History of Science

By the end of the twentieth century, prominent historians such as Jonathan Z. Smith could aver that “religion is solely the creation of the scholar’s study.” Similar skepticism of the meaning of science was evinced by historians grappling with the history of that concept. Such statements recognized the precariousness of historiography after what has been described as a crisis of representation in the human sciences. Mid-twentieth-century critique of the referential capacity of language inevitably raised questions about the practice of historical (...) scholarship. As Michel de Certeau put it at one point, writing history had become akin to walking the “edge of the cliff.” Such metaphors were taken up by later Annales historians such as Roger Chartier as necessary prolegomena to the representation of the past. Hence, the following essay on the cultural history of religion, science, and popular beliefs in twentieth-century historiography will similarly traverse such terrain. (shrink)

Margaret Lowenfeld (1890–1973) and Margaret Mead (1901–78) met in 1948. This eventful first meeting in London was the start of a fascinating working friendship, albeit a somewhat uneven one. The two women share particular similarities across their careers, including their positions as women in their respective fields of psychology and anthropology, though Mead was notably more renowned. They also both had substantial and long-lasting relationships with other women. In this article, I draw primarily upon archival resources of interviews with both (...) Mead and Rhoda Métraux conducted about Lowenfeld following her death. In doing so I argue how such material not only reveals the type of relationship between Lowenfeld and Mead, but also raises questions about how lesbian relationships are historically understood. In recognising the queer worlds of these women, it is possible to extend historical thinking about the lesbian relationships they had. Crucially, it also demonstrates what a lesbian feminist historical approach uniquely provides. In addition to this, by likewise recognising myself as a queer feminist, it is possible to reveal the reflexive and emotional queer kinship which extends between historian and subject. (shrink)

Plato’s Timaeus has been a source of inspiration and debate since its emergence in the fourth century BCE. Over two millennia, this dialogue has uniquely withstood the test of time, with its conceptual richness ensuring adaptability to vastly different eras and cultural contexts. Notably, the Timaeus has revealed that some of our scientific achievements, particularly in cosmology, trace their conceptual roots back to its pages. The “likely myth” (eikôs mûthos) narrated by its titular character has stimulated thought across ancient, medieval, (...) and modern minds, though for differing reasons. While the mythical aspects of the universe’s fashioning, as well as the figure of the demiurge (demiourgós) with its divine and quasi anthropomorphic traits, lost their appeal to cosmologists over time, the underlying philosophy of science in the text has drawn attention as late as the 20th century, including from proponents of the Big Bang theory. But how does Plato’s Timaeus fare in the new millennium? Specifically, does it have relevance in the 2020s, not just for those interested in the history of science, but also for theoretical physicists? In an era when the Big Bang theory faces challenges and the universe is examined more intensely than ever from a subatomic perspective, I argue that it does, provided we modernise the lexicon through which its story is conveyed, without distorting Plato’s ideas or succumbing to anachronisms. This paper focuses on three axioms of Plato’s dialogue that remain noteworthy today. First, the ultimate problem of cosmology concerns the information of matter, for the explanation of which a model of corpuscularianism more complex than Democritean atomism is needed. Second, the craft hypothesis offers a plausible theoretical account of how the information is originally imprinted and transmitted. Third, investigating the mechanism of vision, and the nature of light underlying it, is cosmologically relevant, paving the way to studying one of the universe’s finest and most subtle constituents. I explore these axioms through critical engagement with three of the most relevant 21st-century studies on the topic: Gregory (2000), Johansen (2004), and Katsos (2019). Moreover, I show how the axioms themselves remain informative to contemporary scientific debates. See: Gregory, A. (2000), Plato’s Philosophy of Science, London: Bloomsbury; Johansen, T.K. (2004), Plato’s Natural Philosophy: A Study of the Timaeus-Critias, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; Katsos, I. (2019), “Chasing the Light: What Happened to the Ancient Theories?,” in Isis, vol. 110, no. 2, pp. 270-282. (shrink)

The inception of modern science, in the 17th century, was accompanied by epistemological analyses that see its foundation as laid on observation and experiment — a stance often regarded as excluding (or, at least, devaluating) metaphysics, especially in the English-speaking world. Qualms about metaphysics were already noticeable in Locke’s Essay (1690), and were supposedly deepened by Hume, in the following century. For almost two hundred years, Hume’s philosophy was regarded as radically sceptical concerning metaphysics generally, but particularly about causality and (...) the very existence of an external, objective reality. In this paper, we argue, following a more recent interpretive vein in Hume's scholarship, that Hume’s scepticism about these basic metaphysical issues was effectively “mitigated” (in his own words) by his pioneering adoption of a form of naturalised realism. According to it, belief in both causal relations and in the external world is taken as resulting from the natural operations of the human mind and, in this condition, as being justified, in an epistemologically non-ordinary sense of this notion. As a consequence, epistemology was seen by him as an undertaking akin to the natural sciences, both employing similar empirical methods and metaphysical hypotheses to explore the mind, in the former case, and the physical world, in the latter. Thus, instead of interpreting Hume as one of the forerunners of the anti-metaphysical trend within empiricism, we believe that his wide-ranging project of instituting a “science of man” made some room for metaphysics, as cultivated within the same fallibilistic, naturalistic approach of empirical science itself. (shrink)

The beginnings of formal epidemiology are conventionally marked by the introduction of mathematical modelling in the early 20th century. However, Ronald Ross, colonial medical officer and 1902 Nobel laureate for his proof of the insect vector of malaria, envisioned the future of mathematical epidemiology as a much more expansive project, one that would eventually exceed the remit of a medical science. This article introduces and analyses Ross’ theory of happenings as an attempt to generalise the concept of contagion as a (...) non-material form of social organisation. To contextualise this approach, I explore the parallels and the common references between the mathematical method of epidemiologist Ronald Ross, and the work of sociologist Gabriel Tarde, who wrote Laws of Imitation (1890), to establish a relative and universal sociology. Both conceptualisations of contagion disregard a meaningful boundary between the natural and social world, they focus on affect and affectedness to embrace a radical plasticity in the human subject, both champion a philosophy of the infinitesimal to reject simplistic causes for social processes and to analyse large occurrences by focus on the vanishingly small. These parallels provide an opportunity to challenge assertions of a schism between the social sciences and the project of formal epidemiology, and to instead consider the contours of a different kind of social theory at the heart of the modern epidemiological project. (shrink)

The function of categories of the human sciences is a well-established field of scholarly inquiry, animated by debates over their capacity to reduce, exclude, determine, abstract, produce, loop, control, and/or restrain. This special issue takes an interdisciplinary perspective to investigate urgent questions about the ‘material force’ of categories as they operate in practice. Specifically, we emphasise the plasticity of categories and how their ambivalent boundaries can render their categorical forcefulness continuously operative. Categories morph and shift as they traverse different fields, (...) re-articulating difference as they interact with divergent institutions and epistemic infrastructures. The five interdisciplinary articles in this issue explore the material force of categories across varied contexts, including the prison system, digital culture, legal frameworks, psychiatric diagnostics, and applied governmental research. In so doing, the special issue as a whole emphasises the capacious yet persistent nature of categorisation, revealing how, in multiple ways, categories can stabilise the management of people precisely through their inherent structures of contingency and ambivalence. (shrink)

In this article, I will examine the category ‘subject to be dealt with’, which was established by the 1913 Mental Deficiency Act. Designed to demonstrate the legislation's respect for individual liberty, the boundaries of the category established the grounds on which authorities had the responsibility to act upon those deemed to be ‘mentally defective’. In essence, ‘subject to be dealt with’ became the supposedly rational, measured qualifying category through which the condemnation of ‘defect’ could be operationalized. In both its actual (...) implementation and the realm of possibilities it entailed, the category of ‘subject to be dealt with’ facilitated a range of discourses and practices. It powerfully linked disability and the imperatives of segregation and confinement, a logic that was reinforced even by those critiquing the Mental Deficiency Act, at both its inception and its demise. As a category ‘subject to be dealt with’ at once intensively targeted carceral power on disability, while also working to more deeply ideologically enmesh cognitive and class deviance, naturalizing the broader carceral or institutional archipelago – of asylums, workhouses, special schools, prisons, and so on – to which disabled, poor, and racialized people have been subject. (shrink)

This article offers a new reading of the US–UK Diagnostic Project (1965–75), a series of influential collaborative studies that tested the ability of psychiatrists on either side of the Atlantic to diagnose schizophrenia, exploring its historical origins, significance, and legacy. Using archival materials to trace the contest between two of the key players in the Diagnostic Project, Aubrey Lewis and Morton Kramer, it explores how the methodological allegiance between biostatistics and clinical psychiatry was forged in a decade in which psychiatry (...) was undergoing a public crisis. The article unpacks how the place of diagnosis in psychiatry was fundamentally transformed through this important and overlooked collaboration, in which computational methods were strategically used to steer post-war psychiatry from crisis to consensus. (shrink)

Mental health chatbots, along with computerised treatment in general, have gradually entered the realm of acceptability. This article looks at a chatbot called ReMind. It begins with an overview of the development of computerised mental health interventions, drawing links between the invention of cognitive behavioural therapy and automated therapy. The focus then moves to analysis of ReMind's conversational system. The bot acts as a sympathetic guide which directs the user to mental health activities, and as we will see, a concept (...) of mental health is produced through this system which is unique to the way that chatbot conversations are designed. The bot is tasked with interpreting the user's typed inputs in terms of keywords. Keywords are identified in terms of predetermined tags (‘sad’, ‘can’t sleep’, ‘relationship’, etc.). The bot then ‘predicts’ what the most appropriate response should be. ‘Prediction’ will be focused on to draw out how users interact with the bot in terms of conforming to the conversational logic imposed by the bot. This article illustrates a concept of mental health which is produced in the conversational dynamic between the users and the bot, and in how these conversations are directed on an abstract level by the ReMind company. The article concludes that the tautological cycle that the ReMind app facilitates represents a model of mental health which is correspondingly tautological in terms of users adopting an attitude of adaptation. This article addresses an urgent need to critically assess new forms of mental health interventions, and especially, technologically informed interventions. (shrink)

The British prison estate is characterised by an elaborate mental health infrastructure, an edifice often rearranged to meet the near-permanent mental health ‘crisis’ in its walls. From ‘trauma-informed’ prisons to behaviour change programmes, care for mentally ‘vulnerable’ people in prison has sedimented into the backbone of penal strategy. Much of this is developed through appeals to inclusion: of the vulnerable, disadvantaged, and traumatised people who are increasingly recognised as comprising a disproportionate number of prisoners. One category around which this infrastructure (...) is organised is ‘personality disorder’. Since New Labour's demarcation of this ‘offender group’ in the early 2000s, they are now thought to comprise a majority of the prison population. This article, grounded in prison documents and interviews with former prisoners, looks at the disorder's operationalisation in prison. It shows the disorder to be a broad and malleable category that works to mediate between prisoners, as individual subjects, and an expanding, complex, and shifting prison structure. Prisoners are explained in terms of the diagnosis, as the category’s borders are wide and shifting enough to absorb all kinds of behaviour, beliefs, and experiences. We thus see how the diagnosis simultaneously works to dismiss prisoners’ inner lives at the very moment it claims to understand them—and how this move facilitates penal management. The article uses Althusser's work on subjects and interpellation to make sense of this situation, and prisoners’ tactical navigation of it. The material practices that make the diagnosis real are emphasised, and connected to the imperatives of prison management. (shrink)

This article examines the entanglement of British criminology and undercover policing (‘Spycops’) in the UK government's response to racism in 1981. The article discusses how criminology took a strategic role within the state's ‘ law and order’ information infrastructure by analysing archival materials related to a Home Office criminological study from that same year. This infrastructure involved an explicit logistical sensibility for gathering and analysing evidence, intelligence, and data about race and racism for a ‘law and order’ agenda focused on (...) policing public order and ‘subversion’. It examines how two senior Home Office officials treated the gathering and utilisation of informational resources produced by criminologists and the Metropolitan Police Special Branch for tactical operations and perception management strategies that targeted racism and anti-racist groups as threats to public order. Reflecting on recent scholarship about security practices enabled by Big Data and machine learning, the article argues for greater attention on criminology and human sciences’ strategic and unnoticed involvement in designing and servicing contemporary ‘law and order’ informational infrastructures. (shrink)

Educational genomics is an emerging field of research that analyses associations between vast samples of human DNA and educational outcomes. I trace how this field navigates a series of old and new methodological problems and political controversies, while attempting to distance itself from the elitist, eugenic, and racist history of genetics in education. Moving away from genetic determinism, its multidisciplinary approach embeds knowledge from the social sciences selectively. In particular, I highlight how microeconomic methodologies and concepts have become salient not (...) only in educational genomic explanations and hypotheses but also in scientists’ political understanding of ‘equality’, reframing past political debates and reimagining governance applications of genetic knowledge. While controversies on the biologisation of social hierarchies persist, the associated debates on human difference, now framed around producing educational ‘equality’, are premised on educational genomics’ contribution to predicting, valuing, and enhancing social human capital. (shrink)

This paper examines the significance of spring within Japanese philosophy, focusing on the themes of renewal, impermanence, and the deep connection between humanity and nature. The arrival of spring, marked by the ephemeral beauty of cherry blossoms (sakura), serves as a poignant reminder of the concept of "mono no aware," which emphasizes the appreciation of transience and the fleeting moments of beauty in life. Through an exploration of traditional practices such as Hanami (flower viewing) and the philosophical reflections of notable (...) figures like Matsuo Bashō and Kitarō Nishida, this study highlights how spring inspires a sense of harmony and mindfulness in Japanese culture. Additionally, the paper discusses the role of seasonal change in shaping aesthetic sensibilities and ethical considerations, illustrating how the cyclical nature of life is celebrated and embraced. Ultimately, this exploration reveals that spring is not merely a season in Japan but a profound philosophical lens through which individuals can engage with the world, fostering a deeper understanding of existence and the interconnectedness of all living beings. (shrink)

In this paper, I argue that Johann Christoph Sturm’s eclectic scientific method reveals an unexpected indebtedness to Francis Bacon’s thought. Sturm’s reception of Bacon is particularly surprising given that the German academic context in the second half of the seventeenth century was still largely Aristotelian. Sturm is indebted to Bacon in the following respects: (1) the critique of the current state of knowledge, (2) eclecticism, (3) a fluid transition from natural history to natural philoso-phy, (4) the conception of science as (...) hypothetical and dynamic and (5) experimental philosophy and the use of instruments. Given that Sturm mentions Francis Bacon in important places in his work, these respects should not easily be dismissed as commonplace. Bacon is one of Sturm’s salient sources and they are both deeply concerned with a thoroughgoing reform of existing scientific practices. (shrink)

In the ever-evolving landscape of video game development, mythology serves as a rich source of inspiration, providing developers with a wellspring of narratives, characters, and themes that resonate with players. This article, "Gaming the Gods: How Mythology Inspires Game Development," explores the intricate relationship between ancient myths and contemporary gaming. By examining various titles that draw upon mythological elements—from the pantheons of Greek and Norse mythology to the folklore of diverse cultures—we uncover how these stories enhance gameplay, deepen character development, (...) and create immersive worlds. The article also discusses the challenges and responsibilities developers face when adapting these age-old tales, including cultural sensitivity and authenticity. Through case studies of popular games, we illustrate how mythology not only enriches storytelling but also fosters a deeper connection between players and the narratives they engage with. Ultimately, this exploration highlights the enduring power of myth in shaping the future of interactive entertainment, inviting both players and creators to embark on epic journeys through the realms of legend and lore. (shrink)

This article offers a cross-cultural analysis of two enigmatic figures from Indo-European mythologies: Tīrka Šavār, a lesser-known Persian omen of death or misfortune, and the Dullahan, Ireland’s iconic headless horseman. Both entities serve as harbingers of fate, embodying their cultures’ anxieties about mortality, the unknown, and the thin veil between the human and supernatural realms. Through comparative methodology, this study explores how these myths reflect distinct cultural values—Persian narratives often intertwine destiny with moral and cosmic order (aša), while Irish lore (...) emphasizes the inevitability of death and the capriciousness of the Otherworld. The analysis reveals striking parallels: both figures act as liminal beings, mediating between life and death, and their appearances are marked by omens (e.g., the Dullahan’s lantern, Tīrka Šavār’s symbolic manifestations). Yet their differences are equally telling: Tīrka Šavār’s role in Persian cosmology often ties to Zoroastrian dualism, where moral choices influence fate, whereas the Dullahan operates within a Celtic framework of inescapable doom. By situating these myths within their historical and religious contexts, this article illuminates how ancient societies grappled with existential fears and conceptualized the supernatural. (shrink)

The discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012 at CERN completed the experimental confirmation of the Standard Model particle spectrum. Current theoretical insights and experimental data are inconclusive concerning the expectation of future discoveries. While new physics may still be within reach of the LHC or one of its successor experiments, it is also possible that the mass of particles beyond those of the Standard Model is far beyond the energy reach of any conceivable particle collider. We thus have to (...) face the possibility that the age of “on-shell discoveries” of new particles may belong to the past and that we may soon witness a change in the scientists’ perception of discoveries in fundamental physics. This article discusses the relevance of this questioning and addresses some of its potential far-reaching implications through the development, first, of a historical perspective on the concept of particle. This view is prompt to reveal important specificities of the development of particle physics. In particular, it underlines the close relationship between the evolution of observational methods and the understanding of the very idea of particle. Combining this with an analysis of the current situation of high-energy physics, this leads us to the suggestion that the particle era in science must undergo an important conceptual reconfiguration. (shrink)

Juan Huarte de San Juan (1529–88) was a physician of the Spanish Renaissance. He wrote the Examen de Ingenios para las Ciencias, translated as The Trial of Men’s Wits (1989[1575–94]), a book that has been acknowledged as a precursor of educational psychology, organizational psychology, behaviorism, neuropsychology and psychiatry. Huarte suggested that before beginning a course of study, students’ intellectual capabilities (i.e. ingenio) should be matched up with the professional studies that best suit their aptitudes. His book had a great impact (...) in Europe from the late 16th century to the mid-18th century. The influence of the Trial spread throughout many areas including philosophy, politics, linguistics and literature. Although there has been a growing interest in Huarte’s work in recent years, biographical studies have been rare; as a result, the information about Huarte’s life is currently incomplete, scattered and sometimes inaccurate. This study presents a systematic archival research on Spanish original sources. We present a reconstruction of Huarte’s life-story based on 32 original documents (1549– c.1650), some of them first discovered during the present survey. Documents are described according to the General International Standard of Archival Description, ISAD(G). The documents uncovered allow for a reappraisal of Huarte’s biography. (shrink)

This paper offers an analysis of Johannes Swammerdam’s researches on the brain of the honeybee (Apis mellifera), on the basis both of his published texts and of (1) an early, manuscript version of his treatise on bees (broadly intended) (1673), and (2) a hitherto unedited autograph of his, containing the earliest depiction and description of an insect brain (1673–1677). Through a reconstruction of the genesis of Swammerdam’s texts on bees, both the novelty and accuracy of his observations are highlighted, as (...) well as his reliance on a Cartesian physiology in the interpretation and rendering of the observed parts. (shrink)

The COVID-19 pandemic generated debates about how pandemics should be known. There was much discussion of what role the human sciences could play in knowing – and governing – the pandemic. In this article, we focus on attempts to know the pandemic through diaries, other biographical writing, and related forms like mass photography. In particular, we focus on the archiving of such forms by Mass Observation in the UK and the Everyday Life in Middletown (EDLM) project in the USA, and (...) initial analyses of such material by scholars from across the human sciences. Our main argument is that archiving the pandemic was informed by, and needs viewing through, the history of the human sciences – including the distinctive histories and human sciences of Mass Observation and Middletown. The article finishes by introducing a Special Section that engages with archiving the pandemic in two senses: the archiving of diaries and related forms by Mass Observation and the EDLM project, and the archiving of initial encounters between researchers and this material by History of the Human Sciences. The Special Section seeks to know the pandemic from the human sciences in the present and to archive knowing the pandemic from the human sciences for the future. (shrink)

This study examines the pursuit of immortality through a comparative analysis of the Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh and Hindu mythology centered on Vishnu, the preserver god. Employing a literary and philosophical approach, the paper contrasts Gilgamesh’s personal, mortal-driven quest with Vishnu’s cosmic, eternal existence. In Gilgamesh, the semi-divine king seeks eternal life after his companion Enkidu’s death, only to confront the inevitability of mortality, reflecting a Mesopotamian view of death as a divine boundary. Conversely, Vishnu embodies immortality as an intrinsic (...) attribute, manifested through avatars like Krishna, aligning with Hindu cosmology’s cyclical view of existence and the eternal soul. The analysis reveals distinct cultural frameworks: Gilgamesh’s linear struggle for individual legacy versus Vishnu’s timeless duty to universal order. Results highlight that Gilgamesh’s journey ends in acceptance of human limits, finding meaning in earthly achievements, while Vishnu’s narrative offers transcendence through reincarnation and cosmic harmony. The study concludes that these contrasting perspectives—personal desperation versus divine continuity—mirror Mesopotamian pragmatism and Hindu metaphysics, respectively, yet both resonate with humanity’s universal longing to transcend death. This comparison underscores that the quest for immortality is less about evading mortality than redefining its significance across cultural and philosophical landscapes. (shrink)

This article traces the history of the Susceptible, Infected, Recovered (SIR) model in early 20th-century epidemiology (1904–27). The aim is to test the hypothesis that the active stance taken by Ross, Hudson, McKendrick, and Kermack represents a turn in the history of modern epidemiology, shifting the classical method of statistical epidemiology from a data-based model to a theory-based model. The article shows that epidemiological modeling is based on a mathematical simplification of epidemics at the time of the microbiological complexification of (...) epidemiology. What were the implications of the mathematical theory of epidemics for the development of modern epidemiology? How can epidemic dynamics be expressed mathematically without compromising the biological representation? This is exactly what is at stake here: from the work of Ross to the standardization of the SIR model by McKendrick and Kermack, modeling has been confronted with the problem of relating its equations to the facts. (shrink)

Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg (1795–1876) researched living and fossil microbes (infusoria) from air, sediment, or food samples. His discovery around 1840 that infusoria from the Berlin underground would damage buildings caused an early public microbe scare. In the context of the cholera epidemic of 1848, Ehrenberg devoted his attention to blood-red discoloration of food, which he identified as an innocuous red microbe. Both cases allow understanding the goal of this natural history of microbes: Following up on Alexander von Humboldt, he aimed (...) at a full picture of microbes’ place in nature, such as for geological and biological processes, including humans. In a period of political instability, Ehrenberg’s investigations were more than an early chapter in the historiography of microbiology. His conservative-reformist perspective on materialism, religion, and the state sheds new light on the relationship of science and politics around 1848. Not least, Ehrenberg’s mid-nineteenth-century argument about the omnipresence and big impact of microscopic life resonates with contemporary debates about microbes’ planetary agency. (shrink)

In the early to mid-1960s, Ronald Melzack and Patrick Wall at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology developed gate control theory, the most enduring theory of pain of the twentieth century. Challenging the notion of pain as a pure sensation of injury, Melzack and Wall refigured bodily experience as a dynamic state of the entire nervous system, including the higher levels of the brain. Within a decade, their neurophysiological model had become the conceptual foundation for the burgeoning and multidisciplinary field of (...) pain medicine. This essay excavates the conditions of possibility for the invention of gate control theory. It shows how two intellectual cultures emerging across the postwar neuro and psy disciplines—namely, cognitivism and cybernetics—converged in a holistic understanding of patients’ reported experiences. In reframing gate control theory, this story reveals how postwar scientists were able to construct a vision of an integrated, post-Cartesian self. (shrink)

This essay aims to show the peculiar emergence of a culture of correlation in the field of observatory sciences that resulted from the experimental and philosophical currents of the Society of Jesus and Catholic culture in general. Building on the teaching of experimentalism and physico-chemical atomism at the Jesuit Collegio Romano (in a context of opposition to both the materialism and atheism of modern society and neo-Thomist currents within the Church), it examines the observational practice and the unitary conception of (...) physical forces introduced by the director of the Collegio’s Observatory, Angelo Secchi. It argues that his dynamist theory of the unified universe shaped his later articulation of the correlation between meteorological, magnetic, and astronomical phenomena. The essay suggests that the construction of correlations promoted in this context is not merely local in character but precedes and participates in the formation of the culture of prediction in Jesuit mission observatories. (shrink)

This article explores a key question in the history of science: Could untrained officials learn and apply practical knowledge by reading how-to books and collaborating with expert practitioners? Notably, historians of science have studied workplaces such as the mines as arenas of knowledge exchange between workers, expert practitioners, and learned humanists. This article uses a labor history approach to explore what this exchange meant in practice. It analyzes the attempts of an untrained official in the mines of the Medici family (...) to learn and reproduce practical knowledge about prospecting and surveying. By the mid-sixteenth century, this official read Georg Agricola’s (1494–1555) mining treatises and had access to the expertise of German miners from the renowned mining districts of Central Europe. The analysis of his reports based on the reading of the book, along with the hierarchical organization of labor established by the German experts in the Medici mines, reveals that the presence of craftsmen and scholarly works reinforced, rather than blurred, the boundaries of knowledge in early modern mines. (shrink)

Numerous studies over the past two decades have indicated that autism prevalence in China is lower than international estimates, believed to be around 1%. However, various publications, especially newspaper articles and activist reports, have still characterized autism prevalence in the country as 1%. This paper examines the discrepancy between data by writing the biography of the 1% estimate, exploring its sociopolitical implications and cultural significance. It highlights the attractiveness and power of the 1% value in China, hinting at a possible (...) role played by numbers in the “looping effect” described by Ian Hacking. Moreover, the author suggests that the emphasis on this specific estimate downplays the importance of questions opened up by the discrepancy in findings between Chinese and international autism research. (shrink)