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

Like several of his contemporaries, Glennan participated in the creation of science/technological policies
from multiple positions. He served in key roles in two of the critical, post-war agencies, the AEC and
NASA. As a Commissioner and Administrator, Glennan encouraged the exploration of nuclear energy
and proposed the development of a sustainable, economic satellite program. Finally, this paper studies
the legacy Glennan and the early Cold War technology experts left the nation. Increased reliance upon
expertise in matters of national defense and space exploration limited real public debate on these issues.
Glennan considered these subjects and his thoughts provide insight into how science/innovation managers
regarded their growing influences in the Cold War.
Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke ,Stanley
E-mail Address:
2001: A Space Odyssey
What are you doing, Dave? Watching Stanley Kubrick’s classic film, of course. The movie will
screen at 8:30pm, Thursday the 8th, in Grand Ballroom II at the Adam’s Mark. After the plenary
session and the reception, watch the film as it should be seen, on the big screen. Don’t throw a wrench
into your conference plans by missing it.
Kupferberg, Eric
E-mail Address: edkupfer@mit.edu
"Journey to the Invisible World": Popular Microscopy as Popular Culture, 1919-1939
The paper investigates dozens of articles and books on popular microscopy during the interwar period
to argue that this literature offered more than a simple guide to collecting and mounting slides for home
use. The microscope and its increasing popularity comprised part of an effort to bring laboratory science
into the home. As an example of amateur science, home microscopy served as an act of guided imagination.
The articles provided models for the conduct of "good" science, weaving traditional 19th century
portrayals of science as an individualized and applied activity with an advocacy of a new biology that
was to become a highly technical and institutionalized enterprise. Moreover, the "journeys to the invisible
world" offered a wealth of allegories for modern living in an urbanized world, issuing moral pronouncements
on issues of race and colonization. One could "explore unknown waters" and "jungles on
stale bread," in order to "hunt big game," or examine "invisible chemists" and "nature's factors" as one
"created new worlds" with their microscope. Viewed within a tradition of travel writing, accounts of
"big game hunters," and the emergence of the United States as a world power, the articles participated in
a larger colonial discourse prevalent during the first half of this century. Popular science, in this regard,
provided an opportunity for a culture to think out loud. Articles on home microscopy can therefore be
read as attempt to make sense of the American experience with colonization, the continuing problem of
racial difference, and the place of science in mediating social conflict.
Kutcher, Gerald
E-mail Address: gk2002@columbia.edu
Radiation Studies following World War II: Nuclear Warfare, Radiation Sickness and Curing
Childhood Leukemia.
The constellation of whole body radiation effects -- nausea vomiting, internal bleeding, infections
and finally death -- was first framed as "radiation sickness" following the atomic bomb attacks on
Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The syndrome took on renewed interest for military planners as the cold war
set in. During the same period another and seemingly unrelated problem, the treatment of childhood
leukemia with radiation took on new life following radiation biology experiments at Harwell, which
showed that radiation sickness might be cured with bone marrow transplants. During this period radia-