Vol. 29 2009https://hdl.handle.net/10481/775512026-04-20T07:46:00Z2026-04-20T07:46:00ZLa mirada occidental hacia el otro: dos siglos de difíciles encuentrosGirón Sierra, Álvarohttps://hdl.handle.net/10481/775702022-10-26T10:31:31ZLa mirada occidental hacia el otro: dos siglos de difíciles encuentros
Girón Sierra, Álvaro
La expansión europea, que comienza a desarrollarse de manera palpable
desde los descubrimientos de los navegantes portugueses a partir del
XV, alcanza un impresionante desarrollo en el periodo que va desde
mediados del XVIII a la Gran Guerra, entrando en crisis con los procesos
de descolonización posteriores a 1945. Es bien sabido que la actividad
científica, en la medida que era un instrumento geopolítico de primer
nivel, tuvo un papel enormemente relevante en el proceso. A la vez que
se abren nuevos mercados y se establecen nuevos equilibrios de poder,
mares y continentes son meticulosamente cartografiados, nuevas especies
vegetales y animales catalogadas, otros cuerpos y mentes sometidas
a la mirada médica. Mientras tanto, en las metrópolis se establecen
grandes museos de ciencias naturales, lugares en los que no sólo se
impulsa y divulga la investigación científica 1, sino en los que se celebra
la inexorable marcha de los estados-nación europeos; su capacidad de
establecer conocimientos y poderes globales. Nuevas disciplinas toman
carta de naturaleza en estrecha conexión con este proceso —la Etnología,
la Antropología Física— mientras que otras subdisciplinas dentro de la
medicina —la medicina tropical, por ejemplo— comienzan su desarrollo.
Por otro lado, durante el largo periodo en que la ciencia de laboratorio todavía no había establecido una primacía indiscutible, la forma más
habitual de acreditarse como naturalista era a través del viaje científico.
Viajes que, como muestran muy a las claras las biograf ías de Charles
Darwin, Alexander von Humboldt, Thomas Huxley o Piotr Kropotkin,
estaban de una manera u otra ligados a los intereses y necesidades de los
imperios emergentes.
From prophylaxis to atomic cocktail: Circulation of radioiodineSantesmases, María Jesúshttps://hdl.handle.net/10481/775642022-10-26T08:14:59ZFrom prophylaxis to atomic cocktail: Circulation of radioiodine
Santesmases, María Jesús
This paper is a history of iodine. To trace the trajectory of this element, goiter is
used as a guideline for the articulation of a historical account, as a representation of thyroid
disorders and of the spaces of knowledge and practices related to iodine. Iodine’s journey
from goiter treatment and prophylaxis in the late interwar period took on a new course after
WWII by including the element’s radioactive isotopes. I intend to show how the introduction
of radioiodine contributed to stabilize the epistemic role of iodine, in both its non-radioactive
and radioactive form, in thyroid gland studies and in the treatment of its disorders.
Dreams and needs: The applications of isotopes to industry in Spain in the 1960sBarca Salom, Francesc X.https://hdl.handle.net/10481/775632022-10-26T08:08:29ZDreams and needs: The applications of isotopes to industry in Spain in the 1960s
Barca Salom, Francesc X.
The efforts to change the bleak image of the atom bomb galvanised the discourse
on the peaceful applications of nuclear energy. This contributed to a utopian vision of nuclear
energy, especially of the uses of radioactive isotopes in the immediate post-war period. Desire
for peace engendered dreams of a better future based on the use of radioactivity. These dreams
were first converted into reality using isotopes in medicine. These advances were subsequently
applied to industry and agriculture. This article gives an overview of the peaceful applications
of isotopes in industry and agriculture in Spain. It describes a period in which the initial dreams,
sometimes fantastic and other times down-to-earth, gave rise to the first applications to meet
the needs of economic growth in the 1960s.
Isotope networks: Training, sales and publications, 1946-1965Herran, Néstorhttps://hdl.handle.net/10481/775622022-10-26T08:00:36ZIsotope networks: Training, sales and publications, 1946-1965
Herran, Néstor
The aim of this paper is to provide an assessment of the spread of isotope-related
techniques in Western Europe and the USA in the two first decades after World War II, by focusing
on structural features. In particular, I analyse three major components of the European
«isotope industry»: radioisotope distribution networks, the establishment of training sites and
publications in which isotopes played some role as the object of study or research tools. This
study leads to an assessment of the importance of industrial applications of isotopes in this
period, in relation to biomedical ones, and provides with a transnational comparison in terms
of productivity in material resources, workforce and knowledge.
Cores of production: Reactors and radioisotopes in FranceAdamson, Matthewhttps://hdl.handle.net/10481/775612022-12-07T23:22:05ZCores of production: Reactors and radioisotopes in France
Adamson, Matthew
This paper concerns the technologies used in radioisotope production in the
French Atomic Energy Commission (the Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique) between 1946
and 1958. Particular attention is given to the various instruments used for the bombardment
of isotopes, including accelerators and reactors, and their relationship with the CEA’s radioisotope
preparation laboratories. Ultimately, the vast majority of bombardments took place in
research reactors. These versatile machines, and the isotopes and other materials that passed
through them, act as historical tracers: they shed light on the orientation of the entire atomic
system in which radioisotope production is found.