Destaques da Biblioteca de História das Ciências e da Saúde
Médicos intérpretes do Brasil.
HOCHMAN, Gilberto; LIMA, Nísia Trindade (Org.). Médicos intérpretes do Brasil. São Paulo: Hucitec, 2015.
A denominação intérpretes do país designa autores que buscam formular visões sobre a formação histórico-social brasileira, indicando alguns de seus traços definidores, singulares e problemas estruturadores. Questões como – podemos apontar características especiais que tornam o Brasil diferente de outras nações? Que dilemas devemos enfrentar para alcançar uma consistente integração social, econômica, política e cultural? – Atravessam a reflexão desses escritores. Grande parte deles, a partir de sua interpretação, propõe alternativas para responder a tais indagações. O fato de muitos serem juristas, médicos, engenheiros, romancistas, cientistas sociais, vários deles envolvidos com a vida política, mostra o encontro das fronteiras entre o pensamento político-social e outras áreas de pesquisa. Uma das originalidades deste livro reside na seleção desses intérpretes: são todos médicos localizados desde o século XIX até o XXI, presentes em vários lugares da sociedade brasileira [...]. Médicos intérpretes do Brasil é um livro de grande importância que mostra não só a existência de interesses comuns entre as várias áreas científicas, mas como as ideias circulam alimentando opiniões que podem traduzir-se em posições políticas. (Au.)
Estado y sociedad en el largo siglo XX: Argentina 1880-2000.
GONZÁLEZ LEBRERO, Rodolfo E. (Coord.). Estado y sociedad en el largo siglo XX: Argentina 1880-2000. Buenos Aires: Biblos, 2011.
Este libro es una herramienta útil para todos aquellos que quieran abordar el análisis de los distintos aspectos de la realidad contemporánea de la Argentina ya que presenta un panorama general de las principales etapas de la evolución de su historia económica, social y política entre 1880 y 2000, brindando el encuadre histórico en el cual es posible anclar la interrelación entre la sociedad y el Estado a lo largo del tiempo. Trabajo a la vez de introducción y de síntesis, permite dar los primeros pasos en el conocimiento de esa realidad, facilitando su entendimiento mediante el análisis de los principales procesos dados y la inclusión de algunas de las interpretaciones desarrolladas por la historiografía sobre ellos, otorgando de esta manera una base para quienes posteriormente deseen ampliar sus conocimientos. El texto se propone ayudar a la comprensión de los fenómenos sociales, políticos y económicos y el reconocimiento de sus relaciones desde 1880 hasta 2000. Este abordaje que se extiende hasta la historia reciente es uno de los principales valores de este libro: más de la mitad de la obra se refiere a los sesenta años del siglo XX en la historia nacional, y en el tercio final presenta las graves (y perdurables) consecuencias de los proyectos políticos y económicos implementados. (Au.)
The biographical dictionary of scientists
PORTER, Roy (Ed.). The biographical dictionary of scientists. 2. ed. New York; Oxford University; 1994.
The Biographical Dictionary of Scientists offers in one convenient volume over 1,200 comprehensive and accessible introductions to the visionary men and women of astronomy, chemistry, physics, biology, mathematics, engineering and technology, and geology. In addition to recounting basic biographical information, each entry details the significance of each scientist's landmark contributions while providing intriguing insights into the complicated process - including meditation, observation, experimentation, exploration, debate, and synthesis - that culminated in the theories and discoveries that often define our understanding of the world around us. Throughout, the dictionary stresses how each scientist operated in a unique historical and scientific context, and how their lives and work were affected by their relationships with other scientists as well as by personal, social, political, religious, and artistic concerns. Over 150 illustrations, seven chronological reviews of significant developments in major scientific fields, an extensive glossary with more than 2,000 definitions, complete lists of Nobel prizewinners in science and medicine, and a comprehensive index round out the dictionary. (Au.)
History of the biochemical society 1911-1986.
GOODWIN, T. W. History of the biochemical society 1911-1986. London; Biochemical Society; 1987.
As the 75th Anniversary of the founding of the Biochemical Society approached the Society Committee decided that one way to celebrate this event would be to commission a History of the Society. Publications covering the first 38 years, by R. H. A. Plimmer, and the first 500 meetings, by R. A. Morton, were already in existence; they were published in 1949 and 1969, respectively. However, the speed with which the Society has developed, commensurate with that of Biochemistry itself, made the idea of a new anniversary History an attractive one. Consequently when I was invited to undertake this assignment I accepted with pleasure. However, I did stipulate that I should write a history covering the entire existence of the Society and not just an updating of Morton's History. I took this view not because of any perceived inadequacies in his or Plimmer's volume - indeed my indebtedness to them will soon become very clear to the reader; but I felt that there might be some merit in a single author history by someone who has been intimately connected with the Society for over 40 years. It remains to be seen if this view was warranted and whether the feeling of challenge and excitement which has pervaded the Society since the Second World War emerges from the mass of archival data which a formal history must inevitably contain. In addition to providing information I have tried to suggest the nature of the personalities behind the biochemists who were responsible for the Society's development by including photographs, thumbnail biographies and anecdotes. (Au.)
Adiós al derecho a la salud: el desarrollo de la medicina prepaga
FIDALGO, Maitena María. Adiós al derecho a la salud: el desarrollo de la medicina prepaga. Buenos Aires: Espacio Editorial, 2008.
El libro de Maitena Fidalgo reúne, por lo menos, tres buenos motivos para emprender la lectura: en primer lugar, se refiere a un tema que al lector no le resultará fácil encontrar en otros trabajos; en segundo lugar, es un texto que cumple con todos los requisitos de la buena investigación; y, finalmente, es un libro valiente. La medicina prepaga no ha sido motivo frecuente de investigaciones ni de publicaciones. A tal punto es así, que si el observador extrajera conclusiones acerca de la importancia de los temas a partir de la frecuencia con que ellos son tratados en la literatura y los debates especializados, con toda razón podría concluir que la medicina prepaga tiene una importancia marginal en el sistema de salud arqentino. Y así cometería un error, según señala la autora, que a lo largo de los distintos capítulos muestra que las empresas que integran este sub-sector han ido cobrando creciente importancia desde distintas perspectivas. Es, también, un libro que cumple con todos los requisitos de la investigación sistemática y rigurosa: se sostiene en un trabajo de varios años, en el que Fidalgo fue construyendo el objeto de investigación; años en los que combinó, cruzó y superpuso información de fuentes y perfiles variadísimos.
Oxford dictionary of scientific quotations.
BYNUM, W. F.; PORTER, Roy (Ed.). Oxford dictionary of scientific quotations. New York; Oxford University; 2006.
Science and its attendant technologies are essential to modern life. Virtually everything we do has been shaped and facilitated by our scientific world. We participate in it when we switch on the television, read the newspapers, or check out in the supermarket. Universities have faculties of both arts and sciences, often equal in their staffing levels and student intake. Nevertheless, the 'two cultures' phenomenon persists. It was most famously identified a generation back by C. P. Snow, although he was hardly the first to notice the divide between the culture of science and the culture of everyday literacy. Fortunately for us, there is a lot of scientific writing, pace Crick's quotation at the head of this page, that is neither average nor tedious. This volume was conceived almost fifteen years ago, by Judith May (now Lady May), when she was with the Science Department of Oxford University Press. She had noticed that most dictionaries of quotations give short shrift to science, a reflection of the cultural chasm that Snow had lamented. She came to me, to discuss her plan to give science equal voice in a quotations dictionary. Far from merely suggesting appropriate editors, I was intrigued by the project and wanted to do the job myself, assuming that I could persuade my friend and colleague Roy Porter to join me. It was in the heyday of what was some times called the Bynum and Porter Industry, at the then Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine. As was his wont, Roy agreed, and so the project was born. (Au.)
El sistema de salud: de donde viene y hacia donde va.
ARCE, Hugo Eduardo. El sistema de salud: de donde viene y hacia donde va. Buenos Aires: Prometeo Libros, 2010.
Se trata de una obra monumental en dos de las acepciones de esta palavra: es de y será de gran utilidad para la historia, y es excelente. Lo es porque el análisis es amplio y a la vez exhaustivo, lo cual implica un mérito digno de ser reconocido pues combinar ambas características implica un enorme esfuerzo. Pero también lo es porque está muy bien organizado y documentado. No podría ser de otra manera, si se considera que el autor combina las virtudes que aportan el ejercicio responsable de la docencia, con su paso por el sistema de salud desde diferentes trincheras y en diferentes momentos a lo largo de toda una vida profesional. Y lo es también porque el doctor Hugo Arce ha trascendido las fronteras de la Argentina para conocer y ser reconocido en otras latitudes. Todo ello seguramente le ha dado una perspectiva histórica, académica y geográfica inigualable para emprender esta magna tarea. De esta manera, los sistemas de salud se entienden aquí no solamente como objeto de estudio sino como campo de acción. [...] De esta manera, el libro transita ordenadamente desde el final del siglo XIX hasta nuestros días, en cortes pertinentes que marcan épocas definitorias, en las que se destacan las características sobresalientes de cada momento: del final del siglo XIX hasta la Segunda Guerra Mundial; el período de posguerra inmediato; las décadas de 1960,70 Y 80, para concluir con la última del siglo XX. (Au.).
Forensic medicine in western society: a history.
Forensic Medicine in Western Society: A History draws on the most recent developments in the historiography, to provide an overview of the history of forensic medicine in the West from the medieval period to the present day. Taking an international, comparative perspective on the changing nature of the relationship between medicine, law and society, it examines the growth of medico-legal ideas, institutions and practices in Britain, Europe (principally France, ltaly and Germany) and the United States. Following a thematic structure within a broad chronological framework, the book focuses on practitioners, the development of notions of 'expertise' and the rise of the expert, the main areas of the criminal law to which forensic medicine contributed, medical attitudes towards the victims and perpetrators of crime, and the wider influences such attitudes had. It thus develops an understanding of how medicine has played an active part in shaping legal, political and social change. Including case studies which provide a narrative context to tie forensic medicine to the societies in which it was practiced, and a further reading section at the end of each chapter, Katherine D. Watson creates a vivid portrait of a topic of relevance to social historians and students of the history of medicine, law and crime. (Org.)
Digital Preservation for Libraries, Archives and Museums.
CORRADO, Edward M.; MOULAISON, Heather Lea. Digital Preservation for Libraries, Archives and Museums. Plymouth, UK: Rowman & Littlefield, 2014.
Digital Preservation for Libraries, Archives, and Museums offers librarians and other library and cultural heritage professionals, including administrators, a new approach to thinking about and getting started with digital preservation. It presents digital preservation as a triad of interrelated activities: management- related activities; technological activities, and content-centered activities. While other books about digital preservation address technology to a certain extent, technology cannot - and should not - be the sole concern of digital preservation. There is much more to digital preservation than that, Digital preservation means gathering, organizing, authenticating, and allowing long-term access, all of which needs to be carefully thought-out in advance. It is concerned with the life cycle of the digital object in a robust and all-inclusive way. Many Europeans and some North Americans may refer to digital curation to mean the same thing, taking digital preservation to be the very limited steps and processes needed to ensure access over the long term. Digital Preservation for Libraries, Archives, and Museums views digital preservation in the broadest sense of the term: looking at all aspects of preserving curating and preserving digital content for long-term access. (Au.)
Measure for measure: a musical history of science.
LEVENSON, Thomas. Measure for measure: a musical history of science. New York; Touchstone; 1995.
In Measure for Measure, Thomas Levenson offers a compelling account of how scientific thinking developed from the day 2,500 years ago when Pythagoras discovered the musical scale to the present day. The story unfolds through the tales of instruments scientific and musical: the organ, the microscope, the still, the scales, Stradivari's miraculous violins and cellos, computers, and synthesizers. What emerges is a unique portrait of science itself as an instrument, our single most powerful way of understanding the world. Yet perhaps the most important invention of modern science has been the power to countenance its own limitations, to find the point beyond which science can explain no more, to rediscover that science, like music, is an art. (Au.)
