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

virologist Howard Temin proposed a hypothesis to explain infection in fowls, by a cancer-producing
virus that contained only RNA. His hypothesis reversed the normal flow of genetic information from
DNA to RNA, as ordained by the central dogma of molecular biology. Although there was opposition to
his hypothesis it was widely accepted by the scientific community, after the discovery of reverse transcriptase
in 1970. Most retrospective accounts of Temin after the discovery have portrayed him as a
renegade who was on the fringe of mainstream virology, because his hypothesis challenged the central
dogma, but who was vindicated for his perseverance. Temin himself in his Nobel Prize speech of 1975
narrated a similar story about the opposition to his hypothesis. Is this opposition, however, that Temin
and others depict in their retrospective accounts accurate? I argue that members of the oncogenic virology
community opposed Temin's hypothesis not simply because it was viewed as a counter instance to
the central dogma, but more importantly because his empirical evidence for substantiating it was considered
inconclusive. What objective has the retrospective accounts of the opposition to the DNA hypothesis,
by Temin and others, served? I propose that these accounts played a significant role in establishing
retrovirology as a subdiscipline within the oncogenic virology community.
Martin, Olivier
E-mail Address: olivier.martin@paris5.sorbonne.fr
The History of Factor Analysis : an Example of Mathematization in Human Sciences
The topic is to identify the main ideas and concepts associated to factor analysis methods : a historical
perspective is proposed. The original ideas of factor analysis can be found in Spearman's psychological
research. During the first decades of the XXth century, he tried to identify factors of mind that is to
say factors participating to mental activities. The statistical tools used by Spearman progressively dissociate
themselves from the psychological theories. The factor theory of Spearman become an abstract and
universal method which can find applications in psychology and every other discipline. Psychologists
and mathematicians, especially Thomson, Thurstone and Hotelling, participate to the development of
this autonomous method called factor analysis method. Beyond our historical analysis of the 1900-1940
period, we propose a reflection on the role of mathematical formalism in human science through the
example of factorial analysis method.
Martini, Laura
E-mail Address: lm4x@virginia.edu
A Case-Study in The Evolution of a Mathematical Research Community in Pre-Unification Italy:
Barnaba Tortolini (1808-1874) and the Annali di scienze matematiche e fisiche
The decades following the Congress of Vienna (1814-1815) witnessed a growing climate of scientific
unification within the Italian states. The congresses of Italian scientists, held annually from 1839 to
1847, represented a first step toward the creation of a national scientific community. The failure of the
wars of independence of 1848-1849 did not extinguish the patriotic feelings for a political and a scientific
unification. In 1850, Barnaba Tortolini (1808-1874), professor of higher calculus at the University
of Rome, founded the Annali di scienze matematiche e fisiche (1850-1857). With this journal, Tortolini
hoped to serve the publication needs of the mathematical and physical sciences and to raise the profile of
Italian science at home and abroad. In this talk, I will discuss the role the journal played in the process of
the creation of a national mathematical culture and in the evolution of an Italian mathematical community
within the changing mathematical and political context of pre-unification Italy.
Mazzotti, Massimo
E-mail Address: mmazzotti@dibinst.mit.edu
The natural philosophy of vampires