2000 HSS/PSA Program 1 - History of Science Society

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HSS Abstracts
earlier morphologic thought. I will also say something about the impact of
these transformations on the thesis of human recency—the idea that pre-sapiens
hominids were not “human” in some deep and interesting sense. Some
comments will also be made about the stability of the Acheulean and its
relevance to the thesis of human recency.
Karen␣ A. Rader Sarah Lawrence College
Teaching “Science and Film:”
Visual Representation as a Pedagogical Window
on Artistic and Scientific Practice
This paper will draw on the author’s experience teaching a course devoted
exclusively to “Science and Film”. Many history of science scholars have
successfully incorporated film into their teaching of topical courses. But few
have explored the history of film itself as a topic that enables exploration of a
broader set of issues related to the political and cultural meanings of visual
representation, both in science and society-at-large. These issues include: how
technological advances in film (still photography and motion pictures) have
contributed to new understandings of scientific knowledge why film has been
such a potent resource for shaping public understandings of the scientific
enterprise and ultimately, what have been, are, and could be the relations
between science and art as cultural activities. Specific pedagogical strategies
for addressing such themes will be discussed, along with suggestions for how
to encourage students to incorporate their study of these themes practically
across the often-competing curriculums of science and creative arts.
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Peter␣ J. Ramberg Max Planck Institute for the History of Science
Making Instruments “Transparent” in Organic Chemistry:
The Case of Halogen Addition Reactions
In presenting the experimental results in support of the new principles of
stereochemistry, the organic chemist Johannes Wislicenus (1835-1902) entered
disputes with both Rudolf Fittig (1835-1910) and Arthur Michael (1853-1942)
about the correct reaction conditions for the addition of halogens to multiple
bonds. Whereas Fittig and Michael disagreed with Wislicenus for different
reasons, both accused Wislicenus of performing chemical reactions under the
wrong external conditions. Wislicenus returned this accusation, claiming that
it was Michael and Fittig who executed these reactions under “abnormal”
conditions. In this paper, I will briefly recount this episode and its eventual
resolution, and explore the parallels between this story and several recently
published case studies treating the historical processes behind giving authority