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December 1997

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Publications of Interest
BioScience
The journal of the American Institute of Biological Sciences,
BioScience, “is looking for manuscripts on the history and philosophy of
biology for its Thinking of Biology department,” according to a letter
from Editor Julie Ann Miller to ISHPSSB’s Peter Taylor.  She writes,
“The articles there must be written to appeal to biologists (rather than
historians or philosophers).  Contributors to the department include
Sahorta Sarkar and Jon Beckwith.”  Contact:  Julie Ann Miller, Ph. D.,
AIBS, 730 11th Street, NW, Washington, DC   20001-4521.  Telephone:
(202) 628-1500.  E-mail:  [log in to unmask]

Peter J. Taylor, Saul E. Halfon, Paul N. Edwards, editors, Changing Life
Genomes, Ecologies, Bodies, Commodities
A fascinating look at how the culture of today’s life sciences affects
our culture.  This volume arose out of the 1993 ISHPSSB Conference
sessions “Changing Life in the New World Dis/order.”

In laboratories all over the world, life — even the idea of life — is
changing.  And with these changes, whether they result in square
tomatoes or cyborgs, come transformations in our social order —
sometimes welcome, sometimes troubling, depending on where we stand.
Changing Life offers a close look at how the mutable forms and concepts
of life link the processes of science to those of information, finance,
and commodities.

The contributors, drawn from disciplines within science and technology
studies and from geography, ecology, and developmental biology, provide
a range of interpretive angles on the metaphors, narratives, models, and
practices of the life sciences.  Their essays — about planetary
management and genome sequencing, ecologies and cyborgs — address actual
and imagined transformations at the center and at the margins of
transnational relations, during the post-Cold War era and in times to
come.  They consider such topics as the declining regulatory state,
ascendant transnational networks, and capital’s legal reign over
intellectual property, life-form patents, and marketable pollution
licenses.

Changing Life argues that we cannot understand the power of the life
sciences in modern society without exploring the intersections of
science and technology with other cultural realms.  To that end, this
book represents a collective attempt to join the insights of science and
technology studies and cultural studies.  As a work of cultural
politics, it makes a contribution to changing life in a context of
changing social order.

Contributors:  Simon Cole, Cornell University; Scott Gilbert, Swarthmore
College; Herbert Gottweis, University of Salzburg; Yrjö Haila,
University of Tampere, Finland; Rosaleen Love, Victoria University of
Technology, Melbourne, Australia; and Richard A. Schroeder, Rutgers
University.

Peter J. Taylor is Eugene Lang Professor of Social Change at Swarthmore
College.  Saul E. Halfon is a doctoral candidate in the Department of
Science and Technology Studies at Cornell University.  Paul N. Edwards
is acting assistant professor in the Program in Science, Technology, and
Society at Stanford University.
240 pages, Cultural Politics Series, Volume 13, Translation rights:
University of Minnesota Press, $19.95  Paper ISBN 0-8166-3013-5 $49.95
Cloth ISBN 0-8166-3012-7 F 97 5 - 7/ 8 x 9 September 1997

Tom Griffiths and Libby Robin, editors, Ecology and Empire:  The
Environmental History of Settler Societies
ISHPSSB members might be interested to know that Edinburgh University
Press in Scotland has just published a new book called Ecology and
Empire:  The Environmental History of Settler Societies, edited by Tom
Griffiths and Libby Robin.

Ecology and Empire examines the relationship between the expansion of
empire and the environmental experience of the extra-European world.
For the first time it moves the debate beyond the North American
frontier by comparing the experience of settler societies in Australia,
South Africa and Latin America.  From Australian water management and
the crisis of deforestation in Latin America, to beef farming in the
Transvaal, this topical book provides a broad comparative historical
approach to the impact of humankind on the ecological systems on which
settler societies base their livelihood.

If you are teaching a relevant course with at least 12 students, we will
happily send you an inspection copy of this book.  E-mail your details,
including course name, number of students, and course level to
[log in to unmask]  If you do not adopt the book on your course,
you will have 28 days (60 days overseas) to return it.  Please note:
this offer does not apply to subscribers in North America, since
Washington University Press hold the distribution rights there, nor to
subscribers in Australia and New Zealand, where Melbourne University
Press hold the rights, nor to subscribers in Southern Africa, where
Natal University Press hold the rights.  Any of these presses will be
delighted to supply you with an inspection copy — please contact them
directly.

Jesper Hoffmeyer, Barbara J. Haveland, (Translator), Signs of Meaning in
the Universe (Advances in  Semiotics), Indiana University Press, 1997.
Philosophy and Religion Editor’s Recommended Book, July 1, 1997:  Jesper
Hoffmeyer is on to something significant.  Whereas semiotics is often a
dull analysis of formal symbols, Hoffmeyer’s biosemiotics is a lively
natural history of signs that interprets evolution as a continuous
advance in semiotic freedom.  All living things, according to Hoffmeyer,
are constantly reacting to their environment by interpreting the signs
in their own unwelt, or interior representation of the surrounding
world.  Freedom and chaotic self-organization thus become the hallmarks
of all life.  Based on sound research and written in a delightfully
accessible style, Signs of Meaning in the Universe should be interpreted
as an advance in both philosophy and science.

Card catalog description:  For three and a half billion years the living
creatures of the natural world have been engaged in an increasingly
complex and extensive conversation.  Cells, tissue, organs, plants,
animals, entire populations and ecosystems buzz with communication,
incessantly emitting and receiving signals.  These signs have been there
as long as life itself.  They make up the semiosphere, a sphere like the
biosphere, but one constituted of messages — sounds, odors, movements,
colors, electrical fields, chemical signals — the signs of life.  This
book examines the radical premise that the sign, not the molecule, is
the crucial, underlying factor in the study of life.  On this tour of
the universe of signs, Jesper Hoffmeyer travels back to the Big Bang,
visits the tiniest places deep within cells, and ends his journey with
us — complex organisms capable of speech and reason.  He shows that life
at its most basic depends on the survival of messages written in the
code of DNA molecules, and on the tiny cell — the fertilized egg — that
must interpret the message and from it construct an organism.  What
propels this journey is Hoffmeyer’s attempt to discover how nature could
come to mean something to someone; indeed, how “something” could become
“someone.”  How could a biological self become a semiotic self?  And
how, finally, do we unite these two different selves, “nature” and
“mind” which we all carry in us and which all too often are at war with
each other?
Table of Contents
Preface
1. Signifying:  On lumps in nothingness, on “not”
2. Forgetting:  On history and codes:  The dialectic of oblivion
3. Repeating:  On Nature’s tendency to acquire habits
4. Inventing:  On life and self-reliance, on subjectivity
5. Opening Up:  On the sensory universe of creatures:  The liberation of
the semiosphere
6. Defining:  The mobile brain:  The language of cells
7. Connecting:  On the triadic ascendance of dualism
8. Sharing:  On language:  Existential bioanthropology
9. Uniting:  Consciousness:  The bodily governor within the brain
10. Healing:  On ethics:  Reuniting two stories in one body-mind
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Physical Theory in Biology
We are pleased to announce the publication of the above-mentioned book
which probe into the physics of life and why it matters.
The book is a scientific adventure in which biological understanding is
enriched by physical theory without losing its own inherent traditions
and perspectives. The book explores organic complexity and
self-organization through research applications to embryology, cell
biology, behavioral neuroscience, and evolution.
The book is suitable for physical scientists, biologists, engineers,
applied mathematicians, and philosophers.
We are always eager to bring the book to the knowledge of more
researchers and academics and would like you to help. Should you have
any mailing lists or contacts to whom we might be able to send our
information to, please kindly send them to us. Also, should you know or
attend any good conferences at which we could promote our book, please
do let us know.
In addition, you might want to purchase a copy of this book for your own
reference. Please do not hesitate to contact Er Bee Eng at
[log in to unmask]
Visit our home page at http://www.wspc.com.sg

Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences
A call for papers:  Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and
Biomedical Sciences is a new journal whose first issue will be published
at the beginning of 1998.  The journal will be devoted to historical,
sociological, philosophical and ethical aspects of the life and
environmental sciences, of the sciences of mind and behaviour, and of
the medical and biomedical sciences and technologies.  The period
covered will be from the middle of the nineteenth century (the time of
the so-called “laboratory revolution” in medicine and the life sciences)
to the present.

The editorial policy will be in line with the policy of the parent
journal, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science.  Contributions
will be drawn from a wide range of countries and cultural traditions; we
shall encourage both specialist articles, and articles combining
historical, philosophical, and sociological approaches; and we shall
favour works of interest to scientists and medics as well as to
specialists in the history, philosophy and sociology of the sciences.
The table of contents of Studies in History and Philosophy of Science is
available at the Elsevier Science Ltd web site at the following address:
http://www.elsevier.com/inca/publications/store/3/0/5/8/6/30586.pub.shtml
The editors are seeking original English language articles in the field
of the new journal.  For these the word limit is c. 10,000.  They would
also welcome proposals for 3-4000 word essay-reviews.
Prospective authors should submit copies of papers in duplicate, typed
and double-spaced (including quotations and footnotes) on quarto or A4
paper.  They should retain a copy for the purpose of checking proofs.
Illustrations are encouraged; authors should be prepared, if their paper
is accepted, to supply good quality copies of any illustration and any
necessary permissions for reproduction of copyright material.  All
articles and volunteered essay-reviews will be blind refereed.

Contributions and proposals should be sent to Dr. Marina Frasca-Spada,
Associate Editor, Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and
Biomedical Sciences, Department of History and Philosophy of Science,
University of Cambridge, Free School Lane, Cambridge CB2 3RH, U.K.
E-mail:  [log in to unmask]

Science as Culture
Science as Culture (No. 27, Vol. 6, Part 2) has now appeared in the US
and will soon do so elsewhere. The editors hope that members of this
forum will subscribe to the journal, which has a unique point of view in
a world where most commentators on science, technology, medicine and
other forms of expertise suffer from a remarkable timidity.
Contents
“Inoculating Gadgets Against Ridicule,” Mike Michael
“The Corporate Suppression of Inventions, Conspiracy Theories, and an
Ambivalent American Dream,” Stephen Demeo
“Reducing AIDS Risk,” Simon Carter
“Sperm Stories:  Romantic, Entrepreneurial, and Environmental Narratives
about Treating Male Infertility,” Kirsten Dwight
Reviews
“Greening Public Policy:  Sustainability and Beyond,” Dale Jamieson
“The Enclosure of Nature and the Nature of  Enclosures,” John Roosa
“The Commodification of  Seeds,” Dwijen Rangnekar
“Virtual Struggles?” Don Parson
In future issues:
“Designing flexibility:  science and work in the age of flexible
accumulation,” Emily Martin
“Healthy bodies, healthy citizens:  the anti-secondhand smoke campaign,”
Roddy Reid
“Israel’s first test-tube baby,” Daphna Birenbaum Carmeli
160 pages, Science as Culture is published quarterly by Process Press
Ltd. in Britain:  http://www.shef.ac.uk/uni/projects/gpp/process.html
and Guilford Publications Inc. in North America:  [log in to unmask]
For information about subscriptions and a list of back issues (half
price to subscribers), go to:
http://www.shef.ac.uk/uni/projects/gpp/process.html#science

Society and Animals
The journal Society & Animals announces that it is expanding its scope
to include historical studies, and encourages historians of science to
submit manuscripts to the journal for consideration.  Society & Animals
publishes studies which describe and analyze our experience of nonhuman
animals.  It spans four broad areas:  (1) applied uses of animals
(research, education, medicine, and agriculture); (2) animals in the
popular culture (entertainment, companion animals, animal symbolism);
(3) wildlife and the environment; (4) sociopolitical movements, public
policy and the law.  Any current method within the scholarly traditions
of the social sciences and humanities may be applied.  Please contact:
Kenneth Shapiro, Editor, P.O. Box 1297, Washington Grove, MD 20880-1297.

History of Psychology
History of Psychology will begin quarterly publication early in 1998.
It will be published by the American Psychological Association for its
Division of the History of Psychology.  Direct inquiries to:  Michael M.
Sokal, HISTORY OF PSYCHOLOGY, Department of Humanities and Arts, 100
Institute Road, Worcester, MA   01609-2280 USA.  Telephone:  (508)
831-5712.  Fax:  (508) 831-5932.  E-mail:  [log in to unmask]; WWW URL:
http://www.wpi.edu/~histpsy

Web sites/E-mail Lists of Interest
Hayek-L on [log in to unmask]
[log in to unmask] is an international network for the
discussion of the ideas of Friedrich A. Hayek.  Hayek-L is  intended as
a resource for scholars and others doing research connected to the
contributions of Friedrich Hayek.  Hayek is the co-originator of the
Hebb-Hayek synaptic learning model, and author of the well known The
Sensory Order.  Hayek’s work in neuroscience has gained prominence in
recent years due to Gerald Edelman’s Neural Darwinism, and Joaquin
Fuster’s Memory in the Cerebral Cortex:  An Empirical Approach to
Neural  Networks in the Human and Nonhuman Primates.  In addition, Hayek
is the author of pathbreaking discussions on the nature of complex
phenomena, spontaneous order, and on the character of generic
explanations dealing with this sort of phenomena, work that has informed
the thinking of Gerald Edelman, Walter Weimer, Karl Popper, Robert
Nozick, Don Lavoie, Axel Leijonhufvud, Joaquine Fuster and other leading
figures in economics, philosophy, and the cognitive sciences.  Hayek is
also the originator of the intertemporal equilibrium construction, and
his work is the spur for much of the literature on dispersed and
imperfect knowledge.  Hayek was awarded the Nobel Prize in economics in
1974 for his work on the interconnection of economic phenomena.  Robert
Skidelsky, the respected biographer of John Maynard Keynes, describes
Hayek as “the dominant intellectual influence of the last quarter of the
twentieth century.”

The basic purpose of the Hayek-L list is to serve as a forum for
scholarly discussions and as a clearing house for the distribution of
information on academic conferences, publication opportunities,
fellowship information, academic grants, and job openings of interest to
Hayek scholars.  Subscribers are encouraged to post questions, comments,
or announcements of interest to individuals working on topics related to
Hayek’s writings.  Appropriate postings might pertain to work currently
in progress, the development of course materials, bibliographical
material of interest to Hayek scholars, useful internet resources, etc.

The list is for scholars and others interested the ideas of Friedrich A.
Hayek without restriction according to interest or professional
affiliation.  Hayek-L is not devoted to any particular niche within the
scope of Hayek’s oeuvre, but instead welcomes contributions on any
aspect of the full range of Hayek’s contribution to contemporary
scholarship.  Discussions of the scholarly contributions of other
important thinkers who have developed or criticized aspects of Hayek’s
work are also welcomed.  E.g. discussions of the work of Gerald Edelman,
Karl Popper, Frank Knight, Ronald Dworkin, Joaquin Fuster, Walter
Weimer,  Robert Nozick, John Maynard Keynes, Leonid Horwicz and others
related to the work of Friedrich Hayek are also welcome.
To subscribe to Hayek-L, send mail to:
[log in to unmask]
with the message (body):
SUBSCRIBE HAYEK-L your full name
See also the Hayek Scholars Page at:
http://members.aol.com/gregransom/hayekpage.htm

Robert Maxwell Young On-Line
I am glad to announce that (with the aid of Helen Davies) I have put my
first book on my web site:  Mind, Brain and Adaptation in the Nineteenth
Century:  Cerebral Localization and Its Biological Context from Gall to
Ferrier, (Oxford, 1970, 1990).

Although the title may look forbidingly technical and specialised, the
book is an attempt to think about the relationship between mind and
brain in the period from the first empirical to the first experimental
work on the topic. Its net is cast broadly to include theories of human
nature, evolution and the history of psychology. One way of viewing its
inspiration is that I sought to look behind the approach Freud took in
his first book, On Aphasia, (1901). Another is that I sought to explore
the interrelations between biological and psychological theory in the
nineteenth century — the foundations of our present ways of thinking
about these matters.

In addition to obtaining the rights to that book in order to put it on
the net, I have placed four others on my web site:  Darwin’s Metaphor:
Nature’s Place in Victorian Culture, (Cambridge, 1985); Mental Space,
(Process Press, 1994); Whatever Happened to Human Nature?  (Process
Press, in press); The Culture of British Psychoanalysis, (Process Press,
forthcoming).

These books, along with about seventy articles and essays are available
for reading or downloading at:
http://www.shef.ac.uk/uni/academic/N-Q/psysc/staff/rmyoung/papers/index.html
Some more personal essays and information about the journals, Free
Associations:  Psychoanalysis, Groups, Politics, Culture and Science as
Culture, along with the other existing and planned publications of
Process Press, are available at:
http://www.shef.ac.uk/uni/academic/N-Q/psysc/staff/rmyoung/index.html
There are facilities for sending comments and feedback at these sites.
I shall continue putting my writings on the web until all of the
substantial ones are there.
Robert Maxwell Young, Professor of Psychotherapy and Psychoanalytic
Studies, Centre for Psychotherapeutic Studies, University of  Sheffield,
26 Freegrove Rd., London N7 9RQ, UK.  Telephone:  (+44) 171 607 8306.
E-mail:  [log in to unmask]
Home page and writings:
http://www.shef.ac.uk/~psysc/
Process Press publications:
http://www.shef.ac.uk/~psysc/process_press/index.html

Horus Gets in Gear
Professor Ronald Tobey has put his student guide to the History of
Science on the World Wide Web.  The guide is entitled Horus Gets in
Gear:  A Beginner’s Guide to Research in the History of Science.  It can
be found at:
http://www.kaiwan.com/~lucknow/horus/guide/tp1.html

H-SCI-MED-TECH
Announcing the inauguration of H-SCI-MED-TECH, an electronic discussion
list intended for the growing number of scholars who study science,
medicine and technology across a wide variety of periods and regions of
the world.  Our aim is to foster communication on these subjects within
and across the disciplines of history, the history of science, the
history of medicine and the history of technology, which have become
distinct professional fields despite their obvious (and not so obvious)
interconnections.

H-SCI-MED-TECH is one of 80+ discussion lists in history and the
humanities sponsored by H-NET. Subscribers to will be able to share
information about teaching and research, to get news of professional
activities (e.g., jobs, conferences, fellowships and grants) and, most
importantly, to participate in conversations about matters of common
interest:  new methods, new questions and new scholarship.  The editors
(Nina Lermann, Whitman College; Harry M. Marks, Johns Hopkins
University; and Kathryn Olesko, Georgetown University) welcome your
participation and views about what H-SCI-MED-TECH should be doing.  To
subscribe, send the following message:  “subscribe H-SCI-MED-TECH your
name, your institution” to:  [log in to unmask]

Science as Culture
The journal Science as Culture has an associated e-mail forum:
[log in to unmask]
To subscribe, send the following message:
SUB SCIENCE-AS-CULTURE  yourfirstname yourlastname
to:  [log in to unmask]
A web site associated with the journal and forum holds articles from
back issues of the journal, as well as submissions under consideration
(not obligatory), whose authors may benefit from constructive comments
for purposes of revisions before the hard copy is printed, as well as
longer piece not suitable for the e-mail format which forum members may
wish to discuss:
http://www.shef.ac.uk/~psysc/rmy/sac.html

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