I bought an iPad. Before you cheer or frown, let me tell you, I’m filled with an immense surge of guilt—not because my purchase left a hefty dent in my wallet, but because I have needlessly contributed to the e-Book revolution. As Thomas Hager explains, Bottom line is stark: paper and ink books are on [...]
Scientific Instruments as “a History with, of, and Through Things”*
The “Reading Artifacts: Summer Institute in Material Culture Research” at the Canada Science and Technology Museum is another symptom of the growing trend in history and philosophy of science studies to include scientific artifacts as a resource for historical investigation and argumentation. In Leviathan and the Air Pump, Shapin and Schaffer argued scientific instruments are [...]
Preserving Health and Maintaining Illness: Petition to Save the Wellcome Trust Center for the History of Medicine
By Jaipreet Virdi, IHPST University of Toronto On March 21, 2010, the United States Health Care Reform Bill passed in Capitol Hill, voting to provide medical coverage to millions of uninsured Americans. The New York Times article emphasized how Democrats hailed the votes as “a historic advance in social justice, comparable to the establishment of [...]
