Everett Mendelsohn – författare

Transformation and Tradition in the Sciences presents a sampling of work in the history of science by colleagues and former students and associates of I. Bernard Cohen, one of the most influential figures in the rise of the history of science as a scholarly discipline. The volume is divided into four parts: the history and philosophy of the exact sciences and mathematics; the eighteenth-century tradition; science in America; and scientific ideas in their cultural context. These major themes, each of which has been a subject of study by Professor Cohen, will interest a range of historians interested in the development of science and the history of ideas.

This title highlights not only aspects of the career of Everett Mendelsohn, one of the premier historians of biology of our age, but also a wide range of topics that are now grouped under the general heading of science studies. This broad collection includes articles on the relations between science and the military, science as narrative, natural history and conservation, Marxism and science, the Human Genome Project, and the relation of philosophy to the study of embryonic development in the 18th century.

New institutional arrangements, new fields of study and research, new patterns of funding and support, new relations with industry, the academy and the state, and new professional roles have marked the sciences and technology;

The extensive interaction between science/technology and the military has become increasingly apparent in the years since the Second World War. New institutional arrangements, new fields of study and research, new patterns of funding and support, new relations with industry, the academy and the state, and new professional roles have marked the sciences and technology; the military transformations have been equally important: new weapons systems of great complexity, new strategies and practices, new reliance on high technologies and advanced sciences, and extensive involvement in the funding of science and technology in the 'civilian' sector. While the literature in the social studies of science and technology has from time to time addressed these issues (especially from the historical perspective), the attention paid to the very extensive interactions and concommitant transformations has not been commensurate with the magnitude of the enterprise or changes undergone. These volumescontribute both reports of new research and stimulating additional study.Volume 12/1 contains Part I: War and the restructuring of physics, and Part II: The military and technological development.Volume 12/2 contains Part III: Transformation of industry and medicine, Part IV: Nuclear weapons and nuclear power, and Part V: R&D: military, industry and the academy.