News | The History of Science Society

Vol. 40, No. 1, January 2011
Printer friendly version of Newsletter

News & Inquiries

Important News for HSS Members

Starting on January 3, 2011, the webpages of the journals published by UCP will be joining the Current Scholarship Program and will be hosted within the JSTOR domain (www.jstor.org). This does not change the publishing arrangements for the HSS, nor does it at all affect members’ subscriptions; the only change will be that members will access Isis and Osiris at their new online home within the JSTOR website.

The look of the online journals for UCP will change as well. With improved readability and organization, we’ve maintained equivalent functionality while taking advantage of the integration of the JSTOR backfile.

When society members go to the online journal in the new year, they will be asked to create an account within JSTOR and to select a new username and password. Members received e-mail messages in December to inform them about this: a message from UCP about the upcoming change in online access to the journal, and, later in December, a welcome e-mail from JSTOR and an e-mail with information on creating an account and accessing one’s member subscription.

Members’ current usernames and passwords will remain active on the UCP website (www.journals.uchicago.edu) so that they can renew their membership, change their address, check the journal delivery schedule, or claim non-delivery of print issues. Members will be able to change their UCP username and passwords to match their JSTOR usernames and passwords, if they wish to.

In addition to these e-mails, members will see information about access on the new Journal webpage. Members who have bookmarked links to the journal will find those links are automatically redirected to the appropriate page on the new journal webpage within JSTOR.

UCP’s customer service staff will work closely with JSTOR’s User Services department to ensure that members’ access to Isis and Osiris will continue as seamlessly as possible. Please feel free to contact Chicago Press with any questions. For more information about JSTOR, visit www.jstor.org.

HSS’s Newest Interest Group

The Forum for the History of Science in Asia (FHSAsia) had its official debut on 5 November 2010, during HSS Montréal. The meeting was run by founders, Carla Nappi of the University of British Columbia and Grace Yen Shen of York University, with the help of Graduate Student Representative, Lisa Onaga of Cornell University. Two other members of the steering committee, John DiMoia of the National University of Singapore and Projit Mukharji of McMaster University, could not be there, but more than twenty other scholars of all ranks joined in to get to know one another and to discuss future activities.

Topping the list were plans to improve the visibility of Asian research at the HSS’s Cleveland 2011 meeting, which will be a co-located meeting with SHOT and 4S. Forum members enthusiastically supported the idea of coordinating with the Special Interest Group in Asian Technology that is forming at SHOT, and we welcome links to interested scholars from 4S, as well! Stay tuned for future announcements of joint activities.

Members also offered suggestions for the Forum’s website, which will be redesigned in the coming months. The FHSAsia website at www.history.ubc.ca/fhsa will increase functionality to help connect members and link them to the broader history of science community. Though we will start with baby steps, attendees put together an ambitious wish list and, in the words of our first conference travel grant recipient, Lijing Jiang of the University of Arizona, the website should soon become a “clearinghouse for scholarly resources relevant to research and teaching about the history of Asian science.”

In future years, the Forum looks forward to welcoming more international participants, getting involved with graduate-student mentoring, and sponsoring activities of interest to the whole HSS community. Anyone interested in FHSAsia’s activities should contact Grace Shen at gyshen@yorku.ca or Carla Nappi at carla.nappi@ubc.ca and look for developments on our website.

Integrated History and Philosophy of Science “&HPS3”

Indiana University Bloomington, September 2010.

In 2010, the Department of History and Philosophy of Science (HPSC) at Bloomington celebrated its fiftieth anniversary. To mark this occasion, the department hosted two events: The third international conference in the series “Integrated History and Philosophy of Science” (“&HPS3”) and, immediately preceding the conference, a panel discussion on interdisciplinary graduate education in history and philosophy of science.

Six graduates of the department reflected on his or her experience as an HPS graduate and the way in which their graduate work has shaped their professional trajectory—and shared fond memories with the panel chair, Professor emeritus Fred Churchill, as well as with several alumni and emeriti in the audience, among them Professor emeritus Ed Grant, one of the founding members of the department.

The Roundtable was followed by the three-day conference “Integrated History and Philosophy of Science.” As in previous years, the contributions covered a broad range of topics, ranging from Newton’s conception of space (Mary Domski, Andrew Janiak) and Leibniz’s anti-vitalism (Justin Smith) to Hilbert’s Method of Analogy (Lydia Patton) and Developmental Evolution as a Mechanistic Science (Manfred Laubichler). &HPS3 showcased and explored the many dimensions of “integrated HPS,” such as the fruitful merging of history of science and history of philosophy, the placing of philosophical positions in their historical contexts, and the study of the trajectories of epistemological and methodological concepts. A highlight of the conference was the plenary lecture by Michael Friedman, “A Post-Kuhnian Approach to the History and Philosophy of Science.”

The Fourth Conference on Integrated History and Philosophy of Science (&HPS4) will be held in Athens, Greece, in 2011. The Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Athens will be the host.

Newton in Three Dimensions

By Katie Turnbull/Menagerie Theatre Company

Craig Baxter’s new play, Let Newton Be!, premiered in late October at Newton’s old college, Trinity. One of these early performances was introduced by the just-retired Lucasian professor of mathematics, theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, and by Denis Alexander, director of the Faraday Institute for Religion and Science, which had sponsored the production as part of the celebration of Cambridge University’s 800th anniversary and the International Year of Astronomy.

Baxter, whose play Re: Design consists entirely of extracts from Charles Darwin’s correspondence, found few Newtonian letters with which to begin. But there were words, millions of them, from notebooks and personal accounts. The incomparable Newton Project, which has over the past ten years put four million of Newton’s words online (making them widely accessible for the first time), has revolutionized the ways in which we can understand Newton. Baxter has quarried these millions of words on theology, alchemy, mathematics, and physics to produce a Newton whom brilliantly he chose to split.

Baxter gives us a trinity of Newtons: the child Isack (played by Caroline Rippin), who runs and jumps and measures and records; the man Newton (played by Neil Jones), at war with himself, contemplative, constantly list-writing, driven, on the brink of breakdown; and the mature Sir Isaac (played by Paul McCleary), self-possessed master of the mint. It would have been easy to present Newton’s life chronologically, one Newton after another. But Baxter has all three on stage all the time, challenging and questioning one another. That produces a multidimensional Newton—one who is indeed torn among selves, split, divided, energetic, and spilling over, but whom we see as a complete being. The result is a play that barely contains its own subject. This is Newton fully in three dimensions.

The International Year of Crystallography — 2013

The birth of modern crystallography took place almost 100 years ago when Max von Laue directed the experiment that showed that crystals diffract X-rays and the Braggs (father and son) shortly afterward showed that the diffraction of X-rays can be used to determine accurately the positions of atoms within a crystal. The significance of these experimental results was realized immediately, and Max von Laue received the Nobel Prize in 1914 and the Braggs the year after.

The International Union of Crystallography wishes to mark the centennials of these results by making 2013 the International Year of Crystallography (IYCr). The crystallographic scientific community has welcomed the idea of having 2013 as an International Year of Crystallography with great enthusiasm and several National Organizations have already started their preparations in eager anticipation of the IYCr. Since its birth, modern crystallography has developed in close collaboration with other scientific disciplines. Since crystals also diffract neutrons and electrons the scientific focus of the International Union of Crystallography has enlarged, so that crystallography now covers all aspects of structural science involving X-rays, neutrons and electrons.

The IUCr envisions the IYCr 2013 as a unique opportunity to promote scientific cross-fertilization between crystallography and its related disciplines. Indeed, crystallography permeates all structural science at the molecular level, including physics, biology, chemistry, mineralogy and the geosciences. The International Union of Crystallography is therefore seeking your support to make 2013 a unique year for all crystallographers worldwide, stimulating interactions between crystallography and its closely related research areas.

For further information: http://www.iucr.org/

Lise Meitner Returns to Berlin

Lise Meitner has returned to Berlin. That is, as a theatrical character on stage, when Robert Marc Friedman’s award-winning play Remembering Miss Meitner was performed at Maxim Gorki Theatre, Oct 9–10, 2010.

Lise Meitner (1878–1968) devoted herself to physics. After receiving a doctorate in Vienna, she moved to Berlin in 1907 and quietly broke barriers against women in science. By the 1920s she headed her own department of physics at the Kaiser Wilhelm Society and emerged as Germany’s leading nuclear physicist. That is, until 1938 when Nazi persecution forced her to flee. Meitner lost virtually everything. But it was as a refugee in Sweden that insult and intrigue compounded injury and eroded her self-confidence and reputation.

Having been the initiator and scientific leader of the team investigating uranium that included her earlier long-time collaborator, chemist Otto Hahn, and even secretly remaining in contact with Hahn after fleeing Berlin, she was at the time denied credit for her role in the discovery of nuclear fission.

In Stockholm, Meitner received a cool welcome. Manne Siegbahn, Sweden’s most powerful physicist, gave her a room in his laboratory but little more. Moreover, the Nobel committees for both physics and chemistry ignored or downplayed Meitner’s contributions. Hahn received a Nobel Prize alone. Meitner remained silent. History now suggests how and why these events happened.

The one-act play, Remembering Miss Meitner, is set in the theatrical present. Recent historical research draws the scientists Lise Meitner, Otto Hahn, and Manne Siegbahn onto the stage of collective memory. Having always shunned publicity and conflict, Meitner must now confront the new revelations of how she was betrayed by her closest colleague and by the prestigious Nobel institution. Hahn and Siegbahn, both Nobel laureates, refuse to perform in a play that questions their own reputations. Something far more important than the Prize itself is at stake.

In conjunction with the performances in Berlin a symposium took place on October 8th at Humboldt University (Institute for North European Studies) on Scandinavia as a refuge for Jewish academics during the Nazi-era.

For further information on the symposium: http://www.ni.hu-berlin.de/termine/meitnersymposium/

Internet Resource: Debating Glacial Theory, 1800–1870

The debate over glacial theory was a major episode in the history of geology. Original sources and other resources for teaching about this episode (and for easy reference) will soon be available online, through a new website: http://www.glacialtheory.net

The site is the brainchild of Keith Montgomery, geology professor at the University of Wisconsin, Marathon County. His original goal was to convey to his students a sense of doing science, including fieldwork, scientific debate, and conceptual change. The strategy was to situate students in the 19th century by having them read the original papers and “visit” some of the major geological formations and phenomena (erratics) across Europe. Thanks to Google Books, all the original sources are now available online. However, access needed to be consolidated in one centralized location. Montgomery has organized the works into episodes (based on major sites), with a narrative introduction to each, plentiful original images—maps, cross-sections, sketches, portraits, caricatures, etc.—and some modern photos. To capture some of the experience of journeying across the continent, Montgomery assembled a “tour” using GoogleEarth, allowing students to zoom in to, say, Glen Roy. From this historical perspective, students are to make their own judgments about glacial theory in the early 1840s.

With further work by Douglas Allchin at the University of Minnesota, the debate also became a classroom simulation, set at the Geological Society of London in 1842. Students assumed the roles of one of 15 geologists who all wrote about glacial theory or interpreted the phenomena under debate. For each role there was guidance about what to read and the individual’s unique point of view. The activity further highlights the experience of active debate in historical perspective.

The website also functions as a convenient reference. All the primary, secondary and tertiary literature is in a bibliography, with links to online sources provided. The images throughout (although not yet fully indexed) may prove a valuable central resource for presentations.

This project is the first major product from a 2009 workshop where science teachers convened with historians, philosophers and sociologists to assemble problem-based historical case studies for teaching science and the nature of science. The workshop was funded in part by a grant from the HSS’s Joseph H. Hazen Eductaion Fund. The new website is being hosted by the SHiPS Resource Center (http://ships.umn.edu), where other new case studies will be posted, joining a growing number of such cases for K–12 education.

History of Science Society Executive Office and Notre Dame

On December 6th, the Executive Office moved from its temporary space in the Hesburgh Library at Notre Dame to its permanent space in Geddes Hall, next door to the library. The Office is located adjacent to the offices of the Reilly Center for Science, Technology and Values, and we look forward to collaborating with our new neighbors. The following press release was issued shortly after the Executive Office’s relocation to Notre Dame:

History of Science Society Comes to University of Notre Dame

The History of Science Society (HSS) has arrived at Notre Dame—a move that promises to benefit the society, the University’s History and Philosophy of Science (HPS) program and Notre Dame’s science programs by providing new opportunities for collaboration among society members, faculty, and students. HSS, which relocated from the University of Florida this fall, is the world’s largest society dedicated to understanding science, technology, medicine, and their interactions with society in historical context. The organization has more than 3,000 members. The society’s work “fits into Notre Dame’s mission to cultivate an appreciation of human achievement while underscoring a desire to better the human condition,” says Robert Jay Malone, HSS executive director. “This way of thinking also motivates scientists, and so creates a common goal between the humanities and the sciences.”

“By nurturing this shared objective, HSS and ND hope to create an atmosphere where science is seen as a personal endeavor and not an objective practice removed from context, devoid of emotion and biases,” he continues. “The history of science can serve as a kind of conscience for science, providing practitioners—as well as the public—with insights into how science operates and giving examples of where it has given comfort and where it has startled us into new ways of thinking.” Don Howard, professor of philosophy and director of the HPS graduate program at Notre Dame, says he looks forward to partnering with the society to bring new conferences to campus, to support future research, and to give students more opportunity to learn from working scholars. Because HSS also serves the Philosophy of Science Association, he says, HPS will now benefit from having “the two biggest professional associations in the two areas central to our graduate program be housed at Notre Dame.”

According to Malone, HSS organizes the world’s largest annual meeting devoted to the history of science, which will help make “international scholars aware of the importance that ND assigns to the history of science.” The society also plans to organize colloquia where graduate students can present their work and polish their deliveries for meetings and the job market. In addition, says Malone, HSS’ comprehensive repository will expose students to the latest trends in the field. “For example, we are encouraging more poster presentations—a staple at scientific meetings—at conferences,” he says, “and I am hopeful that we can work with students to raise the number of such presentations.” The society’s arrival “represents the real maturing and importance” of Notre Dame’s program, says Phillip Sloan, who is currently a member of the society’s Isis editorial board, a former elected council member of the HSS, newly emeritus member of the Notre Dame faculty for HPS and the Program of Liberal Studies, and a concurrent member of the University’s Department of History. “Our HPS program is unusual in the landscape,” he says. “By requiring coursework in the history and the philosophy of science, it encourages a closer collaboration within the discipline. That was a founding vision of the program.”

CALL FOR PAPERS: Midwest Junto for the History of Science

54th Annual Meeting
1-3 April 2011
University of Nebraska-Lincoln

The Midwest Junto for the History of Science and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) invite students, faculty, and independent scholars to participate in the 54th Annual Meeting of the Midwest Junto, to take place on the UNL campus in Lincoln, Nebraska, from Friday, 1 April to Sunday, 3 April 2011.

Short papers (about 15-20 minutes) on any topic in the history of science, technology, and medicine, or the philosophy of science and technology, are welcome. A brief abstract (one-page maximum) should be submitted no later than 22 February 2011 to the program organizer, David Cahan (see address below). Abstracts may be submitted electronically in an e-mail message or as an attachment, or in paper format. The Junto especially encourages graduate students to participate. Acceptance of paper notifications will follow around 1 March. Graduate students who present a paper may request a partial subsidy for lodging from the Midwest Junto.

A block of rooms for conference participants at the recently remodeled Holiday Inn Downtown has been reserved. Rooms have double or king-size beds, and sleep 1-4 person(s) per room, as desired. The (discounted) room price ($99/night) includes a hot, buffet-style breakfast and parking. To receive the discounted price, participants must reserve a room before 21 March 2011 under “Midwest Junto for the History of Science.” (Block code: MJH) Please call the Holiday Inn at 402-475-4011 or use its website (www.holiday-inn.com/lincolnne).

On Friday evening, 1 April, there will be a reception at the Holiday Inn for all registered participants. On Saturday, 2 April and on Sunday, 3 April (until noon), the conference proper will take place on the nearby UNL campus (in Architecture Hall 127), which is about a 5-minute walk from the Holiday Inn. Coffee and other refreshments will be served throughout the conference. The cost of registration, which includes the reception (hors d’oeuvre and cash bar) and the conference, is $40. On Saturday evening, there will be a banquet at Lazlo’s restaurant, also near the Holiday Inn and the UNL campus. This year’s after-dinner speaker (the Stuart Pierson Memorial Lecturer), will be Professor Robert Seidel of the University of Minnesota. The banquet (dinner and cash bar) costs $25.

This year’s Junto meeting is partially sponsored by the Department of History at UNL.

Please send abstract or registration form to:

David Cahan
Charles Bessey Professor of History
Department of History
610 Oldfather Hall
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Lincoln, NE 68588-0327
e-mail: dcahan@unlnotes.unl.edu
Fax: 402-472-8839
Telephone: 402-472-3238
Registration form: http://www.history.iastate.edu/images/pdf_files/Registration.pdf

Go West! — Columbia History of Science Group

This year’s annual meeting of the Columbia History of Science Group will again be held at Friday Harbor Laboratories in the San Juan Islands of Washington. The CHSG is a regional science studies organization and offers a warm, collegial environment to present papers, meet other scholars, and enjoy the comforts and atmosphere of the University of Washington’s marine biological laboratories. The meeting will be held Friday, March 4 to Sunday, March 6. We are also happy to announce that this year’s keynote speaker will be Elizabeth Watkins from the Department of Philosophy at the University of California, San Francisco. The deadline for registration is February 1, 2011. www.columbiahistoryofsciencegroup.org

Paper Proposals are now being solicited on any science, technology or medicine-related topic for presentation at this year’s meeting. We are especially interested in proposals from junior scholars and graduate students. We also hope that senior scholars will use the conference as an opportunity to present preliminary research on new topics. As is the tradition at this meeting, talks are limited to 20 minutes and should not be read (further guidelines for presenting are on the website). Proposals, consisting of a 100-200 word description of the proposed talk and a formal title, must be received by January 20, 2011. Please email the proposal to gormley7@msu.edu.

SoHOST 2011

Auburn University proudly announces it will be hosting the fifth annual Southern regional conference for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine on April 12, 2011. In an attempt to combine the traditions of other regional conferences, such as the Midwest Junto and the Columbia History of Science Group at Friday Harbor, SoHoST provides a welcoming environment for graduate student presentations along with more established scholars, as well as a collegial venue to allow the growing community of scholars in the South to present new material. Faculty and graduate students are invited to submit paper or session proposals addressing all themes, time periods, and geographical regions in the history of science, technology, and medicine. Paper and session submissions were due December 1, 2010. More detailed information about the conference including registration can be found at: http://media.cla.auburn.edu/historyconferences/index.htm

SAHMS Thirteenth Annual Meeting

The Southern Association for the History of Medicine and Science (SAHMS)will hold its thirteenth annual meeting on March 4–5, 2011, at the famous Peabody Hotel in Memphis, Tennessee, sponsored by the University of Tennessee Health Science Center Library. All participants are responsible for their own travel expenses and must pay registration costs in advance of the meeting. Student travel awards are available each year; for more information, contact SAHMS President Michael Flannery at flannery@uab.edu. The deadline for proposals was September 30, 2010.

Darwin in American Textual Studies

Organizers are seeking submissions for an interdisciplinary textual studies essay collection that explores Darwinism in the American scene. Essays will examine the ways in which Darwinian language and theories have made their way into American literary and cultural texts, initially providing writers with a new vocabulary to describe human affairs and interactions with other living organisms, and continuing to shape the discourse and debates of today. The collection will include articles addressing texts written from the publication of On the Origin of Species (1859) through the present day. Texts examined may include fiction, nonfiction, popular science, film, documentary/television series, visual art, performance art, personal correspondence, etc. Comparative studies treating texts by a single writer before, as well as after publication of On the Origin, are also welcome. Textual readings that engage with Darwin¹s works other than On the Origin and Descent of Man, such as The Expression of the Emotions in Man and the Animals, the barnacle and worm studies, and the plant researches are especially welcome. Essays examining the distinctive qualities of America’s textual engagement with Darwin are of particular interest.

Submissions should explore the diverse issues that arose as a result of Darwin¹s exploration into the mechanisms of evolution: How, for instance, did Darwin¹s vision of natural and/or sexual selection shape late-century cultural productions? What role did the Darwinian view of evolutionary kinship play in late-century benevolence literature? How did his work on animal behavior and communication in The Expression of the Emotions in Man and the Animals affect the representation of animal consciousness and animal rights?

The collection should be useful not only for scholars of American literature and culture, but also for advanced undergraduate science and history of science courses that might incorporate textual studies work.

Please send a 500-word abstract or completed essay or inquiry to both Tina Gianquitto (tinagian@mines.edu) and Lydia Fisher (lfisher@pugetsound.edu) by January 31, 2011. Submissions should contain the author’s name and contact information (e-mail, postal address, phone, and fax numbers), and the working title of the proposed submission. Submitted manuscripts should be between 20–25 pages and formatted in MLA style.

Dingle Prize 2011

The British Society for the History of Science invites book nominations for the 2011 Dingle Prize. In keeping with the Society’s concern to communicate history of science to broad audiences, the 2011 Dingle Prize will be offered for the best book in the history of science, technology, and medicine, first published in English in 2009 or 2010, which is accessible to a wide audience of non-specialists. The winning book should present some aspect of the field in an engaging and comprehensible manner and should also show proper regard for historical methods and the results of historical research: for example, it might re-examine a well-known historical incident or achievement, or bring new perspective to previously neglected figures or fields in the past.

The value of the Dingle Prize is £300. The winner may also have the opportunity to give a public lecture or presentation, sponsored by the BSHS, on the book’s subject. The Prize was established in 1997 to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Society, and is named after the mathematician, astronomer and philosopher of science Herbert Dingle, a founder member of the BSHS. More information about the prize, including details of past winners, is available at http://www.bshs.org.uk/prizes/dingle-prize. Nominations for the Prize are invited from both individuals and publishers. Nominations should be sent to Jeff Hughes at jeff.hughes@manchester.ac.uk by 31 JANUARY 2011. Please include full publication details with nominations.

Publishers should send four copies of each of their nominated book(s) to:
BSHS Executive Secretary
3 Rectory Court
Elm Grove Lane,
Norwich, NR3 3LH, UK
to arrive by 14 FEBRUARY 2011.

Dissertations in the History of Science and Technology

The most recent doctoral dissertation abstracts pertaining to the history of science and technology—found in the November 2009 hard copies of Dissertation Abstracts—can be viewed at http://www.hsls.pitt.edu/guides/histmed/dissertations/

Our thanks to Jonathan Erlen at the University of Pittsburgh who compiles these lists.

IHPST Newsletter

For the latest issue of the International History, Philosophy and Science Teaching Group, go to http://ihpst.net/newsletters/

CFP: New Palgrave Series

Series Editors James Rodger Fleming, jfleming@colby.edu, and Roger D. Launius, launiusr@si.edu, invite proposals for a new series in the history of science and technology published by Palgrave Macmillan in New York. Designed to bridge the gap between traditionally divergent fields, “Palgrave Studies in the History of Science and Technology” aims to publish the best new work by scholars. The series accommodates a wide variety of titles, including but not limited to research monographs, synthetic studies, biographies, conference volumes, and single-authored works featuring ethical and public policy debates and issues in cultural context. Their dominant disciplinary approach is historical, but they may also incorporate economic, social, cultural, anthropological, and political perspectives.

Chemical Heritage Foundation (CHF) Predoctoral and Postdoctoral Fellowships

The Chemical Heritage Foundation (CHF), an independent research center and library in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, would like to encourage applications for long-term and short-term predoctoral and postdoctoral fellowships at CHF for the academic year 2011–12. These fellowships are for scholars working in any area of the history or social studies of science, technology, medicine, or industry in all periods and geographical areas. To get a better sense of the kinds of research we support as well as the kinds of benefits our fellowships offer, please visit our website: http://www.chemheritage.org/research/fellowships-and-travel-grants/index.aspx The deadline for applications, which are to be completed online, is February 15, 2011. A peer-review selection committee will select the Fellows.

ScienceOnline2011 Panel: Making the History of Science Work for You

At ScienceOnline2011, the fifth annual conference on Science and the Web (mid-January, Research Triangle area of North Carolina), there will be a session concerning the history of science, Making the history of science work for you. Most scientists know just enough history of science to share a story or two about the quirky characters and events that shaped their scientific field. However, history can do so much more for scientists to help them as bloggers, as researchers and even as citizens. This session will explore the ways in which using the history of science can help individuals connect to readers, combat misinformation (such as quote-mining) on the web, and find common ground between the sciences and humanities. Discussion leaders are Michael D. Barton (HSS member), Eric Michael Johnson, Greg Gbur, Randi Hutter Epstein, and Holly Tucker.
For more information, go to: http://scio11.wikispaces.com/Program

Renewing the Heritage of Chemistry in the 21st Century: Conversations on the Preservation, Presentation and Utilization of Sources, Sites and Artefacts

A Symposium of the Commission on the History of Modern Chemistry (CHMC) in Conjunction with the IUPAC-UNESCO International Year of Chemistry, 2011
Paris, 21-24 June 2011

All those interested in the heritage of chemistry in the 20th and 21st centuries, including historians, chemists, archivists, museum curators, librarians, and industrial archaeologists, are invited to Paris on 21–24 June 2011 for a symposium involving conversations among experts from many different perspectives. The symposium will present not only the views of historians on how best to use the sources, sites and artifacts of chemistry in the contemporary era, but also the views of those concerned with the technical problems related to the preservation and presentation to historians and the general public of those sources, sites, and artifacts.

General questions to be discussed:

The goal of the proposed symposium, to be held in the centenary year of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry awarded to Marie Curie, is to bring together a wide range of experts to discuss the challenges associated with understanding, preserving, and presenting the heritage of chemistry in the 21st century. We have entered an era in which new scientific ideas and new technologies have changed not only the face of chemistry itself—which has become a highly diversified discipline and profession—but also the nature of the sources for its future history. Along with the paper documents, oral histories, instruments, and other artifacts that have previously embodied the heritage of chemistry we now need to include sources and artifacts that represent the chemistry of the present and future, including electronic documents, images, videos, databases, software, and the hardware needed to preserve and use these sources. How can we best apply the new technologies to preserve and enhance the use of older sources and artifacts as well as the new ones? How will historians need to adapt their methods of research to utilize these new technologies and sources, and how will the resulting changes affect the process of writing and publishing results, including electronic publications? How can archivists, librarians and museum curators best obtain, preserve, and ensure their future accessibility to interested specialists? Besides the preservation and use of these materials, historians must also be increasingly concerned with the preservation of key sites associated with the heritage of chemistry, including academic and industrial research laboratories as well as centers of technological innovation, because the historical development of scientific and technological innovations may often be most clearly understood by seeing the original apparatus and equipment in their original settings. This raises the further question: how can the specialists and institutions concerned with the heritage of modern chemistry, including industrial archaeologists, best present critical sources, sites and artifacts to the general public, in ways that will highlight key developments and avoid misconceptions? In view of the rapid development of current technologies and the many challenges that they present, the organizers wish to engage specialists from different national, professional and institutional backgrounds in conversations that may help to produce constructive and ongoing interactions among all concerned. We will therefore welcome the participation of a broad range of experts concerned with the heritage of chemistry. These should include historians of science and technology; curators, industrial archaeologists, and directors of public and private museums and cultural sites as well as directors and staff of libraries and archives of all kinds, including those in industrial settings; experts in electronic media concerned with the heritage of chemistry; and of course chemists in all types of institutions. Ultimately we hope to promote a better understanding of how best to deal with the current and future challenges for shaping the heritage of chemistry in a new era.

Submissions are due January 15, 2011.

Further information and particulars about registration and methods of payment will be made available on the symposium website at www.chmc2011.fr

For inquiries contact:
Jeffrey A. Johnson (incoming president, CHMC; Villanova University, USA): Jeffrey.Johnson@villanova.edu

American Association for the History of Nursing Presents Research and Writing Awards

At its 27th annual conference, held jointly with the European Nursing History Group in London, the American Association for the History of Nursing awarded its distinguished Lavinia L. Dock Award for Exemplary Historical Research and Writing to Dr. Kara Dixon Vuic (Bridgewater College) for her book, Officer, nurse, woman: The Army Nurse Corp in the Vietnam War (Johns Hopkins Press, 2010).

The Mary Adelaide Nutting Award for Exemplary Historical Research and Writing went to Dr. Julie Fairman and Dr. Patricia D’Antonio for their article “Reimagining nursing’s place in the history of clinical practice,” published in the Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences. Dr. Fairman and Dr. D’Antonio are on the faculty of the School of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania.

The AAHN’s Teresa E. Christy Award recognizes excellence in historical research and writing done while the researcher was a doctoral student. This year Dr. Winnifred Connerton won the award for her dissertation, “Have cap, will travel: U.S. nurses abroad, 1898–1917.” Dr. Connerton is a nurse and nurse-midwife who currently holds a joint post-doctoral fellowship with the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research and the Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing.

Detailed information regarding all AAHN Awards can be obtained from the website, www.aahn.org.

46th Annual Joint Atlantic Seminar for History of Biology

The 46th Annual Joint Atlantic Seminar for History of Biology will take place Saturday, 9 April 2011 at Yale University in New Haven, CT. Graduate students and younger scholars are encouraged to submit work for presentation. Abstracts (200 words) should be sent to JtASHB@gmail.com by Friday, 25 February 2011. The schedule of accepted presentations will be available by Friday, 4 March 2011. Additional information can be obtained from william.summers@yale.edu or bruno.strasser@yale.edu.

Arizona State University and the 24th History of Biology Seminar at the Marine Biological Laboratory

Announcing the 24th History of Biology Seminar at the Marine Biological Laboratory, which is part of the new Arizona State University-MBL HPS Program. This year’s topic is Cell Biology and the seminar will take place May 15–21. After the seminar a new HPS Informatics Workshop will take place on May 23–26. We shall give some preference to those who attend both, although we shall accept applications for either (application due date is January 31, 2011). For applications or more information, please see: http://cbs.asu.edu/mbl_seminar/seminars/2011.php

New History of Medicine Resource

History of Vaccines (http://www.historyofvaccines.org) is a website devoted to exploring the history of immunization and its continuing contributions to human health. The site originates from the College of Physicians of Philadelphia.

PACHS Newsletter

HSS members may be interested in the Fall 2010 newsletter of the Philadelphia Area Center for History of Science (PACHS). This newsletter summarizes the Center’s activities in its first few years. Future newsletters will be published about every six months. The newsletter is posted at http://www.pachs.net/notes/news2010.html

75th Anniversary of the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry

On 19th November 2010, the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry celebrated its 75th anniversary with a meeting at the Royal Institution in London. The Society, which publishes the journal Ambix, was founded in 1935 and its earliest Council members included historians J. R. Partington, Frank Sherwood Taylor and E. J. Holmyard, whom many remember as authors of school textbooks. The meeting’s theme was the History of the History of Chemistry, the day’s proceedings ending with an entertaining lecture by Simon Schaffer. It may be useful to know that the archive of SHAC has been deposited in the Museum of the History of Science, Oxford.

Dibner Award for Excellence in Museum Exhibits

The exhibition Split + Splice: Fragments from the Age of Biomedicine has received the prestigious Dibner Award for Excellence in Museum Exhibits of the Society for the History of Technology. This international award is given to exhibitions interpreting the history of technology, industry, and engineering for the general public—one of the rare awards for this important field of museum practice. Over the years since its establishment in 1985, many of the world’s great museums, including the Science Museum (London), the National Museum of American History (Smithsonian Institution, Washington), and the Powerhouse Museum (Sydney, Australia), have won this award. Split + Splice: Fragments from the Age of Biomedicine opened on 4 June 2009 at the Medical Museion of the University of Copenhagen. Martha Fleming co-curated the exhibit with a team of post-doctoral researchers in the humanities disciplines of history and philosophy of contemporary biology and medicine.

NAS Announces Exhibition of Permanent Collection Highlights

“Art & Science: Highlights from the Collection of the National Academy of Sciences,” an exhibition of more than 40 works of art, is on display through April 2, 2012, at the National Academies’ Keck Center, 500 Fifth St., N.W., Washington, D.C. The exhibit is viewable by appointment by calling 202-334-2415 or e-mailing cpnas@nas.edu; a photo ID is required for admittance.

For more than 30 years, the Cultural Programs of the National Academy of Sciences has exhibited and collected artwork that explores relationships among the arts and sciences. The collection’s highlights include sculptures, drawings, prints, photographs, and paintings, and feature notable artists such as Alfredo Arreguin, Robert Berks, Harry Bertoia, Justine Cooper, Jill Greenberg, Susan Middleton and David Liitschwager, Vik Muniz, Tim Rollins, Jim Sanborn, and Mike and Doug Starn. Traditionally displayed throughout the NAS headquarters on Constitution Avenue, which is currently under restoration, these objects provide a sampling of the range of styles and approaches that artists take in preserving the ideas of science today.

There are many connections between the fields of art and science. Both seek to explain the world around us, but they do so from distinctly different perspectives. Artists have always worked not only with the material and technology of their time but also in terms of the pervading thoughts of society. Contemporary artists, such as those represented in this exhibition, are no exception. In the constellation of disciplines that shape culture today, few have had more impact than science and technology. It is no surprise that many artists gravitate toward the tools and themes these fields have generated. The Cultural Programs of the National Academy of Sciences sponsors exhibitions, concerts, and other events that explore relationships among the arts and sciences.

Further Information: http://www.nasonline.org/site/PageServer

2000–year-old Roman Pills Reveal Their Secret and Open a New Path for innovative Drug Research

A cross-disciplinary team of the Institute for the Preservation of Medical Traditions and the Smithsonian Institution has succeeded in identifying the components of pills more than 2000 years old. Around 140–120 B.C. a ship sailing from the eastern Mediterranean to Etruria sank just off the coast of Tuscany. In its hold was a chest containing medicines and 136 vials full of natural substances used for therapeutic purposes. An agreement was signed with the museum where the pills were preserved and two fragments of these pills were brought to the United States. This was the start of a new research project aimed at unlocking the mysteries of these pills and identifying their contents. Years of attempts have been successful: next-generation DNA sequencing has enabled Rob Fleischer, Head of the Center for Conservation and Evolutionary Genetics of the Smithsonian Institution, to identify the plants mixed together to compound these pills.

“This is a truly unique discovery,” declared Dr. Alain Touwaide, Scientific Director of the Institute for the Preservation of Medical Traditions. “These pills are the only ancient medicine recovered from archaeological excavations so far. Their analysis is an absolute premiere, something never attempted so far, and opens a new field of scientific investigation whose importance should not be underestimated.” The analysis of the Roman pills tells us much more, however, than just from which plants apothecaries compounded the pills. The composition can be found in the writings of ancient Greek and Roman physicians dating back into antiquity and transmitted without interruption to the modern day. The successful analysis of the Roman pills shows for the first time that these writings recorded the actual practice of physicians. Ancient medical works were not encyclopedic compilations with no contact with reality. “Until recently we did not know if ancient pharmacological treatises could be trusted,” comments Alain Touwaide. “With the analysis of these pills, we know that they are reliable. This discovery here is a huge step forward in research. The whole body of pharmacological literature inherited from the ancient world can now be considered as a first-hand witness to the personal practice of medicine by ancient physicians.”

The Institute for the Preservation of Medical Traditions is devoted to recovering ancient healing arts and to repurposing them for new scientific investigations, a mission best summarized by its emblematic phrase: Inspiring Innovation from Tradition. The scholars of the Institute have uncovered hundreds of ancient pharmacological books worldwide, directly examined them, and deciphered and digitized their contents. They have extracted and have put into databases these books’ vital information, which can now be retrieved either by therapeutic substance (with all their applications) or by medical condition (with all the therapeutic agents). “The information generated in the Institute for the Preservation of Medical Traditions on the basis of ancient texts is a unique reservoir of knowledge,” says Touwaide. “The Institute’s databases record the results of the experience of ancient therapists, which was created by trial and error over the millennia. By bringing together archaeological evidence, written record, and laboratory analysis in a cross-disciplinary way without equivalent so far, the Institute develops a research strategy of a new type that opens new horizons for pharmacological research. We go further, however, since we make possible an innovative approach to drug discovery that capitalizes on the experience of the past. This is a very promising avenue that we’ll continue to explore.”

Contact: Emanuela Appetiti CEO, Institute for the Preservation of Medical Traditions

Further Information: http://medicaltraditions.org/institute

Animal Studies Bibliography

The Animal Studies Bibliography has been revised, expanded and updated: http://ecoculturalgroup.msu.edu/bibliography.htm This is an ongoing project of the Animal Studies Graduate Program at Michigan State University. Please send additions and corrections to LKalof@msu.edu.

Further Information: http://ecoculturalgroup.msu.edu/bibliography.htm

The Foreign Laboratory Visits of Francis Gano Benedict and the Virtual Laboratory Project

Between 1907 and 1933 the American metabolism researcher Francis Gano Benedict toured Europe seven times in his capacity as director of the Carnegie Nutrition Laboratory. On these tours, Benedict visited dozens of physiology laboratories at universities, medical clinics, agricultural experiment stations and vocational schools throughout Continental and Eastern Europe, the UK and Scandinavia, venturing as far as St. Petersburg and Moscow in his search for the latest and most promising apparatus and techniques for studying bio-calorimetry and respiratory exchange, the basis for energetic metabolism studies. He recorded these visits in a series of extended reports, in which he describes in detail the laboratories he visited; the apparatus and instruments he saw, tested and purchased; the physiologists he met and what he thought of them; and, revealingly, what they thought of one another. The reports constitute a unique synchronic and diachronic history of European metabolism laboratories and research, containing, in addition to the written descriptions, hundreds of photographs of laboratories, apparatus, and physiologists at work and at leisure. They have now been digitized by the Virtual Laboratory Project, co-directed by Dr. Henning Schmidgen, with the permission of Benedict’s grandson, Dr. Cecil E. Leith and in cooperation with the Centre for the History of Medicine of the Countway Library of Medicine and the library of the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science. An introductory essay to the volumes has been prepared by Dr. Elizabeth Neswald, Brock University, Ontario and can be viewed at http://vlp.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/essays/index.html

Other resources:

Virtual Laboratory Project:
http://vlp.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/index_html
Elizabeth Neswald. 2010. An American Physiologist Abroad: Francis Gano Benedict’s European Tours. The Virtual Laboratory (ISSN 1866-4784) http://vlp.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/references?id=art77
Reports of Foreign Laboratory Visits: http://vlp.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/library/data/lit39744?

For further information:

Elizabeth Neswald
Brock University
St. Catharines, Ontario
eneswald@brocku.ca
Henning Schmidgen
Max Planck Institute for the History of Science
Berlin, Germany
schmidg@mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de

Urban Studies and Urban Culture Network

The German Studies Association (GSA) is seeking to create network databases of multi- and interdisciplinary scholarship designed to bring together scholars from different disciplines around common themes and shared problems. The purpose of such networks is to encourage innovative discussions and to create continuity from meeting to meeting around the kinds of issues that are best dealt with by bringing the scholarship of different disciplines into contact—or indeed confrontation—with each other and by breaking with traditional periodization schemas. Over time, these might encourage workshops and conferences as well as discussions on Facebook and other media beyond the GSA annual meeting. As of now the Germans Studies Association is a free-floating, unconstrained Network, meaning that all time periods are open and all fields as well as subgenres. We are interested in anyone working on Urban Studies and Urban Cultures.

Further Information: http://www.thegsa.org/index.asp

Announcement and Call for Submissions: Metatheoria. Journal of Philosophy and History of Science

Metatheoria is an academic, print and online peer-reviewed journal that publishes articles, discussions, and reviews in the field of philosophy of science—including not only systematic, synchronic, and formal philosophy of science, but also historical, diachronic approaches to the field as well as historical epistemology, and history of science from a philosophical point of view. Email: redaccion@metatheoria.com.ar.

Metatheoria, which is published twice a year (April and October), is available free of charge as an Open Access journal on the Internet. Abstracts are available online in Spanish or Portuguese, and English. Articles are available in PDF format in Spanish, Portuguese or English.

Current Issue: Volume 1 Number 1 (October 2010):
The journal welcomes submissions via the online portal or by e-mail to the Editorial Secretariat (redaccion@metatheoria.com.ar).
Further Information

ACLS Humanities E-Book to add almost 550 titles to the collection in January 2011

Information on these titles is available at:

http://humanities-ebook.blogspot.com/2010/10/new-titles-forthcoming-january-2011_27.html

CFP: Spontaneous Generations: A Journal for the History and Philosophy of Science

Spontaneous Generations is an open, online, peer-reviewed academic journal published by graduate students at the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology at the University of Toronto. Spontaneous Generations publishes high quality, peer-reviewed articles on any topic in the history and philosophy of science. For our general peer-reviewed section, we welcome submissions of full-length research papers on all HPS-related subjects. Scholars in all disciplines, including but not limited to HPS, STS, History, Philosophy, Women’s Studies, Sociology, Anthropology, and Religious Studies are welcome to submit to our fifth (2011) issue. Papers from all historical periods are welcome. In addition to full-length peer-reviewed research papers, Spontaneous Generations publishes opinion essays, book reviews, and a focused discussion section consisting of short peer-reviewed and invited articles devoted to a particular theme. This year’s focus is “Science and Public Controversy.”

Submission Guidelines: the journal consists of four sections: the focused discussion section, this year devoted to “Science and Public Controversy” (see below; 1000-3000 words recommended), peer-reviewed section of research papers on any topics in the fields of HPS and STS (5000-8000 words recommended), a book review section for books published in the last 5 years. (Up to 1000 words), and an opinions section that may include a commentary on or a response to current concerns, trends, and issues in HPS (Up to 500 words).

Submissions should be sent no later than 25 February 2011 in order to be considered for the 2011 issue. For more details, please visit the journal homepage at: http://spontaneousgenerations.library.utoronto.ca/

Further Information: http://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php//spontaneousgenerations

Picturing Science Exhibition

4 December 2010–26 February 2011

Disease, dissection, and Darwin are the subjects for artists displaying at the Riverside Gallery, Richmond. (The gallery is located in the London borough of Richmond Upon Thames). The Gallery presents Picturing Science, an open exhibition that examines the collision between two harmonious and contrasting fields of symbolic representation, Art and Science. Picturing Science continues the successful program of open exhibitions from Orleans House Gallery, Twickenham. After receiving 650 works from over 130 artists and an intense selection process, the judging panel whittled the submissions down to just 26 works in various media. The criteria included a direct yet imaginative concept and technical virtuosity. The exhibition features experiments with ink, mold growth and microscopes that have produced visually stunning images.

Julia Hembrow’s Temporal Flow 3, could be interpreted as a landscape or figurative work yet is in fact a representation of the effect of early morning drizzle which fluctuates between scientific observation and visual art. Detailed anatomical and botanical drawings and three dimensional works such as Susan Harrison’s ecorché inspired sculpture are also highlights. Other exhibiting artists, both local and international include Anais Tondeur, Chris Boland, Nicola Simpson, Johanna Davidson, Amon Alt-Jafarba, Jonathan Wright, Pery Burge, James Collett, Tracey Holland, Pauline Pratt, Annie Ridd, Izzy Wingham, Frédérique Swist, Stan A. Lenartowicz, Sally Hewett, Pascale Pollier, Hilary Arnold-Baker, Amy Louise Nettleton, Charlotte E. Padgham, Julie Light, Heather Jukes, Margaret R. Marks, Nick Pollen and Andy Dunn. In addition, Artist-in-Residence Alex Baker will be producing a series of new drawings made using sound and ink. He will also be working with the local community on a workshop exploring the effects of sound vibrations using his technique of drawing as a starting point.

Curator Mark De Novellis stated: “Although science is seemingly the logical, rational, ordered antithesis of artistic creativity, artists and scientists still share a common drive to innovate, explore, dissect and reveal. They have a unified love and awe for the world around and within them. Exhibiting artists draw from a wide variety of scientific disciplines from botany, astronomy to astrophysics to create an accessible, compelling and thought-provoking show that is not to be missed!” The exhibition runs until 26 February 2011 and admission to the Riverside Gallery is free. For further information: http://www.richmond.gov.uk/

Riverside Gallery
Old Town Hall
Whittaker Avenue, Richmond
TW9 1JP

Gallery open: Monday and Wednesday: 10:00–6:00 pm, Tuesday, Thursday and Frida: 10:00 -5:00 pm, Saturday: 10:00–1:30 pm, Sunday: Closed
Tel: 020 8831 6000

Email: artsinfo@richmond.gov.uk
Website: www.richmond.gov.uk/arts/
For further information or images, call Mark De Novellis on 020 8831 6490.

New NLM Traveling Exhibit: “Binding Wounds, Pushing Boundaries: African Americans in Civil War Medicine.”

Many have written histories about medical care during the American Civil War, but the participation and contributions of African Americans as nurses, surgeons, and hospital workers have often been overlooked. “Binding Wounds, Pushing Boundaries” looks at the men and women who served as surgeons and nurses and explores how their service as medical providers challenged the prescribed notions of race and gender, pushing the boundaries of the role of African Americans in society. Through historical images and Civil War-era documents the exhibit explores the life and experiences of surgeons Alexander T. Augusta and Anderson R. Abbott, and nurses Susie King Taylor and Ann Stokes as they provided medical care to soldiers and civilians. The exhibition is currently on display at the National Library of Medicine through February 28, 2011 and is touring around the country. For more information, please contact Erika Mills at millser@mail.nih.gov, or visit the exhibition website at: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/bindingwounds/index.html

Medical Heritage Library Digitization Survey

Several large history of medicine libraries in the U.S. have recently begun a collaborative digital project called The Medical Heritage Library (see: http://www.medicalheritage.org) The Medical Heritage Library promotes free and open access to quality historical resources in medicine. Our goal is to provide the means by which readers and scholars across a multitude of disciplines can examine the interrelated natures of medicine and society, both to inform contemporary medicine and to strengthen understanding of the world in which we live. Several Medical Heritage Library partners are currently scanning history of medicine printed materials using a grant from the Sloan Foundation and Open Knowledge Commons, and the entire group is investigating innovative ways to give scholars access to the materials. Scanning partners are contributing their files to a single repository, currently in Internet Archive (see: http://www.archive.org/details/medicalheritagelibrary). The group hopes that others who are scanning history of medicine materials will consider contributing their files here, as well, so that those looking for online history of medicine materials will have to search in fewer repositories. The Medical Heritage Library partners are seeking input from other history of medicine collections. If your library has already digitized history of medicine related materials or is considering it, we would be interested in hearing about your projects.

For more information about the Medical Heritage Library, please contact medicalheritage@gmail.com or visit http://www.medicalheritage.org

Notre Dame’s Unique Interdepartmental Doctoral Program

The doctoral program in History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Notre Dame offers graduate-level instruction that prepares students for positions in both history and philosophy departments and in specialized programs in the history and philosophy of science. Faculty members are drawn from the Departments of English, History, Philosophy, and Theology, and from the Program of Liberal Studies. Alumni and alumnae of the program currently hold positions at Boston College, Boston University, DePauw University, Georgia Tech, Haverford College, the University of Georgia, the University of Manchester, and the University of South Carolina, among others.

Further information: http://reillyreports.nd.edu/hps/

American Studies Association Interest Group

Anyone who is interested in joining the ASA’s Science and Technology Caucus, or who would just like to hear about news of the group, should contact Christina Cogdell, Caucus Coordinator (UC Davis) christina.cogdell@gmail.com or Monique Laney, Caucus Web Coordinator laney.monique@gmail.com.

History of Science Society