“The Great Disruption: Biologists, Revolutions, and the Values of Science ca. 1848”
Lynn K. Nyhart
Vilas-Bablitch-Kelch Distinguished Achievement Professor of History of Science
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Wednesday, February 21, 2018
5:30 PM
L140 Conrad A. Elvehjem Building
In the German-speaking states of the 1840s and 50s, revolution was in the air. While the political revolutions of 1848-49 are best known, the life sciences were undergoing their own revolutions, marked by radical new ideas about the organization and transformations of living beings. This talk focuses on a cluster of leading life scientists of the period to examine their participation in the events of this era, both political and intellectual. Through these disruptions, Nyhart argues, scientists came to articulate and enact new models for the relationship of the scientist to political action—models that continue to have force today.
Presented by Center for the Humanities and Institute for Research in the Humanities.