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The article discusses archives that hold collections dealing with the history of women scientists in the U.S. The author describes her own research methods when studying the topic of U.S. women scientists since 1972. She explains the benefits of utilizing such resources as the Archives of Women in Science and Engineering at Iowa State University (ISU), the Vera Kistiakowsky Papers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and the Jewel Plummer Cobb Papers at the New York Public Library in New York City.

This paper examines the early history of agricultural entomology in the Russian empire in the decades before Russian universities and learned societies occupied centre stage in the intellectual life of the country. It aims to contribute to the ongoing discussions of historically contingent relations between 'amateurs' and 'professionals' in scientific research. It explores the social identities of those people who took part in the production and circulation of scientific knowledge, and argues that in this period Russian officialdom played a major role in these processes. The state officials' engagement with natural history originated out of a broader information gathering agenda, which was characteristic of the early- to mid-19th century. At the same time, the paper highlights the importance of provincial observers who were indispensable for providing field data for bureaucratic 'inventorying' of imperial resources. This dependency on local observers had far reaching implications, including the dissemination of the language and practices of natural history among wider audiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the historiography of the relationship between technology and theoretical science, electrical communication plays an important role. It was by means of mathematical reasoning based on the new theory of electromagnetism that it was first understood how to extend the range of telephony by inserting self-inductance in the line. This paper surveys developments from around 1880 to 1910, at a time when ‘pupinization’ had become a reality and mathematical physics an accepted part of the research strategy of a few advanced companies in the electrical industry. It presents the confrontation of two different styles of engineering science, on the one hand there was the empirical approach and on the other an approach more mathematical in nature. This paper offers some reflections on the nature of ‘counterintuitive technologies’ and the general relationship between science, engineering and technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks at the role of state and society in the history of epidemic governance in China for an appreciation of the way China manages the current COVID‐19 epidemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper recounts the genesis and further developments of two devices that were created in Brussels and nearby around 1900: the Forestry Museum and the Geographic Arboretum in Tervuren. Both the Museum and the Arboretum were designed to serve botanical science, national industry, and agriculture, but also became instrumental in carrying philosophical and political messages and even in achieving down‐to‐earth political aims. The Museum, imposed upon the State Botanic Garden by a Catholic ministry, carried out messages for social pacification, while also taking to the battlefield in the fight between what were then called pure science and applied science. For its part, the Geographic Arboretum had long broken its ties with the State Botanic Garden and even with its own scientific claims by the time the Forestry Museum disappeared in the early 1980s. However, the Forestry Museum had increasingly lost its vocation as a research tool, eventually and solely becoming a tool of communication toward an ever‐widening public, following Belgian society's expanding democratization in the late 19th Century. The lives and fortunes of both devices reveal most of the tensions that rhythmed the history of museums and the political history of a European country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines new evidence from Russian archives to argue that Soviet geneticist and plant breeder, Nikolai I. Vavilov's fate was sealed during the ' Cultural Revolution' (' Revolution from Above') (1929-1932). This was several years before Trofim D. Lysenko, the Soviet agronomist and widely portrayed archenemy and destroyer of Vavilov, became a major force in Soviet science. During the ' Cultural Revolution' the Soviet leadership wanted to subordinate science and research to the task of socialist reconstruction. Vavilov, who was head of the Institute of Plant Breeding ( VIR) and the All- Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences ( VASKhNIL), came under attack from the younger generation of researchers who were keen to transform biology into a proletarian science. The new evidence shows that it was during this period that Vavilov lost his independence to determine research strategies and manage personnel within his own institute. These changes meant that Lysenko, who had won Stalin's support, was able to gain influence and eventually exert authority over Vavilov. Based on the new evidence, Vavilov's arrest in 1940 after he criticized Lysenko's conception of Non-Mendelian genetics was just the final challenge to his authority. He had already experienced years of harassment that began before Lysenko gained a position of influence. Vavilov died in prison in 1943. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The years between 1864 and 1879 have a particular resonance for the history of physical anthropology in Russia. In 1864, Professor of Zoology at Moscow University Anatolii Petrovich Bogdanov (1834-1896) conceived the idea for an anthropological exhibition in Moscow. But it was not until 1879 that his idea became a reality. The years between Boganov's conception of the idea and the realization of the exhibition form the focus of this paper, which discusses this formative period for Russian physical anthropology. During this period Bogdanov established the first association of physical anthropologists and the first chair in anthropology at Moscow University. Also around this time the activities of Bogdanov's Society of Friends of Natural Science, Anthropology and Ethnography made the term anthropology widely popular not only among educated people but also among the lay public. Despite the significance of Bogdanov's contributions to the field of Russian physical anthropology, his name is often ignored and his achievements underestimated by the Russian language literature. The reasons for this oversight are outlined in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper works with the modern concept of the geological hotspot track - the building processes and movements of volcanic island chains - applied strategically to one of its illustrative formations, the Madeira Archipelago. By analogy, however, the concept works equally well to describe the important early 19th-century scientific knowledge-building activity that produced Charles Lyell's On the Geology of Some Parts of Madeira (1854). A central section of the paper uncovers the contributions to knowledge of this geology before Lyell's, and in particular, Excursions of Madeira and Porto Santo (1825) by Mr [sic] T. Edward Bowdich. A thorough examination of this text then constitutes an important case study for literal and figurative investigation of geological hotspot tracks. The main argument proposed is that current specialist research forgets its submerged and longer histories to its detriment. Insights contained in older information often supply reminders of the key questions and contributions from the past that provide checks and balances for further developments of a field. By promoting multi-level, multi-stranded and multi-lingual investigation of the history of 19th-century geology in Madeira before Lyell () as central to hotspot track research, this paper marks nodal conditions that constitute advancement in critical knowledge-building within and outside the discipline of geology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to discuss two historiographical issues pertaining to the history of science in the European periphery. The first issue concerns the wide use of the centre-periphery dichotomy in historical accounts discussing the diffusion and institutionalization of science across the world. The second issue concerns the use of appropriation (instead of transfer, or adaptation) as a means to overcome the diffusionist model in history of science. Recent work at the intersection of history of science with post-colonial studies will provide the framework for reassessing these matters. As it will be shown, theoretical discussions about the history of science in post-colonial context can help historians overcome the centre-periphery dichotomy and turn European periphery into a privileged standpoint for showing the actual diversity of 'European science.' At the same time, the experience of post-colonial studies can also help sharpen the historiographical tool of appropriation. The assumption that will be made is that by focusing on appropriation rather than on discovery and innovation (the favourite categories of much of mainstream historiography), or on transfer and adaptation (the favourite categories of the diffusionist model), historians of science can not only set aside the artificial distinctions of the diffusionist model, but also bring forward the re-inventions, the conceptual shifts and the cultural adjustments, which are responsible for the emergence of science as a global phenomenon in the periphery. Especially concerning European periphery, the use of appropriation may bring forward the particular historical circumstances under which certain knowledge patterns gained universal epistemic authority as constitutive elements of an imagined European intellectual identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper traces the origins of two technological trajectories in the contemporary history of wind power technology: the American Smith-Putnam Wind Turbine and the Danish Gedser Wind Turbine. Describing the two wind turbine projects in terms of their technical design characteristics, the professional background of the individuals involved, the organizational features of the technological knowledge production, and the historical context, the paper builds on the notion of technological trajectories in the making as a means of identifying emerging selection mechanisms for possible engineering problem solutions, scientific methods, material artifacts, and financial assessment techniques. Conceived during the Great Depression and World War II, respectively, both projects promoted the idea that wind power could make a cost-effective contribution to the existing electric utility system. The two projects resulted in distinctive wind turbine innovations that paved the way for two technological trajectories in the contemporary history of wind power. Studying the emergence of technological trajectories, it is argued, requires the historian of technology to attend to well-known features of technological design and its cultural context that in retrospect appear to be significant, but also to tackle the creation of novelty and the inevitability of technological uncertainties about which the logic of trajectories has little to say. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In modern discourse about the history of science, it seems to be widely accepted that at the end of the nineteenth century, Germany was one of the leading countries in the production of science. In the past, historians of science tried to trace back a specific ‘German style’ of science that—in combination with other factors—determined this German dominance around 1900, especially in the life sciences. Considering the theoretical concept of ‘national styles’, it has to be kept in mind that around 1900, contemporaries already proclaimed ‘national styles’ of science as representations of national identity. Thus, the question arises as to how far existing historiographical conceptions of national styles may include earlier claims and prejudices. Careful reconstructions of contemporary discourses on national styles and inquiries into the ‘stylisation’ of a dominant, successful ‘German style’ are necessary. One of the contemporary critics of a ‘German style’ of science was the physiologist Jacques Loeb (1859–1924), who emigrated to the USA in 1891. Loeb corresponded regularly with the physicist and philosopher Ernst Mach (1838–1916). Ernst Mach can be considered Loeb's intellectual father with whom he corresponded about strategic, philosophical, and epistemological questions. Using the Loeb–Mach correspondence, the aim of the paper is to reconstruct Loeb's conception of a ‘German style’ of science and its differences to an ‘American style’. Changes in his views are discussed as well as the roots of his views and some of their consequences. Finally, Loeb's ideas on national styles and his working profiles before and after his emigration are compared to historiographical analyses of ‘American’ or ‘German’ styles of science around 1900. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In the 1970s, the futures field became globalized. This paper shows how perceptions of globality shaped interdisciplinary approaches towards forecasting, planning and thinking about the future. Futures studies were reconceptualized, shifting its perspective from a West‐East, technology‐driven slant towards a global and human‐centred one around 1970. The perceptions and conceptions of globality came out of notions of global interdependence, which emerged from three root sources. The first was the epistemic context of cybernetics and systems analysis, which had shaped the 1950s and 1960s futures studies and had led researchers to aspirations of being able to model the world system. The second, affecting significant sections of the field, was the web of new ecological ideas and their focus on interrelations within the global ecosystem. Third, futures studies took up dependency theories, responding to the rising voice of the global South and new ideas of a New International Economic Order. The futures field was not only influenced by 1970s events, it itself contributed to cultural and social change by enhancing the crisis perceptions and environmentalism of the early years of the decade and by stimulating notions of ‘One World’ solidarity. Through their insistence on the interdependence of environment and development, ‘futurists’ then laid the basis for conceptions of sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The 1970s mark a critical departure point in the history of science. The rise of the environmental crisis prompted not just new avenues of scientific inquiry but also the integration of scientific expertise into complex interactions with politics and society. This paper investigates the history of the new ‘crisis disciplines’ that emerged in response to explicit fears that the world was on the verge of ecological collapse. Crisis disciplines – a term coined by the conservation biologist Michael Soulé – engage in the urgent and reactionary pursuit of solutions to pressing environmental problems and the evidence scientists bring to bear on their work. Crisis disciplines involve acting ‘before knowing all the facts’, and therefore constitute ‘a mixture of science and art, and their pursuit requires intuition as well as information’. Combined, diverse crisis disciplines constitute a new kind of ‘survival science’, which emerged in the 1970s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the role of newspapers and journals in constructing the public images of the mammoth in Catalonia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, paying special attention to the visual power of descriptions, pictures and cartoons of this and other ancient species that increasingly appeared in the press. As palaeontology became a 'public science,' the extinct species gained status not least because it could be imbued with multiple meanings that moved between the scientific and public spheres. The visualizations of the animal contributed to metaphorically reinforcing and confronting ideas of political and social scope, like the notions of modernity and national identity, which were of great relevance in Barcelona at the turn of the century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The history of science can be better understood against the background of a history of knowledge comprising not only theoretical but also intuitive and practical knowledge. This widening of scope necessitates a more concise definition of the concept of knowledge, relating its cognitive to its material and social dimensions. The history of knowledge comprises the history of institutions in which knowledge is produced and transmitted. This is an essential but hitherto neglected aspect of cultural evolution. Taking this aspect into account one is led to the concept of extended evolution, which integrates the perspectives of niche construction and complex regulative networks. The paper illustrates this concept using four examples: the emergence of language, the Neolithic revolution, the invention of writing and the origin of mechanics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Institute for the History of Science and Technology (in transliterated Russian Institut Istorii Estestavoznaniya I Tekhniki, or IIET in abbreviation) in Moscow, along with its branch in St. Petersburg, is the largest research centre for history of science and technology in Russia. Its story encompasses a period of great change for Russia and as such includes tales of infighting and intrigue as well as many instances of academic achievement. This paper will focus on two peculiar characteristics of the institute's story in order to clarify the typical political contexts in which it had to operate and the way it succeeded to adapt itself to the varying situations. The first is the 2012 celebration of its 80th anniversary, which took place only 4 years after the institute had celebrated its 55th anniversary. Why did the different celebrators apparently have a different history in mind? Secondly, on several occasions the institute employed people for political rather than academic reasons: for these people the institute was a good, interesting or inconspicuous place to work during that time. This policy served the institute well on the whole. Even though in different political constellations the institute had to produce scholarship with different aims - sometimes the output had to contribute to the glory of the nation, in other times to analyse the role of science in a socialist society - the IIET produced excellent research. Today, once again, the institute stands on the threshold of change as it faces new threats to its existence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

State patronage and the role of central government in modernization are often cited as the key factors that underpin the development of science in Russia. This paper argues that the development of Russian agricultural science had predominantly local and non-governmental sources of support. Historically Russian agricultural research was funded and promoted through private patronage, but from the middle of the 19th century agricultural societies and community administrations began to sponsor research and promotion of new ideas in the agricultural sector. At the end of the 19th century the majority of initiatives to set up agricultural experiment stations were undertaken on behalf of provincial agricultural societies, supported by local community administrations independent of the state bureaucratic apparatus (zemstvos). During the last two decades of the Russian Empire, agricultural societies and zemstvos became leaders in the modernization of Russian agriculture. Establishing regional experiment stations, and thus promoting development of local knowledge, they provided models for the subsequent governmental activity in this field. In the case of supporting agricultural research and institutionalizing the new discipline of scientific plant breeding, the Russian public led the state, rather than the reverse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a reaction to the changed political landscape in Scandinavia following the dissolution of the union between Norway and Sweden in 1905, the prominent Swedish mathematician Gösta Mittag- Leffler extended 'a brotherly hand,' calling for Scandinavian colleagues to meet for a congress of mathematicians in Stockholm in 1909. This event became the first in a series of biannual meetings which proved to be an important institution for Scandinavian mathematics. During the first decades after 1909, the congresses would form and consolidate themselves through the construction of a new Scandinavian identity for mathematicians which developed alongside and in relation to both international and national contexts and developments. In this paper, we shall demonstrate that these meetings served a complex set of agendas at the individual, national, and international level. In particular, they reflect a changing conception of cooperation in science for mutual cultural gain combined with a flexible institutionalisation that allowed the Scandinavian mathematicians to use the congresses for various diplomatic ambitions. We base our analyses of the Scandinavian Congresses of Mathematics on the notion of a shared 'conational' identity developed adjacent to national identities. We then analyse the formation, consolidation, delineation, and reflections of this institution in order to demonstrate how the efforts to unite Scandinavian mathematicians were contingent on and influenced by simultaneous currents of internationalisation and shared history, culture, and language in the Scandinavian region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Before WW2 Danish geologists had found traces of uranium in Greenland. But being squeezed from both sides in the escalating Cold War between East and West, in the first decade after WW2 the Danish government did not support expeditions to explore Greenland's potential uranium deposits. The situation changed abruptly after President Eisenhower's Atoms for Peace address in December 1953, as a result of which a Danish Atomic Energy Commission ( AEK) was set up in early 1955. Besides building a large atomic energy research facility ( Risø) one of AEK's first initiatives was to support big scale uranium expeditions to South- West Greenland. The ultimate goal for the leaders of AEK was to liberate Denmark from its dependence on imported fossil fuels by developing Danish nuclear reactors, fuelled by natural uranium from Greenland. In the late 1960s, after more than a decade of uranium explorations, this was still a goal, albeit much more long term. For many reasons the hunt for uranium in Greenland after WW2 was unsuccessful, but the main ones were Danish sovereignty concerns, techno-scientific nationalism and devastating institutional clashes of interests. The present paper will explore these problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women educators played an essential role in transforming public museums that had been focused on collections and research into effective educational and informational sites that engaged broad publics. Three significant innovators were Delia Griffin of St. Johnsbury Museum in Vermont who emphasized hands-on learning, Anna Billings Gallup who shaped a distinctive model museum for children in Brooklyn and Laura Bragg of the Charleston Museum who established strong collaboration with the local public schools. Joining museum curatorial staffs and professional associations that were largely male, these women educators and their peers typically provided pedagogical insights and teaching skills that enabled them to work effectively with school systems, teachers, pupils and parents. Genuinely interested in natural science, they shaped careers which included opportunities to engage with science, provided a considerable degree of autonomy and enabled them to experiment with hands-on learning. They built networks of museum educators and influenced the young American Association of Museums. Women museum educators created a bridge between semi-public natural history establishments for collection, preservation and scientific research and an active audience of teachers, pupils, visitors and patrons. Their efforts transformed museums into sites for education and broad public access to science in the early 20th century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the first decade following the Second World War, one of the major post-war radio astronomy groups was established in the Netherlands. This paper analyses how Dutch radio astronomy evolved in barely 10 years time from a new and uncertain area of research into a highly esteemed and money consuming field. Firstly, in Dutch post-war politics science took a prominent place. Scientific research was seen as a key factor in the rebuilding of the country and huge budgets were made available. This was a favourable context for a new scientific field to arise. Secondly, the unusual origins of Dutch radio astronomy meant it was able to attract funding. As Dutch radio astronomers were trained as astronomers-and not as engineers or physicists like in other countries-they lacked the necessary engineering know how to build radio telescopes. Therefore, they had to build alliances with partners who could provide them with the necessary engineering knowledge. They found these partners amongst others in Philips and the PTT. These industrial partnerships allowed the astronomers to argue that their radio astronomical research would yield interesting spin-offs. Finally, the network of people involved in early post-war radio astronomy was very small, which-paradoxically-contributed to its success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article suggests that 16th-century sources describing astronomical instruments may be analyzed in terms of 'geometrical tools', that is discrete arrangements of lines and curves that solve particular problems. Geometrical tools provided a means for innovation. By playing, literally, with such tools, mathematicians could invent new instruments or add new functions to existing instruments. For a case study of this process, I shall consider the rectangular astrolabe, first proposed in 1515 by Johannes Stabius and reconfigured in several other versions over the course of the 16th century. Geometrical tools, I conclude, are revealed in diagrams found in the sources, not in the accompanying texts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article introduces a writing format, the 'template table' ( suanshi, ) that was designed to guide the process of calendrical astronomical calculations in early modern China. In conjunction with another kind of text, known as 'detailed procedures' ( xicao, ), users could perform calculations easily by operating the 'template table' and extracting data from given numerical tables. This method, that not only normalized the use of numerical tables but also linked instructions with the corresponding tables in computational practices, became widespread from the Ming period (1368-1644) onwards. Wanting to acquire this computational regimen, the Joseon court of Korea (1392-1897) even sent skilled officers to China to learn it secretly. The circulation of the template method beyond China suggests its significance. The article also discusses the advantages and disadvantages of using this method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Duhem considered himself as the upholder of a 'third way' to Thermodynamics. His generalized Mechanics/Thermodynamics aimed at encompassing all kinds of transformations, from spatial changes to the change of physical qualities. From 1886 until 1896 he undertook a demanding design for the unification of physics. He translated Thermodynamics into the language of Analytical Mechanics, and conversely founded Mechanics on the principles of Thermodynamics. Step by step he widened the mathematical and conceptual structure of Analytic Mechanics, in order to hold together 'local motion,' thermal phenomena, electromagnetic phenomena, and many kinds of irreversible transformations. At the same time, he tried to recast methods and targets of physics: from the reductionist tradition of Mechanics he let a new interest in the complexity of the natural world emerge. Modern science had had to fight against the old physics of qualities, in order to supplant it: the complexity of the physical world was set aside, and replaced by a simplified geometrical world. Duhem endeavoured to retrieve and take that neglected complexity into the wide boundaries of a generalized Mechanics-Thermodynamics. He aimed at widening the scope of physics: the new physics could not confine itself to ' local motion' but had to describe what Duhem labelled ' motions of modification.' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Duhem considered himself as the upholder of a 'third way' to Thermodynamics. His generalized Mechanics/Thermodynamics aimed at encompassing all kinds of transformations, from spatial changes to the change of physical qualities. From 1886 until 1896 he undertook a demanding design for the unification of physics. He translated Thermodynamics into the language of Analytical Mechanics, and conversely founded Mechanics on the principles of Thermodynamics. Step by step he widened the mathematical and conceptual structure of Analytic Mechanics, in order to hold together 'local motion,' thermal phenomena, electromagnetic phenomena, and many kinds of irreversible transformations. At the same time, he tried to recast methods and interests from physics: from the reductionist tradition of Mechanics he let a new interest in the complexity of the natural world emerge. Modern science had had to fight against the old physics of qualities, in order to supplant it: the complexity of the physical world was set aside, and replaced by a simplified geometrical world. Duhem endeavoured to retrieve and take that neglected complexity into the wide boundaries of a generalized Mechanics-Thermodynamics. He aimed at widening the scope of physics: the new physics could not confine itself to ' local motion' but had to describe what Duhem labelled ' motions of modification.' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction to the journal is presented which explains the issue's focus on archival collections dealing with U.S. women scientists and engineers, and addresses such topics as oral histories, Iowa State University's collection, and the Society of Women Engineers.

We are currently experiencing one of the most disruptive pandemics in modern history. The outbreak of COVID‐19 that was first recorded in Wuhan, China and quickly spread across the globe has resulted in nearly 5 million confirmed cases to date and more than 300,000 deaths. Where we stand now, it is still uncertain how many it will infect or kill worldwide, how long it will continue, and when—if ever—life will return to normal. What we know for sure is that this is a pivotal moment and that we are experiencing a historic event that will transform our societies both profoundly and irreversibly. As we wade into this new age of pandemics, it is critical to rethink how we write the history of pandemics. With a conviction that the past helps us to understand the present and that the present should help us to rethink the past, I turn to the legacy of past plagues. In this essay, I take stock of the lasting legacies of past plagues because they continue to shape the way we think about new pandemics. In particular, I address persistent problems, such as European exceptionalism, triumphalism, and epidemiological Orientalism, that are not only ubiquitous in plague studies, but also staples of public opinion about pandemics, past and present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What was probably the first collection of human skulls for purposes of study was established by Johann Friedrich Blumenbach in Göttingen at the end of the 18th century. In subsequent years, the number of such collections increased, but their importance for scientific research remained modest. A breakthrough took place only in the 1850s when studies on the so‐called cranial index by Karl Ernst von Baer and Anders Retzius gave skull collections a new lease on life, raising physical anthropology from a solely descriptive science to an empirically based "biological anthropology" which used quantitative methods. As a result, Baer was among the first to distinguish between linguistic and morphologic criteria when systematising human populations. This article discusses the development of Baer's ideas concerning the aims and methods of physical anthropology during his career. It pays special attention to the role of scientific collections in moulding Baer's theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the change in public access of the Zoological Museum of the Imperial St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences from the second half of the 19th to the early 20th century. During this period, the Zoological Museum was transformed from an institution devoted to research to a large scientific and popular educational center. Discussions about expanding public access to the Zoological Museum began in the 1860s as part of the implementation of liberal‐democratic reforms in Russia. The Museum did not immediately respond to the new social setting because its managers considered scientific research the priority. Nevertheless, they did take some steps towards meeting the needs of the public in the 1860s and still more effective changes in the Museum's activities in the early 1890s. The rise in public interest in the natural sciences and the creation of large museums of natural history in Europe stimulated the government and the management of the Academy of Sciences to create a public zoological museum in St. Petersburg. The Zoological Museum was given a new building, significant additional funding, and new regulations, which defined its scientific and popular educational functions as equally important. Because of these measures, the Zoological Museum could function not only as a research institute, but also as a public museum by the early 20th century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This article aims to challenge the thesis of the craft origins of scientific empiricism by demonstrating how the empirical practices of early experimentalism differed in significant ways from the activities of artisans. Through a phenomenological analysis of instrumental observation and experimental demonstrations, I aim to show how experimentalism privileged modes of experience that were foreign to craft traditions and which facilitated a newfound estrangement of human subjects from the objects of their knowledge. Firstly, we will review concerns surrounding the promotion of optical instruments by early experimentalists to reveal how these technologies were understood not only to amplify the senses but also to obscure contextual and relative qualities available to unaided visual perception. Secondly, we will examine the experimental practices of the early Royal Society, to see how experimental demonstrations were deliberately structured to facilitate experiences of the natural world that were divorced from practical and personal contexts. It is here that the divergence from artisanal epistemology is rendered most apparent. For in contrast to craft practices, which favored forms of experience which were personal and engaged, I will argue that the new scientific practices of the 17th century played a central role in effecting the researcher's transformation into a new kind of epistemological subject – the spectator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When the fossil skeleton discovered in Menton was shown in the Natural History Museum in Paris in 1872, it was the first fossil man to be presented to the public in France. Popular representations of a fossil ape-man had, however, been circulating in the press since the late 1830s. In fact, at the same time as the scientific debate that ultimately led to the recognition of the existence of prehistoric man, the new profession of science journalist emerged in the public sphere. Once exposed, Menton Man embodied and crystallized rival political positions, which played a part in the debate on the origin of man. In addition, the creation by the press of a public scientific object shaped the image of its scientific counterpart, 'the discoverer.' Through the press, in the context of bourgeois tourism in the Riviera, the figure of the palaeontologist of the mass society emerged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Armillary spheres were part of the Sanskrit astronomical tradition, and had been used for understanding the structure of the heavens. Goladīpikā (' Illumination of the sphere') is a text in two versions by the same author which deals with structures of the armillary sphere and various related astronomical topics. A close examination of the ways the armillary sphere is described in the two versions of the text will help us understand the main characteristics of the two versions of Parameśvara's Goladīpikā and the reasons why the author duplicated his treatise. This case study thus demonstrates how astral sciences sources from the same author may present mathematical practices surrounding the same instrument in contrasting and complementary ways according to intention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Manuscript Escorial O II 10 is a late 13th-century document containing a well-known collection of astronomical texts from the arts faculty context. During the first half of the 14th century, this manuscript belonged to John of Murs, an important master of art of the Paris University, responsible, with others for the establishment of the Parisian Alfonsine Tables. John of Murs used the Escorial manuscript to record a wide range of notes over a 20-year period. Among those notes I examine here one concerned with two solar eclipses. Although I will review the relevant information concerning eclipse theory and mathematical practices of European astronomers in the 14th century, this essay will not focus directly on such matters. Rather I am interested in a documentary question: looking at a specific astronomical source I seek clues about the temporal dimensions of a computation as it was recorded in the codex. This focus will help assess the computation practices of John of Murs and will allow an understanding of the meanings such a computational record could have both for its author and in the more general context of early Alfonsine astronomy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the case of an observational and a demonstrational armillary sphere confused, one for the other, by fifth-century historians of astronomy He Chengtian and Shen Yue. Seventh-century historian Li Chunfeng dismisses his predecessors as ignorant, and in so doing he supplies the reader with additional evidence. Using their respective histories and what sources for the history of early imperial armillary instruments survive independent thereof, this article tries to explain the mix-up by exploring the ambiguities of 'observation' ( guan) as it was mediated through terminology, text, materiality and mathematics. Reconstructing the material features of the 'sight' ( yi) and 'effigy' ( xiang), the article will reflect upon the mathematics necessary for their operation. The 'effigy', as Li Chunfeng defines it, is a substitute for observation; the 'sight', however, is so mediated by the material and mathematical sphere as to confound Li's distinction between looking through and looking at. In the end, however, the difference is moot, since the observational model appears to have played a negligible role in the history of astronomy in first-millennium China, leaving us to wonder what instrument(s) were used for observation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When sent as a pharmacist to the Philippines in 1688, the Bohemian Jesuit Georg Joseph Kamel turned to the local nature to identify resources, which he could use in his practice. Remarkably for a Jesuit of his low rank, Kamel soon entered into communication with European scholars and exchanged knowledge and materials with figures both in the Indies and Europe, namely Willem ten Rhijne (1647-1700), a Dutch botanist in Batavia; English surgeons in Madras; and two members of the Royal Society, the apothecary James Petiver (c.1665-1718) and the naturalist John Ray (1627-1705). Based on an analysis of the letters and consignments involved, this article provides an insight into the construction and operation of long-distance networks of knowledge exchange based on factors other than nationality and spanning geopolitical, social and confessional boundaries. Attention will be drawn to the associations between early modern colonial science and trade and, in particular, the role of local merchants as go-betweens. It will be shown how commercial routes provided the infrastructure for knowledge circulation; how agents who travelled by way of established networks of trade mediated material exchange on a global scale; and how intellectual and social incentives, as well as the etiquette of correspondence played a pivotal role in the formation and maintenance of Kamel's correspondence network. Furthermore, in tracing knowledge exchange restricted to the colonial periphery and highlighting the agency of actors stationed overseas, this article contributes to the recent efforts to think beyond national and imperial narratives and re-examine colonial history from the view of the peripheries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the interaction between genetics and politics during the early phase of Salazar's regime. In particular it focuses on the work of the Portuguese biologist José A. Serra who investigated the genetics of hair pigmentation at the University of Coimbra. The first part of the article describes how Serra's research benefitted from the ideological and political context in Coimbra before and during WWII, and how his work on melanins was a clear response to a new project initiated at the German Kaiser Wilhelm Institut für Anthropologie. The second part shows how his expertise in the inheritance and composition of hair colour was required by the regime in the post-war period, when wool became a priority of the corporatist State. The 'things of darkness' are melanins, dark biological pigments responsible for pigmentation in mammalian tissues, used in this historical investigation to connect Serra's rather obscure field of research to the political context of his time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Norwegian government created the Abel Prize in Mathematics in 2002 in memory of mathematician Niels Henrik Abel (1802-1829). The aim was to establish the annual Abel Prize as the world's leading prize in mathematics. The creation of the prize was the result of a short and successful campaign in the spring and summer of 2001, which presented the prize as 'the missing Nobel Prize in mathematics.' The prize was very well received, both by the international mathematical community and Norwegian politicians. Sweden's Nobel Foundation, however, found repeated references to the new prize as 'a Nobel in mathematics' to be quite inappropriate. This article focuses on how the prize was successfully established in Norway, a country considered by some to be at the mathematical periphery, and to what extent the Abel Prize has been able to live up to the high expectations during its first 10 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines one of the most widely believed episodes in the life of Charles Darwin, that the death of his daughter Annie in 1851 caused the end of Darwin's belief in Christianity, and according to some versions, ended his attendance of church on Sundays. This hypothesis, it is argued, is commonly treated as a straightforward true account of Darwin's life, yet there is little or no supporting evidence. Furthermore, we argue, there is sufficient evidence that Darwin's loss of faith occurred before Annie's death. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Christiaan Huygens (1692-1695) and Ole Rømer (1644-1710) closely interacted during the 1670s, when they were both in and around the Académie Royale des Sciences in Paris. They were part of a small group with a shared interest in precision instruments. In the course of their interactions Rømer played a decisive role in two of Huygens renowned achievements: the wave theory of light and the design of a planetarium. Rømer's discovery of the finite speed of light, confirmed Huygens main supposition that light propagates at finite speed. The news of the discovery renewed his interest in the nature of light, resulting in 1677 in the formulation of the principle of wave propagation. Rømer's subsequent criticism of Huygens' theory induced him to seek experimental verification of his claims which he successfully did in 1679. Huygens' planetarium of 1682, in the meantime, was a direct response to the instrument Rømer presented at the Académie in 1680. According to Huygens, his instrument provided a more economic and more truthful mechanical representation of celestial motions. Despite their affinity in matters of ingenuity, Huygens and Rømer never became really close. After their departure from Paris, contact between them virtually ceased. This may be explained by the socio-cultural differences between both savants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses various published reports within the issue, including one that examines geologists' hammers, one that explores Italian geologists in the 18th and 19th centuries and one that discusses earth sciences in 18th century Portugal.

An introduction is presented to this special issue which focuses on the Cold War and science policy as related in the book "American Hegemony and the Postwar Reconstruction of Science in Europe," by John Krige.

The article argues that the history of Great Britain's General Register Office (GRO), which was formed in 1836, illuminates the manner in which modern state institutions became unquestioned parts of the social and political landscape. The structure of the GRO and its functions are detailed. The article also discusses the importance of the work done by the office, and it explains how the GRO reflected the emergence of a modern, secular state.

Historians of science have labeled followers of the 18th cosmologist John Hutchinson (1674– 1737) as anti-Newtonian. While Hutchinson was clearly anti-Newtonian, this was not the case with later followers like George Horne and William Jones. Horne and Jones sought a rapprochement between Newton and Hutchinson; in their hands, interpretations of Newton's works were refashioned to support Hutchinson's biblically based cosmos and Trinitarian natural philosophy. Newton's thought could be used by conservative Anglican Churchmen to battle religious heterodoxy. This raises problems for traditional Enlightenment historiography which views Newtonianism as a set of ideas which supported and reinforced emerging modern forms of political and religious thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Provides information on Bernard R. Goldstein's contribution to scholarship. Main areas of scholarly work to which Goldstein has made contributions; One of the characteristics of Goldstein's work as a scholar in the history of exact science; Characteristics of Goldstein that have made him outstanding and appreciated scholar.

The focus of this article is US military research in Greenland and its role in Danish- American political relations in the early Cold War period 1945-1968. This was a period of intense US research activity that aimed to overcome the hostile Greenlandic environment and harness it for military purposes. In the US- Danish defense agreement on Greenland of 1951 the USA got a free hand to develop three so-called defense areas for military purposes, while it had to seek Danish permission for research and other activities outside these areas. The two partners had differing, but mainly compatible, interests in this process. The US interest was freedom to do research on the gigantic Greenland Icecap, while the Danish authorities emphasized the protection of its sovereignty over Greenland. The article follows the US research programs in the 1950s and 1960s and Danish responses in some detail, including the intriguing and still mysterious Camp Century project and its relationship with the US Army's Iceworm plan to deploy strategic missiles beneath the surface of the Greenland Icecap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]