Maienschein Jane

No Thumbnail Available
Last Name
Maienschein
First Name
Jane
ORCID

Filters

2016 - 2019 5 2020 - 2024 2
7
7
Reset filters

Settings

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 7 of 7
  • Article
    Time, impact, and the need for digital history and philosophy of science
    (University of Chicago, 2016-06) Maienschein, Jane
  • Article
    Explaining regeneration: cells and limbs as complex living systems, learning from history
    (Frontiers Media, 2021-08-31) MacCord, Kate ; Maienschein, Jane
    Regeneration has been investigated since Aristotle, giving rise to many ways of explaining what this process is and how it works. Current research focuses on gene expression and cell signaling of regeneration within individual model organisms. We tend to look to model organisms on the reasoning that because of evolution, information gained from other species must in some respect be generalizable. However, for all that we have uncovered about how regeneration works within individual organisms, we have yet to translate what we have gleaned into achieving the goal of regenerative medicine: to harness and enhance our own regenerative abilities. Turning to history may provide a crucial perspective in advancing us toward this goal. History gives perspective, allowing us to reflect on how our predecessors did their work and what assumptions they made, thus also revealing limitations. History, then, may show us how we can move from our current reductionist thinking focused on particular selected model organisms toward generalizations about this crucial process that operates across complex living systems and move closer to repairing our own damaged bodies.
  • Article
    Introduction
    (University of Chicago Press, 2019-09) Gibson, Abraham ; Laubichler, Manfred D. ; Maienschein, Jane
    Digital technologies have transformed both the historical record and the historical profession. This Focus section examines how computational methods have influenced, and will influence, the history of science. The essays discuss the new types of questions and narratives that computational methods enable and the need for better data management in the history and philosophy of science (HPS) community. They showcase various methodological approaches, including textual and network analyses, and they place the computational turn in historiographical and societal context. Rather than surrendering to either technophilia or technophobia, the essays articulate both the benefits and the drawbacks of computational HPS. They agree that the future of the field depends on the successful integration of technological developments, social practices, and infrastructural support and that historians of science must learn to embrace collaboration both within and beyond disciplinary boundaries.
  • Article
    Computational history of knowledge: Challenges and opportunities
    (University of Chicago Press, 2019-09) Laubichler, Manfred D. ; Maienschein, Jane ; Renn, Jurgen
    So far, the twenty-first century has been defined by an ever-increasing availability of digital data and substantial advances in computational methods. Taken together, these developments have already affected all aspects of our lives, including the ways research in the sciences and the humanities is conducted. This computational turn is often viewed with unease. But as this essay argues, it also offers exciting new perspectives for the history of knowledge. Rather than fighting these trends, the essay suggests, by embracing new possibilities and actively participating in the development of new computational methodologies the history of knowledge can act as a bridge between the world of the humanities, with its tradition of close reading and detailed understanding of individual cases, and the world of big data and computational analysis. We can gain novel perspectives on the evolution of knowledge that are both detailed and broad.
  • Article
    Embryos, microscopes, and society
    (Elsevier, 2016-03-17) Maienschein, Jane
    Embryos have different meanings for different people and in different contexts. Seen under the microscope, the biological embryo starts out as one cell and then becomes a bunch of cells. Gradually these divide and differentiate to make up the embryo, which in humans becomes a fetus at eight weeks, and then eventually a baby. At least, that happens in those cases that carry through normally and successfully. Yet a popular public perception imagines the embryo as already a little person in the very earliest stages of development, as if it were predictably to become an adult. In actuality, cells can combine, pull apart, and recombine in a variety of ways and still produce embryos, whereas most embryos never develop into adults at all. Biological embryos and popular imaginations of embryos diverge. This paper looks at some of the historical reasons for and social implications of that divergence.
  • Article
    Understanding regeneration at different scales.
    (eLife Sciences Publications, 2019-03-13) MacCord, Kate ; Maienschein, Jane
    Regeneration occurs at many different levels in nature, from individual organisms (notably earthworms and hydra), through communities of microbes, to ecosystems such as forests. Researchers in the life sciences and the history and philosophy of science are collaborating to explore how the processes of repair and recovery observed at these different scales are related.
  • Article
    Studying regeneration through history as a way of looking forward
    (Springer, 2024-03-19) MacCord, Kate ; Maienschein, Jane
    2024 is a good year for celebrating history of science. First comes the 100th year of the History of Science Society (HSS). Historian of Science George Sarton played a major role in establishing the Society, and he had clear views about what the field should include. He insisted that “the chief requisite for the making of a good chicken pie is chicken; nay, no amount of culinary legerdemain can make up for the lack of chicken. In the same way, the chief requisite for the history of science is intimate scientific knowledge; no amount of philosophic legerdemain can make up for its absence” (Sarton 1918, p. 194). From the beginning of the HSS, then, science played a central role. When one of us (Maienschein) served as HSS president in 2008–2009, she worked to include science and scientists in committees and activities, and the following president Paul Farber did as well. 2024 is also a new beginning for the Journal of the History of Biology (JHB), with editors Betty Smocovitis and Nic Rasmussen at the helm since 2023. This journal, begun by Everett Mendelsohn and supported by Ernst Mayr, was always steeped in science. Mendelsohn explained that he started the journal and remained editor for 31 years to provide a place for historians of biology, with their interests in the ideas and practices of biological sciences, to publish (Mendelsohn 1968). Smocovitis and Rasmussen are carrying on the tradition of embedding the history with the science, so that the historical work the journal publishes is useful to both historians and biologists. Shortly before he died early in 2023, Mendelsohn told Maienschein that he was pleased with the continued emphasis on science along with history. We may also point to the International Society for the History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Biology (fondly known as Ishkabibble, or ISH for short) as a conjunction for history and science, along with its complementary fields. In 2024, JHB co-editor-in chief Smocovitis has become the president of ISH, MacCord is the program co-chair, and Maienschein is proud to have served as the first president for this organization and its embrace of science and the several fields that study it. At this time when science is under attack politically, and history is often (falsely) considered irrelevant to current pressing issues, it is all the more important that we look at ways that history and science can work together. They can nudge each other to ask new questions, explore new areas, and thereby enhance and enrich both domains. History can be at once for science, with science, about science, and part of science, as we explain in the context of one particular example below. Looking at history and science simultaneously helps us look forward with perspective and reflection.