Sylvia Doughty Kraemer
Bacon’s Promise is a web log of reflections on the ability of science to expand “the bounds of human empire, to the effecting of all things possible.” (Francis Bacon, New Atlantis, 1626)
TO BEGIN READING: Please click on “Show Menu” above right and select Science and Technology in Society and Policy.
ALSO CLICK ON “Show Menu,” above right, or the highlighted words for a more information about Francis Bacon, some Internet research sources for U.S. science and technology, and, for visual variety, a gallery tour of my own paintings, many inspired by the beautiful mid-coast region of Maine.
Now, for a bit more background:
Many writers begin writing in order to express themselves; some have persevered and become our finest novelists and poets. I have always wanted mostly just to write, but had no gift for ‘creative writing.’ So, to harvest grist for my mill I studied the history of ideas, taught history to college and graduate students for ten years, and then experienced first hand for two decades the action of science and technology–among the most material manifestations of our intellectual life–in the political economy of the United States.
The results were The Urban Idea in Colonial America (1977), an intellectual history of the founding of Philadelphia, New Haven, Savannah, and Williamsburg; NASA Engineers and the Age of Apollo (1992), a group biography of the generation of scientists and engineers who took the United States to the Moon in 1969; and Science and Technology Policy in the United States: Open Systems in Action (2006), an examination of the integration of science and engineering in American public policy.
This web log consists of a series of short essays (posts) on the themes first encountered in the writing of these books, with an invitation to you, my readers, to comment, and thus to continue the collaboration which is an essential part of Bacon’s promise. To leave a comment, click on ‘ Comments’ in the column to your right at the top of any post’s page. Thank you for visiting!
For more information, see my Resume, which includes a list of selected publications.
– Sylvia Doughty Kraemer
Copyright: All material appearing on this blog which has been written by its author is protected by copyright. Permission may be granted for non-commercial or non-partisan uses, but must be requested. Contact: skraemer@baconspromise.org.
Text Sources: Available on request.
