We are accustomed to thinking of science and its findings as universal. After all, one atom of carbon plus two of oxygen yields carbon dioxide in Amazonia as well as in Alaska; a scientist in Bombay can use the same materials and techniques to challenge the work of a scientist in New York; and of course the laws of gravity apply worldwide. Why, then, should the spaces where science is done matter at all? David N. Livingstone here puts that question to the test with his fascinating study of how science bears the marks of its place of production.Putting Science in Its Place establishes the fundamental importance of geography in both the generation and the consumption of scientific knowledge, using historical examples of the many places where science has been practiced. Livingstone first turns his attention to some of the specific sites where science has been made—the laboratory, museum, and botanical garden, to name some of the more conventional locales, but also places like the coffeehouse and cathedral, ship's deck and asylum, even the human body itself. In each case, he reveals just how the space of inquiry has conditioned the investigations carried out there. He then describes how, on a regional scale, provincial cultures have shaped scientific endeavor and how, in turn, scientific practices have been instrumental in forming local identities. Widening his inquiry, Livingstone points gently to the fundamental instability of scientific meaning, based on case studies of how scientific theories have been received in different locales. Putting Science in Its Place powerfully concludes by examining the remarkable mobility of science and the seemingly effortless way it moves around the globe.From the reception of Darwin in the land of the Maori to the giraffe that walked from Marseilles to Paris, Livingstone shows that place does matter, even in the world of science.

Product Description:  Nathaniel Southgate Shaler and the Culture of American Science is the first book-length study of the man who served a Harvard’s Professor of Geology and Paleontology during the Darwinian era. Shaler was a student of Louis Agassiz and went on to a successful, multifaceted career as a geologist, geographer, educator, humanist, and poet...read more

Product Description: Book by Livingstone, David N.

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Product Description: A study of religious attitudes in Belfast

This volume provides students of human geography with a useful resource, a collection of writings critical to understanding the field as a whole, which reveal the interactions of its component parts. It has been designed to give students ready access to the articles their studies are most likely to lead them to consult. The book is divided into five parts. Parts 1 and 2 describe the nature of the enterprise, to show the origins and current state of thinking on its central issues. Part 3 is concerned with the interactions between nature, culture and landscape. Part 4 considers aerial differences and geographic units, with the links between region, place and locality. Part 5 provides insights on the fundamental concepts of space, time and space-time. (view table of contents)

Product Description: This is the first intellectual history of a subject which over the last five centuries has played a significant role in the development of Western civilization. The author describes the activities of the explorers and map-makers of Renaissance and early modern Europe; the role of geography during the Scientific Revolution, the Enlightenment and the Darwinian Revolution; and the interactions between geography and empire building in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

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Argues that the creationist movement is not rooted in evangelicalism, but in twentieth century fundamentalism, and analyzes the initial reception of Darwin's theory