INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR THE HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, AND SOCIAL STUDIES OF BIOLOGY Office of the Secretary: Barbara Horan, ISHPSSB Philosophy/PO Box 8023 Georgia Southern University Statesboro, GA 30460-8023 e-mail: [log in to unmask] NEWSLETTER Spring 1997 Fifteenth Issue (Volume 9, No. 1) ****SOCIETY AND MEETING INFORMATION **From the President's Corner Peter Taylor, President 1995-97 30 March 1997 Traditionally Ð I think we can use this term after 15 years of the Society and its informal precursor group Ð ISHPSSB conferences are full of innovative sessions, stimulating discussions, and openings for new participants. With the contributions of members who proposed sessions, of Program Organizer Bob Richardson and his committee, and of Keith Benson on local arrangements, the Seattle meetings will continue the tradition. This newsletter includes the provisional program and registration details we've been looking forward to. To assist you in encouraging newcomers, the newsletter also includes a flyer and membership form Ð please make copies and distribute in appropriate places. If more information about the program is needed, the abstracts and revised versions will be posted on the Society's Website in the next month or so. Although the session topics cover a wide range of H, P, SS, and B concerns, I am intrigued by the confluence of currents that make psychology, mind, self, and agency prevalent themes in the program. Or is this only in my perception? Explanatory hypotheses welcome. Student travel grants Unfortunately, the deadline for graduate student travel grant applications has passed, so the Society cannot offer more help in this area. People who applied will be informed about their funding by the end of April. Elections Because of the Society's current by-laws, the ballots cannot be sent out until we are closer than 70 days to the meeting. If you do not get a ballot in mid- to late-May, it may be because your membership is not current. Please take note of the address label on this newsletter and respond quickly if you want to remain enfranchised. After the Seattle meetings I will, as past-president, be chair of the nominating committee for the 1999 elections. So I welcome people letting me know of their interest in helping with future program organizing, local arrangements, and other Society offices. People interested in serving on the various committees for '97-99, especially the Program Committee and the Newsletter/ Internet Committee, should let me or Lisa Lloyd, the president-elect, know. Rule and administrative changes As ISHPSSB grows and develops, various administrative glitches and challenges become apparent. Many of these can be dealt with by decisions of the council (a.k.a. board of directors) and executive committee. Some, however, call for changes in our formal by-laws. At the general meeting of the Society at Seattle, the following rule changes will be proposed. The new text is underlined; deleted text is in brackets. ARTICLE II, 5. ANNUAL MEETING. After the end add "The annual meeting of the Members may decide not to hold an annual meeting in the following year if a conference of the Society is not to be held that year." At the moment, we violate our by-laws in holding biennial general meetings. ARTICLE II, 13. VOTING. "a mail ballot shall be sent to the entire Membership of the Society no more than [seventy (70)] one hundred (100) days prior to the Annual meeting." This change would allow us to mail ballots with the spring newsletter prior to the conference. ARTICLE III, 10. EXECUTIVE AND OTHER COMMITTEES. "The Nominating Committee shall consist of the immediate Past-President, who shall serve as its Chairperson, [and such other Directors or officers of the Corporation] at least one other Director or officer of the Corporation, and other Members of the Society as the President shall appoint, which appointees shall be approved by the Council. The Council, by resolution adopted by a majority of the Directors entitled to vote, may establish other committees as it shall deem advisable. The President shall appoint the Directors to serve on such committees, each of which shall consist of two (2) or more Directors and other Members of the Society." These changes ensure that two members of any committee other than the executive are from the council, but the rest can be from the membership at large. These rule changes will be moved and voted on at the general meeting, which will be held on Friday, July 18th., starting at 5.30 p.m. at the conference in Seattle. Other administrative changes, which do not require rule changes, but which members may wish to discuss at general meeting, include the following: 1. The Past-President, as chair of the Nominations & Elections Committee, will handle the elections, so that no one standing for office would be doing that job. Members of that committee wanting to stand for office should arrange for a nomination from the membership at large, not from the committee itself. 2. At the end of every quarter, the local arrangements coordinator will report to the Executive Committee, as well as to the Local Arrangements & Site Committee, on plans, progress or lack thereof. 3. At the end of every quarter, the program officer will report to the Executive Committee, as well as to the Program Committee, on plans, progress or lack thereof. 4. The Council decided to use some of the Society's funds to provide travel grants for students presenting papers at the meetings. The Council also agreed on two-tier registration fees, the lower level applying to students and members from countries with disadvantageous exchange rates. 5. The Society now has the following committees: Executive Committee, Nominations (& Elections) Committee, Local Arrangements & Site Selection Committee, Program Committee, Prize Committee, Newsletter/Internet Committee, By-laws Review Committee Survey on transdisciplinarity This survey aims to elicit material for a planned article on the significance of transdisciplinary studies of science. What has transdisciplinarity meant for people's work and careers? What has been the role of ISHPSSB in facilitating that work? In order to gain a larger sample size, the survey will be included with the registration packets. I welcome completed surveys and plan to process them in the fall. It is expected that highlights of the survey will appear in the ISHPSSB newsletter and be made available via the internet. See you in Seattle, Peter Taylor ****Notes on the 1997 Meeting **Robert C. Richardson, Program Committee Chair The 1997 meetings will be held from Wednesday, July 16th through Sunday, July 20th, 1997, in Seattle, Washington, USA. The preliminary program is included in this Newsletter. For updates, consult the web site for the Society. **Ron Rainger, Treasurer Student travel awards will be announced by late April. Student travel awards will be given out at the meeting; they will not be sent to awardees beforehand. In other words, students will need to seek Ron out at the meeting in Seattle; he will have their checks and will hand them out at that time. **Keith R. Benson, Local Arrangements Committee Chair The 1997 ISHPSSB Meeting will be held on the campus of the University of Washington in Seattle. Registration and housing arrangements will be made at the University's housing office, located in McCarty Hall on campus. See the Housing Reservation form in this Newsletter. Additional material will be sent to all registrants prior to the meeting. The opening reception and the banquet will be held on the balcony level of Hackett Hall, immediately adjacent to the housing for the meeting. Both events will feature the wonders of the Northwest: hand-crafted ales, Northwest wines, and salmon! The housing is located on campus and overlooks Lake Washington. So, prepare to enjoy yourselves, socially, intellectually, and environmentally. Information on local transportation including shuttles from the airport and sight-seeing in Seattle will be sent out in June. We look forward to a great meeting! See you in Seattle. **Chris Young, Student Representative The Meeting in Seattle promises to be a terrific event for graduate student members of ISHPSSB. The program is loaded with presentations of innovative, cutting-edge research by fellow graduate students and leading scholars alike. In addition, the numerous scheduled receptions will undoubtedly give way to virtually unlimited opportunities for socializing and exchanging ideas about history, philosophy, social studies of science, biology, and whatever other topics come to mind. Be prepared to talk about your own interests and research and also to learn about the latest from new friends. Graduate students will meet, tentatively Friday evening, to elect a new Student Representative (since the end of my tenure draws closer with each dissertation chapter I write). Duties of the Student Representative are minimal, but it is a great way to get involved with a vibrant community of scholars. Send nominations to me before the meeting. Finally, prepare yourselves for an unforgettable weekend. Seattle is known for its unique appeal, and Keith Benson knows how to highlight that appeal for a wide variety of interests. Bring your appetite for the best the Pacific Northwest has to offer! ****Notes on the 1999 Meeting **From Ana Barahona Echeverria ([log in to unmask]), on behalf of the Mexican "Committee" for the 1999 meeting (Carlos Lopez Beltran, Edna Maria Suarez, Sergio Martinez) We want to reassure ISHPSSB members that, due to the economic crisis in Mexico, meetings there will not be as expensive as USA and Europe. Today, three-star hotel rates are US $35 per night. This should compensate for any extra travel expenses that people have getting to Mexico. ****ISHPSSB Website and Listserv **From the Webmeister , Valerie Hardcastle The official ISHPSSB Website is located at: http://www.phil.vt.edu/ISHPSSB/ The web pages contain the latest newsletter, 1997 program information, instructions for how to subscribe to our listserv, and links to additional resources in science and technology. You can join ISHPSSB right over the web, as well as participate in a survey on the impact ISHPSSB has had in your professional life. You can access the site by typing the http address into any web-browser (though Netscape is recommended for the graphics). Updated on a regular basis, the site will soon include this newsletter, the 1997 program, committee assignments, local arrangements for Seattle, and general news about our society. Ideas for additional items to include are always welcome Ð please forward them to Valerie Hardcastle; e-mail: [log in to unmask] **From the Listmeister, Chris Young We have established a moderated e-mail list, "listserv," for the Society. Any member interested in receiving mailings on this listserv should "subscribe" to the list by sending the following message: SUBSCRIBE ISHPSB-L yourfirstname yourlastname to [log in to unmask] By the way, the reason there is only one 'S' in our listserv name is because we were limited to 8 characters. Once you subscribe to the list, your name and e-mail address will be added to the list and you will receive a verification. At that point, you can participate in conversations on the e-mail list. To send a message to all the people currently subscribed to the list, just send mail to: [log in to unmask] The newsletter will also go out to the listserv. Every ISHPSSB member is encouraged to subscribe to the e-mail list to enjoy more frequent and rapid correspondence with other members. If you know other members who have not subscribed, please encourage them to do so. Of course, an e-mail list should not marginalize members whose internet access is limited, by location or by choice. The Society will continue its regular mailings. ****Other Websites/e-mail Lists of Interest **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 **Philosophy Site A new philosophy list of lists has been established at: http://www.uniovi.es/~filesp/lechuza.htm ****ANNOUNCEMENTS **Darwin Multimedia CD-ROM Available to ISHPSSB Members Lightbinders and ISHPSSB are pleased to make the following exclusive offer to teachers of Darwin, evolution, and the history to philosophy of science. Lightbinders has recently finished the second edition of The Darwin Multimedia CD-ROM, (list price $49.95, ISBN: 1-889175-01-3). This remarkable disk is an integrated compilation of the major works of Charles Darwin: The Origin of Species, The Voyage of the Beagle, The Descent of Man, The Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals, The monograph on the Cirripedia, and The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs. It also contains a selection of many of the lesser-known works, which can be difficult for even to most devoted Darwinian to obtain. Never before have these rare titles been presented together, let alone integrated by extensive cross-reference hyperlinks. Also included is the acclaimed Triumph of the Darwinian Method, written by renowned Darwin expert (and ISHPSSB member) Dr. Michael T. Ghiselin, and a video in which Sir David Attenborough narrates an appeal for the restoration and preservation of Down House, Darwin's residence. The Darwin 2nd Edition CD-ROM uses the multi-platform DynaText interface, which has of extensive hyperlinks and advanced multimedia features. The sounds of many animals, including the birds of the Galapagos, are accessible through audio links. The maps and drawings of the original publications have been faithfully retained, enhanced by the beautiful illustrations of the original specimens collected by Darwin during his historic voyage. A description of the disc can be seen at the Lightbinders web site (http://lbin.com). Through ISHPSSB, we are offering free Darwin CD-ROMs to teachers who will evaluate it for use in their classrooms. Interested teachers are asked to provide their name, school, and relevant course, and the promise they will consider the CD-ROM as course material. The time has come for sophisticated technology to impact the classroom, and we want to encourage it with this unusual offer. Educational discounts and network licensing are available. To receive your free copy of the Darwin CD-ROM mail or fax a letter with your name, address, e-mail address, school or university, and related course (name, course number, when offered) to: Pete Goldie, Ph.D., President, Lightbinders, Inc., 2325 Third Street Ð Suite 324, San Francisco, CA 94107; Fax: (415) 621-5898 You must sign and date your letter with the following statement: "In order to receive an evaluation copy of the Darwin Multimedia CD-ROM, 2nd Edition, I state that I am currently a teacher of a course that could benefit from improved access to the works of Charles Darwin. I will examine the disc in consideration of its applicability to my teaching and will consider the disc as either recommended or required course material. I am under no obligations to recommend, require or promote the disc. I promise not to use the evaluation disc in the classroom, or as a source of material for the classroom, nor will I transfer possession of the evaluation disc to any person or organization without Lightbinders' approval." **Member Subscription Rates Biology and Philosophy and Journal of the History of Biology Available to Members at Reduced Rates. Subscriptions to these two journals published by Kluwer Academic Publishers are available to members of our society at a reduced rate. The reduced rates for 1996 are: Biology and Philosophy: US$ 70.00 Journal of the History of Biology: US$ 80.00 Society members interested in these special rates should send their subscription orders and payments to: Kluwer Academic Publishers, Distribution Centre, PO Box 322, 3300 AH Dordrecht, The Netherlands. Members should include with their subscription requests a statement that they are ISHPSSB members and are requesting the member rate. The contact person in case of problems is Annie Kuipers, Acquisition Editor, Humanities & Social Sciences Division, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Spuiboulevard 50, P.O. Box 17 3300 AA Dordrecht, The Netherlands; Fax: +31(0)78-6392254; e-mail: [log in to unmask] **Member Directories Members are invited to request a copy of the ISHPSSB Directory by sending a request to Barbara Horan, the Society secretary. The first copy is free. Members who would like a second copy of the directory are asked to forward a check for $3.00 payable to the Society to cover copying and mailing costs. The directory is updated at the beginning of each year; members submitting requests after February 1 will receive a copy of the latest directory.