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Prehistoric Minds: Human Origins
As A Cultural Artefact, 1780–2010
Organized and edited by Matthew D. Eddy
Published online: February 2011. Published in print:
March 2011
On 8 July 2010 the front page of The Guardian
newspaper featured an attractive color drawing by the
artist John Sibbick. It was titled “Meet the Norfolk
Relatives” and it depicted a pastoral scene of farmers
and hunters going about their daily routines. The
image, however, was not included to illustrate a
gargantuan sum recently paid for an impressionist
painting. Nor was it a teaser about a long lost work
of art. This drawing was slightly different from the
kinds that one would normally see on the front of a
leading British newspaper. Its subjects were naked.
Their bodies were hairy. They were, in fact, an artist’s
impression of the early humans who lived on the
Norfolk coast a million years ago.
Like so many newspaper stories, this one engendered
interviews on the television, further articles and
commentaries on blogs which all sought to discuss
the recent finds in light of various disciplinary or
ideological agendas. Like today, images related to
the antiquity of humankind were used to caricature
foreigners in the Victorian press and contemporary
forms of scientific periodisation were used to interpret
the past. Notably, it was these very similarities that
led to the five essays in this special issue of Notes and
Records of the Royal Society.
For article access, go to
http://rsnr.royalsocietypublishing.org/site/misc/
PrehistoricMinds.xhtml
Jacques Loeb Centre Workshop:
Origin of Life
The Jacques Loeb Centre for the History and
Philosophy of the Life Sciences will hold its Fourth
International and Interdisciplinary Workshop
from 13-14 June 2011 at Ben-Gurion University in
Beer Sheva. The theme of the workshop is “Origin
of Life: Scientific, Historical, and Philosophical
Perspectives.” There is hardly any topic in biology
History of Science Society Newsletter
which has changed its content so drastically in history
as that of the origin of life. This include claims of
panspermia—the continuity of life in the universe—
as well as assumptions, first put forward by Aristotle,
then repeated by the Church Fathers and by scientists
until through the 19th century, that some forms of
life generate spontaneously from non-living material.
Since the question of the origin of life is inseparable
from that of a particular conception of life, it affects
today not only research into astrobiology and
synthetic life, but, at least implicitly, most biological
research.
The workshop will focus on the origin of life on
earth. It intends to address the question from
a number of different scholarly and scientific
perspectives, such as biblical studies, classical studies,
history and philosophy of science, palaeontology,
microbiology, biochemistry, macromolecular
chemistry, synthetic biology, and evolutionary
biology. We expect this interdisciplinary discussion
also to bring forward new insights into the question
of what is life.
For more information, please contact Rony Armon
(armonr@bgu.ac.il) or Prof. Ute Deichmann
(972-8-6472258).
2012 Annual Meeting of the
American Association for the
History of Medicine
The American Association for the History of
Medicine invites submissions in any area of medical
history for its 85th annual meeting, to be held
in Baltimore, Maryland, 26–29 April 2012. The
Association welcomes submissions on the history
of health and healing; history of medical ideas,
practices, and institutions; and histories of illness,
disease, and public health. Submissions pertaining
to all eras and regions of the world are welcome.
In addition to single-paper proposals, the Program
Committee accepts abstracts for sessions and for
luncheon workshops. Please alert the Program
Committee Chair if you are planning a session
proposal. Individual papers for these submissions will
be judged on their own merits.
14 History of Science Society Newsletter • April 2011