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

Francis Bacon’s Reform of Astrology: De augmentis scientiarum III, 4
Hard on the heels of his impeachment in 1622 as Lord High Chancellor of England, Francis Bacon turned to revise, augment and render
into Latin his “Advancement of Learning”(1605). One of the wholly new features in the newly entitled “De dignitate et augmentis
scientiarum” (1623) is an extensive proposal in book III, chapter 4, where Bacon lays out guidelines for a natural philosophical reform
of astrological theory and practice. He argues that one may thereby achieve greater insight into his two major areas of concern: nature
and politics. I will discuss the contents of this text and place it in the context of Bacon’s political career, thus articulating the place of
astrology in this courtier’s toolkit. I will also briefly discuss its influence.
Julia R. Saari, University of Massachusetts, Amherst (jrsaari@history.umass.edu)
Saturday, 20-Nov-04, 9:00 - 11:45 AM - Hill Country B
A Space of Their Own: Making Room for the Public at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was created as a civilian space agency to oppose its Soviet military counterpart,
but the creation of the space agency as a public institution had unintended consequences. The architects and administrators of
NASA underestimated the role that the public would attempt to play in their new institution. As the manned space program became an
increasingly important part of society and culture, as well as a source of national pride, the American public sought to become more
involved. In southern Florida, NASA’s activities had a tremendous impact on the surrounding communities. Not only did some of the
key events of the 1960s take off from their back yards, NASA’s presence also changed the nature of local economic development,
employment, and tourism. In response, these communities demanded a way to participate in the activities of their new neighbor. The
administration found a way to accommodate these demands by creating a visitor’s center at the Kennedy Space Center. This center filled
a local and national need for a public space within NASA.
Neeraja Sankaran, Yale University (neeraja.sankaran@yale.edu)
Friday, 19-Nov-04, 1:30 - 3:10 PM - Texas Ballroom VI
What Was a Virus? – The Status of Bacteriophage in this Debate in the Early 20th Century.
The question, “What is a virus?” is likely to elicit a fairly consistent set of replies from the contemporary biological community. A century
ago however, the replies of different scientists would have presented a confused, even contradictory, picture. The nature of viruses
was a subject for much lively debate, and the answers represented science in a state of flux. Indeed, the early 20th century is peppered
with instances of scientific disputes surrounding the identity of various discoveries as viruses. A notable example is the bacteriophage,
which was identified as an “ultravirus” by one of its discoverers but rejected as such by many in the wider scientific community.
In this paper I contextualize the debates on the nature of the bacteriophage within the broader context of the evolving concept of
viruses. In particular, I focus on work of Frank Macfarlane Burnet (1960 Nobel Laureate in Physiology/Medicine), who worked on the
bacteriophage in the 1920s and 30s, and whose research on the phenomenon of lysogeny contributed to the general acceptance of the
idea that the phage was a bacterial virus.
Jutta Schickore, Indiana University (jschicko@indiana.edu)
Saturday, 20-Nov-04, 3:30 - 5:30 PM - Texas Ballroom III
The Infamous Globule Hypothesis
Very often, historians have ascribed a largely negative role to error, failure, and fault: Error – the erroneous result – is an obstacle to scientific
advancement, something that has to be identified and removed so as to allow science to progress. In my paper, I seek to show
that errors can play a much more productive part for the practice of research. To do so, I concentrate on the so-called “globule theory”
of organic matter, which was widely advocated among microscopists in the early decades of the 19th century. According to this theory,
muscular and nerve fibres consist of strings of tiny globules. Historians of the microscope have claimed that the ‘erroneous’ globule
hypothesis could eventually be overcome when better instruments were introduced and novel histological theories came to be adopted.
While I do not deny that technical advancements did occur in the early decades of the nineteenth century, I wish to stress that they
were inextricably intertwined with a novel awareness of the limits and impediments of microscopical vision, which informed both the
practicalities of making and of applying the instrument. I argue that the microscopists’ novel methodological concerns with the nature
of light and especially with the effects of preparation procedures were crucial both for the refutation of the globule hypothesis and for
the emergence of alternative views of nervous tissue. I conclude the presentation with some more general considerations as to the role
of errors, faults, and failures in scientific practice.
Peter Schimkat, Independent Scholar (schimkat.peter@vdi.de)
Saturday, 20-Nov-04, 1:30 - 3:10 PM - Hill Country B
A Truly German Science”: Attempts to Redefine Geology in Interwar Germany
From the early 1920s onwards, German geological periodicals bore witness to remarkably wide-ranging debates concerning the concept,
aims and future development of the science of geology. These discussions, covering virtually all conceivable aspects of geology’s disciplinary
identity and ranging from its public face (e.g. strategies to spread geological knowledge among the wider public) to internal
methodological questions (e.g. the status of causal laws in geological research), served as a springboard for a view which was then argued