History of science and technology

The history of science and technology (HST) is a field of history which examines how humanity's understanding of science and technology has changed over the millennia. Without this understanding, development of new technologies would have been improbable. This field of history also studies the cultural, economic, and political impacts of scientific innovation.

The historiography of science was originally written by practicing and retired scientists, starting primarily with William Whewell, as a way to communicate the perceived virtues of science to the public. In the early 1930s, after a famous paper given by the Soviet historian Boris Hessen, effort was focused into looking at the ways in which scientific practices were allied with the needs and motivations of their context. After World War II, extensive resources were put into teaching and researching the discipline, with the hopes that it would help the public better understand both science and technology as they came to play an exceedingly prominent role in the world eye. In the 1960s, especially in the wake of the work done by Thomas Kuhn, the discipline began to serve a very different function, and began to be used as a way to problematize scientific enterprise. At the present time it is often closely aligned with the field of Science studies.

Modern mathematical science and physical engineering as it is understood today took form in the scientific revolution, but this math and science was built on the work of the Greek civilization; the Greeks had in turn interacted with the civilizations of Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. See the main articles History of science and History of technology for these respective topics.

Universities with HST programs

Brown University has a program in the History of Mathematics. ^*
Carleton University Ottawa offer courses in Ancient Science and Technology in its Technology, Society and Environment program
Case Western Reserve University has an undergraduate interdisciplinary program in the History and Philosophy of Science and a graduate program in the History of Science, Technology, Environment, and Medicine (STEM) [http://www.case.edu/artsci/hsty/graduate.html#stem.
Georgia Institute of Technology has an undergraduate and graduate program in the History of Technology and Society. ^*
Harvard has a large undergraduate and graduate program in History of Science, and is one of the largest departments currently in the world. ^*
Indiana University offers undergraduate courses and a masters and PhD program in the History and Philosophy of Science. ^*
Johns Hopkins University has an undergraduate and graduate program in the History of Science, Medicine, and Technology. ^*
Lehigh University offers an undergraduate level STS concentration (founded in 1972) and a graduate program with emphasis on the history of industrial America. ^*
Linköpings universitet, Sweden, has a Science, Technology, and Society program which includes HST. ^*
The London Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine - this Centre was formed in 1987 and runs a postgraduate programme which is jointly administered and taught by Imperial College London, University College London, and the Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL. ^*
MIT has a Science, Technology, and Society program which includes HST. ^*
Princeton University has a program in the History of Science. ^*
Technische Universität Berlin has a program in the History of science and technology. ^*
Stanford has a History and Philosophy of Science and Technology program. ^*
Stevens Institute of Technology has an undergraduate and graduate program in the History of Science.
UC Berkeley offers a graduate degree in HST through its History program, and maintains a separate sub-department for the field. ^*
UCLA has a relatively large group History of Science and Medicine faculty and graduate students within its History department, and also offers an undergraduate minor in the History of Science. ^*
University College London has an undergraduate programme in History and Philosophy of Science in the Department of Science and Technology Studies. A postgraduate programme is offered through the London Centre. UCL also contains The Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine which runs a postgraduate programme. [http://www.ucl.ac.uk/histmed/
University of Bristol has a masters and PhD program in the Philosophy and History of Science. ^*
University of Cambridge has an undergraduate course and a large masters and PhD program in the History and Philosophy of Science (including the History of Medicine). ^*
University of Durham, UK, has a 1st year History of Science module in the Philosophy department. ^*
University of Florida has a Graduate Program in 'History of Science, Technology, and Medicine' at the University of Florida provides undergraduate and graduate degrees. ^*
University of King's College has a History of Science and Technology Program.^*
University of Leeds has both undergraduate and graduate programmes in History and Philosophy of Science in the Department of Philosophy. ^*
University of Oklahoma has an undergraduate minor and a graduate degree program in History of Science. ^*
University of Oxford has a one-year graduate course in 'History of Science: Instruments, Museums, Science, Technology' associated with the Museum of the History of Science. ^*
University of Pennsylvania has a program in history and sociology of Science. ^*
University of Toronto has a program in history and philosophy of Science and Technology. ^*
University of Wisconsin-Madison has a program in the History of Science, Medicine, and Technology. ^*
Utrecht University has two co-operating programmes: one in History and Philosophy of Science at the Faculty of Natural Sciences and one in Historical and Comparative Studies of the Sciences and the Humanities at the Faculty of Humanities. and [http://www2.let.uu.nl/Solis/homelet/master/hiscompstudies/
Yale University has a program in the History of Medicine and Science. ^*

Prominent historians of the field

Bibliography

Historiography of science

H. Floris Cohen, The Scientific Revolution: A Historiographical Inquiry, University of Chicago Press 1994 - Discussion on the origins of modern science has been going on for more then two hundred years. Cohen provides an excellent overview.
Ernst Mayr, The Growth of Biological Thought, Belknap Press 1985
Michel Serres,(ed.), A History of Scientific Thought, Blackwell Publishers 1995
Companion to Science in the Twentieth Century, John Krige (Editor), Dominique Pestre (Editor), Taylor & Francis 2003, 941pp
The Cambridge History of Science, Cambridge University Press
- Volume 4, Eighteenth-Century Science, 2003
- Volume 5, The Modern Physical and Mathematical Sciences, 2002

History of science as a discipline

J. A. Bennett, 'Museums and the Establishment of the History of Science at Oxford and Cambridge', British Journal for the History of Science 30, 1997, 29–46
Dietrich von Engelhardt, Historisches Bewußtsein in der Naturwissenschaft : von der Aufklärung bis zum Positivismus, Freiburg ^* : Alber, 1979
A.-K. Meyer, 'Setting up a Discipline: Conflicting Agendas of the Cambridge History of Science Committee, 1936–1950.' Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, 31, 2000

Journals and periodicals

British Journal for the History of Science
History of Technology
Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences (HSPS)
ICON
IEEE Annals of the History of Computing
Isis
Journal of the History of Biology
Journal of the History of Medicine and the Allied Sciences
Osiris
Science & Technology Studies
Science in Context
Science, Technology, & Human Values
Social Studies of Science
Technology and Culture
Transactions of the Newcomen Society

Professional societies

External links