British Scientific Community Research Articles

Ernest Rutherford’s ambitions

One of the pioneers of radioactivity research, Rutherford feared his work would be overlooked—and changed his publishing strategies to make sure it wasn’t.

Chasing legacies: William Dampier and Joseph Banks in comparative perspective

ABSTRACT Much of the historiography of European encounters in the Pacific focuses on the period from 1768 onward, when the emerging British scientific community and the growing British Empire consolidated their relationship. In this arena, Joseph Banks remains the example par excellence, thanks to his participation in the Endeavour voyage and his central place in a wide-reaching network of botanists, artists, politicians, and patricians. Banks’ career and life after the Endeavour’s return until his death in 1820 is long and nuanced, deserving the growing body of scholarship dedicated to the intricate and expansive networks he grew. Such has been the focus on the period after 1770, however, that it is not merely pedantic to reinforce that the South Seas were a salient, if not quotidian, topic within British culture prior to 1768, when the Endeavour set sail for Tahiti. This article, therefore, is concerned less with the legacies of Banks and the Endeavour and more with the legacies he chased and the discourses he entered into when he joined the Transit expedition. It will compare Banks’ experiences with shipboard botany and publication with those of William Dampier, who sailed at the turn of the eighteenth century.

Raphael Meldola and the Nineteenth-Century Neo-Darwinians

Raphael Meldola (1849–1915), an industrial chemist and keen naturalist, under the influence of Darwin, brought new German studies on evolution by natural selection that appeared in the 1870s to the attention of the British scientific community. Meldola’s special interest was in mimicry among butterflies; through this he became a prominent neo-Darwinian. His wide-ranging achievements in science led to appointments as president of important professional scientific societies, and of a local club of like-minded amateurs, particularly field naturalists. This is an account of Meldola’s early scientific connections and studies related to entomology and natural selection, his contributions to the study of mimicry, and his promotion in the mid-1890s of a more theory driven approach among entomologists.

The Vivisection of the Snark

As popular writer for children, Lewis Carroll grew adept at subverting the A paternalist logic which subordinated children to the whims of their powerful elders. This concern with the plight of the powerless extended into other areas as well, and in the 1870s Carroll became increasingly concerned about the use of animals as objects for study in English physiological laboratories. As public debate over the ethics of animal experimentation grew more heated, the Oxford logician turned his analytic skills to the subject of vivisection. Anatomizing the logic which justified the accumulation of scientific knowledge at any cost, Carroll made significant contribution to the developing literature of animal rights. While Carroll was writing up his antivivisection pieces for the popular press, he was also engaged in the composition of his most ambitious nonsense poem, The Hunting of the Snark (1876). In this poem Carroll renders the scientific quest for knowledge and power as an absurd sea journey, in which an eccentric cross-section of English professionals set off in search of an elusive hybrid creature. There is much in the poem to suggest that Carroll's Agony in Eight Fits was his subversively nonsensical response to the agonies of the vivisection laboratory being vividly evoked in contemporary papers, journals, and pamphlets. While Carroll's mock-ballad has been read as an economic allegory, as parody of the Imperial nations' Race for the Poles, and even as an exploration of the rational philosophical tradition in Western thought, the poem has not been considered in relation to its most immediate social and scientific context, the vivisection controversy in which its author was so deeply embroiled. (1) As with the eclectic language of the social critical tradition employed by other antivivisectionist writers, The Hunting of the Snark brings variety of discourses and perspectives to bear on the allegedly disinterested disciplines in the burgeoning life sciences. In the process Carroll's poem exposes the close ties between professional advancement and the advancement of science, between the accumulation of knowledge and the accumulation of wealth and power. In response to growing public concern over the morality of experimental operations on live animals, Royal Commission investigation into the practice of vivisection was announced on May 24, 1875. Over the ensuing months testimony was gathered from laypersons and experts representing diverse spectrum of opinion on the topic. While spokespersons of the growing British scientific community testified alongside theologians, medical practitioners, politicians, and animal welfare advocates, it was clear that, in many respects, science itself was on trial. More specifically, the matter at issue was the right of scientists to pursue their research unhindered by State intervention or public scrutiny, even when the specific nature of that research was ethically questionable, and as such the investigation represents an important chapter in the history of scientific modernity. The closed doors of the physiological laboratory were opened to public inquiry in way that implicitly challenged the purity of the scientific pursuit of knowledge. Bruno Latour has argued that live in communities whose social bond comes from objects fabricated in laboratories; ideas have been replaced by practices, ... and universal agreement by groups of colleagues. (2) In basing our social actions on knowledge achieved in controlled experimental environments designed to exclude human bias, we agree to live in a world in which the representation of things through the intermediary of the laboratory is forever dissociated from the representation of citizens through the intermediary of the social contract (p. 27). Central to the model of scientific modernity advanced by Latour is the space of the laboratory as site for the production of knowledge, space that can only produce facts as long as its conditions remain pure and uncontaminated. …

The Nobel laureate Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman FRS and his contacts with the British scientific community in a social and political context

The Indian Nobel laureate Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman FRS (18887–1970) interacted closely with the British scientific community. He was elected a Fellow of The Royal Society in 1924, was knighted by the Colonial Government in 1929 and was awarded the Hughes Medal by The Royal Society in 1930. With the help of unpublished letters and newspaper clips, we show the influence of Raman's British physics professor on his life. Next we discuss how Raman came in contact with influential British men of science, who nominated him for the Fellowship of the Royal Society. Then we explore the ways in which he promoted Indian science by nominating his countrymen for Fellowship of the Society. Last, we describe how, in 1943–44, the Secretary of The Royal Society visited India to hold a historic meeting and for various reasons Raman did not take part in it.

Mary Somerville: science, illumination, and the female mind

In an era when science was perceived as a male domain, Mary Somerville (1780–1872) became both the leading woman scientist of her day and an integral part of the British scientific community. She achieved this status through careful management of her gender identity and by creating rich, readable, and authoritative accounts of science that were rhetorically compelling, aesthetically satisfying, and valuable to the scientific community in the UK and abroad. This biography offers detailed analysis of the underlying patterns, themes, and rhetorical strategies of her major works and argues that Somerville employed a transcendent feminine style that retained the advantages but transcended the limitations usually associated with women's ways of knowing. The book advocates a new narrative for women's participation in science and demonstrates the many ways that gender relates to science and science functions in culture.

U.K. Unveils 'Brain Gain' Initiative

Last week, U.K. Trade and Industry minister Stephen Byers announced a $6 million a year program to lure as many as 50 research stars to the country or persuade others who might accept lucrative offers from abroad to remain in Great Britain. The initiative is the latest in a series of moves in the past few weeks aimed at buoying up the British scientific community.

War of words: the public science of the British scientific community and the origins of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, 1914–16

In late 1916 the British Government finally bowed to pressure from scientists and sympathetic elements of the public to organize and fund science centrally and established the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR). Since just before the turn of the century state funding for science had steadily increased: the National Physical Laboratory was established in 1899, the Development Commission in 1909 and the Medical Research Committee in 1913. The establishment of the DSIR marked an end to piecemeal support and it was therefore a watershed when the statefinally accepted its responsibility to fund science properly, to develop a coherent science policy and thus recognise that science and scientists were crucial components of modern national life; not just in wartime, but in the development of the peacetime economy as well.At least this is how the history of the DSIR is currently still represented. The following analysis is more sensitive than previous treatments as it points out that the state's organization of a centrally planned and funded national policy for science began before the DSIR, and that this new body (in its support of pure research) reflected priorities established before the outbreak of the war. In previous accounts the DSIR was presented as a total break with the laissez-faire past. So, as historians we no longer follow the special pleading of the contemporary science lobby in arguing that the state was deaf to the needs of modern science. However, I want to argue that we are still deaf to the wider concerns of this contemporary pro-science rhetoric, which argued not only for centrally planned and funded science, but also often that scientists themselves should make policy for science.

The Politics of Experiment in the Eighteenth Century: The Pursuit of Audience and the Manipulation of Consensus in the Debate over Lightning Rods

The shape and use of lightning rods sparked debate within the British scientific community in the third quarter of the eighteenth century. A simple investigation into the efficacy of blunted versus pointed conductors to safeguard public buildings from thunder bolts soon escalated into a vitriolic dispute driven not only by the conflicting personal and professional interests of some of the most prodigious scientific thinkers of the day, but also by the political preoccupations of late eighteenth-century England. Indeed, this overt politicization of the issue was unavoidable. For the whole lightning-rod controversy was not just about the intrinsic superiority of one theory and practice over another. It was rooted largely in, and shaped by, struggles over defining and controlling the legitimate social and physical settings in which the controversy could be resolved, in order to create (or enforce) a consensus among those social bodies considered to be relevant and credible. The entire issue was intensified by the historical context in which the study of electricity was imbued with considerable cultural import by contemporaries because of what they hoped it would reveal about God's design for the universe and the rational reorganization of human society in the Age of Enlightenment.1 In an increasingly diversified world where the

U.S. technological enthusiasm and British technological skepticism in the age of the analog brain

This article is a comparative analysis of the British and U.S. differential analyzers from 1930 to 1945. The author examines the development of the Vannevar Bush and D.R. Hartree analyzers in the context of the U.S. Engineering community and British scientific community, respectively. He argues that this practical machine was more readily and enthusiastically adopted by U.S. Engineers, while British scientists remained skeptical of the differential analyzer due to their theoretical professional style. As a result, Hartree was a "voice in the wilderness" in Britain, while Bush received extensive funding and had the support of an enthusiastic engineering environment.

National research systems and change: the reaction of the British and German research systems to the discovery of High-T c superconductors

This paper deals with a comparison of the reaction of the German and British research system to the discovery of High-Temperature Superconductors (HTS). The main differences in the formation of HTS policy is that the German scientific community was far more successful in achieving its objectives in the policy process than the British scientific community. The paper analyzes this difference using general policy process concepts like pluralism, corporatism, and policy networks analysis. The thesis is that together with a general change in the national policy style the science system in Britain shifted from a pressure pluralism network with interest domination to a state-directed network. Germany on the other hand exhibits a corporatist network structure in general as in science policy where interests are smoothly brought together and participate in the policy formation. This is shown for the particular case of the superconductivity networks in the two countries.

British Scientists and the Bomb: The Decisions of 1980

THE BRITISH CONSERVATIVE GOVERNMENT ELECTED IN MAY 1979 had, by August 1980, taken three decisions in respect of nuclear weapons and civil defence which in portent had had few peacetime parallels. These decisions naturally had a technical as well as a political dimension yet, until at least the spring of 1981, the involvement of the British scientific community in public discussion of the underlying issues remained negligible. No similar decisions could be taken, or even contemplated, in the United States without provoking a response both substantial and professional from American scientists. How does one explain the attitude, or lack of it, in this context of their British counterparts? Why, when these decisions were announced, did British scientists behave, or appear to behave, as political eunuchs? Are there no matters which rouse them to political involvement? Or are they perhaps more politically effective precisely because they pursue a low-profile course? These questions are important and it is worth trying to answer them. Before attempting to do so, however, it will be helpful both to identify the British decisions of 1979–80 referred to above, and also to outline such reaction to them on the part of the British technical community as had, in fact, occurred by the spring of 1981.

Prosopography as a research tool in history of science: the British scientific community 1700-1900.

Prosopography as a research tool in history of science: the British scientific community 1700-1900.

"Special obligations" of the scientist

The question of the social conscience and responsibilities of scientists and engineers has been punctuated with much talk but little real action on their part. Last week's formation in London of the Council for Science and Society may help change all that. CSS's main aim, as reported in The Washington Post , is to try to identify areas of research in science and technology which could have important social consequences for good or ill, but which are not yet fully explored; to study these objectively; to attempt to foresee what their consequences might be; whether they could be controlled and how; and to publish responsible reports designed to stimulate wide public debate . . . . In this way it hopes to foster an active corporate social conscience in which the British scientific community can work. That's a tall order. But if the credentials of the council members mean anything in this sort of activity, they ...

The Natural History of Industry

Previous articleNext article No AccessThe Natural History of IndustryCharles C. GillispieCharles C. Gillispie Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Isis Volume 48, Number 4Dec., 1957 Publication of the History of Science Society Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/348606 Views: 19Total views on this site Citations: 22Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1957 History of Science Society, Inc.PDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Agustí Nieto-Galan The Politics of Chemistry, 29 (Aug 2019).https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108687614 Conclusion: The Moral Ambiguity of Chemistry, (Aug 2019): 216–235.https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108687614.011Ernst Homburg Chemistry and Industry: A Tale of Two Moving Targets, Isis 109, no.33 (Sep 2018): 565–576.https://doi.org/10.1086/699986Yung Sik Kim “Natural Theology of Industry” in Seventeenth-Century China?: Ideas About the Role of Heaven in Production Techniques in Song Yingxing’s Heaven’s Work in Opening Things (Tiangong kaiwu), (Dec 2011): 197–214.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2627-7_12Julia V. Douthwaite, Daniel Richter The Frankenstein of the French Revolution: Nogaret’s automaton tale of 1790, European Romantic Review 20, no.33 (Jul 2009): 381–411.https://doi.org/10.1080/10509580902986369Tamás Szmrecsányi Periodization Problems in the Economic History of Science and Technology, Investigaciones de Historia Económica 5, no.1515 (Jan 2009): 47–73.https://doi.org/10.1016/S1698-6989(09)70119-5Paul Forman The Primacy of Science in Modernity, of Technology in Postmodernity, and of Ideology in the History of Technology, History and Technology 23, no.1-21-2 (Mar 2007): 1–152.https://doi.org/10.1080/07341510601092191Aniruddha Bose Science and Technology in India: The Digression of Asia and Europe, History Compass 5, no.22 (Mar 2007): 375–385.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1478-0542.2007.00417.xAgustí Nieto-Galan Natural Dyestuffs and the Kingdoms of Nature, (Jan 2001): 1–41.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-1081-7_1Sungook Hong Historiographical layers in the relationship between science and technology, History and Technology 15, no.44 (Jan 1999): 289–311.https://doi.org/10.1080/07341519908581950Paul Lucier Court and controversy: patenting science in the nineteenth century, The British Journal for the History of Science 29, no.22 (Jan 2009): 139–154.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007087400034191Terence Kealey Dr Pangloss was Right, (Jan 1996): 303–353.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-24667-0_12Dan Ch. Christensen The Ørsted-Ritter partnership and the birth of Romantic natural philosophy, Annals of Science 52, no.22 (Aug 2006): 153–185.https://doi.org/10.1080/00033799500200161Barbara Whitney Keyser Between science and craft: The case of berthollet and dyeing, Annals of Science 47, no.33 (Sep 2006): 213–260.https://doi.org/10.1080/00033799000200211Carleton E. Perrin Of theory shifts and industrial innovations: The relations of J. A. C. Chaptal and A. L. Lavoisier, Annals of Science 43, no.66 (Aug 2006): 511–542.https://doi.org/10.1080/00033798600200351H. E. Le Grand Theory and application: the early chemical work of J. A. C. Chaptal, The British Journal for the History of Science 17, no.11 (Jan 2009): 31–46.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007087400020343Rachel Laudan Introduction, (Jan 1984): 1–26.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-7699-4_1Janis Langins Hydrogen production for ballooning during the French Revolution: An early example of chemical process development, Annals of Science 40, no.66 (Aug 2006): 531–558.https://doi.org/10.1080/00033798300200381Janis Langins The Decline of Chemistry at the Ecole Polytechnique (1794–1805), Ambix 28, no.11 (Nov 2013): 1–19.https://doi.org/10.1179/amb.1981.28.1.1Arthur Donovan British Chemistry and the Concept of Science in the Eighteenth Century, Albion 7, no.22 (Jul 2014): 131–144.https://doi.org/10.2307/4048226Steven Shapin, Arnold Thackray Prosopography as a Research Tool in History of Science: The British Scientific Community 1700–1900, History of Science 12, no.11 (Jul 2016): 1–28.https://doi.org/10.1177/007327537401200102 I. Bernard Cohen , and Katharine Strelsky Eighty-Third Critical Bibliography of the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (To 1 January 1958), Isis 49, no.22 (Oct 2015): 179–296.https://doi.org/10.1086/348672