next message in archive
no next message in thread
previous message in archive
Index of Subjects
The following lecture, concerning the great growth of popular interest in natural history etc. in the 19th C., will be of interest to some. Patricia L. Chalmers Halifax Communicating knowledge to new audiences: Victorian popularizers of science Dr Bernie Lightman, professor of humanities, editor of Isis, and director of the Institute for Science and Technology Studies at York University, will deliver the Nova Scotian Institute of Science (NSIS) anniversary lecture on 7 May 2012, 7.30 PM in Alumni Hall, University of King's College, Halifax. All are welcome! Reception to follow. This is event is co-sponsored by NSIS and the History of Science and Technology Programme at the University of King's College. Background The origins of modern 'popular science' are to be found in the early 19th century. In fact, popular science did not exist before 1800. This lecture will explain the conditions that made popular science possible for the first time in Britain in the 19th century. Two of the most important factors were the communications revolution, leading to an explosion of books on science for the general audience, and the creation of a series of new science museums and exhibitions. The combination of these two factors resulted in what is referred to by historians as the age of the 'cult of science.' During the second half of the 19th century science was everywhere in Victorian culture and society. Dr Lightman will also discuss the most important popularizers of science in this period, many of whom were not professional scientists. Dr Bernie Lightman Bernard Lightman is professor of humanities at York University, where he is director of the Institute for Science and Technology Studies. He is also the editor of the History of Science Society's journal, Isis. Dr Lightman's most recent publications include Victorian Popularizers of Science, Evolutionary Naturalism in Victorian Britain, and Science in the Marketplace (co-edited with Aileen Fyfe). Lightman is also general editor of a monograph series titled Science and Culture in the Nineteenth Century, published by Pickering and Chatto. He is currently working on a biography of John Tyndall and is one of the editors of the John Tyndall Correspondence Project, an international collaborative effort to obtain, digitize, transcribe, and publish all surviving letters to and from Tyndall. On November 26, 2011, Dr Lightman was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.
next message in archive
no next message in thread
previous message in archive
Index of Subjects