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Experts spotlight financial strategies to advance sustainability
Financial strategies can advance sustainability goals, but only if environmental trade-offs can be measured and incorporated into decisions, a panel of experts said at a Climate Week NYC 2026 event co-hosted by the SC Johnson College and Cornell Atkinson.
NOW-NY urges special session to close voluntary intoxication loophole
Sonia Ossorio spoke about the issue.
Business News September 2026
• Fall at the Farmers Market • The Fraud Clock is Ticking • Remodel to achieve your Forever Home • Roger, the Computer Guy! • Cornell Farm’s Century Farm Celebration • Grand Opening Celebration at OR Credit Union • The Confidence Within: an educational pelvic wellness experience • Back-to-School Dinner Dilemma, Solved
Carl Sagan Institute director to deliver URI Honors Colloquium lecture on Oct. 27
KINGSTON, R.I. – Oct. 19, 2026 – Over the past decade, Lisa Kaltenegger, founding director of the Cornell University Carl Sagan Institute, has worked with NASA, academic institutions and multiple countries to find new ways to spot life in the cosmos. Finding such life has significant implications when it comes to understanding outer space more […]
Attorney general candidates trade blows in fiery NY1 debate
Letitia James accused Republican Saritha Komatireddy of being a puppet for President Trump, while defending her comments on the Cornell rape case.
Video: How Title IX Became a Political Tool
After a Cornell student’s lawsuit alleging the school failed her when she reported sexual assault, there’s a new focus on Title IX, the federal law barring sex discrimination in federally funded education. Our Washington correspondent Michael C. Bender traces how interpretations of the law shifted between the Obama and Trump administrations.
Health systems joining efforts to reduce homelessness
From developing housing to deploying mobile medical units, most of the nation's large health systems are investing in efforts to alleviate homelessness—and, in turn, reduce emergency care costs, new Cornell ...
Letitia James is the most 'political' AG in the country: Jonathan Turley
Constitutional law expert Jonathan Turley and criminal defense attorney Donna Rotunno analyze the Cornell sexual assault investigation and the federal probe into Congresswoman Ilhan Omar on 'Fox News Sunday.'
Laurels and Darts: Following the political money.
Illuminating campaign finance reporting from LAist on the city’s mayoral race. Plus: A poor choice of words in the Cornell case, and the value of five-dollar obituaries.
Lawmakers renew calls to strengthen New York's sexual assault laws
The gathering came just days after prosecutors said they were reopening an investigation into an alleged gang rape at a Cornell University fraternity.
Ribbon Cut On Relocated Child Behavioral Health Hub
Cornell Scott-Hill Health Center cut the ribbon Wednesday on the new home of its Child & Family Guidance Program at 150 Dixwell Ave., moving the children's behavioral health services hub into a larger space inside ConnCORP's newly built First HAVEN building.
NY AG appointment to Cornell rape case ‘reeks of politics’: Defense attorney
Defense attorney Mark Eiglarsh voiced concerns on “Elizabeth Vargas Tonight” that politics could taint the investigation.
Researchers Discover a Blood-Pressure Drug May Stimulate “Healthy” Brown Fat
Losartan, a drug commonly prescribed for high blood pressure, boosts brown adipose tissue or “brown fat” activity and enhances its metabolism, according to a preclinical study by Weill Cornell Medicine, Rockefeller University and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center researchers.
Chemistry professor honored for work on biodegradable polymers
Geoffrey Coates was named a co-winner of the prestigious Balzan Prize for his work transforming renewable feedstocks and recovered carbon dioxide into high-performance, degradable and recyclable materials.
Cornell Cooperative Extension to host annual meeting, dinner
NEW HARTFORD — Cornell Cooperative Extension of Oneida County will host its Annual Meeting and Stakeholders Dinner at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 22, at Valentino’s Banquet Hall, 3899 Oneida
Lawyer for Cornell accuser says university doctor was 'yet another failure'
Jane Doe told the school's doctor that she had contracted an infection "in a traumatic way", but they "didn't really follow up", according to the New York Times.
THE BUSINESS COUNCIL ANNOUNCES LEADERSHIP TRANSITION AS GOLDMAN SACHS CEO DAVID SOLOMON TAKES THE HELM
Washington, D.C., Oct. 16, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Business Council today announced that Goldman Sachs Chairman and CEO David Solomon will become its next leader, succeeding Brian Cornell, Executive Chair of Target Corporation. In this role, Solomon will chair one of the nation’s most distinguished business organizations, bringing together the world’s foremost CEOs to confront emerging challenges, advance innovation, and help define the future of global leadership. Cornell has led The Busin
Cornell science educator David Kornreich, Ph.D. ’01, dies at 52
David Kornreich, Ph.D. ’01, who taught physics and astronomy in the College of Arts and Sciences, died Aug. 30 in a plane crash near Ithaca. Kornreich, a native of Houston, Texas, was 52.
AG Letitia James comments on Cornell gang rape case, her Republican challenger
James and Komatireddy will debate on Spectrum News 1 on Thursday, Oct. 8.
Smart drones, safe skies: Student’s system tests, coordinates drone fleets
Doctoral student’s project devises an autonomous airspace coordination system built around a real-time simulation and validation technology.
Conspiracy and politics: How a man ran a St. Louis County city from behind bars
While in the St. Louis County jail, now-former Riverview Mayor Michael Cornell made significant changes in the city’s government and police department, jail call recordings obtained by First Alert 4 Investigates uncovered.
Sunny Hostin says Cynthia Erivo phoned her with concerns over ‘The View’ host’s remarks about Cornell case
Cynthia Erivo called Sunny Hostin with concerns over ‘The View’ cohost’s controversial remarks about the alleged Cornell sexual assault case: ‘Sis, I know you.’
Peter Katzenstein receives triennial James Madison Award
The APSA James Madison Award recognizes professor Peter Katzenstein for distinguished contributions to political science.
NSF grant to explore whether AI can support students’ critical thinking
Cornell has received a $750,000 grant to study AI-powered reflection tools that build student critical thinking skills.
Nobel laureate Eric Cornell: ‘Progress in science comes from asking new questions’
Nobel Prize-winning physicist Eric Cornell says scientists should focus on doing good science and embrace the joy of discovery, and one day they may discover something new to everybody.
‘Hitting dead ends and rethinking everything’ – BURE summer scholars explore research life
This summer, 60 undergraduates participated in the Bowers Undergraduate Research Experience, a 10-week, paid program where undergraduate students do real-world research alongside Bowers faculty.
Epic v. Health Gorilla: “Working as Designed”
We’ve been on a bit of a legal bender since just before Labor Day, so let’s keep a good thing going! As predicted, Epic does not want its case against Health Gorilla consolidated with the data breach cases, so it filed a motion to vacate the conditional transfer. And because they had to explain to the Panel why this case is different, they put a good chunk of previously unseen Epic v. Health Gorilla discovery record on the public docket! Roll the tape! The Case Against Consolidation Before we get to the fun stuff, let’s do the housekeeping. Epic's motion boils down to three arguments (sorted in ascending order of how well they land): A judge has already decided this. Judge Olguin declined to relate the fraud action to another ELU case (Patterson v. UVA Health), holding that the two do not call for determination of substantially similar questions of law or fact. Epic asks the Panel to treat that (a Rule 42 ruling) as law of the case. The overlap is thin. The three common questions Health Gorilla and the Panel identified are neither numerous nor complex (the qualities the Panel looks for before centralizing). Moreover, they are outnumbered by the questions unique to each side: The breach cases turn on security architecture, notification timing, and patient-level access. The fraud action turns on false treatment attestations and breaches of the framework agreements. Consolidation costs more than it saves. 17 of 21 parties in the fraud action do not appear in a breach case. The cases are also at very different stages: Olguin has a scheduling order running through a January 2028 trial while the breach actions are much more nascent. I like the last two more than the first because they attack the basic economics of an MDL: there just may not be enough shared discovery here to justify dragging all the defendants and a relatively mature fraud case all the way to Florida. On the other hand (while I know exceedingly little about MDL and Rule 42), I have a hard time seeing why a district judge's decision about his own docket would control what the Panel does with the separate § 1407 question. I might be reading between the lines too much, but I sorta think Epic's own brief half-concedes this, framing the two provisions as "two sides of the same coin" but then adding "respectfully submit" (which is often lawyer speak for “we know this is a reach”). The Ladder Gets More Rungs Anyway, the arguments are not why you're here (aside from the lawyers, maybe). Back in June, we discussed how Epic was using the smaller defendants to build an evidentiary ladder toward Health Gorilla and Unit 387. Turns out discovery has been adding a few rungs of its own.
University of Miami names new interventional radiology chair
Stephen Solomon, MD, joins the institution after previously serving as IR chief at the New York-based Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and a professor with Weill Cornell.
Retiring from Farming
Start now to ensure your farm passes to the next generation Deborah Jeanne Post [caption id=attachment_11062 align=alignright width=405] Adam C. Howell, outreach director at Cornell’s NY FarmNet: “Retirement from farming is atypical planning,” he says.[/caption] Roughly 70% of family-owned farms will transfer ownership withing the next two decades, according to data from to the USDA census. Only 30% of those will remain in the family. The number of farms in New York is shrinking as the size of farms increases. In other words, there are fewer farms in the state, but they’re much larger. This is why succession planning is so important for family farms. A farm represents not only a way to make a living but a legacy and family tradition. Many families want to preserve the small farm segment of agriculture and the values it represents. Passing the family farm to the next generation can’t be left to chance. And it shouldn’t be left for “the kids to figure out” after the older generation dies. Succession planning in agriculture isn’t like other types of business retirement planning or personal final planning. “Retirement from farming is atypical planning,” said Adam C. Howell, outreach director at Cornell’s NY FarmNet. “Most farmers, their assets and the way they live and survive in retirement is tied up in the equity in the farm. Those conversations must take place a lot earlier than they think. They’re dealing with something asset-heavy that may require a trust and tax planning.” NY FarmNet offers farmers free, confidential consultation services regarding financial and business management, and family, and mental health support for farmers in New York state. It’s a program of Cornell University in Ithaca. Howell urges farmers to begin the conversation early. Most family farms are run by generations with the oldest generation most involved and typically with fewer of the middle-aged adults and young adults involved. Some of the younger generation may have off-farm jobs and not live on the homestead. “Different people have different expectations on their legacy,” Howell said. “Intergenerational conflict and discussions can be difficult. It may be good to check with NY FarmNet or Ag Mediation to help mediate these conversations with a third party. A lot of farms have broken up because people can’t decide how to divide things.” New York State Agricultural Mediation Program is a USDA‑certified, free or low‑cost service for farmers. Fair is not always equal. A sole owner simply stating that he wants to divide things equally among his children may leave one-quarter of the farm operation to an adult child who moved away and hasn’t sat in a tractor for decades. The three adult children who have toiled on the farm for 30 years may need to buy out the fourth, non-farming sibling but cannot because all of their money is tied up in the equipment, land and stock that supports their livelihood. Their payrate may not allow them to set aside much to buy out the non-farming sibling. As a result, they may need to sell parts of the farm off in order to keep it. However, doing so may limit their ability to sufficiently support their families. The farm owner may need to bequeath more assets to the farming siblings because their efforts have kept the farm going and without those assets and their work, the farm will cease operations. Howell advises seeking professional help on tax and legal issues. Without it, families can be exposed to expensive problems and infighting. A third-party expert can help farm families navigate what is truly fair in the family’s succession plans. Beyond the practical aspects of inheritance, succession also relies upon planning who will operate the farm and how. “I think it’s important that farmers understand the means and methods of farming are always changing,” Howell said. For example, many young adult farmers earn a degree at a school such as Cornell, SUNY Cobleskill or Morrisville, work on a different farm for a while and then return to their family farm with big ideas on how to improve the farm — if only their dad and uncles will agree. Intergenerational conflict is often centered on newer ideas such agritourism, online marketing and shipping goods. “It causes conflict,” Howell said. “A lot of it comes down to communication and respect within the family. If no one in the family wants to take on farming, what we’ll see is older farmers start to help trusted managers buy into the farm.” The middle-aged generation, now in their 40s and 50s, often struggle with wresting the helm from their parents. Howell said that many older farmers don’t discuss with their grown children their vital business information such as vendors, ordering supplies, pricing, recordkeeping and farm planning. They even claim that “the kids” aren’t ready yet. These gaps in cross-training may cause significant problems even before the older generation dies, if there’s an illness or injury. Howell urges farmers to document these processes and cross-train others on the farm how to handle these areas “to make sure if one person is incapacitated, the entire operation is not at risk,” he said. Mark Modzeleski, financial adviser, financial planner and president at Legacy Wealth Advisors of NY in Syracuse, advises families to talk sooner than later about who should be operating the farm. “Someone is driving the farm,” he said. “Have you decided who? Be honest when you have that conversation. Who do they turn to when there’s a question? Or who has the potential to be leaders?” Planning for leadership continuity is vital. Unfortunately, talking like this can become fraught with emotions if it’s only the family involved. Modzeleski advised finding a third party who can help drive the conversation. “Invite the right people to the conversation who can get you from point A to point B,” he said. “This is a marathon, not a sprint.” It may take sitting down a few times with an estate planning attorney who specializes in farm transition, along with a tax professional and others who can help moderate and plan. Family members, owners and possibly, integral farm managers should attend the meetings. “Figure out what you want your legacy to be,” Modzeleski added.
Woroniuk Named Capital District Grand Collegiate Sports Woman of the Year
The University at Albany women's volleyball's Shynelle Woroniuk received Grand honors at the Capital District Sports Women of the Year awards event, Monday evening.
Family behavioral health services center relocated in New Haven
The Cornell Scott-Hill Health Center's Child and Family Guidance Program has relocated to the Connecticut Center for Arts and Technology's (ConnCAT) new building.
New fellowships link research, communities, youth purpose
The Purpose Science and Innovation Exchange has received a three-year, $3.5 million grant from the Bezos Family Foundation to launch two new fellowships aimed to help youth develop a sense of purpose.
Patrick’s Politics: The Cornell rape case should enrage you
Seven men. Seven hours. Irreparable damage. Over the past week, the world has come to know the horrifying rape that took place at Cornell University. If what happened at a Chi Phi fraternity house …
UNGA81: Robust laboratory systems key to preventing, detecting and responding to health threats
At a side event co-organized by the Mérieux Foundation USA, Weill Cornell Medicine, GHESKIO Centers and PAHO, PAHO Director highlights lessons from the Americas and the importance of sustained investment in laboratory capacity between crises
New York lawmaker seeks more data in 'Enough is Enough' law
Amid the Cornell University rape investigation, there’s a new push to update New York’s “Enough is Enough” law.
Today’s clicks can reveal tomorrow’s breakthroughs
The trail of likes, shares and downloads we leave across the internet could help predict successful innovations years in advance.
Can AI boost open-mindedness? Team wins $1.49M grant to find out
A $1.49 million award from the John Templeton Foundation will enable Cornell researchers Gordon Pennycook and David Rand ’04 to explore whether artificial intelligence can be used to understand and increase open-mindedness.
Digital research repository arXiv to start new chapter as nonprofit
On July 1, the digital research respository arXiv, house at Cornell Tech, will transition to an independent nonprofit, enabling faster technological development, expanded partnerships and long-term financial sustainability.
What ‘healthy’ labeling on packaged food conceals
Looking for nutritious foods in the grocery store? Don't believe everything you read.
What the science of memory tells us about sexual assault cases
Amid accusations of rape at Cornell University, a growing body of research is challenging assumptions about how victims remember details of their assaults.
When worldbuilding impulses merge with real world politics
“Reactionary Worldbuilding,” a book co-edited by comparative literature scholar Anindita Banerjee, explores how speculative fiction and worldbuilding have influenced extremist ideologies and political movements.
Light pollution’s ‘transformation of night’ requires prompt action
Science historian Sara B. Pritchard describes a massive spike in the amount of artificial light in the 21st century, with light pollution increasing by nearly 10% annually between 2011 and 2022.
The push to close New York's rape loophole law
New developments continue to emerge in the investigation of a woman who has accused multiple fraternity brothers at Cornell University of sexual assault.
Hochul to address Cornell University case after appointing Leticia James to investigate alleged gang-rape
Kathy Hochul said she no longer has faith in the local district attorney’s ability to handle the case, which has restarted a national conversation about sexual assault on college campuses
Cornell Yang Center for Wildlife Health awards seed funding to five conservation efforts around the globe
The CCF provides catalytic seed funding to spark pioneering applied research to advance wildlife conservation solutions. The fund prioritizes initiatives that improve the health of free-ranging wildlife and/or solve environmental problems via a One Health lens.
AI is changing expectations for MBA graduates
While MBA job prospects are expected to remain stable in the near future, new hires will be held to higher standards inside rapidly evolving workplaces.
Jenga and the U.S. census: Way more than just counting people
A new book, “Data Are Made, Not Found,” from danah boyd, professor of communication, is an insider’s account of the 2020 census and how the pandemic and political forces from left, right and center threatened to take it down like a Jenga tower.
The College of Arts and Sciences welcomes new faculty for 2026-27
Twenty new faculty have joined the College of Arts & Sciences this year, strengtheningdepartments and programs with their wide-ranging expertise and filling numerous leadershiproles for the College and university.
Prosper Portland’s executive director discusses revitalization plans for downtown
Prosper Portland executive director Cornell Wesley discussed downtown revitalization efforts following a report indicating that pedestrian traffic reached its highest levels since the pandemic.
AI, data science leaders join Cornell’s Radical Collaboration initiative
Cornell is expanding its expertise in artificial intelligence and data science thanks to the arrival of new faculty, with support from the Radical Collaboration initiative, building a research community that reaches across disciplines.
We need stronger sexual health education — the ‘Cornell 7’ case shows why
Allegations of sexual assault at Cornell University, and the public response to them, reveal persistent misunderstandings about consent, bystander responsibility and sexual violence.
Commentary: AI Could Help to Implement Health Policy
Artificial intelligence may enhance implementation of a new federal rule requiring aduts enrolled under the Affordable Care Act expansion of Medicaid eligibility to complete qualifying work hours or community engagement activities or meet exemption criteria to maintain coverage, according to a new commentary.
Dr. Zachary Grinspan Awarded CDC Grant for Epilepsy Research
Dr. Zachary Grinspan, associate professor of pediatrics and director of the Pediatric Epilepsy Program at Weill Cornell Medicine, has been awarded a four-year, $1.6 million CDC grant to undertake wide-reaching research aiming to produce a new, more detailed picture of childhood epilepsy.
Culberg joins NASA effort to probe rapidly changing Arctic glaciers
Riley Culberg, assistant professor, is a member of the science team for Snow4Flow, a new NASA mission to study how much ice glaciers contain and how much new snow they receive.
Model Helps Scientists Build Better Protein-Degrading Therapies
A team of Weill Cornell Medicine investigators has developed a computer model that will help scientists more efficiently develop protein-destroying therapies, a newer type of treatment that is particularly promising for cancer.
Florence Pugh feels ‘rage’ over Cornell sexual assault scandal: ‘Fear of it lives in our bodies’
Florence Pugh addressed Instagram censoring her post about sexual assault amid the ‘Cornell 7’ scandal: ‘The fear of it lives in our bodies,’ the ‘East of Eden’ actress said.
Environmentalist photographer kicks off A.D. White Professors-at-Large series
James Balog will discuss his work documenting the world-wide rapid retreat of glaciers on Sept. 17 as part of the visiting professors program.
Tiny platform creates and directs microbubbles on demand
Set within a 3-millimeter area on a chip, the new device produces hydrogen gas bubbles on a grid of electrodes, then powers the bubbles up with acoustic energy through ultrasound.
WA church sermons on abortion, witchcraft come back to haunt candidate
Katy Cornell is running for an open House position in Washington's 26th House District.
Barbara Finlay, psychology professor emerita, dies at age 75
Barbara Finlay, the W.R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Psychology Emerita and an award-winning scholar who challenged traditional thinking regarding psychology and brain function, died Sept. 12.
Sea change: WildFin aims to improve fish behavior analysis in the wild
A doctoral student and a team of Cornell researchers and colleagues created WildFin, a data set composed of nine hours of video that they labeled frame-by-frame with fish behaviors.
'Law and Order: SVU' star Mariska Hargitay condemns Cornell rape case
Mariska Hargitay is joining the chorus of people demanding accountability for a former Cornell University student's alleged rape.
Studying Science in an Anti-Scientific Time
This Chronicle Review Deep Cut was first published in 2025. By Julianne Werlin Thanks for reading The Chronicle Review! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. Subscribe The last two decades have not been kind to science studies. Already bruised and battered by the “science wars” of the 1990s, by the 2000s sociologists of science — who had long argued that science had to be understood in its human context — were encountering the funhouse-mirror version of their own views in right-wing critiques of climate scientists. It was enough to give some prominent scholars pause. “Was I wrong to participate in the invention of this field known as science studies?” asked Bruno Latour, the most famous sociologist of science in the world, in 2003. “Should we apologize for having been wrong all along? Or should we rather bring the sword of criticism to criticism itself and do a bit of soul-searching here: What were we really after when we were so intent on showing the social construction of scientific facts?” In response, Latour proposed a change of method and attitude. Science studies, now chastened and contrite, would no longer seek to strip facts of their authority, but to enrich and enhance them. What this meant in practice was never fully clear. But his diagnosis of problems resonated, even if his solutions did not. Latour’s exercise in public hand-wringing signaled a shift in mood. By 2016, with the first election of Donald Trump, the idea that skepticism of science was a right-wing position, not a left-wing one, had become a commonplace, discussed eagerly in The New York Times. For liberals, vaccine denial during the Covid era and Trump’s second-term attacks on the funding of scientific research, covered extensively in these pages, added a new urgency to the defense of science on both practical and principled grounds. There was little appetite for a sociology or philosophy of science that emphasized the messiness and missteps of the scientific process rather than its integrity and triumphs. The distinguished historian of science Peter Dear’s new book, The World as We Know It: From Natural Philosophy to Modern Science (Princeton University Press, 2025), which seeks to tell the story of 18th- and 19th-century science for a general public, may seem comfortably remote from these bitter contests. In its 16 short chapters, Dear draws swift, sure sketches of major discoveries from Newton to Einstein, ably guiding the reader through debates on stellar nebulae, animal taxonomy, atomic chemistry, evolution, and other flashpoints in the history of science. But though a work of history, Dear’s book must still negotiate our polarized present. In a blurb on its back cover, the historian of biology Lynn K. Nyhart alludes to the “present moment, when scientific knowledge is being swamped by misinformation and its institutions are under siege.” Dear himself, in his conclusion, refers to the “yard signs” and “bumper stickers” that proclaim “Science Is Real.” One antidote to both anti-science propaganda and to reductive slogans in science’s defense is a robust history and philosophy of science: exactly what Dear’s scholarship has long offered. But his new book illustrates how difficult such work has become. Dear, an emeritus professor of history at Cornell University, is best known as a creative and philosophically minded historian of the Scientific Revolution. His edited volume The Literary Structure of Scientific Argument (1991) analyzed the rhetoric of Galileo’s thought experiments to brilliant effect. Discipline and Experience: The Mathematical Way in the Scientific Revolution (1995) was a major contribution to the analysis of scientific experiments in early modern Europe and beyond, while Revolutionizing the Sciences: European Knowledge in Transition, 1500-1700 (2001), now in its third edition, remains one of the best overviews of the profound epistemological upheavals of 16th- and 17th-century science. But Dear has also ventured into later periods. Nearly two decades ago, in The Intelligibility of Nature: How Science Makes Sense of the World (2006), he turned to the 18th and 19th centuries to sketch a history and theory of scientific knowledge. Aimed at a generalist audience, Dear’s simple prose belied serious philosophical ambitions. Science, Dear argued, has two aspects: “natural philosophy,” the quest to understand the true nature of the universe, and “instrumentality,” the applied skills and technologies that allow us to manipulate the world for human advantage. Both strands are ancient, but the innovation of the phenomenon we call “science” was to yoke them together. As Francis Bacon wrote, “Human knowledge and human power meet in one; for where the cause is not known, the effect cannot be produced,” an insight typically abridged to “knowledge is power.” Or, in Bertrand Russell’s characteristically blunt phrase, science has two functions, “1. to enable us to know things, and 2., to enable us to do things.” So far, so conventional. But Dear took issue with this familiar story in one respect. Bacon’s formula implied that theory and practice could be fused in a single method. In fact, Dear argued, the quest to understand nature and the desire to manipulate it were coupled only loosely. They could come together, but they could also pull apart. Focusing on natural philosophy, the “knowing” half of the scientific circle, he used a series of case studies from cosmology, taxonomy, chemistry, electromagnetism, and quantum theory to show how theories changed over time, in dialogue with practice, but never reducible to it. Take the case of matter, the basic substrate of the physical world. In the 18th and 19th centuries, scientists not only disagreed about what it was, but also about how well it could be known. In 1789, the chemist Antoine Lavoisier dismissed speculation about the atomic composition of chemicals as “discussions entirely of a metaphysical nature,” as he sought to orient chemistry away from philosophical abstraction and toward laboratory results. But in the 19th century, atoms returned with a vengeance in the atomic chemistry of John Dalton, who wanted to explain the underlying structure of nature. It was not just that Dalton and Lavoisier had a different set of experimental results, or even a different theory, Dear showed. What counted as an explanation had changed. In arguing that scientific theories depended on their intelligibility to human beings with complex arrays of beliefs and commitments, Dear was in sympathy with science studies. Key figures such as the sociologist Steven Shapin emphasized the importance of psychological mechanisms like trust in the formation and acceptance of scientific ideas. But in focusing on the scientific pursuit of knowledge, not its politics or economics, Dear resisted the more cynical perspective of some of his colleagues. The Intelligibility of Nature strikes a very different note than Shapin’s collection of a few years later, Never Pure: Historical Studies of Science as If It Was Produced by People With Bodies, Situated in Time, Space, Culture, and Society, and Struggling for Credibility and Authority (2010), to name just one example. Walking a very fine line, Dear depicted science as driven at once by complex social dynamics and by the intellectual power of real discoveries. It was a testament not only to his own acumen but also to the vitality of the field that he was able to do so. Nearly two decades later, The World as We Know It returns to the questions broached in The Intelligibility of Nature. Like Dear’s earlier study, it begins with the Newtonian cosmos and ends with debates between Einstein and Bohr on quantum physics. Beyond its terminal figures, many of the same characters appear in both studies, including the naturalists John Ray and the Comte de Buffon; the chemists Étienne François Geoffroy, Antoine Lavoisier, and John Dalton; as well as Charles Darwin and Michael Faraday, among others. Its subject is nearly identical: As in The Intelligibility of Nature, The World as We Know It considers natural philosophy as opposed to instrumentality, here defined as the “desire to create a picture of what the world is really like — the world as God knows it — rather than simply having instrumental or operational control over it.” The two books also overlap in insights — and sometimes even in language. The reader who has learned in The Intelligibility of Nature that Buffon’s method of classifying animals “reflected his belief in the importance of the senses and empiricism in learning about nature (a doctrine associated with Newton and the philosopher John Locke)” will experience a sense of déjà vu on reading, in The World as We Know It, that the classification “reflects Buffon’s commitment to the epistemological stance of Newton and his philosophical underlaborer John Locke, who stressed the role of the senses in creating natural knowledge.” Later in the passage, we read that, “because of its stress on understanding the ways of life of animals in their environments, Buffon’s approach could almost be labeled (anachronistically) as ‘ecological.’” And again, “an anachronistic way of putting it would be to say that Buffon recommends an ecological mode of understanding.” Likewise, in The Intelligibility of Nature we read of Dalton that he was initially drawn to meteorology, and that: He did a bit of experimental work on these things, especially having to do with the water-holding capacity of gases, but his real interest lay in understanding what, at an underlying natural-philosophical level, was really going on physically.” Whereas, in The World as We Know It: He did experimental work on these things, especially concerning the water-holding capacity of gases — although not at a very refined level quantitatively — but he was continually trying to develop a theoretical conception of what was happening physically. The final full chapter of each book closes on the same resigned note. Intelligibility: These days, most serious work on the natural philosophical underpinnings and implications of quantum mechanics is performed not by physicists but by philosophers of science. Among scientific practitioners themselves, Bohr’s attempt to use instrumentality as sufficient grounds for a respectable science has met with a high degree of success. And again, in The World as We Know It: Bohr’s and Einstein’s concerns are now questions that are mostly discussed by philosophers of science rather than by physicists themselves. The marginalization of these sorts of questions amounts to the demise of natural philosophy, at least in physics, in the 20th century. Quantum mechanics “works,” and that’s good enough for most scientists who encounter it. Examples could be multiplied. When handling the same subject matter, some echoes are inevitable. Scholars should not feel that because they have written “Isaac Newton died in 1727” in one book, in the next they must describe him as perishing, expiring, or meeting his maker. But the repetitions of language and arguments (not to mention six reproduced images) threaded throughout The World as We Know It are more extensive than that. They should have been caught by Princeton University Press or its reviewers, and revised. Because the two books have so much in common, it is easy to see where they diverge. The World as We Know It is a less theoretical work than its predecessor. The sociology of knowledge that organized The Intelligibility of Nature has been reduced in scale and folded into readings and examples. The taut interplay between history and theory, which gave the earlier study so much interest, is there, but it is subtle. In the earlier book, the case studies demonstrated theoretical claims about the character and development of science. In the later work, each narrative of discovery is an end in itself. Insights emerge from the history, but they do not control the organization of the study. With the theory muted, it can be hard to understand the logic uniting Dear’s sprawling history of more than two centuries of scientific knowledge. The 16 brisk chapters cover an enormous amount of material. But the closer the volume edges to comprehensiveness, the more obvious the missing elements become. A chapter on “Institutions and Pedagogy,” describing the birth of the research university, illustrates the problem. Inserted roughly halfway through the book, the unnumbered chapter is designed as an “entr’acte,” in acknowledgement that it does not fit the study’s organization around scientific discoveries. Yet as Dear is well aware, no general history of the development of modern science can bracket its 19th-century institutionalization and professionalization. It was the 19th-century university, after all, that gave us the “scientist,” a term coined by the Cambridge philosopher William Whewell. Dear’s history of scientific discoveries implies a wider social and institutional history, but it remains largely subterranean, only occasionally extruded under the pressure of the narrative. It must be said that the balance is not all on the side of the earlier study. There are some advantages to the more historical, less theoretical organization of The World as We Know It. Dear’s accounts of paradigm shifts are remarkably lucid, no small accomplishment given that they span fields and centuries. He makes excellent use of the wealth of new scholarship on Darwin and his influences, to which he has himself contributed. It is satisfying to see puzzle pieces from Buffon’s natural history, Georges Cuvier’s animal taxonomy, Thomas Robert Malthus’s demography, and Charles Lyell’s geology recombined seamlessly in the Darwinian jigsaw. Likewise, Dear’s discussion of stellar nebulae, divided between chapters two and 15, shows vividly how Newton, Kant, Herschel, and Hubble reimagined insights and observations as they sought to discover whether the diffuse light that filtered through early telescopes was a glowing, gaseous substance or discrete but distant stars. Yet despite such pleasures, the book remains a more modest work than The Intelligibility of Nature. Dear has clearly not changed his views about the history of science. But in the two decades that have elapsed, the discipline and the world around it have changed, making it harder to write a sociologically and philosophically ambitious history of science for the general reader. That is a shame, because in the age of Silicon Valley and biotechnology, both the reciprocity and the tensions Dear identified between the epistemological and instrumental ambitions of science are more evident than ever. In recent years, some of the most exciting new books on the history of science in early modernity have focused precisely on this pressure point. Important studies such as Pamela H. Smith’s From Lived Experience to the Written Word (2022), James Poskett’s Horizons: The Global Origins of Modern Science (2022), and Vera Keller’s The Interlopers: Early Stuart Projects and the Undisciplining of Knowledge (2023) all shed new light on how early modern science negotiated the relationship between its instrumental and epistemological ambitions, or in Russell’s phrase, knowing and doing. There is every opportunity for a philosophically informed approach to draw new insights from this wealth of material. Dear, unfortunately, has not done so in The World as We Know It. But for future scholars of the history of science, his body of work over nearly four decades may provide just the model. Julianne Werlin is an associate professor of English at Duke University. 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