CHAUNCEY LEAKE LECTURE IN HISTORY OF SCIENCE
APRIL 5, 2024 | 12:00 – 1:00 PM
“Building a Practice-Based Account of Modern Chemistry”
Existing histories claim theory drove chemistry's remarkable nineteenth-century development. This talk shows instead how chemists used novel experimental approaches and what Jackson calls “laboratory reasoning” to create the molecular world. Built on practice-based breakthroughs – including the “glassware revolution,” the turn to synthesis, and the “chemical identity crisis” – this historical reassessment reveals organic synthesis as the ground chemists stood upon to forge a new relationship between experiment and theory—with far-reaching consequences for chemistry as a discipline.
Zoom link: https://ucsf.zoom.us/j/96143343086?pwd=ejdyaDF5OWdONE9RZUUyYWZCVTJSdz09