history of science

Introduction:

I've planned to make this page for a long time, but I kept putting it off because I couldn't figure out the scope. There are many distinct yet overlapping academic disciplines (history and philosohpy of science, history of science and technology, history of medicine, sociology of scientific knowledge, science and technology studies, among others) that address subjects I'm interested in, but I don't care to narrow it down and follow a syllabus. Instead, I've decided to cast a wide net, read whatever catches my eye, and focus on better organization into subtopics later.

Classes I've taken occassionaly name drop a scientist or two in context of one particularly elegant or paradigm-shifting experiment they performed (or designed), but little else is said about the people who are doing the science or what led them to do things the way they did. I want to know more about the lives of scientists, about the laboratory as a social unit, and about the history of academia and industry. I live and work as a biologist, so, selfishly, I am most interested in a biologist's place in history and society.

Please keep in mind that I am a student of these topics, not an expert!

Content warning: I expect that many of these texts will be unpleasant. The history of science, like the history of any other subject, is rife with racism and sexism. I want to confront the history of eugenics (something I'm frustrated that my education in genetics at both the undergraduate and graduate level has failed to do), and as such I plan to read the work of eugenicists. It is because of my love of science, not in spite of it, that I want to address this honestly. More specific warnings will be added as I read and review these works.

Reading list:

The introduction might have you believe that my study is totally self-directed, but in truth it's guided mostly by what has been available at my local used book stores. Below, you'll find a list of some of the books I own, plus some books that I don't have physical copies of but have wanted to read for a long time. As I read them, each entry will be updated with my commentary.

1665 - Micrographia: or Some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies Made by Magnifying Glasses. With Observations and Inquiries Thereupon. by Robert Hooke

1859 - On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life by Charles Darwin

1931 - The History of Science and the New Humanism by George Sarton

1937 - A Short History of Chemistry by J.R. Partington

1952 - Science and Hypothesis by Henri Poincaré

1962 - The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas S. Kuhn

1964 - A Short History of Biology by Isaac Asimov

1965 - A Short History of Chemistry by Isaac Asimov

1968 - The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA by James D. Watson

1970 - Chance and Necessity: An Essay on the Natural Philosophy of Modern Biology by Jacques Monod

1982 - Between Science and Values by Loren R. Graham

1988 - What Mad Pursuit: A Personal View of Scientific Discovery by Frances Crick