Study Materials
After each lecture, students receive a list of keywords (names, scientific terms, institutions, titles of publications, and quotations) mentioned in the lecture. These lists are used for reviewing material. During exams, the instructor gives students selected keywords to identify and explain their significance.
| SES # | TOPICS | KEYWORDS |
|---|---|---|
| Week 1. The legacy of the scientific revolution | ||
| 1 | Introduction: the rise of modern science | |
| 2 | The legacy of the scientific revolution | (PDF) |
| Weeks 2-3. Enlightenment science | ||
| 3 | Science in the enlightenment | (PDF) |
| 4 | Natural history and colonialism | |
| 5 | Enlightenment chemistry | (PDF) |
| Weeks 4-5. The nineteenth century: organism and mechanism | ||
| 6 | Romantic science | (PDF) |
| 7 | The science of life | |
| 8 | Thermodynamics and the industrial revolution | (PDF) |
| 9 | Physics and the telegraph | |
| Weeks 6-7. Evolution | ||
| 10 | Darwin and natural selection | (PDF) |
| 11 | Evolution and society | |
| 12 | Scientific medicine | (PDF) |
| Midterm exam | ||
| Weeks 8-9. Fin-de-siècle and the crisis of objectivity | ||
| 13 | The image of objectivity | (PDF) |
| 14 | Freud and the science of the mind | |
| 15 | Relativity theory and Swiss clocks | (PDF) |
| 16 | Quantum mechanics and postwar culture | |
| Weeks 10-11. Science and war | ||
| 17 | Science and World War II | (PDF) |
| 18 | Sputnik and the origins of the space race | |
| 19 | Physics and the cold war | (PDF) |
| Weeks 12-13. Genetics and society | ||
| 20 | Eugenics | (PDF) |
| 21 | Molecular biology | |
| 22 | The race for the human genome | (PDF) |
| 23 | Genetic engineering | |
| Week 14. Science in the 21st century | ||
| 24 | Science in the 21st century | (PDF) |
| 25 | Course overview | |
