Evolutionary medicine (EM) is an emerging field of medical studies that uses evolutionary theory to explain the ultimate causes of health and disease. The field’s main objective is to reconceptualize bodily vulnerabilities and pathophysiologies as evolutionary tradeoffs—many the result of an evolutionary mismatch between our ancient genome and modern lifestyle. This conceptual shift allows EM to describe health and disease in terms of adaptive functions and to prescribe treatments that best complement our evolved bodies. The goal is to “transform the (...) way patients and doctors see disease” (Nesse and Williams 1994, p. 245) in order to harness a renewed “feeling for the organism as a product of natural selection” .. (shrink)

In The Scientific Life, Steven Shapin argues that people and their virtues matter in late modern science. While scientists struggle to remain objective and impersonal, it is the personal, familiar, and charismatic—the traits once swept aside as vices by the scientifically virtuous—that have come to embody the “truth-speakers” of late modernity. With an enormous and sometimes daunting wealth of primary sources (from technical commentaries to his own sociological fieldwork), Steven Shapin breathes life back into these quotidian virtues. The Scientific Life (...) is as much a disjointed genealogy of scientific virtue as a reminder that trust still matters at the cutting-edge of scientific “future-making.” Shapin’s mastery of historical narrative is clear; anyone interested in the American scientific persona and how it has transformed in the twentieth century would do well to wade patiently through this thick and rewarding text. But hang up your expectations of historical linearity (and, sometimes, thematic coherence) as you weave through motley professionals, theorists, and critics drawn from over a century of science commentators. Perhaps this work is best described as textured: rich in detail, woven intricately, but hardly smooth to the touch. (shrink)

Disciplines have a way of imprisoning their creations. Entrenched in an incommensurable discourse, ideas grow stagnant. Whether ideas transcend this imprisonment is a matter of adapting, flexing, and mobilizing knowledge. This is the aim of Situating Science: Cluster for the Humanistic and Social Studies of Science. Promoting transdisciplinarity among researchers, stakeholders, and the public, the Cluster brings diverse groups of scholars to sit around a common table and discuss a common theme. My aim in this short review is to capture (...) some of the central themes and discussions of two such workshops, one on empathy, the other evidence-based medicine. Both workshops provided a fascinating multidisciplinary perspective on topics that easily transcend disciplinary boundaries. Yet the divisions between participants were clear, leaving some discouraged about producing collaborative work. As both workshops boasted a broad range of speakers and participants, my challenge has been to identify common themes without diminishing or disregarding this multiplicity of perspectives. I have only sought to highlight some of the most thought-provoking ideas. (shrink)