Lives
in Science: Biography and Creativity
HSHM
327/HIST 230
Yale University
Fall Semester, 2005
Tuesday, Thursday, 1:00-2:15
Rosenfeld Lecture Hall, GR109
Instructor:
Lloyd Ackert
History of Science, History of Medicine
Whitney Humanities Center, Rm. 324
53 Wall Street, New Haven
lloydackert@sbcglobal.net
203-43(2-3112)
Biography
offers an excellent way to study the history
of scientific thought in its historical context.
We will survey the history of science through
the lives of some of its most influential
practitioners: e.g. Einstein, Lavoisier, Pavlov,
and McClintock. Drawing on a combination of
biographical materials—monographs, films,
and websites--and “primary” scientific publications,
we will explore the development of scientific
ideas in their social, cultural, and political
context. This course will address the novelty
of scientific creativity in a number of sciences:
physics, genetics, chemistry, and evolution
from the 17th to 20th century.
At the heart of this course are the contributions
each scientist made to their respective scientific
fields. Since these scientists defined themselves
by the research they conducted and the ideas
they introduced, we will study their work.
The ultimate aim for the course will be to
understand these developments as part of their
lives—e.g. their upbringing, social standing,
political commitments, education, and perhaps
their "dark sides." Biographies
are written for a broad range of purposes
and come in a wide variety of styles. Course
participants will read or view psychological,
hagiographic, scientific, and feminist treatments
of major personalities in the history of science.
They will engage this literature and film
as a historical exercise in their study of
the role of personality in intellectual creativity.
This course will meet twice per week. I will
lecture on Tuesday and if needed for the first
part of Thursday, devoting the remaining time
for discussion of the assigned readings and
films.
Required
Books: 1) Janet Browne, Charles Darwin: Voyaging
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995);
2) Nathaniel Comfort, The Tangled Field: Barbara
McClintock’s Search for the Patterns of Genetic
Control (Cambridge: Harvard University Press,
2001); 3) Carl Djerassi and Roald Hoffman,
Oxygen: A Play in Two Acts, (Weinheim, Wiley-VCH,
2001. Available at Labyrinth Books, 290 York
St, New Haven, CT.; Phone 203-787-2848
Research
Project: Students will write a 2500 word biographical
essay (or other creative project, such as
a website or play) on a scientist of their
choice. Drawing on a variety of sources—biographies,
personal papers at Yale’s collections, and
scientific publications—students will investigate
the interrelationship between a scientist’s
work, culture, and personality.
Grading:
Class Participation—10%; Midterm Examination—25%,
Research project—25%, In Class Presentation—15%,
Final Exam—25%.
Course Schedule
Week
One (Sept 1, Thursday) Course Introduction
and Overview:
“Lives in Science” is a biographical approach
to the history of science. Biography offers
rich perspective through which to investigate
the history of science in the complexity of
its cultural, social, political, and intellectual
aspects. Discuss the use of film in this course.
Part
One: The Rise of Modern Science
Week
Two (Sept. 6, 8) Isaac Newton (1642-1727)
Readings/Viewings:
1. Robert Westfall, “Newton and the Fudge
Factor,” Science, Vol. 179, No. 4075, 23 February
1973, pp. 751-758. Find through ORBIS on JSTOR.
2. Frank Manuel, A Portrait of Isaac Newton
(Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University,
1968), chapters 4-6, pp. 68-132.
3. View film on Cdigix: Sir Isaac Newton:
The Gravity of Genius
Week
Three (Sept. 13, 15) Antoine Lavoisier (1743-1793)
Readings:
1. Antoine Laurent Lavoisier, Elements of
Chemistry (Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica,
Inc., 1952), preface, pp. 1-7.
2. Jean-Pierre Poirier, Lavoisier (Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996), trans.
from the French by Rebecca Balinski, chapter
5 “The Oxygen Dispute,” pp. 72-83.
3. Carl Djerassi and Roald Hoffman, Oxygen:
A Play in Two Acts, (Weinheim, Wiley-VCH,
2001).
Part
Two: Natural History and Evolution
Week
Four (Sept. 20, 22) Jean Baptiste Lamarck
(1744-1829)
Readings:
1. Jean Baptiste Lamarck, Zoological Philosophy:
An Exposition with Regard to the Natural History
of Animals (London: Macmillan and Co. Ltd.,
1914), trans. from the French by Hugh Elliot,
pp. 35-41, 106-125,183-190, 355-361.
2. Richard W. Burkhardt, The Sprit of System:
Lamarck and Evolutionary Biology (Cambridge:
Harvard University Press, 1977), chapter 7
“The Frustrations and Consolations of the
Naturalist-Philosopher,” pp. 186-218.
Week
Five (Sept. 27, 29) Charles Darwin (1809-1882)
Readings/Viewings:
1. Charles Darwin, On the Origin of the Species:
A Facsimile of the First Edition (Cambridge:
Harvard University Press, 1964), chapter 3
“Struggle for Existence and chapter 4 “Natural
Selection,” pp. 60-130.
2. Janet Browne, Charles Darwin: Voyaging
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995),
chapter 15 “Paradise Lost” and chapter 16
“A Theory by which to Work,” pp. 343-399.
3. Visit PBS’s Darwin website at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/darwin/
Part Three: Science Moves into the Laboratory
Week
Six (Oct. 4, 6) Louis Pasteur (1822-1895)
Readings/Viewings:
1. Gerald L. Geison, The Private Science of
Louis Pasteur (Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 1995), pp. 177-256.
2. View film on Cdigix: The Story of Louis
Pasteur (Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc., 1936).
Week Seven (Oct. 11, 13) Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936)
Readings/Viewings:
1. Daniel P. Todes, Pavlov’s Physiology Factory:
Experiment, Interpretation, Laboratory Enterprise
(Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press,
2002), chapter 7 “From the Machine to the
Ghost Within,” pp. 190-288. Online Book on
Yale Internet Resource: (http://site.ebrary.com/lib/yale/Doc?id=10021529).
Week
Eight (Oct. 18) Midterm Examination.
(Oct.
20) Vladimir Vernadsky (1863-1945)
Readings:
1.Vladimir Vernadsky, “Problems of Biogeochemistry,
II: The Fundamental Matter-Energy Difference
between the Living and the Inert Natural Bodies
of the Biosphere,” Transactions of the Connecticut
Academy of Arts and Sciences, Vol. 35, June
1944, pp. 487-508.
2. Kendall E. Bailes, Science and Russian
Culture in an Age of Revolutions: V. I. Vernadsky
and his Scientific School, 1863-1945 (Bloomington:
Indiana University Press, 1990), chapter 6,
“The Legacy of Vernadsky’s Scientific and
Philosophical Thought,” pp. 37-79 and 179-198.
Part
Four: A Broader Perspective
Week
Nine (Oct. 25) Vladimir Vernadsky (1863-1945)
II
Discussion.
(Oct.
27) Albert Einstein (1879-1955) I
Readings/Viewings:
1. Gerald Holton, Einstein, History, and other
Passions: The Rebellion against Science at
the End of the Twentieth Century (Reading,
MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., 1995),
chapter 9, “What Precisely, is Thinking? .
. . Einstein’s Answer,” pp. 194-207.
2. Albert Einstein, Ideas and Opinions (New
York: Bonanza Books, 1954), “Science and Religion,”
pp. 41-49; “What is the Theory of Relativity,”
pp. 227-232.
3. View film on Cdigix: Einstein Revealed.
Week
Ten (Nov. 1) Albert Einstein (1879-1955) II
Discussion.
***
On NOVEMBER 3RD there will be no lecture or
discussion.
Part Five: “Recent Science”
Week
Eleven (Nov. 8, 10) Barbara McClintock (1902-1992)
Readings:
1. Barbara McClintock, “The Significance of
Responses of the Genome to Challenge,” Science,
Vol. 226, pp. 792-801.
2. Nathaniel Comfort, The Tangled Field: Barbara
McClintock’s Search for the Patterns of Genetic
Control (Cambridge: Harvard University Press,
2001), Chapter 9, Renaissance,” pp. 226-257.
Week
Twelve (Nov. 15) Rene Dubos (1901-1982)
Readings/Viewings:
1. Rene Dubos, Man Adapting (New Haven: Yale
University Press, 1980), pp. xvii-62 and 88-109.
2. View film on Cdigix: Survival of Spaceship
Earth (1972).
Discussion
after lecture.
(Nov.
17) Class Presentations I
Week Thirteen (Nov. 19-28) FALL RECESS
Week Fifteen (Nov. 29) Class Presentations
II
(Dec. 1) Final Exam; Essays Due
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