The Gendered Atom

This is an interesting one. Roszak is examining the ways in which science has been influenced by the fact that, historically, so many scientists have been men–he takes some basic ideas about how traditional masculinity has affected science (e.g. science as “controlling” nature), and explores a bit more through analysis of metaphorical language and such just what has been influence. To oversimplify one example: Atomic theory held sway for longer than it perhaps should have because it appealed to the traditionally masculine concept of The Individual.

He often overreaches, and a few times gets the facts about the science wrong, but I still am really enjoying the book. He pointed out that the CERN headquarters has an ancient alchemist's symbol (snake eating its own tail) emblazoned on a marble floor–signifying to the physicists the universe understanding itself by creating creatures like us who can understand things), and that the valley that Mary Shelley overlooked while she wrote Frankenstein was actually the future home of CERN...and those tidbits make the book worth the read.