History of Science

The History of Science programme of the Maison Française is directed by a Franco-British committee bringing together specialists and representatives of French and British research in the history of science, techniques and innovation. In Oxford, the project works in conjunction with the Faculty of History, the Wellcome Unit of History of Medicine, the Museum of History of Science, the Centre for Health, Medicine and Society: Past and Present of Oxford Brookes University. It is also in partnership with representative institutions of other British universities, notably the Universities of London (UCL, Wellcome Unit of London) and Cambridge (HPS Department). In France, the programme’s principal collaborators are the CNRS, various universities via the Centre A. Koyré-Centre d’histoire des sciences et des techniques (Centre de Recherche en Histoire de l’innovation, joint department of the CNRS/Paris I/Paris IV), and more widely all French scientific institutes.

Aside from coordinating events (conferences, workshops, study days, colloquia, seminars) in the fields under its umbrella, the aim of the researchers involved is to take account of the progress of study in this domain from the Renaissance until today, in all its diversity: historical and philosophical approaches, social and cultural history, science studies, sociology and anthropology of science, of techniques and of innovation. Several branches of the project are planned: European Science and Capital, Chemistry from the early modern period to XXst century, Comparative History of Invention in France and Great Britain in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries (in conjunction with the French Académie des technologies).

Steering Committee

- Jim Bennett, Museum of the History of Science, Oxford (jim.bennett@mhs.ox.ac.uk)
- Jacqueline Carroy, Directrice, Centre Alexandre Koyré (jacqueline.carroy@wanadoo.fr)
- Harold Cook, Wellcome Trust for the History of Medicine, University College London (h.cook@ucl.ac.uk)
- Pietro Corsi, Linacre College, Oxford (pietro.corsi@history.ox.ac.uk)
- Robert Fox, Modern History Faculty, Oxford (robert.fox@history.ox.ac.uk)
- Muriel Le Roux, Maison Française-CNRS (muriel.leroux@history.ox.ac.uk)
- Ian Maclean, All Souls College, Oxford (ian.maclean@all-souls.ox.ac.uk)
- Denis Noble, Balliol College, Oxford (denisnoble@physiol.ox.ac.uk)
- John Perkins, Oxford Brookes University (jperkins@brookes.ac.uk)
- Viviane Quirke, Oxford Brookes University (vquirke@brookes.ac.uk)
- Antonella Romano, European University Institute, Florence (antonella.romano@iue.it)
- Simon Schaffer, Dept. of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge (sjs16@cam.ac.uk)
- Stéphane Van Damme, University of Warwick (s.van-damme@warwick.ac.uk)
- Paul Weindling, Oxford Brookes University (pjweindling@brookes.ac.uk)

History of Innovation

The globalization of exchanges and the growth of international competition have brought innovation, and indeed research, into an increasingly central position within our societies. These phenomena increasingly concern political figures at every level as well as entrepreneurs, the world of business as well as the academic sphere. We are thus witnessing a rearrangement of the organisation and institutional forms in which they develop.

History of chemistry  

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Cancer and Innovation

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GENES AND ENVIRONMENT: DARWIN AND LAMARCK REVISITED

13 and 14 March

Friday 13 March:   10am - 6pm in the Sherrington Room, Physiology Department

Chair: Tom Melham (Computing Laboratory, Oxford)

Pietro Corsi (Oxford) "What did Lamarck actually say?" See his text

Eva Jablonka (Tel Aviv) "Evolution in 4 dimensions" See her texts here and here

Jean-Jacques Kupiec (ENS, Paris) "The origin of individuals" See his slides

Buffet Lunch

Chair to be confirmed

Martin Brasier (Oxford) "Darwin's lost world"

Duncan Odom (Cambridge) "Cross-species experiments: what marks the genome?" texts 1, 2, 3

Tea break

Eric Werner (Oxford) "How Epi is Epigenetics? Or, where is the information for ontogeny and evolution?" texts 1, 2, 3

Lynn Margulis (Amherst/Oxford) "The origin of species" See her texts here and here

Saturday 14 March:  10am - 1pm at the Maison Française d'Oxford

Chair: Serge Plattard (Science and Technology Counsellor, French Embassy)

Evelyn Fox Keller, Denis Noble, Eric Werner, Pietro Corsi:

Closing round table debate introduced by Denis Noble on the theme "Where now?" his text

Local knowledge, social networks and capitals of science.

The most recent re-evaluations of the history of European capitals of science have strongly emphasised the role of large-scale networks of scientific communication, and the remote influence of central institutions and Western metropolises on the rest of the world from the early seventeenth century onwards. The importance of the capitalisation of knowledge in the development of Western science has, then, been emphasised by historiography. The emergence of an establishment which sought to legitimise and normalise scientific expression was based on the universalisation of certain types of knowledge emanating from certain places. This interpretation thus comes back to the idea that the local identity of capitals was progressively weakened, giving way to the city-worlds we think of in the genesis of modern capitalism. Read more