Listing of Sessions and Abstracts of Papers - History of Science ...

E-mail Address: gingras.yves@uqam.ca
What Did Mathematics Do to Physics?
It is often taken for granted that physics is mathematical and that following the publication of
Newton's Principia, every one accepted this as the only way to do physics. This talk will analyse the
social effects of the mathematization of Physics in the 18th and 19th centuries. Looking at the process of
formation of the field of physics from the point of view of the excluded, we will show that in fact there
were strong reactions against the progressive mathematization of gravitation, electricity and magnetism.
The agressivity of those who criticized the abuse of mathematics in physics is an index of the fact that
they resented being excluded from a space of discussion (through literary and scientific magazines,
Provincial scientific societies and the publication of books) in which they were used to talk and write
about natural phenomena using common language and unsophisticated experiments. In other words,
parallelling the "Rise of Public Science" analysed by Larry Stewart there was also the creation of a
"private science" accessible only to those adequately trained.
Girard, Marion
E-mail Address: marion.girard@yale.edu
Chemical Warfare Scientists in 1914-1918 Britain: Servants to the War Effort?
It is accepted that twentieth century wars have incorporated scientific knowledge and applications.
As scientists have been integrated into politicians' and servicemen's decision-making and policy world,
though, what sort of authority and how independent an identity have they maintained? Have they been
subservient, dominant, or independent yet cooperating experts? Looking at one, rich example--British
poison gas during World War I--it becomes clear that scientists balanced multiple roles. Studying
various committees allows an investigation of how chemists involved in the official war effort interacted
with other nonscientific specialists. In some, such as the Scientific Advisory Committee to the War
Office, the Boart of Trade delegated authority for granting export licenses for chemical goods. In others,
scientists were independent consultants. For example, a Royal Society of Chemistry's War Committee
answered Lloyd George's questions about possible biological warfare attacks. Finally, in the 1919
Holland Committee, scientists debated with military men about which group should head Britain's
chemical warfare center, Porton Down, although both groups recognized that they were each needed in
positions of power there. Chemists, the military, and politicians, therefore, learned when to respect their
own expertise and when to bow to the knowledge and authority of another group. Scientists, even when
absorbed, into the armed services or the war effort, maintained an independent, specifically scientific
rather than military world view they kept their identity as scientists even when cooperating with a larger
war effort.
Golan, Tal
E-mail Address: talgolan@actcom.co.il
Visuallity and Authority: Machines as Eye-Witnesses
My talk will deal with the emergence during the late-19th and early-20th centuries of the first visual
technologies (photography and radiology) that lay base to post-modern visual culture. Following their
careers in the medical and legal spheres, I will describe how these technologies challenged the cultural
boundaries between nature and artifice, reality and virtuality, documentation and manipulation, and how
they restructured the power relations and the practices of knowledge in the legal and medical cultures.
Grau, Kevin
E-mail Address: ktgrau@indiana.edu
Station to Station: Articulating Identity and Nation in Eighteenth Century British Science