The History of Science Society (original) (raw)
Related papers
1953 and all That. A Tale of Two Sciences
The Philosophical Review, 1984
1953 AND ALL THAT. A TALE OF TWO SCIENCES* Philip Kitcher "Must we geneticists become bacteriologists, physiological chemists and physicists, simultaneously with being zoologists and botanists? Let us hope so."-H. J. Muller, 1922' 1. THE PROBLEM T oward the end of their paper announcing the molecular structure of DNA, James Watson and Francis Crick remark, somewhat laconically, that their proposed structure might illuminate some central questions of genetics.2 Thirty years have passed since Watson and Crick published their famous discovery. Molecular biology has indeed transformed our understanding of heredity. The recognition of the structure of DNA, the understanding of gene replication, transcription and translation, the cracking of the genetic code, the study of gene regulation, these and other breakthroughs have combined to answer many of the questions that *Earlier versions of this paper were read at Johns Hopkins University and at the University of Minnesota, and I am very grateful to a number of people for comments and suggestions. In particular, I would like to thank
A Companion to the History of Science
2016
Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book are trade names, service marks, trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publisher is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. It is sold on the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services and neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom. If professional advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought.
2015
learned societies were to the organization and progress of American science. Henry was involved in the founding of several major nineteenth-century societies. I include a complementary paper on how the period's scientific communication was facilitated by "agents of exchange," who helped the Smithsonian and other American organizations distribute their publications abroad and gather those of foreign societies for delivery to the United States. The symposium ended with a presentation (not included herein) from Harvard University's Conevery Bolton Valenčius on the continuing need for historical collections. We are eternally grateful for the support of the members of the Dibner family, first Bern and his son, David, and his wife, Frances, and now their three sons, Brent, Daniel, and Mark, for providing the funds that bring the treasures of the Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology to the attention of the American people and the world for scholarship and enjoyment.
Histories of Science and their Uses: A Review to 1913
History of Science, vol. 23., 1993
To convince their publics that science was an important enterprise that should be funded and taught in schools and universities, scientists turned to history to contrast the progress of scientific knowledge with the stagnation of the humanities. As science evolved, so did scientists' analysis of scientific progress.
Postmature scientific discovery?
Nature, 1986
NEW scientific discoveries do not always flow directly from those made just before. Rather, several varieties of discontinuity can be identified in the growth of science. Premature discoveries are those that scientists do not attend to in a timely way, and are retrospectively described as having been "ahead of their time". These have been examined by Barber' and Stent'. Here, we suggest that there are also postmature discoveries, those which, are judged retrospectively to have been 'delayed'. We analyse the arguments that the discovery of bacterial sex was postmature and take up the correlative questions of how the problem was identified, and why Lederberg and Taturn'," were likely candidates for making it when they did. This paper draws on documents, published and private, and analyses by the sociologist-observer and the scientistparticipant. Our dialectic procedure departs from most oral histories'.h; first, the procedure was iterative: as new discussion raised further possibilities, we both searched for relevant documentation; and second, we both identified the underlying analytic questions and articulated tentative answers to them. We felt that personal reminiscence had to be validated by contemporary documents and other testimony as oral history and autobiography are prone to "unconscious falsification"'.