Biomedicine in museums

Call for Papers: Special issue on the history and aesthetics of visual images and visualization (for Journal of the History of the Neurosciences):

Physical images and cognitive visualization offer two frames of reference for thinking about the history and development of neuroscience. The images of neurological illustration, for example, constitute a sourcebook on early medical theories. We can also identify a body of images that articulate how cultural beliefs influenced conclusions about behavior and learning as they relate to anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, the brain and our nervous system. Similarly, today’s neuroscientific images are inextricably linked to the idea that neuroscience is a visual science and lead us to seek for intersections among neuroscience, art and the visual brain. Visualization, on the other hand, has fostered mental constructions and cognitive diagrams related to neural operations. Read More

The term ‘biomedicine’ is (surprise, surprise) central to this project. But it is somewhat ambiguous, as Alberto Cambrosio and Peter Keating pointed out in their historical review of the term in Chapter 3 of Biomedical Platforms (2003). Viviane Quirke’s recent report from the symposium ‘The era of biomedicine: science, technology and health in France and Great Britain, 1945-1975’ held in Oxford last spring gives a summary of the problem of defining the term ‘biomedicine’. Even more useful in this respect is Quirke’s discussion of Jean-Paul Gaudilliere’s concept of ‘biomedical complex’ in her review in Studies in history and philosophy of science. Part C. Studies in history and philosophy of biological and biomedical sciences, vol. 35, ss. 765-76 (2004) (electronic access through DNLB) of his book Inventer la biomédecine: la France, l’Amérique et la production des savoirs du vivant, 1945–1965 (2002).

The first internal seminar on the new recent-biomedicine research projects will take place on Friday 2 September (see meeting agenda here).

The idea of the meeting is to establish a basis for a common understanding of the scope and aims of the project. Read More

Følgende seminar kan ses i forlængelse af det seminar Arne Hessenbruch holdt på Medicnsk Museion i september 2004 (se også hans artikel i Årsskrift for Medicinsk Museion, 2005). Den generelle problemstilling med udgangspunkt i Nowotny mfl. er i høj grad relevant også for den biomedicinske vidensproduktion

Arne Hessenbruch, Science and Technology Studies Program, MIT (http://arne.hessenbruch.org)
Torsdag, den 25. august 2005, kl. 19.45, auditorium 10, H. C. Ørsted Instituttet, Universitetsparken 5, Kbh
“Nanoteknologi og intellectual property” Read More

Avisdiskussionerne omkring Hiroshi Ishiguro’s Repliee Q1 android — den mest menneskelignende androide robot indtil nu — har mest handlet om muligheden at udvikle “pleasure models”, ligesom Pris i Blade Runner. Men det ligger også en mere interessant principiel pointe gemt i Ishiguro’s arbejde Read More

Her er forslaget til et nyt kursus i fagets videnskabsteori på civilingeniøruddannelsen i medicin og teknologi ved DTU og KU — det er beregnet at køre fra foråret 2006. Det er kun et forslag og det er ikke godkendt af studienævnet endnu, så synspunkter modtages gerne. Read More

Der er gang i planlægningen af en konference med arbejdstiteln “Biomedicin, materialitet, kunst og design” i 2007. Read More

Jeg har lige skrevet udkast til et oplæg til den indledende session på konferencen “Medicinhistoria idag”, Nobelmuseet, Stockholm, 22. august (se programmet her). Evt. kommentarer senest i løbet af næste uge, tak. Read More

The Office of NIH History is sponsoring a major two-day conference on ‘Biomedicine in the Twentieth Century: Practices, Policies, and Politics’. Read More

Diskussion mellem Adam og Thomas om anekdoter og genstandssamlinger Read More