January 2006 - History of Science Society

ISSN 0739-4934
Newsletter
VOLUME 35 NUMBER 1
January 2006
WHAT IS TO BE DONE?
By Joan Cadden
When Lenin posed that question
a little over a century
ago, he was worried about the
Marxist transformation of
Russian Social Democracy.
Luckily, the concerns that face
me as incoming President of the
HSS are on a more modest scale. They are, however, the
kind of challenges that can only be met collectively,
hence I appeal to the solidarity of the membership in
two areas that might be labeled “theory” and “praxis.”
Idealism: Contribute Your Ideas to Our
Planning for the Future
What does HSS do now that it could be doing better?
What do we not do that we would like to be doing? What
do we do that has become useless or counterproductive?
The Executive Committee is assembling an ad hoc committee,
under the leadership of Bruce Hunt, to open up
these and other questions. The result is not likely to resemble
the Russian Revolution, but we hope that it will give
rise to specific ideas and a renewed sense of direction. The
results of this process will be passed on to Council and
committees for discussion and (when they meet with favor,
energy, and resources) for implementation. Please help.
Send your thoughts to Bruce Hunt (bjhunt@
mail.utexas.edu) or to me (jcadden@ucdavis.edu)
and they will be incorporated into the conversation.
Materialism: Contribute Your Dollars to
Endow the HSS Bibliographer
The production of the Current Bibliography and its
incorporation into the on-line database “History of Science
Technology and Medicine” are among the most ambitious
services HSS offers to its members. Through our NEH grant,
we hope to endow the position of Society Bibliographer,
both to insure its future and to free up funds to pursue other
services and programs (see “Idealism” above). To receive
the full $125,000 offered by the NEH, we must raise matching
funds on a strict timetable. Please help.
You may donate online by going to http://hssonline.org.
As previous Newsletters have reported, late in
2003 the National Endowment for the
Humanities awarded one of its highly coveted
Challenge Grants to the History of Science
Society. This grant established an HSS
Bibliographer’s Fund, designed as an endowment
to secure the future of the Isis Current
Bibliography and of the Society’s continuing
contributions to the on-line HSTM Research
Database. In making this award, NEH challenged
the Society to match its offer (of up to
$125,000) on a 4-to-1 basis so that, for HSS to
receive the grant’s full amount, it has to raise
$500,000 in matching funds. As of the end of
November 2005, over 200 members and friends
of the Society, and several family foundations,
have contributed ca. $125,000 toward this
match. Although income from these donations
(and from what NEH has paid of its grant to
date) is already providing partial support for
our Bibliographer, HSS must still raise an additional
$375,000 by NEH’s deadline of July 2008 if it is to
receive the full benefit of the award.
Our successes to date derive from the efforts of
the members of the Council-appointed HSS Development
Committee (whom we acknowledge by
name at the end of this note) and of the Society’s
Executive Committee. We all owe these individuals
much for their work on behalf of all of us.
To continue this campaign, the Society is about
to launch Phase II of its effort to fully endow the
HSS Bibliographer’s Fund. In doing so, it will both
continue and expand previous efforts that have met
with some success.
For example, HSS officers and Development
Committee members continue to meet with potential
major donors, including some who have had longstanding
relationships with the Society, and others
who are just now learning about the field, the
Society, and the bibliographies. Several even had ties
HISTORY
OF SCIENCE
SOCIETY
Endowing Our Bibliographies: Campaign to Enter Phase II
Help us complete
our Bibliographer
Only $375,000
to go!
with the Society 40 or 50 years ago that had long
since faded, and they have welcomed the chance to
catch up with the Society’s current programs.
(Continued on page 3)
Contents
News and Inquiries 3
Grants, Fellowships, and Prizes 7
Jobs 9
Awards, Honors, and Appointments 9
Workspace: Jamil Ragep 10
An Appropriate Life: A. I. Sabra 12
Notes from the Inside: Minneapolis 2005 14
Call for Papers 15
Future Meetings 18
Dissertations 19
Isis Books Received 20
NEH Donors 23
Who has Won the Reingold Prize? 24

History of Science Society Newsletter January 2006
University of Oklahoma
Andrew W. Mellon Travel
Fellowship Program
Augmented by a recent $300,000 endowment by the
Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Travel Fellowship
Program assists scholars outside the central
Oklahoma region to make use of the History of Science
Collections. Proposals from scholars at both predoctoral
and postdoctoral levels are welcome. Deadlines for
applications are October 15 (for research conducted
between January 1 and June 30) and February 15 (for
research conducted between July 1 and December 30),
with decisions announced within one month.
For information, please contact:
The University of Oklahoma
The Andrew W. Mellon Travel Fellowship
Program
Bizzell Library
401 West Brooks, Room 521
Norman, OK 73019-0528
E-mail: kmagruder@ou.edu or
mogilvie@ou.edu.
Application materials and additional information can
also be obtained at our Web site:
libraries.ou.edu/etc/histsci/mellon.asp
OSIRIS ADDED AS NEW MEMBER
BENEFIT!
Beginning in 2006, the History of Science Society will add
a new benefit to all memberships: the latest volume of
Osiris. Founded in 1936 by George Sarton, and relaunched
by the HSS in 1985, this annual thematic journal
highlights recent research on significant themes in
the history of science. The paper edition of Osiris, Volume
21, “Historical Perspectives on Science, Technology, and
International Affairs,” will mail late summer 2006.
History of Science Society Executive Office
Postal Address
Physical Address
PO Box 117360
3310 Turlington Hall
University of Florida
University of Florida
Gainesville, FL 32611-7360 Gainesville, FL 32611
Phone: 352-392-1677
Fax: 352-392-2795
E-mail: info@hssonline.org
Web site: http://www.hssonline.org/
Subscription Inquiries: ISIS and HSS Newsletter
Please contact the University of Chicago Press directly, at:
subscriptions@press.uchicago.edu; 877-705-1878/877-705-1879
(phone/fax), toll free for U.S. and Canada.
Or write University of Chicago Press, Subscription
Fulfillment Manager, PO Box 37005, Chicago, IL
60637-7363.
Moving?
Please notify both the HSS Executive Office and the
University of Chicago Press at the above addresses.
HSS Newsletter
Editorial Policies, Advertising, and Submissions
The History of Science Society Newsletter is published in January, April,
July, and October, and sent to all individual members of the Society; those
who reside outside of North America pay an additional $5 annually to cover
a portion of airmail charges. The Newsletter is available to nonmembers
and institutions for $25 a year.
The Newsletter is edited and desktop published in the Executive Office on an
Apple system using Microsoft Word and Quark. The format and editorial policies
are determined by the Executive Director in consultation with the Committee on
Publications and the Society Editor. All advertising copy must be submitted in
electronic form. Advertisements are accepted on a space-available basis only, and
the Society reserves the right not to accept a submission. The rates are as follows:
Full page (9 x 7.5”), $400; Horizontal or Vertical Half page (4.5 x 7.5”), $220;
Quarter page (3 x 5”), $110. The deadline for insertion orders and camera-ready
copy is six weeks prior to the month of publication (e.g., 20 November for the
January Newsletter) and should be sent to the attention of the HSS Executive
Office at the above address. The deadline for news, announcements, and job/fellowship/
prize listings is firm: The first of the month prior to the month of publication.
Long items (feature stories) should be submitted six weeks prior to the
month of publication as e-mail file attachments or on a 3.5” disk (along with a
hard copy). Please send all material to the attention of Michal Meyer at the HSS
address above (e-mail or disk appreciated).
© 2006 by the History of Science Society
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News and Inquiries
History of Science Society Newsletter January 2006
at Bielefeld University beginning with the winter semester 2005/2006. This program is
offered at the Institute for Science and Technology Studies (IWT) and is carried out in
cooperation with the Department of History, Philosophy and Theology and the
Department of Sociology of Bielefeld University. http://www.uni-bielefeld.de/iwt/studiengaenge/hpss/.
2005 HSS Honorees
From left to right: Duncan Porter (accepting a special citation
on behalf of Frederick Burkhardt), William R. Newman
(Pfizer Prize), Janet Browne (distinguished lecture), Alan
M. Kraut (Watson Davis and Helen Miles Davis Award),
Pamela Mack (Joseph H. Hazen Prize in Education), A. I.
Sabra (Sarton Medal), Lawrence M. Principe (Pfizer Prize).
Not present: Marc J. Ratcliff (Derek Price/Rod Webster
Prize), Kathleen Broome Williams (Margaret W. Rossiter
History of Women in Science Prize)
Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and
Biomedical Sciences Announces Special Issue
Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences announces
the June 2005 special issue dedicated to “Mechanisms in Biology,” with guest editors
Carl F. Craver and Lindley Darden. http://www.elsevier.com/ wps/find/journalconditionsofsale.cws_home/600658/conditionsofsale#conditionsofsale.
New M.A. Program at Bielefeld University
The Master’s Program “History, Philosophy and Sociology of Science” will be offered
Help Clemson’s Developing Program in History of Science
and Technology
Clemson University went through a long struggle to develop revised general education
requirements and the History of Science and Technology department now needs to
move 3,000 students a year through courses that meet STS requirements. For more
information on the developing STS program at Clemson, please see http://www.clemson.edu/sts.
Professor Pam Mack would be interested in any syllabi, case studies, or
other material about teaching STS in general education courses. http://people.clemson.edu/~pammack/.
Update of Dictionary of Scientific Biography
The new DSB has added recent scientists; now it tackles updating old articles. Charles
Scribner’s Sons plans to publish eight new volumes of the Dictionary of Scientific
Biography. Also planned is an electronic version of the original DSB that will be integrated
with the e-version of the new volumes. The eight new print volumes and the
combined electronic version are scheduled to appear in 2007. More information can
be found at the Web site: http://www.indiana.edu/~newdsb/.
APS Library Map Guide Available Online
Realms of Gold: A Catalogue of Maps in the Library of the American Philosophical
Society is now available online in its entirety at http://www.amphilsoc.org/library/
mole/r/rog.htm. This project was made possible by a grant from the Gladys Krieble
Delmas Foundation. Please address feedback to Richard Shrake at
rshrake@amphilsoc.org.
A Summary of AAAS’s Aid to the Scientific Community
Affected by Katrina
A summary of AAAS’s efforts to help the scientific community affected by hurricane
Katrina can be found at http://www.aaas.org/katrina/. We all extend our heartfelt sympathy
to those whose lives have been so dreadfully disrupted.
Endowing Our Bibliographies (continued from page 1)
Talks with these prospects also reveal that the Society would benefit from being
named a legatee in their wills – a step that even those of us with modest means
can take – and will begin to emphasize the advantages (for them and for the
Society) of Charitable Lead Trusts and Charitable Remainder Trusts.
Phase II of this campaign will also seek a greater involvement of all HSS
members, based upon the broad dissemination (through personal contact) of
appeals designed to respond to individual members’ particular goals. Alumni of
major graduate programs, for example, will be given the opportunity to pay tribute
to their major professors through individual or pooled donations in their
honor. These appeals will also highlight the importance of multi-year pledges –
such as those already made by several especially generous donors – and thus will
call on members to express their commitment to the bibliographies and the
Society and the field in a tangible form. Past donors will also be asked to renew
their commitments in this way and, as noted, even members without substantial
resources can take steps to name the Society in their wills.
Even in the 21st century, the CB and the online HSTM Research Database
remain essential tools for historians of science, no matter where they might be
located or what their institutional affiliations might or might not be. Even as
other organizations propose other web-based resources, to date none offers the
specific focus and other value-added features (such as attention to the periodical
literature, careful editorial review and coverage of much non-English material)
of the HSS bibliographies. And if Phase II of our campaign proves successful, we
will have secured their continued effectiveness for the foreseeable future.
Members of the HSS Development Committee include: Mary Louise Gleason,
Frederick Gregory, Judith R. Goodstein, Richard L. Kremer, Edward J. Larson,
Kenneth M. Ludmerer, Darwin H. Stapleton, and Spencer R. Weart.
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History of Science Society Newsletter January 2006
Security Measures at the National Library of Medicine
Security has been increased at the National Library of Medicine and the entire
National Institutes of Health campus in Bethesda, Maryland. For details of current
NIH security procedures, go to: http://www.nih.gov/about/visitorsecurity.htm.
‘Einstein’s Big Idea’ Available on DVD and VHS
In time for the 100th anniversary of the formation of the world’s most famous equation,
E=mc 2 WGBH Boston Video has just released NOVA’s newest docudrama,
“Einstein’s Big Idea.” To order any DVD or VHS release from WGBH Boston Video,
including Einstein’s Big Idea, call 1.800.949.8670 or visit http://www.shop.wgbh.org/.
Eighteenth-Century Pennsylvania Manuscripts Available
The Library of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia announces the availability of
two fully searchable 18th-century Pennsylvania manuscripts on its Web site:
http://www.collphyphil.org. The texts are the Medicina Pensylvania of George de
Benneville and the Remediorum Specimina, the record of the practice and recipes of
Abraham Wagner. The manuscripts are available at http://contentdm.collphyphil.org.
Susquehanna University Medical Humanities Initiative
Susquehanna University is pleased to announce the launch of its Medical
Humanities Initiative. For details, please see http://www.susqu.edu/mhi/.
Science and Culture in Nineteenth-Century Britain
Pickering and Chatto announces a major new series of scholarly works on nineteenth
century British science and its cultural and social contexts. Proposals may
address any aspect of nineteenth century British science, for example disciplines
such as geology, biology, botany, astronomy, physics, chemistry, medicine, and
mathematics. The Editor and the Editorial Board invite proposals for new books for
publication in the series. Although this will be primarily a monograph series, they
are also willing to consider edited collections. Send proposals to: Bernard Lightman,
309 Bethune College, York University, 4700 Keele St., Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3J
1P3 (lightman@yorku.ca).
David Dibner died unexpectedly at his home in Wilton, Connecticut on
September 28, 2005. David, who was 78 years old, was the Chairman of the
Dibner Fund, a philanthropic foundation, and former Chairman of the Burndy
Corporation, a leading multinational manufacturer of electrical and electronic
connectors and tools.
David had a long, distinguished career. After serving in the navy during WWII,
he trained as an engineer at Columbia University and continued with post-graduate
studies at the London School of Economics and, later, the
Advanced Management Program at Harvard University. In his
more than 30-year career at the Burndy Corporation he rose from
engineer to Chairman of the Board.
In 1989, following the death of his father, David assumed
responsibility for the Dibner Fund and the Burndy Library, one of
the world’s outstanding collections of rare books, manuscripts,
incunabula, and instruments in the history of science and technology.
Together with his wife Frances Kessler Dibner and with the
support of the Dibner Fund, David then established the Dibner
Institute for the History of Science and Technology, dedicated to
advanced study in the field, and relocated the Burndy Library
from Norwalk, Connecticut, to join the Institute in the newly renovated
Dibner Building on the campus of MIT. Since then, with
David as President, the Burndy Library has more than doubled the
number of volumes it houses, including the long-term deposit of the Grace K.
Babson and the Vito Volterra collections.
David was Chairman of the Board of the Dibner Institute from its inception
until 2002, when he turned that responsibility over to his son, Brent Dibner. David,
however, remained an active member of the Board until his death. The Dibner
Institute received its first group of Senior Fellows in the Fall of 1993. Since then
more than 250 individuals from 27 different countries have been either Senior or
Postdoctoral Fellows at the Institute, together with more than 90 Graduate Student
Fellows from its three consortium schools, MIT, Harvard University, and Boston
University – all through the support of the Dibner Fund. The Dibner Institute also
held workshops every year, out of which have come nine volumes in the Dibner
Institute Studies in the History of Science and Technology, published by MIT Press,
with several more in press or preparation. For 15 years the Dibner Fund and the
In Memoriam: David Dibner
Dibner Institute have sponsored the one-week seminar in the history and philosophy
of biology held annually at the Marine Biology Laboratory in Woods Hole,
Massachusetts. Under David’s leadership, the Dibner Fund joined with the Alfred P.
Sloan Foundation in 2000 to sponsor the Web-based project, the History of Recent
Science and Technology (hrst.mit.edu), aimed at drawing scientists into partnerships
with historians to begin recording for posterity their own research.
David left the daily management of the Institute and Library to their Directors.
Nevertheless, his presence was felt all the time, especially his preoccupation
with excellence. His personal sense of excellence shows up
in countless details of the layout and furnishings of the Dibner
Building, the renovation of which he oversaw. At the door of the
Institute is a bust of Bern Dibner which David had personally
sculpted. Most important of all, however, was his insistence that the
Institute represent a standard of excellence in the field of history of
science and technology. The Dibner Institute, in a real sense,
became a direct extension of his personality.
In 2004, when the affiliation agreement with MIT neared its
end, David devoted considerable energy to finding a home for the
Burndy Library where it would be readily accessible to scholars and
would never have to move again. Although he did not live to see
the Burndy in its new home at the Huntington Library in San
Marino, California, David’s last day was spent at a meeting working
out details of the move, reassuring everyone that the Dibner Fund would continue to
support the history of science and technology.
David leaves his wife of 55 years, Frances; his sons and daughters-in-law, Brent
and Relly (Wolfson) Dibner, Daniel and Victoria (Clark) Dibner, and Mark and
Rachel (Zax) Dibner; and eight grandchildren, Gil, Tal, Carmel, Aurora, Avalon,
Bern, Sage, and Skye. David’s late parents were Bern and Barbara Dibner also of
Wilton, Connecticut. Bern, who founded the Dibner Fund, was himself a historian of
science, and was the sole recipient of both the Society for the History of Technology’s
Leonardo da Vinci Medal (1974) and the History of Science Society’s George Sarton
Medal (1976). The Dibner family legacy in the history of science and technology,
which began with David’s father in the 1940s, will live on at the Huntington Library
due in large part to David’s and Frances’ efforts and commitment.
– George Smith and Bonnie Edwards
4

National Science Foundation Changes
In recent months the National Science Foundation’s Science and Technology
Studies Program (STS) has undergone some changes. That program has now
merged with a separate, but closely related program, the Societal Dimensions
of Engineering, Science and Technology, to form a new program called
Science and Society. The new program retains all components of the two previous
programs, as well as the separate program officers and advisory panels.
The Web site address is http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id
=5324&org=SES&from=home.
New Journal in the History of Science
The Yearbook for European Culture of Science (YECS) is a peer-reviewed international
journal which publishes original research on the processes forming the European
culture of science. The main focus is on developments from the 18th century onwards.
The next issue (vol. 2) concentrates on the history of evolutionary theory in the 20th
century in all its aspects, including the impact of evolutionary theory on social sciences
and interconnections between evolutionary theory and social-political history.
H-Adjunct: H-Net Network for Adjunct, Part-Time and
Temporary Faculty
Announcing H-Adjunct: H-Net Network for Adjunct, part-time and temporary faculty
at universities, colleges and community colleges. H-Adjunct is an open, inter-disciplinary
forum for issues. Logs and more information can also be located at:
http://www.h-net.org/~adjunct.
New Program in History of Ocean Sciences
Sea Education Association’s new Marine Environmental History Semester offers
History of Science Society Newsletter January 2006
students the opportunity to intellectually and physically explore the ways that
humans have shaped this region. Taking the eastern equatorial Pacific as a
regional case study, Sea Education Association’s Marine Environmental History
Semester will explore the linkages between human activities, environmental
concerns, and changing understandings of nature. For more information, please
contact Matthew McKenzie, mmckenzie@sea.edu, or go to http://www.sea.edu/
academics/programs.asp.
Durham University Accepting Applications
Durham University’s Department of Philosophy, Centre for the History of Medicine
and Disease (CHMD), and School for Health are now accepting applications for
the 2006/07 class of their M.A. Program in the History and Philosophy of Science
and Medicine (HPSM). For further queries visit: http://www.dur.ac.uk/hpsm.ma/
or http://www.dur.ac.uk/postgraduate/apply/.
Catalan Museum of Medical History has New English-
Language Web Site
An English version of the Catalan Museum of Medical History in Barcelona
(Spain) is now available at: http://www.museudelamedicina.org. Visit the
Museum’s virtual exhibition at: http://www.museudelamedicina.org/ exposicions/temporals.htm.
Funding for the Center for Nanotechnology at UCSB
The National Science Foundation recently announced that the University of
California, Santa Barbara, would receive funds for five years (renewable) to host
a national Center for Nanotechnology in Society. News about the award is available
at: http://www.ia.ucsb.edu/pa/display.aspx?pkey=1348.
Marshall Clagett, one of the world’s leading historians of medieval science,
passed away in Princeton, N.J. on 21 October 2005. He was 89. Dr. Clagett
was Professor Emeritus in the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for
Advanced Study, his academic home for the past four decades. The author of
more than a dozen volumes on the history of science and mathematics,
Professor Clagett was one of the dominant scholars in the field
of medieval science in the 20th century.
Dr. Clagett had a long association with the History of
Science Society. In 1960 the Society presented him with the
Pfizer Award for his book The Science of Mechanics in the
Middle Ages; he was president of the society in 1963 and
1964; and in 1980 he was awarded the Sarton Medal for lifetime
achievements in the history of science. Dr. Clagett was
also involved in the Medieval Academy of America, the
American Philosophical Society, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für
Geschichte der Medizin, Naturwissenschaft und Technik, and
the International Academy of the History of Science, where he
was vice-president from 1968-1971.
Dr. Clagett was born in 1916 in Washington D.C. He began
his undergraduate years at the California Institute of Technology,
but then moved to George Washington University. In 1941 he
received his doctorate in history from Columbia University. During
World War II, he served in the navy, reaching the rank of lieutenant
commander. After military service he returned to Columbia
In Memoriam: Marshall Clagett
Photo courtesy Institute for Advanced Study
Marshall Clagett at the ceremony
for the International Galileo
Galilei Prize for Contributions
to the History of Science in Italy
(Pisa – October 6, 1996).
University and taught history and history of science.
He moved to the University of Wisconsin in 1947, and remained there until
1964. From 1959 he was director of the university’s Institute for Research in the
Humanities, and played a critical role in making the University of Wisconsin a
center for the history of science.
From the University of Wisconsin, Dr. Clagett moved to the
Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton. Most recently, he was professor
emeritus in the School of Historical Studies at the Institute.
Dr. Clagett’s scholarship ranged from antiquity to the
medieval and Renaissance West, and he received many awards
for his work over the years, including the Alexandre Koyré
Medal of the International Academy of the History of Science in
1981 for Archimedes in the Middle Ages. He was also awarded
the John Frederick Lewis Prize of the American Philosophical
Society for volumes II and IV of the same book. In 1995, he
was awarded the Giovanni Dondi dall’Orologio European Prize
in the History of Science, Technology, and Industry, also a lifetime
achievement award. In 1996 he won the International
Galileo Galilei Prize.
At the time of his death Dr. Clagett was working on the
fourth and final volume of Ancient Egyptian Science, the first
volume of which also won the John Frederick Lewis Prize of the
American Philosophical Society.
He will be missed.
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History of Science Society Newsletter January 2006
University of Leeds Accepting Applications
The Division of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Leeds welcomes
applications for the 2006/07 class of their M.A. Program in the History and
Philosophy of Science. Apply either through the School of Philosophy, or online
at http://www.leeds.ac.uk/students/apply.htm. To apply for studentships, contact:
Katie Lanceley, Postgraduate Secretary, School of Philosophy. Phone:
44.11.3343.3263. E-mail: phlkah@leeds.ac.uk.
Founding of the Bulgarian Society for Chemistry
Education and History and Philosophy of Chemistry
On 29 September 2005, the Bulgarian Society for Chemistry Education and
History and Philosophy of Chemistry (CE&HPC) was formed with the objective of
fostering interest both in chemistry education and history and philosophy of
chemistry with their social and cultural dimensions and influences. For information
on membership, please contact: Professor B.V. Toshev, University of Sofia
1 James Bourchier Blvd., 1164 Sofia, Bulgaria. Phone: 359.2.8629049; e-mail:
toshev@chem.uni-sofia.bg.
Darwin at the American Museum of Natural History
The American Museum of Natural History presents “Darwin,” the most extensive
exhibit ever dedicated to the naturalist and his theory of evolution. The
exhibition is part of a continuing series on great thinkers and explorers; past
exhibits have been dedicated to Einstein, Da Vinci, and Shackleton. The exhibit
will run until 29 May 2006. For more information, visit http://www.amnh.org/
or http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/ darwin/?src=h_h.
Darwin Digital Library of Evolution
The American Museum of Natural History Research Library announces the
launch of the Darwin Digital Library of Evolution at http://darwinlibrary.
amnh.org. The goal is to make the full literature of evolution available online
within a historically and topically coherent structure. The work of Darwin is the
pivot, but the framework includes the 17th century to the present and encompasses
the history of evolution as a scientific theory with deep roots and broad cultural
consequences.
Call for Proposals – History of the Canadian Space Agency
The CSA is undertaking a project to write the history of the space agency. The call
for tenders for the project has now appeared on the MERX Public Tenders Web
site. To see details, go to http://www.merx.com/Services/AboutMERX/
English/MK_SiteMap.asp. In the “Free Search” box, enter the tender # 115807.
More information may be obtained by calling 1.800.964.6379.
Two New Exhibits at the National Library of Medicine
“Visible Proofs: Forensic Views of the Body” opens at the National Library of
Medicine on 16 February 2006. HMD historian Michael Sappol curates the exhibition,
which continues until February 2008. Also open is the mini-exhibit “The
Horse, A Mirror of Man: Parallels in Early Human and Horse Medicine,” in the
History of Medicine Division’s foyer. Curated by Michael North, the mini-exhibit
continues until 28 April 2006.
In Memoriam: Kiran Van Rijn
An athlete and scholar, Kiran died suddenly of cardiac arrhythmia while training
for the sport he loved most – rowing – on Burnaby Lake, B.C., on September
21, 2005, at the age of 29.
A doctoral candidate at the Institute for the History and Philosophy of
Science and Technology, University of Toronto, Kiran was the only son of Carol
and Dr. Theo van Rijn of Vancouver. He was a graduate of both the University of
British Columbia (B.Sc., 1998) and Victoria University (B.A., 2001). He also held
an M.A. from the University of Toronto as part of his work toward his Ph.D.
A student at the Institute since 2001, Kiran was deeply interested in the history
of medicine, and at the time of his death was engaged in thesis research concerning
the growth and marketing of medical imaging technology, focusing on
a cluster of hospitals in British Columbia. His work had attracted interest from
several quarters and he had twice received fellowship support from the Canadian
Institutes for Health Research. He had also been an Ontario Graduate Scholar.
Popular and well-liked by both his student colleagues and the faculty, Kiran
was a member of Canada’s national rowing team and was a finalist in the senior
men’s singles sculls at the Canadian Henley Regatta in Port Dalhousie, Ont.
this past summer.
Future HSS
Meetings
Vancouver, BC
(Joint Meeting with PSA & 4S, 2-5
Nov. 2006)
Washington, DC
(1-4 Nov. 2007)
Pittsburgh, PA
(Joint Meeting with PSA, 6-9 Nov.
2008)
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History of Science Society Newsletter January 2006
Grants, Fellowships, and Prizes
The following announcements have been edited for space. For full descriptions and for the
latest announcements, please visit our Web site (http://hssonline.org). The Society does not
assume responsibility for the accuracy of any item, and potential applicants should verify
all details, especially closing dates, with the organization or foundation of interest. Those
who wish to publish a grant, fellowship, or prize announcement should send an electronic
version of the posting to newsletter@hssonline.org.
Bakken Library
The Bakken Library and Museum offers Visiting Research Fellowships and
Research Travel Grants for research in its collection relating to the history of electricity
and magnetism with a focus on their roles in the life sciences and medicine.
For further information: Elizabeth Ihrig, Librarian, The Bakken Library and
Museum, 3537 Zenith Avenue So., Minneapolis, MN., 55416, tel (612) 926-3878 ext.
227, fax (612) 927-7265, e-mail Ihrig@thebakken.org. Web site: http://www.thebakken.org;
click on “Library” or “Research.”
The Victor and Joy Wouk Grant-in-Aid Program
California Institute of Technology Grants-in-Aid offers research assistance
of up to $2000 for work in the Papers of Victor Wouk in the Caltech Archives. The
Maurice A. Biot Archives Fund and other designated funds offer research assistance
up to $1500 to use the collections of the Caltech Archives. Applications will be
accepted from students – working towards a graduate degree – or from established
scholars. Please consult the Archives’ Web page: http://archives.-caltech.edu.
Applications are reviewed quarterly: on January 1, April 1, July 1 and October 1 of
each year.
The University of Oklahoma Travel Fellowship Program
The Andrew W. Mellon Travel Fellowship Program helps visitors to make use of the
University’s History of Science Collections. Proposals from scholars at both predoctoral
and postdoctoral levels will be evaluated continuously upon receipt, and funds
awarded shortly after the decision is made. For information, please contact:
University of Oklahoma, The Andrew W. Mellon Travel Fellowship Program, Bizzell
Library, 401 West Brooks, Room 521, Norman, OK 73019-0528, e-mail: kmagruder@ou.edu
or mogilvie@ou.edu. Web site: http://libraries.ou.edu/etc/histsci/mellon.asp.
(Please see ad on page 2.)
Grants in Aid for History of Modern Physics
The Center for History of Physics of the American Institute of
Physics has a program of grants-in-aid for research in the history of modern
physics and allied sciences and their social interactions. Grants can be up to
$2,000 each and will be given only to reimburse expenses for travel and subsistence
to use the resources of the Center’s Niels Bohr Library in College Park,
Maryland, or expenses including travel and subsistence to tape-record oral history
interviews or microfilm archival materials, with a copy for deposit in the
Library. Applicants should either be working toward a graduate degree in the
history of science (please include a letter of reference from a thesis adviser), or
show a record of publication in the field. To apply, send a vitae, a letter of no
more than two pages describing your research project, and a brief budget showing
the expenses for which support is requested to: Spencer Weart, Center for
History of Physics, American Institute of Physics, One Physics Ellipse, College
Park, MD 20740. E-mail: sweart@aip.org. Phone: (301) 209-3174. Fax: (301)
209-0882. The deadlines for receipt of applications are 15 April and 15
November of each year. http://www.aip.org/history/.
7

History of Science Society Newsletter January 2006
INA Grant-in-Aid Program
The International Neuropsychopharmacology Archives (INA) announces
the availability of grants of up to $1,500 to support research at the INA at the
Vanderbilt University Medical Center Archives, Nashville, Tennessee, U.S. Applications
must include a hard copy of: a one-page description of the project, with specific reference
to the archival collections to be consulted; detailed budget; applicant’s c.v.; one
letter of recommendation from a scholar familiar with the applicant’s work. Grants
will be given four times a year. Deadlines are:1 March, 1 June, 1 September, 1
December. Completed applications should be sent by the deadline to: INA Grant-in-Aid
Program, c/o CINP Central. Office, 1608 17th Avenue South, Nashville, TN, 37212, U.S.
The Marc-Auguste Pictet Prize
Student Essay Prize in the History of Medicine and Public Health
The New York Academy of Medicine invites entries for the second annual New
York Academy of Medicine Student Essay Prize for the best unpublished essay by a
graduate student in a medical, public health, or nursing program in the U.S. The
winner will receive $500, and the winning essay will be reviewed for possible publication
in the Journal of Urban Health. Essays should be approximately 2,000 to 3,000
words long, and should follow the guidelines in the journal’s instructions for authors
at http://www3.oup.co.uk/jurban/instauth. The postmark deadline is 4 April 2006. For
more information, please visit http://www.nyam.org/grants/studentessay.shtml.
Jerry Stannard Memorial Award Competition for 2006
The Department of History at the University of Kansas announces the
2006 competition for the annual award in honor of the late Professor Jerry Stannard.
Each year a cash award will be made to the author of an outstanding published or
unpublished scholarly study. In 2006 the award will be $1,000. The competition is
open to graduate students and to recent recipients of a doctoral degree (the Ph.D.
degree or an equivalent), conferred not more than five years before the competition
deadline. Entries must be received no later than 15 February 2006. The award will be
announced on or about 15 May 2006. All correspondence should be addressed to: The
Stannard Award Committee, Att: Professor Victor Bailey, Department of History -
University of Kansas, Wescoe Hall, 1445 Jayhawk Blvd. Room 3001, Lawrence, KS
66045-7590, U.S.A.
Wellcome Trust’s Annual Master’s Award
and Doctoral Studentship Competitions
The Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the
University of Cambridge (U.K.) invites applicants in any areas of history
of medicine who would like to be nominated for the Wellcome Trust’s annual
master’s award and doctoral studentship competitions. The Department also
invites applications for two doctoral studentships funded by a Wellcome enhancement
award in history of medicine. Deadline: 15 February 2006. For
information: http://www.hps. cam.ac.uk. For details of the studentships,
http://www.hps.cam.ac.uk/studying/funding.html.
Wellcome Trust M.Sc. and Ph.D. Studentships
The Centre for History in Public Health at the London School of
Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) invites applications for nomination
for the annual Master’s award in the History of Medicine. The award is open to
a student accepted for the M.Sc. in Public Health who agrees to follow an ‘historical
pathway’ through the M.Sc. Deadline: 31 March 2006. For further information:
http//www.lshtm.ac.uk/history. Details at http://www.lshtm.ac.uk/prospectus/howto.
Informal enquiries to Professor Berridge at virginia.berridge@lshtm.ac.uk.
Krumbhaar Award in Medical History
The Award, offered by The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, the
Francis C. Wood Institute for the History of Medicine, and the
Section on Medical History, is a medical history essay contest for Philadelphia
8
area medical students. Essays must be based on new original research in primary
sources and are due 3 April 2006. First prize is $300. More than one prize will be
awarded at judges’ discretion. For further information contact: Sofie Sereda,
Assistant to the Director, Division of Museum and Historical Services, The College of
Physicians of Philadelphia, 19 South 22nd Street, Philadelphia PA 19103. E-mail:
ssereda@collphyphil.org.
American Meteorological Society Graduate Fellowships
The American Meteorological Society is offering an array of graduate fellowships
and undergraduate scholarships to help further the education of outstanding
students pursuing a career in the atmospheric and related oceanic or hydrologic
sciences. For more information, please visit: http://www.ametsoc.org/amsstudentinfo/scholfeldocs/index.html#4.
Student Essay Prize in the History of Medicine and Public Health
The New York Academy of Medicine invites entries for the second annual
New York Academy of Medicine Student Essay Prize, awarded to the best unpublished
essay by a graduate student in a medical, public health, or nursing program in the
United States. Essays should address topics in the history of public health or medicine
as they relate to urban health issues. The winner will receive $500, and the
winning essay will receive expedited review for possible publication in the Journal of
Urban Health. The contest is open to students in accredited professional degree programs
in medicine, nursing and public health. Essays should be approximately
2,000 to 3,000 words long, and should follow the guidelines in the Journal’s
instructions for authors at http://www3.oup.co.uk/jurban/instauth. The postmark
deadline is 4 April 2006. For more information, please call 1.212.822.7314, write historyessay@nyam.org,
or visit http://www.nyam.org/grants/studentessay.shtml.
Student Prize for an Essay in the History of Australian Science
The National Museum of Australia, the Australian Academy of
Science and its National Committee for History and Philosophy of
Science have established two essay prizes, to be known respectively as The National
Museum of Australia Student Prize for the History of Australian Science and The
National Museum of Australia Student Prize for Australian Environmental History.
Each prize will be a certificate and $2,500. The prizes will be awarded for original
unpublished research undertaken whilst enrolled as a student (postgraduate or
undergraduate) at any tertiary educational institution. Essays must be written in
English and fully documented following the style specified for the Australian
Academy of Science’s journal, Historical Records of Australian Science. The prizes
will be awarded in alternate years in May. Deadline for the initial prize, a history of
science prize, is 30 April 2006. Entries should be sent to: Librarian, Australian
Academy of Science, GPO Box 783, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia, to be received by
the closing date. Inquiries should be sent to: rosanne.walker@sci.org.au.
Lawrence Memorial Award
The Award Committee of the Lawrence Memorial Fund invites nominations
for the 2006 Lawrence Memorial Award. The annual Award ($2,000) is
given to support travel for doctoral dissertation research in systematic botany or
horticulture, or the history of the plant sciences, including literature and exploration.
Major professors are urged to nominate outstanding doctoral students
who have achieved official candidacy for their degrees and will be conducting
pertinent dissertation research that would benefit significantly from travel
enabled by the Award. The Committee will not entertain direct applications.
Letters of nomination and supporting materials, including seconding letters,
should be received by the Committee no later than 1 May 2006 and should be
directed to: Dr. R. W. Kiger, Hunt Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, 5000
Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890 USA. Tel. 1.412. 268.2434.

Awards, Honors, and
Appointments
Susan Jones joined the Program in History of Science and Technology at the
University of Minnesota in fall 2005 as an Associate Professor.
The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) is pleased to announce the appointment
of Dr. Clayton D. Laurie to the position of NRO Historian and as Chief NRO
History Staff within the Center for the Study of National Reconnaissance (CSNR). Dr.
Laurie brings 19 years of federal history experience to his new position, having previously
served at the U.S. Army Center of Military History with the CIA History Staff, and
as Deputy NRO Historian.
Tom Misa has been appointed Director of the Charles Babbage Institute, effective 1
July 2006. He will also serve as Engineering Research Associates Land-Grant Professor
in History of Technology in the Program in History of Science and Technology at the
University of Minnesota.
Ricarda Riina, a student of Professor Paul E. Berry at the University of Wisconsin-
Madison, is the recipient of the 2005 Lawrence Memorial Award. For her dissertation
research, Ms. Riina has undertaken a study of Croton (Euphorbiaceae). The proceeds
of the Award will help support her travel to Brazil for field research.
Ruth Rogaski has won a Guggenheim Fellowship for her research on the role of
the biological sciences in the formation of Asian empires. The Fellowship will enable
Rogaski to complete her current book project, Cold Utopia: Nature, Science and
Empire in Manchuria, 1700-2000. This project explores how Asians studied the
flora and fauna of a contested northern frontier of China – Manchuria – in order to
illuminate the role that nature, science, and the imagination played in the formation
of non-Western regimes.
Londa Schiebinger, Professor of History of Science and Barbara D. Finberg
Director, Institute for Research on Women and Gender, Stanford University, won the
2005 Prize in Atlantic History from the American Historical Society for her book,
Plants and Empire: Colonial Bioprospecting in the Atlantic World (Cambridge,
Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2004).
The Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine is pleased to announce that
Dr. Sonu Shamdasani has been appointed to a Readership in Jung History, which
he will take up early in 2006. Sonu has edited several volumes, and is the author of
Cult Fictions: C. G. Jung and the Founding of Analytical Psychology.
Emily Thompson, of the University of California, San Diego, was named a
MacArthur Fellow for 2005. MacArthur Fellows are given $500,000 in “no strings
attached” support over the next five years. Fellows are selected for their creativity,
originality, and potential.
Reminder: The Isis Bibliography from 1975 to the present is available
online with the Research Libraries Group (RLG). Members of the Society may
access the RLG Web site and the History of Science and Technology Database
(HST) through the HSS homepage at http://hssonline.org. RLG has assigned
us “Y6.G19” as a “User Name” and “HSSDEMO” as a “Password.”
History of Science Society Newsletter January 2006
Jobs
The following announcements have been edited for space. For full descriptions
and for the latest announcements, please visit http://hssonline.org.
The Society does not assume responsibility for the accuracy of any item,
and interested persons should verify all details. Those who wish to publish a job
announcement should send an electronic version of the posting to
newsletter@hssonline.org.
The faculty of humanities at the California Institute of
Technology, in collaboration with the Huntington Library, invites
applications for the annual Eleanor Searle Visiting Professor at Caltech in the
field of history of science. The position is for a full academic year (September
2006 – June 2007). This is a half-time teaching position (two one quarter
courses) at Caltech and a half-time research position at the Huntington
Library. All applicants must currently hold a Ph.D. and a full-time tenure
track appointment at another university. In your application include details
of the research you wish to carry out at the Huntington Library, c.v., a recent
sample of writing, copies of teaching evaluations, and a list of references.
Review will begin 15 February 2006. Applications will be accepted until the
position is filled. Caltech is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action
Employer. Women, minorities, veterans, and disabled persons are encouraged
to apply. Contact: Sanja Ilic, administrative assistant for the Eleanor Searle
Visiting Professorship, Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences, MC
101-40, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125. E-mail:
sanja@hss.caltech.edu.
The Department of History at Carleton University invites applications
for a tenure-track position in Medieval History at the Assistant Professor
level commencing 1 July 2006. The university seeks an historian of Medieval
Britain or Europe able to offer instruction and supervision aimed at expanding
graduate offerings in the Medieval and Early Modern eras. Applications,
together with a c.v., graduate transcripts, teaching evaluations, and evidence of
published work should be sent as paper copies (not electronic attachments) to:
Prof. A.B. McKillop, Chair, Department of History, Carleton University, 1125
Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1S 5B6. Candidates should arrange
to have three referees familiar with their work send supporting letters to the
above address. The deadline for receipt of all materials is 1 February 2006. For
more information, visit the university’s Web site at http://www.carleton.ca. Also,
visit the Department of History’s site at http://www.carleton.ca/history.
The Department of History at the University of Southampton
would like to hear from potential applicants for a Wellcome Trust University
Award in the History of Medicine. We are looking for an energetic and committed
scholar who will complement and expand the department’s current
interests in the history of medicine, and who will contribute to its undergraduate
and postgraduate courses and research degrees. Expressions of interest
are invited for any period or area, but a focus on the middle ages, the early
modern periods, the U.S.A, or on Jewish history and culture would be particularly
welcome. Informal enquiries may be made to the Head of Department,
Professor Anne Curry (a.e.curry@soton.ac.uk) or Dr. Waltraud Ernst
(wer@soton.ac.uk).
9

History of Science Society Newsletter January 2006
Workspace:
Facets of Islamic Science
Jamil Ragep to Deliver the George Sarton Memorial Lecture to the AAAS
By Michal Meyer
The month after 9/11, Jamil Ragep found himself on the national stage. The
medieval historian, more used to old libraries and ancient manuscripts, was
thrust onto the pages of The New York Times and into National Public Radio’s
airwaves, not to mention the many speaking invitations from Kiwanians and
Rotarians. Islamic scholars, used to small niches and great obscurity, found
themselves the object of interest. “Before September 11, hardly anyone ever wanted
our opinion on anything,” says Ragep. “All of a sudden we were put into the
spotlight and asked all kinds of things, some of which we knew about and some
of which we didn’t.”
Over a two-year span, Ragep, who is a professor of the history of science at
the University of Oklahoma, gave dozens of talks to groups who wanted to know
all about Islam. Over and over, he was asked, ‘How can Muslims today be doing
this sort of thing?’ ‘Why does science today seem at such a low ebb in Islamic
countries, when in medieval times their scientific reputation was glorious?’ This
incompatibility between past and present struck many of the people Ragep spoke
to. While questions of modernity, the creation of the scientific tradition in Islam
and its transmission and transformation, had previously bubbled through the
community of Islamic scholars, few people outside that world showed interest.
“In the last few years it has become a burning issue. What my audiences had half
learned in college and high school didn’t jibe with the popular image of Islam
that seemed so unidimensional – a civilization that never really got out of the
dark ages.”
He learned to speak to a general audience, to give a little complexity when his listeners
thought the situation simple, to give a little coherence if they were overcome
with incomprehension. His audiences, he says, were in the main relieved by his words.
“The idea that there is a multiplicity of voices that can’t be reduced to simple answers,
that really resonates. It’s a funny dichotomy. On the one hand we as human beings
like to reduce things; it allows us control, and if we can reduce other cultures then
we feel in control. As historians we are all guilty of this at one time or another.
On the other hand, we also rejoice in complexity and multiplicity.”
Ragep, who is president of the Commission of History of Science
and Technology in Islamic Societies, says “That is the message – there
are different Islamic societies.” Spain in the 12 th century was not the
same as Egypt in the 10 th century, nor was 15 th -century Iran the same
as 16 th -century Iran. The circumstances that create an Islamic society
in the 21 st century are very different from that which created a certain
society in the 13 th century. “We wouldn’t use Jerry Falwell to analyze
Thomas Aquinas. Yet there is a book out that tries to analyze
medieval Islam through Khomeini.”
These days public demand for Ragep’s knowledge
has waned. “I think one of the nice things
people have figured out is that a medievalist
might not be the best person to sort out our
present-day problems.”
Even in the history of science, Islamic science
has endured a low profile. Ragep’s
position at the University of Oklahoma is the
only history-of-science position in the U.S. for
Islamic science within a history-of-science
10
department. It is important to know such history, says Ragep, not only for
European early modern science but also to understand the scientific tradition in
its own right, one that will give people a more expansive view of science. It is an
uncharted world, one where less than five percent of original documents have
been read, where fractured infrastructure slows research, and where, says Ragep,
historians of Islamic science have not done a good job in conveying their world
to a broader audience.
Ragep is taking Islamic science to the American Association for the
Advancement of Science meeting in February. For his 2006 George Sarton
Memorial Lecture, Ragep carries the concept of big science back to the Middle
Ages. He wants to surprise the scientists with his talk “What Can the History of
Islamic Science Teach Us About Science,” where big science begins with the
grandchildren of Genghis Khan. After the Mongol conquest of Baghdad, the victors
began a massive building program of an enormous observatory in Iran.
“The idea of gathering lots of people to do observations and scientific work under
the Mongols – maybe we should expand our notions of science and how it came
about.” Ragep would also like to broaden the idea of an experiment by taking
into account Alhazen’s work in optics.
The story of scientific transmission, reception, and appropriation is one
that fascinates Ragep. The mixed origins of trigonometry is a perfect example.
An Islamic invention whose origins date to the Babylonians, followed by the
derivation of the chord by the Greeks, then taken up by the Indians who came
up with the half-chord function, the jaya (transformed into Arabic as jayb,
which can also mean pocket or opening). Then comes the trip to the Latinbased
world (where jayb was translated as sinus), which gave us sine. There is
a wonderful intersection of culture, religion, and scientific traditions here, says
Ragep. Only spherical triangles could deal with the directional problems of the
shortest distance on a sphere, a vital problem in finding Mecca’s direction,
and the tangent function comes into play for the afternoon prayer,
which should occur when a person’s shadow is the same length as
themselves. “We get our sine, cosine, and tangent from this mix of
Greek and Indian sources, and Islamic religion. It gives us a
broader sense of what we take for granted. It enriches us to know
these things.”
Originally, though, Ragep was far more interested in modern
science. An undergraduate degree at the University of Michigan gave
him some exposure to history of science. But his historial reading
developed a sense of kinship with the past that
could not be shaken. “When I heard about
Claudius Ptolemy in Alexandria, he seemed
like someone I could have a conversation
with. There is a part of being rational that
allows us to speak across centuries, despite
who we were or where we lived.” He was
drawn to China’s history but defeated by language
difficulties. Arabic would be easier.
Ragep went to Harvard to study with A. I.
Sabra and found he couldn’t get through
the first sentence of the first text that Sabra
put before him. Time, good teaching, and

History of Science Society Newsletter January 2006
two years spent in Syria and Egypt in the Seventies working with manuscripts first
hand helped. “In those days it was like going to a medieval school. There were
orange trees, a reading room, manuscripts that would be brought to me. It was a
love affair. There is something about being with a manuscript that is almost like
a transcendent experience. When I go into a manuscript library I have this
incredible sense of wellbeing and contentment – a sense of being as close as I
can ever get to these people.”
The duties of the modern world do drag Ragep back to the present. Until
recently, his co-directorship of the Center for Peace Studies (CPS) made him
responsible for mediating among groups of Iraqis, Syrians and Turks and their
arguments over the quality and ownership of water flowing through their countries.
“I had to be a good listener and try to figure out why people are saying what
they’re saying.” Historical training helped, he says, as did keeping the conversation
going through the frustrations and failures.
Water woes and Turkish environmentalists offered a lesson in change, says
Ragep. In the Eighties, Turkish environmental groups formed in response to
large-scale dam building and the dislocation of towns and villages. The human
equation, everything from raising the standard of living to the role of women,
slowly began to change in the least developed part of Turkey as these groups gradually
became strong enough to take on government. “You multiply this through
Turkish society and you realize change happens through little steps put in place a
generation ago, rather than simply through the European Union pressuring
Turkey. It taught me small steps are important and sometimes they are invisible.
It’s a good lesson for us historians that to understand dramatic change we have
to understand what came before.”
Though he has now swapped water worries for the position of acting chair of
his department, his experiences with CPS are proving valuable in his current
work with Rivka Feldhay and Lorraine Daston on the 15 th -century background to
the Copernican Revolution and the religious and social changes that made
Copernicus possible. Other projects include the Islamic Science Manuscript
Initiative, which involves putting all available information on the Islamic exact
sciences into a database with the collaboration of his partner, Sally P. Ragep.
Jamil Ragep has also been working with Tzvi Langermann and, before his death,
David Pingree on editing the Greek, Arabic, and Hebrew text of The Planetary
Hypotheses of Claudius Ptolemy.
In November 2001 Ragep was interviewed on NPR’s Talk of the Nation for
“The Role of Religion in the Current Conflict.” In October of that year The New
York Times’ Dennis Overbye interviewed him as part of a long article, “How
Islam Won, and Lost, the Lead in Science.” The question was always ‘What happened
to Islamic science.’ Overbye ended his article with a unifying and universal
vision of science, and a quotation denying the existence of such a thing as
Islamic science. Ragep has a different message for an audience interested in a
broader view of science. While there is no essence of Islamic science and civilization,
there are varieties. That message, says Ragep, came in a talk given by A. I.
Sabra at the HSS meeting in Minneapolis 10 years ago. “We don’t have that
many examples of science to think about, and this is a thousand-year-old tradition.
As historians of science we should know something about as many of these
traditions as possible, because our goal should be to understand science in its
many varieties.”
Special NSF Employment Opportunity
Program Director for Science
and Society Program
The National Science Foundation invites applications for a two-year temporary
appointment to the position of Program Director, to begin by July 2006.
This is a research administration position.
The Program Director represents the program to colleagues in NSF and
other Federal science agencies and to the Administration. The director would
be in charge of two of the four components of the Science and Society
Program: History and Philosophy of Science, Engineering and Technology,
and Social Studies of Science, Engineering and Technology. Those components
support research and educational projects pertaining to the historical,
philosophical and social dimensions of science, technology and engineering.
The Program Director provides intellectual leadership and is responsible
for all aspects of program administration and development. He or she manages
the proposal review process and active NSF grants, maintains regular
contact with the relevant research communities, and provides advice and consultation
about the fields. The program budget is about $3.0 million.
Applicants must have a Ph.D. in a relevant discipline, and be active in a
relevant research area. They should show evidence of initiative, administrative
skill, and ability to work well with others. While the Foundation is interested
in individuals with research interests in history, philosophy, and social
studies of science, program areas, such interest is not essential. Six or more
years of research experience beyond the Ph.D. is desirable. Salary is negotiable,
and is comparable with academic salaries at major US institutions.
The National Science Foundation is located in Arlington, Virginia, immediately
across the Potomac River from Washington, DC. The metropolitan
Washington area, besides being the seat of the U.S. Government, is noted as a
cultural center and as a growing center of high-tech industry. A wide variety
of types of housing is available within close proximity to the NSF offices.
Please direct inquiries and expressions of interest to Dr. Richard
Lempert, Director of the Division of Social and Economic Sciences
(SES), phone: (703) 292-7391: rlempert@nsf.gov; Dr. Ronald
Rainger, phone: (703) 292-7283; email: rrainger@nsf.gov; or Dr.
John Perhonis, at (703) 292-7279: jperhoni@nsf.gov. They are
located in Suite 995, National Science Foundation, 4201 Wilson
Blvd., Arlington, VA 22230. The fax number is: (703) 292-9068.
Qualified persons who are women, ethnic/racial minorities, and
persons with disabilities are strongly encouraged to apply. The
National Science Foundation is an Equal Opportunity Employer
committed to employing highly qualified staff that reflects the
diversity of our nation.
11

History of Science Society Newsletter January 2006
An Appropriate Life
A. I. Sabra Wins Society’s Highest Honor
By Michal Meyer
During the recent HSS meeting in Minneapolis, Minnesota A. I. Sabra took the
time to hear some of the papers. The quality of the younger speakers impressed
him, but what, he wondered, will become of such people taking their first steps into
an uncertain academic future. “There is no shortage of intelligence and enthusiasm,”
he said, “but the question is what do we do so that they don’t go astray? I’ve
come to the conclusion that luck is often what allows people to get what they like;
personally I was very lucky.”
Sabra was in Minneapolis to receive the Sarton Medal. The award, established
fifty years ago, recognizes superior scholarship in the history of science. The conference
also provided a time to see colleagues and friends, and in the hallways Sabra
was often surrounded by people. He easily remembers the debts to others – his
teachers in Alexandria and Ernst Gombrich at the Warburg Institute. Others
remember his kindness to them, such as the professor who spent his graduate years
at Harvard and was once taken out to lunch by Sabra, who kindly inquired into the
studies and interests of a student not even his own.
Sabra’s acceptance speech at the awards presentation was peppered with recognition
of those – both known and unknown – who directed and helped him
through his student years and after. His career has spanned two continents and an
island – Africa, England, and North America. In 1996 he retired as Professor of the
History of Arabic Science at Harvard University’s History of Science Department, in
order to focus more on his research work.
Sabra’s career, beginning in the fifties, intersects with many of the great
names of history of science. In 1952, while studying for a Ph.D. on 17th-century
optics, Sabra met Alexandre Koyré in London and they spoke about Newton and
the Scientific Revolution. Since then, Sabra has spent much of his working career
proving Koyré wrong in his prediction that the student fascinated by the Scientific
Revolution would “always remain in the 17th century.” It was the Middle Ages and
Islamic Science that soon grabbed the young scholar’s attention. Of course, he
says, chance played a major part.
Nineteen fifty-two was a significant year; it was the year Gamal Abdel Nasser came
to power in Egypt. Egypt was changing, and the old dispensation under which
Sabra had studied was fading away. In the forties, as an undergraduate at the
University of Alexandria, Sabra heard lectures in Arabic, English, and French, and
wrote his papers in all three languages. Professors from Egypt and Europe taught at
the university and, like many other early historians of science, Sabra studied philosophy.
After graduation in 1947, the Egyptian Government offered him a scholarship to
study under Karl Popper at the London School of Economics. He was lucky, he says.
Philosophy quickly changed to philosophy of science after Sabra heard Popper
lecture on Einstein. A greater change came when Sabra met his future wife, Nancy, a
Fulbright scholar from the U.S. who also studied with Popper. In 1955, PhD in
hand, Sabra returned to Alexandria to teach. Having left the research facilities of the
British Library behind, he cast about for an area of study that would fit his current
circumstances. As luck would have it again, a retired professor of physics at Cairo
University, Mustafa Nazif, had developed a deep interest in history of science and
published a two-volume book on Alhazen’s optical works in Arabic. Sabra found
himself drawn back into history and the movement of scientific knowledge across
cultures, especially the flow from Hellenistic cultures into the Islamic world.
In 1961, the resources of the British Museum beckoned and Sabra returned to
England, with plans to stay for just a year, followed perhaps by another year in
America. But then fate in the shape of a friend intervened by suggesting to Sabra
12
that he apply for an advertised three-year fellowship at the Warburg Institute. He
applied after a meeting with the institute’s director, Ernst Gombrich, and was successful.
There was only one fellowship, says Sabra, and if he had been in London a
year earlier or later the fellowship would not have been available, and his future
would have been different.
It had been difficult to leave Egypt in 1961, says Sabra, and as time went on a
return looked less and less inviting. After two years at the Warburg, Sabra was offered
a one-year visiting associate professorship at Princeton. When he asked for leave,
Gombrich told him he would have to give up the fellowship, but the Warburg was
willing to offer him a permanent position. After the Princeton year, Sabra quickly settled
back into the Warburg. It was a love affair, says Sabra of his relationship with the
Institute, which allowed him much time for research. There he learned new perspectives
from conducting a constant seminar regularly attended by some of the
Institute’s senior faculty, such as Frances Yates and P.D. Walker, as well as others from
outside, such as Richard Walzer. “I have never forgotten that ten-year experience,”
says Sabra, “and the longer I live the more I feel connected to it. The Warburg is a
unique place, and when I say I have been lucky I mean it literally.” It was at the
Warburg, where Sabra ended up as Reader in the History of the Classical Tradition in
Science and Philosophy, that he finally learned to do history. The shift from philosophy
to philosophy of science and then to history of science made sense, says Sabra.
“One gave way to the other because it added something; it did not delete.”
One thing the Warburg could not give Sabra was graduate students. In 1972
Harvard University, interested in a man who combined the skills of an Arabist, a
philosopher and a historian with strong interests in Islamic science, offered Sabra a
permanent position, and gifted graduate students.
Sabra’s philosophical background gives him a commitment to scientific reasoning
and to rationalism. His main field is optics, an interest that has continued since
his first published paper in 1954, written on Newton for the British Journal for the
Philosophy of Science. He is passionately interested in the transmission of knowledge,
though ‘transmission’ is too neutral a word for Sabra. ‘Appropriation’ is far better, a
word that allows the movement of scientific knowledge and the taking of that knowledge
by other peoples for their own intellectual ambitions. “This is what the Muslim
Arabs and Persians did when they took over Greek science and philosophy, and what
the Europeans did later, a creative process of making their own something originally

History of Science Society Newsletter January 2006
not theirs.” Greek doesn’t automatically turn itself into Arabic
nor Arabic into Latin, says Sabra. The process requires resources
and work and deep reasons. Pockets of Greek learning within the
Muslim empire, including scattered Christian monastic schools
and pagan Sabians with interest in Hellenistic astronomy, astrology,
and mathematics, provided a rich source on which scholars
supported by the Abbasid rulers in Baghdad could base their first
massive translations in the eighth and ninth centuries. “Greek
thought was invited into Islamic civilization as a welcome
friend, not an imposed burden,” says Sabra. “The acquired
Greek legacy not only lingered but quickly permeated all forms
of Islamic intellectualism.” That avidly imported learning, says
Sabra, was appropriated by individuals acting at the intersection
of three cultural influences: Arabism, Hellenism, and Islam.
Sabra entertains a tempered optimism about the increasing
sophistication of the field. There is more and more attention to
Arabic/Islamic science, and the subject is growing; in Europe
(Germany, England and Spain) there are now three journals
completely devoted to the subject, and others in the Islamic
world (Syria and Iran), but nowhere enough, he says. Teachers
must be trained and students exposed to the field and to Arabic.
There is a lot to be done; “sometimes I feel we haven’t yet
begun,” says Sabra. Many of those who work on Islamic science,
are absorbed in the seemingly “mechanical” task of editing and
translating. Getting texts out in scientific editions and exact
translations is difficult and time consuming, he says, but it is
the basis for everything else. “Without it we don’t really know
what we are doing.” Sabra has been heavily involved in that
project, including a critical edition and English translation of
Alhazen’s large Optics. However, he does warn repeatedly against
neglecting historical research and interpretation, and has published
attempts in this direction himself. Editing and interpreting,
he says, must go hand in hand.
Though returning to Egypt only infrequently over the
years, in 2004 Sabra was in Alexandria to participant in a conference
at the new Library of Alexandria. He was impressed by
the many activities of the library and its institutional independence,
but there can be no meaningful comparison between the
burgeoning institution and his current home: “I have a study
and a place in Harvard’s Widener Library, which is the best
research library in the world.” But Sabra’s heart and many of
his memories remain at the Warburg. When the invitation
from Harvard arrived, one of his Warburg friends told him that
if the chance came to do what he wanted in America, he should
not hesitate. Sabra has of course made close friends in the U.S.,
some of whom he knew before leaving England, but he never
lost touch with that earlier generation of the Warburg. They
might perhaps be considered “old fashioned” in the minds of
some younger people today. “But I like being old fashioned,”
he says.
13

History of Science Society Newsletter January 2006
Notes from the Inside: The 2005 Minneapolis Meeting
Jay Malone, Executive Director
Ijust sent payment to the Hyatt Regency
in Minneapolis for our annual meeting.
When I mentioned to the grad students
that the coffee bill alone was almost
$6,000, they were aghast and encouraged
me to share this and other tidbits with the
membership.
Conference hotels do a fabulous job of
handling our meetings, but there is a price
for that service. Food is expensive. A gallon
of coffee (3,785 ml) costs $46 ($2.88 per 8
ounce cup, 34% less coffee than the smallest
size at Starbucks) and when you add
the service charge and sales tax, a $2.88 cup of coffee actually costs $3.77.
Such prices are typical at conference hotels, so I try to be careful with these
expenses, recognizing that not everyone who registers for the meeting drinks
coffee. But the urge to order more coffee can be overwhelming when there is a
long line of caffeine-deprived delegates holding empty cups in front of empty
urns. But replenishing the coffee urns meant that our five coffee breaks in
Minneapolis came to $5,873 US (4,913 EUR).
As you would expect, alcohol is even more expensive than coffee, one reason
why we decided to go with a cash bar for the two receptions at the 2005
meeting. This seems a fair way to keep registration costs down, but there is an
even more important reason: litigation. Meeting experts tell us that hosting an
open bar at our conference is begging for trouble.
Of course, the biggest expense associated with the annual meeting is
labor costs. At least 25% of the Executive Office’s efforts are devoted to the
annual meeting. That means that for the meeting to break even, we need to
clear $31,000 after covering all other expenses. That means, $31,000 after
paying the $29,000 hotel bill, the $4,000 bill for printing the program, the
$3,000 fee for processing credit cards, as well as charges for transportation,
xeroxing, meeting packets, program planning, and myriad supplies. When
you add all of these expenses together you get over $80,000; if we relied solely
on registration fees, everyone (including graduate students) would have to
pay over $120 to cover costs (based on an attendance of 600, which was close
to the Minneapolis numbers). So how were we able to offer regular members
and graduate student members early meeting registration rates of $85 and
$45 respectively?
Well, we employ several strategies. Income from the book exhibit and program
ads help. Another tactic is to enlist sponsors for the meeting. This past
year we drew on the support of The Bakken Library and Museum of Electricity
in Life, The University of Chicago Press, The University of Minnesota (Office of
the Dean, Institute of Technology and Program in History of Science and
Technology), The American Council of Learned Societies, the California
Institute of Technology and the Francis Bacon Foundation, the Gambrinus
Company, and Summit Brewing Company. Altogether, these sponsors accounted
for over $9,200 in donations, and we are grateful for their support.
Yet another cost-savings strategy is to use professional planners to help
with the meeting. Many of our fellow societies in the American Council of
Learned Societies, including SHOT, draw on such planners to assist them with
their conferences. These planners offer advice on site selection, hotel negotia-
14
tions, child care, airline discounts, and many other functions. Since many of
these planners have worked in the hospitality industry, they could help us find
the best value for our money. Groups in the ACLS that employ planners report
meeting in nicer hotels, improved banquet services, and more professional
meetings. And since planners provide hotels the lion’s share of their business
and many planners have contracts that guarantee they will receive the lowest
room rates, attendees should be able to save on accommodations.
But the principal reason for using a planning company is that they have
clout with hotels. The annual meeting represents HSS’s greatest financial risk,
and in these days of terrorism, hotel and transportation strikes, and natural
disasters, having a large company assist you when you are trying to mitigate
losses makes sense.
I hope that those who attended the 2005 meeting enjoyed themselves.
Thank you for coming.
The HSS would like to thank the following
donors for their generous support of graduate
students at the 2005 annual meeting.
Over $1,000 was raised to provide extra discounted
rooms for students at the host hotel,
as well as refreshments for the graduate-student
lounge. Thank you!
Garland E. Allen
Adam J. Apt
Patrick J. Boner
Mark Borrello
Richard Burkhardt
Fabien Chareix
Gary Fouty
Graeme J.N. Gooday
Elizabeth Green Musselman
Mott T. Greene
Jon M. Harkness
Pamela M. Henson
Bruce Hevly
Margaret C. Jacob
Jeff Johnson
Susan D. Jones
Gwen Kay
Susan Lindee
Bernadette McCauley
Lynn K. Nyhart
Brian W. Ogilvie
Marilyn B. Ogilvie
Robert J. Richards
Michael H. Shank
Nancy G. Slack
Scott Spear
Ida H. Stamhuis
Donald Edward Stanley
James E. Strick
Liba Taub
John Tresch
Neale Watson
Bob Weinstock
Stephen P. Weldon
Robert S. Westman
Lambert Williams

The International
History of Science
Society
History of Science Society Newsletter January 2006
As the graph to the right shows,
the HSS includes members from
around the globe. Almost a third
of our membership is comprised
of scholars residing outside the
borders of the United States. Part
of our international presence can
be attributed to our Sponsor A
Scholar program, and we are
grateful for these scholars and for
those members who sponsor
them. If you know of individuals
working outside of the U.S. who
would benefit from HSS membership,
please ask them to contact
Jay Malone at the Executive Office
at jay@hssonline.org.
HSS 2006 Annual Meeting: Call for Papers
Vancouver, B.C., Canada
2-5 November 2006
(joint meeting with PSA & 4S)
The History of Science Society will hold its 2006 Annual Meeting in
Vancouver, British Columbia. Proposals for sessions and contributed papers must
be submitted by 1 April 2006 to the History of Science Society’s Executive
Office, PO Box 117360, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611-7360; phone:
352-392-1677; fax: 352-392-2795; e-mail: meeting@hssonline.org.
Submissions on all topics are requested. All proposals must be submitted on
the HSS Web site (http://www.hssonline.org) or on the annual meeting proposal
forms that are available from the HSS Executive Office. We strongly encourage
electronic submissions from the link provided on the HSS Web site. HSS members
are asked to circulate this announcement to colleagues who are not members
of the HSS but who may be interested in presenting a paper at the Annual
Meeting. Particularly encouraged are session proposals that include: a mix of
men and women; diversity of institutional affiliations; and/or a balance of professional
ranks (e.g. mixing senior scholars with graduate students). Only one
proposal per person may be submitted. For additional information concerning
the 2006 meeting, contact the HSS Executive Office.
Before sending a proposal to the HSS Office, we ask that everyone read
the Committee on Meetings and Programs’ “Guidelines for
Selecting Papers and Sessions” (on the HSS Web site); these will be used
in determining the acceptability of session and paper proposals. The 2006 program
co-chairs are William Newman (wnewman@indiana.edu) and Keith
Benson (krbenson@interchange.ubc.ca).
The History of Science Society would like to
thank the following for their support of the
Sponsor A Scholar program
Anonymous
Lawrence Badash
Angelika Boenker-Vallou
Patrick Boner
Alan C. Bowen
Stephen Brush
Jimena Canales
David Cassidy
Peggy Champlin
Landon Clay
H. Floris Cohen
Jonathan Coopersmith
Angela Creager
Lorraine Daston
Michael Aaron Dennis
Fokko Dijksterhuis
Ronald Doel
William Eamon
M. D. Eddy
Eliseo A. Fernandez
Elizabeth Garber
Marie Glitz
Judith & David Goodstein
Loren Graham
Mott T. Greene
Frederick Gregory
Stanley M. Guralnick
Katherine Haramundanis
Benjamin L. Harris
John Heilbron
Erwin Hiebert
Gerald Holton
Joel Howell
Gwen E. Kay
E. S. Kennedy
Shigehisa Kuriyama
Shoshi Lavinghouse
Kenneth Ludmerer
James McClellan, III
John L. Michel
Sally E. Newcomb
Naomi Oreskes
John L. Parascandola
Stuart S. Peterfreund
Robert J. Richards
Silvan S. Schweber
Robert Silliman
Nancy Slack
Scott Spear
Keir Sterling
Liba Taub
Virginia Trimble
Sallie Watkins
Frederick G. Weinstein
15

History of Science Society Newsletter January 2006
2005 Prize Winners
Pamela Mack (Hazen Prize)
The HSS would like to thank the following volunteers
for their service to the Society. Without
their work, their talent, and their dedication,
the HSS would simply not exist. Thank you.
President (2004-2005) Vice President (2004-2005)
Michael M. Sokal
Joan Cadden
Lawrence Principe (Pfizer Award)
A. I. Sabra (Sarton Medal)
William Newman (Pfizer Award)
Janet Browne
(Distinguished Lecture)
Alan Kraut (Davis Prize)
Past President (2004-2005)
John Servos
Council (2003-2005)
Angela N. H. Creager, Lynn K. Nyhart, Michael A. Osborne, Diane Paul, Jole
R. Shackelford
Standing Committees
Brian Dolan, Comm on Education, 2002-2005, Chair, 2004-2005
James Secord, Comm on Honors and Prizes, 2002-2005, Chair, 2003-2005
Karen Rader, Comm on Meetings and Programs, 2001-2004, Chair, 2003-2004
Mike Shank, Comm on Meetings and Programs, 2002-2005
Angela N. H. Creager, Comm on Meetings and Programs, 2003-2005 (2004
Program CoChair)
Adrian Johns, Comm on Meetings and Programs, 2003-2005 (2004 Program
CoChair)
Bruce Hunt, Comm on Meetings and Programs, 2003-2005 (2004 Local
Program Chair)
Spencer Weart, Comm on Publications, 2000-2005, Chair 2004-2005
Mary Jo Nye, Comm on Research and the Profession, Chair 2004-2005
Nadine Weidman, Comm on Research and the Profession, 2002-2005
Constance Malpas, Comm on Research and the Profession, 2002-2005
Prize Committees
Judith Grabiner, Derek Price/Rod Webster Prize 2002-2005, Chair 04-05
James Bono, Nathan Reingold Prize 2002-2005, Chair 04-05
Londa Schiebinger, Margaret W. Rossiter History of Women in Science Prize
2002-2005, Chair 04-05
Lisbet Koerner, Pfizer Prize, 2002-2004
Alan Shapiro, Pfizer Prize, Chair, 2004-2005
Nathan Brooks, Watson Davis and Helen Miles Davis Prize, 2002-2005, Chair 04-05
Lisa Rosner, Joseph H. Hazen Education Prize, 2001-2005, Chair 03-05
Liba Taub, Joseph H. Hazen Education Prize, 2002-2004
2005 Nominating Committee
Anita Guerrini, Chair
Cathryn Carson
James Fleming
Lynn Nyhart
James Secord
Pamela Henson, Women's Caucus CoChair 2003-2005
Pamela Mack, NASA/AHA Fellowship Committee, 2000-2005
Paul Farber, AAAS/Section L Delegate, 2002-2005
16

History of Science Society Newsletter January 2006
HSS
2005
Meeting
Request for Prize Nominations
(Nominations are due 1 April and can be made online at http://hssonline.org – click on Society Awards)
Nathan Reingold Prize (formerly known as the Schuman Prize) for the best graduate-student essay (deadline 1 June)
Margaret W. Rossiter History of Women in Science Prize for the best article on women in the history of science
(Articles published from 2002 to 2005 are eligible)
New Suzanne J. Levinson Prize (biennial) for the best book in the history of the life sciences or natural history,
published 2002-2005
Joseph H. Hazen Education Prize for exceptional educational activities in the history of science
Watson Davis and Helen Miles Davis Prize for the best book in history of science intended for a broad audience, published 2003-2005
Pfizer Award for the best book aimed at a scholarly audience in history of science, published 2003-2005
Sarton Medal for exceptional scholarship over a lifetime
17

History of Science Society Newsletter January 2006
Future Meetings
The following announcements have been edited for space. For full descriptions and the latest announcements, please visit our Web site (http://www.hssonline.org).
The Society does not assume responsibility for the accuracy of any item; interested persons should verify all details. Those who wish to publish a future meeting
announcement should send an electronic version of the posting to newsletter@hssonline.org.
Calls for Papers
Joint Atlantic Seminar for the History of Biology will be held at Johns Hopkins
University on 24-25 March 2006. Abstracts should be 300 words or less and must include a
title and author name and affiliation. E-mail (pdf, rtf, or Word format) should be addressed
to all three of the following: Nathaniel Comfort (comfort@jhmi.edu), Sharon Kingsland
(sharon@jhu.edu), Daniel Todes (dtodes@jhmi.edu). Deadline 1 February 2006.
49th Annual Meeting of the Midwest Junto of the History of Science
Society. University of Wisconsin-Madison, 28-30 April 2006. The Junto welcomes short
papers (20 minutes) on any topic in the history of science, technology, and medicine, or
the philosophy of science and technology. Submit your abstract (300 word max.) electronically
by 1 March 2006, to junto@histsci.wisc.edu; http://www.histsci.wisc.edu/junto.
The Infinite Genealogy: Intercultural Approaches to New Media Art. Simon
Fraser University Harbour Centre Campus, Vancouver, BC, Canada 17-20 May 2006;
http://www.sfu.ca/conferences/infinite_genealogy. Contact Laura Marks, lmarks@sfu.ca.
The International Committee for the History of Technology’s 33rd
Symposium in Leicester, U.K., 15 - 20 August 2006, welcomes proposals for individual
papers and sessions. Deadline: 1 February 2006. Send proposals by e-mail to James
Williams, Program Committee Chair at techjunc@pacbell.net; http://www.icohtec.org.
History of Science Society, 2-5 November 2006. Vancouver, B.C., Canada. (See the
call on p. 15.)
Food Chains: Provisioning, Technology, and Science, 3-4 November 2006. The
Center for the History of Business, Technology and Society invites paper proposals on the
provisioning systems that supply our world with food. Deadline 31 March 2006. Contact
Carol Lockman, Hagley Museum and Library, PO Box 3630, Wilmington DE 19807.
Phone: 302.658.2400, ext. 243; Fax: 302.655.3188; e-mail: clockman@Hagley.org.
Upcoming Conferences
First Conference on History of Medicine in Southeast Asia. Siem Reap,
Cambodia, 9-10 January 2006; http://www.khmerstudies.org/.
Eighth Annual Meeting: Southern Association for History of Medicine
and Science. San Antonio, 24-25 February 2006.
APS: History of Physics and Astronomy, 13-17 March 2006, Baltimore, MD; 25 April
2006, Dallas, TX; http://www.aps.org/ meet/MAR06/ and http://www.aps.org/meet/APR06/.
Empire, Borderlands and Border Cultures. California State University
Stanislaus, 16-18 March 2006.
The European Social Science History Association Conference will be held in
Amsterdam, 22-25 March 2006; http://www.iisg.nl/esshc/.
International Symposium on Franco-British Interactions in Science
Since the 17th Century. Maison Française, Norham Road, Oxford, 24-25
March 2006; http://www.eshs.org.
Race, Pharmaceuticals, and Medical Technology. Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, Boston, Massachusetts, 7-8 April 2006.
Call for Participation: ‘Toward a History and Philosophy of Expertise’ The
Chemical Heritage Foundation will host a workshop, “Toward a History and Philosophy
of Expertise” on 7-8 April 2006, as part of the 2006 Cain Conference.
Mephistos 2006. The 24th international graduate student conference in the history,
philosophy, and sociology of science, technology and medicine, University of Chicago 7-9
April 2006; http://mephistos.uchicago.edu.
Con/texts of Invention: A Working Conference of the Society for Critical
Exchange. Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, 20-22 April 2006.
Archivists and Librarians in the History of the Health Sciences Annual
Meeting will be held 3 May 2006, Halifax, Nova Scotia; http://www.hssonline.org.
Remaking Boston. The Massachusetts Historical Society conference on the environmental
history of Boston to be held 4-6 May 2006.
American Association for the History of Medicine Annual Meeting. Halifax.
Nova Scotia, Canada, 4-7 May 2006; http://histmed.org.
Historical Perspectives on “Erklären” and “Verstehen.” Max-Planck Institute
for the History of Science, Berlin, 9-11 June 2006.
Sixth Annual HOPOS Congress. The International Society for the History of
Philosophy of Science will hold its sixth international congress in Paris, France, in
cooperation with the Société de Philosophie des Sciences (SPS), 14-18 June 2006 at
the École Normale Supérieure, Paris; http://www.sps.ens.fr/activites/hopos2006/
indexhopos.html.
The Society for the Social History of Medicine: “Practices and Representations
of Health: Historical Perspectives.” University of Warwick, 28-30 June 2006.
Philosophies of Technology: Bacon and His Contemporaries. Frankfurt am
Main, 7-8 July 2006.
International Conference on the History of Alchemy and Chymistry.
Philadelphia, 19-22 July 2006. http://www.chemheritage.org/events/alchemy/index.html.
Society for the History of Natural History. 21-24 September, 2006, McGill
University, Montreal Canada; http://www.mcgill.ca/redpath.
Second European Society for the History of Science International
Conference. Cracow, 6-9 September 2006; http://www.eshs.org.
Health and Medicine in History: East-West Exchange. Jawaharlal Nehru
University, New Delhi, 2-4 November 2006.
Philosophy of Science Association. 2-5 November, 2006, Vancouver, B.C., Canada.
Joint meeting with HSS and 4S.
18

History of Science Society Newsletter January 2006
Dissertations List
The list below reflects information provided by Dr. Jonathon Erlen (only dissertation titles placed in Dissertation Abstracts are included) and others and was current as of 1 August 2005.
Please send any missing titles to info@hssonline.org.
Armstrong, Sean. “Superstition and the Idols of the
Mind: How the Witch-hunt Helped Shape the Scientific
Revolution in England.” York University, Canada, 2004,
332 pages. NQ99139.
Austin, Stephanie. “The Influence of the Feminist
Movement in/on the History of Psychology.” York
University (Canada), 2003, 280 pages. NQ99142.
Bay, Stephen M. “Toward a New Edition of Themistius’
Paraphrase of Aristotle’s ‘de Anima.’” University of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign, 2004, 122 pages. 3160863.
Collins-Cavanaugh, Daniel J. “Bergson’s Aristotelian
Theory of Duration and the History of Temporality.”
Duquesne University, 2005, 214 pages. 3162520.
Dufresne, Todd Raymond. “Beyond ‘Beyond’: Tales
from the Freudian Crypt.” York University (Canada), 1997,
418 pages. NQ99163.
Eaton, William Rolla. “Boyle on Fire: The Mechanical
Revolution in Scientific Explanation.” Southern Illinois
University at Carbondale, 2004, 259 pages. 3163058.
Edwards, Michael. “Geometric Theology and the
Meaning of Clannesse in the Poems of the Pearl
Manuscript.” University of California, Davis, 2004, 277
pages. 3161418.
Hausdoerffer, John. “George Catlin and the Politics of
Nature.” Washington State University, 2004, 226 pages.
3160474.
Heidarzadeh, Tofigh. “Theories of Comets to the Age
of Laplace.” The University of Oklahoma, 2004, 362 pages.
3149289.
Jones, Mark Peter. “Biotech’s Perfect Climate: The
Hybritech Story.” University of California, San Diego,2005,
899 pages. 3160338.
Katz, Rebecca Lynn. “Yellow Rain Revisited: Lessons
Learned for the Investigation of Chemical and Biological
Weapons Allegations.” Princeton University, 2005, 350
pages. 3161897.
Kavey, Allison B. “Worlds of Secrets: Books of Secrets
and Popular Natural Philosophy in England, 1550-1600.”
The Johns Hopkins University, 2005, 295 pages. 3155628.
Masear, Teresa E. “Measuring Heads and Calibrating
Minds: The Dark Legacy of Eugenics in American
Intelligence Testing.” University of California, Los Angeles,
2004, 168 pages. 3146609.
McCormick, Maureen A. “Of Birds, Guano, and Man:
William Vogt’s ‘Road to Survival.’” The University of
Oklahoma, 2005, 242 pages. 3159283.
Miles Board, Steffan. “The Concept of Historical
Individuality in G. W. F. Hegel’s ‘Science of Logic’ and
‘Lectures on the Philosophy of History.’” McMaster
University (Canada), 2003, 186 pages. NQ97785.
Miron, Janet. “‘As in Menagerie’: The Custodial
Institution as Spectacle in the Nineteenth Century.” York
University (Canada), 2004, 270 pages. NQ99211.
Moezzi, Mithra Mah. “Technology in a World of
Folklore.” University of California, Berkeley, 2004, 560
pages. 3146955.
Morgan, Gregory J. “The Beauty of Symmetrical
Design: The Alleged Epistemic Role of Aesthetic Value in
Theoretical Science.” The Johns Hopkins University, 2005,
272 pages. 3157792.
Morris, Norma. “Scientists Responding to Science
Policy: A Multi-Level Analysis of the Situation of Life
Scientists in the UK.” Universiteit Twente, 2004.
Murray, Narisara. “Lives of the Zoo: Charismatic
Animals in the Social Worlds of the Zoological Gardens of
London, 1850-1897.” Indiana University, 2004, 338 pages.
3162254.
Nieves, Ervin. “Beyond Darwinism: Chicana/o
Literature and Modern Scientific Literary Analysis:
Rereading Josefina (Josephina) Niggli and Oscar Zeta
Acosta.” The University of Iowa, 2004, 303 pages. 3158008.
Newton, Julianne Lutz. “The Commonweal of Life:
Aldo Leopold and Land Health.” University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign, 2004, 485 pages. 3160932.
Roland, Jeffrey Wells. “Toward an Epistemology of
Mathematics: Naturalism. Cornell University, 2005, 202
pages. 3162500.
Ryan, Vanessa. “The Material Mind: Early Psychology
and the Victorian Novel.” Yale University, 2004, 300pages,
ISBN 0496134140.
Semorile, Trina. “Exposure to the Light: ‘The American
Amateur Photographer’ and the Dialogue with
Technology, Social Structures and Cultural Change.” New
York University, 2004, 455 pages. 3147169.
Simmons, Anna Elizabeth. “The Chemical and
Pharmaceutical Trading Activities of the Society of
Apothecaries, 1822 to 1922.” Open University, 2004.
C817525.
Thomas, Catherine E. “Deadly Discourse: The
Cultural Politics of Poisoning in Early Modern England.”
The Pennsylvania State University, 2004, 227 pages.
3157583.
Tunlid, Anna. “Boundary of Genetics: Individuals and
Institutions in the Development of Swedish Genetics.”
Lunds Universitet, 2004, 380 pages. C818229.
Vackimes, Sophia. “Of Science in Museums: A Study
of Contemporary Museology.” New School University,
2005, 350 pages. 3161886.
Vossoughian, Nader. “Facts and Artifacts: Otto Neurath
and the Social Science of Socialization.” Columbia
University, 2004, 393 pages. 3147287.
Ward, Susan Mechele. “Rhetorically Constructing a
‘Cure’: FDR’s Dynamic Spectacle of Normalcy.” Regent
University, 2005, 175 pages. 3159818.
Wedge, John. “The United States, Radio Architecture,
and Global Space, 1933-1951.” University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign, 2004, 331 pages. 3160970.
Widders, Evan. “Science, Medicine, and Criollo Culture
in Late-Colonial New Spain.” University of California,
Santa Barbara, 2005, 247 pages. 3161540.
Wolfenstein, Gabriel Karl. “Public Numbers and the
Victorian State: The General Register Office, the Census,
and Statistics in Nineteenth-Century Britain.” University of
California, Los Angeles, 2004, 309 pages. 3146600.
Xu, Yibao. “Concepts of Infinity in Chinese
Mathematics.” The City University of New York, 2005, xiv
+ 344 pages.
Yoon, Ho Sang. “Existentialism with Regard to Science
in Twentieth-Century Argentinean Literature”(Spanish
text). Washington University, 2004, 278 pages. 3147469.
Yeung, Yang. “Cyborg and Human: When a Postmodern
Myth Meets Humanism.” The Chinese University of Hong
Kong, 2004, 321 pages.3162599.
Zulli, Jerilyn. “Puritans, Patriots, and Proto-Science
Fiction: The Influence of Early American Culture on the
Production and Consumption of Science Fiction and
Utopian Fiction in American Literature.” The George
Washington University, 2004, 285 pages. 3148016.
19

History of Science Society Newsletter January 2006
ISIS BOOKS RECEIVED
Prior to the publication of each Newsletter, the HSS Executive Office receives from the Isis Editorial Office a list of books received by that office for potential review. This list appears here
quarterly; it is not compiled from the annual Current Bibliography. You may also view this list and prior lists online at http://www.hssonline.org/society/isis/mf_isis.html.
Aaboe, Asger. Episodes from the Early History of
Astronomy. xiv + 172 pp. bibl., figs. New York: Springer-Verlag,
2001. $59.95 (paper). 0387951369.
Andreasen, Nancy C. The Creating Brain. The
Neuroscience of Genius. xii + 197 pp. illus., figs., bibl., index.
New York/Washington: Dana Press, 2005. $23.95 (cloth).
1932594078.
Baker, Gregory L.; Blackburn, James A. The
Pendulum: A Case Study in Physics. xii + 300 pp.,figs., bibl.,
index. United Kingdom: Oxford University Press, 2005. $89.50
(cloth). 0198567545.
Beason, Doug. The E-Bomb: How America’s New Directed
Energy Weapons will Change the way Future Wars will be
Fought. xiii + 256 pp., figs., apps., bibl., index. Cambridge,
MA: Da Capo Press, 2005. $26 (cloth). 0306814021.
Ben-Ari, Moti. Just a Theory. Exploring the Nature of
Science. xii + 237 pp. illus., bibl., index. New York: Prometheus
Books, 2005. $21 (paper). 1591022851.
Beretta, Marco (Editor). From Private To Public:
Natural Collections and Museums. (Uppsala Studies in
History of Science, Volume 31; European Studies in Science
History and the Arts, Volume 5.) ix + 252 pps., figs., index.
Sagamore Beach, M.A.: Science History Publications, 2005.
$39.95 (cloth). 0881353604.
Berkowitz, Roger. The Gift of Science: Leibniz and the
Modern Legal Tradition. xviii + 214 pp., apps., index.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005. $49.95 (cloth).
0674018737.
Bernardi, Walter; Manzini, Paola; Marcuccio,
Roberto (Editors). Giambattista Venturi. Scienziato,
Ingegnere, Intellecttuale fra età dei Lumi e Classicismo.
(Biblioteca di Storia della Scienza, vol. 49.) xv + 296 pp.,
figs., apps., bibls., indexes. Florence: Leo S. Olschki, 2005. Euro
31. 8822254120.
Blanchard, Jean-Vincent. L’Optique du Discours au
XVIIe Siècle. De la Rhétorique des Jésuites au Style de la
Raison Moderne (Descartes, Pascal). xii + 309 pp. illus.,
figs., bibl., index. Saint Nicolas: Les Presses de L’Université
Laval, 2005. $39 (paper). 2763782582.
Bliss, Michael. Harvey Cushing: A Life In Surgery. xii +
591 pp., figs., apps., bibl., index. Toronto: University of Toronto
Press, 2005. $50 (cloth). 080208950X.
Boockmann, Friederike; Di Liscia, Daniel A.;
Kothmann, Hella (Editors). Miscellanea Kepleriana:
Festschrift für Volker Bialas zum 65. Geburtstag.
(Algorismus: Studien zur Geschichte der Mathematik und
der Naturwissenschaften Herausgegeben von Menso Folkerts,
47.) v + 331 pp., figs. Augsburg: Dr. Erwin Rauner Verlag, 2005.
Euro 24.50 (paper). 3936905088.
20
Brown, Elspeth H. The Corporate Eye: Photography and
the Rationalization of American Commercial Culture
1884-1929. (Studies in Industry and Society.) viii + 334 pp.,
figs., apps., bibl., index. Baltimore: The John Hopkins
University Press, 2005. $49.95 (cloth). 0801880998.
Brown, Louis. The Department of Terrestrial Magnetism.
(Centennial History of the Carnegie Institution of
Washington, Volume II.) xviii + 295 pp., figs., apps., index.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. $107.95 (cloth).
0521830796.
Brunner, Bernd. The Ocean at Home: An Illustrated
History of the Aquarium. 144 pp. illus., app., bibl. New York:
Princeton: Princeton Architectural Press, 2005. $24.95 (cloth).
1568985029.
Carlson, W. Bernard (Editor). Technology In World
History. Foreword by Thomas P. Hughes. 7 volumes. 700 pp.,
illus., gloss., index. New York.: Oxford University Press, 2005.
$299 (cloth). 0198218205.
Croddy, Eric A.; Wirtz, James J.; Larsen, Jeffrey A.
Weapons of Mass Destruction: An Encyclopedia of
Worldwide Policy, Technology, and History. 2 Volumes. xxxv
+ 449 pp. (Vol 1.); xxxvi + 601 pp. (Vol. 2). illus., figs., tables,
bibls., indexes. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2004. 1851094903.
Darrigol, Olivier. Worlds of Flow: A History of
Hydrodynamics from the Bernoullis to Prandtl. xiv + 300
pp. figs., app., bibl., index. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
2005. $64.50 (cloth). 0198568436.
de Asúa, Miguel; French, Roger. A New World of
Animals. Early Moderm Europeans on the Creatures of
Iberian America. xvi + 257 pp. illus., bibl., index. Burlington:
Ashgate Publishing. $84.95 (cloth). 0754607798.
Dorries, Matthias (Editor). Michael Frayn’s
Copenhagen in Debate: Historical Essays and Documents
on the 1941 Meeting Between Niels Bohr and Werner
Heisenberg. (Berkeley Papers in History of Science, Vol. 20.)
viii. + 195 pp., illus., bibl., index. Berkeley: Office for History of
Science and Technology, University of California, Berkeley,
2005. $12 (paper). 0967261724.
Driver, Felix; Martins, Luciana (Editors). Tropical
Visions in an Age of Empire. xii + 279 pp. illus., bibl., index.
Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2005. $25 (paper).
0226164721.
Dunaway, Finis. Natural Visions. The Power of Images in
American Environmental Reform. xxiv + 246 pp., figs.,
apps., index. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005. $37
(cloth). 0226173259.
Ebrahimnejad, Hormoz. Medicine, Public Health and
the Qajar State. (Sir Henry Wellcome Asian Studies, 4.) xiv +
266 pp., figs., apps., bibl., indexes. Leiden: Brill Academic
Publishers. $110 (cloth). 9004139117.
Eisner, Thomas. For the Love of Insects. Foreword by
Edward O. Wilson. Xi + 448 pp.illus., figs., bibl., index.
Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2005. 0674018273.
Eisner, Thomas; Eisner, Maria; Siegler, Melody.
Secret Weapons: Defenses of Insects, Spiders, Scorpions, and
Other Many-Legged Creatures. x + 372 pp., illus., figs., apps.,
index. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University
Press, 2005. 29.95 (cloth). 0674018826.
Feuerle, Mark. Bilde - Mange - Trebuchet: Technik,
Entwicklung und Wirkung des Wurfgeschützes im
Mittelalter. 193 pp., illus., bibl. Diepholz: GNT-Verlag, 2005.
28.50 (cloth). 3928186787.
Fitas, Augusto J.S.; Videira, António A.P. (Editors).
Cartas entre Guido Beck e cientistas portugueses. Estudos e
Documentos. 327pp. Index. Portugal: Lisbon: Instituto Piaget,
2004. $30.00 (paper). 9727717500.
Flügel, Helmut W. Der Abgrund der Zeit: Die
Entwicklung der Geohistorick 1670 - 1830. 250 pp., illus.,
bibl., index. Diepholz: GNT - Verlag, 2004. 30 (cloth).
3928186779.
Ford, Kenneth W. The Quantum World: Quantum
Physics for Everyone. ix + 294 pp., illus., figs., apps., index.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005. $16.95
(paper). 067401832X.
Fox, Robert; Gooday, Graeme (Editors). Physics in
Oxford, 1839 - 1939: Laboratories, Learning, and
College Life. xix + 363 pp., frontis., figs., apps., bibl., index.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005. (cloth).
0198567928.
Friberg, Jöran. Unexpected Links Between Egyptian and
Babylonian Mathematics. xii + 294 pp., figs., apps., bibl.,
indexes. Singapore: World Scientific Publishing Co., 2005. $54
(cloth). 9812563288.
Fulton, Helen (Editor). Medieval Celtic Literature and
Society. 304 pp. bibl., index. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2005.
1851829288.
Gabbay, D.M.; Woods, J. A Practical Logic of Cognitive
Systems, 2. xviii + 476 pp. figs., bibl., index. Amsterdam:
Elsevier Science, 2005. 044451791x.
Gannier, Odile; Picquoin, Cécile (Editors). Journal
de Bord d’Étienne Marchand: Le Voyage du Solide Autour
de monde (1790 - 1792). 2 Volumes, 599 pp., figs., apps.,
index. Paris: Comité des Travaux Historiques et Scientifiques,
2005. Euro 58 (paper). 2735505952.
Garcia, Stéphane. Élie Diodati et Galilée. Naissance
d’un Réseau Scientifique dans L’Europe du XVIIe Siècle.
Preface by Isabelle Pantin. (Bibliothèque d’Histoire de
Sciences, vol. 6.) xix + 448 pp., figs., apps., bibl., index.
Florence: Leo S. Olschki, 2004. 46. 8822254163.

Gasman, Daniel. The Scientific Origins of National
Socialism. Somerset:Transaction, 2004. 0765805812.
Gorelik, Gennady. The World of Andrei Sakharov: A
Russian Physicist’s Path to Freedom. With Antonina W.
Bouis. xviii + 406 pp., illus., figs., app., index. New York:
Oxford University Press, 2005. $47.50 (cloth). 019515620X.
Gradmann, Christoph. Krankheit im Labor: Robert
Koch und die medizinische Bakteriologie. 376 pp. Germany:
Wallstein Verlag GmbH, 2005. 38 (paper). 3892449228.
Grange, Juliette. Comte de Saint-Simon: Écrits Politiques
et Économiques. 560 pp. bibl., index. Paris: Pocket, 2005. $
21.95 (paper). 2266141791.
Grattan-Guinness, Ivor. Landmark Writings in Western
Mathematics 1640-1940. xvii + 1022 pp. figs., bibl., Index.
Amsterdam: Elsevier Science, 2005. $252 (cloth). 0444508716.
Gratzer, Walter. Terror of the Table: The Curious History
of Nutrition. ix + 288 pp., illus., apps., index. New York:
Oxford University Press, 2005. $30. (cloth). 0192806610.
Hahn, Roger. Pierre Simon Laplace, 1749-1827: A
Determined Scientist. x + 310 pp., apps., index. Cambridge,
MA: Harvard University Press, 2005. $35 (cloth). 0674.
Hansen, James R. First Man: The Life of Neil A.
Armstrong, The Authorized Biography. xi + 769 pp., illus.,
bibl., index. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005, $30. (cloth).
0743259637.
Harbers, Hans (Editor). Inside the Politics of Technology.
Agency and Normativity in the Co-Production of Technology
and Society. 309 pp. figs., bibl., index. Amsterdam: Amsterdam
University Press. $69.95 (paper). 9053567569.
Hayles, N. Katherine. My Mother was a Computer.
Digital Subjects and Literary Texts. x +290 pp. index.
Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2005. $22 (paper).
0226321487.
Hecht, Jeff. Beam: The Race to Make the Laser. x + 284 pp.
apps., bibl., index. United Kingdom: Oxford University Press,
2005. $29.99 (cloth). 0195142101.
Hoskin, Michael. The History of Astronomy: A Very Short
Introduction. x + 123 pp., figs., apps., index. United
Kingdom: Oxford University Press, 2003. $9.95 (paper).
0192803069.
Hösle, Vittorio; llies, Christian (Editors).
Darwinism & Philosophy. 392 pp., figs., table, bibls., index.
Notre Dame, I.N.: University of Notre Dame Press, 2005. $70
(cloth); $35 (paper). 0268030731.
Huerta, Robert D. Vermeer and Plato: Painting the
Ideal. 148 pp., figs., apps., index. Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell
University Press, 2005. $57.50 (cloth). 0838756069.
Jacquart, Danielle. L’Épopée de la Science Arabe.
(Découvertes Gallimard, Série Sciences et Techniques.) 127
pp., illus., figs., app., bibl., index. Paris: Gallimard, 2005.
(paper). 2070318273.
Kaiser, David. Pedagogy and the Practice of Science:
Historical and Contemporary Perspectives. (Inside
Technology Series.) vi + 426 pp., figs., apps., index. Cambridge,
Mass.: The MIT Press, 2005. $45 (cloth). 0-262-11288-4.
Kasman, Alex. Reality Conditions: Short Mathematical
Fiction. ix + 247 pp. Washington: The Mathematical
Association of America. $29.95 (paper). 0883855526.
Kassel, Lauren. Medicine and Magic in Elizabethan
London. Simon Forman: Astrologer, Alchemist, &
Physician. xviii + 291 pp. illus., bibl., indexes. New
York/Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005. 0199279055.
King, D. Brett; Wertheimer, Michael. Max Wetheimer
and Gestalt Theory. viii + 438 pp., illus., apps., index. New
Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2005. $49.95 (cloth).
0765802589.
Kingsland, Sharon E. The Evolution of American
Ecology: 1890-2000. x + 313 pp. Index. Baltimore: Johns
Hopkins University Press, 2005. $50.00 (cloth). 0801881714.
Kirschner, Marc W.; Gerhart, John C. The Plausibility
of Life. Resolving Darwin’s Dilemma. Illustrated by John
Norton. xiii + 314 pp. illus., figs., index. New Haven/London:
Yale University Press, 2005. $30 (cloth). 0300108656.
Kistemaker, R.E.; Kopaneva, N.P.; Meijers, D.J.;
Vilinbakhov, G.V. (Editors). The Paper Museum of the
Academy of Sciences in St Petersburg c. 1725-1760.
(History of Science and Scholarship in the Netherlands, 6.)
xii + 348 pp., illus., figs., apps., bibl., index, DVD. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 2005. $85 (cloth). 9069844265.
Kwa, Chunglin. De ontdekking van het weten: Een
andere geschiedenis van de wetenschap. 384 pp., illus.,
bibl., index. Amsterdam: Boom, 2005. (paper). 9085061415.
Laurenza, Domenico. La Ricerca Dell’Armonia:
Rappresentazioni Anatomiche Nel Rinascimento.
(Biblioteca di Nuncius, vol. 47) ix + 142 pp., illus., figs., bibl.
index. Firenze, Italy: Leo S. Olschki, 2003. 19. 8822252667.
Levy, Tony; Rashed, Roshdi (Editors). Maimonide:
Philosophe et savant (1138-1204). xi + 477 pp. index. Belgium:
Peeters Publishers and Booksellers, 2004. Euro 52. 9042914580.
Lindee, Susan. Moments of Truth in Genetic Medicine. xi
+ 288 pp., figs., bibl., index. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins
University Press, 2005. $40 US (cloth). 0801881757.
Lorch, Richard (Editor). Al-Farghani. On the
Astrolabe. 447 pp. figs., bibl. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag,
2005. 80 (cloth). 3515087133.
History of Science Society Newsletter January 2006
Macintosh, Kerry Lynn. Illegal Beings. Human
Clones and the Law. xiii + 272 pp. index. New York:
Cambridge University Press, 2005. $28 (paper). 051853281.
Maienschein, Jane; Glitz, Marie; Allen, Garland
E. (Editors). The Department of Embryology.
(Centennial History of the Carnegie Institution of
Washington, Volume V.) xv + 227 pp., figs., index.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. $107.95
(cloth). 0521830826.
Marché, Jordan D., II. Theaters of Time and Space:
American Planetaria, 1930-1970. xv + 267 pp., figs,
apps., bibls., index. Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers University
Press. $49.99 (cloth). 081353576X.
Marcus, Alan I. (Editor). Engineering in a Land-
Grant Context: The Past, Present, and Future of an Idea.
198 pp., index. West Layfayette, IN: Purdue University Press,
2005. $34.95 (cloth). 1557533601.
Markley, Robert. Dying Planet. Mars in Science and
the Imagination. x + 444 pp. illus., bibl., index.
Durham/London: Duke University Press, 2005. $89.95
(cloth); $24.95 (paper). 0822336006.
Massimi, Michela. Pauli’s Exclusion Principle: The
Origin and Validation of a Scientific Principle. xiv + 211
pp. figs., tables, bibl., index. New York: Cambridge
University Press, 2005. $75 (cloth). 0521839114.
Mayaud, Pierre Noel. Le conflit entre l’astronomie
nouvelle et l’Ecriture sainte aux XVI.e et XVII.e siecles:
Un moment de l’histoire des idees: Autour de l’affaire de
Galilee. 6 Volumes. 3416 pp. bibl., indexes. Paris: Honore
Champion, 2005. Euro 388 (cloth). 2745311263.
McCauley, Bernadette. Who Shall Take Care of Our
Sick?: Roman Catholic Sisters and the Development of
Catholic Hospitals in New York City. (Medicine, Science,
and Religion in Historical Context Series). xi + 141 pp.,
illus., bibl., index. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University
Press, 2005. $45 (cloth). 0801882168.
Meek, Christine; Lawless, Catherine (Editors).
Studies on Medieval and Early Modern Women 4:
Victims or Viragos? 240 pp., figs., app., bibl., index.
Dublin: Four Courts Press, Ltd., 2005. $29.95 (cloth).
1851828893.
Molavi, Afshin. The Soul of Iran: A Nation’s Journey to
Freedom. xxiii + 355 pp., illus. New York: W.W. Norton &
Company, 2005. $14.95 (paper). 0393325970.
Monti, Maria Teresa; Ratcliff Marc J. (Editors).
Figure Dell’Invisibilita. Le Scienze Della Vita Nell’Italia
D’Antico Regime. (Biblioteca di Nuncius, vol. 54.)
(Based on studies at Milano-Ginerva, November 2002 -
June 2003.) xxi + 310 pp., figs., index. Florence: Leo S.
Olschki, 2004. Euro 33. 8822253744.
Jackson, John P., Jr.; Weidman, Nadine M. Race,
Racism, and Science. Social Impact and Interaction. xv +
403 pp. illus., bibl., index. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2004.
$74 (cloth). 1851094482.
Lützen, Jesper. Mechanistic Images in Geometric Form:
Heinrich Hertz’s Principles of Mechanics. xiii + 318 pp.,
figs., app., bibl., index. New York: Oxford University Press,
2005. $75 (cloth). 0198567375.
Mooney, Chris. The Republican War on Science.
ix+ 342 pp., index. New York: Basic Books, 2005. $24.95
(cloth). 0465046754.
21

History of Science Society Newsletter January 2006
Morgan, Vance C. Weaving the World. Simone Weil on
Science, Mathematics, and Love. xi + 234 pp., figs., apps.,
bibl., index. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2005.
$25 (paper). 0268034877.
Naskrecki, Piotr. The Smaller Majority. 278 pp., illus.,
apps., index. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 2005.
$35 (cloth). 0674019156.
Newton, Roger G. Galileo’s Pendulum: From the Rhythm
of Time to the Making of Matter. x + 153 pp., figs., apps.,
index. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004. $13.95
(paper). 0674018486.
Offit, Paul A. The Cutter Incident: How America’s First
Polio Vaccine Led to the Growing Vaccine Crisis. xii + 238
pp., figs., apps., bibl., index. New Haven, CT: Yale University
Press, 2005. $27.50 (cloth). 0300108648.
Peters, Klaus-Heinrich. Schönheit, Exaktheit, Wahrheit:
Der Zusammenhang von Mathematik und Physik am
Beispiel der Geschichte der Distributionen. ix + 260 pp.,
illus., figs., bibl., index. Diepholz: GNT - Verlag, 2004. Euro 32
(cloth). 39281867474.
Piccolino, Marco. Lo zufolo e la cicala. Divagazioni
galileiane tra la scienza e la sua storia. (Saggi. Science.)
359 pp., figs., bibl., index. Torino: Bollati Boringhieri, 2005.
Euro 26 (paper). 883391612X.
Pieribone, Vincent; Gruber, David. Aglow in the Dark:
The Revolutionary Science of Biofluorescence. Foreword by
Sylvia Nasar. viii + 252 pp. illus. Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press, 2005. $24.95 (paper). 0674019210.
Porter, Roy. Flesh in the Age of Reason: The Modern
Foundations of Body and Soul. Foreword by Simon Schama.
xviii + 574 pp., bibl., index. New York: W.W. Norton &
Company, 2005. $17.95 (paper). 0393326969.
Príncipe, João. Razão e ciência em António Sérgio. 289
pp. iIllus., apps., index. Portugal: Imprensa Nacional-Casa da
Moeda, 2004. 9722712543.
Ramaswamy, Sumathi. The Lost Land of Lemuria.
Fabulous Geographies, Catastrophic Histories. xv + 334 pp.
illus., figs., bibl., index. A Philip E. Lilienthal Book in Asian
Studies. California: University of California Press, 2004. $21.95
(paper). 0520240324.
Ramo, Simon. Meetings, Meetings, and More Meetings:
Getting Things Done When People Are Involved. 141 pps.,
illus. Los Angeles, C.A.: Bonus Books, 2005. $19.95 (cloth).
1566252563.
Regan, Ciaran. Intoxicating Minds: How Drugs Work.
(Maps of the Mind, 8.) x + 169 pp., bibl., index. Originally
published in London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson, Ltd.; New York:
Columbia University Press, 2005. $18.95 (paper). 0231120176.
Reisch, George. How the Cold War Transformed
Philosophy of Science. xiv + 418 pp. illus., figs., index. New
York: Cambridge University Press, 2005. $26.99 (paper).
0521546893.
Rescher, Nicholas. What If? Thought Experimentation in
22
Philosophy. x + 179 pp. bibl., index. New Brunswick/London:
Transaction Publishers, 2005. 0765802929.
Ruston, Sharon. Shelley and Vitality. xiii + 229 pp. bibl.,
index. New York: Palgrave, 2005. $74.95 (cloth). 1403918244.
Sandage, Allan. The Mount Wilson Observatory.
(Centennial History of the Carnegie Institution of
Washington, Volume I.) xiii + 647 pp., figs., apps., bibl., index.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. $107.95 (cloth).
0521830788.
Schaffer, Daniel. TWAS at 20: A History of the Third World
Academy of Sciences. xxxi + 165 pp. illus., index. Singapore:
World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., 2005. $28 (paper).
9812561382.
Schwarzmann-Schafhauser, Doris. Orthopädie im
Wandel: die Herausbildung von Diziplin und Berufsstand
in Bund und Kaiserreich (1815-1914). 396pp. Index.
Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2004. Euro 68 (cloth).
3515085009.
Segal, Howard P. Recasting the Machine Age. Henry
Ford’s Village Industries. xv + 244 pp. illus., bibl., index.
Amherst/Boston: University of Massachusetts Press, $34.95
(cloth). 1558494812.
Shell-Gellasch, Amy; Jardine, Dick (Editors). From
Calculus to Computers: Using the Last 200 Years of
Mathematics History in the Classroom. xii + 255 pp., figs.
Washington, D.C: The Mathematical Association of America,
2005. $39.50 (paper). 0883851784.
Siegemund, Justine. The Court Midwife. Lynne Tatlock,
editor and translator. (The Other Voice In Early Modern
Europe Series.) xxxi + 260 pp., illus., apps., bibl., index.
Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2005. $24. (paper).
Solomon, Julie Robin; Gimelli Martin, Catherine
(Editors). Francis Bacon and the Refiguring of Early
Modern Thought: Essays to Commemorate ‘The
Advancement of Learning’ (1605-2005). (Literary and
Scientific Cultures of Early Modernity Series.) vi + 257 pp.,
bibl., index. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing, 2005. $94.95
(cloth). 0754653595.
Stahnisch, Frank; Steger, Florian (Editors).
Medizin, Geschichte und Geschlecht: Körperhistorische
Rekonstruktionen von Identitäten un Differenzen.
(Geschichte und Philosophie der Medizin, 1). 297 pp., figs.,
app., index. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2005. Euro 49
(cloth). 3515085645.
Strbánová, Sona; Stamhuis, Ida H.; Mojsejo,
Katerina (Editors). Women Scholars and Institutions.
(Studies in the History of Sciences and Humanities, 13A-B.)
(Based on papers presented at the International Conference,
June 8 - 11 2003, Prague.) 861 pp., figs., apps., index. Prague:
Research Center for History of Sciences and Humanities, 2004.
Euro 30 (paper). 8072850415.
Swan, Claudia. Art, Science, and Witchcraft in Early
Modern Holland: Jacques de Gheyn (1565-1629).
(Cambridge Studies in Netherlandish Visual Culture.) xvii +
254 pp., figs., apps., bibl., index. New York: Cambridge
University Press, 2005. $85 (cloth). 0521826748.
van der Eijk, Philip J. Medicine and Philosophy in
Classical Antiquity: Doctors and Philosophers on Nature,
Soul, Health and Disease. xiv + 404 pp., apps., bibl., indexes.
New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005. $95 (cloth).
0521818001.
Visser, Rob; Touret, Jacques (Editors). Dutch
Pioneers of the Earth Sciences. (History of Science and
Scholarship in the Netherlands Volume 5). xii + 200 pp.
illus., figs., index. Amsterdam: Royal Netherlands Academy
of Arts and Science, 2004. $40 (cloth). 9069843897.
Walker, Brett L. The Lost Wolves of Japan. Foreword by
William Cronon. (Weyerhaeuser Environmental Books.)
xiv + 331 pp., figs., apps., bibl., index. Seattle, WA: University
of Washington Press, 2005. $35 (cloth). 0295984929.
Walker, J. Samuel. Three Mile Island: A Nuclear Crisis in
Historical Perspective. 314 pp., illus. Berkeley, CA: University of
California Press, 2004. $16.95. (paper). 0520246837.
Walton, Steven A. (Editor). Instrumental in War:
Science, Research, and Instruments between Knowledge
and the War. (History of Warfare Vol. 28., Kelly Devries,
ed.) xxiv + 414 pp., illus., index. Leiden, The Netherlands:
Brill Academic Publishers, 2005. $174 (cloth).
9004142819.
Webb, Richard C. Tele-visionaries: The People Behind the
Invention of Television. xv + 170 pp., figs., app., index.
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Weber, Steven. The Success of Open Source. vii + 312 pp.,
figs., app., index. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press,
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Wolman, David. Left-Hand Turn Around the World:
Chasing the Mystery and Meaning of all Things Southpaw. xi
+ 236 pp., app., bibl., index. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press,
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Richard Creath
& Jane Maienschein
Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation
The Furumoto Research Foundation
Anonymous
Michele L. Aldrich
Joan Cadden*
Virginia P. Dawson+
Clark A. Elliott+
Judith & David Goodstein
Anonymous
Renato Acampora
Douglas Allchin
Garland Allen
Katharine Anderson
Peder Anker
Toby Appel
Wilbur Applebaum
Adam J. Apt
Jean-Francois Auger
Jose Bach
Lawrence Badash
Peter Barker
Donald deB. Beaver
Jean Beetschen
Alan Beyerchen
John Blackmore
Ann Blair
Muriel Blaisdell
Angela Boernke-Vallou
Patrick Boner
James J. Bono
William Brock
Stephen G. Brush*
Joe D. Burchfield
Richard Burkhardt
Leslie J. Burlingame
Ronald Calinger
Ken Caneva
Peggy Champlin
Hasok Chang
David Channell
H. Floris Cohen
History of Science Society Newsletter January 2006
Donors to NEH Challenge Fund
(As of 1 December 2005)
Joseph Fruton
Frederick Gregory*
Gerald Holton*
Shinzo Kohjiya
Sally Gregory Kohlstedt*
Loren Graham
Susan Lindee
N.G. Coley
Jonathan Coopersmith
Angela N. H. Creager
Paul J. Croce
Lorraine J. Daston
Joseph W. Dauben
Peter R. Dear
Allen G. Debus
Ronald Doel
M. Eddy
Guy Emery
Judith & Jonathon Erlen
Raymond E. Fancher
Anne Fausto-Sterling
Javier Fernandez
Tom & Uma Ferrell
Klaus Fischer
Gary Fouty
Robert Marc Friedman
Elizabeth Garber+
Janet Bell Garber
Patsy Gerstner +
Neal Gillespie
Mary Louise Gleason
Marie Glitz
Jan Golinski
John Gould
Sara S. Gronim
Anita Guerrini
& Michael Osborne~
Stanley Guralnick
Martin Gutzwiller
Beth HaGath
Thank You!
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In Honor and Memory of David Dibner
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Sustaining Members
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Contributors
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* Officers’ Incentive Fund
~ in honor of John Neu
+ In honor of Robert E. Schofield Please send corrections to info@hssonline.org
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Eleanor Webster
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Charles Weiner +
Frederick Weinstein
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Robert Westman
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Thomas Williams
L. Pearce & Sylvia I. Williams
Eri Yagi
Toshihiro Yamada
23

History of Science Society Newsletter January 2006
Who has Won the Reingold Prize?
In celebration of the 50 th anniversary of the HSS graduate-student essay prize, the
formerly named Schuman Prize, the HSS Executive Office researched past winners
and came up with some interesting facts. Given the preponderance of graduate programs
in the U.S., it was not surprising that most winners have come from schools in
the United States, but what did surprise us is that, judged by region, the northeastern
U.S. has dominated the competition with a full 81% of winners coming from that
area. Princeton has been the lion (or tiger, if you will), with 13 winners; followed by
Harvard and Penn, with 5 winners each; and Johns Hopkins with 4. A total of 4 prizewinning
students came from schools in the Midwest (University of Wisconsin and
University of Chicago with 2 prizes each). Only 2 western schools (UCLA and Cal)
have hosted winners. No school in the South has won and only two international
schools (University of Toronto and Cambridge University) have claimed the prize.
Part of the explanation for the northeast influence could be the pattern of establishment
of the graduate programs in the U.S., although a Princetonian was the last
to win the prize. What is more important is the number of submissions.
Note: Graph only represents
years the prize was awarded.
Interestingly, the number of submitted articles has fluctuated widely. In the early
1990s, 16 and 17 entries per year were common. These numbers fell dramatically in
the mid-90s with as few as 4 submissions and no more than 8 received each year.
Heavy promotion of the prize among graduate students increased submissions significantly
(22 in 2003), but this past year only 7 students entered essays, and none of
these papers were judged as meeting the high standards of the Reingold Prize.
So, what is to be done? There are many things we can do. We have extended the
prize deadline (from April 1 st to June 1 st ) to give students extra time to polish their
essays. Department chairs and dissertation advisers should send reminders to their students
to take a chance on the prize (many chapters from dissertations have landed the
prize). Delegates who attended the HSS meeting in Minneapolis should send an e-mail
to students whose papers they considered especially interesting, encouraging those students
to submit their paper for the competition. Finally, students need to submit their
work, to be bold, and to make a bid for the prize. Such efforts elevate the intellectual
field, paying dividends for the entire profession.
The Reingold Prize guidelines can be found on the HSS Web site at http://www.hssonline.org/society/awards/mf_awards.html.
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