A Geohistorical Study of ‘The Rise of Modern Science’: Mapping Scientific Practice Through Urban Networks, 1500–1900

Using data on the ‘career’ paths of one thousand ‘leading scientists’ from 1450 to 1900, what is conventionally called the ‘rise of modern science’ is mapped as a changing geography of scientific practice in urban networks. Four distinctive networks of scientific practice are identified. A primate network centred on Padua and central and northern Italy in the sixteenth century expands across the Alps to become a polycentric network in the seventeenth century, which in turn dissipates into a weak polycentric network in the eighteenth century. The nineteenth century marks a huge change of scale as a primate network centred on Berlin and dominated by German-speaking universities. These geographies are interpreted as core-producing processes in Wallerstein’s modern world-system; the rise of modern scientific practice is central to the development of structures of knowledge that relate to, but do not mirror, material changes in the system.

The impact of an open campus program upon high school students' sense of control over their environment

Students in an experimental and a control high school were compared in the fall and spring on their Locus of Control scores. An Open Campus policy was instituted in the experimental school, which essentially gave its upperclassmen the same freedom and responsibilities as those of a community college student. The experimentals increased significantly more than controls in internal control. Students reported that the Open Campus experience led to: after school jobs, greater time to pursue own interests, feelings of freedom, autonomy, and responsibility, a decline in grades due to “goofing off,” and less time for social activities.