2000 HSS/PSA Program 1 - History of Science Society

HSS Abstracts
Much like the atomic bomb, the creation of this new class of weapons depended
upon the invention and integration of new and existing technological and
scientific instruments, machines, techniques, and methodologies. The research
of Professor Reyniers provides the historian of science with an analysis of the
instrumental applications to biological weapons research. In addition, an
analysis of the work carried out by Reyniers and his laboratory allows one to
probe the larger scientific and institutional forces that drove the United States
biological weapons research program.
Maura␣ C. Flannery St. John’s University
The Lab Coat: Symbol of Science as a Male Pursuit
In a commentary on feminist critiques of science, Ruth Bleir writes that the
lab coat gives the scientist “a faceless authority that his audience can’t challenge
. . . a powerful, mysterious, impenetrable, coercive, anonymous male voice.”
Thus the lab coat can be seen not only as a symbol of science, but of masculine
science at the very least, it disguises the gender of its wearer. In this paper, I
will examine the rise of the lab coat as a symbol of science, using paintings,
prints, and photographs to document this development. I will also explore the
difficulties which clothing posed for women wishing to participate in scientific
inquiry, particularly in field biology, in the 19th century. As women became
more involved in science, they became more involved with its trappings,
signified by the number of female as well as male scientists photographed in
lab coats. Women no longer have the problems of dress that plagued 19thcentury
women interested in science. But in putting on the white lab coat, they
put on more than a protective covering against the grime and caustic chemicals
of the lab they also put on clothing which supposedly symbolizes a superior
way of thinking, a better way of looking at the world. Thus examining the
dress of female and male scientists involves looking at more than the surface
it entails examining the power of a symbol to influence people’s attitudes
toward science and scientists. While the lab coat is now often seen as passe,
with many scientists eschewing its use, it is still very much a part of the
iconography of science, and is still often used to represent science in
nonscientific contexts.
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Kevin␣ J. Francis University of Minnesota
Popularization and the Role of Humans in late Pleistocene Extinctions,
1927-1957
Following the most recent glacial period, more than thirty genera of mammals
disappeared from North America. The 1927 discovery of numerous stone points