Science in the Modern Age: 1789-1950
Spring 2010
No more than 30 students will be enrolled. This course will meet the Second Writing Requirement.
This course will cover major developments in modern science from the 18th through the 20th centuries in the fields of chemistry, biology, geology, and physics. The course will focus on four pivotal episodes in modern science: the chemical revolution that began in 1789 with the publication of the Elements of Chemistry by Parisian Antoine Lavoisier, who lost his head to the guillotine during the French Revolution; the publication of On the Origin of Species in 1859 by British naturalist Charles Darwin; the discovery of the elements polonium and radium in 1898 by Polish physicist and chemist Marie Curie—together with Pierre Curie—who won the first Nobel Prize, and today remains the only person to have received two Nobel prizes; and the pivotal year 1905 in the life of the Swiss civil servant, but soon to be international scientific icon, Albert Einstein. The course will also consider the impact these scientific developments had and have had on society. In particular, it will look at issues such as the reception of the theory of natural selection and the development of nuclear weapons made possible by developments in modern physics. The course will follow a lecture/discussion format.
