Abstracts of the History of Science Society 2004 Austin Meeting 18 ...

Mioara Deac, University of Notre Dame (mioara.deac.1@nd.edu)
Friday, 19-Nov-04, 1:30 - 3:10 PM - Texas Ballroom V
Psychology, Vision, and the Late Nineteenth-Century Modernist Project
My paper is an exploration of the connections between the late nineteenth-century ‘psychology of the unconscious’ and the project of
aesthetic modernism. Drawing from the Kantian theme of the sublime, J. F. Lyotard has argued that modernity strove to make visible
something that could be conceived but could not be seen. The endeavor of ‘visualizing the unseen’ was a pervasive theme in psychology,
art, and physical sciences in the late nineteenth century: Symbolist art tried to render visible ‘the optical unconscious’, while the
newly discovered X-rays, as well as various photo-chemical techniques, tried to visualize a ‘previously unseen’ world through scientific
methods. Also, in the last two decades of the nineteenth century, the concept of the unconscious diffused from the philosophical realm
into the psychological conceptualizations of the human mind, becoming by the turn of the century one of the master metaphors in
psychiatry. The speculative approach of Schopenhauer and von Hartmann was woven into a new cloth: what was unprecedented in
the 1880s was the attempt to ‘visualize’ the unconscious through psychological research. I examine the experimental and clinical investigation
of phenomena such as hypnotism, hysteria, and hallucinations, in the psychological work of Alfred Binet, Harlow Gale, Morton
Prince, Pierre Janet, Frederick Myers, and Frank Podmore. I relate these trends in psychology to the ‘yearning for visualizability’ and
the desire to ‘stabilize’ metaphysics, which characterized also the aesthetic modernity in the last two decades of the nineteenth century.
Michael R Dietrich, Dartmouth College (michael.dietrich@dartmouth.edu)
Friday, 19-Nov-04, 3:30 - 5:30 PM - Texas Ballroom III
Reviving the Hopeful Monster: Richard Goldschmidt and Saltational Evolution
Beginning in 1932, Richard Goldschmidt championed a saltational theory of evolution that integrated developmental biology, evolutionary
biology, and genetics. While Goldschmidt’s efforts won him a reputation as a “scientific heretic,” his approach was not forgotten.
In fact, a small but growing group of biologists have maintained an interest in Goldschmidt’s ideas and approach. This interest in
Goldschmidt’s saltational ideas of hopeful monsters and developmental macromutations has become even more pronounced during the
recent surge of research in evo-devo. In this paper I will survey Goldschmidt’s saltational ideas and their subsequent fate in the biological
community. I will argue that contemporary researchers who invoke Goldschmidt’s saltational ideas do not seem to be trading on
his reputation as a heretic in the same way as had earlier “neo-Goldschmidtians.” The current revival of Goldschmidt’s views does not
indicate that his ideas have been proven correct. Rather, the invocation of his work is no longer intended to shock, but to mark a reemerging
field of research.
John Paul DiMoia, Princeton University (jdimoia@princeton.edu)
Friday, 19-Nov-04, 9:00 - 11:45 AM - Hill Country B
Teaching the Atom: AERI and the Origins of the South Korean Nuclear Program, 1955-1959
Following the Korean War (1950-1953), South Korea’s nascent scientific institutions and universities attempted to recover from the damage
sustained during the previous three years. Under a commission from the Foreign Operations Administration, the University of
Minnesota undertook an intensive program of technical assistance with Seoul National University, the nation’s premier institution of
higher education, focusing initially on providing training in three critical areas: agriculture, engineering, and medicine. Amidst these difficult
circumstances, Korean atomic scientists began to undertake a series of ambitious new projects, requesting access to technical training
and American atomic energy facilities as early as 1955. A number of these researchers would subsequently attend the International
School of Nuclear Science and Engineering at Argonne National Laboratory and the Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Science. This
paper thus examines the Korean-American scientific relationship by looking at atomic exchange during the four year period leading up
to the establishment of the Atomic Energy Research Institute (AERI), a body comparable to the AEC. Established in the wake of
Eisenhower’s “Atoms for Peace” address of December 1953, AERI was designed to provide South Korea with a cheap, efficient source
of energy, power which would subsequently drive the nation’s industrial and economic recovery. The collaborative relationship between
American researchers and their Korean counterparts was complicated, however, by tensions centering on: (1) the proper approach to
be taken toward nuclear power (research-based versus industrial), (2) the relationship between the construction of new facilities and the
larger Korean university community, and (3) the type and length of training necessary to undertake an atomic energy program. If the
successful start-up of South Korea’s first research reactor in 1962, along with its first commercial reactor in 1977, remains in part a legacy
of this early period in the Korean-American collaborative relationship, South Korea has nevertheless pursued its own course in
emphasizing this source of energy: nuclear power currently provides an estimated 39% of the nation’s energy needs at a time when
many other countries have abandoned it and have instead sought alternative sources of power.
Michael Eckert, Deutsches Museum (Munich) (m.eckert@deutsches-museum.de)
Saturday, 20-Nov-04, 3:30 - 5:30 PM - Hill Country B
The DPG and “Aryan Physics”
After the war, the German Physical Society used the successful fight against “Aryan Physics” as an example of how the society had resisted
National Socialism. This paper examines these claims critically, shedding light on the conflict over “Aryan Physics,” the conduct of
the society under National Socialism, and the postwar apologia.