History, Science, and Mind: Changing Views of Scientific Knowledge
April 2nd, 2003
"Changing World Views: Was Columbus a Necessary Precursor to Copernicus?" presented by Keith Pickering, independent scholar and historian of science and exploration living in Watertown, Minnesota. Currently the editor of DIO, the International Journal of Scientific History, the only US journal devoted primarily to the history of astronomy, Pickering has written and maintains the internet's premier website on the navigation of Christopher Columbus, and is a frequent lecturer on Columbus's navigation and life. His current research interests include ancient Greek astronomy, particularly the Ancient Star Catalog and the works of Hipparchos and Ptolemy.
"Galileo's Contribution to the New Knowledge" presented by Joseph Pitt, Virginia Tech. Pitt received his A.B in Philosophy from the College of William and Mary in 1966 and his M.A. (Philosophy, 1970) and Ph.D. (Philosophy, 1972) from The University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, Canada. He arrived at Virginia Tech in 1971 and except for some visits to the University of Pittsburgh Center for the Philosophy of Science, he has pursued his academic career there. In 1978 he developed and then for ten years directed the Humanities, Science and Technology Program in the Center for Programs in the Humanities. In 1980 he became the founding Director of the Center for the Study of Science in Society. In 1990 he assumed the Headship of the Department of Philosophy, stepping down in 1997, returning to the job in 2001. Dr. Pitt has received several teaching awards, including the Alumni Teaching Award and he is a member of Virginia Tech's Academy of Teaching Excellence, which he chaired in 1980-81. He has authored three books, edited a dozen, and published over fifty articles and numerous book reviews. He was also Founding Editor of the journal Perspectives on Science; Historical, Philosophical, Social, published by the MIT Press.
"Arabic Science in the European Renaissance" presented by George Saliba, professor of Arabic and Islamic Science at Columbia University. Saliba has published several books and scores of articles dealing with Arabic science and technology and the relationship between Arabic science and Renaissance Europe. His most recent works include A History of Arabic Astronomy: Planetary Theories During the Golden Age of Islam (NYU Press), Rethinking the Roots of Modern Science: Arabic Manuscripts in European Libraries, Occasional Paper, Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, Georgetown University, Washington DC, 1999, and "Greek Astronomy and the Medieval Arabic Tradition," American Scientist, 2002, 90,4: pp. 360-367.
"Just Another Species?" presented by Andrew Berry. Born in London, Andrew Berry has a degree in zoology from Oxford University and a Ph.D. in evolutionary genetics from Princeton University. Most of his research has focused on natural populations of that least charismatic of all animals, the fruit fly so beloved of geneticists, Drosophila melanogaster. Combining the techniques of field biology with those of molecular biology, his work has been a search for evidence at the DNA level of Darwinian natural selection. He has not limited himself to fruit flies, but has published additionally on topics as diverse as giant rats in New Guinea, mice on Atlantic islands, and aphids from the Far East. At Harvard, he held a Junior Fellowship at the Society of Fellows, and is currently a research associate at Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology where he divides his time between teaching and writing. He publishes extensively in the non-professional literature on science and the history of science, his essays appearing regularly in the London Review of Books and elsewhere. He is the editor of an anthology of the writings of Alfred Russel Wallace, the co-discoverer, with Darwin, of natural selection (Infinite Tropics, Verso, 2002), and co-author (with James D Watson) of DNA, The Secret of Life (Knopf, April 2003), which marks the fiftieth anniversary of the discovery of the double helix structure of DNA. His screen-writing credits in film and television include a new 30 minute film, DNA, premiered at UNC's Morehead Planetarium & Science Center on May 14, 2003.
With great thanks to:
Jim Rose (Physics and Astronomy, "The Copernican Revolution"), Carol Arnosti (Marine Sciences, "The Ends of the Earth: Polar Oceanography and Exploration"), Don Garrett (Philosophy, "Reason and Religion at the Dawn of Modern Science"), Howard Reisen (School of Medicine, "Plagues and People: An Inquiry Into Why We Think We Get Sick and Why They Thought They Get Sick"), Randal Styers (Religious Studies, "Religion, Magic, and the Sciences"), Erin Carlston (English, "Wild-Child Stories and Theories of Human Nature"), Sarah Shields (History and First Year Seminar Program), Ed Samulski (Chemistry, "You Don't Have To Be a Rocket Scientist"), Dee Reid (College of Arts and Sciences Director of Communication).
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