no longer (July 2020). Alberta, Canada. required are discarded. ………… …………

19 History of Science Society Newsletter • April 2020 History of Science Society Newsletter In Memoriam Marilyn Gaull be a 10-hour work meeting. Under the restaurant staff’s rather weary gaze, the breakfast turned We regret to inform readers that Marilyn Gaull, into lunch, then progressed to a coffee order in who had been a research professor at the Editorial the afternoon, and finally to dinner. Aaron had Institute at Boston University, died on August 14, a quiet but contagious excitement for ideas, a personal remembrance 2019 at the age of 81. A very patient approach to gathering everyone’s by her colleague , Archie Burnett, co-director of ideas, and the energy to keep going, in addition the Institute, may be found via this at bu.edu. to many interesting and funny stories to share. This restaurant episode was just one example of Aaron S. Moore, 1972-2019 how work time with Aaron was simultaneously a joyful, stimulating, and food-rich experience. by John DiMoia and Hiromi Mizuno In addition to being a real foodie—attested by Aaron S. Moore was Associate Professor at photos he posted from all over the world— Arizona State University, in the history of Aaron (second from left) at a session with he himself was an excellent cook; we can colleagues at Hoam Faculty House, Seoul National technology in Modern Japan, and more than enthusiastically testify to his culinary talent. University, February 2015 that, to many of us, a trusted friend and exciting More than anyone we know, Aaron was a close intellectual partner. In the more formal venue met regularly at various academic conferences follower of the English Premier League (EPL)— of an éloge in the journal Isis, we have detailed including the Association of Asian Studies, football or soccer for those among us less in the his scholarship and academic profile. Here, we’d History of Science Society, and Society for the know—and a devoted fan of Arsenal, almost like to share a more personal side of Aaron, History of Technology. Indeed it is extremely always looking for a game to attend or watch, with stories as the co-editors of Engineering difficult for us to imagine AAS and HSS without whether in Europe, Asia, or North America. Asia (Bloomsbury 2018), his last publication. Aaron, having met at their annual conferences During the editorial meetings in summer 2014 Working closely with him over its production almost every single time for the past nine years. in Singapore, we ended up watching a good from 2009 to 2018 gave us many memories to deal of the World Cup, including the Germany- cherish and share. Our editorial meetings for Engineering Asia took Argentina final, which took place in the middle many shapes at many places around the globe. The collaborative book project took Aaron of the night (or morning, if you prefer) given For instance, in February 2015, we met in Seoul and us to many places: his home institution in the time difference. We stayed up all night in my where Aaron was spending his sabbatical year. Arizona, Seoul National University in Korea, (John’s) apartment, watching as the game went What was intended as a short briefing over the National University of Singapore, and the until nearly dawn. In 2017, as we held the final breakfast at Seoul National University’s Hoam Max Planck Institute for the History of Science editorial meetings for the volume in Arizona Faculty House restaurant, with two contributors in Berlin, Germany to name just a few. We also over two-and-a-half days, Aaron and John took a Manyong Moon and Tae-ho Kim, turned out to

20 History of Science Society Newsletter • April 2020 Continued on Page 21 History of Science Society Newsletter In Memoriam, cont. short break to watch the second half of the Super of wartime Japanese engineers and scientists to guestbook, a standard gesture, and was surprised Bowl—and we have Hiromi and his wife, Nila, to differentiate their approach from what they saw when asked to pose for a picture. Several months thank for permitting this indulgence—in which as Western engineers’ and scientists’ bookish later, this picture appeared in the Park Chung the Patriots came back to defeat Atlanta. Aaron and elitist approach. Aaron did not share Hee foundation’s newsletter, with a caption was not pleased. In sport as in his scholarship, we their polemics but was certainly one of most emphasizing the significance of foreign scholars remember, he was rarely a fan of the dominant “grounded” historians we know. Not only to coming to pay homage to Park’s legacy. Aaron power, the hegemon, and sought instead, to archives in various countries, he also traveled had to hear many a joke about this incident from root for the alternative, the new, the unexpected to many of the dam and construction sites he his colleagues, as his scholarly aims were so clearly reframing. was researching, as evidenced by the numerous distinct from those of the museum. photographs of him wearing a hard hat at these A graduate of University of Virginia before locations. In South Korea, he frequently visited At the memorial event held in Aaron’s honor at undertaking graduate studies in history at the Seoul water company’s library, where the ASU in November 2019, Hiromi talked about Cornell, Aaron followed the UVA basketball team holdings spanning from the colonial to post- how Aaron was like her intellectual twin brother, closely and to this day, remains the only academic independence periods were displayed in open whose research interest overlapped closely, who in our knowledge, to possess an abiding interest shelf style. shared a vision and ambitions for the future in the post-up abilities of Olden Polynice (center directions of the field, and who even developed for the 1984 UVA NCAA Final Four team), not When visiting overseas archives and sites, he a Global WWII course at the same time without to mention Ralph Sampson. Aaron was overjoyed made every attempt to understand the local knowing about the other’s course. Furthermore, when UVA won the NCAA tournament in 2019 scholarship and perspectives (and of course, one would not easily find someone who could and immediately bought a commemorative food). Sometimes, such efforts resulted in funny immediately email back at 5AM sharing the same t-shirt, which he then wore to a talk he gave at consequences. While in Seoul 2014, Aaron excitement about an obscure engineer magazine. Virginia Tech. It is unclear how the Virginia Tech visited the Park Chung Hee Museum at the Another speaker at the memorial event, John community responded to this, but they probably advice of SNU Professor Park Tae-gyun. When Kim—a personal friend of Aaron from his recognized Aaron’s genuine joy in a UVA victory the curators informed him that the library was, graduate-school days and a professor of German after many years of waiting. unfortunately, not open, he took advantage of the literature and philosophy—then piped up to say opportunity to tour the museum. The museum that he was a triplet sibling as he felt the same Aaron was a tireless traveler and researcher. It was filled with wonderful images of President way. But it was not just us. What is amazing was during these meetings as well as at post- Park and South Korea’s growth through the about Aaron is that so many people indeed felt panel dinners at conferences that we would hear 1960s and 1970s, a genre Aaron named “Pictures this way about him. We discovered that this updates on his research for his second book, of Park Chung Hee Pointing at Things”— feeling of Aaron being the special intellectual Damming Asia: The Cold War and Japanese buildings, construction sites, mountains, rivers. and/or personal ally was shared by very many Post-Colonial Overseas Development. He often At the end of the tour, he was asked to sign the people who knew him well. There is something talked about “groundedness,” the favorite word

21 History of Science Society Newsletter • April 2020 Continued on Page 22 History of Science Society Newsletter In Memoriam, cont. deeply comforting about this realization. a truly global network of friends and families, sharing food, music, ideas, and laughter, and Those of us who worked with Aaron, we think, reflecting his cosmopolitan upbringing, his seeing his shy and warm smile. understand. culturally rich family, and his companionship with Nila, with whom he traveled all over the world. John DiMoia is Associate Professor of Korean With his increasing number of publications, History at Seoul National University and Hiromi Aaron attracted great attention from younger All these connections nourished Aaron’s Mizuno is Associate Professor of Japanese History at scholars, and was frequently asked to serve on scholarship and methodology. Comfortable University of Minnesota. conference panels, to read dissertations and in at least four languages at a high degree manuscripts, and to act as a referee for various of proficiency—English, Japanese, Korean, journals. The list of individuals he worked with and German—Aaron brought this diverse in these tasks is lengthy, and included graduate background to his work, visiting and giving students from Johns Hopkins University, presentations at numerous international sites, Seoul National University, Stanford University, and doing the administrative work necessary to

Virginia Tech University, and of course, his get Korean Studies on a stronger footing at his home institution. Given his home in Arizona, home institution, Arizona State. For work in he interacted frequently with colleagues in Japan, moreover, he reached out to government California at UC Irvine, UCLA, and Stanford, agencies, and was invited to present at the Japan and when traveling internationally, he held International Cooperation Agency, which he extensive personal networks in Japan (Kobe, criticized in his work, as the representatives there Tokyo), Singapore, South Korea (Seoul, Jeonju), hoped to learn from his historical work. and Germany (Tübingen). In 2014, along with Lisa Onaga of the Max Planck Institute in Berlin, Aaron was a true friend, intellectual collaborator, he organized a workshop at ASU, which became and above all, someone who lived fully in all the basis for a special issue in Technology and things, whether books, food, sports, or politics. A Culture. scholar who left his mark on all those whom he encountered, Aarons’s work is well-known across Aaron at Balu Chaung Power Station No. 2 in What is more remarkable is that Aaron had many a range of fields. But he will also be remembered Lawpita (Kayah State, Myanmar), Japan’s first friendship circles like this beyond the academic as a beautiful person whose life was so full and wartime reparations project built between 1954 world, for example around his interest in human rich. That sense of him always being there for and 1962 in ethnic Kayah and Karenni areas during rights activism in Sri Lanka, as well as around you meant the whole world to many of us. We the U Nu and Ne Win regimes, June 2018. music, sports, to name just a couple of others. will deeply miss receiving reading lists at random Aaron cherished and nurtured rich human moments, exchanging e-mail about colonial water connection more than anyone we know. He had records or obscure engineers’ career at wee hours,

22 History of Science Society Newsletter • April 2020 History of Science Society Newsletter HSS News HSS@Work: A Personal I wish that there had been a group to which I Plan Ahead Appeal from Jay could have turned during those times and so was delighted when in 2013 Tania Munz and Carin Future HSS Meetings Shortly after receiving my PhD, I worked as a Berkowitz helped us launch HSS@Work, our freelancer, unable to land the tenure-track job caucus devoted to those who had fully embraced that had been my goal during my graduate life. the history of science but who then faced the Having a supportive spouse helped tremendously prospect of doing something outside of academia. but with our second child on her way, we After a successful initial run, HSS@Work is now knew that I needed work that promised more at a crossroads. We have been unable to find stability. I was on the cusp of dropping out of the individuals who are willing to lead the caucus 2020 history of science altogether, when my advisor and organize events at the annual meeting. If New Orleans, LA: 8-11 October encouraged me to apply for the new position of this disinterest continues, we will have to close Joint meeting with SHOT HSS Executive Director. Somehow, I landed that the caucus, and that saddens me. So, if you job, and I have had the privilege of working with believe that we still need HSS@Work, please some of the most talented people on the planet volunteer your time to help it succeed. I can these past years. I was lucky, but I still remember guarantee you that it will pay dividends to the the despair those many years ago, that after HSS and to the profession. Please contact me at having given myself to the history of science, that [email protected]. there would be nothing to show for it (which, on the other hand, might have offered some relief 2021 in that I would no longer have to explain to my Mérida, Mexico: November (dates TBD) mother what a historian of science actually does). Joint meeting with SHOT

2022 2023 Chicago, IL: Portland, OR: November 17-20 November 9-12

23 History of Science Society Newsletter • April 2020 History of Science Society Newsletter News from the Profession all the traditions it inherited. Founding editor- in-chief Daiwie Fu specializes in the history of Chinese science, and the current editor-in chief Wen-Hua Kuo works on the history of public health and Asian medicine. In just its first decade, EASTS has invited such renowned historians of science as Warwick Anderson, Francesca Bray, Pingyi Chu, Gregory Clancey, Fa-ti Fan, Sungook Hong, Sean Lei, and Togo Tsukahara to serve as associate editors. Through its editorial board, EASTS has also succeeded in building a global intellectual network that incorporates leading authorities both within and outside of East Asia EASTS: An Intellectual point well-recognized in Volume 13 of Osiris, and encourages conversations between the history Bridge from the History of titled “Beyond Joseph Needham: Science, of science and other disciplines, as well as the Technology, and Medicine in East and Southeast history of science in East Asia and beyond. A full Science to Science Studies Asia.” Historically, whereas STS in Japan began list of the current editorial board can be found and East Asia with socialistic criticisms of Cold War science on the journal’s webpage. and now directs attention to alternative forms Science and technology have played active of social organization grounded in ideological A quarterly publication, the majority of whose roles in the making of modern East Asia and pluralism, STS in China embraced traditions issues are thematic, EASTS continues to its transformations. Founded in 2007 with the of natural dialectics and is backed up by state contribute to the study of history and science, support of Taiwan’s National Science Council ideology. Taiwan and Korea take yet different technology, and medicine in East Asia. In the (now the Ministry of Science and Technology), disciplinary orientations. Influenced by Joseph past five years, for example, it has produced issues East Asian Science, Technology and Society: An Needham’s account of science and civilization, on the following themes: International Journal (EASTS), the first English- and developing their research agendas from • Transnational psy-science in East and language journal dedicated to this exciting field, the history of Chinese science, scholars in Southeast Asia has attracted Asia specialists and experts from both these countries have structured their many disciplines. • Population control and reproductive politics criticism of science as a necessary step toward in Cold War Asia Compared to the intellectual orientation of its democratization. • Science and politics in Indonesia Western counterpart, STS in East Asia has deep As a collective effort to make East Asia visible to • Post-colonial medicine and sub-imperial intellectual roots on the history of science, a mainstream scholarship, EASTS has integrated formations of Taiwan and Korea 24 History of Science Society Newsletter • April 2020 History of Science Society Newsletter News from the Profession, cont. • Medicine and public health in the twentieth Physicist Roland Eötvös’s century, and PhD Thesis Unearthed • Science and technology in Mao-era China Henk Kubbinga (University of Groningen) It has also actively engaged in discussions on made an interesting discovery while preparing the history of science in non-Western societies, a “Tribute to Roland Eötvös (1848-1919)” for including a forum on language and science; the European Physical Society. At the Hungarian research notes and their responses on science Academy of Sciences and in the Eötvös Museum, fictions in East Asia; and the methodological both in Budapest, he studied surviving materials contribution of Southeast Asia to STS. (publications, instruments, photographs, bullae, etc.,) to find out that a crucial item was lacking, Though our journal is still young, we as editors namely Eötvös’ PhD dissertation, defended are committed to high-quality scholarship, and in 1870 at the Ruprecht-Karls University our efforts have been recognized by winning the of Heidelberg. The doctor’s bulla signed by Infrastructure Award given by the Society for the none less than Gustav Kirchhoff, is still there, Social Studies of Science (4S) and by inclusion Presentation of the Eötvös file from the Archives however, so some kind of misunderstanding of Ruprecht-Karls University, Heidelberg, on 23 in key academic metrics, notably the Arts and seemed to prevail. Kubbinga subsequently January 2020. In the middle: the University’s Humanities Citation Index and the Social Sciences contacted the Board of the Ruprecht-Karls Prorector Matthias Weidemüller, himself a Citation Index. We analyze contemporary science University explaining the situation and asking distinguished physicist; on the right Ingo Runde, and society while paying equal attention to how for eventual souvenirs of Eötvös’ student days Director of the Archives; on the left: Henk it was created and has transformed East Asia. at Heidelberg. As it became clear in due course, Kubbinga (EPS-History of Physics Group). Picture: We are always looking out for more scholarly Oliver Fink (Press-Department) he had hit bull’s eye. As the oldest University of collaborations, in particular those on the history today’s Germany, the Ruprecht-Karls University staff of the Faculty of Philosophy, all assembled of science, to help us accomplish this. So, please was lucky enough to survive two World Wars formally gowned. His results, on that July 7th, join us in contributing your own work to the virtually undamaged, and its Archives preserved were quite impressive: indeed, he received the living archive that is EASTS! in a perfect state. Kubbinga was graciously distinction summa cum laude. The complete Information about EASTS was provided by the received and quickly found out that in 1870, PhD file is there. It features the original request current editor Wen-Hua Kuo, who teaches social a PhD-ceremony in Heidelberg, was not a by Eötvös to be admitted to the examination, studies of medicine and public health at National tradition. Indeed, presenting a dissertation was with an enclosure—fully unexpected—of an Yang-Ming University, Taiwan. the exception rather than the rule. Like most of autographed curriculum vitae covering his three the other candidates, Eötvös was subjected to a years at Heidelberg, of which one semester 2-3 hour oral examination in German before the was spent in Königsberg (today, Kaliningrad).

25 History of Science Society Newsletter • April 2020 History of Science Society Newsletter News from the Profession, cont. The three examiners—Bunsen, Königsberger, 2020 HIST Award of the Announcing the Newly and Kirchhoff—added their impressions of the candidate’s answers; Kirchhoff, as Dean of American Chemical Society Digitized Dr. Robert the Faculty, specified the judicium. After the Recipient: Lawrence M. Matz Hospital Postcard examination, each of the staffers in the audience Principe Collection signed the proceedings of the ceremony. The file Lawrence M. Principe concludes with a copy of the doctor’s bulla, dated , Drew Professor of the The New York Academy of Medicine Library is July 8. With Eötvös’ detailed curriculum vitae Humanities, with Chairs in both Chemistry very pleased to announce the launch of the Dr. and all the other papers on the table, a revised and the History of Science, at Johns Hopkins Robert Matz Hospital Postcard Collection, a pilot biography seems imperative. University was named the recipient of the digitization project that provides access to 118 2020 HIST Award of the History of Chemistry hospital postcards from the five boroughs of New (HIST) Division of the History of Chemistry York City. Spearheaded by Dr. Robin Naughton, New Consortium for of the American Chemical Society. The HIST Senior Digital Program Manager, the collection the History of Science, Award recognizes outstanding achievement in the offers a window into the history of hospitals in history of chemistry and is international in scope. the New York area as well as some of the visitors Technology and Medicine This award is the successor to the Dexter Award to those hospitals. Many of the postcards have Working Group (1956-2001) and the Sydney M. Edelstein Award messages and postmarks, allowing the viewer to Penelope Hardy, Daniella McCahey, and (2002-2009), also administered by the Division ascertain the time period when the cards were Katharina Steiner are pleased to announce the of the History of Chemistry (HIST) of the created. View the Matz Collection. formation of a new working group in the history American Chemical Society. The award consists of ocean science, technology, and medicine of an engraved plaque and a check for $1500 Quantum of Interest under the aegis of the Consortium for the and will be presented to Prof. Principe at the History of Science, Technology and Medicine fall national meeting of the American Chemical The University of Notre Dame recently restored (CHSTM) in Philadelphia. The group will meet Society in San Francisco in August 2020. Read a cache of letters featuring debates on matters Read the full story, monthly beginning in Fall 2020 to discuss recent the press release. Additional information about of physics among scholars. complete with illustrations in HSS Member publications and workshop papers in progress. the award can be found on the HIST website. The conveners invite anyone interested in News. participating to sign up.

26 History of Science Society Newsletter • April 2020 History of Science Society Newsletter Donations to the HSS for 2019 Sarton Circle • Bruce Lewenstein • Daniel Kevles • Clayton Gearhart • Donna Bilak • Mary Richie McGuire • Albert Lewis • Julia Kursell • Catherina Gere • Muriel Blaisdell • Ronald Mickens ($1000+) • John Lesch • Sally Gregory • Nicolas Blanchard • Katharine Park • Bettina Bock Van • Samantha Muka • Angela and Bill Creager • Susan Lindee Kohlstedt • Robert Richards • Barth Howard Wülfingen • Tsunehiko Nomura • Jan Golinski • Rachel Maines • Patrick Boner • Andrew Oakes • Lawrence Sturman • Gwen Kay • Bernard Lightman • Gavan McCarthy • Mary Ellen Bowden • Johnathan Oldfield • J. Krüger • Sherman Suter • Lynn Nyhart • William Brock • Lisa Onaga • Robert Jay Malone • Steven Livesey • Virginia Trimble • Karen Rader • John Carson • John Parascandola • Anonymous • Stephen McCluskey • Gregory Radick • Peggy Champlin • Barbara Pohl • H. Wick • Eric Peterson • Yun-Shiung Chang • Alisha Rankin • Joan Richards President’s • Thomas Williams • Marc Rothenberg • Raz Chen-Morris • Alan Rauch • Rachaeil Rosner Circle ($500+) • Bruce Seely • Bella Chiu • Barbara Reeves • Emilie Savage-Smith Patrons ($100+) • Alan Shapiro • Terry Christensen • Marsha Richmond • Kristine Harper • Michael Shank • Garland Allen III • Joan Steigerwald • Alix Cooper • Nils Roll-Hansen • Mason Malone • Paolo Custodi • Helen Rozwadowski • Ann Blair • Robert Smith • Anne Sterling • Naomi Oreskes • L. De Rooy • Claire Sabel • Richard Burkhardt • Otto Sonntag • James Strick • Tina Gianquitto • Anja Sattelmacher • Frederick Weinstein • Joan Cadden • Frank Sulloway • Elly Truitt • Graeme Gooday • Helga Satzinger • Liba Taub Benefactors • David C. Cassidy • Zuoyue Wang • Wilko Graf Von • Robin Scheffler • Erik Conway • Mohandas Towne • Stephen Weldon Hardenberg • Vera Schwach ($200+) • William Eamon • John Tresch • Elizabeth Williams • Anita Guerrini • Kathleen Sheppard • Amy Ackerberg-Hastings • Lenore Feigenbaum • Klaas Van Berkel Supporters • Floor Haalboom • Nancy Slack • Richard Burian • Margaret Garber • Christine Von Oertzen • Robert Halvorsen • Michael Sokal • Bruce Hevly • David Spanagel • Judith Goodstein • Robert Westman (up to $50) • Luis Campos • Brian Hickam • Anonymous • Pnina Abir-Am • Ida Stamhuis • Joseph Harmon • Alexandra Hui • Santos Casado de Otaola • Amir Alexander • J. Swart • Patricia Harris • Alan Johnson • Lorraine Daston Partners ($50+) • Adam Apt • Fenneke Sysling • Jo Hays • Jeffrey Johnson • Kenneth Taylor • Renato Acampora • Monica Azzolini • Charles Day • Abram Kaplan • Julia Heideklang • Albert Bardi • Isabel Van Paasschen • James Brannon • Emily Kern • Pamela Gossin • Jennifer Hubbard • Jérôme Baudry • Ruben Verwaal • William Branson • Saskia Klerk • Susan Jones • Mentz Indergaard • Caroline Bauer • Peeranut Visetsuth • David Devorkin • A Latham • Debbie Weinstein • Paul Israel • Edward Beasley • Robert Kohler • Richard Duschl • Anna Maerker • Jean Beetschen • Maia Weinstock • Margaret Jacob • Richard Martin • Marcel Lafollette • Michael Friedlander • Kenneth Bertrams • Paul White • David Kaiser • Karl Matlin 27 History of Science Society Newsletter • April 2020