Gender and Technoscience: A Historical Perspective

This paper explores turning points in the historical relationship between gender and technoscience, most notably the gender parity of the 2009 Nobel Prizes; the public debate on the under-representation of women in science that raged world-wide but especially in the US during 2005-2006; and the construction of a public memory for a leading woman technoscientist in the mid-1990s. The paper situates these turning points in the context of historical events, most notably the Scientific Revolution of the 17th Century, WW2 and the Cold War, the women’s liberation movement of the 1970s that legally ended overt gender discrimination, and the rise of covert gender discrimination since the 1990s. The paper concludes by drawing attention to recent findings on new technoscientific environments, most notably biotech start ups, as innovative settings that offer flexibility, and hence a more viable route to gender parity.This paper explores turning points in the historical relationship between gender and technoscience, most notably the gender parity of the 2009 Nobel Prizes; the public debate on the under-representation of women in science that raged world-wide but especially in the US during 2005-2006; and the construction of a public memory for a leading woman technoscientist in the mid-1990s. The paper situates these turning points in the context of historical events, most notably the Scientific Revolution of the 17th Century, WW2 and the Cold War, the women’s liberation movement of the 1970s that legally ended overt gender discrimination, and the rise of covert gender discrimination since the 1990s. The paper concludes by drawing attention to recent findings on new technoscientific environments, most notably biotech start ups, as innovative settings that offer flexibility, and hence a more viable route to gender parity.This paper explores turning points in the historical relationship between gender and technoscience, most notably the gender parity of the 2009 Nobel Prizes; the public debate on the under-representation of women in science that raged world-wide but especially in the US during 2005-2006; and the construction of a public memory for a leading woman technoscientist in the mid-1990s. The paper situates these turning points in the context of historical events, most notably the Scientific Revolution of the 17th Century, WW2 and the Cold War, the women’s liberation movement of the 1970s that legally ended overt gender discrimination, and the rise of covert gender discrimination since the 1990s. The paper concludes by drawing attention to recent findings on new technoscientific environments, most notably biotech start ups, as innovative settings that offer flexibility, and hence a more viable route to gender parity

De la colaboración multidisciplinar a la objetividad transnacional: el espacio internacional, constitutivo de la biología molecular, 1930-1970

Not available.<br><br>En este artículo se exploran las relaciones internacionales establecidas por los biólogos moleculares durante las primeras décadas del desarrollo de esa área. El espacio internacional dentro del cual se han inscrito los descubrimientos de la biología molecular resultan tener una función legitimadora, desde sus inicios en los años treinta hasta los años sesenta. La resultante objetividad transnacional de nuevas realidades teóricas y empíricas, entre ellas la doble hélice y el ARN mensajero, dependieron de una serie de oportunidades de acceso por parte de esos científicos a tradiciones disciplinares externas a su país de origen y ligadas a la política científica. Precisamente ese espacio internacional les permitió superar resistencias de las escuelas experimentales locales a la recepción de esas novedades, fuera de los controles conceptuales de las tradiciones nacionales

Virology Experts in the Boundary Zone Between Science, Policy and the Public: A Biographical Analysis

This article aims to open up the biographical black box of three experts working in the boundary zone between science, policy and public debate. A biographical-narrative approach is used to analyse the roles played by the virologists Albert Osterhaus, Roel Coutinho and Jaap Goudsmit in policy and public debate. These figures were among the few leading virologists visibly active in the Netherlands during the revival of infectious diseases in the 1980s. Osterhaus and Coutinho in particular are still the key figures today, as demonstrated during the outbreak of novel influenza A (H1N1). This article studies the various political and communicative challenges and dilemmas encountered by these three virologists, and discusses the way in which, strategically or not, they handled those challenges and dilemmas during the various stages of the field’s recent history. Important in this respect is their pursuit of a public role that is both effective and credible. We will conclude with a reflection on the H1N1 pandemic, and the historical and biographical ties between emerging governance arrangements and the experts involved in the development of such arrangements

De la colaboración multidisciplinar a la objetividad transnacional: el espacio internacional, constitutivo de la biología molecular, 1930-1970

Not available.En este artículo se exploran las relaciones internacionales establecidas por los biólogos moleculares durante las primeras décadas del desarrollo de esa área. El espacio internacional dentro del cual se han inscrito los descubrimientos de la biología molecular resultan tener una función legitimadora, desde sus inicios en los años treinta hasta los años sesenta. La resultante objetividad transnacional de nuevas realidades teóricas y empíricas, entre ellas la doble hélice y el ARN mensajero, dependieron de una serie de oportunidades de acceso por parte de esos científicos a tradiciones disciplinares externas a su país de origen y ligadas a la política científica. Precisamente ese espacio internacional les permitió superar resistencias de las escuelas experimentales locales a la recepción de esas novedades, fuera de los controles conceptuales de las tradiciones nacionales

Pnina G. Abir-Am to Viktor Hamburger, September 27, 1994

Inquiries about Hamburger's extent of contacts with Neeham and Waddington, and about his collaboration with Levi-Montalcini.Correspondenc