13th May - Cities

 

Our second meeting of term will take place in the Newnham Grange Seminar Room at Darwin College from 7.30-9pm on Monday 13th May.

We will continue our theme of texts from 1919 with a pair of readings on 'Cities':

• Murray Leinster, ‘The Runaway Skyscraper’ 
• Hope Mirrlees, Paris: A Poem

All welcome! 

Workshop - Temporalities in Scientific Narratives

Does Time Always Pass? Temporalities in Scientific Narratives
May 30-31 2019 LSE/Royal Institution, London

Workshop organised as a collaboration between the Narrative Science Project and The Royal Institution.

Venue: The Royal Institution, Albemarle Street, London W1S 4BS. We anticipate starting at 10:00 (with coffee available from 09.30) on the 30th and ending by 17.30 on the 31st. Organised by Prof. Mary S. Morgan and Dr. Andrew Hopkins

The standard view of narrative is inextricably bound up with the passage of time. Narrative scholars are convinced that time is an essential element in any narrative, and it has been thought equally essential, though treated in different ways, by philosophers of history. But exactly how to think about time in the narratives of science is not self-evident. And if we look at how scientists use time in narratives, we see a number of different ways in which it is taken into account and is deployed. In this workshop, the focus will be on the different temporalities in narratives as they occur in scientific discourses. The obvious loci for such explorations are what are generally referred to as the historical sciences, that is, those that seek to reconstruct the past on the basis of what can be observed in the present. However, time and its narrative expression are to be found in a wide variety of places, some of which will be explored by the speakers at the workshop. Throughout the workshop, the question of how essential time is to narrative will remain open for argument.

We are grateful to the financial contributions and contributions in kind from the European Research Council and the Royal Institution. If you would like to express interest in attending please contact Dr Dominic Berry. The number of places is unfortunately limited, so please make sure to write to us sooner rather than later. The deadline for expression of interest is Friday May 17. We will notify those we are able to accommodate shortly thereafter.

Speakers and titles:

• Norton Wise (UCLA) - Faraday's lines of force and the temporality of serial narration 
• John Beatty (UBC, Vancouver) - When you can't get there from here: The importance of temporal order in evolutionary biology and ecology 
• Dorothea Debus (Universität Konstanz) - Memory, imagination and narrative 
• Paula Olmos (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid) - Narratives in scientific argument and explanation 
• Rosa Hardt (OPEN Scotland) - Narrative Understanding: Parts, Wholes, and Recombinable Systems 
• William Matthews (LSE, London) - Time and ethnographic generalisation in anthropology: an example from Chinese divination 
•  John Huss (University of Akron, Ohio) - Mass extinction, narrative closure, and evidence 
• Teru Miyake (NTU, Singapore) - Temporal detail and evidence in seismic source reconstruction 
• Anne Teather (University of Manchester) - Stored and storied time in the Neolithic 
• Elspeth Jajdelska (University of Strathclyde) - Do we always need a timeline? The roles of temporal sequence in art narratives and science narratives 
• Thomas Bonnin (University of Exeter) - Explaining the origin of eukaryotic cells between narratives and mechanisms 
• Tirthankar Roy (LSE, London) - Technological change in the Indian textile industry (title TBC) 
• Daniel Pargman (KTH, Stockholm) - Using allohistorical narratives to envision alternative energy futures 
• Andrew Hopkins (LSE, London) - Alfred Wegener's arguments for continental drift: A consillience of narrative explanations

PhD travel bursaries

To increase participation from the postgraduate community, we are making available 4 travel bursaries, each of a maximum of £250. These can be used to recover the cost of train or airfare for those who wish to attend, and who are currently enrolled on a PhD programme, preferably with research interests directly related to the workshop agenda. To apply for a PhD travel bursary please write to Dr Dominic Berry. Please include: * Your name * University Affiliation * PhD Programme and thesis title * And no more than 100 words on how this workshop relates to your research. The deadline for applications to the travel bursary is Monday May 13. You will be notified as to the outcome of your application shortly thereafter. Applicants will be selected to ensure a diverse range of research interests and institutions are represented.

Talk - Cambridge Bibliographical Society

"Spiritus anima" – an unrecorded seventeenth-century alchemist's library at Clare College, Cambridge

Ed Potten (University of York) and  Dr Tim Chesters (Modern & Medieval Languages, University of Cambridge)

Wednesday 1 May, 2019, 5.00pm (tea from 4.30pm)

Milstein Seminar Rooms, University Library

The identity of the annotator of a collection of extraordinary seventeenth-century alchemical manuscripts, now in the Sloane Collection, has long eluded scholars. The recent discovery of a collection of sixty printed books in the Fellows' Library at Clare College, Cambridge, all annotated in the same characteristic hand, utilizing the same complex system of cross-referencing and the same approach to organizing and recording knowledge, casts new light on the Sloane annotator, his methods and his identity. Ed Potten (University of York, and formerly Head of Rare Books at the University Library) and Dr Tim Chesters (Modern & Medieval Languages, University of Cambridge) will share their discoveries about this enigmatic annotator, accompanied by a display of books.

Public seminar series - Narrative Science - Apr-Jun 2019 - London

If you would like to be reminded of these seminars in advance, or would like to keep up-to-date with the Narrative Science project (including our upcoming workshops, working papers and publications) please join our mailing list via www.narrative-science.org

30/4/2019

• Neil Tarrant - The Roman Index and Arnald of Villanova: The Rejection of Albert the Great’s Astrology
• Heike Hartung - Longevity Narratives: From Life Span Optimism to Statistical Panic

14/5/2019

• Sally Horrocks and Paul Merchant - Scientists’ narratives in An Oral History of British Science
• Sarah Dillon - “The Ineradicable Eliza Effect and Its Dangers”: Weizenbaum, Pygmalion and the Implications of Gendering AI 

28/5/2019

• Emily Hayes - Fashioned in the light of physics: the scope and methods of Halford Mackinder's geography
• Dominic Berry - Biological engineering as genre

18/6/2019

• Veronika Lipphard - Ethnicizing isolation: How narratives guide genetic research in vulnerable populations
• Will Tattersdill - What if dinosaurs survived? Or, reading alternate natural history in science fiction and non-fiction of the late twentieth century

29th April - Gardens

The Science and Literature Reading Group returns in our usual time and place for Easter Term, reading texts written a century ago in 1919.

Our first meeting will take place in the Newnham Terrace Seminar Room at Darwin College, from 7.30-9pm on Monday 29th April.

We will be reading several works which explore the cultivation, meanings, and magic of actual, artistic, and fantastical gardens:

• Amy Lowell, ‘Impressionist Picture of a Garden’, and ‘The Garden by Moonlight’ 
• Saki, ‘The Occasional Garden’ 
• Virginia Woolf, Kew Gardens

All welcome! 

Celebrating the Periodic Table - exhibition at Catz

The United Nations have proclaimed 2019 to be the International Year of the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements since it is the 150th anniversary of the publication of Dmitri Mendeleev's first Periodic Table. But was it really the first? St Catharine's College is proud to exhibit its fine collection of material relating to the early development of the Periodic Table. Starting from the first list of elements which emerged around the time of the French Revolution in the late 1780s, and the first list of atomic masses drawn up by Manchester chemist John Dalton, we explore why six different chemists from around the world each came up with their own versions of the iconic table in the 1860s.

The very first person to arrange all the then-known elements by mass and then look for the repeating properties of related elements was the French mineralogist Alexandre-Émile Béguyer de Chancourtois in 1862. Béguyer plotted his elements around a cylinder or helix with a circumference of sixteen atomic mass units and found elements with similar properties aligned in vertical groups down the cylinder. This coloured chart, over 1.5 metres in length, was published in very limited numbers and is now incredibly rare.
In addition to Mendeleev's first published versions of his table, including one signed by the great chemist himself, earlier forms created by two British chemists are also featured. Samples of many of the elements are also exhibited in the window bays, together with some of their applications from our everyday lives.

Two new works of art specially created to mark this important anniversary will also be on display. One is the St Catharine's Periodic Spiral, based on a design from 1920 and crafted in silver. This was completed on March 11, when Professor Yuri Oganessian, the only living person with an element named after him, added his element tile at a ceremony in the McGrath centre. The other remarkable piece is a Periodic Table of Orbitals made out of laser-etched crystal glass showing how electrons are arranged in atoms and which underpins the structure of the Periodic Table.

More information here.

Easter Term 2019: 1919

http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O213712/wallpaper-butler-henry-rba/

The Science and Literature Reading Group returns in Easter Term, taking as its focus texts first published a century ago in 1919. We will meet at our usual venue, Darwin College, on Monday evenings from 7.30-9pm. All are welcome to join in our friendly and wide-ranging discussions!

29th April: Gardens

• Amy Lowell, ‘Impressionist Picture of a Garden’, and ‘The Garden by Moonlight’ 
• Saki, ‘The Occasional Garden’ 
• Virginia Woolf, Kew Gardens

 

13th May: Cities

• Murray Leinster, ‘The Runaway Skyscraper’ 
• Hope Mirrlees, Paris: A Poem

 

20th May: Health

• W.N.P. Barbellion, The Journal of a Disappointed Man 
• Edith Wharton, ‘Writing a War Story’

 

3rd June: Heaven and earth

• Sri Ananda Acharya, selections from Snow-Birds
• May Wedderburn Cannan, ‘Stars’
• Wallace Stevens, ‘The Curtains in the House of the Metaphysician’
• W.B. Yeats, ‘The Phases of the Moon’

In recognition of the International Year of the Periodic Table, we will also be teaming up with AD HOC (Association for the Discussion of the History of Chemistry) for a special seminar on Primo Levi's classic piece of science-writing, The Periodic Table (please note earlier start time and different location).

10th June (5pm, HPS): The Periodic Table

• Primo Levi (1919-87), The Periodic Table (1975): ‘Potassium’, ‘Nitrogen’, ‘Carbon’.

We hope our planned term on AI Narratives will go ahead later in the year.

Cambridge Science Festival 2019

Lots of interesting events around science, art, and literature at this year's Festival: take a look! Booking now open.

HPS workshop - Poetry as an Epistemic Resource

Wednesday 13 February, 5pm, seminar room 1, HPS
"Poetry is not a luxury": Poetry as an Epistemic Resource

Azita Chellappoo

There exists a long-acknowledged connection between poetry and lived experience: one important feature of poetry is its capacity to provide a channel for self-expression. Here, I wish to emphasise the way in which poetry as self-expression not only holds value for those that use poetry as an outlet for their experience, but also for those seeking to gain understanding of that experience. In particular, poetry can provide a window into viewpoints and experiences that are otherwise difficult to access.

I begin by sketching out an argument for the importance of directly engaging with lived experience in various philosophical domains. Given that aspects of lived experience can be difficult to communicate to those that do not share this experience, attention should be given to ways of communicating this experience that would be otherwise difficult or impossible to communicate through analytic description. Poetry is one such means: due to the unique way in which poetry employs language, which can aim at and allow for the distillation of experience, poems can provide a resource for understanding. Where philosophical work necessitates engaging with lived experience, poetry has the potential to play a valuable role. I then sketch out how poetry could function as a useful epistemic resource in the case of philosophical work on thef emale orgasm, and in understanding the construction of ethnic or national identity.