Center for Biology+Society
Center for Biology+Society
Bill Aird

MBL-ASU History of Biology Seminar

2011 MBL-ASU History of Biology Seminar: History of Cell Biology
May 15 - 21, 2011

History and Philosophy of Science Informatics Workshop
May 23 - 26, 2011

2011 History of Biology Seminar

MBL-ASU History of Biology Seminar SECURE WEBSITE

THE APPLICATION DEADLINE HAS PASSED.  2012 applications should be available by October 2011.

The MBL-ASU History of Biology Seminar is an intensive week with annually varying topics designed for a group of no more than 25 advanced graduate students, postdoctoral associates, younger scholars, and established researchers in the life sciences, history, philosophy, and the social sciences.

This year’s seminar will explore the history of cell biology from the late 19th to early 21st centuries.  Because of the central role of MBL researchers, we will begin with a close look at Edmund Beecher Wilson’s classic work on The Cell and also at the cell lineage work that characterized early research at the MBL.  Then Theodor Boveri’s studies of chromosomes and cell segments raised questions about how cells divide and differentiate, and the relative importance of nucleus and cytoplasm.  Current MBL Director Gary Borisy’s work on the mitotic apparatus of cell division provides a look at one of the core driving problems for biological research for over a century.  And we will look at the contributions of retired MBL scientist Shinya Inoue, who is widely regarded as the most creative light microscopist ever.  All will be part of the seminar content. 

Throughout the week, we will explore questions about the cell as the fundamental structural unit of organized living systems, as a differentiated functional unit, as a unit of evolution, of heredity, and of development.  Cell cycles, cell-cell interactions, cell culture, cellular aging:  all are part of the story of cell biology.  In addition, we will look at visualizing cells, representing cells, and synthesizing cells.

The seminar will look at classic historical publications, historical materials, and the people involved in research.  Research practices are also important, and we will hear from leading researchers and historians about the microscopic innovations that have made discovery possible.  Publications, people, and practices lay out the primary ideas and work done.  We will also explore different historical, philosophical, and social interpretations of the research, including a look at issues of visualization and representation.   

The seminar is an excellent opportunity for graduate students interested in any aspects of cell biology and its history, philosophy and social developments.  It is also an excellent opportunity for biologists to become involved with history, and historians/ philosophers/ social scientists to become involved with central issues in the development of biology.  The seminar is intended for all scholars with an interest in these questions and their relations to other sciences and society. 

Organizers for 2011: Jane Maienschein (maienschein@asu.edu) and Manfred Laubichler (manfred.laubichler@asu.edu).

MBL-ASU Seminar Directors: John Beatty, University of British Columbia (john.beatty@ubc.ca); James Collins, Arizona State University (jcollins@asu.edu); Jane Maienschein, Arizona State University (maienschein@asu.edu)

The History of Biology Seminar is offered in collaboration with and is funded by Arizona State University. For more information about the seminar, past topics, updates, and application information, please visit: www.cbs.asu.edu/mbl_seminar.

In addition, for the first time, we are experimenting with a special History and Philosophy of Science Informatics Workshop to be held May 23-26 (with a short break between the two sessions to recuperate and reflect).  Preference for attendance will be given to those attending both sessions.  We welcome suggestions for both seminars to: maienschein@asu.edu .

 

History and Philosophy of Science Informatics Workshop     May 23 - 26, 2011

THE APPLICATION DEALINE HAS PASSED.  2012 applications should be available by October 2011.

HPS INFORMATICS WORKSHOP APPLICATION      FINANCIAL AID APPLICATION

This session grows out of the Digital HPS Collaborative that has developed under the initiative of the NSF-funded Embryo Project.  This project is directed from Arizona State and developed in collaboration with the Marine Biological Laboratory and the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin. (See embryo.asu.edu  and www.digitalhps.org/index.php/Main_Page for more information.)

The goal of the session is to introduce researchers in the HPS community to informatics skills and ideas, helping to forge a community of those with shared needs and interests.  Participants this first year should have some working experience with digital resources (databases, websites, and search tools), though we expect each individual to come with different skill sets and different experiences, as well as to want different things from the workshop.  We hope through this workshop to develop a better sense of the most effective approaches to use in future bootcamp sessions, so that we can make this short course a regular offering that is most effective for the community.

We each have diverse experiences in using multiple databases that are set up in different ways and the lack of infrastructural support for making these projects accessible and inter-operable presents a stumbling block to advancing both our projects and the field as a whole.  As we seek to set up our own databases to achieve true “broader impacts” and to take our work to the larger publics, we have each encountered the challenges of doing it alone.  In fact, many projects often work in isolation, and this means that there are many small historical projects inhabiting dark unexplored corners of the internet that are effectively lost to scholars.  Or, they are found, but since they  utilize proprietary data formats, do not have metadata, or run on outdated systems, they are not easily utilized by others.  We want to lay out current best practices for such things as:

We will be led by library scientists and informaticians at the MBL and others from the HPS community.  Mornings will build from lectures to introduce major themes, and afternoons will include work on a collaborative project, which in this particular summer will be related to developing exhibits about the history of cell biology. Our goal is to develop real products that will be edited, cleaned up, then added to the new MBL HPS Program website.