Postcolonial narratives of modern science in the making: the exchange of scientific knowledge between India and Europe (1700-1950)

"Postcolonial theory of science professes to mark a departure in the way science and modernity in non-Western regions is either narrativised or discussed. This papertakes up the particular case of India, and proposes that over the last two and a half centuries three frames have historically been available for the understanding of science and modernity. These broad historical frames are those of orientalism, nationalism and post-colonialism. Each of these in turn is marked by a multiplicity of investigative themes and theories. This paper specifically looks at historical writing on the subject of science and modernity in India, the historiographic and thematic variations and differences marking these broad frames. Further, it explores the continuities and relationships both in theme and theory between this multiplicity of theories of science and Indian modernity. For it becomes evident that what we have is a criss-crossing of genealogical lines across the three frames, rather than a distinct evolution along each of the registers of the triptych. Thus the nationalist discourse on science in India itself emerges out of different strands of Orientalist scholarship. Nationalist historiography of the pre-colonial period itself is fractured along several lines, though each of them shares the same theory of science. In the post-colonial accounts, which are themselves informed by the nationalist historiographie(s) of the previous periods, thisborder-crossing is complicated by the crumbling of the positivist theory of science and the emergence of embodied conceptions of science and scientific knowledge." (author's abstract

Vivesharaya as Engineer-Sociologist and the evolution of his techno-economic vision (NIAS Lecture No. L1-2001)

In recent years, sociological approaches to the history of technology have interposed new aspects that have brought the history of technology to the notice of policy research and policy makers. In particular, this renewal is encountered in studies on the sociology of techno-scientific innovation, and is reflected in publications appearing in journals such as Social Studies of Science, Technology in Society, Technovation, Technology and Innovation, and even Technology and Management. Traditionally, the history of technology was designed to address different audiences and serve different functions. In the first instance, the history of technology chronicled the progress of technological development. In this capacity it addressed both science and technical education, providing a frame and a repository of relevant technological objects for practising engineers and technologists. However, during the nineteenth century a particular genre of history emerged: the genre of heroic biography emphasizing the persona and contributions of several ‘technological heroes’. For example, the contributions of James Watt, Stephenson, Edison, Marconi and innumerable others. This genre persisted into the twentieth century, playing a significant cultural role in positioning technology at the centre of contemporary culture. While the primary problems addressed by the history of technology related to the genesis of invention, the process of innovation, the transmission of innovation, and finally the impact of technological innovation on society, the new sociology of technology, on the contrary, established that the process of technological invention and innovation is much more complex than hitherto discussed in the history of technology. Furthermore, innovation is a social process, involving a multitude of actors, resources and circumstances rather than the result of the effort of a uniquely endowed individual. In other words, serendipity and genius have been underplayed by a more carefully elaborated contextualism. Thus, in short, the focus of this history of technology includes communities, workers, women, unsung laboratory assistants, and engineers, and in the process has questioned fundamental assumptions underlying the earlier history of technology, such as technological and social progress. But, more significantly, it has rejected the Eureka approach to the history of technology and instead focussed upon understanding the complex interactions taking place between the science and technology system and society

In Memoriam: Roddam Narasimha 1933-2020

PROFESSOR Roddam Narasimha (herafter RN), one of India’s leading scientists, researcher and teacher passed away in Bangalore on 14 December 2020 at the age of 87. Having obtained a basic degree in mechanical engineering from UVCE, Bangalore he graduated with a Masters from the Department of Aeronautical Engineering, Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore. At IISc he was mentored by Professor Satish Dhawan, one of the founders of the indigenous Indian space programme and Director of IISc for over 20 years. RN went on to do his PhD under Hans Liepmann, who had also supervised Prof Dhawan, from the prestigious California Institute of Technology (Caltech), in the USA

Revisiting Social Theory and History of Science in Early Modern South Asia and Colonial India

Les historiographies des sciences en Asie ont connu un changement majeur au cours des trois dernières décennies, changement inspiré par ceux de la théorie sociale des sciences, par un fort contextualisme et par le développement des recherches en histoire locale. Ce changement résulte aussi des interactions entre théorie sociale et pratique historique. En réponse à la question du rôle des « itinérants » – lettrés, missionnaires, fonctionnaires ou savants – dans la circulation et la transmission des savoirs en Asie orientale, cet essai se tourne vers l’Asie du Sud, et tente d’esquisser le paysage de la circulation des savoirs dans cette région au cours de la première modernité et de la période coloniale. Dans une seconde partie, la traduction des mathématiques modernes dans l’Inde coloniale est prise comme exemple pour illustrer les différentes stratégies de légitimation de nouveaux savoirs dans différents contextes culturels et nationaux.Historiographies of the sciences in Asia have undergone a major revision over the last three decades—inspired by changes in the social theory of science, a robust contextualism, and growing scholarship in local histories. These revisions have equally been an outcome of the mutual shaping of social theory and historical practices. Responding to the role of “itinerants,” be they scholars, missionaries, officials, or scientists in the circulation and transmission of knowledge in East Asia, the present essay synchronously moves to the geographical region of South Asia and attempts to draw the landscape of the circulation of knowledge in early modern and colonial South Asia. In the second part, it briefly instantiates the process of translation of modern mathematical knowledge in colonial India, illustrating the different strategies of legitimation of new knowledge in varied national and cultural contexts.近三十年來，受科學社會理論的變革、強勁的語境主義以及日益發達的區域史研究的影響，亞洲科學史經歷了重大的修正。這些修正同時也是社會理論與史學實踐相互塑造的結果。作為對“旅者”（無論是學者、傳教士、官員或科學人士）在東亞知識流動和傳播中的角色問題的回應，本文將視線轉向同一時期的南亞地區，嘗試勾勒近代早期和殖民地時期南亞知識流動的圖景。文章的第二部分將簡要地以現代數學知識在殖民地印度的翻譯過程為例，說明不同的國族與文化語境下新知識合法化的不同策略

Intermittent ERK oscillations downstream of FGF in mouse embryonic stem cells

Signal transduction networks generate characteristic dynamic activities to process extracellular signals and guide cell fate decisions such as to divide or differentiate. The differentiation of pluripotent cells is controlled by FGF/ERK signaling. However, only a few studies have addressed the dynamic activity of the FGF/ERK signaling network in pluripotent cells at high time resolution. Here, we use live cell sensors in wild-type and Fgf4-mutant mouse embryonic stem cells to measure dynamic ERK activity in single cells, for defined ligand concentrations and differentiation states. These sensors reveal pulses of ERK activity. Pulsing patterns are heterogeneous between individual cells. Consecutive pulse sequences occur more frequently than expected from simple stochastic models. Sequences become more prevalent with higher ligand concentration, but are rarer in more differentiated cells. Our results suggest that FGF/ERK signaling operates in the vicinity of a transition point between oscillatory and non-oscillatory dynamics in embryonic stem cells. The resulting heterogeneous dynamic signaling activities add a new dimension to cellular heterogeneity that may be linked to divergent fate decisions in stem cell cultures.Fil: Raina, Dhruv. Institut Max Planck fur Molekulare Physiologie; AlemaniaFil: Fabris, Fiorella. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigación en Biomedicina de Buenos Aires - Instituto Partner de la Sociedad Max Planck; ArgentinaFil: Morelli, Luis Guillermo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigación en Biomedicina de Buenos Aires - Instituto Partner de la Sociedad Max Planck; Argentina. Institut Max Planck fur Molekulare Physiologie; AlemaniaFil: Schroter, Christian. Institut Max Planck fur Molekulare Physiologie; Alemani

Des microbes à vocation gandhienne dans un digesteur à biogaz

Historiens et philosophes des techniques d’une part, sociologues des techniques de l’autre ont longtemps été aux prises avec la théorisation des mécanismes de l’évolution technique ou avec les déterminants de l’innovation technologique. Cet article tente de saisir à quel moment des technologies jugées obsolètes ou abandonnées sont réintégrées dans le(s) schéma(s) d’un nouveau cycle de développement technologique. Pour ce faire, nous avons étudié l’un des axes de recherche consacré à la fermentation anaérobie et à l’évolution des technologies biogaz à l’Institut Indien des Sciences, Bangalore sur une période de cinquante ans. L’article qui suit dresse une carte des relations entre facteurs endogènes et effets.causes externes, ce qui fait à plusieurs reprises ressortir.résulter la technologie de.comme ce qui a pu être interprété comme l’obsolescence ou la fin d’un cycle de production technologique. La vision d’Edgerton d’une « histoire centrée sur l’utilisation » fournit une rubrique conceptuelle pour un cadre alternatif qui permet de surmonter les limites tirées des distinctions entre high-tech et low-tech, aussi bien qu’entre technologies modernes et traditionnelles. Ce qui a commencé comme une recherche sur la digestion anaérobie à des fins spécifiques évolue ensuite, au gré de divers cheminements aux extensions dentritiques, vers une multiplicité d’utilisations finales et à une diversification des matières sujettes à la digestion anaérobie.Historians and philosophers of technology on the one hand and sociologists of technology on the other have long grappled with theorising the mechanisms of technological evolution or the determinants of technological innovation. This paper attempts to understand when technologies considered obsolete or shelved are redrawn into the technology development cycle. This it does through an exploration of one of the trajectories of research on anaerobic fermentation and the evolution of biogas technologies at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore over a period of fifty years. The paper maps the interlocking of endogenous factors and externalities, that repeatedly pulled the technology out of what may have been construed as obsolescence or the end of the technology development cycle. Edgerton’s notion of a `use-centred history’ provides a conceptual rubric for an alternative framing that overcomes the limitations of the distinctions drawn between high-tech and low-tech, as well as modern and traditional technologies. What commenced as research on anaerobic digestion for one specific end-use, subsequently evolves along several paths of dendritic extension towards a multiplicity of end-uses and a diversification of materials subject to anaerobic digestion

Targeting Phosphopeptide Recognition by the Human BRCA1 Tandem BRCT Domain to Interrupt BRCA1-Dependent Signaling.

Intracellular signals triggered by DNA breakage flow through proteins containing BRCT (BRCA1 C-terminal) domains. This family, comprising 23 conserved phosphopeptide-binding modules in man, is inaccessible to small-molecule chemical inhibitors. Here, we develop Bractoppin, a drug-like inhibitor of phosphopeptide recognition by the human BRCA1 tandem (t)BRCT domain, which selectively inhibits substrate binding with nanomolar potency in vitro. Structure-activity exploration suggests that Bractoppin engages BRCA1 tBRCT residues recognizing pSer in the consensus motif, pSer-Pro-Thr-Phe, plus an abutting hydrophobic pocket that is distinct in structurally related BRCT domains, conferring selectivity. In cells, Bractoppin inhibits substrate recognition detected by Förster resonance energy transfer, and diminishes BRCA1 recruitment to DNA breaks, in turn suppressing damage-induced G2 arrest and assembly of the recombinase, RAD51. But damage-induced MDC1 recruitment, single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) generation, and TOPBP1 recruitment remain unaffected. Thus, an inhibitor of phosphopeptide recognition selectively interrupts BRCA1 tBRCT-dependent signals evoked by DNA damage

Decolonisation and the Entangled Histories of Science and Philosophy in India

One of the central challenges confronting post-colonial India in its march towards decolonisation was the intellectual challenge posed by the idea of modernity. This is reflected in the work of historians of science and philosophers attempting to understand what the past of ‘Indian science’ or ‘Indian philosophy’ meant in relation to the identity of the modern Indian nation state in the making. This essay argues that in this interrogation there were common themes that were entangled in the enterprise of historians of science and philosophers. Beyond the question of the identity of Indian philosophy or Indian science was the attempt to locate the place of reason and science, and in the spirit of modernisation theory to trace the causes of their ascent or decline at the centre of Indian culture over historical time. The paper examines the entanglement of these two discourses and situates them during the decades of decolonisatio

Circulation and Cosmopolitanism in 18th Century Jaipur. The Workshop of Jyotishis, Nujumi and Jesuit Astronomers

Perhaps, the five monumental astronomical masonry projects that the 18th century astronomer king, Jai Singh embarked upon would be easier to understand in the age of Big Science. Within the history of modern sciences, this anachronistic project surprisingly finds its place among several other monumental projects of the 18th century. In the history of the modern sciences the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries are particularly important, marked as they are by the circulation of artefacts, objects, specimens, data, textual collections and more importantly individuals—at one level it becomes impossible to speak of this circulation without engaging with this cosmopolitanism of things and peoples. Departing from a presentist scientific interpretation of Jai Singh’s astronomy, this paper looks at the astronomical observatory as a site of cosmopolitan encounter between different astronomical and astral traditions, texts and ephemerides, as well as things of diverse cultural origins. Seen through this lens, the astronomical observatory becomes a laboratory for the encounter of three different exact sciences—even though their rapprochement was not “computationally successful.” The paper argues that the precedents for this cosmopolitan astronomy and practices are not to be situated merely in the court of an idiosyncratic Jai Singh, but have earlier Mughal precedents in an expanding culture of collection in the region. The paper attempts to embed cosmopolitan astronomy within a larger cultural and political context of encounter in early modern South Asia. Terms such as cosmopolitan science, astronomy or medicine can be used to designate a variety of knowledge related activities in epochs preceding our own.Peut-être que les cinq projets maçonniques monumentaux d’astronomie que Jai Singh – le roi astronome du xviiie siècle – a entrepris, seraient plus faciles à comprendre à l’âge de la « Big Science ». Dans l’histoire des sciences modernes, ce projet anachronique trouve étonnamment sa place parmi plusieurs autres projets monumentaux du xviiie siècle. Dans l’histoire des sciences modernes les xvie, xviie et xviiie siècles sont particulièrement importants, marqués qu’ils sont par la circulation d’artefacts, d’objets, de spécimens, de données, de collectes de textes et, chose plus importante, d’individus – de sorte qu’à un certain niveau il devient impossible de parler de cette circulation sans se mettre en prise avec ce cosmopolitisme des choses et des personnes. S’écartant d’une interprétation scientifique présentiste de l’astronomie de Jai Singh, cet article considère l’observatoire astronomique comme un site de rencontre cosmopolite entre les différentes traditions astronomiques et astrales, textes et éphémérides, aussi bien que les choses d’origines culturelles diverses. Vu sous cet angle, l’observatoire astronomique devient un laboratoire pour la rencontre de trois différentes sciences exactes – même si leur rapprochement n’était pas « une réussite sous l’angle du calcul ». L’article fait valoir que les précédents à cette astronomie et à ces pratiques cosmopolites ne doivent pas être simplement situés dans la cour d’un Jai Singh idiosyncrasique, mais ont des précédents moghols antérieurs dans une culture de la collecte très développée dans la région. L’article vise à intégrer l’astronomie cosmopolite dans un contexte culturel et politique plus large de confrontation dans l’Asie du Sud de la première modernité. Des termes tels que science cosmopolite, astronomie ou médecine sont utilisés pour désigner une variété d’activités liées à la connaissance dans les époques antérieures à la nôtre