history of science

Ozempic is the Latest Vain Pursuit of a Scientific Solution to Addiction

by Simon Torracinta

Now that the diabetes drug has been used off-label to suppress appetite, scientists are speculating about its use to suppress neurological aspects of addictive behavior. History suggests this is misguided. 

Science Historian: Apollo 11 Quarantine after Moon Landing For Show

Dagomar DeGroot's research shows that NASA scientists were aware of the tiny, but potentially catastrophic, risk of moon-earth contamination, and that quarantining the spacecraft and crew would do little to mitigate the risk but could convince the public that authorities were taking precautions. 

There's Never Been a Right Way to Read

by Adrian Johns

The intellectual work and play of reading has always competed with other demands on attention; only recently have science and commerce converged to sell remedies for distraction and proprietary methods for reading. 

Medical Drawings of Pregnancy Have Centered Fetuses and Uteruses—While Erasing Women

Early depictions of the fetus in utero—imaginative as much as descriptive—were a boon to obstetric medicine, but also placed the fetus above the mother in terms of the medical system's concern, contends medical historian Rebecca Whiteley

Racist Interpretations of Human Evolution Remain Prevalent in Popular Culture, Museums, and Textbooks

by Rui Diogo

Science has never been immune from the prejudices and assumptions of the society around it. Much of the received wisdom about human origins and evolution rests on flawed assumptions about group hierarchies. 

Stephen Hawking to Collaborator: "Brief History of Time" was All Wrong

Now, five years after the prominent cosmologist's death, his collaborator Thomas Hertog will release a book updating the wildly popular book that explained cutting-edge theories of the origins of the universe to the reading public. 

Scientists: The Unsung Heroes of the American West

by Elliott West

From animal husbandry to epidemiology, the work of scientists was critical to America's conquest of the west, while the region also provided critical evidence in the debate over Darwin's theory of natural selection. 

Origin Stories: How Science Invented the Idea of Race

The Science History Institute presents a new podcast series on the development of the idea of race in the context of Enlightement, colonialism and empire. 

Exxon's Scientists Predicted Warming for Decades While Exxon Executives Sowed Doubt

Predictions made by Exxon's own scientists beginning in the 1970s accurately tracked the actual progress of subsequent warming, and those scientists explicitly contradicted dismissals of anthropogenic climate change linked to fossil fuels. 

Historians of Science: What Exxon Knew About Oil and the Climate, and When

Exxon Mobil's internal documents show that since the late 1970s the company's researchers agreed with academic scientists' predictions of global warming—but continued for decades to pretend that the science was too uncertain to justify constraining the industry. 

Today's Tech Bro and the Victorian Genius Both Reflect a False Narrative of Progress

by Iwan Rhys Morus

The cults of "disruption" and genius obscure the fact that innovation is typically cooperative, and dependent on a society that sustains and implements new knowledge. 

Human Geneticists Begin Moving Away from Using "Race" to Identify Human Populations

Recognizing the social construction of "race" categories, geneticists have largely stopped using the term. Is this because they have abandoned the idea of profound divisions among human populations, or have they adapted other terminology to perform the same function? 

Physicist's Side Project: 1,750 Wikipedia Bios for Overlooked Women Scientists

Popular understanding of the history of science and the contemporary role of women in STEM is undermined by the further underrepresentation of women in Wikipedia biography pages. Jess Wade is working to change that. 

How Fossil Fuel Dollars Warped University Climate Research

Fossil fuel profit "secures favorable white papers, journals, societies, public-policy comments, courtroom testimony, and front groups that attack what the industry sees as damaging science," copying the 1950s playbook of the tobacco industry with more money and higher stakes. 

Just Wear Your Smile: The Gender Politics of Positive Psychology

by Micki McElya

Positive Psychology, a supposed science of producing happiness, is part of a multibillion-dollar publishing market. Unfortunately, it's helped enshrine patriarchal values into the popular practice of psychology. 

Steven Shapin on the Trust Inherent in Science

The historian of science has examined the social relationships of credibility that must prevail for scientific expertise to exist, and also critiqued the evolving conventions of wine-tasting terminology from "Old BS" to "New BS." 

Review: Scientific Thought and Windows on Reality

by Philip Kitcher

The fierce debates over vaccines, masking, and other COVID mitigations have unsettled the security of "science" as a source of authoritative knowledge. A new book discusses the long debates about how scientific knowledge is produced, and how it becomes "The Science." 

What if Mental Illness Isn't All In Your Head?

by Marco Ramos

A historian of mental health reviews two new books and concludes that pharmaceutical and neurological approaches to mental health have failed and it's time to turn the lens onto society.

Dog Breed Stereotypes are Poor Guides to Behavior; Historian Explains Why they Are So Common

Science Historian Michael Worboys explains that the Victorian craze for dog breeding enshrined both a focus on dogs' outward appearances and the idea that heredity was all-important to a dog's quality, leading to frequent disappointment for owners who find their pets don't fit expectations. 

These Books Tell of Change Happening Slowly, then Suddenly

Historians Lynn Hunt, Adam Hochschild, Kate Clifford-Larse and Keenaga-Yamahtta Taylor are among the authors whose books dig beneath the surface of famous leaders to describe how social movements built the strength to change laws, institutions and ideas.