Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Victor Seow

David Fedman @dfeds.bsky.social · 3h

So much gold to be mined from the diary of Harada Ryōji 原田良次, a maintenance tech in a Chiba-based aerial interception unit tasked with defending Tokyo's skies

His entries are scribbled in the margins of a book 👇 - in part due to paper shortages, in part to keep record on the sly

A few stand-outs:

1 3 7

Reposted by Victor Seow

Yangyang Cheng @yangyangcheng.bsky.social · 4d

For @npr.org, I review Lou Ye's acclaimed Covid movie "An Unfinished Film," its courage in venturing into the forbidden, and limitations in what it seems unable or unwilling to confront. The Chinese people deserve better, more honest stories. The work remains unfinished.
www.npr.org/2025/10/04/g...

2 27 120

Victor Seow @eastasiascitech.bsky.social · 3d

How did Korean firms like Hanjin carry containerization from Vietnam’s Cam Ranh & Qui Nhon to Busan, transforming ports & unsettling U.S. contractors like Lusteveco? 🚢

John DiMoia @ Harvard #STinAsia, Tue Oct 14, 10:30 ET

Zoom registration: seow.scholars.harvard.edu/STinAsia

#histstm #histtech 🧪

1 3

Victor Seow @eastasiascitech.bsky.social · 4d

From wartime packaging to microbial foodways, Aya Kimura's Harvard S&T in Asia talk on tsukemono earlier this week was a delight. Don't miss her forthcoming book, "Fermenting for the Future" (UC Press, spring 2026)!

seow.scholar.harvard.edu/STinAsia

#histstm #sts #envhum 🧪

6

Victor Seow @eastasiascitech.bsky.social · 14d

How might Japanese pickles help us critically reflect on modern antibiotic relations?

Please join the Harvard S&T in Asia online seminar series for this talk by Aya Kimura!

📅 Tue, Sep 30
🕥 10:30–11:45 am EST

Registration: seow.scholars.harvard.edu/STinAsia

#histstm #sts #histsci #envhum 🧪

A promotional slide for the Science and Technology in Asia Fall 2025 online seminar series at Harvard University. It announces Aya H. Kimura’s talk, “Tsukemono and the Anthropocene in Your Gut: Emplacement, Awai, and the Apertures of Micropolitical Analysis,” scheduled for Tuesday, September 30, 10:30–11:45 ET. The slide includes the Harvard Department of the History of Science and Asia Center logos, with text noting the seminar convenor Victor Seow and a registration link (https://seow.scholars.harvard.edu/STinAsia).

5 9

Victor Seow @eastasiascitech.bsky.social · 14d

Kicked off our fall 2025 Harvard #STinAsia online seminar series yesterday w/ Jiraporn Laochaoroenwong. Learned lots about the ways that animal value is reworked at the Myanmar–Thailand border. 🐄 Thanks, Jiraporn!

seow.scholars.harvard.edu/STinAsia

#histstm #sts #envhum #envhist

4

Reposted by Victor Seow

Scarcerc @scarcerc.bsky.social · 15d

🚨Don't miss our workshop "Political Economies of Mining in the Early Modern World" @univie.ac.at organised by @eclaaire.bsky.social and @gbba.bsky.social.
📅 25–26 September 2025
!Please register!
📃 Program & info: bit.ly/4pslQfs
#Scarce #histsci #histeco #mining

Political Economies of Mining in the Early Modern World

Workshop Organizers: Claire Sabel and Gabriele Marcon University of Vienna September 25-26, 2025

bit.ly

6 11

Victor Seow @eastasiascitech.bsky.social · 15d

Reminder 📢

Please join the Harvard S&T in Asia online seminar series in a few hours (10:30 am ET) for Jiraporn Laochaoroenwong's talk on making "square oxen" across the Myanmar–Thailand border.

Zoom registration here: seow.scholars.harvard.edu/STinAsia

#histstm #sts #envhum #envhist #histsci

5

Reposted by Victor Seow

Victor Seow @eastasiascitech.bsky.social · 19d

How might border bureaucracies, animal care, and chemical interventions transform worn-out drought cattle into export-ready "square oxen"?

Find out at this upcoming Harvard S&T in Asia online seminar series talk

📅 Tue, Sep 23
🕥 10:30–11:45 EST
📌 Zoom

seow.scholars.harvard.edu/STinAsia

#histstm 🧪

Poster for talk by Jiaporn Laochaoroenwong in the Harvard Science and Technology in Asia online seminar series on Tuesday, September 23, 10:30 am Eastern Time

1 4

Reposted by Victor Seow

Jeffrey Yost @justcode.bsky.social · 19d

Talk tomorrow on history, power, & ironies & paradoxes of rhetorical & infrastructural appropriations of AI. #histsci

1 2

Victor Seow @eastasiascitech.bsky.social · 19d

How might border bureaucracies, animal care, and chemical interventions transform worn-out drought cattle into export-ready "square oxen"?

Find out at this upcoming Harvard S&T in Asia online seminar series talk

📅 Tue, Sep 23
🕥 10:30–11:45 EST
📌 Zoom

seow.scholars.harvard.edu/STinAsia

#histstm 🧪

1 4

Reposted by Victor Seow

Ben Gross @bhgross144.bsky.social · Sep 8

Exciting news from my colleagues @sciencehistory.org! This archive documents the early history of #MolecularBiology & efforts to determine the structure of #DNA.

@matthewcobb.bsky.social provides an overview of its contents & significance in the thread below.

#histSTM #histsci #histbio #Molbio 🗃️📜🧬

Matthew Cobb @matthewcobb.bsky.social · Sep 8

News in the history of molecular biology. The Science History Institute in Philadelphia has acquired a huge archive of correspondence and other scientific material from the pioneers of molecular biology (Franklin, Klug, Perutz, Delbrück etc, with items from Crick and Watson, too). 1/n

History of Molecular Biology Collection

This unparalleled collection includes Rosalind Franklin's historic 'Photo 51,' which revealed the double-helix structure of DNA.

www.sciencehistory.org

1 15 25

Reposted by Victor Seow

Joint Center for History and Economics @historyecon.bsky.social · Sep 8

There is a new essay on the 1800 Histories website: Mariia Koskina’s micro-history of Novotroitsk, a Soviet steel town in the Urals. A ‘monotown’ where fixation on heavy industry & outdated tech left the region polluted and residents facing uncertain futures.
histecon.fas.harvard.edu/1800_histori...

1800 Histories

NOVOTROITSK: THE ACHING BACKBONE OF RUSSIA by Mariia Koskina

histecon.fas.harvard.edu

1 4

Reposted by Victor Seow

Ben Gross @bhgross144.bsky.social · Sep 7

Welcome to Bluesky, @ishpssb.bsky.social!

(Boosting the signal for #histSTM friends, especially those interested in the history & philosophy of #biology...)

#histbio #histmed
#philsci #philbio 🗃️🧬

ISHPSSB @ishpssb.bsky.social · Sep 7

We’re excited to launch the official BlueSky profile of ISHPSSB! Founded in 1998, we connect researchers in philosophy, history, and social studies of biology and medicine worldwide. Follow us for updates and events! #PhilosophyOfBiology, #HistoryOfScience, #STS, #Biology, #Medicine

7 19

Victor Seow @eastasiascitech.bsky.social · Sep 4

The Harvard S&T in Asia online seminar series is back!

This fall features talks from affect and control in Chinese AI to American forestry in Cold War Taiwan.

We meet on Zoom on the Tuesdays listed, 10:30–11:45 am ET.

Registration: seow.scholars.harvard.edu/STinAsia

#histstm #envhist #sts 🧪

5 14

Reposted by Victor Seow

Rebekah Higgitt @rhiggitt.bsky.social · Aug 30

With a great outline of her work on women scientists in America #histSTM

Will Thomas @williamthomas.bsky.social · Aug 30

Good to see the New York Times has a lengthy obituary for Margaret Rossiter

Margaret W. Rossiter, 81, Dies; Wrote Women Scientists Into History

www.nytimes.com

9 26

Reposted by Victor Seow

Jeffrey Yost @justcode.bsky.social · Aug 27

Just Code, just published!!! Open Access of full book is now freely available, see link below, made possible by @sloanfoundation.bsky.social grant to CBI! Am so honored to partner w Con & work alongside 19 stellar, fellow interdisciplinary authors on this book! #histtech

cse.umn.edu/cbi/just-cod...

Front cover of Just Code: Power, Inequality and the Political Economy of IT. Black lettering in bold with trailing pastel colors.

2 22 45

Reposted by Victor Seow

Yangyang Cheng @yangyangcheng.bsky.social · Aug 26

So grateful to do this Q&A with @williamthomas.bsky.social @aip.bsky.social on being a Chinese scientist in the US and the importance of history to my work, esp. in this moment.
Read the full interview, also ft. @mcnees.bsky.social, in AIP's History Newsletter:
aip.brightspotcdn.com/89/11/30815e...

7 7

Reposted by Victor Seow

Monica H Green @monicamedhist.bsky.social · Aug 5

A new #OpenAccess resource for teaching world/global history is almost ready. The module "The Black Death: The Medieval Plague Pandemic through the Eyes of Ibn Battuta," is in final editing & should be "live" by the beginning of September. A preview here: www.arc-humanities.org/blog/2025/07...

The opening of a blogpost announcing the imminent release of an open-access teaching module, "The Black Death: The Medieval Plague Pandemic through the Eyes of Ibn Battuta."

3 44 120

Reposted by Victor Seow

MancHSTM @manchstm.bsky.social · Aug 5

Hot off the press: new #OpenAccess book, co-edited by our colleague Dr Amelia Bonea: #Women, #science, #engineering and #medicine in the twentieth century.
doi.org/10.7765/9781...
#HistSTM #HistSci

1 19 32

Reposted by Victor Seow

NiCHE Canada @nichecanada.bsky.social · Aug 5

"The process of polio vaccine production, for example, is a process of domestication as much as a process of fabrication." - Liza Piper

niche-canada.org/2015/03/18/v...

#envhist #histmed #vaccines #histstm

Vaccines and the Environmental History of Medicine

Editor’s note: This is the second in a series of posts considering the intersection between environmental history and the histories of science, technology, and medicine. All posts in the series are av...

niche-canada.org

3 8

Reposted by Victor Seow

Greg Priest @gregpriest.bsky.social · Aug 2

J-B Lamarck was born OTD in 1744

A “prime cause … endows animal life with the power to make organization gradually more complex…. Occasionally a foreign, accidental, and therefore variable cause has interfered with the execution of the plan, without, however, destroying it.”

🐋🌱🧪🗃️🧠 #EvoBio #HistSTM

1 7 32

Reposted by Victor Seow

NiCHE Canada @nichecanada.bsky.social · Aug 1

You can read about the background behind this article and the research that led to it in @micaamy.bsky.social and John's post on our site, "Writing Health and History During a Global Pandemic" - niche-canada.org/2021/05/10/w...

#envhist #histmed #mininghistory

5 8

Reposted by Victor Seow

The HPS Podcast @hpspodcast.bsky.social · Aug 1

This week, distinguished historian and philosopher of science Hans-Jörg Rheinberger joins us to explore how scientific inquiry unfolds through experimental systems. We discuss 'epistemic things', technical objects, and their implications for how science is practiced and understood.

#hps #histsci

S5 E3 - Hans-Jörg Rheinberger on 'Epistemic Things'

The HPS Podcast - Conversations from History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science · Episode

open.spotify.com

8 28

Reposted by Victor Seow

Commodity Frontiers Initiative @commodityfrontiers.bsky.social · Jul 16

New article from Tomás Bartoletti, Samuël Coghe and Victor Seow.

‘[T]echnocracy operates […] as an ideology that not only describes the system itself, but also the sets of ideas that animate the emergence of the system.’

Read the article on journal.commodityfrontiers.com/journal-issu.... #CFI

Image titled, in English, “Grand Sight of the Open Working Fushun Colliery. ” In the Japanese text below, there is an additional phrase, “limitless treasure house”, which appeals to the then widely held notion that Fushun’s coal resources were so bountiful as to be essentially inexhaustible. This image comes from a postcard that dates to the early 1930s. [Postcard from the author's collection.]

3 7