Syntesebiologien mellem organisme og maskine

The Department for Media, Cognition, and Communication of the University of Copenhagen, in association with the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics of Oxford University, are pleased to present

Organism and Machine:

The Conceptual and Normative

Challenges of Synthetic Biology

Date: Friday, January 14, 2011, 9.00-17.30
Venue: University of Copenhagen, Faculty of Humanities, KUA

Program
9.00-9.15: Welcome
9.15-10.15: Peter McLaughlin (Heidelberg), ‘The Blindness of the Watchmaker and the Super-vision of the Breeder’
10.15-11.15: Tim Lewens (Cambridge), ‘Does Mother Nature Know Best? On Rational Organic Design’
Break
11.45-12.45: Randolph Nesse (Michigan, Ann Arbor), ‘How the Machine Metaphor Holds Back Biology and Medicine’
Lunch
13.45-14.45: Mark Bedau (Reed College), ‘How Emergence Drives the Ethics and Politics of Synthetic Biology’
14.45-15.45: Julian Savulescu (Oxford),’The Ethical Implications of Designing Life’
Break
16.15-17.15: Jacob Boomsma (Copenhagen), ‘Will the Services of Synthetic Organisms be Brief, Transient and Ultimately Dangerous?’
17.15-17.30: Concluding Remarks

REGISTRATION is free, but please e-mail Sune Holm by January 6, 2011 if you would like to attend (suneh [at] hum.ku.dk)

SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY is rapidly emerging as one of the most promising fields of science and technology, with the potential to deliver enormous benefits in a wide range of areas, including pharmaceuticals, energy, agriculture, pollution and climate change. The vision of synthetic biologists is a future where humans engage in the large-scale design and creation of new forms of life that are exquisitely tailored for human purposes. The genetic engineering of organisms, and the wholesale design and manufacture of living things from virtual genetic sequences, are blurring the line between machine and organism, life and nonlife, and the natural and the artificial, transforming the relationship between humankind and nature in ways that are exciting to some people but unsettling for others.

THIS WORKSHOP will bring together an interdisciplinary group of experts, including specialists in evolutionary biology, medicine, bioethics, and philosophy of science, to explore the conceptual, theoretical, and ethical dimensions of the machine-organism distinction. It will aim to address the following questions: Is the traditional machine-organism comparison one of analogy or disanalogy? How do engineering principles and machine metaphors figure into biological and biomedical science, and what are the limits to their utility? How shall we situate the products of synthetic biology vis-à-vis our traditional ontological categories of ‘engineered machine’ and ‘naturally selected organism’? Are these distinctions of normative significance? How might these categories inform (or misinform) bioethical discussions in relation to emerging biotechnologies? A central goal of the workshop will be to highlight the ways in which the conceptual problems associated with synthetic biology inform and shape the ethical analyses.

The workshop is sponsored by UNIK Synthetic Biology, University of Copenhagen

23. nordiske medisinhistoriske kongress

Call for Papers

The XXIIIrd Nordic Medical History Congress

The Norwegian Museum for Science,

Technology, Industry and Medicine,

Oslo,

Norway

25.-27. May 2011

Key Note Speakers: John Pickstone, Ludmilla Jordanova, Nick Hopwood
Graduate students course: In connection with the congress, Ludmilla Jordanova will chair a graduate students course, limited to 15 students. Wednesday May 25th from 0900 -1300.
Submissions relating to all historical periods and a broad range of topics are welcome, as long as they offer historical perspectives on issues relating to medicine, health and healthcare. Especially encouraged are topics thematizing: * Production of knowledge within different professional groups and among patients in the history of health and medicine * Collection and use of oral sources within health- and medical history * Historical perspectives on medical imaging and the development and use of visual representations within the history of health and medicine * Neurology and brain research. (A new exhibition on this topic opens at the National Medical Museum in spring 2011 and will be presented at the seminar) * History of psychiatry * History of global connections in health and medicine

Abstracts should not exceed one page. They should contain a title and the speaker's contact information (name, affiliation, address and email address). Proposals for sessions
including three or four papers are also welcome. Papers can be in English or a Scandinavian language. Please indicate which language you will use.
Please submit all proposals for papers and sessions, and application for participation in the phd-seminar to medisin@tekniskmuseum.no or Nasjonalt medisinsk museum, Kjelsåsveien 143, 0491 Oslo no later than 1.March 2011.
Abstracts must be submitted no later than 1.3.2011 .
The conference will start with lunch Wednesday May 25th, and will finish with lunch Friday May 27th. Registration fee will be NOK 2000,-. This includes seminar participation, joint lunch and dinner Wednesday and Thursday, as well as lunch on Friday. Travel and accommodation must be organized and paid for by each participant.
On behalf of the organizating committee:

Olav Hamran
The Norwegian Museum of Science, Technology, Industry and Medicine
medisin [at] tekniskmuseum.no

Anne Kveim Lie
Section for Medical Antropology and Medical History,
University of Oslo
a.h.k.lie [at] medisin.uio.no

Key Note speakers --- Short Biographies:

John Pickstone founded the Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine at the University of Manchester, where he is now Wellcome Research Professor. He has published widely on modern medical history, including the history of cancer, mental health and recent English Health Services. His book Ways of Knowing: A New History of Science, Technology and Medicine (Manchester and Chicago, 2000 – and article in Isis, 2007) is an original attempt to cover the history of science, technology and medicine, emphasising different forms of practices -- a historiographical project he is extending towards communicative arts. Among his other recent publications are Madness, Medicine and Social History Essays in Honour of Roy Porter (Palgrave 2007), Surgeons, Manufacturers and Patient. A Transatlantic History of the Total Hip Replacement (with J. Anderson and F. Neary, Palgrave 2007) and The Modern Biological and Earth Sciences (vol 6 of the Cambridge History of Science, ed with Peter Bowler, 2009).

Ludmilla Jordanova is Professor in Modern History at King’s College, London. She has written widely about the cultural history of science and medicine, on gender and the family and on visual and material culture. She will be known to medical historians for important contributions such as Sexual Visions: Images of Gender in Science and Medicine between the Eighteenth and Twentieth Centuries, (University of Wisconsin Press 1989), Nature Displayed: Gender, Science and Medicine 1760-1820 (Longman 1999), and Defining Features: Scientific and Medical Portraits 1660-2000, (Reaktion Books 2000). She has also written the much used History in Practice (Arnold, 2000, 2nd edition 2006), and is currently completing a book which explores the role of visual and material culture in historical practice, entitled The Look of the Past, to be published by Cambridge University Press.

Nick Hopwood is Senior Lecturer in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge, where he runs a Wellcome Trust-funded programme that is reassessing the history of reproduction from antiquity to the present day. He is the author of Embryos in Wax (Whipple Museum, 2002), co-editor (with Soraya de Chadarevian) of Models (Stanford, 2004), co-author (with Tatjana Buklijas) of the online exhibition Making Visible Embryos (2008) and co-editor (with Simon Schaffer and Jim Secord) of Seriality and Scientific Objects in the Nineteenth Century (a special double issue of History of Science, 2010). He is currently finishing a book, Pictures of Evolution and Charges of Forgery, about the most controversial images in the history of science and why they became some of the most standard.

Bliv bedre - få et Etisk Råd

Nyt fra Etisk Råd:

Medicinsk optimering - til skade eller gavn?

Er det godt eller skidt, hvis flere i fremtiden vælger en medicinsk vej til bedre præstationer, fx i forbindelse med deres uddannelse eller på jobbet? Hvad betyder det for den enkelte og for samfundet, hvis medicin bliver en vigtig faktor i ethvert samvær?

Det Etiske Råd udgiver redegørelse om medicinsk optimering (læs mere her)

Mandag den 29. november udgiver Det Etiske Råd redegørelsen "Medicinsk optimering - etiske overvejelser og anbefalinger". I den anledning indbydes presse, politikere, forskere og andre interesserede til præsentation og en kort debat.

Tid og sted
Mandag den 29. november 2010 klokken 11.00 - 12.30.
Det Farmaceutiske Fakultet, Københavns Universitetet, Universitetsparken 2, 2100 København Ø (Novo Nordisk- og Lundbeck-studiesalene i venstre bygning, se på kort).

Program
11.00
Peder Agger, Det Etiske Råds formand, byder velkommen
11.05
Klavs Birkholm, medlem af Det Etiske Råd, præsenterer redegørelsen
11.15
Bertel Haarder, indenrigs- og sundhedsminister, kommenterer redegørelsen
11.30
Andreas Kimergård, Institut for Idræt, Aarhus universitet, kommenterer redegørelsen
11.40
Claus Møldrup, professor ved Det Farmaceutiske Fakultet, Københavns Universitet, kommenterer redegørelsen
11.50
Spørgsmål og debat
Det Etiske Råds arbejdsgruppe om Medicinsk Optimering vil stå til rådighed for mere indgående spørgsmål og interviews.

Kontakt
Projektleder Thomas Laursen, mobil: 2087 0670
Presseansvarlig Louise Dehn, mobil: 2531 9824

Hugin og Munin 262

Hugin og Munin nr. 262, den 25. november, 2010.

Kære læsere,

hermed udsendes Hugin og Munin med links til de enkelte arrangementer:

Kalender

• 29. nov.: Debat- og præsentationsmøde i Etisk Råd om medicinsk optimering
• 
  
• 2. dec.: Festforelæsninger og reception for MeST - nyt center for medicinsk STS
• 
  
• 6. dec.: Challenging Cornucopian Dreams: M. King Hubbert’s advocacy of peak oil and natural limits
• 
  
• 7. dec.: Karin Knorr Cetina: What type of Agent is a Financial Market?
• 
  
• 7. dec.: The Language of Objects: Christian Jürgensen Thomsen’s Science of the Past
• 
  
• 8. dec.: Videnskabsteori og menneskesyn i uddannelsessystemet
• 
  
• 9. dec.: Reflections on the knowledge/power nexus in the Global Cold War / Cold War science, colonial politics and national identity in the Arctic
• 
  
• 17. dec.: Genetic Tests: Knowledge, Practice and Use
• 
  
• 11. jan.: On the relationship between plane and solid geometry
• 
  
• 13. jan.: Ph.D.-defense: Naturalism in the philosophy of mathematics
• 
  
• 31. jan.: abstract deadline: Conference on the Philosophy of the Social Sciences 2011
• 
  
• 11. marts: Addicts as Biocitizens? Neurobiology, Addiction and Society
• 
  
• 28. marts: frist for tilmelding til tekstil- og kemihistorisk møde d. 28. april
• 
  
• Nye Bøger
• 
  
• Nye artikler og proceedings
• 
  
• Nyhedsbrev fra ISSP - Initiative for Science, Society and Policy
• 
  

Nyhedsbrevet læses på nettet på odinsravne.blogspot.com

mens de fleste arrangementer afvikles i den virkelige virkelighed

Med venlig hilsen Red.

Naturalisme i matematikfilosofi

Ph.D.-defense:

Mikkel Willum Johansen:

Naturalism in the philosophy of mathematics

Time: Thursday, January 13, 2011 at 13:00 OBS: changed to:

Time: Wednesday, January 12, 2011 at 10:00 am

Place: Niels Bohr Institute, Blegdamsvej 17, København, auditorium A.

Abstract:

In modern philosophy of mathematics a number of different naturalistic explanations of mathematical knowledge have been given. In my dissertation I present and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of three such approaches. These are 1) evolutionary biology, 2) cognitive science, and 3) sociology of science. Each of these approaches claim that mathematical knowledge can be explained by a particular type of facts about human nature. The type of facts varies with the approach; the evolutionary biology approach states facts from evolutionary theory, the cognitive science approach states cognitive facts etc.

My aim in the dissertation is double. On the one hand, I want to evaluate the different approaches, but on the other I want to give a new and more adequate naturalistic explanation of mathematics. As I see it, mathematics is much too rich to be understood on a single level of explanation. Explanations solely operating within a single theoretical framework, such as cognitive semantics or evolutionary biology are valuable in many ways, but in my view they inevitably lead to an unproductive reductionism. As I see it, mathematics cannot be reduced to a single type of phenomena or facts. For this reason, the main aim of the dissertation is to show how explanation from both the biological, the cognitive and the social level of explanation can be pieced together to form consistent and non-reductive understanding of mathematics.

The thesis can be downloaded from

http://www.nbi.dk/natphil/prs/mwj/Dissertation-mwj2010.pdf

Assessment committee:

Professor Carl Winsløv, Department of Science Education, University of Copenhagen (chairman);

Professor Paolo Mancosu, Department of Philosophy, University of California Berkeley;

Professor Stig Andur Pedersen, Deparment of Philosophy and Science Studies, Roskilde University.

Co-chairman [ordstyrer]:

Kjeld Bagger Laursen, Department of Mathematical Sciences and Department of Science Education, University of Copenhagen

Supervisors:

Professor Jesper Lützen, Department of Mathematical Sciences, University of Copenhagen

Associate professor Claus Emmeche, Center for the Philosophy of Nature and Science Studies, University of Copenhagen.

Videnskabsstudier på markedspladsen

Public lecture by Karin Knorr Cetina:

As a part of the CBS/ IOA Public Lecture Series ‘Organizing Uncertainty’, Professor Karin Knorr Cetina (University of Chicago, and Bielefeld University) will give a lecture titled ‘The Market as an Object of Attachment: What type of Agent is a Financial Market?’, on Tuesday 7th December, 2011, 16.00-17.30 (followed by a Reception), Copenhagen Business School, SP201, Danske Bank Auditorium (Solbjerg Plads 3, Frederiksberg).

Event information:
December 7, 2010
4:00 pm to 5:30 pm

from: http://www.dasts.dk/?p=1141

Vejrskifter, vrede guder, rationalitet og ragnarok

Ny bog fra Aarhus Universitetsforlag:

Vejret gennem 5000 år

Meteorologiens historie

Af Erik A. Rasmussen

”Alle taler om vejret, men ingen gør noget ved det”, sagde Storm P. Fra tidernes morgen har mennesket fascineret betragtet himlen og funde­ret over universets indretning – og lige så længe har vi drømt om at kunne forudsige og måske endda påvirke vejret.

Vejret gennem 5000 år er en rigt illustreret videnskab- og kulturhistorisk beretning om meteorologiens udvikling. De første systematiske observa­tioner af vejret kendes fra mesopotamiske lertavler, mens grundstenen til en egentlig meteorologisk videnskab blev lagt med de græske filosoffers er­kendelse af, at hagl og stormvejr ikke er udtryk for gudernes vrede, men naturfænomener, der kan forklares rationelt.

Bogen følger de videnskabelige gennembrud og vildfarelser, der førte fra oldtidens astrologiske vejrvarsler til nutidens computerbaserede langtids­prognoser. Undervejs inddrages historiske begivenheder, hvor meteorologien har spillet en afgørende rolle – som da vejrudsigterne fik direkte indflydelse på forløbet af de allieredes invasion i Frankrig i juni 1944.

I vore dage prøver vi ikke længere at formidle vejr guderne gennem ritualer, men det diskuteres, om voldsomme cykloner og stigende temperaturer er varsler om kommende klimakatastrofer, og om det er muligt at afværge et sådant ragnarok. Meteorologiske spørgsmål, der har optaget mennesker gennem 5000 år.

Med venlig hilsen
Aarhus Universitetsforlag

Bioborgere, genetiske test og misbrugets neurobiologi

Biomedical Transformations of Life: Knowledge, Learning and the Rise of Biocitizens

A Collaborative Series of International Seminars and Workshops Jointly Organized by the Genetics and Democracy (GaD) Network, Lund University and the Learning and Media Technology Studio (LETStudio), University of Gothenburg

Genetic Tests: Knowledge, Practice and Use

An International Seminar to be held at

the Pufendorf Institute, Lund University,

17th December 2010

Addicts as Biocitizens? Neurobiology, Addiction and Society

An International Seminar 11th March 2011

(Location and Detailed Programme to be Announced)

See more here:

http://www.dasts.dk/?p=1144

Samfundsvidenskabernes filosofi, rolle og metodesyn

Call for Papers:

Conference on the Philosophy of the Social Sciences 2011
(August 25 & 26, 2011 – University of Copenhagen)

The philosophy of the social sciences is concerned with the multifarious philosophical issues raised by the social sciences. This conference highlights two questions addressed within the philosophy of the social sciences. One is the societal role of the social sciences. The other is the issue of methodological individualism versus methodological holism. There will be two keynote talks on each topic. The conference invites contributions within these two areas as well as within other areas of the philosophy of the social sciences. Moreover, it invites contributions from philosophers of social science and social scientists alike.

Please send a one-page abstract to one of the organizers by Monday, January 31, 2011.
Notification by mid-February 2011

Keynote Speakers:
Patrick Baert (University of Cambridge)
Harold Kincaid (University of Alabama at Birmingham)
Mark Risjord (Emory University)
Mark Turner (Case Western Reserve University)

Organizers:
Finn Collin (Section of Philosophy, University of Copenhagen): collin [at] hum.ku.dk
Julie Zahle (Section of Philosophy, University of Copenhagen): jzahle [at] hum.ku.dk

Conference homepage: http://philsocsc.ku.dk/

Overflødighedshornet udfordret

History of Science Seminar:

Mon 6 December 2010, 14.15

Lunch room, Niels Bohr Institute

Blegdamsvej 17, Copenhagen

Ronald E. Doel

Department of History, Florida State University

Challenging Cornucopian Dreams:

M. King Hubbert’s advocacy of peak oil

and natural limits

When we think about scientists who sounded alarms about the limitations of planet Earth, we often recall the ecologist Eugene Odum or biologists like Paul Erlich. Yet one of the most intriguing and influential advocates of natural limits during the Cold War – the Texan-born M. King Hubbert, research director at Shell Oil Company – was an earth scientist. In the early 1960s – after developing the concept of peak oil – Hubbert joined a National Academy of Sciences task force on U.S. natural resources set up on the request of President Kennedy. His conservative estimates of remaining U.S. oil and natural gas – as well as his arguments against overpopulation – sparked condemnation. Nevertheless, after the 1970s oil shortage crisis, he was, at least briefly, upheld as a prophet. To this day, Hubbert’s peak oil research stimulates public debates about natural resource limitations and energy policy. This presentation concentrates on how Hubbert came to be a leading global public figure in energy policy as well as on the social, political, and intellectual factors which shaped and inspired Hubbert’s public activism.

--

Niels Bohr Archive
Blegdamsvej 17
DK-2100 Copenhagen
Denmark

Det hvide snit gennem dansk psykiatri

Ny bog:

Det hvide snit

Psykokirurgi og dansk psykiatri 1922-1983

af Jesper Vaczy Kragh

Igennem en lang årrække har Jesper Vaczy Kragh arbejdet med psykiatriens historie i Danmark, herunder ikke mindst de særlige fysiske behandlingsmetoder, som vandt frem i landet i begyndelsen af 1900-tallet. Med Det hvide snit. Psykokirurgi og dansk psykiatri 1922-1983 præsenteres emnet udførligt – og for første gang sammenhængende for et dansk publikum.
Blandt danske psykiatere synes der at have været enighed om at anvende terapier som cardiazolchok, insulinkoma og elektrochok til patienter, der var indlagt på sindssygehospitalerne i 1900-tallet. Beretningerne om behandlingerne veksler mellem historier om mirakuløse helbredelser og svære skadevirkninger, mellem tårnhøje bedringsprocenter og effekter på lig nul. Især i forhold til den sidste af de fysiske behandlingsmetoder – lobotomien eller ”det hvide snit”, fremstår terapiens popularitet overraskende. I erindringsbøger skrevet af datidens psykiatere bliver dette hjernekirurgiske indgreb ofte omtalt, og samtidige artikler fra den lægevidenskabelige litteratur vidner også om en meget udstrakt brug af behandlingen. Der tegner sig hermed et billede af en dansk praksis, som ikke syntes at have haft et tilsvarende omfang andre steder i verden.
For mange danske psykiatere udgjorde ikke blot det hvide snit, men også elektrochok og de øvrige behandlingsmetoder, et vendepunkt i psykiatriens udvikling. Den intrikate forestilling, at disse – af eftertiden så hårdt kritiserede – behandlinger repræsenterede en revolution for flere psykiatere, giver anledning til spørgsmålet: Hvordan indgik lobotomien og andre af de fysiske behandlingsmetoder i det større udviklingsprojekt, som tegnede sig inden for dansk psykiatri i begyndelsen af 1900-tallet?
Debatten om de hvide snit føres stadig, og psykokirurgien er den dag i dag et aktuelt emne mange steder i verden. I lande som USA, Storbritannien, Sverige, Spanien, Italien, Belgien, Kina, Australien og Canada udføres der stadig hjerneoperationer på psykiatriske patienter, men med andre teknikker end da lobotomien var fremme. Det er i den seneste tid ofte blevet fremhævet, at denne nye kirurgi er en disciplin i vækst, og planer om at genindføre psykokirurgien har været fremhævet i flere lande – herunder Danmark. Det har samtidig fået flere til at udtrykke bekymring for en gentagelse af fortidens udstrakte brug af psykokirurgien. Det hvide snit er et væsentligt bidrag til denne diskussion.
Klik her for at læse Kristeligt Dagblads artikel om bogen.

www.universitypress.dk

Udgivelsesår (udgave): 2010
ISBN: 978-87-7674-403-8
Antal sider:475
Gennemillustreret, Hæftet
Serie: University of Southern Denmark Studies in History and Social Sciences, vol. 409
Pris 398,00 DKK

Hjernedoping – den optimerede bevidsthed

Hjernedoping – den optimerede bevidsthed

Professor i neurobiologi og farmakolog på KU, Albert Gjedde

Lektor i videnskabsteori og socialetik Luis Emilio Bruni

Skal raske mennesker tage præstations- og koncentrationsfremmende stoffer? Undersøgelser viser at det sker i stigende grad. Bl.a. bruges ritalin af studerende der skal til eksamen.
Vi spørger om det overhovedet virker på raske? Hvad siger hjerneforskningen? Kan det være farligt?

Og er det en ønskelig udvikling? Er det et udtryk for et skred i normalitetsbegrebet? Er kravene til vores præstationsevne blevet for store? Er der en grænse og hvor går den? Skal vi forbyde kaffe og cola?

Kom og deltag i debatten.

Tid: Torsdag d. 4. november fra kl. 17-19
Sted: Hannover auditorium - Panum instituttet, Blegdamsvej 3b, 2200 Kbh. N
Gratis adgang

Arr. Studenterpræsten på Sund og Science
Peter Nicolai Halvorsen
Københavns Universitet
Det Sundhedsvidenskabelige Fakultet
Blegdamsvej 3b,
2200 København N
lok. 15.2.1
TEL 353 27094
MOB 28 75 70 94
praest [at] sund.ku.dk
www.studenterpraesterne.ku.dk

Multitalentet Poul Brandt Rehberg

Ny bog fra Aarhus Universitetsforlag

Videnskabens mand

Fysiologen, formidleren og forskningsaktivisten Poul Brandt Rehberg

Af Henrik Knudsen

Pinefulde fysiologiske selvforsøg, kamp for oprettelsen af forskningsråd i Danmark, udskibning af de danske jøder i 1943 og fredsarbejde i atombombens skygge. Den epokegørende nyreforsker Poul Brandt Rehbergs virke strakte sig langt ud over laboratoriets vægge. Han var en af de mest fremtrædende og engagerede danske forskere i det 20. århundrede, og alligevel er det med denne bog første gang, der tegnes et samlet billede af fysiologen, formidleren og forskningsaktivisten Rehberg.

Videnskabens mand går i kødet på Rehbergs nyrefaglige opdagelser, men den portrætterer også hans offentlige liv i alle dets facetter og kaster nyt lys over forskningspolitikkens udvikling i Danmark.

Rehberg var videnskabens mand i samfundslivet: en fagligt velfunderet, afgørende medspiller i hverdagens og historiens dramaer – fra kampen mod nazismens hærgen under besættelsen til fusionen mellem Carlsberg og Tuborg.

Rehbergs liv illustrerer, hvor centralt et element naturvidenskaben er i vores moderne kultur. Det er værd at huske, i en tid hvor forskningens økonomiske værdi vægtes stadig tungere.

DKK 398,00
412 s., indb., ill., 2010
ISBN 978 87 7934 563 8

Med venlig hilsen
Aarhus Universitetsforlag

Kold krig kolde steder - STMC-møde

PhD.-workshop:

The title of the PhD.-workshop is “Reflections on the knowledge/power nexus in the Global Cold War”, with John Krige, Georgia Tech, School of History, Technology and Society.

Time: 9 December 2010, 9-11.30 AM
Place: Meeting Room, Department of Science Studies, Building 1110, Aarhus University.

Participation in the PhD-workshop is awarded 1 ECTS.
To register for this event and request required readings please contact stm@hum.au.dk, no later than 2 December at 10 AM.
Travel costs will be reimbursed for students from other places than Aarhus University.

The Conference:

The title of the conference is “Cold War science, colonial politics and national identity in the Arctic”.

Time: 9 December 2010, 13.00-17.00
Place: Meeting Room, Department of Science Studies, Auditorium, Building 1110, Aarhus University.

Program
Session 1: 13.00 – 14.45
"The Unreliable Nation: Science and theTechnopolitics of Failure"
Edward Imhotep-Jones, Science and Technology Studies, York University, Toronto, Canada

"Elements for a transnational history of cold war science: Asymmetry, hybridity and national identity"
John Krige, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA

14.45-15.15 break

Session 2: 15.15 – 17.00
"Cold War and Cold Science. Greenland in Danish-American Relationship 1945-1968."
Thorsten Boring-Olesen, Dept. of History, Aarhus University, Denmark

"Exploring Greenland: Denmark, the US Military and Science and Technology in the Cold War"
Matthias Heymann, Dept. of Science Studies, Aarhus University, Denmark

To read abstracts please go to http://stm.au.dk/uploads/media/cold_war_abstracts.pdf

For information on both events please seen attached posters.
Coffee, tea and fruit are provided.
Please register for one or both events at stm@hum.au.dk before 2 December at 10 AM.

Best wishes
Helene Sloth Borgholm, STMC, Network for Science, Technology and Medicine Studies

Aarhus University, Building 1465-615
Jens Chr. Skous Vej 7, DK-8000 Aarhus C
Email: idehsb [at] hum.au.dk
www.stm.au.dk

STS-konferenceaktivister søges

Kære alle medlemmer af DASTS
Vi har på CBS sagt ja til at organisere 4S/EASTS konferencen i 2012. Konferencen vil blive holdt på CBS’s campus (Solbjerg Plads og Kilen på Frederiksberg) d. 17-21 Oktober 2012. Vi regner med, at der kommer lidt mere end 1000 deltagere.
Vi glæder os til det, men det er også en stor opgave (og vi skal måske bemærke at den er baseret på frivilligt arbejde). Vi vil derfor gerne invitere alle, som har lyst til at være med til at organisere konferencen til at sende os en mail på denne adresse (mho.ioa@cbs.dk) – gerne med angivelse af hvad I har lyst til at hjælpe med.
Vi glæder os til at vise det internationale STS-samfund at vi har nogle spændende STS-miljøer i Danmark og at vi kan afholde en super konference. Og vi regner med at vi skal have det sjovt mens vi gør det!
Mvh
Susse Georg, Signe Vikkelsø, Alan Irwin og Maja Horst


OPBAKNING FRA DASTS-BESTYRELSEN
På vegne af bestyrelsen i DASTS vil jeg gerne give ovenstående arrangement min varmeste anbefaling. Det er et fantastisk intitiativ, som CBS har taget, og det er en enestående lejlighed til at synliggøre dansk STS, for at udvikle faglige kontakter, og for at bidrage til STS-feltets fremtidige udvikling. Jeg melder mig hermed som ‘assisterende organisator’ og håber, at mange andre vil følge med.
Mvh
Torben Elgaard Jensen (formand for DASTS)

God ‐ a Mathematician?

Ny antologi:

God ‐ a Mathematician?

Proceedings of the Danish

Science‐Theology Forum, Vol. 5

Edited by Helge Kragh and Marie Vejrup Nielsen

University of Aarhus 2010

Contents:

Helge Kragh
Introduction: Historical and Present Interactions Between Mathematics and Theology

Helge Kragh
The Infinite God and the Infinite Mathematics

Henrik Kragh Sørensen
Relations between mathematics and theology: Theological aspects of the notion of infinity in the history of mathematics

Mikkel Willum Johansen
Does the usefulness of mathematics prove the existence of God?

Terese M. O. Nielsen
Gödelʹs first incompleteness theorem and human language

Peter Øhrstrøm
Some Reflections on Logic and Transcendence

Dirk Evers
The Significance of Mathematics and Logic for Theology

Download proceedings as a pdf file here!

Etik for fantombabier og tillid til spektrale kvinder

on Oct 29th 10-12, The STS-centre at Informations and Media Studies AU, hosts a guest lecture with Monica Casper og Peter-Poul Verbeek:

Monica Casper

Phantom Babies and Spectral Women:

Infant Mortality, Maternal/Child Health,

and Women's Empowerment

This talk will present findings from a multi-sited ethnography of the transnational biopolitics of infant mortality. Specifically, I explore the meanings of infant mortality in relation to the categories "maternal/child health" and "women's health". I suggest that the infant mortality rate (IMR)-an abstract, aggregated, and portable biopolitical object-routinely positions women and their empowerment in essentialist terms of reproductive capacity. That is, women are valued only to the degree that they produce healthy and living babies. In global biopolitical schemes that equate a low IMR with national well-being, women are thus a means to the end of healthy states. Policymakers, clinicians, NGOs, and others deploy the IMR as a demographic concept and indicator in order to reduce unacceptably high rates of infant death. Yet at the same time, by accruing cultural meaning from the gendered and contested field of maternal/child health, this strategy may operate against notions of women as fully human and goals of gender empowerment. I show that maternal/child health is not, in fact, synonymous in discourse or practice with a feminist articulation of women's health or transnational efforts to improve the status of women.

Peter-Poul Verbeek:

Trust and Technology:

on the ethics of human-technology relations

Trust is a central dimension in the relation between human beings and technologies. Many ethical approaches of technology start from distrust, and focus on technological risks. At the same time, in public discourse technology is still often treated as a neutral instrument that is trusted blindly to do what it is supposed to do.
Many approaches to trust and technology depart from a conceptualization of the relation between human beings and technologies as an external relation: a relation between pre-given entities that can have an impact on each other but that do not mutually constitute each other. From this perspective, relations of trust can vary between reliance, as is present for instance in technological extensionism, and suspicion, as in various precautionary approaches in ethics that focus on technological risks.
Against these two interpretations of trust, I will develop a third one. Based on a more internal account of the relations between human beings and technologies, it becomes possible to see that every technological development puts at stake what it means to be a human being. Using technologies, then, implies trusting ourselves to technologies.
By discussing various new technologies, I will argue that this does not imply an uncritical subjection to technology. Rather, recognizing that technologies help to constitute human subjectivity implies that human beings can get actively involved in processes of technological mediation. Trust then has the character of confidence: deliberately trusting oneself to technology.

This open lecture will be held October 29, 10-12

In the meetingroom Ada 333 (Aarhus Universitet)
Åbent for alle interesserede. Website