When did the sciences become so technical that the general public saw them as beyond its grasp? What impact does that have on the scientists’ moral obligations?
This episode transports us to two conferences that can help us answer these questions. First, you will tag along with me to the History of Science Society (HSS) annual meeting that took place recently in Washington, DC. I’ll share with you some excerpts from Ted Porter’s fascinating lecture on “How Science Became Technical.”
Then, we’ll travel back a half-century to the first Pugwash Conference on Science and World Affairs, a remarkable event at which 21 eminent scientists – including Leo Szilard, Joseph Rotblat, and Herman Muller – met to discuss the threat posed to world peace by thermonuclear weapons.
Segment 1 – “How the Sciences Became Technical” at the History of Science Society meeting in Washington
- for further reading:
- Porter, Theodore M, Karl Pearson: The Scientific Life in a Statistical Age (Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 2005).
- Porter, Theodore M., Trust in Numbers: The Pursuit of Objectivity in Science and Public Life (Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1996).
- Porter, Theodore M., The Rise of Statistical Thinking, 1820-1900 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1988).
Segment 2 – Pugwash: Cold War Scientists and Nuclear Disarmament
- for further reading:
- Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, including two articles on Pugwash’s history:
- Mike Moore, “Forty Years of Pugwash,” (Nov/Dec 1997): 40-45.
- Metta Spencer, ” ‘Political’ Scientists,” (Jul/Aug 1995): 62-68.
- Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs
- Student Pugwash USA
- Richard Rhodes, The Making of the Atomic Bomb (Simon & Schuster, 1995).
- Jessica Wang, American Science in an Age of Anxiety: Scientists, Anticommunism and the Cold War (University of North Carolina Press, 1998).
- Joseph Rotblat, Pugwash: A History of the Conferences on Science and World Affairs (Prague: Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, 1967). No longer in print, but worth reading as a first-hand account by a key player.
- Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, including two articles on Pugwash’s history:
On the shelf:
Jim Endersby, A Guinea Pig’s History of Biology (Harvard UP, 2007).
Audio credits:
All music on this program courtesy of the Podsafe Music Network, except where noted.
- Sunburn in Cyprus, History (intro & outro)
- Happy Gemini 3, Pondering the 10th Planet (transitions)
- Science Groove, “Oxidative Phosphorylation” (following first segment)
- Leon McCawley, “Papillones Op. 2” (during second segment; courtesy of Magnatune)
- Mister Vague, “Miss Atom Bomb 1951” (following second segment)
The Missing Link 