“Colonial Science, Imperial Business”

Feng-en Tu (Harvard University)

My project examines the production of scientific knowledge regarding smells and smelling in colonial Taiwan and the ways in which the scientific activities shaped, and were shaped by, the development of Japan’s fragrance industry in the first half of the twentieth century. In my presentation, I will focus on the works and activities of Kafuku Kinzō, a celebrated organic chemistry who led research team at the Central Research Institute in Taiwan and carried out various research projects on the industrial production of natural and synthetic fragrances in the interwar period. Under his leadership, the institute built a close connection with scientists in Japan’s major universities and recruited a number of young chemists from these schools. Thanks to the efforts made by these scientists, the institute not only became one of the centers contributing greatly to the botanical and chemical knowledge of fragrances in Japan but also helped Japan’s fragrance companies to advance their business in the colony and beyond. Meanwhile, these scientific activities were often intertwined with, and influenced by, both the political interests of the Japanese empire and the business interests of the Japanese fragrance companies. In short, this presentation offers a case which reveals the multi-directional flows of knowledge and the collaborations between colonial officials, capitalists and scientists within the empire.

“Cryptography as Science, Weapon, and Intellectual Property”

Jillian Foley (University of Chicago)

Private companies like Google and Microsoft are active participants in computer security research, regularly publishing articles in peer-reviewed journals and collaborating with academic colleagues. While this may seem natural for commercial security hardware or software, the abstract foundational mathematics of cryptography might have kept the field within a tight circle of mathematicians. However, private companies have also been deeply involved in cryptographic research from before the emergence of today's scientific research field in the 1970s. This talk will discuss some important relationships between early academic cryptographers, businesses, and the government, and how those relationships have shaped today's scientific community and our knowledge about cryptography. It will pay particular focus to the role of government regulations, patents, and public discussion of privacy and surveillance.

“Knowledge Management and Concepts of Technology in Postwar Business”

Douglas O'Reagan (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

In the 1980s, a new fad swept through businesses and business schools across America: "knowledge management." In increasingly complex, multinational organizations, businesses (and their management consultants) began to see the "intellectual capital" they possessed – largely but not exclusively consisting of industrial science, patent rights, and workers' technical skills – as being at least as important as financial capital. Knowledge management (KM) was unusual in business schools fads because it resonated so strongly with both on-the-ground businessmen and academics. It sparked board room discussions and business school debates about "tacit" vs. "explicit" knowledge, social/cultural embeddedness of science, and the importance of valuing workers' inexpressible skills. This talk will trace a brief history of KM, then tie it back to a source its practitioners seem to have completely unknowingly drawn upon: a similar business and legal fad in the 1950s-1960s centered on the concept of harnessing "know-how."

“Energy Matters: The Science and Economics of Power Production”

David Hecht (Bowdoin College)

Of the many social and political contexts relevant toward understanding the history of science, business is one of the least examined. But few areas of experience could be more important to appreciate, as economic viability is a major determinant in both the production and consumption of science. My contribution to this roundtable will draw on the history of energy to explore the interaction between economics, business, and science. Coming from a background in studying the cultural reception and appropriation of science, I treat industry as simply another venue for this sort of analysis: how and why have actors within the business sector understood technology in the ways that they have? My remarks will center on nuclear energy, as its unique organizational features make it possible to contrast technical assessments from a variety of perspectives; actors in the business, regulatory, scientific, and media worlds often tell different stories based on the same data. From there, I will expand to other examples in the history of energy, to explore how business and science co-produce each other in realms where regulatory and public oversight is not as prominent. Ultimately, I will argue that the tools of reception studies and narrative analysis hold great promise for understanding that co-production.

“Drug Patenting and the Transformation of American Pharmaceutical Science, 1920–1942”

Joseph Gabriel (Florida State University College of Medicine)

In the two decades following World War I academic scientists increasingly collaborated with the pharmaceutical industry in the quest to develop useful new drugs. Despite a tradition of skepticism toward monopoly rights, and lingering concerns about drug patents among physicians, they also began to patent their discoveries. They did so not only as a means to ensure manufacturing standards and promote the public good, as scholars such as Maurice Cassier have argued, but also to advance their own professional and personal interests. Yet as academic scientists increasingly embraced patenting, the way in which they both conducted themselves and thought about their work also changed. New concerns, such as establishing priority in publication, were introduced; at the same time, research questions increasingly focused on the discovery of patentable substances. These changes were part of a broader process through which market considerations were increasingly imported into the practice of interwar science. By the outbreak of World War II, scientific and patenting considerations had blended together to a remarkable extent within the academic research enterprise, transforming not just the practice of scientific drug development but also the resulting therapeutic objects and, by extension, the disease categories through which medicine was understood and practiced.

“Getting more Women into Business”

Gwen Kay (SUNY Oswego)

In the early 20th century, teaching women science was often dismissed as impractical. Similarly, the idea that women would pursue a career in business was also dismissed as impractical. In the discipline of home economics, both science and business flouri