A teachable element: chlorine as a touchstone for science studies

Abstract

This is an ambitious book that works on many levels. First and most obviously, it is an example of an ‘‘object biography.’’ Second, it can serve as an introduction to the discipline (or disciplines) of science and technology studies. Finally, it is an interesting pedagogical document, the product of an intriguing educational philosophy which treats undergraduate students as scholars capable of genuine original research. The editors state in their introduction that object biographies have become popular in recent years. Indeed, such basic substances as water, salt, oxygen, and phosphorus have been subjects of popular ‘‘biographies’’ over the last decade, some written by accomplished science writers, skilled at communicating scientific stories to a non-specialist audience. Most of these examples appeal to non-specialist readers interested in chemistry as well as scientists interested in historical and cultural aspects of their discipline. An Element of Controversy can be placed in this category, albeit closer to the scholarly than the popular in style and content. Each chapter, written by a different group of authors, focuses on a particular aspect of the story of chlorine. There are two main sections, within each of which the organization is roughly chronological. The first section treats aspects of chlorine in the context of theories of matter, and the second treats applications of chlorine in technology, medicine, and war. In the first section are chapters that treat chlorine with respect to the eighteenth century theory of phlogiston, the elementary status of chlorine, the role of chlorine in the saga of Prout’s hypothesis over much of the nineteenth century, and chlorine as a probe in the study of neutrinos. In the second, the development of bleaching technology in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the application of chlorine as a disinfectant in the middle nineteenth century, chlorine as a chemical weapon in the first World War and its role in subsequent treaties against chemical weapons, chlorine as a treatment for colds and