Fa-Ti Fan, State University of New York at Binghamton and Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton

Rutgers University

Saturday, April 3, 2010, 3:07 am EDT

Time: 11:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Place: Van Dyck Hall, 301, Rutgers University, New Brunswick


Pre-circulated paper; for a copy, contact James Delbourgo, jdelbourgo@history.rutgers.edu


Abstract: China experienced a series of major earthquakes in the 1960s and 70s. In response to the threat of earthquakes, earthquake prediction became one of the most important and urgent scientific programs in China. Guided by scientific ideas as well as political beliefs, the Chinese developed theories and practices of earthquake prediction based on everyday observation, and the Communist state recruited the masses for this purpose. This paper examines mass participation in earthquake prediction in Communist China with an emphasis on the epistemology underlying the techniques of observation and prediction.

Date
Sat, Apr 3 2010, 3:07am | 0 seconds
Original CHSTM Directors, Officers and Staff

Directors, officers and staff at the Center's incorporation in 2007 at the Chemical Heritage Foundation (now Science History Institute), Philadelphia 2007.