Episode 19 - Ruth Hubbard
From: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Series: How to Think About Science
Length: 53:56
Ruth Hubbard spent the first almost 20 years of her scientific life at a lab bench investigating the biochemistry of vision. Her late husband, George Wald, who directed the research, won a Nobel Prize for the discoveries their team made about how the eye works. In the 1960’s, during the Vietnam War, her horizons expanded to include the politics of science. She took a leading part in the emerging feminist critique of the situation of women in science. And she became a fierce opponent of the direction biology was taking in developing new genetic and reproductive technologies that amounted, in her view, to an experiment on the human being. Ruth Hubbard is professor emerita of biology at Harvard, and the author of The Politics of Women’s Biology, and Exploding the Gene Myth, written with her son Elijah Wald.
Also in the How to Think About Science series
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Episode 23 - Lee Smolin
(53:56)
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Episode 22 - Allan Young
(53:56)
From: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
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Episode 21 - Christopher Norris and Mary Midgley
(54:00)
From: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
HOW TO THINK ABOUT SCIENCE: Part Twenty-One of a documentary series by David Cayley, a producer with the CBC Radio program Ideas. Modern societies have tended to take science ...
Episode 20 - Michael Gibbons, Peter Scott, and Janet Atkinson Grosjean
(53:56)
From: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
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Episode 18 - Richard Lewontin
(53:56)
From: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
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Episode 17 - Peter Galison
(53:56)
From: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
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Episode 16 - Steven Shapin
(53:57)
From: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
HOW TO THINK ABOUT SCIENCE: Part Sixteen of a documentary by David Cayley, a producer with the CBC Radio program IDEAS. Modern societies have tended to take science for ...
Episode 15 - Barbara Duden & Silya Samerski
(53:56)
From: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
HOW TO THINK ABOUT SCIENCE: Part Fifteen of a documentary by David Cayley, a producer with the CBC Radio program IDEAS. The word gene is a scientific term, but it is now also ...
Episode 14 - Evelyn Fox Keller
(53:56)
From: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
HOW TO THINK ABOUT SCIENCE: Part Fourteen of a documentary by David Cayley, a producer with the CBC Radio program IDEAS. Modern societies have tended to take science for ...
Related Pieces
Piece Description
Ruth Hubbard spent the first almost 20 years of her scientific life at a lab bench investigating the biochemistry of vision. Her late husband, George Wald, who directed the research, won a Nobel Prize for the discoveries their team made about how the eye works. In the 1960’s, during the Vietnam War, her horizons expanded to include the politics of science. She took a leading part in the emerging feminist critique of the situation of women in science. And she became a fierce opponent of the direction biology was taking in developing new genetic and reproductive technologies that amounted, in her view, to an experiment on the human being. Ruth Hubbard is professor emerita of biology at Harvard, and the author of The Politics of Women’s Biology, and Exploding the Gene Myth, written with her son Elijah Wald.
Broadcast History
This 24 part series first aired on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
Musical Works
| Title | Artist | Album | Label | Year | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SHELF ELF | ALEX HOUGHTON | HAPPYBODY. | CUSTOM | 04:18 | |
| BROKEN HEART | LESTER QUITZAU | LESTER QUITZAU: SO HERE WE ARE. | QUITZAU | 00:00 | |
| PRELUDE | ALEX DE GRASSI | ALEX DE GRASSI: THE WATER GARDEN. | ACTUAL | 05:11 |
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Posted on May 02, 2011 at 06:36 PM | Permalink
Sociology of Science
Ruth Hubbard brings to light the importance of the role society and culture play in science. This is a very important aspect of science that most people (including scientists) don't think about very critically. Science does not objectively learn about the world and the way it works. Rather, the things scientists study and the way this information is used depends on the political and economical agenda of those who possess the knowledge.