Mary Boole and curve stitching: a look into heaven

Mary Everest Boole had a lifelong interest in the unconscious mind, the psychology of learning, and how these relate to the teaching of mathematics and science. She recommended many practical exercises and teaching aids, one of which was the technique of curve stitching, which she had invented while still a child herself.     

论科学家的科学责任与社会责任

文章从伦理学、社会学和法学等多学科理论视角出发 ,深入分析了科学家承担科学责任与社会责任的理论依据 ;在阐述其责任范围的同时 ,明确地提出了“履责”、“补责”和“受罚”是其应承担的主要责任形式     

蒲慕明:做一个有品德的科学家

科学家不是生存在真空中,而是生活在一个社会里。一个有品德的科学家才能受学术界和社会的尊重,他的工作才使人信服。有品德的科学家是严谨的、讲公德的、有诚信的、尊重事实并捍卫真理的。不要有了结果,即使数据靠不住,自己都不能信服的东西,也要出文章。今年这文章出了,下面做不下去了,别人不能重复,那你的名声就毁了。不要因为眼前要出一篇文章,将来后患无穷。严谨态度要从小事做起,你到公用实验室使用仪器,该签名时就签,应该怎样操作就怎样操作,要守规矩。图省事、走“捷径”和占小便宜,成了习惯,最后就会犯大错。我们在学习阶段,就要培…     

科学家的社会责任——以“曼哈顿计划”为例

本文用科学社会学和科学社会史的方法 ,回顾了“二次大战”盟国实施“曼哈顿计划”的经过 ,藉此探讨科学家的社会责任     

The Bayh-Dole Act and scientist entrepreneurship

Much of the literature examining the impact of the Bayh-Dole Act has been based on the impact on patenting and licensing activities emanating from offices of technology transfer. Studies based on data generated by offices of technology transfer, suggest a paucity of entrepreneurial activity from university scientists in the form on new startups. There are, however, compelling reasons to suspect that the TTO generated data may not measure all, or even most of scientist entrepreneurship. Rather than relying on measures of scientist entrepreneurship reported by the TTO and compiled by AUTM, this study instead develops alternative measures based on the commercialization activities reported by scientists. In particular, the purpose of this paper is to provide a measure of scientist entrepreneurship and identify which factors are conducive to scientist entrepreneurship and which factors inhibit scientist entrepreneurship. This enables us to compare how scientist entrepreneurship differs from that which has been established in the literature for the more general population. We do this by developing a new database measuring the propensity of scientists funded by grants from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to commercialize their research as well as the mode of commercialization. We then subject this new university scientist-based data set to empirical scrutiny to ascertain which factors influence both the propensity for scientists to become an entrepreneur. The results suggest that scientist entrepreneurship may be considerably more robust than has generally been indicated in studies based on TTO data.     

Vivisecting Major: a Victorian gentleman scientist defends animal experimentation, 1876-1885

Through an investigation of the public, professional, and private life of the Darwinian disciple George John Romanes, this essay seeks a better understanding of the scientific motivations for defending the practice of vivisection at the height of the controversy in late Victorian Britain. Setting aside a historiography that has tended to focus on the arguments of antivivisectionists, it reconstructs the viewpoint of the scientific community through an examination of Romanes's work to help orchestrate the defense of animal experimentation. By embedding his life in three complicatedly overlapping networks-the world of print, interpersonal communications among an increasingly professionalized body of scientific men, and the intimacies of private life-the essay uses Romanes as a lens with which to focus the physiological apprehension of the antivivisection movement. It is a story of reputation, self-interest, and affection.     

A scientist in public: Werner Heisenberg after 1945

What sorts of public roles were open to scientists after World War II? Werner Heisenberg, 1932 Nobel laureate in physics, became a prominent figure on the West German public stage. His activity was not confined to science policy, but encompassed certain broader political interventions as well as a notable cultural presence. These postwar years offer interesting insights into Heisenberg as an individual, and his case provides a perspective on the character of scientists' public prominence.     

"Every boy & girl a scientist": instruments for children in interwar Britain

Historians of science have identified toys as part of their subject's material culture, but there has been little exploration of the production and use of educational or playful objects. Moreover, academic writing on science for children has focused on the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This essay argues that our understanding of historical science education can be enhanced by exploring twentieth-century instruments. It uses the example of Construments sets, with which children could build a wide variety of optical instruments from a series of standardized parts. Invented by C. W. Hansel, a school science master, Construments were founded in and responded to contemporary educational practices and debates over "general science," as well as addressing characteristic interwar concerns about adaptability and economy and older ideals of rational entertainment. By exploring the company's instruments, promotional literature, and magazine, and by drawing on the memories of contemporary users, I reconstruct the contexts in which Construments were used, emphasizing the creation of heterogeneous communities vital for the transmission of skills and knowledge.     

Pedagogy and performativity: Rendering laboratory lives in the documentary "Naturally obsessed: the making of a scientist"

A recently released documentary on life in a protein crystallography laboratory offers an exemplary opportunity to examine how a popular account of scientific training models narrowly defined norms of masculinity and mentorship and simultaneously sets these as the tacit conditions for success in science. Rather than treating this documentary as a good or bad representation of what life in the lab is actually like, this analysis draws attention to how the scientists featured in the film perform for the camera and how the filmmakers splice together the action to animate an engaging story. This essay shows how this popular and widely circulating documentary frames science as a game to be won and stages scientific success on an agonistic playing field. Those who can "make it" are those who are tough enough and those who are willing and able to get entangled in the taunting, jesting, and jostling relationships that appear to be required for mentorship in this lab. The essay argues that this documentary tethers this model of success in science to restrictive norms of masculinity and in so doing promotes a pedagogical culture that fosters competition, rivalry, and ritualized shame. Feminist theories of performativity are engaged to consider the iterative processes through which narrowly circumscribed masculinities and styles of pedagogy are sedimented and naturalized. This essay aims to spur renewed attention to the care historians and anthropologists might take to examine the often hidden tropes that are lurking inside the stories about science that we find so salient.     

Maiden voyage of a novel research ship

Shiyan-1, a new research vessel of CAS, recently accomplished its first official journey in South China Sea. CAS leaders, including CAS President LU Yongxiang and CAS Vice President JIANG Mianheng, were present at the ceremony marking its maiden voyage held on 9 May in Sanya City, south China＇s Hainan Province.     

International scientist mobility and the locus of knowledge and technology transfer

Despite the growing interest of scholars and policymakers to better understand the determinants for researchers in public science to transfer knowledge and technology to firms, little is known how temporary international mobility of scientists affects both their propensity to engage in knowledge and technology transfer (KTT) as well as the locus of such transfer. Based on a sample of more than 950 German academics from science and engineering faculties, we investigate how the duration and the frequency of scientists’ visits at research institutions outside their home country affect KTT activities. We find that most mobile scientists engage in KTT to firms both in the host and in their home country, suggesting that KTT activities to firms abroad do not substitute or crowd out, but complement KTT to firms in the home country. We further find that the longer research visits abroad are, the higher the likelihood that scientists engage in KTT to firms, again both in the host and the home country. However, the more frequently scientists visit institutions abroad, the more likely they are to engage in KTT to firms only in their home country. Our results therefore provide evidence for the benefits of “brain circulation”. The article contributes to the growing strand of the literature on scientist mobility and on the determinants of industry-science linkages at the individual level.