History of Science, Technology, and Medicine

Tony Piro, the George Ellery Hale Distinguished Scholar in Theoretical Astrophysics at the Carnegie Observatories, discusses how scientists are combining observations with theoretical modeling to unravel the mysteries of supernovae. This talk is part of the Carnegie Astronomy Lecture Series at The Huntington.

Recorded April 3, 2017.

The Huntington presents a fascinating conversation about the practice of medicine during the U.S. Civil War and its dramatization in the popular PBS series “Mercy Street.” The panel discussion is moderated by Melissa Lo, Dibner Assistant Curator or Science and Technology at The Huntington, and includes curator Olga Tsapina, who oversees The Huntington’s Civil War collections; series executive producers Lisa Wolfinger and David Zabel; and series medical history advisor Shauna Devine.

Recorded Jan. 17, 2017.

Naomi R. Lamoreaux, Stanley B. Resor Professor of Economics and History at Yale University, discusses the important ways in which patents have contributed to technological innovation over the course of U.S. history. This talk is part of the Haaga Lecture Series at The Huntington.

Recorded Jan. 9, 2017.

The history of the aerospace industry in Southern California and its intersections with contemporary culture are the focus of this panel discussion, presented in conjunction with the exhibition of NASA’s Orbit Pavilion (on view at The Huntington from Oct. 29, 2016, to Feb. 27, 2017). Panelists are Peter Westwick, aerospace historian; William Deverell, director of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West; and Daniel Lewis, senior curator of the history of science and technology at The Huntington.

Recorded Dec. 13, 2016.

Neal Nathanson M.D., discusses a 1955 incident in which Cutter Laboratories of Berkeley, Calif., inadvertently released batches of polio vaccine that contained the live virus. Nathanson, who headed the unit of the Epidemic Intelligence Service that investigated cases of polio resulting from the Cutter vaccine, also provides an update on efforts toward global eradication of poliomyelitis. This program is presented by the George Dock Society for the History of Medicine.

Recorded Nov. 1, 2016.

Jon Mee, professor of 18th-century studies at the University of York and the R. Stanton Avery Distinguished Fellow at The Huntington, discusses the network of literary and philosophical societies that sprang up in response to the transformative experience of the industrial revolution in the north of England between 1780 and 1830.

Recorded Sept. 21, 2016.

Astronomer Katherine Alatalo will tour the Hubble sequence, from "young" to "old" galaxies, exploring three avenues to galactic transitions: the quiet, slow fade; the violent merger; and the quietly violent evolution of a galaxy, likely due to a supermassive black hole in its center. This talk is part of the Carnegie Lecture series.

Astronomer Kevin Schlaufman, Carnegie-Princeton Fellow at the Carnegie Observatories, tells the story of exoplanets to date, and outlines the progress being made in the search for life elsewhere in our galaxy. This talk is part of the Carnegie Lecture series.

Asif Siddiqi, professor of history at Fordham University and the Searle Visiting Professor in the History at Caltech and The Huntington, discusses a lost “global” history of space exploration and the reach of space activities at the height of the Cold War.

Join Anat Shahar, staff scientist in the geophysical laboratory at the Carnegie Institution for Science, for an exploration of terrestrial planets and a discussion of what laboratory experiments can reveal about the conditions that formed them.