Mary Terrall’s new book is a beautifully-written, carefully-researched, and compellingly-argued account of the practices of natural history in the eighteenth-century francophone world. It is a must-read for historians of science, and as a bonus it also includes descriptions of frog pants, chickens wearing stockings, and mittens made of spider silk. You can find our conversation about it here. Continue reading Catching Nature in the Act: An Interview
Marwa Elshakry’s new book offers a fascinating account of how the work of Darwin and others was read and rendered in modern Arabic-language contexts. It is a must-read for anyone interested in the entanglements of science, translation, and empire in the modern world, and you can find our conversation about it here. Continue reading Reading Darwin in Arabic: An Interview
Hallam Stevens has written a fascinating ethnographic and historical account of the transformations wrought by integrating statistical and computational methods and materials into the biological sciences. It has already changed how I think about both biology and the digital humanities, and you can find our conversation about it here. Continue reading Life Out of Sequence: An Interview
Gabriel Finkelstein’s new book explores the life and work of Emil du Bois-Reymond, “the most important forgotten intellectual of the nineteenth century.” The beautifully written book introduces readers to diary pages and love letters, laboratory equipment and frog pistols. Whether he’s busy conducting electrical experiments or avoiding his underwear-proffering mother-in-law, du Bois-Reymond is a pleasure to read about. You can find our conversation about Finkelstein’s book here. Continue reading Emil du Bois-Reymond: An Interview
David Kaiser’s new book takes readers into the “hazy, bong-filled excesses of the 1970s New Age movement” in order to explain and reveal the origins of some of the most transformative breakthroughs in twentieth-century quantum physics. It is an exceptionally well-written history of science that is also tremendous fun to read, and you can find our conversation about it here. Continue reading How the Hippies Saved Physics: An Interview
Gabrielle Hecht and I recently spoke about her thoughtful new book on nuclearity in modern Africa. Hecht’s multi-sited study weaves together atomic history, African history, and the histories of mining, economies, and health. The book is extremely important for historians of the modern world, and you can find our conversation about it here. Continue reading Being Nuclear: An Interview
Robert Richards and I recently spoke about his new collection of wonderfully engaging and provocative essays on Darwin, Darwinians, and much else. You can find our conversation about it here. Continue reading Was Hitler a Darwinian?: An Interview
Rob Mitchell and I recently spoke about his wonderful new book, an exceptionally inspiring study in the history and literature of science that traces experimental vitalism through a wide range of Romantic textual worlds from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. You can find our conversation about it here. Continue reading Experimental Life: An Interview
Jamie Cohen-Cole and I recently spoke about his wonderful new book on the emergence of a discourse of creativity, interdisciplinarity, and the “open mind” in the context of Cold War American politics, education, and society. It’s a beautifully written and carefully argued study of the history of science, and you can find our conversation about it here. Continue reading The Open Mind: An Interview
Richard Yeo and I recently had a chance to talk about his fascinating new study of notebooks, note-keeping, memory, and information management in early modern England. It’s a must-read for anyone interested in book history or early modern science, and you can find our conversation about it here. Continue reading Notebooks, English Virtuosi, and Early Modern Science: An Interview
Carla Nappi 