The Scientific Life

The Scientific Life PDF Author: Steven Shapin
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226750175
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 488

Get Book Here

Book Description
Who are scientists? What kind of people are they? What capacities and virtues are thought to stand behind their considerable authority? They are experts—indeed, highly respected experts—authorized to describe and interpret the natural world and widely trusted to help transform knowledge into power and profit. But are they morally different from other people? The Scientific Life is historian Steven Shapin’s story about who scientists are, who we think they are, and why our sensibilities about such things matter. Conventional wisdom has long held that scientists are neither better nor worse than anyone else, that personal virtue does not necessarily accompany technical expertise, and that scientific practice is profoundly impersonal. Shapin, however, here shows how the uncertainties attending scientific research make the virtues of individual researchers intrinsic to scientific work. From the early twentieth-century origins of corporate research laboratories to the high-flying scientific entrepreneurship of the present, Shapin argues that the radical uncertainties of much contemporary science have made personal virtues more central to its practice than ever before, and he also reveals how radically novel aspects of late modern science have unexpectedly deep historical roots. His elegantly conceived history of the scientific career and character ultimately encourages us to reconsider the very nature of the technical and moral worlds in which we now live. Building on the insights of Shapin’s last three influential books, featuring an utterly fascinating cast of characters, and brimming with bold and original claims, The Scientific Life is essential reading for anyone wanting to reflect on late modern American culture and how it has been shaped.

The Scientific Life

The Scientific Life PDF Author: Steven Shapin
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226750175
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 488

Get Book Here

Book Description
Who are scientists? What kind of people are they? What capacities and virtues are thought to stand behind their considerable authority? They are experts—indeed, highly respected experts—authorized to describe and interpret the natural world and widely trusted to help transform knowledge into power and profit. But are they morally different from other people? The Scientific Life is historian Steven Shapin’s story about who scientists are, who we think they are, and why our sensibilities about such things matter. Conventional wisdom has long held that scientists are neither better nor worse than anyone else, that personal virtue does not necessarily accompany technical expertise, and that scientific practice is profoundly impersonal. Shapin, however, here shows how the uncertainties attending scientific research make the virtues of individual researchers intrinsic to scientific work. From the early twentieth-century origins of corporate research laboratories to the high-flying scientific entrepreneurship of the present, Shapin argues that the radical uncertainties of much contemporary science have made personal virtues more central to its practice than ever before, and he also reveals how radically novel aspects of late modern science have unexpectedly deep historical roots. His elegantly conceived history of the scientific career and character ultimately encourages us to reconsider the very nature of the technical and moral worlds in which we now live. Building on the insights of Shapin’s last three influential books, featuring an utterly fascinating cast of characters, and brimming with bold and original claims, The Scientific Life is essential reading for anyone wanting to reflect on late modern American culture and how it has been shaped.

First Contact

First Contact PDF Author: Marc Kaufman
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 143910901X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 226

Get Book Here

Book Description
Kaufman details the incredible true story of science's search for the beginnings of life on Earth and the probability that it exists elsewhere in the universe.

Laboratory Life

Laboratory Life PDF Author: Bruno Latour
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400820413
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 295

Get Book Here

Book Description
This highly original work presents laboratory science in a deliberately skeptical way: as an anthropological approach to the culture of the scientist. Drawing on recent work in literary criticism, the authors study how the social world of the laboratory produces papers and other "texts,"' and how the scientific vision of reality becomes that set of statements considered, for the time being, too expensive to change. The book is based on field work done by Bruno Latour in Roger Guillemin's laboratory at the Salk Institute and provides an important link between the sociology of modern sciences and laboratory studies in the history of science.

Life, the Universe and the Scientific Method

Life, the Universe and the Scientific Method PDF Author: Steven A. Benner
Publisher: Ffame Press
ISBN: 9780615267456
Category : Life
Languages : en
Pages : 302

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book by the noted polydisciplinary scientist Steven Benner describes what scientists do to arrive at the 'truth' (and pitfalls that prevent them from doing so) as they set out to answer big questions.

Conjuring Science

Conjuring Science PDF Author: Christopher P. Toumey
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
ISBN: 9780813522852
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 218

Get Book Here

Book Description
Toumey focuses on the ways in which the symbols of science are employed to signify scientific authority in a variety of cases, from the selling of medical products to the making of public policy about AIDS/HIV--a practice he calls "conjuring" science. It is this "conjuring" of the images and symbols of scientific authority that troubles Toumey and leads him to reflect on the history of public understanding and perceptions of science in the United States.

The Whens and Wheres of a Scientific Life

The Whens and Wheres of a Scientific Life PDF Author: John R. Helliwell
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 9780367497309
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book is an epilogue to a scientific life trilogy of books on the Hows (i.e. skills) the Whys and the Whats of a scientific life. Starting with what is science, then on to what is physics, what is chemistry and what is biology the epilogue provides an insight into everyday situations in terms of types of obstacles faced.

The Emergence of Life on Earth

The Emergence of Life on Earth PDF Author: Iris Fry
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
ISBN: 9780813527406
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 348

Get Book Here

Book Description
How did life emerge on Earth? Is there life on other worlds? These questions, until recently confined to the pages of speculative essays and tabloid headlines, are now the subject of legitimate scientific research. This book presents a unique perspective--a combined historical, scientific, and philosophical analysis, which does justice to the complex nature of the subject. The book's first part offers an overview of the main ideas on the origin of life as they developed from antiquity until the twentieth century. The second, more detailed part of the book examines contemporary theories and major debates within the origin-of-life scientific community. Topics include: Aristotle and the Greek atomists' conceptions of the organism Alexander Oparin and J.B.S. Haldane's 1920s breakthrough papers Possible life on Mars?

Vitalism and the Scientific Image in Post-Enlightenment Life Science, 1800-2010

Vitalism and the Scientific Image in Post-Enlightenment Life Science, 1800-2010 PDF Author: Sebastian Normandin
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9400724454
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 373

Get Book Here

Book Description
Vitalism is understood as impacting the history of the life sciences, medicine and philosophy, representing an epistemological challenge to the dominance of mechanism over the last 200 years, and partly revived with organicism in early theoretical biology. The contributions in this volume portray the history of vitalism from the end of the Enlightenment to the modern day, suggesting some reassessment of what it means both historically and conceptually. As such it includes a wide range of material, employing both historical and philosophical methodologies, and it is divided fairly evenly between 19th and 20th century historical treatments and more contemporary analysis. This volume presents a significant contribution to the current literature in the history and philosophy of science and the history of medicine.

What Is Life? Scientific Approaches And Philosophical Positions

What Is Life? Scientific Approaches And Philosophical Positions PDF Author: Hans-peter Durr
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 9814490164
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 389

Get Book Here

Book Description
The book of Erwin Schrödinger about life evokes a variety of basic questions concerning the understanding of life in terms of modern physics rather than biochemistry. Problems of organization and regulation of biological systems cannot be understood by revealing only the chemical processes of the living state. A group of reputable physicists — among them the followers of Heisenberg and Fröhlich — and biologists came to this same conclusion through several workshops on this topic. This book contains their contributions, written from different viewpoints of theoretical physics and modern biology. These articles are valuable not only for understanding life, but also for creating new and non-invasive diagnostic and therapeutic tools in medicine; they also contribute importantly to a deeper understanding of evolutionary processes, including the development of consciousness.

The Scientific American Day in the Life of Your Brain

The Scientific American Day in the Life of Your Brain PDF Author: Judith Horstman
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0470500514
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 18

Get Book Here

Book Description
Have you ever wondered what’s happening in your brain as you go through a typical day and night? This fascinating book presents an hour-by-hour round-the-clock journal of your brain’s activities. Drawing on the treasure trove of information from Scientific American and Scientific American Mind magazines as well as original material written specifically for this book, Judith Horstman weaves together a compelling description of your brain at work and at play. The Scientific American Day in the Life of Your Brain reveals what’s going on in there while you sleep and dream, how your brain makes memories and forms addictions and why we sometimes make bad decisions. The book also offers intriguing information about your emotional brain, and what’s happening when you’re feeling love, lust, fear and anxiety—and how sex, drugs and rock and roll tickle the same spots. Based on the latest scientific information, the book explores your brain’s remarkable ability to change, how your brain can make new neurons even into old age and why multitasking may be bad for you. Your brain is uniquely yours – but research is showing many of its day-to-day cycles are universal. This book gives you a look inside your brain and some insights into why you may feel and act as you do. The Scientific American Day in the Life of Your Brain is written in the entertaining, informative and easy-to-understand style that fans of Scientific American and Scientific American Mind magazine have come to expect.