More Like this

1. The History of Science and the Science of History: Computational Methods, Algorithms, and the Future of the Field

   Gibson, Abraham; Ermus, Cindy (September 2019, Isis)

   Many researchers insist that computational methods will transform the historical profession, while an equally large number reject these claims as unwarranted hype. In this study, we attempt to place the debate in historical and social context. The article is divided into three parts. The first part offers a brief review of computational history. We ask whether the “computational turn” bears any resemblance to quantitative history, and how it fits within the digital humanities. The second part describes our recent attempts to apply computational methods to an existing project in the history of science using a standardized workflow. We demonstrate that each step of the workflow adds another layer of subjectivity. The third part reflects on what computational methods mean for the historical profession. We systematically review the positive aspects of computational history (open access, interdisciplinary collaboration, and new perspectives) as well as the negative aspects (inequality, fragility, and the threat of automation), and we offer prescriptions based on our experiences. 

   more » « less
2. The Hitchhiker's Guide to Data in the History of Science

   Damerow, Julia; Wintergrün, Dirk (September 2019, Isis)

   Every project in digital and computational history of science starts with the collection of data. Depending on the research project, subject of study, and other factors, data can be comprised of a variety of different types such as full-texts, images, audio, video, or bibliographic metadata. Often publications and project reports describe a project’s results and the employed methods and algorithms, but few publications discuss the challenges of the initial data collection process or how it fits into the overall research data life cycle. In this paper, we discuss a concrete research data life cycle and take a look at the difficulties it involves. Furthermore, we explore the strategies and challenges of data collection, and the question of comparability of datasets. 

   more » « less
3. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Data in the History of Science

   https://doi.org/10.1086/705497  

   Damerow, Julia; Wintergrün, Dirk (September 2019, Isis)
4. Ours Is the Earth: Science and Human History in the Anthropocene

   https://doi.org/10.1163/18722636-12341447  

   Jasanoff, Sheila (November 2020, Journal of the Philosophy of History)

   null (Ed.)

   Abstract History at one time drew unproblematically on records produced by human societies about themselves and their doings. Advances in biology and the earth sciences introduced new narrative resources that repositioned the human story in relation to the evolution of all else on the planet, thereby decentering earlier conceptions of time, life, and human agency. This essay reflects on what it means for our understanding of the human that the history of our species has become so intimately entangled with the material processes that make up the biosphere, while concurrently the temporal horizon of our imagination has been stretched forward and back, underscoring the brevity of human existence in relation to earthly time. I suggest that, despite significant changes in the resources with which we can rethink the human condition, drawing upon the sciences, history’s fundamental purposes have not been rendered irrelevant. These center, as before, on the normative project of connecting past and future in ways that make sense of human experience and give meaning to it. In particular, the question of how humans should imagine the stewardship of the Earth in the Anthropocene remains an ethical project for history and not primarily the domain of the natural sciences. 

   more » « less
5. The Early History of Heliospheric Science and the Spacecraft That Made It Possible

   https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-022-00900-8  

   Zank, G. P.; Sterken, V.; Giacalone, J.; Möbius, E.; von Steiger, R.; Stone, E. S.; Krimigis, S. M.; Richardson, J. D.; Linsky, J.; Izmodenov, V.; et al (June 2022, Space Science Reviews)

   Abstract Our understanding of the interaction of the large-scale heliosphere with the local interstellar medium (LISM) has undergone a profound change since the very earliest analyses of the problem. In part, the revisions have been a consequence of ever-improving and widening observational results, especially those that identified the entrance of interstellar material and gas into the heliosphere. Accompanying these observations was the identification of the basic underlying physics of how neutral interstellar gas and interstellar charged particles of different energies, up to and including interstellar dust grains, interacted with the temporal flows and electromagnetic fields of the heliosphere. The incorporation of these various basic effects into global models of the interaction, whether focused on neutral interstellar gas and pickup ions, energetic particles such as anomalous and galactic cosmic rays, or magnetic fields and large-scale flows, has profoundly changed our view of how the heliosphere and LISM interact. This article presents a brief history of the conceptual and observation evolution of our understanding of the interaction of the heliosphere with the local interstellar medium, up until approximately 1996. 

   more » « less