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For those young scholars among Americanscience readers, take note of the opportunity to benefit from HSS veterans' wisdom at November's History of Science Society Annual Meeting. Seasoned scholars, take note that the mentorship programs needs your wisdom. And everyone, take note that you have to get involved by September 15, 2010.

Historians of science in America, what have you been reading? What was worth the effort so far this summer? Share some recommendations. I just finished Louis Menand's _The Marketplace of Ideas._ Don't be fooled: this is really a book of lectures about the university only loosely tied to the "marketplace" or tied to one another. It did have its moments, however. Read more... Chapter two struck me as most worth reading, especially for those who teach or research the Cold War university. Menand takes a story we know best for the sciences and applies it to the humanities. In the process, he provides a new way of thinking about the culture wars---or the "crisis of the humanities." His presentation rejects one structural explanation and posits another. First the rejection: a diversified student body did not force multiculturalism and deconstruction on the humanities. "It is wise to avoid the following narrative," writes Menand: "when more women and ...

This may wrap up our "Scuttling the Shuttle" series. Historian Roger Launius puts in his two cents on his terrific blog. He's taking a Baltic cruise and giving a bunch of fascinating lectures for the Smithsonian Journeys program. Where do I sign up? At any rate, Launius describes a lecture called "Whither the Space Shuttle?": This presentation reviews the history and legacy of the Space Shuttle program after thirty years. It suggests that while the shuttle was not an unadulterated success, on balance it served a venerable role in spaceflight and deserves an overall positive assessment in history. Additionally, the Space Shuttle provided three decades of significant human spaceflight capability and stretched the nature of what could be accomplished in Earth orbit much beyond anything envisioned previously. Most significantly since the American human spaceflight program has always been focused in national prestige, the Space Shuttle served well as a symbol of Amer...

Or who knows, maybe it does. At any rate, our History of Science blogging friends at Ether Wave Propaganda are on vacation. That provides us the perfect opportunity to point back to a terrific, recent post on the history of science in America that you might of missed. Will Thomas offers a vivid and engaging reading of Paul Lucier's 2009 Isis article, "The Professional and Scientist in Nineteenth Century America." I recall my own astonishment at learning (as a fresh graduate student) the recent origin of the label "scientist"---who could imagine a world without scientists, as such, I wondered. As Thomas relates in his post, Lucier gives us plenty more material about the recent origins of apparently natural labels and distinctions that should similarly astonish our students in years to come. Historians of Science in America have probably already taken note of Lucier's 2008 book, Scientists and Swindlers . Forum steering committee member David Spanagel wr...

The world of pleasure is mysterious and murky. Seafood lovers glory in devouring raw oysters. People slow their cars to look at gory accidents, and enjoy going to movies that make them cry. Abstract art can sell for millions of dollars. Countless men and women like being spanked. Yale psychologist and cognitive scientist Paul Bloom delves into the remakable realm of desire , discussing how new research shows that simple pleasures like sex and food are far more complex than scientists ever imagined. The author of How Pleasure Works: The New Science of Why We Like What We Like , Dr. Bloom challenges longstanding explanations of human pleasure as a simple sensory response, arguing that pleasure is linked to our beliefs about the "true nature," or essence of things. He asks: --What is at the root of our attachment to sentimental objects? --Why do people pay top dollar for items owned by celebrities? --Why would most people rather be kissed by a movie star than by his or h...