Oregon State University
Skip navigation

History of Science at Oregon State University

Reflection: Bristlecone Pines Between History and Imagination

October 16th, 2012
Please share our work with others!

    by Laura Cray*

    On October 14, James Capshew invited his audience at the Autzen House Center for the Humanities to stop and smell the pine cones—or at least contemplate their place in the human understanding of time.  His lecture entitled, “The Fascinations of Age: Bristlecone Pines Between History and Imagination,” explored Capshew’s most recent research into the history of dendrochronology and the lure of the bristle cone pine in the imaginations of scientists and artists alike. Read the rest of this entry »

    Please share our work with others!

      A Chronicle of the School Cafeteria

      October 1st, 2012
      Please share our work with others!

        by Tracy Jamison*

         

         “There ain’t no such thing as free lunch…”

         Economics in eight words, El Paso Herald-Post (June 27, 1938)

         Recently, when the first lady Michelle Obama and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the new school lunch nutrition guidelines, there were some critiques that the current administration had overstepped their bounds and become the “Food Police”. Political pundits decried that this was just the latest example of big government run amok, impenitently imposing their authoritarian legislation. Why is the government dictating or supplementing childhood nutrition? A few of these pundits have offered a modest proposal: If the working poor cannot afford to feed their children nutritious foods, perhaps it will spur them to find better jobs. Thankfully, the leadership of this country has yet to accept their solution to eliminate childhood hunger. Read the rest of this entry »

        Please share our work with others!

          Reflection: Lutherans’ Reading of Copernicus

          September 18th, 2012
          Please share our work with others!

            Rheticus, 1514-1574

            by Jindan Chen*

            Following the study in my spring course of Science and Religion, I spent part of my summer researching how the Copernican theory was first read by the Lutheran scholars at the University of Wittenberg (the University of Martin Luther) during the sixteenth century. Robert Westman’s 1973 article captures the nature of this reading which he terms “the Wittenberg interpretation”. The hallmark of the interpretation is the divided treatment of the mathematical model and the cosmological claim of the Copernican theory. The mathematical part is diligently studied and genuinely admired by Lutherans and applied to produce a number of greatly-improved astronomical tables, whereas the cosmological part, which says the sun lies in the center of the universe, is almost completely neglected. The question here that engages my attention is why the first reading of the Copernican theory fails to be a realistic interpretation.  In other words, does the fact that a full acceptance is delayed mean the religious values are preventing science from moving forward, which is an unambiguously claimed view in Andrew White’s well-known doctoral thesis?  Read the rest of this entry »

            Please share our work with others!

              Reflections on the Oregon Tribal Archives Institute

              September 11th, 2012
              Please share our work with others!

                Laura Cray at the opening dinner for the Oregon Tribal Archives Institute, August 19, 2012.

                by Laura Cray

                As a graduate student, I find myself in archival reading rooms with increasing frequency. This summer, however, I jumped the reference desk and worked behind the scenes helping to coordinate the Oregon Tribal Archives Institute. The Oregon Multicultural Archives and OSU’s Special Collections and Archives Research Center hosted the week long institute at the end of August. The Institute brought together members from all nine of Oregon’s federally recognized tribes as well as instruction staff from OSU Libraries, University of Oregon Libraries, the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian, Benton County Historical Society, and the Oregon Folklife Network for a week of hands on instruction in archival and records management. Read the rest of this entry »

                Please share our work with others!

                  Pigs Might Fly

                  August 29th, 2012
                  Please share our work with others!

                    H5N1 viruses

                    by Barbara Canavan*

                    As I plug away on the prospectus for my doctoral research, I ponder all that I have learned from the history of science and medicine in the past two years. My background and interests have led me to the intersection of history, ecology, virology, climate, infectious disease, and technology. It is humbling to confront the need to bring it all together in a scholarly and unique way. What is the nexus of these diverse topics? All I need to do is to come up with a research question that, when answered, would shed new light on what others have done before…and for that new light to truly have us look at things in a new way.  Easy, right? Not so much. Here is my start and I welcome comments. Read the rest of this entry »

                    Please share our work with others!

                      On the Codependence of Humans and Honey Bees

                      July 10th, 2012
                      Please share our work with others!

                        Ph.D. student Brenda Kellar has been working on the history of honey bee migration along with human beings in the United States.  Her article “Honeybees Across America,” began as a research presentation to the Oregon Beekeepers’ Association, and now has been picked up by the Los Angeles County Beekeepers Association.  She shows how at critical moments of migration in North America, bees and humans enabled each other.  That’s part of a much longer history: “Human cultures for thousands of years have used the honey bee and her products as symbols for industry, social structure, cleanliness, holiness, chastity, and much more,” Kellar writes. “These symbols can be found in all forms of material culture produced by human populations.”  Click here to read more!

                        Please share our work with others!

                          Fingers Crossed: Some Observations about American English Idioms

                          July 2nd, 2012
                          Please share our work with others!

                            by Jindan Chen*

                            [note: Chen, who is from China, has just finished her first year as a graduate student in the History of Science program.]

                            Watching how English works in daily life is absolutely one of my most exciting experiences here. During the first few weeks, I kept wondering if English worked in the same way as the textbook and my English teachers taught me. The moment I found people feed back in exactly the way I learned was just like the moment I observed in the science lab the phenomenon predicted by a theory. Amazing and delightful! Read the rest of this entry »

                            Please share our work with others!

                              Reflection: Palliative Care in Oregon

                              June 4th, 2012
                              Please share our work with others!

                                Dr. Tamina Toray

                                by Anthony F. Miller*

                                Thursday, May 24th, Dr. Tamina Toray of Western Oregon University spoke in Hovland Hall to a group of 16  students and 4 professionals on the topic, “Palliative Care: Transforming the Care of Serious Illness.”   Dr. Toray teaches the course On Death and Dying at Western Oregon University, and works in conjunction with Dr. Courtney Campbell, here at OSU, in the Medical Humanities program.  Multiple Oregon universities jointly offer the program, an updated approach to what used to be known as a Pre-Med program. Read the rest of this entry »

                                Please share our work with others!

                                  Theft, Archive Photos, and more thoughts on Nuclear Proliferation

                                  May 19th, 2012
                                  Please share our work with others!

                                    by Linda M. Richards*

                                    My latest blog entry has been delayed due to theft! But before you read on, wondering, what does this have to do with the history of science, please keep in mind one of the greatest scientists of our time, Linus Pauling, believed that the structure of molecules and society determined behavior.

                                    I have had trouble with my left foot since the one time I tried to be a hero. I worked my senior high school summer at the Lighthouse for the Blind in Napa Valley, California as a camp counselor.  One day, I was walking nearby the horse stalls when one of the horses started bucking with one of the blind campers on its back. In the nick of time, I grabbed the horse, the reins, and the camper, preventing disaster, but in exchange, my bare foot was smashed by the horse’s hoof.

                                    Ever since, finding shoes I can walk in has been a challenge, and the shoes I brought to Europe have became excruciating to wear. This morning while I was doing my laundry, I jumped the tram and rode back to downtown where I had seen a cheaper shoe store to try on a pair and voila! While I was walking about testing my toes’ response to the sexy heels, my big, clunky purse walked off! Inside was my precious I-phone with 583 photos that had not been yet been put in the drop box to be saved, my apartment key, my eyeglasses, my favorite running jacket, my credit cards, and $100 in Swiss Francs. Read the rest of this entry »

                                    Please share our work with others!

                                      Welcome to Holland: the Changing Nature of Life

                                      May 14th, 2012
                                      Please share our work with others!

                                        by Tracy Jamison*

                                        Do you welcome change? Dr. Jane Barton began by querying the audience on their acceptance of the inevitable.  We are all human and were born with a terminal illness: Life. So how does the average person see change and how does that affect the quality of their coping skills.  As a hospice chaplain who began her journey in the oil fields of Texas, Dr. Barton is intimately familiar with loss and change although that familiarity began in her childhood.  She posited that change within itself is not inherently positive or negative. To quote an old colloquialism, the only constant is change.  Welcome to Holland. Read the rest of this entry »

                                        Please share our work with others!
                                        • Welcome!

                                          This blog keeps track of recent activities among faculty and students in Oregon State's unique program in History of Science. We have numerous course offerings for undergraduates, and we offer opportunities to pursue Master's and Doctoral degrees. Have fun reading, and also see our main website. It's linked below!
                                        • Recent Comments

                                        • Categories

                                        • Archives