http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/7911 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/17844 The archive of place : environment and the contested past of a North American plateau Turkel, William Joseph, 1967- This is a study of the role that the interpretation of material evidence plays in historical consciousness and social memory. It consists of three case studies from the Chilcotin Plateau in the west-central part of present-day British Columbia. In each, a conflict in the mid-1990s over the nature of the past and its relevance for the present allowed underlying stories to emerge. As different groups struggled to control the fate of the region and its resources, they invoked very different understandings of its past, understandings based in part on the material traces that they found there. Taken together, the case studies illustrate the fact that there is an extensive division of interpretive labor when it comes to the material evidence of the past. Like other kinds of labor, this interpretation takes part in a political economy. Studies of material evidence are done to further the interests of individuals or groups, are valued and exchanged with one another, and are important in the delineation of property rights, the enforcement of laws and the justification of ideologies. What emerges is not an authoritative or univocal environmental history of a place, but rather a contest to find a past which will be usable in the present and future. The constant interpretation of material evidence allows people to situate themselves with respect to place, time and other people. Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Program in Science, Technology and Society, 2004. Includes bibliographical references (p. 310-337). Wed, 29 Oct 2003 22:58:59 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/40976 Modeling proteins, making scientists : an ethnography of pedagogy and visual cultures in contemporary structural biology Myers, Natasha This ethnography tracks visualization and pedagogy in the burgeoning field of structural biology. Structural biologists are a multidisciplinary group of researchers who produce models and animations of protein molecules using three-dimensional interactive computer graphics. As they ramp up the pace of structure determination, modeling a vast array of proteins, these researchers are shifting life science research agendas from decoding genetic sequence data to interpreting the multidimensional forms of molecular life. One major hurdle they face is training a new generation of scientists to work with multi-dimensional data forms. In this study I document the formation and propagation of tacit knowledge in structural biology laboratories, in classrooms, and at conferences. This research shows that structural biologists-in-training must cultivate a feel for proteins in order to visualize and interpret their activity in cells. I find that protein modeling relies heavily on a set of practices I call the body-work of modeling. These tacit skills include: a) forms of kinesthetic knowledge that structural biologists gain through building and manipulating molecular models, and by using their own bodies as mimetic models to help them figure out how proteins move and interact; and b) narrative strategies that assume a teleological relationship between form and function, and which figure proteins through analogies with familiar human-scale phenomena, such as the pervasive description of proteins as "machines." What I find is that these researchers are not only transforming the objects of life science research: they are training a new generation of life scientists in forms of knowing attuned to the chemical affinities, physical forces and movements of protein molecules, and keyed to the tangible logic and rhetoric of "molecular machines." (cont.) This research builds on concerns in the feminist science studies literature on modes of embodiment in scientific practice, and contributes to studies of performance in science by examining visual cultures as performance cultures. In addition, I incorporate historical studies of the life sciences to map the making of the protein-this intricately crafted entity whose forms and functions, I argue, are recalibrating scientific expertise, reanimating biological imaginations, and reconfiguring the very contours and temporalities of "life itself." Thesis (Ph. D. in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology and Society (HASTS))--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Science, Technology and Society, 2007. Includes bibliographical references (p. 260-277). Sun, 29 Oct 2006 22:58:59 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/10807 "Datum for its own annihilation" : feedback, control, and computing, 1916-1945 Mindell, David A. (David Avram) Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Science, Technology, and Society, 1996. Includes bibliographical references. Sun, 29 Oct 1995 22:58:59 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/39577 Empire of energy : environment, geopolitics, and American technology before the age of oil Shulman, Peter Adam This dissertation asks how the United States physically built its global empire. Between 1840 and 1930, empire building involved the establishment of a network of naval bases and coaling stations. By focusing on energy, I reconceptualize the American overseas empire as neither inevitable nor geographically predetermined. I trace how coal shaped U.S. expansion, how this expansion influenced ideas about national security, and how these security concerns affected the global environment. Coal reveals continuities in American foreign relations that link overseas expansion to responses to the introduction of steam power into ocean travel. As the Navy sought coal, it progressively assembled the familiar contours of America's global reach. The dissertation addresses both global and local history. It shows how policy makers before the Civil War demonstrated tremendous creativity in initiating geological investigations, diplomatic arrangements, and commercial agreements in foreign territories. Between the Civil War and 1898, these approaches gradually gave way to a more singular effort by the Navy to control strategic ports around the world. Soon, coal was so central to the Navy that coaling strategy and technology formed a foundation for the education of elite officers at the Naval War College, where its study shaped the planning for future wars. Attention to Americans in Borneo, Japan, the Isthmus of ... Thesis (Ph. D. in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology and Society (HASTS))--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Science, Technology and Society, June 2007. "May 2007." Includes bibliographical references (p. 298-318). Sun, 29 Oct 2006 22:58:59 GMT