[SydPhil] HPS Research Seminar Semester Two 2013

[Debbie Castle]

Dear All

The next presentation in the HPS Research Seminar series will be:

Joan Leach (University of Queensland)

"Frontiers of Science Popularisation".

This paper will consider questions raised by a globally popular comic strip, Frontiers of Science which first appeared in 1961 and ran for 18 years. How is science mediated in this comic form, and how might these methods and processes illuminate our ways of thinking about other science mediations? Why use a comic strip, with its potential for imaginary worlds, to communicate science? How do we understand the purposes of this strip-education, a public relations exercise, to 'sell' science? These comics offer a number of methodological questions as well. What is their status as historical record? What can they tell us about the popular imagination of science of the time? The strips also offer a vantage point for witnessing the globalization of science. They were conceived by a theoretical physicist, Stuart Butler, at Sydney University (with close ties to Cornell University) drawing on articles in contemporary science and popular science journals, thus providing a striking example of the circulation (rather than linear transmission) of scientific ideas. Overall, this comic text provides an occasion for an account of the power of pop science from the 1960s-a power both to frame issues and create audiences and markets for its own message.



MONDAY 26TH AUGUST 2013

COMMENCING: 6PM

SCIENCE MEETING ROOM 450

4TH FLOOR CARSLAW BUILDING

CAMPERDOWN CAMPUS





Best Regards


Debbie Castle
Administration Officer
Unit for History and Philosophy of Science
Room 441, Carslaw Building F07| THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY   NSW  2006
T: + 61 2  9351 4226 E: debbie.castle at sydney.edu.au
OFFICE HOURS: MONDAY, TUESDAY AND WEDNESDAY 9AM TO 4.30PM
www.sydney.edu.au/science/hps

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