Science Social - Conversations on History, Science, and Society Max Planck Institute for the History of Science - MPIWG

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, and Yishu Mao. In this special episode of Science Social, Pakinam and host Stephanie Hood sit together with them to journey through the multifaceted ideas and concepts at the intersections of science, society, and history.

In conversation, we explore how the science of the past is deeply connected to our present and future. And, we ask how diverse perspectives from these interdisciplinary spaces can help us to better understand and navigate our ever-evolving world—from devastating pandemics, to cutting-edge physics, to the dawn of AI.

 

Learn more about the researchers mentioned in the episode:

Adrien de Sutter: https://www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/de/people/adesutter

Alexander Blum: https://www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/de/people/ablum

Dora Vargha: https://www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/de/people/dvargha

Yishu Mao: https://www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/de/people/ymao

Rocco Gaudenzi: https://www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/de/people/rgaudenzi

Benjamin Johnson: https://www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/de/people/bjohnson

Karolina Sobecka: https://www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/de/people/kasobecka

 

This podcast is produced by the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG), www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de

Follow us on https://twitter.com/MPIWG

Hosted and written by: Pakinam Amer and Stephanie Hood

Produced by: Pakinam Amer, Verena Braun, and Stephanie Hood

Sound editing by: Verena Braun

Theme song by: Podington Bear - Pretty and Cruddy Beat, CC NY-NC 3.0

Transition Music by: Podington Bear - Flutterbee, CC NY-NC 3.0

Audio Quote Joe Biden: President Biden: "The pandemic is over" | 60 Minutes

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 zu Berlin, has reconstructed the lost book collection for the exhibition "Leonardo's Intellectual Cosmos," where visitors can now marvel at many of these outstanding old works.

What can his books and codices tell us about this world-renowned artist, scientist, and intellectual, who continuously crossed boundaries between disciplines? How did the Renaissance era in which he lived influence his thinking and ideas? And what can we learn from him about science and public trust in science today? In this podcast episode, host Stephanie Hood welcomes Jürgen Renn, MPIWG Director and one of the curators of the exhibition, which is now open to visitors at the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin. Due to the current pandemic situation, Jürgen Renn joins the podcast remotely.

About Jürgen Renn: https://www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/users/renn

Learn more about the exhibition: http://bit.ly/leonardo-exhibition

Visitor information: http://bit.ly/Leonardo-visitors

Go to the virtual exhibition: https://leonardo-online.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/de/

 

This podcast is produced by the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de

Follow us on https://twitter.com/MPIWG

Host: Stephanie Hood

Concept and sound editing by Verena Braun

Theme song by Podington Bear, CC NY-NC 3.0

 

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 to understanding how the world was made and how science and religion connected.
From the art of debating to Newton's shoot for the moon, from Aristotle to Avicenna, from mind-boggling "What Ifs?" to current advances in artificial intelligence, we explore how people are, and always have been, analogical beings.

Learn more about Analogies in Premodern Islamic Theology: http://bit.ly/knowing-the-unobservable

Listen to Hannah Erlwein's Podcast Kalamopod: https://anchor.fm/kalamopod

About Hannah Erlwein: https://www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/users/herlwein

 

This podcast is produced by the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de

Follow us on https://twitter.com/MPIWG

Host: Stephanie Hood

Concept and sound editing by Verena Braun

Theme song by Podington Bear, CC NY-NC 3.0

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 ongoing history of revealing and understanding them. Further recent discoveries, including telescope pictures of a black hole in polarized light, continue to amaze and captivate not only scientists but the world at large.

So what did it take for black holes to go from theoretical construct to observed reality? How did Einstein's theory of general relativity play a role in their discovery and elucidation? And how do we continue to discover and "see" black holes, even in our own galaxy?

Join "Science Social" podcast host Stephanie Hood on a journey through history-in-the-making with scholars Alexander Blum and Juan Andres Leon Gomez, who weave together 100 years of fascinating human stories and scientific insights that have shed light on the existence of these fields of spacetime where gravity is so strong that nothing—no particles, or even light—can escape.

Learn more about General Relativity and the Discovery of Black Holes: http://bit.ly/GeneralRelativity-BlackHoles

About Alexander Blum: https://www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/users/ablum

About Juan-Andres Leon Gomez: https://www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/users/jaleon

 

 

This podcast is produced by the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de

Follow us on https://twitter.com/MPIWG

Host: Stephanie Hood

Concept and sound editing by Verena Braun

Theme song by Podington Bear, CC NY-NC 3.0

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 likely to sit down in front of our computer and google "How To...".

In this episode of Science Social, host Stephanie Hood chats with historians Mathias Grote and Elaine Leong about manuals, handbooks, and how we have gathered, framed, and used knowledge on a daily basis. Are handbooks still relevant when we have almost-instant access to YouTube tutorials? Is the cellphone the modern equivalent of a manual? How has knowledge been democratized, today and in the past? Are handbooks always neutral information? And how do we define what knowledge is reliable, especially in the digital realm?

About Mathias Grote: http://bit.ly/MathiasGrote

About Elaine Leong: https://www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/users/eleong

 

This podcast episode is based on the Learning by the Book project and edited British Journal for the History of Science (BJHS) volume by Angela Creager, Mathias Grote, and Elaine Leong. It has received funding from the German Historical Institute in Washington, Princeton University, and the MPIWG. Many thanks also go to the British Society for the History of Science for making the book volume open access, and to Simon Werrett and team at the BJHS for the pleasant and smooth production process of the book!

About Angela Creager: http://bit.ly/AngelaCreager

Read BJHS Themes - Learning by the Book Open Access Volume: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/bjhs-themes

German Historical Institute in Washington: https://www.ghi-dc.org/

British Society for the History of Science: https://www.bshs.org.uk

 

This podcast is produced by the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG), www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de

Follow us on https://twitter.com/MPIWG

Host: Stephanie Hood

Concept and sound editing by Verena Braun

Theme song by Podington Bear, CC NY-NC 3.0

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 Data, and where digitization is transforming an entire academic field.

In this third episode of the Science Social podcast, Shih-Pei and Joseph chat about open access, the differences between doing research pre- and post-digitization, and why it's sometimes smarter not to wait for that copy of a hard-to-get book. And yes, we'll also explain why Local Gazetteers are the most amazing written works you've probably never heard of!

Learn more about LoGaRT: https://www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/LoGaRT

About Shih-Pei Chen: https://www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/users/schen

About Joe Dennis: https://www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/users/jdennis

 

This podcast is produced by the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de

Follow us on https://twitter.com/MPIWG

Host: Stephanie Hood

Concept and sound editing by Verena Braun

Theme song by Podington Bear, CC NY-NC 3.0