#7 Why Has Recycling Always Been Key to Research? Professor Simon Werrett Talks Thrifty Science | WeAreSTS

Professor Simon Werrett (UCL Professor of History and Philosophy of Science) talks about his award-winning book, THRIFTY SCIENCE. In Britain of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the practices of reuse, re-purpose, and recycle were core to the work of what became science. More important, if you follow the trails left by these activities, you’ll find ideas that reorganise how we should think about the way science was done, where it was done, and who did the work. Professor Werrett also resurrects the old word “oeconomy,” putting it to work to help us understand why reuse was understood to be virtuous. And he explains how industrialisation in the nineteenth century substituted ideas related to consumption and specialisation. In this interview, Professor Werrett discusses the main ideas of his book, plus how he hopes to extend his analysis to histories of thrifty science in Russia and elsewhere. He also talks about other projects he has underway and some of the joys that come from a focus on material culture in the history of science and technology. In our age of recycling, is thrifty science making a comeback? Professor Werrett argues it never went away. It simply is something we tend to let drift out of focus. Simon’s book: Simon Werrett. 2019. Making the Most of Materials in the History of Experiment (University of Chicago Press), ISBN 978-0-226-61025-2. It was awarded the 2020 Paul Bunge Prize from the German Chemical Society and the German Society for Physical Chemistry. Simon talks about some of the main ideas from his book in a series of short films produced by STS: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqDGBZHFcMlnaTbR1vS266tWaCnnCaCjK The project described by Simon at The Institute of Making was the 2014 “Emotions, Transformations, and Restorations”: https://emotionstransformationsrestorations.wordpress.com   Featuring Interviewee: Professor Simon Werrett, Professor of History and Philosophy of Science Interviewer: Professor Joe Cain, Professor in History and Philosophy of Biology   Music credits “Rollin At 5,” by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://filmmusic.io/song/5000-rollin-at-5 License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/   Production information Editing and post-production by Professor Joe Cain.   Podcast information “WeAreSTS” is a production of the Department of Science and Technology Studies (STS) at University College London (UCL). To find out more, and to leave feedback about the show, visit us online: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/sts/podcast STS Students and staff also can find on the website information about how to get involved with our programme. “WeAreSTS” producer is Professor Joe Cain. Twitter: @stsucl #WeAreSTS