Science Social - Conversations on History, Science, and Society

Feb 14 2024 1k

Science Social - Conversations on History, Science, and Society Podcast artwork

Science Social: Conversations on History, Science, and Society How might we think about climate change? Pandemics? Racism? Or digital culture? Then there's "fake news," biodiversity decline... all questions that concern our lives, one way or another, which science, history, and society can help us to explore. In "Science Social," guests from the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science join host Stephanie Hood with a cup of coffee to take a close-up look at what science, society, and history can tell us about the wider issues of the twenty-first century. Delving into weird and wonderful stories from the world of research, we unpack the odd new idea here and there that might just give us new perspectives. How does digitization change our lives and what researchers, or the public, know and understand? What can a simple mask—that iconic object of the coronavirus pandemic—tell us about social equality? And what does China's growing scientific and technological influence mean for all of us? Tune in to each episode as we explore the big questions of science, socially!

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01 - "China on the Rise in Science"

China is well on its way to becoming a global leader in science. The country has become the world's largest producer of scientific articles, pours a staggering amount of money into funding research, and is home to scientists whose groundbreaking and sometimes controversial findings increasingly make international news. If science needs freedom to thrive, how is this rise possible w

02 - The Mask—Arrayed

It seems straightforward: we wear a mask because it protects us from pollution, from a contagious virus. Yet the Covid-19 pandemic has taught us that this seemingly simple object can also become a powerful symbol—one that can divide or unite us, silence or empower us. So how is it that this small piece of fabric can have political meaning? What role does it play in different cult

03 - LoGaRT: History 4.0

Digitization has changed our present lives in many unexpected ways—also for historical research. So what happens if we look at the past through a digital lens? Scholars Shih-Pei Chen and Joseph Dennis use LoGaRT, a set of online digital tools for investigating a historical resource called Chinese Local Gazetteers. In doing so they work at an intersection between history and Big D

04 - "The 'How' of 'How-To?'"

Some people use them as doorstops, a few even for weightlifting, and others actually read them! In this podcast episode we talk about books—or specifically, handbooks and manuals. From cooking to chemistry, these seemingly simple objects provide knowledge in a structured and standardized order. Yet despite their ubiquity and centuries-long history, many of us today are more likel

05 - The Discovery of Black Holes

Over the past century, physicists and astronomers have brought to light one of the most elusive and powerful phenomena in our universe: black holes. Unobservable to the human eye, even their sheer existence has been contested until recently. The breathtaking first-ever image of a black hole, taken by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) in 2019, marks just one step in a complex ongoin

06 - Grasping the Invisible

Analogies have been used throughout history as a means of explaining the world, and of grasping phenomena that could not otherwise be understood. In this episode of the "Science Social" podcast series, host Stephanie Hood and Postdoctoral Fellow Hannah Erlwein visit the "Islamic Golden Age," a period of cultural, theological, and scientific flourishing where analogies were central

07 - Leonardo's Intellectual Cosmos

Leonardo da Vinci is commonly known as the great inventor of creative machines, the artist of the famous drawing of the Vitruvian Man. But Leonardo was also an avid reader: his personal library contained nearly 200 books on science and technology, literature, and religion. The Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG), with the Museo Galileo and the Staatsbibliothek z

Special Episode: There Is No One History of Science (But It’s All Interconnected)

What is truth? When does a pandemic “end”? What decisions do we want to leave to artificial intelligence… and which would we rather not? These are some of the questions “that keep them up at night,” as science journalist Pakinam Amer puts it. “They” are researchers at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science: Adrien de Sutter, Alexander Blum, Dora Vargha, a

08 - Léon Rosenfeld and the Quest for Unification

The Belgian physicist Léon Rosenfeld conducted groundbreaking research in theoretical physics. Yet he, and his work, are barely known about. Together, podcast host Stephanie Hood and historian of physics Bernadette Lessel go on a search for clues from Rosenfeld's life: What made his research so important, during a time when the field of physics itself went through a significant sh

09 - How Alchemy Helped Feed Early Modern Europe

In the early modern era, European agriculture was in crisis. Soils had become depleted, crops grew smaller and fewer in number, and the growing seasons were shorter and cooler. Food production could no longer keep pace with population growth. To find solutions, some to turned to a field not commonly associated with agricultural production: alchemy. From the philosopher's stone to "