Events for March 2008
March 3, 2008
Shobita Parthasarathy, University of Michigan
“Between Human and Technology: Governing Biotechnology at the Patent Office”
Department of History and Sociology of Science, University of Pennsylvania, Spring 2008 Workshop | Visit site »
Time: 3:30 - 5:15 p.m.
Place: 337 Logan Hall
March 4, 2008
Nathan Ensmenger, University of Pennsylvania
“Cybernetics and Cyberculture”
Drexel University, Great Works Symposium | Visit site »
Time: 3:30 - 4:50 p.m.
Place: Curtis Hall, Rm 340, Drexel University
Information: sgk23@drexel.edu
March 4, 2008
Emily Pawley, University of Pennsylvania and Chemical Heritage Foundation
“Farming with Figures: Foods, Atoms, and Value in American Agricultural Improvement, 1840-1860”
Chemical Heritage Foundation, Brown Bag Lecture | Visit site »
Time: 12:00 - 1:00 p.m.
Place: 6th Floor Conference Room, Chemical Heritage Foundation
As American farming beginning in the 1840s became increasingly market-oriented, new forms of value based in cash encounted new forms of value based in chemistry. This talk will examine how American chemists and agricultural improvers reconceptualized farms, beginning to conceive of them as components in a cycle of chemical nutrition, fed or starved by limited flows of precious elements. These improvers promoted plant and soil analysis as a way of identifying value in the material transactions of the farm. Thus they offered farmers a solution to the problem of keeping track of profits through a complex system of material transformations. Reformers claimed that by using chemical analysis, fodder crops and fertilizers could be rationally compared. By redefining foods, fodders, and fertilizers as valuable collections of chemicals, chemists and improvers began to lay the foundation for new agroecologies and new industries of nutrients.
March 5, 2008
Roger Lane, Haverford College
“Researching African American History in Philadelphia”
Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania, History of Nursing Seminar Series | Visit site »
Time: 12:15 - 1:45 p.m.
Place: Meyerson Conference Room, Van Pelt Library (2nd Floor), University of Pennsylvania
NOTE: Change in time and location
Lunch will be served. RSVP to ahillier@design.upenn.edu.
Dr. Lane is the Benjamin R. Collins Research Professor of Social Sciences at Haverford College and autor of Roots of Violence in Black Philadelphia. (winner of the 1987 Bancroft Award) and William Dorsey’s Philadelphia & Ours: On the Past and Future of the Black City in America (winner of the 1992 Urban History Association’s award), among other books. This event is part of the Bates Seminar
Series on the History of Nursing and is funded by the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics.
March 11, 2008
William S. Tasman, MD, and Derek Gillman, LLM
“Dr. Albert C. Barnes: The Physician, the Collector, and the Collection”
The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, Section on Medicine and the Arts and Section on Medical History | Visit site »
Time: 6:15 p.m.
Place: The College of Physicians of Philadelphia
Register online at http://www.collphyphil.org/prog_calender.htm
Lecture, co-sponsored with the Section on Medicine and the Arts and the Section on Medical History, presented by William S. Tasman, MD, Former Ophthalmologist-in-Chief, Wills Eye Institute and Professor and Emeritus Chairman of Ophthalmology, Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University; and Derek Gillman, LLM, Executive Director and President, The Barnes Foundation.
March 11, 2008
Jeffrey I. Seeman
“Myth or Fact? The Woodward-Doering Total Synthesis of Quinine. A Story of the Human Side of Science”
Chemical Heritage Foundation, Brown Bag Lecture | Visit site »
Time: 12:00 - 1:00 p.m.
Place: 6th Floor Conference Room, Chemical Heritage Foundation
In 1944, to wide acclaim, two young chemists—R. B. Woodward and William Doering—reported “The Total Synthesis of Quinine.” It was hailed as an extraordinary feat of science and a breakthrough in the country’s war effort, as quinine was then the antimalarial of choice. America lost more men to malaria in the South Pacific than to enemy fire. For almost 60 years, the Woodward-Doering quinine synthesis was universally considered to be an important milestone in organic chemistry. But in 2000 and 2001, the eminent chemist Gilbert Stork asserted that Woodward and Doering’s synthesis was a myth. The editor of Chemical & Engineering News wrote an editorial titled, “Setting the Record Straight,” praising Stork for correcting this myth. By and large, the organic synthetic community reversed its opinion overnight. Could it be that Woodward and Doering were wrong? This presentation will, in fact, set the record straight. The human side of science—egos, ethics, and hierarchy—all play a role in this story.
March 11, 2008
Donald Kraybill, Elizabethtown College
“From the Buggy to the Byte: How the Amish Tame Technology”
Department of History, University of Delaware, History Workshop in Technology, Society and Culture | Visit site »
Time: 12:30 - 1:45 p.m.
Place: University of Delaware, 203 Munroe Hall
Information: 302-831-2371
March 12, 2008 - June 1, 2009
“The Lure of the North”
The Academy of Natural Sciences, Ewell Sale Stewart Library | Visit site »
Renowned polar explorer Robert Peary used these words to describe his consuming passion for the Arctic—a “lure” he characterized as “a strange and powerful thing.”
Like Peary, The Academy of Natural Sciences has felt this strong attraction to the far north. Its “Golden Age” of Arctic exploration spanned from the early 1890s until the early 1930s. During this time, the Academy participated in numerous expeditions to the Arctic, conducting scientific studies and amassing natural history specimens. “The Lure of the North” presents a sampling of this period in Academy historywith a display of books, photo albums, correspondences and specimens from both the 1891-92 Peary Expedtion and from Greenland travels of Harry Whitney.
March 13, 2008
Carolyn de la Pena, University of California-Davis
“The Business of Diet Food: Abbott Laboratories and the Sucaryl (Cyclamates) Campaign”
Hagley Museum and Library, Research Seminar | Visit site »
Time: 6:00 - 8:30 p.m.
Location: Hagley Museum and Library.
Use Hagley’s Buck Road East entrance off Route 100 in Wilmington, Delaware.
Participants are encouraged to read each paper in advance of the seminar. To obtain copies of the papers, contact Carol Lockman at clockman@hagley.org or (302) 658-2400, ext. 243.
March 13, 2008
Amy K. Ackerberg-Hastings, Univerrsity of Maryland
“ ‘The Acknowledged National Standard’: Charles Davies, A.S. Barnes, and Textbooks as Teaching Tools”
Philadelphia Area Seminar on the History of Mathematics (PASHoM) | Visit site »
Time: 6:00 p.m.
Place: Villanova University
Book historians have added a number of dimensions to our understanding of texts in the history of science and mathematics, including how readers and publishers participate alongside authors in the transmission of knowledge, how patterns of use indicate intellectual reception, and how textbooks communicate scientific ideas to popular audiences. However, promotion has been at least as important a factor as pedagogical and intellectual superiority in determining which objects have become widely established instruments for teaching mathematics and science. This talk explores the evolution of the textbook into a commercialized teaching tool by concentrating on how the partnership of Charles Davies (1798-1876) and Alfred Smith Barnes (1817-1888) shaped mathematics instruction in the United States. Davies parlayed his reputation as a professor at the United States Military Academy at West Point into a successful career of defining himself primarily as a producer of textbooks. Barnes, his publisher, organized the books into graded series and utilized aggressive marketing techniques. Together, the men sought to enlarge their audience of American students and laid claim to national status as the standard for the nascent mathematics textbook industry. This talk is based upon the first chapter of Material to Learn: Tools of American Mathematics Teaching, 1800-2000, a forthcoming book prepared jointly with Peggy Aldrich Kidwell and David Lindsay Roberts, and will include a few highlights from the entire volume.
March 15, 2008
Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation, Meeting of the Philadelphia Chapter
Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation
Program: 1:00 p.m.
Place: The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, 19 S. 22nd Street
Registration: 215-342-7614
The program includes two presentations:
“The Philadelphia Post-Expedition Connections” by Robert Cox, University of Massachusetts at Amherst
“Some New Insights Into the Medical Aspects of the Lewis and Clark Expedition” by John Fisher, Juliaetta, Idaho
March 17, 2008
Karl Appuhn, NYU
“Nature’s Republic or Republican Nature? Venetian Forest Management and European Ideas about Nature in the Seventeenth Century”
Department of History and Sociology of Science, University of Pennsylvania, Spring 2008 Workshop | Visit site »
Time: 3:30 - 5:15 p.m.
Place: 337 Logan Hall
March 18, 2008
Gabriele Ferrario
“Alchemy in Motion: The Trilingual Tradition of the Liber de aluminibus et salibus”
Chemical Heritage Foundation, Brown Bag Lecture | Visit site »
Time: 12:00 - 1:00 p.m.
Place: 6th Floor Conference Room, Chemical Heritage Foundation
The Liber de aluminibus et salibus is one of the most famous alchemical books of Medieval Arabic alchemy. In this talk Ferrario will trace the history of the transmission of this treatise, underlining the distinctive features that are typical of the Arabic original, of its Hebrew and Latin translations, and of its quotations found in later printed works.
March 19, 2008
James Schafer, Drexel University
“The Geography of Health Care in Early Twentieth Century American Cities”
Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania, History of Nursing Seminar Series | Visit site »
Time: 12:15 p.m.
Place: 3R Conference Room, Claire Fagin Hall
Information: ehweiss@nursing.upenn.edu
This talk uses a case study of Philadelphia to explain larger patterns in the distribution of doctors’ offices in early twentieth century American cities. Larger questions about the geography of health care during this turbulent period in urban history will be framed.
March 20, 2008
Beth Linker, Department of History and Sociology of Science, University of Pennsylvania
“Brains and Brawn: The Birth of Physical Therapy as an Allied Health Profession”
The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, Section on Medical History: | Visit site »
Time: 6:15 p.m.
Place: The College of Physicians of Philadelphia
Register online at http://www.collphyphil.org/prog_calender.htm
The Kate Hurd-Mead Lecture is underwritten in part by a grant from the Archives and Special Collections on Women in Medicine in the Institute for Women’s Health and Leadership, Drexel University College of Medicine.
March 24, 2008
Janet Golden, Rutgers University
“Message in a Bottle: The Making of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome”
Department of History and Sociology of Science, University of Pennsylvania, Spring 2008 Workshop | Visit site »
Time: 3:30 - 5:15 p.m.
Place: 337 Logan Hall
March 25, 2008
Vera Keller, Princeton University
“Artificial Suns from Drebbel to Balduin and the Discovery of Phosphorus”
Chemical Heritage Foundation, Brown Bag Lecture | Visit site »
Time: 12:00 - 1:00 p.m.
Place: 6th Floor Conference Room, Chemical Heritage Foundation
At the turn of the seventeenth century, Cornelis Drebbel (1572-1633) built a spectacular chymically driven perpetual motion machine that followed the motions of the sun. Central European supporters of a magnetic, vital philosophy saw the machine as evidence that celestial forces could be attracted into machines artificially. Drebbel’s storied career spurred the contrivance of chymical microcosms and artificial suns in Central Europe through the seventeenth century. This “magnetic” account of Drebbel continued in the works of Christian Adolph Balduin, F.R.S., who built his own artificial sun, and other contemporary German producers of phosphorus.
March 27, 2008
2008 Gordon Cain Conference
“Dilemmas of Dual Use”
Chemical Heritage Foundation | Visit site »
Times:
Thursday, 27 March, 8:15 a.m - 5:45 p.m.
Friday, 28 March, 8:15 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Place: Chemical Heritage Foundation
Free, but registration is required.
To learn more, contact Ron Brashear, rbrashear@chemheritage.org, 215.873.8284.
To register, contact Ashley Ingber, aingber@chemheritage.org, 215.873.8299.
In 1774 chlorine was discovered by the Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele, and in 1810 it was classified as an element by Humphrey Davy. Since then chlorine has been used as an instrument of war as well as an agency of peace. Crafted by both sides in World War I as an offensive weapon, chlorine is now a mainstay of international industry and commerce. Today, in addition to its many industrial, agrochemical, pharmaceutical, and consumer applications, chlorine is used worldwide as a water purifier that has saved millions from waterborne illnesses.
On 27–28 March, the Gordon Cain Conference will examine the ethical, professional, and industrial questions that arise from the development of dual-use technologies. Historians, philosophers, and practitioners from defense communities will consider the past, present, and future of norms of and prohibitions on chemical weapons R&D.
March 28, 2008
2008 Gordon Cain Conference
“Dilemmas of Dual Use”
Chemical Heritage Foundation | Visit site »
Times:
Thursday, 27 March, 8:15 a.m - 5:45 p.m.
Friday, 28 March, 8:15 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Place: Chemical Heritage Foundation
Free, but registration is required.
To learn more, see http://www.chemheritage.org/events/event-detail.asp?id=341
contact Ron Brashear, rbrashear@chemheritage.org, 215.873.8284.
To register, contact Ashley Ingber, aingber@chemheritage.org, 215.873.8299.
See March 27 for conference description.
March 28, 2008
Dominique A. Tobbell, Chemical Heritage Foundation and the University of Pennsylvania
Allied Against Reform: Pharmaceutical Industry-Physician Relations in the United States, 1945-1970
Philadelphia Area Center for History of Science, Regional Colloquium
Please download and read the paper in advance.
Location: The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia
1900 Benjamin Franklin Parkway
(directions)
Time: 3:00 - 5:00 p.m., with social hour and light dinner afterward
Your RSVP to would be appreciated.
Abstract: During the 1960s, the drug industry was the subject of two congressional investigations into its business practices and pricing policies, and in 1962, passage of the Drug Amendments mandated greater FDA authority over pharmaceutical development. In this article, Tobbell examines the industry’s efforts to circumvent these political challenges by drawing on its long-standing relationship with academic physicians and the American Medical Association. Utilizing the medical profession’s shared concern about expanding government oversight over therapeutic practice, the industry called on academic physicians to join forces with them and establish an expert advisory body to guide government officials on pharmaceutical policy. Drawing on research in the archives of the University of Pennsylvania and the National Academy of Sciences, and a careful reading of the trade and biomedical literature and congressional documents, Tobbell argues that by positioning themselves as pharmaceutical experts, this industry-academic alliance gave industry a seat at the policy table and enabled them to challenge the efforts of pharmaceutical reformers to further increase the government’s role in drug development.
Download event poster in PDF format.
This event is made possible by the generous support of the American Philosophical Society, the Chemical Heritage Foundation, the Hagley Museum and Library, the Department of History at Princeton University, and the Department of History and Sociology of Science at the University of Pennsylvania.
March 29, 2008
Nina G. Jablonski, Pennsylvania State University
“The Evolution of Human Skin Color”
The Wagner Free Institute of Science, Westbrook Lecture 2008 | Visit site »
Time: 1:00 p.m.
Place: The Wagner Free Institute of Science
Human skin serves a range of functions--from protection against the elements to assertion of identity through self-decoration. One of its unique and most significant attributes is that it comes in a range of natural colors. Dr. Nina Jablonski will discuss her groundbreaking research on the evolution of human skin. Her most recent book, Skin: A Natural History reveals the significance for human health, our understanding of human variation, and our use of skin color to define unique human “races.”
March 31, 2008
Leila Zunderland, California State University, Fullerton
“Anthropology, Psychology, and International Politics in the 1930s: Reconsidering Yale’s Seminar on the Impact of Culture on Personality”
Department of History and Sociology of Science, University of Pennsylvania, Spring 2008 Workshop | Visit site »
Time: 3:30 - 5:15 p.m.
Place: 337 Logan Hall