Instructor:  Dr. Matthew ADAMSON

Required Texts: A class reader available in room 222, and various readings, to be distributed throughout the semester
 

Course Overview

What is science? How do we acquire scientific knowledge? Are scientific organizations and conduct unique? This course will trace the history of science from the Scientific Revolution of the 16th century to the state of science at the end of the twentieth century. It will examine both primary texts written by scientists whose ideas were crucial to the development of modern science, and secondary texts written by important historians, sociologists, and philosophers of science. The course term paper will ask students to assess the usefulness of biography in the history of science by studying a scientific figure of their choice.

Week by Week

Week 1: in class: Introduction
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Week 2:
in class: The Scientific Method and the scientific community I
in class: The Scientific Method and the scientific community II
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Week 3: Essay 1 Copernicus/Galileo essay due
in class: The Scientific Revolution
in class: Scientific Academies
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Week 4: in class: Isaac Newton and Newtonianism
Fictional diary + biography due
in class: Enlightenment Science: Who? Where? How? Why?
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Week 5: in class: Voyages of Scientific Discovery
Essay 2 Lavoisier essay due
in class: The Chemical Revolution
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Week 6: in class: from Electricity and Magnetism to Electromagnetism + Thermodynamics, or, Of Steam and Scientists
Essay 3 The Reichenstalt essay due
in class: The Germans: universities, national institutes
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Week 7: mid-term week
in class: exam review
in class: mid-term
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Week 8: In class: Geology, or, the earth moves under our feet
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Week 9: in class: Darwin
Term paper proposal due
in class: Radioactivity; Quanta
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Week 10: in class: Einstein and scientific revolution
Essay 4 Something from quantum physics/mechanics essay due
in class: Quantum mechanics and the philosopher-scientists
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Week 11: in class: Science, the military, and industry
in class: Machine-science: particle physics and astronomy
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Week 12: Term paper outline due
in class: The Drosophilists-of milk-jugs, mushed bananas and genetics
in class: Guest lecture
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Week 13: in class: Science, WWII, and the Manhattan Project
Essay 5 Weinberg essay due
in class: Big Science
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Week 14: Optional term paper draft
in class: The postwar American physicist and the security state
in class: Ecology and contemporary life sciences
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Week 15: Student presentations
Term paper due
exam review
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