UCL Department of Science and Technology Studies

On 25/26 January 2013 Simon Werrett presented a paper at the conference “Oceanic Enterpise: Location, Longitude and Maritime Cultures, 1770-1830” held at the Huntington Library in California. Werrett’s contribution explored the history of navigation techniques in the Russian navy during this period, and the interactions of Russian and British circumnavigators and men of science.

On Monday, UCL Science & Technology Studies held a panel discussion on the question of "Will the geek inherit the earth?" This was prompted by a recent book by Mark Henderson, former Science Editor of the Times and now Head of Communications at the Wellcome Trust.

Congratulations to UCL's University Challenge Team, captained by STS student Simon Dennis for another magnificent win on BBC's University Challenge! The UCL Team are now through to the quarter finals. Woohoo!

On Wednesday January 16, Simon Werrett of UCL STS participated in a symposium held at Merton College in the University of Oxford on the occasion of Professor Lorraine Daston’s election to the Humanitas Visiting Professionship in the History of ideas. The symposium explored the history of the scientific experience in early modern Europe, and included contributions from Prof. Daston (MPI, Berlin), Dr Sachiko Kusukawa (Cambridge) on drawing practices in early modern science and Prof. Martin Mulsow (Erfurt) on the history of numismatics. Dr. Werrett spoke about his current research on the care of material culture in experimental science during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. 

STS hosted a large number of UCL medical students at the recruitment fair for the intercalated BSc programme. STS offers one of the dozen-plus degrees in the programme: 

Dr Brian Balmer is part of a research team awarded an AHRC grant, "Understanding Biological Disarmament: The Historical Context of the Origins of the Biological Weapons Convention". 

Image: Jack Stilgoe (3rd from left) at the House of Lords Seminar

On 15th January, Jack Stilgoe chaired a panel discussion at the House of Lords on 'Experts, publics and open policy'. The speakers were Dr Gemma Harper, Chief Social Researcher at DEFRA, Sir Roland Jackson, CEO of the British Science Association, and Lord Krebs, Chair of the House of Lords Science & Technology Committee. The event was standing-room only and the discussion ranged widely over questions of how we make sure that government policy is evidence-based while not pretending that the experts have all the answers, how public deliberation can and should feed into policy and how the civil service will reconfigure its approach to these issues given planned cuts and reforms. The many Tweets from the discussion can be seen here: http://sfy.co/iDQp