Perspectives on Science
167 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 1 month ago -A new public events series from the Consortium for History of Science, Technology and Medicine brings historical perspective to contemporary issues and concerns.
In the public forums, historians and other specialists speak about culturally relevant topics in front of a live audience at Consortium member institutions. Forum subjects range from medical consumerism to public trust in science and technology. Videos of these events are also available at chstm.org.
In podcast episodes, authors of new books in the history of science, technology, and medicine respond to questions from readers with a wide variety of backgrounds and expertise. These conversations illuminate the utility and relevance of the past in light of current events.
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Episodes
DNA Papers #13 - James Watson, Francis Crick, and the DNA Double Helix × Status message
March 25, 2024 00:20 - 1 hour - 57.1 MBRounding out the story begun in the previous installment, episode 13 of the DNA Papers centers on the publications in which the double helical structure for DNA was proposed, detailed, and its various implications speculated upon. It features four papers, all by Watson and Crick from Cambridge,. Together these papers not only proposed that DNA’s three dimensional structure was a double-stranded helix, but also described the antiparallel and complementary nature of its two component strands an...
Donald L. Opitz - Daughters of Ceres
March 18, 2024 11:41 - 18 minutes - 16.8 MBDon's book project, "Daughters of Ceres: The Scientific Advancement of Women in Horticulture, 1870–1920" examines the confluence of two 19th century movements—one dedicated to the promotion of scientific agriculture, another to the advancement of women's education in science. These movements fueled international efforts to elevate women's position in the fields of horticulture and "the lighter branches" of agriculture. This new international movement organized to create new educational, emplo...
Rena Selya — Salvador Luria: An Immigrant Biologist in Cold War America
February 23, 2024 09:03 - 24 minutes - 22.4 MBIn this episode, we speak with Rena Selya, the archivist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and author of Salvador Luria: An Immigrant Biologist in Cold War America. Blacklisted from federal funding review panels but awarded a Nobel Prize for his research on bacteriophage, biologist Salvador Luria (1912–1991) was as much an activist as a scientist. In this first full-length biography of Luria, Rena Selya draws on extensive archival research; interviews with Luria's family, colleagues, and studen...
DNA Papers #12: Maurice Wilkins, Rosalind Franklin, and the double helix model for DNA structure
February 13, 2024 18:42 - 1 hour - 72.6 MBEpisode 12 of the DNA Papers, is the first of a two-parter, which centers on papers published about the now iconic double helix structure of the DNA molecule. This episode features three publications, all published in the journal Nature, which represent the work of scientists working at King’s College London, whose X-ray crystallographic work provided some of the crucial data that supported the new double helix model. Wilkins, Maurice Hugh Frederick, Alec R. Stokes, and Herbert R. Wilson. “...
Vandersommers - Entangled Encounters at the National Zoo: Stories from the Animal Archive
December 21, 2023 17:54 - 25 minutes - 22.9 MBIn this episode of Perspectives, we speak with Daniel Vandersommers, author of Entangled Encounters at the National Zoo: Stories from the Animal Archive. In this book, Vandersommers shows how zoo animals always ran away from the zoo. This is meant literally—animals escaped frequently—but even more so, figuratively. Living, breathing, historical zoo animals ran away from their cultural constructions, and these constructions ran away from the living bodies they were made to represent. Vandersom...
Christopher Willoughby — Masters of Health: Racial Science and Slavery in U.S. Medical Schools
December 04, 2023 01:28 - 45 minutes - 41.7 MBIn this episode of Perspectives we speak with Christopher Willoughby, author of Masters of Health: Racial Science and Slavery in U.S. Medical Schools. Masters of Health examines how the founders of U.S. medical schools promoted an understanding of race influenced by the theory of polygenesis—that each race was created separately and as different species—which they supported by training students to collect and measure human skulls from around the world. Medical students came to see themselves ...
DNA Papers #11: Hershey, Chase, and DNA as the material of heredity
November 27, 2023 17:06 - 1 hour - 61.8 MBIn episode 11 of The DNA Papers we revisit a paper describing a famous experiment performed by Alfred Hershey and Martha Chase which combined the atomic-age tools of radioisotopes with an ordinary kitchen blender to show that DNA alone, and not protein, was the carrier of hereditary information: Hershey, Alfred D., and Martha Chase. “Independent Functions of Viral Protein and Nucleic Acid in Growth of Bacteriophage.” The Journal of General Physiology 36, no. 1 (1952): 39–56. By using radi...
IsisCB on Pandemics - The Social and Political Dimensions of Pandemic Diseases
November 16, 2023 16:42 - 1 hour - 59.7 MBFollowing in the wake of the Isis CB special issue on pandemics, this episode of the companion podcast takes a deeper look at the social and political contexts of pandemics, and also considers the impact of doing such a history during times of disease crises. Contributors Kavita Sivaramakrishnan, Keith Wailoo and Emily Hamilton share their insights and and experiences of taking stock of literature and also of the impact that COVID-19 had on their own scholarship and teaching. For more inform...
DNA Papers #10: Harriet Ephrussi-Taylor and Rollin Hotchkiss
November 05, 2023 21:52 - 56 minutes - 51.9 MBThe tenth episode of the DNA papers podcast brings to light some of the lesser discussed papers in the history of DNA that were instrumental in confirming its role in effecting genetic transformation. Both papers discussed in this episode were first presented at the 1951 Cold Spring Harbor Symposium on Quantitative Biology; the first by a geneticist, and the second by a chemist, who were responsible for maintaining the continuity of work on bacterial transformation in Avery’s laboratory. Thes...
Empires of the Dead: Inca Mummies and the Peruvian Ancestors of American Anthropology
October 29, 2023 23:48 - 43 minutes - 40.1 MBIn this episode of Perspectives, we speak with Christopher Heaney, author of Empires of the Dead: Inca Mummies and the Peruvian Ancestors of American Anthropology. Bringing together the history of science, race, and museums' possession of Indigenous remains, from the sixteenth century to the twentieth, Empires of the Dead illuminates how South American ancestors became coveted mummies, skulls, and specimens of knowledge and nationhood. In doing so it reveals how Peruvian and Andean peoples ha...
DNA Papers #2: Albrecht Kossel
October 25, 2023 14:30 - 49 minutes - 45.2 MBDNA Papers #2: Albrecht Kossel by Consortium for History of Science, Technology and Medicine
Who Does the Work of Science? A Century of Science as Passion, Punishment, and Paycheck
October 23, 2023 02:07 - 36 minutes - 33.4 MBLaura Stark is a historical sociologist and Associate Professor at Vanderbilt University. Her second book project, The Normals: A People’s History, explores how a global market for healthy civilian “human subjects” emerged in law, science, and everyday imagination over the past century. The Normals shows how logics of racialized citizenship were built into American clinical science in the post-World War II period—and how scientists and their human subjects worked for change. The George Sart...
History of Science Society at 100: Publications
October 15, 2023 18:22 - 44 minutes - 40.4 MBThe current and incoming editors of the journal Isis reflect on their expectations, experiences, and hopes for the journal and for the field of the history of science. Sigrid Schmalzer, University of Massachusetts, Amherst Elise Burton, University Toronto Projit Mukharji, Ashoka University Matt Lavine, Mississippi State University Alexandra Hui, Mississippi State University Recorded July 31, 2023 For more episodes in this series, other podcasts, and additional resources, please see https:...
DNA Papers #9: Erwin Chargaff
October 08, 2023 20:09 - 1 hour - 58.1 MBEpisode 9 of the DNA Papers discusses a set of papers by the first scientist who made a sustained effort into uncovering the secret behind specificity of nucleic acids. The principle author, Erwin Chargaff, a European-American biochemist from Columbia University in New York, determined that the relative rations of the four nucleotide bases—A, T, G and C—were not present in all DNA in equal amounts as widely assumed, but rather, that they varied in proportion from one to another, with the amou...
Episode 9: Erwin Chargaff and the Evidence for Non-Uniformity of Nucleotide Base Composition in DNA
October 08, 2023 20:09 - 1 hour - 58.1 MBEpisode 9 of the DNA Papers discusses a set of papers by the first scientist who made a sustained effort into uncovering the secret behind specificity of nucleic acids. The principle author, Erwin Chargaff, a European-American biochemist from Columbia University in New York, determined that the relative rations of the four nucleotide bases—A, T, G and C—were not present in all DNA in equal amounts as widely assumed, but rather, that they varied in proportion from one to another, with the amou...
History of Science Society at 100: Global Perspectives
September 10, 2023 23:55 - 59 minutes - 54.4 MBJoin us for a discussion of history of science from the perspectives of Latin American, African, and Ottoman history — and global history more broadly. How have these perspectives been represented in the past? What has changed more recently? What are the pressing questions and challenges for the future of the field from a global perspective? Sharing their experiences and points of view on these issues: Harun Küçük, University of Pennsylvania Gabriela Soto Laveaga, Harvard University Helen Ti...
History of Science Society Centenary - Global Perspectives
September 10, 2023 23:55 - 59 minutes - 54.4 MBJoin us for a discussion of history of science from the perspectives of Latin American, African, and Ottoman history — and global history more broadly. How have these perspectives been represented in the past? What has changed more recently? What are the pressing questions and challenges for the future of the field from a global perspective? Sharing their experiences and points of view on these issues: Harun Küçük, University of Pennsylvania Gabriela Soto Laveaga, Harvard University Helen Ti...
DNA Papers #8: Maclyn McCarty and Oswald Avery
August 29, 2023 17:37 - 53 minutes - 48.6 MBIn Episode 8 of the DNA papers, we discuss the papers that directly followed up the discovery of the 1944 paper from episode 7. These papers, which have received little attention in histories of DNA, describe the purification and experimental use of an enzyme, desoxyribonuclease, or DNase, which specifically destroys DNA. By showing how the transforming principle is specifically inactivated by this enzyme alone and not by RNA- or protein-degrading enzymes- the DNase experiments left “little ...
Maclyn McCarty, Oswald Avery and the enzymatic evidence for DNA as the transforming substance
August 29, 2023 17:37 - 53 minutes - 48.6 MBIn Episode 8 of the DNA papers, we discuss the papers that directly followed up the discovery of the 1944 paper from episode 7. These papers, which have received little attention in histories of DNA, describe the purification and experimental use of an enzyme, desoxyribonuclease, or DNase, which specifically destroys DNA. By showing how the transforming principle is specifically inactivated by this enzyme alone and not by RNA- or protein-degrading enzymes- the DNase experiments left “little ...
History of Science Society at 100: HSS at the Movies
August 11, 2023 14:17 - 1 hour - 58.6 MBMoviegoers who might never pick up a book on the history of science may nonetheless find themselves confronted with the stories, themes, and questions to which historians of science devote their careers when they go to the movies. Films and other forms of popular culture both reflect and shape public discourse about the significance of scientific discoveries and the legacies of technological achievements. For this episode, we’ve convened a film forum. HSS Secretary Matt Shindell hosts a d...
History of Science Society at 100 - HSS at the Movies
August 11, 2023 14:17 - 1 hour - 58.6 MBMoviegoers who might never pick up a book on the history of science may nonetheless find themselves confronted with the stories, themes, and questions to which historians of science devote their careers when they go to the movies. Films and other forms of popular culture both reflect and shape public discourse about the significance of scientific discoveries and the legacies of technological achievements. For this episode, we’ve convened a film forum. HSS Secretary Matt Shindell hosts a d...
DNA Papers # 7: Avery, McLeod and McCarty
July 26, 2023 17:35 - 1 hour - 70.6 MBThe seventh episode of the DNA Papers is the central one in this podcast series, not only because it marks the halfway point of the podcast, but also, more so, because the paper discussed is at the center of the history of all twentieth century biology. Written by a trio of microbiologists at the Rockefeller University in New York City, this paper without saying so in actual words, represents the first publication to offer evidence that DNA (though not yet known by that name) is the stuff th...
DNA Papers # 7: Avery, McLeod, McCarty on chemical basis of bacterial transformation (& heredity)
July 26, 2023 17:35 - 1 hour - 70.6 MBThe seventh episode of the DNA Papers is the central one in this podcast series, not only because it marks the halfway point of the podcast, but also, more so, because the paper discussed is at the center of the history of all twentieth century biology. Written by a trio of microbiologists at the Rockefeller University in New York City, this paper without saying so in actual words, represents the first publication to offer evidence that DNA (though not yet known by that name) is the stuff th...
History of Science Society at 100: Women Historians of Science
July 20, 2023 14:47 - 46 minutes - 42.5 MBThe discovery of a never-released report from 1973 on women in the History of Science Society provides an opportunity to reflect on how much things have changed, what has not changed, and challenges that remain for improving inclusion in the Society. Discussants in this episode are: Tara Nummedal, Brown University Samantha Muka, Stevens Institute of Technology Margaret Rossiter, Cornell University Matthew Lavine, Mississippi State University For more information and more podcasts go to, htt...
History of Science Society Centenary: Women Historians of Science
July 20, 2023 14:47 - 46 minutes - 42.5 MBThe discovery of a never-released report from 1973 on women in the History of Science Society provides an opportunity to reflect on how much things have changed, what has not changed, and challenges that remain for improving inclusion in the Society. Discussants in this episode are: Tara Nummedal, Brown University Samantha Muka, Stevens Institute of Technology Margaret Rossiter, Cornell University Matthew Lavine, Mississippi State University For more information and more podcasts go to, htt...
Adam Fulton Johnson - Information Control and Indigenous Politics of Documentation
July 16, 2023 23:34 - 17 minutes - 15.8 MBIn this episode of Perspectives, we speak with Adam Johnson, Consortium NEH Fellow. Adam introduces us to his book project, which examines the shifting relationships between white ethnographic fieldworkers and Pueblo and Navajo communities in the American Southwest around the documentation of sensitive information. By contrasting Anglo universalist conceptions of knowledge with Pueblo and Navajo epistemic systems, which both have restrictions on the free flow of information (though in quite d...
Adam Fulton Johnson — Information Control and Indigenous Politics of Documentation
July 16, 2023 23:34 - 17 minutes - 15.8 MBIn this episode of Perspectives, we speak with Adam Johnson, Consortium NEH Fellow. Adam introduces us to his book project, which examines the shifting relationships between white ethnographic fieldworkers and Pueblo and Navajo communities in the American Southwest around the documentation of sensitive information. By contrasting Anglo universalist conceptions of knowledge with Pueblo and Navajo epistemic systems, which both have restrictions on the free flow of information (though in quite d...
DNA Papers Episode 6: William Astbury, Florence Bell and the first X-ray pictures of DNA
July 10, 2023 13:02 - 1 hour - 57.9 MBThe sixth installment of this podcast series introduces a brand new player into the story of DNA: a technique from physics called X-ray crystallography. This technique would eventually play a key role in unlocking the secrets of DNA structure, but this 1938 paper by Leeds-based scientists William Astbury and Florence Bell marks the first instance of anyone attempting to use X-rays for the visualization of the nucleic acids. It is also the first paper in this series where the main contributor ...
DNA Papers #6: William Astbury and Florence Bell
July 10, 2023 13:02 - 1 hour - 57.9 MBThe sixth installment of this podcast series introduces a brand new player into the story of DNA: a technique from physics called X-ray crystallography. This technique would eventually play a key role in unlocking the secrets of DNA structure, but this 1938 paper by Leeds-based scientists William Astbury and Florence Bell marks the first instance of anyone attempting to use X-rays for the visualization of the nucleic acids. It is also the first paper in this series where the main contributor ...
History of Science Society Centenary - Society Presidents
June 19, 2023 11:29 - 41 minutes - 38.2 MBAs the History of Science Society approaches its centennial celebration in 2024, its members reflect on the past 100 years of the profession, its fascinations and preoccupations, and its possible future in an increasingly globalized world. HSS@100 is produced in partnership with the History of Science Society. Where has the Society been and where will it go next? Our first episode, hosted by HSS President Fa-ti Fan, kicks the series off with a discussion between HSS Presidents past, present,...
History of Science Society at 100: Society Presidents
June 19, 2023 11:29 - 41 minutes - 38.2 MBAs the History of Science Society approaches its centennial celebration in 2024, its members reflect on the past 100 years of the profession, its fascinations and preoccupations, and its possible future in an increasingly globalized world. HSS@100 is produced in partnership with the History of Science Society. Where has the Society been and where will it go next? Our first episode, hosted by HSS President Fa-ti Fan, kicks the series off with a discussion between HSS Presidents past, present,...
DNA Papers Episode 5: Phoebus Levene
June 02, 2023 15:03 - 55 minutes - 51.1 MBEpisode 5 of the DNA papers examines the contributions of the organic chemist Phoebus Levene, who published a corpus of some 200 papers on the subject over a period of four decades, during which he made discoveries about the constituents of, and developed his ideas about the structure of, DNA. Among other things, he was the first person to correctly identify the sugar components of the nucleic acids: d-ribose in RNA and d-2-deoxyribose in DNA. But these contributions have often been overlook...
DNA Papers #5: Phoebus Levene
June 02, 2023 15:03 - 55 minutes - 51.1 MBEpisode 5 of the DNA papers examines the contributions of the organic chemist Phoebus Levene, who published a corpus of some 200 papers on the subject over a period of four decades, during which he made discoveries about the constituents of, and developed his ideas about the structure of, DNA. Among other things, he was the first person to correctly identify the sugar components of the nucleic acids: d-ribose in RNA and d-2-deoxyribose in DNA. But these contributions have often been overlook...
IsisCB on Pandemics: Fundamental Concepts in Understanding Pandemic Diseases
May 26, 2023 17:51 - 49 minutes - 45.7 MBThis episode of the IsisCB Pandemics series features contributors who wrote and reviewed bibliographic essays surveying the literature about concepts fundamental to our understanding of pandemic and epidemic diseases, such as the broad disciplinary category of epidemiology, as well as the specific concepts of vaccinations and syndemics. Offering their perspectives on the significance of these topics are: Lukas Engelmann, Jacob Steere-Williams and Dora Vargha. They discuss how historians can m...
IsisCB Special Issue on Pandemics: Syndemics
May 26, 2023 17:51 - 49 minutes - 45.7 MBLukas Engelmann, Jacob Steere-Williams and Dora Vargha discuss how historians can move away from a model of biogrophy of disease and towards a better understanding of the co-occurrence of disease epidemic with epidemics of social phenomena. For more information and additional resources, go to https://www.chstm.org/video/149 Recorded April 24, 2023.
The National Academy of Sciences in the American Democracy: A History
May 21, 2023 22:49 - 1 hour - 86.2 MBAn Albert M. Greenfield Forum in the History of Science In 2014, Ruth Schwartz Cowan, Daniel J. Kevles and Peter Westwick were invited to write the 150th anniversary history of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and were given unprecedented access to its extensive archival collection, much of which had never attracted scholarly attention. Their manuscript, tentatively titled The National Academy of Sciences in the American Democracy: A History is now very close to completion. The book is ...
DNA Papers Episode 4: Fred Griffith and the Discovery of Bacterial Transformation
April 30, 2023 22:22 - 45 minutes - 41.2 MBEpisode 4 of the DNA Papers features another chapter in the deep history of DNA in which the molecule itself doesn’t come up. As in the previous episode, the paper makes no explicit reference to either the molecule or its function. But the paper occupies an indisputable role in the history of DNA, because the discovery it reports opened the door to discovery of the function of DNA as the carrier of hereditary information. Joining the discussion on “The significance of pneumococcal types” by t...
DNA Papers #4: Fred Griffith
April 30, 2023 22:22 - 45 minutes - 41.2 MBEpisode 4 of the DNA Papers features another chapter in the deep history of DNA in which the molecule itself doesn’t come up. As in the previous episode, the paper makes no explicit reference to either the molecule or its function. But the paper occupies an indisputable role in the history of DNA, because the discovery it reports opened the door to discovery of the function of DNA as the carrier of hereditary information. Joining the discussion on “The significance of pneumococcal types” by t...
DNA Papers - Episode 3
April 02, 2023 22:30 - 1 hour - 59.2 MBThe papers discussed in episode 3 of the DNA Papers do not mention DNA in any way at all! And yet they are vitally important in any history of DNA because they provided the first step in bringing together a visible cellular component—the chromosome—both with ideas about heredity and about the chemical workings of living cells (DNA). The two papers, “On the Morphology of the Chromosome Group in Brachystola Magna,” and “The chromosomes in heredity,” were published in 1902 and 1903 in the journa...
DNA Papers #3: Walter Sutton
April 02, 2023 22:30 - 1 hour - 59.2 MBThe papers discussed in episode 3 of the DNA Papers do not mention DNA in any way at all! And yet they are vitally important in any history of DNA because they provided the first step in bringing together a visible cellular component—the chromosome—both with ideas about heredity and about the chemical workings of living cells (DNA). The two papers, “On the Morphology of the Chromosome Group in Brachystola Magna,” and “The chromosomes in heredity,” were published in 1902 and 1903 in the journa...
DNA Papers Episode 2: Albrecht Kossel
March 03, 2023 20:10 - 49 minutes - 45.2 MBIn episode 2 of the DNA Papers we discuss a cluster of papers from the late nineteenth century by the German physiological chemist Albrecht Kossel, who studied the chemical make-up of nuclein, and found and named its nitrogen-containing building blocks, probably best recognized today by their labels A, T, G, and C. Although work was deemed sufficiently important by his contemporaries to garner him the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine in 1910, Kossel remains a lesser known figure in the ...
IsisCB on Pandemics: Introduction
February 28, 2023 04:11 - 35 minutes - 32.8 MBThis series offers discussions with the editors and authors of a special issue of the Isis Current Bibliography. It provides perspectives into the state of current scholarhip on the history of pandemics, and where the field might be heading in the future. Neeraja Sankaran and Stephen P. Weldon introduce the series. Get an inside view of the editorial decisions and motivations behind a special issue of the Isis Current Bibliography, which focuses on scholarship in the history of pandemics. T...
IsisCB Special Issue on Pandemics - Introduction
February 28, 2023 04:11 - 35 minutes - 32.8 MBThis series offers discussions with the editors and authors of a special issue of the Isis Current Bibliography. It provides perspectives into the state of current scholarhip on the history of pandemics, and where the field might be heading in the future. Neeraja Sankaran and Stephen P. Weldon introduce the series. Get an inside view of the editorial decisions and motivations behind a special issue of the Isis Current Bibliography, which focuses on scholarship in the history of pandemics. T...
Judith Kaplan — Linguistics: Reconstructing the Discipline through Universals Research
February 10, 2023 15:23 - 6 minutes - 5.7 MBJudith Kaplan is a historian of the human sciences focused on nineteenth- and twentieth-century linguistics. She holds degrees in disability studies and the history of science, and is a National Science Foundation Research Scholar at the Consortium for History of Science, Technology and Medicine. Dr. Kaplan's is working on a comprehensive history of modern linguistics while simultaneously exploring the ways in which scientific disciplines are shaped and negotiated over time. In this podcast, ...
DNA Papers: Introduction
January 30, 2023 16:58 - 5 minutes - 5.24 MBThis podcast series illuminates the history of seminal discoveries and research through which we learned about the molecule that has been dubbed as the “secret of life” itself: DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid. Neeraja Sankaran introduces the series. She is a historian of science and medicine at the National Centre for Biological Sciences-TIFR, Bangalore, India. Her work focuses on the recent and near-contemporary history of biomedical sciences. An independent scholar since 2015, she has held b...
DNA Papers - Introduction
January 30, 2023 16:58 - 5 minutes - 5.24 MBThis podcast series illuminates the history of seminal discoveries and research through which we learned about the molecule that has been dubbed as the “secret of life” itself: DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid. Neeraja Sankaran introduces the series. She is a historian of science and medicine at the National Centre for Biological Sciences-TIFR, Bangalore, India. Her work focuses on the recent and near-contemporary history of biomedical sciences. An independent scholar since 2015, she has held b...
DNA Papers #1: Friedrich Miescher
January 30, 2023 16:58 - 1 hour - 61 MBThe first episode of the DNA papers goes back to the nineteenth century when a young Swiss doctoral student, searching for the secrets of life by delving into the chemistry of cells, stumbled on to a hitherto unknown new chemical substance localized in the nucleus of pus cells. He named the substance nuclein; we now recognize it by the commonly used acronym for its chemical name: DNA. Friedrich Miescher reported his discovery in “Ueber Die Chemische Zusammensetzung Der Eiterzellen.” [On the c...
DNA Papers Episode 1: Friedrich Miescher
January 30, 2023 16:58 - 1 hour - 61 MBThe first episode of the DNA papers goes back to the nineteenth century when a young Swiss doctoral student, searching for the secrets of life by delving into the chemistry of cells, stumbled on to a hitherto unknown new chemical substance localized in the nucleus of pus cells. He named the substance nuclein; we now recognize it by the commonly used acronym for its chemical name: DNA. Friedrich Miescher reported his discovery in “Ueber Die Chemische Zusammensetzung Der Eiterzellen.” [On the c...
DNA Papers: Episode 1
January 30, 2023 16:58 - 1 hour - 61 MBThe first episode of the DNA papers goes back to the nineteenth century when a young Swiss doctoral student, searching for the secrets of life by delving into the chemistry of cells, stumbled on to a hitherto unknown new chemical substance localized in the nucleus of pus cells. He named the substance nuclein; we now recognize it by the commonly used acronym for its chemical name: DNA. Friedrich Miescher reported his discovery in “Ueber Die Chemische Zusammensetzung Der Eiterzellen.” [On the c...
Joseph Malherek — Free-Market Socialists: European Émigrés Who Made Capitalist Culture in America
November 20, 2022 22:21 - 35 minutes - 32.8 MBIn this episode of Perspectives, we speak with Joseph Malherek, author of Free-Market Socialists: European Émigrés Who Made Capitalist Culture in America, 1918–1968. What is the surprising connection between socialism and the corporate focus group? How did socialists come to develop, of all things, the suburban American shopping mall? Listen in as Joseph Malherek explains the socialist roots of U.S. social research. He charts the lives and careers of Hungarian artist-designer László Mohol...