
Perspectives on Science
A new public events series from the Consortium for History of Science, Technology and Medicine brings historical perspective to contemporary issues and concerns.
In the public forums, historians and other specialists speak about culturally relevant topics in front of a live audience at Consortium member institutions. Forum subjects range from medical consumerism to public trust in science and technology. Videos of these events are also available at chstm.org.
In podcast episodes, authors of new books in the history of science, technology, and medicine respond to questions from readers with a wide variety of backgrounds and expertise. These conversations illuminate the utility and relevance of the past in light of current events.
Latest episodes

6 snips
Sep 22, 2024 • 53min
History of Science Society at 100: Mining in the history and social studies of science
Join us for a discussion on the history of mining and the intersections of history of science with several other fields. How are mines sites of knowing the world, and how is that knowledge contested? How has our understanding of what a mine is changed over time, and what does that mean for how mines are studied? What can the methods and sources used in studying mines teach us about trends in the history of science and science studies? Discussants are:
Allison Margaret Bigelow
University of Virginia
Victor Seow
Harvard University
Jessica Smith
Colorado School of Mines
Recorded on April 1, 2024
For more information on this and other topics, please see https://www.chstm.org/video/157

Aug 31, 2024 • 58min
DNA Papers 15: A Conversation with Matthew Meselson and Franklin Stahl
Tune in one last time to a bonus episode of The DNA Papers with the authors of "the most beautiful experiment in biology" as they reminisce about "the best years of their lives" and field questions from the commentators of episode 14. Series moderator Neeraja Sankaran was joined by historian of science Kersten Hall to co-host this special treat.
Matthew Meselson
Harvard University
Franklin Stahl
University of Oregon
Kersten Hall
University of Leeds
Neeraja Sankaran
National Centre for Biological Sciences-TIFR, Bangalore, India
Recorded on June 4, 2024.
Please see https://www.chstm.org/video/144 for more information and related episodes.

Jul 16, 2024 • 59min
History of Science Society at 100: History of Science in Song
Four historians share their interests in music, and their perspectives in using songs as source material for better understanding the history of science.
Antony Adler, Carleton College
Andrew Fiss, Michigan Technological University
Asif Siddiqi, Fordham University
Betty Smocovitis, University of Florida
Song Notes:
(https://soundcloud.com/antony-adler/the-dredging-song-by-edward-forbes) Edward Forbes "Song of the Dredge" Performed by Michael Schrimpf and Antony - Timestamp 34:06
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpxwJNNufko) Bio-Rad PCR Song - Timestamp 38:00
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IwmGomRRZ4&list=PLSO9Kihiwr3Mgze10g_zfxDxtNaXhCUz2) The 7th Voyage of Sinbad - Bernard Hermann - Timestamp 40:40
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tJgRoMzMxg) Cosmogony by Björk - Timestamp 44:50
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjkxUA041nM) Songs of the Humpback Whale - Dr. Roger Payne - Timestamp 47:00
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNGoXR5W88c) Farewell to Tarwathie by Judy Collins - Timestamp 47:30
Recorded December 11, 2023
For more resources on this topic, please see https://www.chstm.org/video/157

May 31, 2024 • 1h 9min
IsisCB on Pandemics - On Past, Present, and Possible Future, Pandemic Diseases
Episode three of the podcast companion to the Isis CB special issue on pandemics, focuses on the very substance of pandemics, namely the diseases themselves. Join Mark Honigsbaum, Matheus Alves Duarte da Silva, and Michael Bresalier in a conversation about the impact of disease on history and on the condition of our planet vis-a-vis current diseases and those that may emerge, as well as the role and responsibility of the historian in dealing with pandemic incidents.
Mark Honigsbaum, City University London
Matheus Alves Duarte da Silva, University of St. Andrews
Michael Bresalier, Swansea University
For more information and additional resources, go to https://www.chstm.org/video/149
Recorded March 13, 2024.

May 10, 2024 • 1h 2min
DNA Papers 14: Matthew Meselson, Franklin Stahl, and semiconservative replication of DNA
The penultimate episode of the DNA Papers podcast series revisits a paper that demonstrated the semiconservative mode of DNA replication, which had been predicted by complementary base-paired double helix model of the molecule discussed in episode 13 of this series:
Meselson, Matthew, and Franklin W. Stahl. “The replication of DNA in Escherichia coli.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 44, no. 7 (July 15, 1958): 671–82. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.44.7.671
The papers offers the details an experiment designed and performed by a pair of young molecular biologists, Matthew Meselson and Franklin Stahl at Caltech. They deployed the newly developed technique of density gradient centrifugation in combination with the use of heavy isotopes of nitrogen to show that during the replication of a DNA molecule, each progeny helix contained one strand that was conserved, or passed down directly from the parent and one new strand synthesized from the conserved template. Listen to our expert guests from different disciplines as they share their insights into what has been described as “the most beautiful experiment in biology”:
Allan Franklin
University of Colorado Boulder
Michel Morange
IHPST, Université Paris I
William C. Summers
Yale University
Janina Wellmann
Max Planck Institute for the History of Science
Recorded on March 27, 2024
For additional resources on this topic, please see https://www.chstm.org/video/144

Mar 25, 2024 • 1h 2min
DNA Papers #13 - James Watson, Francis Crick, and the DNA Double Helix × Status message
Rounding out the story begun in the previous installment, episode 13 of the DNA Papers centers on the publications in which the double helical structure for DNA was proposed, detailed, and its various implications speculated upon. It features four papers, all by Watson and Crick from Cambridge,. Together these papers not only proposed that DNA’s three dimensional structure was a double-stranded helix, but also described the antiparallel and complementary nature of its two component strands and the specific pairing of the component nucleotide bases, namely, the purines, A and G, with the pyrimidines T and C respectively. The papers also discussed the implications of these features for the fundamental functions of DNA.
For more resources on this topic, see https://www.chstm.org/video/144.
Recorded on Dec. 11, 2023.

Mar 18, 2024 • 18min
Donald L. Opitz - Daughters of Ceres
Don's book project, "Daughters of Ceres: The Scientific Advancement of Women in Horticulture, 1870–1920" examines the confluence of two 19th century movements—one dedicated to the promotion of scientific agriculture, another to the advancement of women's education in science. These movements fueled international efforts to elevate women's position in the fields of horticulture and "the lighter branches" of agriculture. This new international movement organized to create new educational, employment, and civic opportunities for women in fields traditionally constructed as male bastions. "Daughters of Ceres" will sketch out more fully the professional and civic-oriented sides to the advancement of women's education in horticulrure, accounting for the role of commercial industries, industrial associations, professional societies, garden clubs, philanthropic foundations, and educational and scientific institutions that, collectively, participated in an extensive network that undergirded this movement. The book will offer a new perspective on "women in science" with a repositioning of horticulture in the overall landscape of scientific disciplines.
Recorded on December 19, 2023.
For more resources on this topic, see https://www.chstm.org/video/180

Feb 23, 2024 • 24min
Rena Selya — Salvador Luria: An Immigrant Biologist in Cold War America
In this episode, we speak with Rena Selya, the archivist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and author of Salvador Luria: An Immigrant Biologist in Cold War America.
Blacklisted from federal funding review panels but awarded a Nobel Prize for his research on bacteriophage, biologist Salvador Luria (1912–1991) was as much an activist as a scientist. In this first full-length biography of Luria, Rena Selya draws on extensive archival research; interviews with Luria's family, colleagues, and students; and FBI documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act to create a compelling portrait of a man committed to both science and society.
In addition to his work with viruses and bacteria in the 1940s, Luria broke new ground in molecular biology and cancer research from the 1950s to the 1980s and was a leader in calling for scientists to accept an educational and advisory responsibility to the public. In return, he believed, the public should rely on science to strengthen social and political institutions.
Luria was born in Italy, where the Fascists came to power when he was ten. He left Italy for France due to the antisemetic Race Laws of 1938, and then fled as a Jewish refugee from Nazi Europe, making his way to the United States. Once an American citizen, Luria became a grassroots activist on behalf of civil rights, labor representation, nuclear disarmament, and American military disengagement from the Vietnam and Gulf Wars. Luria joined the MIT faculty in 1960 and was the founding director of the Center for Cancer Research. Throughout his life he remained as passionate about his engagement with political issues as about his science, and continued to fight for peace and freedom until his death.
Recorded on November 22, 2023.
For more resources about this topic, please see https://www.chstm.org/video/178.

Feb 13, 2024 • 1h 19min
DNA Papers #12: Maurice Wilkins, Rosalind Franklin, and the double helix model for DNA structure
Episode 12 of the DNA Papers, is the first of a two-parter, which centers on papers published about the now iconic double helix structure of the DNA molecule. This episode features three publications, all published in the journal Nature, which represent the work of scientists working at King’s College London, whose X-ray crystallographic work provided some of the crucial data that supported the new double helix model.
Wilkins, Maurice Hugh Frederick, Alec R. Stokes, and Herbert R. Wilson. “Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: Molecular Structure of Deoxypentose Nucleic Acids.” Nature 171, no. 4356 (1953): 738–40.
Franklin, Rosalind E., and Raymond G. Gosling. “Molecular Configuration in Sodium Thymonucleate.” Nature 171, no. 4356 (1953): 740–41.
Franklin, Rosalind E., and Raymond G. Gosling. “Evidence for 2-Chain Helix in Crystalline Structure of Sodium Deoxyribonucleate.” Nature 172 (1953): 156–57.
Tune in to listen to our panel of experts in a lively and informative conversation about the place of these papers in the history of our understanding of DNA:
Soraya de Chadarevian, University of California, Los Angeles
Elspeth Garman, Oxford University
Kersten Hall, University of Leeds
Jan Witkowski, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
See also a collection of Resources at https://www.chstm.org/video/144
Closed captioning available on YouTube.
Recorded on Nov. 6, 2023.

Dec 21, 2023 • 25min
Vandersommers - Entangled Encounters at the National Zoo: Stories from the Animal Archive
In this episode of Perspectives, we speak with Daniel Vandersommers, author of Entangled Encounters at the National Zoo: Stories from the Animal Archive. In this book, Vandersommers shows how zoo animals always ran away from the zoo. This is meant literally—animals escaped frequently—but even more so, figuratively. Living, breathing, historical zoo animals ran away from their cultural constructions, and these constructions ran away from the living bodies they were made to represent. Vandersommers shows that the resulting gaps produced by runaway animals contain concealed, distorted, and erased histories worthy of uncovering.
Entangled Encounters at the National Zoo also demonstrates how the popular zoology fostered by the National Zoo shaped every aspect of American science, culture, and conservation during the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. Between the 1880s and World War I, as intellectuals debated Darwinism and scientists institutionalized the laboratory, zoological parks suddenly appeared at the heart of nearly every major American city, captivating tens of millions of visitors. Vandersommers follows stories previously hidden within the National Zoo in order to help us reconsider the place of zoos and their inhabitants in the twenty-first century.
For more resources on this topic, please see https://www.chstm.org/video/176.
Recorded on October 31, 2023.