Prompt: Using the course materials, identify and discuss an episode from the history of science that has been called a revolution or revolutionary. Who called it a revolution or revolutionary, why, and what was at stake in seeing it that way? Response: (240 words) A scientific revolution is a series of breakthroughs in the field […]

Prompts: The history of geology has involved looking closely at distinctive places to reason about distant times. Discussing one or more specific examples from the course materials, explain how scientific thinkers have converted analyses of local places into understandings of time and geological transformation. Response: (198 words) Geology is the study of the structure and […]

Prompt: In several different twentieth-century sciences, including physics and biology, researchers banded together in organizations and collaborations that seemed unprecedentedly large to explain natural phenomena at scales that seemed unprecedentedly small. Identify one example and, with reference to course materials, characterize the connection between “big science” and “small particles.” Response: (231 words) Big Science was […]

Prompt: Identify a tool or instrument of measurement from the course materials and situate it in a relevant historical context of development or use. Response: (224 words) The progress of scientific exploration is inseparable from the precision and innovation of instruments. These tools not only accelerate our understanding of the unknown but also shape the […]

Prompt: Quantification has historically been a means to lump together people and things, and to identify patterns that are not visible when they are viewed individually. Discuss an example of this phenomenon from the textbooks or readings in the Resource List, identifying what aspects of the relevant historical context(s) made this lumping and analysing possible. […]

Prompt: Human bodies are unusual scientific objects in that they are capable of speaking on their own behalf, but (like all scientific objects) can also be made to speak through various forms of examination and manipulation. Using materials from this unit, identify and discuss a specific historical context of producing scientific evidence from a human […]

Prompt: The meaning of life has often been explored most fruitfully at its margins: in viruses, molecular concoctions, or apparently-inert materials. Identify and explain the significance of a marginal form of life in its historical context, bearing in mind that its meaning and liveliness in the past may not match how we see it today. […]

Prompt: Identify and discuss an object from the National Museum of Scotland or a site from Curious Edinburgh. Use the questions from the Exercises and the Museum Task and ideas from the lectures and textbooks to connect the object or site to the broader history of science. Do not just say what it is and […]

Prompt: Comparing at least two specific historical contexts, discuss how the meaning, tools, and uses of calculation can differ in the history of science. Response: (311 words) In the history of science, the meaning of computation and the use of tools have changed in response to technological advances and changing societal needs, and these changes […]

Prompt: Ideas about how the universe is ordered can be highly compelling. Using examples and concepts from the history of science, discuss how specific historical figures have produced evidence and arguments to challenge prevailing ideas about order, how they made their evidence compete with those ideas, and what shaped their acceptance or rejection in specific […]