Writer, Editor, Historian
Still working out the details, but I can tell you the who, what, and when. I am absolutely delighted to announce that Chanda Prescod-Weinstein will be joining us on Thursday, June 3rd, at 7 p.m. EDT to discuss her new book, The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime,
Science, The Endless Frontier is generally recognized as the iconic text of U.S. science policy. The 1945 document, officially attributed to engineer Vannevar (rhymes with Beaver) Bush, urged President Harry Truman to convert the momentum of the World War II-era Office of Scientific Research and Development into a peacetime driver
When there’s not a global pandemic happening, a typical Saturday in West Philadelphia’s Clark Park would see the northern trapezoid of the park overrun with scurrying, LARPing, children. Pre-teens holding Styrofoam shields ward off foam sword attacks while their parents snarf down treats from the taco truck nearby. Across Chester
As of two weeks ago, my expectations for the Biden administration were not high. Or, perhaps more accurately, my expectations that Joe Biden would actually assume the office of the presidency were not high. When, back at the first presidential debate, now-former President Trump refused to commit to the peaceful
What a strange month it’s been so far, what with the election and Trump’s non-concession and the surge in COVID infections. So often in the past year, living in the United States has felt like being mired in a spiral of anxiety and hopelessness. Too often, it’s felt impossible to
For the first time in my life, nearly everyone writing about science in the United States agrees: Science is political. Scientific American and Nature both endorsed Joe Biden for president. The New England Journal of Medicine stopped short of an endorsement, but urged its readers to reject Donald Trump’s policies
For scholars who write about the history, sociology, and anthropology of science and technology, fall is conference season. The Society for the Social Studies of Science, the History of Science Society, and the Society for the History of Technology all usually hold their meetings sometime between August and November. These
Like frogs in a pot, we’re being slowly boiled in a stew of disinformation, misinformation, and conspiracy theories. Have you heard the one about 5G? Back in January, a French conspiracy theory website suggested that 5G towers might somehow be related to coronavirus—maybe it’s something about radiation, or maybe Wuhan’s
A crisis is good for one thing only, and that’s shattering unhelpful assumptions. As a historian of science as it is practiced in the United States, I thought I already understood that U.S. exceptionalism was a lie, especially when it came to science. My second book, Freedom’s Laboratory, worked out