Inaugural Science Communication Postgraduate Conference
Science and the Public: interdisciplinary approaches
Saturday, May 20th 2006, Imperial College, London

This day-long postgraduate conference has been organised by Imperial College and the London PUS Seminar Group to help bring together researchers from the disparate strands of academia that consider science as it exists and influences public life.

We hope to attract delegates from a wide variety of disciplines; bringing together researchers from science and technology studies, science communication, history, cultural studies, psychology, anthropology, literary criticism, education, museum studies, sociology, media studies, policy studies, geography and others.
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(pic borrowed from: http://www.cs.utk.edu/~evers/think/mimesis/theory.htm)
‘Representation’ is not only a key concept in biomedicine, but also in museology and in the history of medicine. In all three realms the concept of ‘representation’ bridges the gulf between ‘pure’ science and ‘pure’ art. Scientific reports, historical narratives and exhibitions — all three transcend the neat dichotomy between culture as a mirror (of society or nature) and culture as construction (of society or nature). This conference could be an opportunity to develop further the notion of medical museology as a ‘boundary discipline ‘ between visual art, historiography and science:

Beyond Mimesis and Nominalism: Representation in Art and Science
Two-day conference in London, 22-23 June 2006
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If you want a nice pet for your kids, why go to a home for abandoned cats (it only makes you feel bad because you can’t buy them all) or get in trouble with your neighbor who sold you the most wonderful kitten (it just happened to grew into a psychotic monster)? Get a fresh copy of your cosy, reliable pet instead. Buy a clone. Genetic Savings & Clone
will help you make an exact (genetic) copy of your old favorite and give its (genetic) features eternal life. The company “began delivering clones to clients before the end of 2004, and are continuing to produce and deliver clones for clients, now at a new price of $32,000” (see more here). The price is approx. the same as a new Toyota.

They are now trying to develop the technology for cloning dogs. And who knows, the second next step in Genetic Savings & Clone’s corporate strategy may be a “clone-your-favorite child” program?
(learned about the company from Technology Review, MIT, 28 Dec.)

Ugen mellem jul og nytår er for mig altid en meditativ uge — med mere eller mindre eksistentielle ransagelser og kvababbelser (“hvad gjorde jeg nu forkert i året der gik”, “jeg ønsker jeg havde …”, “shit også …”) og indimellem glæde over, at der trods alt var noget, der ikke gik helt galt. Idag, da jeg sad og kikkede i gamle papirer om Museion-projektets efterhånden over 6-årige historie, slog det mig pludselig, at én af inspirationskilderne til Medicinsk Museion som et historisk-museologisk eksperiment nok har været erfaringerne fra Natkirken i København.
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Those who missed the conference ‘Biomedicine in the Twentieth Century: Practices, Policies, and Politics’ at NIH, Bethesday, 5-6 December can now watch video recordings of the talks through NIH’s website: go to http://videocast.nih.gov/PastEvents.asp, click on ’50 Most Recent VideoCasts’ (they’ve got a lot of video-filmed conferences over there!) and scroll down to 5-6 December. Be patient — the two days fill 12 hours altogether, but there are several quite good talks, including:
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In our irregular series of posts about medical museums that must be seen (see earlier presentation here), the turn has now come to The Museum of Questionable Medical Devices, now at the Science Museum of Minnesota. Founded by a certain Bob McCoy (when?) it contains some 250 quack devices from the 19th and 20th centuries, including a prostate gland warmer, a phrenology machine, a recto rotor, a nose straightener, a wonder electro marvel, etc. One of the most recent artefacts is Read More

Den här essän skrevs som bidrag till konferensen “Medicinhistoria idag” (se annonce här), som hölls på Nobelmuseet i Stockholm den 22 august 2005. Konferensens målsättning var att “inventera och diskutera var svensk medicinhistorisk forskning står idag och vart den är på väg” (not 1) och ingick i den inledande sessionen om “Medicinhistoriens historia”, tillsammans med Karin Johannissons och Roger Qvarsells inlägg. Den kommer att publiceras i museets skriftserie, Nobel Museum Occasional Papers
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The Max Planck Institute for the History of Science announces two postdoctoral fellowships in conjunction with the Research Network „History of Scientific Objects“. (see also former post of 9 December)
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Re. earlier posts on this blog about human remains, I just found out that ebay.com has a policy about handling human remains:
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Call for papers for Southwest Colloquium in the History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences, 1-2 April, 2006. For details, see Philosophy of Biology blog, 12 Dec. 2005.