States of Secrecy : Scientific Secrecy from Alchemy to the Atomic Bomb

Welcome

Welcome to the website for STATES OF SECRECY, a conference at Harvard University on transhistorical secrecy in science. This conference seeks to look at the role that secrecy has had in the history of science from its earliest days to its most modern incarnations.

This conference is open to the public. Please RSVP to Daniel Margocsy if you are planning to attend. There is no registration process.

Program

April 11, 2009 Science Center 469, Harvard University

9:00–10:15 The Philosophy of Secrets (Chair: Katharine Park)

Openness versus Secrecy: Some Historical and Conceptual Issues

Koen Vermeir

Galen of Pergamun: Between the Logical and the Exegetical Method

Marco Viniegra

10:45–12.00 The Politics of Early Modern Secrecy (Chair: Alisha Rankin)

Commerce and Secrecy in Early Modern Jewry

Daniel Jütte

Secret Communication and the Origins of Modern Science and Espionage

Kristie Macrakis

1:30–2:45 Confidentiality, Patenting and Trade Secrets (Chair: Michael Herzfeld)

Good Secrecy: Constructing Confidentiality In Early Modern Science and Technology

Mario Biagioli

Patenting Secrets, Open Knowledge and the Invention of Color Printing

Daniel Margocsy

3:15–4:30 Secrecy in Twentieth-Century Big Science (Chair: Sheila Jasanoff)

Secrecy and the Bomb from Postwar to Cold War

Alex Wellerstein

Information Control in Genome Research

Stephen Hilgartner

5:00–6:00 Keynote and Overall Discussion

Transhistorical Secrecy

Peter Galison