NOTE:
Revision 2 4/7/2006
Note: all articles are available in hardcopy in the Serials
section of the Kuhn Library (second floor stacks) or via the library full-text
databases. Selected items will be "on reserve" via the
Blackboard Course Site.
Week 1 (Feb. 2):
--Introduction & Overview
Topics: Mechanics of course; overview of topics to be covered;
presentation of basic bibliographies and resources; Newton’s Principia
and Opticks as the foundation of Eighteenth century science.
Reading: Mason 23-24; Shapin entire (it's short);
Bowler 1-2.
Recommended: Secord, James A. "Newton in the Nursery: Tom Telescope and
the Philosophy of Tops and Balls." History of Science 23 (1985): 127-51.
Week 2 (Feb. 9):
-- Astronomy, mathematical physics
Topics: Clockwork solar system; mechanics of bodies in motion;
mathematics embodied.
Reading: Mason 25; Hankins 1-2.
Recommended: Olby, et al., Eds. Companion to the History of Modern
Science, Chapter 39, Schaffer, “Newtonianism.”
Week 3 (Feb. 16): -- Electricity,
magnetism, and heat
Topics: Newtonian fluids & macroscopic phenomena; Mr. Wizard &
witnessing.
Reading: Hankins 3.
Recommended: Schaffer, Simon. "Natural Philosophy and Public Spectacle in
the Eighteenth Century." History of Science 21 (1983): 1-43.
Week 4 (Feb. 23): -- Phlogiston theory and
the chemical revolution
Topics: Lavoisier and the New Chemistry
Reading: Mason 26; Hankins 4;
Bowler 3.
Recommended: Olby, et al., Eds. Companion to the History of Modern
Science, Chapter 17, Perrin, “The Chemical Revolution.”
Week 5 (March 2): -- The animal machine.
Topics: physiology, cell theory, embryology
Reading: Mason 29-32; Hankins 5;
Bowler 7.
Recommended: Olby, et al., Eds. Companion to the History of Modern
Science, Chapter 23, Maienschein, “Cell Theory and Development.”
EXAM # 1: March 9
Part Two: The
Industrious Century - science becomes a job
Week 6 (March 9):
-- The Observatory: factory work
Topics: The solar system expands; navigation by sea; imperial sciences
Reading: Harman 1-2.
Recommended: Sobel, Dana. Longitude: the True Story of a Lone Genius
Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time. New York: Penguin,
1996; Smith, Robert W. "The Cambridge Network in Action: the Discovery of
Neptune." Isis 80, no. 303 (1989): 395-424.
Week 7 (March 16): -- The Laboratory: bench
work
Topics: Chemistry & atomic theory; electricity & magnetism; light
Reading: Harman 3-6; Mason 36-39;
Bowler 4.
Recommended: Olby, et al., Eds. Companion to the History of Modern
Science, Chapter 22, Wise, “Electromagnetic Theory in the
Nineteenth Century.”; Chapter 21, Smith, “Energy.”
Spring Break March 23
Week 8 (March 30): -- Nature: field
work
Topics: Geology; measuring the earth-geodesy and geophysics
Reading: Mason 33; Coleman;
Bowler 5.
Recommended: Olby, et al., Eds. Companion to the History of Modern
Science, Chapter 20, Laudan, “The History of Geology, 1780-1840.”; Terrall, Mary. "Representing the Earth's Shape: the Polemics Surrounding
Maupertuis's Expedition to Lapland." Isis 83 (1992): 218-37.
Week 9 : (April 6)—Evolution: God’s work?
Topics: Process & discontinuity in theories of cosmological, geological
and biological development; origin of Species
Reading: Mason 28, 34; Coleman, continued;
Bowler 6-7, 15.
Recommended: Olby, et al., Eds. Companion to the History of Modern
Science, Chapter 50, Brooke, “Science and Religion.”
Exam # 2: April 13
Postponed to April 20
Part Three: The
Disorienting Century - science becomes pervasive and inscrutable
Week 10 (April 13):—Relativity theory and
quantum physics
Topics: the demise of Newtonian space and time; the strange world of the
quantum and the demise of Newtonian physics
Reading: Mason 43-44; Williams (appropriate sections);
Olby, et al., Eds. Companion to the History of Modern
Science, Chapter 29, Redhead, "Quantum Theory";
Bowler 11, 16.
Recommended: Hawking, Stephen. A Brief History of Time: From the Big
Bang to Black Holes. Toronto: Bantam, 1988. (also available on DVD)
Week 11 (April 20):-- The Expanding
Universe
Topics: cosmology, creation, and destiny
Reading: Mason 45; Williams (appropriate sections);
Bowler 12.
Recommended: Tatarewicz, Joseph N., "Astronomy and Astrophysics,"
and "Observatories", Collier's Encyclopedia 1997; Yourgrau, Wolfgang, and Allen duPont Breck,
Eds.,
Cosmology, History, and Theology. New York: Plenum, 1977.
Week 12 (April 27):-- Geology writ large -
the earth truly becomes a planet
Topics: Interior of earth; drifting continents; space exploration
Reading: Williams (appropriate sections); Pyne, Steve. "From the Grand
Canyon to the Marianas Trench: the Earth Sciences After Darwin." in
Nathan Reingold, Ed. The
Sciences in the American Context: New Perspectives. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1979,
pp. 165-92;
Bowler 9.
Recommended: Tatarewicz, Joseph N.,
"Planetary Science:
Disciplinary History"; "Space Science: Disciplinary History," in Gregory Good,
Ed., Sciences of the Earth: An Encyclopedia of events, people, and phenomena
(New York: Garland, 1999); Glen, William. The Road to Jaramillo. Critical Years in the
Revolution in Earth Sciences. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1982.
Week 13 (May 4):-- Life Science
Topics: evolution & heredity, biochemistry, molecular biology
Reading: Mason 42; Williams (appropriate sections);
Bowler 7-8, 18.
Recommended: Watson, James D. The Double Helix: a Personal Account of
the Discovery of the Structure of DNA. A Norton Critical Edition. New York:
Norton, 1980.
Week 14 (May 11): --Summary
& Review; Social Changes in Science & Technology post WW-II
Topics: The Cold War; defense mobilization of science & technology; the
baby boom and scientific & technical personnel.
Reading:
Tatarewicz, Joseph N. "Bush, Vannevar"; "Manhattan Project"; Office of
Scientific Research and Development"; "Science"; "Technology"; all in John W.
Jeffries, Editor, Volume 8 (1929-1945), Encyclopedia of American History
(New York: Facts on File, Inc., 2003);
Bowler 13-14, 17, 20-22.
Term Papers
DUE May 11
Final Exam
6:00-8:00 p.m. Thursday May 18, 2006
Revised
04/07/06
