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

incorporated into, the state administration’s efforts to establish the Museum as a site of public education on natural history and natural
philosophy.
Patrick McCray, University of California, Santa Barbara (pmccray@history.ucsb.edu)
Saturday, 20-Nov-04, 3:30 - 5:30 PM - Texas Ballroom II
Caltech, Project Vista, and the Dilemmas of Lee DuBridge
In the summer of 1951, more than one hundred scientists and other academics participated in a secret study hosted by the California
Institute of Technology. The purpose of Project Vista was to determine how existing technologies – tactical nuclear weapons, in particular
could offset NATO’s weaker conventional forces and repel a massive Soviet invasion of Europe many perceived as likely if not
imminent. Lee A. DuBridge, a former physicist and Caltech’s first president, convinced the school’s trustees and administration to carry
out the project for several reasons among others, it brought an lucrative government contract to the school while it performed a national
service at a time of great international tension. This paper explores how Project Vista came to Caltech and how DuBridge’s reluctant
acquiescence to Caltech’s conscription in Project Vista during a state of national emergency conflicted with his initial goals for Caltech
as the school adjusted to the postwar environment. More broadly, this paper’s focus on the local institutional environment provides a
window onto scientists’ experiences and responsibilities as they attempted to apply their expertise to the relatively unfamiliar world of
tactics and warfare during the early years of the Cold War.
Peter McLaughlin, University of Heidelberg (peter.mclaughlin@urz.uni-heidelberg.de)
Saturday, 20-Nov-04, 1:30 - 3:10 PM - Hill Country D
Rethinking Internalism in the Scientific Revolution
The story of Boris Hessen’s famous lecture on “The Social and Economic Roots of Newton’s ‘Principia’/Mechanics” has been
rehearsed from a number of different angles. Although the talk reportedly had a powerful effect on a number of those attending, those
not personally present have been almost uniformly derogatory in their evaluations. Two exceptions were Henryk Grossmann and R. K.
Merton, who explicitly defended Hessen against the misunderstandings and misrepresentations widely accepted by historians, especially
following G. N. Clark’s attack. In this paper I take these dissident readings of Hessen as a starting point to reevaluate the origin of
internalism in the historiography of science, which defined itself in opposition to a position that never existed, leading it to study the
mechanization of the world picture in the Scientific Revolution in abstraction from practical mechanics and technology.
Colin Milburn, Harvard University (milburn@fas.harvard.edu)
Friday, 19-Nov-04, 9:00 - 11:45 AM - Texas Ballroom III
Nano Worlds: Vision Beyond the Limits of Fabrication
The recent history of nanotechnology has been characterized by double-vision: in visualizing the nanoscale, in making molecular structures
accessible through imaging technologies such as the scanning tunneling microscope, nanotechnology simultaneously imagines the
future. Speculative visions of monumental social, economic and technological changes appear regularly in the writings of scientists and
others involved in the development of nanotechnology, and these visions are usually linked to experimental successes in bringing the
invisible atomic world to light. This paper analyzes the double-vision of nanotechnology and suggests that “seeing” the future is a
media-specific effect of “seeing” the nanoscale, that the fantasy of a disembodied gaze capable of scrutinizing beyond the limits of
sight and foresight structures the thinking of nanotechnology from its earliest history to the present day. The paper further suggests
that this double-vision works to make radical technological change possible in the present by unfolding an alienating “world of the
future” from within the maps and the media generated by its explorations of the new molecular frontier.
David Marshall Miller, University of Pittsburgh (dmmst115@pitt.edu)
Saturday, 20-Nov-04, 9:00 - 11:45 AM - Texas Ballroom V
The Thirty Years War and the Galileo Affair: A Plea for Political Contextualization
All too often, historians of the “Galileo Affair” focus their attention on the intellectual bases of Galileo’s fateful interaction with the
Holy Roman Church. They fail to recognize the dynamic – indeed, tumultuous – nature of the political landscape surrounding Galileo’s
condemnation and the events leading to it. This was a landscape rent by the Thirty Years War, which dominated the affairs of European
rulers, including Galileo’s patrons. In fact, Galileo’s publication of the “Dialogo” in 1632 could not have come at a more ill-advised
moment: in the aftermath of the battle of Breitenfeld, the nadir of Catholicism in Germany. Blame for this calamitous defeat fell on
Galileo’s most important protector, Pope Urban VIII. Thus, when Galileo’s book appeared, Galileo became a useful example by which
Urban could consolidate his severely weakened position. The Pope carefully crafted the public image of an unusual trial, at the expense
of his old friend. By telling this story, I aim to focus some attention on the political context of the “Galileo Affair.” Certainly, Galileo’s
trial resulted from profound intellectual tensions that pervaded the early modern period, but it must also be understood in light of the
political exigencies of the moment. Historians’ extensive exploration of the intellectual aspects of Galileo’s condemnation should be
accompanied by more research regarding the less cerebral motivations of those involved.