PREVIOUS EVENTS

Patricia Fara rewrites science\s past to provide new ways of understanding and questioning our modern technological society. Aiming not just to provide information but to make people think, she explores how science has become so powerful by describing the financial interests and imperial ambitions behind its success. Instead of focussing on esoteric experiments and abstract theories, she explains how science belongs to the practical world of war, politics and business. And rather than glorifying scientists as idealized heroes, she tells true stories about real people--men (and some women) who needed to earn their living, who made mistakes, and who trampled down their rivals. Finally she challenges scientific supremacy itself, arguing that science is successful not because it is always indubitably right, but because people have said that it is right. Science dominates modern life, but perhaps the globe will be better off by limiting science\s powers and undoing some of its effects.