This essay explores the significance of political and ideological context as well as experimental culture for the participation of women in radioactivity research. It argues that the politics of Red Vienna and the culture of radioactivity research specific to the Viennese setting encouraged exceptional gender politics within the Institute for Radium Research in the interwar years. The essay further attempts to provide an alternative approach to narratives that concentrate on personal dispositions and stereotypical images of women in science to explain (...) the disproportionately large number of women in radioactivity research. Instead, the emphasis here is on the institutional context in which women involved themselves in radioactivity in interwar Vienna. This approach places greater importance on contingencies of time and place and highlights the significance of the cultural and political context in a historical study while at the same time shedding light on the interrelation between scientific practices and gender. (shrink)

"Portraiture as a genre is receiving increased attention at the same time as public curiosity about science is reaching unprecedented levels. Published to coincide with a major exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, London, and the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, University of East Anglia, Defining Features... reflects on the nature of the relationships between art, science, medicine and technology by focusing on a selection of portraits that spans more than three centuries."--P. [4] of cover.

Originating as a presidential address during the seventieth birthday celebrations of the British Society for the History of Science, this essay reiterates the society's long-standing commitment to academic autonomy and international cooperation. Drawing examples from my own research into female scientists and doctors during the First World War, I explore how narratives written by historians are related to their own lives, both past and present. In particular, I consider the influences on me of my childhood reading, my experiences as a (...) physics graduate who deliberately left the world of science, and my involvement in programmes to improve the position of women in science. In my opinion, being a historian implies being socially engaged: the BSHS and its members have a responsibility towards the future as well as the past.Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.Søren Kierkegaard,Journals and Papers, 1843. (shrink)

In the early years of Mendelism, 1900-1910, William Bateson established a productive research group consisting of women and men studying biology at Cambridge. The empirical evidence they provided through investigating the patterns of hereditary in many different species helped confirm the validity of the Mendelian laws of heredity. What has not previously been well recognized is that owing to the lack of sufficient institutional support, the group primarily relied on domestic resources to carry out their work. Members of the group (...) formed a kind of extended family unit, centered on the Batesons' home in Grantchester and the grounds of Newnham College. This case illustrates the continuing role that domestic environments played in supporting scientific research in the early 20th century. (shrink)

En este artículo se repasan algunas de las líneas de investigación más influyentes en el área de los estudios sobre biología y género y libros publicados al respecto por un grupo creciente de autoras. Como es habitual entre los estudios de género, en este caso los referentes a la biología cuentan con estudios sobre investigadoras en el área de la biología, mujeres que participaron activamente en la generación de saberes y prácticas de esta disciplina, por una parte, y con trabajos (...) sobre los sesgos epistémicos de género y sobre el androcentrismo en el conocimiento biológico, por otra. La genealogía se relaciona con la autoridad y ésta con el género como agencia en las ciencias y las experimentaciones contemporáneas. (shrink)