Naturwissenschaft und Religion in den Niederlanden um 1600

Dutch science flourished in the late sixteenth and in the seventeenth century thanks to the immigration of cartographers, botanists, mathematicians, astronomers and the like from the Southern Netherlands after the Spanish army had captured the city of Antwerp in 1585, and thanks to the religious and the socio-economic situation of the country. A strong impulse for practical scientific activities started from the Reformation, mainly thanks to its anti-traditional attitude, which had an anti-rationalistic tendency. Therefore, in the Northern Netherlands there was no ‘warfare’ between science and religion and the biblical arguments leading to Galileo's condemnation were not used. Although the growth of the exact sciences and of technology in the late sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries in Protestant cirles may be partly attributed to the expansion of trade, industry, navigation and so on, this does not explain why there was also at the same time a great interest in subjects as botany and zoology, which had no immediate economic utility. There were discussions about Copernicanism and Cartesianism. So a number of astronomers and theologians rejected the earth's movement on scientific and religious grounds, but there were also those who did not reject the Copernican system on biblical grounds. In the seventeenth century there was much discussion between science and religion in the Northern Netherlands, but that discussion was not followed by censure by the Church of the State. In the Republic there was a large amount of intellectual freedom in the study of the natural sciences, thanks to practical and ideological considerations. In the eighteenth century the seventheenth century tension between science and religion changed into a physicotheological natural science. It was believed that investigations into the workings of nature should lead to a better understanding of its Creator. So Bernard Nieuwentijt in his well-known book: The right use of-world views for the conviction of atheists and unbelievers (1715) intended to prove the existence of God on the basis of teleological arguments.     

Wortbrechungen und hypermetra in den oden des horaz

The author seeks to present a broader examination of those elements of form and content which are common to poems 8 and 9 from the second book of Propertius’ Elegies and which provide a reason for considering these two poems as counterparts. Particular attention is focused on how the motifs of the wheel of fortune and death for love are handled, and to mythological references which are present in both elegies in the form of the exempla from the Trojan and Theban Cycles. The author's aim is to demonstrate how it is possible to broaden the interpretation of a single poem by means of comparative analysis with its counterpart.     

Zur Geschichte des Kaiser-Wilhelm-Instituts für physikalische Chemie und Elektrochemie. Zur geplanten Veränderung des Instituts in eine Forschungs- und Entwicklungsstätte des Heeres für den Gaskampf und Gasschutz auch in Friedenszeiten 1916 und nach 1933

A Contribution to the History of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry: On Projected Changes of the Institute into a Research and Development Center of the Army for Chemical Warfare also in Times of Peace 1916 and after 1933. — The Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics and Electrochemistry, today named after its first director Fritz-Haber-Institut, was in the first World War a place of research on chemical warfare. Evidences in the Archive for the History of the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft show that it was planned during the war to continue research in this area in peacetime. To realize this Fritz Haber proposed to found a special Kaiser Wilhelm Institute. As this could not be accomplished the war ministry founded 6 million marks to establish an extra department in the KWI of Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry just before the end of the war. After Germany lost the war these were used for other research areas while work on chemical warfare was carried out elsewhere. When Fritz Haber resigned 1933 because of the race-laws of the nationalsocialists the war ministry in cooperation with the ministery for culture nominated an obliging scientist as director of the institute with the aim to take up again research in the area of chemical warfare despite of the opposition of the president of the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft and the ministery of the interior. After that time until the end of the second world war 1945 a good part of the work carried out in the institute was done for the war ministry.     

Den Heringen einen Paß ausstellen: Formalisierung und Genauigkeit in den Anfängen der Populationsökologie um 1900

In fisheries biology of the late 19th century, the challenges posed to taxonomy by Darwinian theory intersected with attempts to increase the productivity of marine populations. Addressing both discourses, the influential German zoologist Friedrich Heincke developed a set of methods to determine exactly the differences between varieties or races of herring. In taxonomy, his methods contributed to the development of a biological species concept; in fisheries biology, they allowed tracing the herrings' migrations, which ultimately aided in divising schemes for sustainable fisheries. Heincke's use of mathematical statistics, some of them borrowed from anthropometry, served to distinguish his ‚exact’︁ approach from that of typological taxonomists. Beyond its use as a rhetorical ploy, exactness gained meaning in the epistemic regime of exact reproduction of measurements, which entailed the replication of measurement techniques for the purpose of comparison e.g. of herrings caught at different locations. This exactness was enabled by the formalisation of the process of taxonomic identification.     

Naturwissenschafts‐, Technik‐ und Medizingeschichte in Deutschland, 1997—2004. Literaturbericht über die Forschung an den Institutionen

This compilation of German research in history of science, technology, and medicine for the years 1997 to 2004 will continue the previous ones. Researchers of the institutions have given us these information, however, only up to ten indications were requested by the national committee of the IUHPS/DHS. More research results may be found on the homepages of the larger institutes and of most of the individual researchers. The list adheres to the alphabet of the authors names, no longer to that of the institutions. After this note you will find the survey of them. A new national data base is proceeding very slowly and completion might still last some time in a country where this kind of research is considered to be of regional importance only …! This compilation was again supported by the national German science foundation (DFG), which we appreciated very much. The compilation work was mainly done thanks to the efforts of Verena Witte MA, Bochum.     

Wissenstransfer durch Zentrenbildung. Physikalische Methoden in der Chemie und den Biowissenschaften

From the 1950s to 1970s, physical techniques replaced many classical methods in the chemical and biological sciences. In this development, a novel type of method‐oriented scientists emerged, relying on cooperation with instrument manufacturers and forging close links with science‐funding agencies. Their main engagement was the development of methods and the improvement of instruments, responding to the needs of the chemical and biomedical communities. In the United States, an important institutional locus of such method‐oriented scientists were instrument centers, providing service to regional and national groups of scientific users. This article analyzes the knowledge transfer involved in investigating the Biotechnology Resources Program of the National Institutes of Health, and presenting the example of one of these centers, the Stanford Magnetic Resonance Laboratory.