Science in the Twentieth Century - and Beyond is the title of Jon Agar’s upcoming book. The concluding parts is a survey of science today, the writing of which Agar blogs at STS Observatory. For example, he’s covered science blogging in relation to science journalism, climate, big pharma and peer review, low-budget genomics, the place of the US in international statistics of science funding, research policy in India, China and other subjects.
Recommended reading, and an interesting example of an author blogging his way through writing a book. “This and the blog posts that follow are the first draft of the survey. Let me know if I miss anything stupid”, he writes.
The book in itself looks very promising. Things I’ve read before by Agar is interesting (his book on the Jodrell Bank observatory and his paper on the 1960’s are two examples), but also because this kind of broader surveys are interesting takes on science and technology.
There are several, recently published - Pickstone Ways of Knowing, Bowler & Morus, Making Modern Science, Patricia Fara, Science: a four thousand year history - but there is definitely room for many more. Some more, and you would have literature for a reading course for advanced students on Big picture historiography.
