http://www.pachs.net/ en sjoseph@pachs.net Copyright 2012 2012-09-06T14:00:00-05:00 http://www.pachs.net/events/archive/electrifying_philadelphia/ http://www.pachs.net/events/archive/electrifying_philadelphia/#When:Wed, 23 May 12 17:30:00 Time: 5:30-7:00pm, with members’ reception to follow Location: Wagner Free Institute of Science, 1700 West Montgomery Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19121 Home to Ben Franklin and the site of an innovative Edison plant, Philadelphia has long been in love with electricity. This talk will provide an overview of the city’s electrification - its advent, advertising, and spread to institutions like the Wagner in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Looking at City Hall, the Sesquicentennial, and promotional “home electrics,” Aaron Wunsch will examine a moment in history that owes as much to Barnum as it does to Franklin. Dr. Aaron Wunsch is a Lecturer in Penn’s Graduate Program in Historic Preservation. He holds a doctorate in Architectural History from the University of California, Berkeley. His research focuses on nineteenth-century American architecture and urbanism. His master’s thesis focused on the architecture of the American electric power industry and he continued that work as part of a study of the Philadelphia Electric Company (PECO) for the Historic American Buildings Survey. This lecture program is funded by the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through the Heritage Philadelphia Program. Member Institution Events Wed, 23 May 12 17:30:00 http://www.pachs.net/events/archive/beyond_genius_before_theory/ http://www.pachs.net/events/archive/beyond_genius_before_theory/#When:Wed, 23 May 12 18:00:00 Time: 6:00pm Location: Chemical Heritage Foundation We have often been told that chemistry was built on theory by genius. But what did 19th-century chemists know? What could they do, and how could they do it? Jackson’s talk outlines an entirely new account of the development of organic chemistry. This history recovers a lost world of chemists in laboratories filled with glassware—a world of purification, characterization, and standardization; of reliable reactions and inescapable risks; of textbooks and manuals of practice; of training and labor. By about 1900, synthetic chemists had acquired a remarkable mastery over nature, but their achievements were not driven by theory. Organic synthesis—this vast, uniquely creative practice—was essential to stabilizing productive theories of structure and reactivity. Chemists achieve great things, but they do so for reasons beyond genius, using methods before theory. This event is free and open to the public, but registration is required. Member Institution Events Wed, 23 May 12 18:00:00 http://www.pachs.net/blogs/comments/the_marvellous_art_and_architecture_of_fermilab/ http://www.pachs.net/blogs/comments/the_marvellous_art_and_architecture_of_fermilab/#When:15:25:00Z Highlights from a visit to Fermilab Wed, 16 May 12 15:25:00 -0400 http://www.pachs.net/blogs/comments/a_mathematician_solves_the_obesity_puzzle/ http://www.pachs.net/blogs/comments/a_mathematician_solves_the_obesity_puzzle/#When:04:19:00Z Carson Chow’s mathematical analysis confirms the cause for our increasingly obese nation: we consume too many calories. Journalism/Public Understanding of Science Wed, 16 May 12 04:19:00 -0400 http://www.pachs.net/blogs/comments/universal_vaccination_is_a_perennial_struggle/ http://www.pachs.net/blogs/comments/universal_vaccination_is_a_perennial_struggle/#When:04:56:00Z Recent campaigns to extend vaccination to developing nations sound a lot like 19th-century efforts in Pennsylvania to vaccinate poor children. Journalism/Public Understanding of Science Sat, 12 May 12 04:56:00 -0400 http://www.pachs.net/blogs/comments/should_science_writers_read_historical_material/ http://www.pachs.net/blogs/comments/should_science_writers_read_historical_material/#When:04:40:00Z Science writers and scientists frequently discuss whether or not science writers should read the scientific papers on which their stories are based. What would happen if we asked similar questions of science writers and scientists who relied on historical sources? Historiography/Methodology Tue, 01 May 12 04:40:00 -0400 http://www.pachs.net/blogs/comments/more_thoughts_on_comedy_and_history_of_science/ http://www.pachs.net/blogs/comments/more_thoughts_on_comedy_and_history_of_science/#When:16:09:00Z The Festival of the Spoken Nerd, an English comedy group, combines comedy with science and performs at festivals and other venues across England and Scotland. Their success along with the success of last week’s “Love, Sex, Death (and Food)” suggests that comedy might be a good way to make history of science and science more interesting to a broader audience. Journalism/Public Understanding of Science Sun, 29 Apr 12 16:09:00 -0400 http://www.pachs.net/about/news/the_salubrious_sea/ http://www.pachs.net/about/news/the_salubrious_sea/#When:17:41:01Z Meghan Crnic is a student at the University of Pennsylvania, Department of History and Sociology of Science.  She received a 2011-2012 Dissertation Research Fellowship for her research that looks at the emerging trans-Atlantic phenomenon of pediatric marine hospitals in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Tue, 03 Apr 12 17:41:01 -0400 http://www.pachs.net/about/news/postdoctoral_fellowship_2012_2014/ http://www.pachs.net/about/news/postdoctoral_fellowship_2012_2014/#When:19:35:00Z The Center invites applications for a Postdoctoral Fellowship in the history of science, technology and medicine.  More information and an online application here. Thu, 08 Mar 12 19:35:00 -0500 http://www.pachs.net/about/news/gifted_women_and_skilled_practitioners/ http://www.pachs.net/about/news/gifted_women_and_skilled_practitioners/#When:19:20:00Z Susan Brandt is a student at Temple University.  She received a 2011-2012 Dissertation Research Fellowship for her research uncovering women healers’ hidden practices and their vital role in the eighteenth and early nineteenth-century mid-Atlantic American healthcare marketplace. Tue, 21 Feb 12 19:20:00 -0500 http://www.pachs.net/about/news/new_images_from_the_wagner_free_institute_of_science/ http://www.pachs.net/about/news/new_images_from_the_wagner_free_institute_of_science/#When:21:51:00Z As you navigate our website, you may notice new images appearing on the right. We just received a batch of wonderful images for our site from the Wagner Free Institute of Science. Tue, 07 Feb 12 21:51:00 -0500 http://www.pachs.net/about/news/experiment_and_good_sense_must_direct_you/ http://www.pachs.net/about/news/experiment_and_good_sense_must_direct_you/#When:16:07:00Z Claire Gherini is a student at Johns Hopkins University.  She received a 2011-2012 Dissertation Research Fellowship for her research that links the formal, printed medical ideas theorizing the relationship between illness, season, and climate that emerged among physicians in the eighteenth century to the experimentation with new treatments for illness that took place on the ground in plantations in South Carolina, Virginia, and the British West Indies. Thu, 19 Jan 12 16:07:00 -0500