It is a cliché of self-help advice that there are no problems, only opportunities. The rationale and actions of the BSHS in creating its Global Digital History of Science Festival may be a rare genuine confirmation of this mantra. The global COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 meant that the society's usual annual conference – like everyone else's – had to be cancelled. Once the society decided to go digital, we had a hundred days to organize and deliver our first online festival. (...) In the hope that this will help, inspire and warn colleagues around the world who are also trying to move online, we here detail the considerations, conversations and thinking behind the organizing team's decisions. (shrink)

From the early-to-mid-twentieth century, major debates were underway about the very structure and development of the earth. During this period, geopolitical disputes abounded, and in some regions of the earth, geology played a central role in territorial claims. On the Antarctic Deception Island, claimed by the United Kingdom, Chile, and Argentina, records of what would now be considered clear indications of volcanic activity date back to its discovery in 1820. Yet despite regular and widely published observations of earthquakes, hot springs, (...) and fumaroles, Deception was very often identified as an extinct volcano, surprising many with two unpredicted eruptions in 1967 and 1969. This article will use the case of Deception Island to argue how the island’s extinct status was pivotal in a region where occupation had become vital for making territorial claims. As such, our understandings of geology are often deeply intertwined with local geopolitics. (shrink)

This Focus section introductory essay makes a case for new histories of volcano science. While studies of individual volcanoes are pervasive and well known, the twentieth-century history of volcanology remains largely written by practitioners. The essays in this focus section—written by scholars with specialisms in the history of science, the environment, culture, agriculture, and geography—draw out the wider significance of volcano science in a range of regions including Indonesia, the Philippines, Mexico, and Antarctica. The essays highlight the significance of imperial (...) and colonial contestation in the formation of volcano science and the fraught relationship between Western, Indigenous, and local forms of volcano knowledge. The essays also point to the importance of volcano science to new conceptions of earthly evolution and history. The introduction concludes with reflections on potential new research directions in the historiography of volcano science. (shrink)

This paper analyzes a recent case in which a court, like the Daubert Court, was asked to demarcate legitimate from illegitimate science. The court was the International Court of Justice (ICJ), and it was asked by the state of Australia to find the state of Japan in violation of the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling because of its licensing of a research program that engaged in killing whales ostensibly “for purposes of scientific research.” Australia premised a good portion (...) of its argument on a four-part definition of “scientific research,” reminiscent of the four notorious “Daubert criteria,” and the claim that the Japanese research program, “JARPA II,” failed to comply with this definition. The paper suggests that the Court’s judgment, which forced Japan to temporarily cease whaling, illustrates the merits for courts of avoiding the temptation to engage in demarcation exercises. (shrink)