History of Modern Earth and Life Sciences

Course Description

The sciences have had a huge impact on all aspects of modern life. All of our modern technology – drugs and medicines – are due to the advances of science in the 19th and 20th centuries. The earth and life sciences, however, have shaped our modern world in more ways than this. Our lived experience has been dramatically altered by the rise and proliferation of scientific medicine and hygienics. Our views of who we are and our place in the world has been deeply shaped by the rise and development of the life sciences. Furthermore, these sciences have given rise to new technologies that are changing the distribution and organization of the natural world, and have to potential to change animal and human life.

This course focuses on the rise of the earth and life sciences as independent, professional disciplines during the modern period, along with ways in which these sciences were developed in industry to produce new technologies. During this period, practitioners in these fields managed to establish their sciences as indispensable to the industrialized nation state, invested with both economic and social capital and productive of significant results, both theoretical and practical. Moreover, the theories and technologies developed in these sciences had far-reaching consequences for the lifestyles and outlooks of the modern world. We will trace the development of the earth and life sciences from the Enlightenment period to the development of genetic biotechnologies. (This is a companion course with my History of Modern Physical Sciences.)

Required Texts

Please see below for the required texts. Each week, there will be readings that must be downloaded from this website. Much of the following books will be required reading and I encourage students to read the whole thing:

Bowler, P.J., Morus, I.R., Making Modern Science (Chicago UP: Chicago, 2005). (Selections, see below.)

Endersby, J., A Guinea Pig’s History of Biology (Harvard UP: Cambridge, MA, 2007). (Selections, see below.)

Gohau, G., A History of Geology (Rutgers UP: New Brunswick, 1990). (Selections, see below.)

Suggested Readings

Farber, P.L., Finding Order in Nature (Johns Hopkins UP: Baltimore, 2000).

Kohler, R.E., Lords of the Fly (Chicago UP: Chicago, 1994).

Grading

Discussion questions	20%
Participation	20%
Final paper (5%, 25%)	30%
Final exam (in-class)	30%

General Format

The class meets twice a week: once for a lecture, and once for a seminar. Students are expected to submit discussion questions for the readings, attend the lectures, participate in the seminars, and submit a final paper and write a final exam in-class exam.

Classroom Etiquette

Please follow basic norms of decorum – do not sleep, eat, or carry on individual conversations in class. Finally, DO NOT use mobile phones, smart phones, or laptops in class, unless this is specifically required for in-class groupwork. (Unfortunately, a large percentage of students use their laptops to do unrelated things during class, and this distracts both them and everyone around and behind them.) I will be very strict about enforcing the rule about devices and laptops, so if you feel that you must use devices, I encourage you to enroll in a different class.

Discussion Questions

Each week all students should do both readings before class on Monday and make study notes and write out two discussion questions for each reading (four altogether). The discussion questions should be about something that you are interested in discussing with your fellow students that is inspired by the reading, or which is discussed and explained in the reading. They should NOT be questions about detailed matters of fact that would require outside knowledge or extra research in order to answer. You should write out your discussion questions, bring them with you to the discussion period on Tuesday, and then submit them after the class on Tuesday.

Participation

Each week on Tuesday the class will meet for a seminar discussion based on the assigned readings. In preparation for these discussions you should do the readings carefully and prepare four discussion questions, two for each reading. In class, the students will be divided into discussion groups and asked to discuss the text based on discussion questions, including those prepared by the students themselves. We will conclude with a general discussion involving everyone. Participation in these discussions will be part of your overall grade.

Final Paper

Towards the end of the term you will submit a research paper on a topic from the history of the modern earth and life sciences based on your own readings of the sources. Your paper topic should be developed in two stages, both of which should be submitted to the Waseda Moodle site:

1) A paragraph or two describing the topic for your paper, including a list of 5-15 academic references including primary and secondary sources of academic research (books, journal articles, etc., but NOT websites, blogs, etc.). You should pick a standard bibliographic style and apply it consistently. This will be 5% of your final grade.

2) The paper itself, which should be a development of your topic and use the sources listed in your bibliography. This will be 25% of your final grade.

Ideally, you should try to come up with your own idea for a final project that is based on the material we are studying. The best kind of project will be on a subject in which you are personally interested. The following is a list of possible project ideas. You may certainly use one of these if you like, but they are given here merely to give a sense for the kinds of projects that are possible.

a) The development of microbiology in 19th century Japan.

b) A historical treatment of the use of a specific instrument, or experimental technique in the life sciences. (Please do not use the microscope.)

c) A bibliographic study of a female scientist working in the life sciences of the 19th or 20th century. (It may be a good idea to read some of the Women's Studies literature on this subject.)

d) A bibliographic study of a scientist working in a peripheral context — that is, outside of the main centers of activity. (How you define this is up to you.)

e) The development and implementation of eugenics in a particular national context. (That is, in one country.)

f) A historical treatment a specific experimental organism or model in the life sciences. (Please choose a different one from those covered in the readings.)

g) The connection between Marry Shelly's Frankenstein and the debate between the vitalists and the materialists of the late 18th to early 19th century.

h) Any other topic on the earth and life sciences related to the material we have studied in class.

Before you begin writing, please read the general guidelines for written assignments.

Final Exam

The final exams will be an in-class written examination. You will have 100 minutes to work on the exam. There will be three sections: multiple choice (or connections), short answers (1-2 sentences), full descriptions (2-3 paragraphs).

Lecture Topics, Readings and Assignments

Week 1: Apr 13 and 14

Philosophical Introduction

Reading: I. Hacking, The Social Construction of What?, Chapter 3, “What about natural science”.

Philosophical Introduction

Week 2: Apr 20 and 21

18th Century Natural History

Reading: P.L. Farber, Finding Order in Nature, Chapter 1; T.L. Hankins, Science and the Enlightenment, Chapter 5 (skip the section called “Experimental Physiology,” pp. 119–130).

Supplementary material: Natural History Museum’s “A film about Carl Linnaeus”; Linnaeus, Systema Naturae (original text).

18th Century Natural History

Week 3: Apr 27 and 28

18th and 19th Century Geology

Reading: P.J. Bowler and I.R. Morus, Making Modern Science, Chapter 5; G. Gohau, A History of Geology, Chapter 6, Chapter 8, Chapter 9, Chapter 11.

18th and 19th Century Geology

Holiday: May 4 and 5

No Classes

No Reading.

Week 4: May 11 and 12

19th Century Evolutionary Theories

Reading: P.J. Bowler and I.R. Morus, Making Modern Science, Chapter 6; J. Endersby, A Guinea Pig’s History of Biology, Chapter 2.

Supplementary material: Online version of Darwin’s Origin of Species that shows the variations in the six editions: Variorum of Darwin’s Origin of Species.

19th Century Evolutionary Theories

Week 5: May 18 and 19

19th Century Laboratory Biology: Cell theory, experimental physiology

Reading: P.J. Bowler and I.R. Morus, Making Modern Science, Chapter 7; J. Maienschein, Cell Theory and Development.

Supplementary material: H. Schmidgen, “The Laboratory”.

19th Century Laboratory Biology

Week 6: May 25 and 26

Microbiology

Reading: T.D. Brock, Koch's Role in the Microscope Revolution; R. Porter, From Pasteur to Penicillin (pp. 428-445, and last paragraph, pp. 460-461. Skip pages from 445 to 460!).

Supplementary material: P.-T. Lee, “Colonialism versus Nationalism: The Plague of Hong Kong in 1894”.

Microbiology

Week 7: Jun 1 and 2

Statistical Thinking and Eugenics

Reading: I. Hacking, The Taming of Chance, Chapter 19; J. Endersby, A Guinea Pig’s History of Biology, Chapter 3.

Statistical Thinking in the 18th and 19th Centuries

Week 8: Jun 8 and 9

Genetics

Reading: J. Endersby, A Guinea Pig’s History of Biology, Chapter 4, and Chapter 6 (but skip two sections, pp. 195–205)

Genetics

Week 9: Jun 15 and 16

The Modern Synthesis

Reading: P.L. Farber, Finding Order in Nature, Chapter 8; J. Endersby, A Guinea Pig’s History of Biology, Chapter 7.

The Modern Synthesis

Week 10: Jun 22 and 23 (Paper topic and bibliography due, Jun 23)

Development of Modern Earth and Life Sciences in Japan

Reading: TBA

TBA

Week 11: Jun 29 and 30

20th Century Geology

Reading: P.J. Bowler and I.R. Morus, Making Modern Science, Chapter 10; K. O'Hara, A Brief History of Geology, Chapters 6 and 7 (skip box 6.1, on Jeffreys).

20th Century Geology

Week 12: Jul 6 and 7 (Paper due, Jul 7)

Molecular Biology

Reading: J. Endersby, A Guinea Pig’s History of Biology, Chapter 8; B. Maddox, Roslind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA, Chapter 12.

Molecular Biology

Week 13: Jul 13 and 14

Ecology and Systems Thinking

Reading: P.J. Bowler and I.R. Morus, Making Modern Science, Chapter 9; D. Worster, Nature’s Economy, Chapter 17 (but skip the last section, from p. 420).

Ecology and Systems Thinking

Week 14: Jul 20 and 21 (Final in-class exam, Jul 21)

Dynamic Psychology and Neuroscience, Final exam

Supplementary material (optional): I. Hacking, selection from The Social Construction of What?, Chap. 4, Madness: Biological or Constructed?

Dynamic Psychology and Neuroscience