Life Sciences

The Karolinska Institute's History of Biomedicine web site is a massive list of links grouped according to period, region and field. Researchers will find multiple links to texts, essays and exhibits in: History of Diseases, General Museums, Libraries & Special Collections, Indigenous Cultures, Mesopotamian Medicine, Ancient Egyptian Medicine, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Traditional Indian Medicine, Classical Islamic Biomedicine, and in Western Biomedicine for the Ancient, Medieval, Early Modern and Modern Periods. Researchers can also learn more about the Karolinska Instutute and Library and will find links to other helpful resources in the history of medicine.

This site is from the Spanish periodical CONECTA. CONECTA disseminates news about meetings, seminars, lectures and academic positions to the community of historians and teachers of science, technology and medicine in Spain and Latin America. The site has an online, accessible database of issues from the time of its inception. There is also a list of 22 predominantly Spanish-language Web sites on the history of science, technology and medicine and a link to a special project on the history of cinema.

This site promotes the use of case studies in the teaching of science, something that the authors claim is not yet common. While the site is not particularly historically oriented, some of the case studies they present for use in a classroom are drawn from the history of science, technology and medicine. For instance, there is a short case study of an appearance of "childbed fever" in the nineteenth century and how doctors discovered and understood the disease. All of these case studies are accesible; intended for a junior high, high school or college audience. Concentrating on teaching contemporary scientific fields to students, this site also contains some links to other case study sites and general sites that may focus on the history of science.

The History of Science Society is the largest American organization focusing on the history of science. The Society's website has many features of interest for members, prospective members and the general public. There are sections of the site that list current research, publications, meetings of note, and a full array of information about the organization, its leadership and members. The Guide to the History of Science is a searchable database with entries on institutions, associations and publications, as well as the names and information for nearly 5,000 practitioners of history and philosophy of science. In addition, there is a section with regularly updated information about the Society's annual meeting, which takes place in November. Visitors can sign up to be a member of the Society or renew their membership online. A list of employment opportunities in the history of science, as well as a list of grants and awards, are helpful for professionals in the field. Also helpful for these professionals are a set of materials to aid in the teaching of the history of science. Some parts of the site, such as the Research Libraries Group's History of Science and Technology Database (of printed materials), are only accessible to members.

This site introduces and gives a brief history of this well-known center at the University of Pittsburgh, which is clearly oriented more toward the philosophy of science than the history of science itself. Two of the center's publications, the Pittsburgh Series in Philosophy and History of Science and the Pittsburgh-Konstanz Series in the Philosophy and History of Science, cover topics germane to those interested in the history of science. There is also a link to the University's Archives of Scientific Philosophy that covers the twentieth century and includes famous philosophers of science such as Carnap and Wittgenstein.

This site is essentially a set of links to materials of interest to members of the British Society for the History of Science. Approximately 20 links cover the publications of the organization, including a newsletter, monographs and the British Journal for the History of Science, three prizes given by the group, special offers for members, and notes about its membership and administration. There are also educational links, including a list of courses offered on the history of science in British universities, policy papers and methodological statements for teachers of the history of science, and lists of other sites that cover the history of science.

This is the home page for Oxford University's Museum of the History of Science. An overview provides a sense of the museum's collection, and a paragraph describes its history (and the history of the building it is housed in) since 1683. There are seven excellent online exhibits with numerous graphics and photographs, including pieces on the history of photography, mathematics and astronomy. All are composed for a lay audience. For researchers, a remarkable searchable database of over 13,000 objects allows visitors to find and view artifacts in the museum's collection. These objects span the entire history of science and technology, and many of them are extremely rare. Another section of the site features some of the best portraits, instruments and illustrations in the archive.

The Archives of Women in Science and Engineering is a collection in the library of Iowa State University. This site lists the contents of the collection, and includes brief biographies of the women whose papers are in the archive, however, does not present the collection online. There is an online exhibit on the impact of women nutritionists that contains longer biographies and photographs of 10 important female scientists involved in nutrition research. In addition, the site has an overview of the oral history project associated with the Archives of Women in Science and Engineering, which hopes to interview approximately 50 women to add to the collection.