Research Report 1996 - 1997
Table Of Contents
Introduction 11
Research Scholars and Guests 17
Research Scholars 17
Visiting Scholars and Research Fellows 24
Projects of the Research Group Headed by Jürgen Renn (Department I) 33
Project 1: The Relation of Practical Experience and Conceptual Structures in the Emergence of Science - Mental Models in the History of Mechanics 34
General Goals of the Project 34
Theoretical Framework 36
Project Design 39
Present State of the Work 43
Current Research Activities Related to "The Relation of Practical Experience and Conceptual Structures in the Emergence of Science" 44
The Structure of Ancient Sources of Mechanics 44
The Development of Balances and the Law of the Lever 46
The Arabic Transformation of Mechanics 48
The Jordanian Revolution 51
Engineering and Mechanical Thinking 53
Challenges to Preclassical Mechanics 56
The Development of Galileo's Deductive System of Mechanics 58
Associated Research Activities 60
Edition of Sources Related to the Medieval Tradition of Mechanics 60
Ink Analysis of Galileo's Notes on Mechanics Ms. Gal. 72 (joint project together with the
Biblioteca Nazionale
Centrale, Florence, the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Firenze, and the
Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza
in Florence) 62
Edition of Galileo's Letters on Mechanics 64
A New Translation of Newton's Principia 65
A Commentary on Newton's Principia 66
A New Translation of Galileo's De Motu 68
Newton and Hooke 68
Project 2: Studies in the Integration and Disintegration of Knowledge in Modern Science 70
General Goals of the Project 70
Current Research Activities Related to "Studies in the Integration and Disintegration of Knowledge in Modern Science" 74
Knowledge Integration and Concept Formation in Microbiology 74
Newton's Synthesis of jusiV and tecnh and its Reception in the Hegelian System 75
The Philosophical Integration of Classical Science 76
The Disintegration of Nineteenth Century Physics and its Reflection in Wittgenstein's Philosophy 78
The Relativity Crisis and the Reorganization of Classical Knowledge on Gravitation - the Reconstruction of Einstein's Discovery Process 79
The Relativity Crisis and the Reorganization of Classical Knowledge on Gravitation - the History of Alternative Approaches 84
The Relativity Crisis and the Reorganization of Classical Knowledge on Gravitation - the Contexts of the Establishment of General Relativity 87
The Quantum Crisis and the Reorganization of Research Strategies in Classical Physics - the Cases of Einstein and Bohr 90
The Disintegration of Evolutionary Biology 93
Associated Research Activities 94
History of Atomic and Nuclear Research 94
Aspects of Institutional History 95
The Contribution of the Physikalisch-Technische Reichsanstalt
to Quantum Physics 96
An Exhibition on Max Planck 96
Science and Technology in the GDR 97
Project 3: Dynamic Models of Scientific Discoveries 98
General Goals of the Project 98
Discovery of the Urea Cycle 99
Associated Research Activities 101
Early Babylonian Observational Diaries 102
Diagrams in Medieval Planetary Astronomy 104
Kepler's Physical Astronomy 105
Development: Electronic Research Tools and Databases 107
General Goals of the Developments 107
Current Work Related to "Electronic Research Tools and Databases" 108
Electronic Edition and Representation of Galileo's Notes on Mechanics Ms. Gal. 72 (joint project together with the
Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza
and with the
Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale
in Florence) 108
Database of Proto-Cuneiform Texts from Archaic Babylonia (joint project together with the Seminar of Near Eastern Archaeology of the Freie Universität Berlin, with the Vorderasiatisches Museum der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin, and with the Computer Center of the Universität Lüneburg) 110
Electronic Research Environment 111
Medieval Scientific Manuscripts 112
Mesopotamian Year Names 112
Cuneiform Texts of the Third Millenium B.C. in the Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin (joint project together with the Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin, and scholars of universities in Berlin, Wien, and Los Angeles) 113
The Archimedes Project: Electronic Resources in the History of Mechanics (joint project together with the Perseus Project at Tufts University, Boston) 114
Projects of the Research Group Headed by Lorraine Daston (Department II) 117
Project 1: The Varieties of Scientific Experience 117
General Goals of the Project 117
Current Research Activities Related to "The Varieties of Scientific Experience": 119
Wonders and the Order of Nature 119
European-Muslim Scientific Encounters Between the Sixteenth and the Eighteenth Centuries 120
The Use and Abuse of Mathematical Entities and the Emergence of Early Modern Science 121
The Emergence of Scientific Psychiatry: From Clinical Observation to Social Field Work 121
Formulas and the Production of Order in Nineteenth-Century Organic Chemistry 122
Experiment, Sensuous Experience and Knowledge Production 124
Ideologies of Self-Knowledge and Dilemmas of Personal Experience 126
Related Projects of Visiting Scholars and Research Fellows 127
Project 2: The History of Scientific Objectivity 128
General Goals of the Project 128
Current Research Activities Related to "The History of Scientific Objectivity" 130
The Images of Objectivity 130
History as a Problem for the Sciences. Changing Approaches Towards History in the Social Sciences and the Humanities in Germany After 1900 131
Women Scientists at the Berlin University and at the Institutes of the "Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft" in Berlin/Germany between 1898 and 1945 133
Related Projects of Visiting Scholars and Research Fellows 135
Project 3: Demonstration, Proof, Test (1997-98) 136
General Goals of the Project 136
Upcoming Projects: 137
1998-99: "Scientific Personae" 137
1999-2000: "The Moral Authority of Nature" 137
Projects of the Research Group Headed by Hans-Jörg Rheinberger (Department III) 139
1: History and Epistemology of Experimentation 139
General Goals 139
Current Research Activities Related to "History and Epistemology of Experimentation" 141
Experimental Systems in Molecular Biology 141
A Virtual Laboratory for Physiology (VLP) 141
Related Projects of Visiting Scholars and Research Fellows 142
2: History of Objects and Spaces of Knowledge 142
General Goals 142
Current Research Activities Related to "History of Objects and Spaces of Knowledge" 144
From the Organ of the Soul to the Brain 144
Mental Cultures 145
Urbanization, Industrialization, and the Place of Experiment in Nineteenth-Century Physiology 146
History of the `Epidemic' as a Scientific Object 147
Robert Koch and the Genesis of Bacteriology in Germany 147
Related Projects of Visiting Scholars and Research Fellows 148
3: Pragmatics of Concept Formation and the Uses of Theory in the Life and Medical Sciences 148
General Goals 148
Current Research Activities Related to "Pragmatics of Concept Formation and the Uses of Theory in the Life Sciences" 150
The Complexity of the Body, 1900-1940 150
A History of the Notion of Genetic Regulation 151
Related Project 152
Other Research Activities 153
Other Activities of the Research Scholars 153
Activities of the Visiting Scholars and Research Fellows 182
Completed Doctoral Dissertations 233
Service Units 235
Library and Documentation Unit 235
Introduction. 235
Library Developments. 235
Electronic resources. 236
Project "Computer-Aided Source Collection in History of Science" 237
Integration into professional networks. 238
Scholarly activities at the Library. 239
Computing service unit 240
Introduction. 240
Hardware. 240
The network. 241
Support of research activities. 242
Events and Publications 245
Workshops and Conferences 245
Workshop "Revolutions in Science," August 13, 1996 245
Workshop "Fundamental Categories of Prescientific and Scientific Cognition (Number, Space, Time, Matter, etc.) in Human Action," September 9-11, 1996 246
Workshop "Gene Concepts in Development and Evolution II," October 17-19, 1996 247
Workshop "The Display of Nature in Eighteenth-Century Europe" December 12-14, 1996 249
Workshop "Instruments, Travel and Science," December 15-16, 1996 253
Workshop "Experience and Knowledge Structures in Arabic and Latin Sciences," December 16-17, 1996 255
Colloquium "Einstein in Berlin: The First Ten Years," March 3-4, 1997 257
Symposium "The Varieties of Scientific Experience" June 19-22, 1997 258
Berlin Summer Academy 1997, "Nature's Histories," August 18-29, 1997 261
Workshop "The Emergence of Scientific Image 1500 - 1700," September 19-21, 1997 264
Planned Workshops and Conferences 270
Workshop "Greek Mathematics - Work in Progress," February 2-5, 1998 270
Workshop "QED: Mathematical Demonstration in Historical and Cross-Cultural Context," May 28-30, 1998. 270
Workshop in Honor of John Stachel "Space-Time, Quantum Entanglement and Critical Epistemology," June 5-6, 1998 271
Symposium "Demonstration, Proof, Test." June 25-28, 1998 271
Conference "Postgenomics? Historical, Techno-Epistemic, and Cultural Aspects of Genome Projects," July 8-11, 1998 272
Workshop "Instruments, Travel and Science," September 3-6, 1998 274
Workshop "Reworking the Bench. On Research Notebooks in the History of Science," November 12-15, 1998 274
Internal Colloquium of the Institute 1996/1997 275
Publications and preprints 277
Publications 277
List of Preprints 325
Name Index 331