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The Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG) has published its format “Research Topics” since 2008. Every six to eight weeks, researchers present individual contributions of one relevant aspect of their research or present a new research project. Since 2017, scholars at the MPIWG have been contributing to “The Conversation,” a public platform for research content related to current topics, which are accessible on this page. 

Latest Research Topics

No 67
Humanly Impossible. Herbert Bayer (self-portrait)

The Evolution of Knowledge: Rethinking Science for the Anthropocene

The new volume "The Evolution of Knowledge: Rethinking Science for the Anthropocene" presents a new way of thinking about the history of science and technology, one that offers a gran...

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No 66
the sphere

De Sphaera: Epistemic Communities Shaping Scientific Knowledge in Early Modern Europe

"De Sphaera" is a university textbook compiled by Johannes de Sacrobosco that was used in European universities for around 400 years, beginning in the first half of the thirteenth cen...

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No 64
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Twenty-Four Years of the History of Rationality

A navigator fixes a course by the stars; a weaver strings a loom with an intricate pattern of colors and shapes; a city official discerns a link between a certain well and the outbreak of an ep...

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Latest Articles on "The Conversation UK"

No 16
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Terrorism: A Very Brief History

What is it that allows someone to be labelled as a terrorist? Recent acts of spectacular violence, such as the mail bombs sent to American anti-Trump critics, or the mass killings by Canadian “...

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No 15
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Poland's Wild Boar Targeted in Pointless Cull That Could Actually Spread Swine Fever

Most of Poland’s wild boars are being culled to stop the spread of African swine fever, a deadly viral disease that endangers farm pigs. The Polish Hunting Association was mandated to organize ...

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Wikipedia Editathon Articles

No 1
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Dr. Dora Ilse: The Senses of Butterflies

How do butterflies find food? Do they smell flowers’ nectar, or identify them from their colors? Do they even have a sense of what color is? The biologist Dora Ilse (October 9, 1898–October 21,...

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