Este trabalho aborda as questões acerca da definição do que seria um metal, que se seguiram à preparação dos metais alcalinos (sódio e potássio) por Humphry Davy (1778 - 1829). O estudo de caso histórico, enfocando a preparação dessas novas substâncias - as quais apresentavam propriedades bastante diferentes de todos os metais conhecidos na época - pode dar margem a uma série de reflexões úteis para os educadores em química da atualidade, acerca do processo de construção do conhecimento científico. Seguindo as orientações da nova historiografia da ciência, procurou-se caracterizar os debates em torno do trabalho de Davy de acordo com o contexto em que se desenvolveram. Para isso, foram consultadas fontes primárias, tanto de textos que possivelmente serviram de fontes para Davy - como o Tratado Elementar de Química de A. L. Lavoisier (2007; edição original, 1789) - quanto de textos do próprio Davy (em especial, suas Bakerian Conferences) e seus contemporâneos. O trabalho de Davy deve ser entendido no contexto do desenvolvimento da \"nova química\" proposta por Lavoisier e seu grupo no final do século XVIII. Nesse panorama teórico, surgiu um novo instrumento de análise química, proveniente dos estudos sobre a eletricidade: a pilha elétrica, construída pioneiramente por Alessandro Volta. Em seu laboratório na Royal Institution de Londres, Davy realizou uma série de investigações a respeito de efeitos químicos resultantes da ação de pilhas elétricas. Convencido do grande potencial analítico das pilhas, Davy acreditou ser possível decompor substâncias que não eram decomponíveis pelos métodos químicos existentes até então - como era o caso dos chamados \"álcalis fixos\": a potassa e a soda. Em sua Bakerian Conference de novembro de 1807, Davy comunicou à Royal Society que havia conseguido decompor a potassa e a soda, obtendo duas novas substâncias, muito pouco densas e extremamente reativas. Davy apresentou em detalhes as propriedades dessas novas substâncias, concluindo que se tratava de dois novos metais, que se combinavam ao oxigênio para constituir os álcalis fixos. Alguns químicos contemporâneos de Davy, como os franceses J. L. Gay-Lussac e L. J. Thenard, não acreditaram a princípio que as novas substâncias fossem metais, suspeitando que seriam compostos contendo hidrogênio. Os debates que se seguiram ilustram bem a sobrevivência de ideias semelhantes à teoria do flogístico, mesmo no panorama da química pós-Lavoisier. Assim, este estudo de caso pode mostrar aos educadores em química, dos diferentes níveis de ensino, alguns aspectos da complexidade da construção do conhecimento científico. A incorporação dessas ideias à prática docente pode levar a um ensino de ciências mais condizente com seus objetivos na atualidade. / This work addresses the issues concerning the definition of metal, which followed the preparation of the alkali metals (sodium and potassium) by Humphry Davy (1778 - 1829). This historical case study, focusing on the preparation of the two new substances - with properties not presented by any metals known at the time - can give rise to a series of useful reflections for present-day educators in chemistry, concerning the construction of scientific knowledge. Following the guidelines of the new historiography of science, we sought to characterize the debate surrounding the work of Davy according to the context in which it developed. To this purpose, primary sources were consulted, including texts that possibly served as sources for Davy - such as A. L. Lavoisier\'s Elements of Chemistry (Portuguese translation, 2007; original edition, 1789) -, as well as Davy\'s (in particular, his Bakerian Conferences) and his contemporaries\' texts. Davy\'s work must be understood in the context of the development of the \"new chemistry\" proposed by Lavoisier and his group in the late eighteenth century. In this theoretical scenario, a new tool for chemical analysis emerged from the studies about electricity: Alessandro Volta\'s electric pile. In his laboratory at the Royal Institution of London, Davy made a series of investigations on the chemical effects produced by electric batteries. Convinced of the great analytical potential of batteries, Davy believed to be possible to decompose substances that so far resisted decomposition by chemical methods - such as the so-called \"fixed alkalis\": potash and soda. In his Bakerian Conference delivered on November 1807, Davy communicated the Royal Society he had managed to decompose potash and soda, obtaining two new, low-density, extremely reactive substances. Davy described the properties of the new substances in detail, concluding that they were two new metals, which combined with oxygen to form the fixed alkalis. Some contemporary chemists, such as the French J. L. Gay-Lussac and L. J. Thenard, did not believe at first that the new substances were metals, suspecting they were hydrogen compounds. The discussions that followed illustrate the survival of ideas similar to the phlogiston theory, even in post-Lavoisierian chemistry. Thus, this case study can show chemical educators some aspects of the complexity of the construction of scientific knowledge. The incorporation of these ideas to teaching practice can lead to a science education more suited to present-day goals.

Submitted by Geandra Rodrigues (geandrar@gmail.com) on 2018-09-04T14:42:53Z No. of bitstreams: 1 marcelofonsecapinto.pdf: 1588144 bytes, checksum: 28fc6ada8effb0b27407c267aa0c8a7b (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br) on 2018-09-04T15:54:39Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 marcelofonsecapinto.pdf: 1588144 bytes, checksum: 28fc6ada8effb0b27407c267aa0c8a7b (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-09-04T15:54:39Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 marcelofonsecapinto.pdf: 1588144 bytes, checksum: 28fc6ada8effb0b27407c267aa0c8a7b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-07-05 / CAPES - Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Esta dissertação foi desenvolvida a partir de uma revisão histórica dos trabalhos de Michael Faraday (1791-1867) referentes à teoria da eletrólise e suas leis eletroquímicas. De maneira interligada, efetuamos uma análise da evolução dos conceitos da eletricidade nos séculos XVII e XVIII tais como, teorias elétricas e a concepção da garrafa de Leyden, os estudos sobre eletricidade estática e sua transmissão, a pilha voltaica e os fenômenos de decomposição da água. Faraday foi um experimentalista criterioso, observador e crítico. Podendo se amparar na grande estrutura oferecida pela Royal Institution of Great Britain em Londres no século XIX, dedicou grande parte de sua vida à ciência e sua consequente popularização através de suas famosas Lectures, possuindo um papel fundamental na divulgação da ciência no século XIX. Exercendo cargos de professor Fulleriano de Química desta instituição e professor de Química da Academia Militar Real de Woolwich, pôde praticar sua metodologia de ensino. Suas pesquisas foram compiladas em diversas obras, mas nos dedicamos a analisar principalmente quatro destas, a saber: Faraday’s Diary (Vols. 1 e 2), Experimental Researches in Chemistry and Physics e Experimental Researches in Electricity, enfatizando as séries III a VIII desta última. Optamos por ter essas obras como bibliografias principais, pois sendo obras autorais do pesquisado, caracterizam-se como fontes primárias de pesquisa em História da Ciência, além de possuírem um elevado nível de detalhe em seus textos, nos mostrando aspectos da vivência do cientista, além dos erros e acertos em seus trabalhos. Dessa forma, fomos capazes de vivenciar parte do caminho trilhado por Faraday na elucidação das leis eletroquímicas entre os anos de 1832-34, nos permitindo analisar seus aspectos teóricos e práticos. / This dissertation was developed from a historical review of the work of Michael Faraday (1791-1867) concerning the theory of electrolysis and its electrochemical laws. In an interconnected way, we analyze the evolution of electricity concepts in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, such as electric theories and the Leyden bottle design, studies on static electricity and its transmission, the voltaic cell and water decomposition phenomena. Faraday was a judgmental, observant and critical experimentalist. With the support of the great structure offered by the Royal Institution of Great Britain in London in the nineteenth century, he devoted much of his life to science and its consequent popularization through his famous Lectures, playing a key role in the spread of science in the nineteenth century. Having held positions of Fullerian Professor of Chemistry of this institution and professor of Chemistry of the Royal Military Academy of Woolwich, he was able to practice his teaching methodology. Their research has been compiled in several works, but we focus mainly on four of these, namely: Faraday's Diary (Vols 1 and 2), Experimental Researches in Chemistry and Physics and Experimental Researches in Electricity, emphasizing series III to VIII of the latter. We chose to have these works as main bibliographies, because being works of the researcher they are characterized as primary sources of research in the History of Science, besides having a high level of detail in their texts, showing us aspects of the scientist's experience, besides of errors and correctness in their work. In this way, we were able to experience part of the path taken by Faraday in the elucidation of electrochemical laws between the years 1832-34, allowing us to analyze its theoretical and practical aspects.

Orientador: José de Alencar Simoni / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Química / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-25T19:40:09Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Martins_JoseRobertoSerra_M.pdf: 2469226 bytes, checksum: cd14cc6ad348a55b155eac21db7817f4 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014 / Resumo: Experimentos interdisciplinares constituem importante instrumento de ensino/aprendizagem. Partindo-se de um roteiro estruturado, realizou-se uma série de ensaios com o Lançador Termodinâmico de Projéteis (LTP). Os resultados dos ensaios realizados sugeriram a necessidade de se transformar a experimentação em experienciação, de roteiro semi-estruturado. Esta mudança poderia levar os estudantes a construir/compreender o conceito basilar de energia, os processos de transferência e as perdas de energia ocorridas durante os ensaios, tomando por base os princípios termoquímicos e termodinâmicos e estudando-os de modo integrado. Realizando atividades no contra-período com os alunos, logo se percebeu a dificuldade destes em entender certos aspectos do procedimento semi-estruturado, o que nos levou a iniciar o processo de experienciação com uma aula teórica sobre máquinas térmicas e outros aspectos relevantes da História das Ciências. Visando determinar se o processo de experienciação e a aula ministrada exerciam alguma influência sobre o processo de ensino/aprendizagem, dividiu-se uma classe em três grupos: o primeiro grupo (G1) ¿ de controle ¿ não participou da experienciação nem da aula, respondendo à questão relativa ao assunto na avaliação bimestral dissertativa obrigatória a partir de saberes obtidos durante as aulas regulares; o segundo grupo (G2) que, de todo o processo, apenas não participou da aula teórica e o terceiro grupo (G3) que cumpriu todas as etapas do processo. Constatou-se que a aula teórica e a mudança do tipo de roteiro propiciaram a ampliação dos elementos de cognição, constituindo-se, assim, em fatores facilitadores para a aprendizagem, o que pode ser sugerido pelo desempenho médio dos alunos de cada grupo / Abstract: Interdisciplinary experiments are an important tool for teaching / learning. Beginning with a structured script, we carried out a series of tests with Projectile Launcher Thermodynamic (LTP). The results of the tests suggested the need to turn the trial into experiencing, semi-structured script. This could lead students to build / understand the basic concept of energy transfer processes and energy losses occurring during the tests, based on thermochemical and thermodynamic principles and studying them in an integrated manner. Performing activities in counter-period with students soon realized the difficulty in understanding certain aspects of these semi-structured procedure, which led us to begin the process of experiencing with a lecture on heat engines and other relevant aspects of the history of Sciences. To determine whether the process of experiencing and classroom instruction exerted some influence on the process of teaching / learning, a class was divided into three groups: the first group (G1) - control - did not participate in class or experiencing, responding to matter relating to the subject in compulsory Essay bimonthly review from knowledge obtained during regular classes; the second group (G2) that the whole process, not only attended the lecture and the third group (G3) who fulfilled all stages of the process. It was noted that the theoretical class and change the type of script enabled the expansion of the elements of cognition, constituting thus on factors that facilitate learning, which may be suggested by the average performance of students in each group / Mestrado / Físico-Química / Mestre em Química

Abstract Rainer Stenius (1892–1955) was one of the key figures of Finland’s veterinary profession, who during his career was involved in every aspect of any activity concerning veterinarians. At the peak of his career and his power in the late 1940s he was at the same time the veterinary office manager for animal health at the ministry of agriculture, the president of the Finnish Veterinary Association and the executive director of the College of veterinary medicine. I study Stenius’ activities and his exercise of power in the field of veterinary medicine during 1918–1951. The period was a time of powerful change in medication practices and diagnostics as well as in scientific thought. Women came alongside men in the profession and the College of veterinary medicine was established. I will examine these phenomena through Rainer Stenius, which makes my research two-fold: on the other hand it is history of science and on the other, ideological and personal history which follows an individual’s activities, perceptions and feelings. My principal sources are Stenius’ correspondence, Finnish Veterinary Journal, minutes of meetings as well as memoirs and oral history. I interpret the material through a cultural historical perspective, trying to understand the way past people interacted with each other and their communities. I will show in my research that Stenius was a determined developer of veterinary medicine and at the same time an active authority, who treated his colleagues differently according to his personal preferences. However the disputes between Stenius and his colleagues were often also related to tensions in the veterinary profession and to transition points in the whole field of veterinary medicine. Formally Stenius had power only as an authority and an expert. In practice, he projected his expert power to use economic and political power, even if Stenius acted as being above special interests as a neutral expert. By increasing the visibility and the resources of veterinary medicine, Stenius expanded and maintained his role and the significance of his profession in the society, influencing legislation and justifying significant resources to combat animal disease. / Tiivistelmä Rainer Stenius (1892–1955) oli yksi Suomen eläinlääkärikunnan avainhenkilöistä, joka oli työuransa aikana mukana kaikessa eläinlääkäreitä koskevassa toiminnassa. Uransa ja valtansa huipulla 1940-luvun lopulla hän oli samanaikaisesti maatalousministeriön eläinlääkintöosaston eläintautitoimiston päällikkö, Suomen Eläinlääkäriyhdistyksen puheenjohtaja ja Eläinlääketieteellisen korkeakoulun toiminnanjohtaja. Tutkin Steniuksen toimintaa ja vallankäyttöä eläinlääketieteen kentällä vuosina 1918–1951. Ajanjakso oli eläinlääketieteessä voimakkaan muutoksen aikaa niin lääkityskäytännöissä ja diagnoosien teossa kuin tieteellisessä ajattelussakin, naiset tulivat tuona aikana miesten rinnalle ja Suomeen perustettiin eläinlääketieteellistä opetusta antava korkeakoulu. Tarkastelen näitä ilmiöitä Rainer Steniuksen kautta, jolloin työni on tavallaan kaksijakoinen: toisaalta se on tieteenhistoriaa, toisaalta yksilön toimintaa, käsityksiä ja tunteita valottavaa aate- ja henkilöhistoriaa. Päälähteitäni ovat Steniuksen kirjeenvaihto, Suomen Eläinlääkärilehti, kokouspöytäkirjat sekä muistelmat ja muistitieto. Tulkitsen aineistoani kulttuurihistoriallisesta näkökulmasta pyrkien ymmärtämään menneisyyden ihmisten tapaa merkityksellistää vuorovaikutusta toistensa ja yhteisönsä kanssa. Osoitan tutkimuksessani, että Stenius oli määrätietoinen eläinlääketieteen kehittäjä ja samalla aktiivinen vallankäyttäjä, joka kohteli kollegoitaan eriarvoisesti omien henkilökohtaisten mieltymystensä mukaan. Kuitenkin Steniuksen ja hänen kollegojensa välisissä kiistoissa oli usein kyse myös eläinlääkärin ammattiin liittyvistä jännitteistä ja koko tieteenalan murroskohdista. Muodollisesti Steniuksella oli vain auktoriteetti- ja asiantuntijavaltaa. Käytännössä hän käytti asiantuntijavallan avulla myös taloudellista ja poliittista valtaa, vaikka esiintyi erityisintressien yläpuolella olevana neutraalina asiantuntijana ja yleisen edun vaalijana. Lisätessään eläinlääketieteen näkyvyyttä ja sen saamia resursseja Stenius samalla laajensi ja säilytti omaa ja oman ammattikuntansa yhteiskunnallista roolia ja merkitystä, esimerkiksi vaikuttaessaan lainsäädäntöön tai perustellessaan merkittäviä määrärahoja eläintautien torjuntaan.

This thesis examines the invention of Cyprus’ ancient history through the diaspora of Cypriot antiquities in the latter half of nineteenth century and the role of the modern museum in it (1860-1900). It maps the movement of the objects from their excavation sites, to their circulation in metropolitan museums and, finally to their display in museum galleries. In doing so this thesis explores the emergence of archaeology as a field-based discipline in the broader colonial, imperial and geopolitical context. The research of this project was conducted mainly at the Cyprus State Archives, the Greek and Roman Departmental Archives (British Museum), Dartmouth College Archives (NH). The first part of the thesis provides the theoretical framework in which this research is situated. Chapter 1 introduces the project, its research questions, its research questions and outcomes. Chapter 2 discusses the literature providing the main concepts that formed the arguments of this thesis. Chapter 3 contextualizes the diaspora of Cypriot antiquities within the broader history of archaeology and Chapter 4 overviews the methodology followed and the archival sources that were used for this project. The second part consists of my empirical work and maps the diaspora of the antiquities. It is thematically divided in three chapters. Chapter 5, Law, looks at the colonial and legal context of the excavation and exportation of the objects. Chapter 6, Excavation, discusses the every-day conduct of Cypriot archaeology in the field. Chapter 7, Circulation, examines the practices of collecting Cypriot antiquities, their exportation and circulation in metropolitan museums, and their display in museums (particularly in the British Museum). Chapter 8 brings the thesis into a conclusion and highlights the main findings and arguments of this project. The thesis explores the production, circulation and display of scientific knowledge regarding the ancient past of Cyprus by following the antiquities in their various forms (texts, impressions, photographs, objects). By following the objects’ social lives it addresses the issues of the circulation of scientific knowledge, of the criteria for asserting its authenticity and credibility and of the local/global nature of archaeological science. It will demonstrate that the methodological tenor of writing the objects’ biographies links the different scales of science’s making and illuminates its hidden stories, such as the practicalities of collecting in the field.

The idea that we can 'save energy' has become a commonplace homily. But with a moment's reflection it is clear there is nothing self-evident about saving energy. Do we save fuel or a system's ability to 'do work'? Do we conserve for perpetuity or to prolong use? Is the motivation resource economy, scarcity, productivity, or - more recently - climate change mitigation? And what stops the fruits of individual parsimony being consumed elsewhere? This thesis offers a history of the idea that we can conserve energy by using it more efficiently. In recounting this story, it is argued that conserved energy is a 'metrological resource' produced by practices of measurement, calculation, and computation. A second argument is that the history of ERC offers an under examined example of a 'resource ontology'; the social processes through which nature is imbued with utility and value. Accordingly, the study of, what is termed, energy resource conservation (ERC herein) involved a novel research method which focused upon the scientific and intellectual processes of resource making, as much as the material. This thesis begins in 1865 with the publication of William Jevons' The Coal Question (1865), in which the resource conservative principles of Classical political economy were overturned. Jevons argued that increased efficiency of coal use would serve only to increase the rate and scale with which coal was used. Proceeding from this anti-thesis, the following chapters outline how, irrespective of Jevons' claim, policies based on the principles of scientific management were applied to the conservation of fuel resources for conserving natural resources. In pre-war America, a complex system of 'pro-rationing' extraction licenses were introduced to conserve the productive capacity of petroleum wells. However, a significant shift occurred during the Cold War, as the conservation of fuel became increasingly conflated with the econometrician's notion of efficient resource allocation. But the most significant developments occurred in the nineteen-seventies, in response to a perceived crisis in energy supply. Fuel policy became a more systemic 'energy policy', which drew on scientific management, graph theory, systems theory, statistical mechanics, and computational econometrics in an attempt to quantify and demonstrate how society could act to conserve energy resources by increasing the efficiency of energy use. The resulting science, and its concomitant policies were an odd mix of cold war rational decision making theories, détente science, scientific radicalism, and liberal economic theory, all given a countercultural and environmentalist gloss in the latter half of the decade. On the basis of this conflation of ideas, a new approach to energy saving that emerged, which transformed the principles of energy resource governance, shifting the onus to conserve from producer to consumer, with distinct implications for post-war theories of political economy.

The Debate on Science and the Philosophy of life, which took place on the pages of several important journals in China during the year 1923, is an important witness to the evolution of the Chinese way of thinking. At this period, the Chinese society critically reflected upon its traditional culture and on the influences from the western civilization. Therefore many significant Chinese scientists, philosophers and journalists took part in this debate. This text's aims are the following: to create a concise report about the debate, its context, process and the evolution of its perception in the later periods in China or elsewhere and also to present in more detail three the topics that are significant for the whole debate. These topics can be used to investigate the variety of views among the debate's participants. The three topics covered are: (1) the concept of metaphysics, (2) free will and causality with regards to morality, and (3) education. The investigation of these topics allows us also to critically reflect upon the usual perception of the debate as a whole. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Widespread malnutrition after the Great Depression called into question the role of the British state in preserving the welfare of both its citizens and its subjects. International organizations such as the League of Nations, empire-wide projects such as nutrition surveys conducted by the Committee for Nutrition in the Colonial Empire (CNCE), sub-imperial networks of medical and teaching professionals, and individuals on-the-spot in different colonies wove a dense web of ideas on nutrition. African women quickly became the focus of efforts to end malnutrition due to Malthusian concerns of underpopulation in Africa and African women’s role as both farmers and mothers. Currently, the field focuses either on the history of nutrition science in Britain specifically, such as David Smith’s Nutrition in Britain: Science, Scientists, and Politics in the Twentieth Century, or broadly on the history of European scientists of all disciplines in Africa, such as Helen Tilley’s Africa as a Living Lab. Gendered medical histories in Africa tend to have a narrow geographical focus and a broad chronology, such as Henrietta Moore and Megan Vaughan’s Cutting Down Trees: Gender, Nutrition, and Agricultural Change in the Northern Province of Zambia, 1890-1990. This work enlarges the field both by linking British nutrition science to nutrition science in Africa, and by analyzing gendered colonial policy across space rather than across time. The dissertation examines the process by which colonial officials came to pin their hopes of ending malnutrition on the education of African women. Specifically, this project analyzes nutrition surveys from the League of Nations and the CNCE, as well as articles and pamphlets circulated by medical and education experts. Using circular dispatches from the Colonial Office and CNCE, meeting minutes from the Advisory Committee on Education in the Colonies, annual education reports, and medical journal articles, this work zooms out to show the global context of the interest in malnutrition and the scientific advancements of nutrition. Then, the dissertation zooms in to illustrate how those global concerns impacted women in Southern Nigeria, who used colonial education for their own goals of professional advancement or marrying up rather than ending malnutrition. I argue that African women’s education transitioned from under the control of missions to the control of the state as a result of the proposed solutions of colonial nutrition surveys. Furthermore, I argue that, as a priority of the colonial state, the pedagogy of African women’s nutrition education became its own kind of colonial experiment as educators and students disagreed on the best means of relating the new knowledge of nutrition. In conclusion, the colonial state increasingly controlled African women’s education by the end of the 1930s, and this focus on altering individual African women’s food habits via education allowed the colonial state to take action to solve malnutrition without altering the colonial economy from which they profited. State-controlled education attempted to create a new kind of colonial subject concerned with science, which revealed the limits of state intervention and provided a new arena for African women to shape their own futures.

This dissertation examines the relationship between experimental psychology and everyday life through the prism of Hugo Münsterberg and the Harvard Psychological Laboratory during the Progressive Era. Catalyzed by calls from the burgeoning educational community in the 1890s, academic psychologists were increasingly drawn into diverse cultural and political debates bearing on diverse facets of social reform and modernization. Educators, for example, courted psychologists to improve pedagogical techniques. Advertisers sought insight into the consumer mind. Electric utility companies even hired psychological consultants in studying street lighting conditions. At the same time, there was also pushback to such psychological interventions. Many lawyers, for example, opposed psychologists' incursions into the courtroom. Labor advocates protested psychotechnics as the handmaiden of industry. And vocational counselors favored common sense guidance to impersonal psychological tests. By tracing these debates over the place of psychological expertise in an array of contested sites, this dissertation argues that Münsterberg's psychotechnical movement represented a radical new view of the psychologist as an expert in modernization responsible for identifying, measuring and controlling the "human factor" mediating all human activity. / History of Science

This study uses the professional trajectory of the Harvard-trained physical chemist and physiologist Lawrence Joseph Henderson to show how the nascent and highly mobile interconnections between biomedicine and social theory began to crystallize around the concept of the social system in the middle decades of the twentieth century. The social system became a powerful and persuasive way of relating vastly different concepts and their consequences, e.g., the laboratory and social life. By focusing on L.J. Henderson and the social system, this study brings the history of biomedicine into dialogue with the history of the social sciences in a new and interesting way by offering an alternative (pre-cybernetics) genealogy of systems theory. This dissertation is an examination of Henderson's cross-disciplinary application of the concept of the social system in three domains: the social sciences, medicine, and industry. Henderson is a historically interesting case because he allows us a unique point of view--the ability to see border crossings between the social sciences and the life sciences in more than one domain. I argue that the transformation of social theory in inter-war America should be understood as part of a broader set of mid-twentieth century developments in the life sciences in general, and human physiology in particular. / History of Science