Life Sciences

RaceSci: History of Race in Science

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 11/08/2007 - 20:19.

URL:

http://www.mit.edu/afs/athena/org/r/racescience/

Author:

Evelynn Hammonds, ed., History of Science Program in Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Excerpt:

The RaceSci Website is a resource for scholars and students interested in the history of "race" in science, medicine, and technology. RaceSci is dedicated to encouraging critical, anti-racist and interdisciplinary approaches to our understanding of the production and uses of "race" as a concept within the history of science. Instead of assuming race as a natural category that science then uncovers, this site assembles scholarly works that look at how cultural processes of racialization have profoundly shaped knowledge about humanness, health, and even our understanding of "nature" itself.

Annotation:

RaceSci is a site dedicated to supporting and expanding the discussion of race and science. The site provides five bibliographies of books and articles about race and science. The section on current scholarship has 1,000 entries, organized into 38 subjects. A bibliography of primary source material includes 91 books published between the 1850s and the 1990s. Visitors can currently view 14 syllabi for high school and college courses in social studies, history of science, rhetoric, and medicine. The site links to 13 recently published articles about race and science and to 49 sites about race, gender, health, science, and ethnicity. This site will be useful for teachers designing curricula about race and for researchers looking for secondary source material.

National Women's Hall of Fame

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 11/08/2007 - 20:19.

URL:

http://www.greatwomen.org/

Author:

The National Women's Hall of Fame

Excerpt:

In 1969, a group of women and men of Seneca Falls created the National Women's Hall of Fame, believing that the contribution of American women deserved a permanent home in the small village where it all began. The Hall is home to exhibits, artifacts of historical interest, a research library and office. The National Women's Hall of Fame, a national membership organization, holds as its mission:

"To honor in perpetuity these women, citizens of the United States of America whose contributions to the arts, athletics, business, education, government, the humanities, philanthropy and science, have been the greatest value for the development of their country."©
The Hall is a shrine to some of the greatest women in the history of this country and a tribute that grows annually with each induction ceremony as we learn to appreciate more about the wonderful contributions that women make to our civilization.

Annotation:

Site contains brief biographies for over two hundred women complemented with bibliographies for further study.

Words & Deeds in American History: Selected Documents Celebrating the Manuscript Division's First 100 Years

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 11/08/2007 - 20:19.

URL:

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/mcchtml/corhome.html

Author:

Janice E. Ruth, Manuscript Division Project Director, Library of Congress

Excerpt:

In honor of the Manuscript Division's centennial, its staff has selected for online display approximately ninety representative documents spanning from the fifteenth century to the mid-twentieth century. Included are the papers of presidents, cabinet ministers, members of Congress, Supreme Court justices, military officers and diplomats, reformers and political activists, artists and writers, scientists and inventors, and other prominent Americans whose lives reflect our country's evolution. Most of the selected items fall within one of eight major themes or categories which reflect the division's strengths. Each of these themes is the focus of a separate essay containing links to digital reproductions of selected documents. A detailed description accompanies each document, and additional information about the parent collections may be obtained by following links to catalog records and finding aids.

Annotation:

A Library of Congress Manuscript Division online exhibit to celebrate the Manuscript Division's centenary, this site contains approximately 90 representative documents from the 15th to the mid-20th century. The selected documents include the papers of presidents, cabinet ministers, congressmen, Supereme Court justices, military officers, diplomats, reformers, artists, writers, scientists, and other Americans who made a mark in history. Most items fall with eight categories that reflect the division's strengths: "The Presidency"; "Congress, Law, and Politics"; "Military Affairs"; "Diplomacy and Foreign Policy"; "Arts and Literature"; "Science, Medicine, Exploration, and Invention"; "African-American History and Culture"; "Women's History"; and "Miscellany." Each theme contains a roughly 250-word essay with links to digital reproductions of selected documents. A detailed description (200 words) accompanies each document, and additional information about the collections from which a document came is available through links to the collection records and finding aids. The exhibit also includes roughly 25 images, primarily in the "Science, Medicine, Exploration and Invention" category. There is a special presentation entitled "Collecting, Preserving, and Researching History: A Peek into the Library of Congress Manuscript Division." This site provides a description of the division, its holdings, definitions of terms like "personal papers" and why they are important, how the Library of Congress acquires manuscripts, how the staff prepares, conserves, and stores them, and who uses the documents. The site also has links to the Library of Congress's ordering and reproduction policies, the American Memory site, and to the Library of Congress collection catalogs. This easily navigable site is keyword and subject searchable. This site is ideal for conducting research in many areas of American History, as well as answering the question: "What do archives do?"

19th Century Scientific American Online

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 11/08/2007 - 20:19.

URL:

http://www.history.rochester.edu/Scientific_American/index.html

Author:

Electronic Historical Publications

Excerpt:

This month's inventor may look like a 19th century pirate. But you cannot judge this book by its cover. His invention was first, but Congress decided his invention was too important to be monopolized by a single man. One of our previous inventors, patented his invention a year after this month's inventor and his marketing skills beat out our mystery man

Annotation:

Snippets from the first two volumes of Scientific American magazine. Very little information available and what is is of a frivolous nature. Not for research. Site has not been updates since 1997.

Time 100: The Most Important People of the 20th Century

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 11/08/2007 - 20:19.

URL:

http://www.time.com/time/time100/

Author:

Time Magazine

Excerpt:

One century, 100 remarkable people. TIME has profiled those individuals who - for better or worse - most influenced the last 100 years. They are considered in five fields of endeavor, culminating with Person of the Century: Albert Einstein.

Annotation:

Time proposes the following to be the most important figures in science and thinking during the twentieth century: Leo Baekeland; Tim Berners-Lee; Rachel Carson; Francis Crick; James Watson; Albert Einstein; Philo Farnsworth; Enrico Fermi; Alexander Fleming; Sigmund Freud; Robert Goddard; Kurt Gödel; Edwin Hubble; John Maynard Keynes; Louis, Mary and Richard Leakey; Jean Piaget; Jonas Salk; William Shockley; Alan Turing; Ludwig Wittgenstein; and Wilbur and Orville Wright. They additionally identify twenty individuals as the twentieth century's most important Leaders and Revolutionaries; Artists and Entertainers; Builders and Titans; and Heroes and Icons. Each entry contains a biography and assessment of the individual's accomplishments, as well as links to related stories from Time's archives.

Victorian Science: On Overview

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 11/08/2007 - 20:18.

URL:

http://65.107.211.206/science/sciov.html

Author:

George P. Landow

Annotation:

Information and links regarding the science of the Victorian Age

Victorian Web: Science Overview

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 11/08/2007 - 20:18.

URL:

http://www.victorianweb.org/science/sciov.html

Author:

The Victorian Web: George P. Landow, Brown University

Excerpt:

Some of the major transformations which occurred across the Victorian period were: the change from "natural philosophy" and "natural history" to "science", the shift from gentlemen and clerical naturalists to, for the first time, professional "scientists", the development and eventual diffusion of belief in natural laws and ongoing progress, secularization, growing interaction between science, government and industry, the formalization of science education, and a growing internationalism of science. The Victorian age also witnessed some of the most fundamental transformations of beliefs about nature and the place of humans in the universe.

Annotation:

Great source for information on scientific personas and activities during the Victorian era. Contains biographies of many scientists including Charles Darwin, Thomas Edison, Sigmund Freud, William Paley, Herbert Spencer, and Louis Agassiz. Overviews of scientific disciples are organized by Astronomy, Botany, Chemistry, Geology, Physics, Psychology, Mathematics, and Medicine. Links to both on and off-site reproductions of primary documents are available as are a diversity of images. A list of links to related sites, as well as a number of bibliographies are provided as well.

Chronology of Scientific Developments

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 11/08/2007 - 20:18.

URL:

http://www.txdirect.net/users/rrichard/science.htm

Author:

Richard R. Orsinger

Excerpt:

1514 Polish astronomer Nicolas Copernicus publishes ____, suggesting that the earth moves around the sun.

Annotation:

A short listing of major events in the history of science. Very limited with incomplete data for several entries. Text only and no links.

4000 Years of Women in Science

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 11/08/2007 - 20:18.

URL:

http://crux.astr.ua.edu/4000WS/4000WS.html

Author:

Deborah Crocker and Sethanne Howard

Excerpt:

Actually, how long have people been active in science? The answer is the same for both women and men -- as long as we have been human. One of the defining marks of humanity is our ability to affect and predict our environment. Science - the creation of structure for our world - technology - the use of structure in our world - and mathematics - the common language of structure - all have been part of our human progress, through every step of our path to the present. Women and men together have researched and solved each emerging need.

Annotation:

This site compiles over 130 biographies of women scientists throughout the ages organized alphabetically, chronologically, and by discipline. A handful of images are also available, as is an extensive bibliography. Unfortunately most of the site has not been updated since 1999 and many of the off-site links are no longer valid.

NARA Archival Information Locator (NAIL)

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 11/08/2007 - 20:18.

URL:

http://www.nara.gov/nara/nail.html

Author:

National Archives and Records Administration

Excerpt:

The Archival Research Catalog (ARC) is the online catalog of NARA's nationwide holdings in the Washington, DC area, Regional Archives and Presidential Libraries. ARC allows you to perform a keyword, digitized image and location search. ARC's advanced functionalities also allow you to search by organization, person, or topic.

Annotation:

The National Archives and Record Administration (NARA) developed the Archival Research Catalog (ARC) to help users locate and access records held in a multitude of government libraries and repositories throughout the United States. To assist researchers, the site has a powerful search tool, a description of steps to finding records, and information on research tutorials and workshops. Links connect the NARA site with sites for individual archives and libraries and online articles outline government record-keeping procedures. Besides acting as a finding tool, the NARA also works to develop better techniques for preserving records that are valuable to the documentation of American history.