The Great Disruption: Biologists, Revolutions and the Values of Science ca. 1848

press release:

Lynn K. Nyhart

Vilas-Bablitch-Kelch Distinguished Achievement Professor of History of Science, UW-Madison

5:30-7:00 PM, Wednesday, February 21, 2018, Conrad A. Elvehjem Building, L140, 750 University Ave.

In the German-speaking states of the 1840s and 50s, revolution was in the air. While the political revolutions of 1848-49 are best known, the life sciences were undergoing their own revolutions, marked by radical new ideas about the organization and transformations of living beings. This talk focuses on a cluster of leading life scientists of the period to examine their participation in the events of this era, both political and intellectual. Through these disruptions, Nyhart argues, scientists came to articulate and enact new models for the relationship of the scientist to political action—models that continue to have force today.