HPS Departmental Seminars, Easter Term 2017

(Group members might be particularly interested in the frog-related talk on 25th May!)

Departmental Seminars, History and Philosophy of Science
Thursdays, 3:30-5pm, HPS Seminar Room, with tea from 3pm

4 May
Heather Douglas (University of Waterloo)
The materials for trust-building in expertise

The need for expertise is undisputed in today's complex society, but what expertise is, how to identify it, and how to build trust in it is hotly contested. Some philosophers presume that experts should be trusted and provide cursory means of assessment. Other philosophers argue that only experts can identify other experts, and thus we can do nothing but trust experts and hope for the best. Still other philosophers rightly point out that experts have failed some groups of people (and been part of past injustices), so trust is something that must be earned. This debate takes place against a backdrop of an increasing rejection of expertise in Western democracies, and thus addressing these issues takes on some urgency. In this talk, I will argue that expertise consists of a fluency of judgement in a complex terrain. While such fluency cannot be transferred to non-experts quickly or easily (we cannot all become experts in everything), expertise can and should be assessed by non-experts. I will articulate plausible bases for assessment experts by non-experts, and argue that crucial trust-building materials are to be found among them.


11 May
Twenty-Second Annual Hans Rausing Lecture
Lissa Roberts (University of Twente)
The history of failure: a chronicle of losers or key to success?
McCrum Lecture Theatre, Bene't Street, at 4.30pm


18 May
Henry Cowles (Yale University)
Scientific habits circa 1900


In the decades around 1900, habits were scientific. Psychologists saw mental habits as the intersection of an evolutionary past and an experimental future, while neurologists thought that habit signaled the mind's bodily roots. This talk explores the consequences of this attention to habit in the emerging human sciences, including the idea that science itself was (or could be) habitual. The sciences of habit helped recast the scope of scientific thinking and the reach of moral judgement, as issues of choice, willpower and belonging were naturalized in new ways.


25 May
Lydia Patton (Virginia Tech)
Frogs in space: physiological research into metric relationships and laws of nature


A surprising amount of research into theories of space and time in the nineteenth century involved experiments done on frogs' reactions to stimuli. William James and Hugo Munsterberg performed classic such experiments, but there was a much broader group involved. Those who cited the research and used it in their discussions of spatial relationships, and of the relationship between physiological and metric space, include Henri Poincaré and Ernst Mach. Hermann von Helmholtz used experiments on frogs to establish a number of his most important results, including the claim that sensations are not propagated instantaneously but take time to propagate along a nerve. Helmholtz used other experiments on frogs to argue against the existence of a vital force, a key element of his proof of the conservation of force (energy), and a turning point in nineteenth-century physiology and medicine. Frogs mediated between the physiological and the metric: in theories of space and movement, and in theories of metabolism, energy and sensation. The formulation of well-known scientific laws during this time sprang from physiological as well as physical reasoning, and the domain of application of those laws extended to living bodies as well as to inert physical masses. Philosophers who argued that spatiotemporal relationships are fundamental to all sciences, like Cassirer and arguably Poincaré, were drawing on this history in part. The history of amphibious research forms part of the background to accounts of scientific law, like Wigner's and Mach's, that draw on evolution, perception and consciousness, including Wigner's controversial argument that consciousness collapses the wave function.


For more information on this series, please visit the website.

Frogs at the Whipple

Frog model, Wh.6599, image copyright Whipple Museum.

"Inspired by the arrival of our star amphibian at the museum, this summer the Whipple is going hopping mad! Frogs have been fundamental in scientific developments in cloning, in the discovery of the electrical signals from nerves, and have been used for hundreds of years by students learning about anatomy and dissection. Frogs provided the first reliable, non-deadly pregnancy test and have even been into space! We're celebrating their significant contributions to the history of science - keep checking back for more events and activities."

Summer at the Museums: Frogs in Focus

11am - 1pm and 2pm - 4pm, Tuesday 2nd August and Tuesday 16th August

Get up close and personal as we put our froggy friends under the microscope and recreate images that show why frogs have been the perfect scientific study buddies throughout history.

Drop in, all ages.

Summer at the Museums: Frog Leaps in Science

11am - 1pm and 2pm - 4pm, Tuesday 9th August and Tuesday 23rd August

Hop along to the Whipple to discover how frogs have made a splash in science and make your own jumping friend to take home!

Drop in, all ages.

Recap - Frogs

F is for Frog, in Walter Crane's Absurd A.B.C.

The final two sessions of term saw participants explore the human and poetic dimensions of frog-related literature, from Beatrix Potter to Seamus Heaney. We thought about changing fashions in taxidermy (including its hipster revival), and the repurposing of traditional tales and songs for different eras, whether Randolph Caldecott's picturebook or Bob Dylan's folk song cover. We discussed in detail the particular appeal of animals in children's stories; and how their anthropomorphism can help accentuate specific attributes, but also create some bizarre situations (since when did a frog need to shave?). We looked at how familiar myths and songs were reworked with more hopeful or sinister undertones; how frogs were used as symbols of both ambition and futility; how frogs could be part of an induction into the world of natural historical practice; and how the cartoonish depictions of juvenile fiction belied the disquieting threat of their slimy, amphibious nature.

Speaking of cartoonish depictions, several of us also met for an additional event: a screening of Disney's version of The Princess and the Frog, accompanied by suitable New Orleans cuisine. The ideal end to the term!

Many connections to our term's discussions were found when viewing Disney's The Princess and the Frog.

Thanks as ever to all participants in our conversations over the past few months, and especially to Charissa, superlative co-organiser. I'll never look at a frog or a toad the same way again...

A recent visitor to our garden.

Pictorial recap - 13th June

13th June - Poetic frogs

Our final evening of scientific and literary fun with frogs will combine a discussion of the following poems with our end-of-term party. We'll meet in the Newnham Grange Seminar Room at Homerton College from 7.30-9pm. See you then!

• Christina Rossetti, ‘A Frog’s Fate’ (1885).
• Robert Graves, ‘The Frog and the Golden Ball’ (1965).
• Seamus Heaney, ‘Death of a Naturalist’ (1966).

"Frog and Toad" in the New Yorker

Article by Colin Stokes here.

Pictorial recap - 30th May

 Frogs in science and literature, reconsidered

 

Recap - 16th May

After a round of introductions (and a welcome to new attendees), Charissa began our second meeting of term by detailing the long history of frogs and experiments. She guided us through everything from early modern ponderings over how frogs reproduced, to testing with taffeta trousers, twitching when connected to electrical circuitry, and their more recent role as a model organism. Turning to the reading, she discussed how Sedgwick's piece went through the history of this (gruesome?) experiment, before adding its own findings: the insight this gave into experimental physiology in the 1880s, how it related to other research ongoing in homes and laboratories in Europe and North America, and how it should be written about.

Frogs as one of a series of model organisms.

The rest of the evening's conversation ranged from materialism to metamorphosis: we looked, amongst other things, at the article's tone of voice (almost Jane Austen-ish at times? at other times especially evocative words break through the overall dispassionate approach) and literary style of the journal article, which gave insights into its historical positioning between something written for a generalised periodical audience, and a more specific piece of scientific literature for a community of experts; we thought about model organisms more generally as analogies; we considered the contemporary vivsection debates and how considerations of the ethics and emotions of animal experimentation were brought into play (or not) in reports such as this; indeed, we wondered whether it mattered whether this was a frog at all: it was, rather, part of the apparatus, an experimental organism which was an abstracted reflex mechanism, brainless or brained; we considered the lack of information about what type of frog it was, and how the varied natural history (or availability - where did these frogs come from?) was not considered important in the experimental description; how the frog was used to connect up different levels of research into temperature, from cellular to seasonal effects; and the consequences of both evolutionary and philosophical considerations of the status of animals as to the relationships between spirit and matter. And, in a glimpse of what we're going to be talking about next time, we talked briefly about other ways in which frogs appeared in scientific literature in the nineteenth century, including natural history books for children which encouraged actual encounters with frogs, and stories in which the frogs, in a different way to their use as model organisms or parts of experimental apparatus, appeared as analogies.

Links to other pieces of writing mentioned in the discussion:

• Thomas Henry Huxley on 'Has a Frog a Soul?' to the Metaphysical Society in November 1870
• Charles Darwin's Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872)
• Frog hunting in John Steinbeck's Cannery Row (1945)

30th May - More anthropomorphic frogs

Examples of frog taxidermy:

• 'Froggyland', Croatia; and an article on the creator of its exhibits.
• 'Frog Museum', Switzerland.

Other versions of the 'Froggy would a-wooing go' song:

•  A Frog He Would A Wooing Go (1876-9)
• 'Ye Frog's Wooing', in Walter Crane's The Baby's Opera (?1878)

Classical influences:

• Jane Barlow, The Battle of the Frogs and Mice (1894)
• Aesop's 'Frogs and the Bulls'

Fairytale influences: 'The Frog King':

• A Grimm version
• Comparative tales
• Annotations

Other late nineteenth-century children's books about frogs:

• Frog Frolics (c1894)
• The Story of a Little Frog (1897)

Beatrix Potter:

• V&A resource on The Art of Illustration and Potter, including frog sketches
• Jeremy Fisher - Royal Ballet

30th May - Anthropomorphic frogs

Please join us for our next meeting on Monday 30th May from 7.30-9pm in the Newnham Grange Seminar Room at Darwin College, when we will be exploring the relationships between frogs and people. Our set readings are:

• Hermann Ploucquet, The Frogs who would a-woo-ing go’, in The Comical Creatures from Wurtemburg (1851), pp. 58-60.
• Beatrix Potter, The Tale of Jeremy Fisher (1906).

Pictorial recap - 2nd May

Charissa explains it all.

Song - The Scientific Frog

The Lester S. Levy Sheet Music Collection, Johns Hopkins University.

Download the sheet music here!

16th May - More experimental frogs

Memorie sulla elettricità animale (1797), Wellcome Images.

Further froggy experiments:

• Galvanism and Frankenstein
• Online exhibition about medical electricity, including discussion of Galvani
• Frederic L. Holmes, 'The Old Martyr of Science: The Frog in Experimental Physiology', JHB (1993) (£)
• Henning Schmidgen, 'Of Frogs and Men: The Origins of Psychophysiological Time Experiments, 1850-1865', Endeavour (2002)
• Virtual Frog Dissection

16th May - Experimental frogs

For our second meeting of term we leapfrog the centuries to land in hot water, reading W.T. Sedgwick's 'On Variations of Reflex-Excitability in the Frog, Induced by Changes of Temperature', in Studies from the Biological Laboratory (1883), pp. 385-410.

We meet on Monday 16th May from 7.30-9pm in the Newnham Grange Seminar Room at Darwin College. All welcome!

Recap - 2nd May

Our frog-themed term began last night with a fantastic conversation about the metamorphoses of early modern natural historical culture. We focused on the relevant chapter from clergyman Edward Topsell's History of Four-Footed Beasts and Serpents, originally published in 1607 and 1608, and over an hour and a half we explored frogness in its many manifestations, from supposed spontaneous generation to miraculous medicinal cures.

The frog in Conrad Gesner's Historiae animalium (published from 1551-87)

As Tillmann explained in his very useful introduction, the work's early-seventeenth-century publication situates it between two traditions in natural history: it appears on the verge of a shift away from emblematic natural history towards a natural theology which focused on naturalistic detail and divine design more than cultural significance. Topsell's text seems much more in this earlier, multifaceted and emblematic style (as the author admitted, he has drawn on many earlier sources, especially Conrad Gesner); but with more naturalistic illustrations, and also an overarchingly theological interpretation, as would befit a man of God.

We went on to explore various themes and topics raised in the text, from Biblical plagues to magical applications and onomatopoeic poetry. Topsell, we saw, drew especially from ancient authorities, but in bringing together his text-based research he was not afraid to question their accuracy, and to deploy more recent arguments where necessary. We wondered who would have bought and read this book, and why, whether seeking a comprehensive distilliation of known wisdom on the frog, an imaginative flight of fancy, or perhaps (and the index, as John pointed out, seemed to support this) medical advice on how to cure any manner of ailments.

All of these discussions were accompanied, of course, by suitable refreshments: a more modern emblem of 'frogness', Freddo.

Essential themed snacks.

2nd May - More early modern frogs

In preparation for our first meeting next Monday, here are a few more early modern frogs found on the internet:

• 'Jan Swammerdam's frogs' - Charlotte Sleigh
• 'Raining frogs and fish' - Live Science
•  Medical frogs - Jennifer Evans
• Translations of Basho's frog haiku (1680s):

The old pond
A frog jumped in,
Kerplunk!

Allen Ginsberg

2nd May - Natural historical frogs

Our first meeting of term will take place on Monday 2nd May from 7.30-9pm in the Newnham Grange Seminar Room at Darwin College. We will kick off our frog-related readings with the relevant chapter from Edward Topsell's History of Four-Footed Beasts and Serpents (1658 edition), pp. 718-726. We hope to see you then!

Easter Term 2016 - Frogs

   
The Science and Literature Reading Group returns for Easter Term 2016 with a series of meetings themed around frogs. The four sessions will explore various literary manifestations of frogs from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries, and from pond-dwelling tadpole to taxidermied specimen.

Fortnightly meetings will take place in the Newnham Grange Seminar Room at Darwin College, on Monday evenings from 7.30-9pm. All are welcome! Organised by Melanie Keene (Homerton) and Charissa Varma (Darwin).
 

2nd May – Natural historical frogs

•  Edward Topsell, ‘of FROGS’, in The History of Four-Footed Beasts and Serpents (1658), pp. 718-726.

16th May – Experimental frogs

• W.T. Sedgwick, ‘On Variations of Reflex-Excitability in the Frog, Induced by Changes of Temperature’, in Studies from the Biological Laboratory (1883), pp. 385-410.

30th May – Anthropomorphic frogs

• Hermann Ploucquet, The Frogs who would a-woo-ing go’, in The Comical Creatures from Wurtemburg (1851), pp. 58-60.

• Beatrix Potter, The Tale of Jeremy Fisher (1906).

 13th June – Poetic frogs

• Christina Rossetti, ‘A Frog’s Fate’ (1885).
• Robert Graves, ‘The Frog and the Golden Ball’ (1965).
• Seamus Heaney, ‘Death of a Naturalist’ (1966).

Optional additional reading

• Charlotte Sleigh, Frog (2012).