The Jesuits and Science: Their Contribution to Cyclone Prediction
Aitor Anduaga Egaña
Basque Museum of the History of Medicine and Science at the EHU, Ikerbasque
DIPC Josebe Olarra Seminar Room
DIPC
Group for the Integrated History and Philosophy of Science (iHPS, EHU)
DIPC, together with the Integrated History and Philosophy of Science group (iHPS, EHU), launches a monthly colloquium featuring professional historians of science, aimed at broadening the training of scientific researchers as well as engaging the general public on topics related to the history of science.
The Jesuits and Science: Their Contribution to Cyclone Prediction (in Spanish)
It is often forgotten that the Society of Jesus was one of the most prolific organisations in modern science and, as such, played an essential role in its development. This seminar aims to break with the historical dichotomy between ‘science’ and ‘religion’, showing how Jesuit empirical thought shaped observational sciences, from meteorology to seismology, in the 19th and 20th centuries. It will examine the "paradox" of a religious order that pioneered the establishment of the world’s first hurricane and typhoon warning services. The aim is to show the public that these services were not a chance achievement, but the result of a transnational network of knowledge which, despite secular and anti-clerical currents, managed to propel Jesuit science to the frontiers of physical knowledge.
The seminar will be in Spanish.
Aitor Anduaga Egaña is an Ikerbasque research professor at the Basque Museum of the History of Medicine and Science at the University of the Basque Country (EHU). He has published extensively on the social history of physics, geophysics and technology. His works include Wireless and Empire. Geopolitics, Radio Industry and Ionosphere in the British Empire (Oxford University Press, 2009), Politics, Statistics and Weather Forecasting, 1840–1910. Taming the Weather (Routledge, 2019) and Ciclones y terremotos. Jesuitas, predicción, comercio y el dominio español en Cuba y Filipinas, 1850–1898 (Historiaren Euskal Museioa, 2019).