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From two cultures to new cultures

Nature Nanotechnology volume 4, pages 5–6 (2009)Cite this article

The differences between the sciences and the humanities have been debated in academic circles for decades. Chris Toumey explores how nanotechnology fits into this picture and how the nature of science itself is a legitimate subject for researchers in the humanities and social sciences.

When C. P. Snow's lecture on The Two Cultures was circulated as a pamphlet in May 1959, it had an immediate impact that can still be felt today. According to Snow — a physicist, government administrator and novelist — those who work in the sciences see the world very differently from those who work in the humanities. This divide worried Snow because it meant that many people who were well-versed in the humanities, “literary intellectuals” as he called them, were downright ignorant of science, and vice versa1. Since then, many trees have died so that reactions to Snow's arguments could be printed, along with reactions to the reactions and ideas and proposals for schemes to unite the sciences and the humanities.

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References

  1. Snow, C. P. The Two Cultures (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1998; first published in 1959).

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  2. Milburn, C. Nanovision (Duke Univ. Press, Durham, NC, 2008).

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  1. Chris Toumey is at the University of South Carolina NanoCenter, 120 Sumwalt College, University of South Carolina, 1212 Greene Street, Columbia, South Carolina 29208, USA. Toumey@sc.edu.,

    Chris Toumey

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  1. Chris Toumey
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Toumey, C. From two cultures to new cultures. Nature Nanotech 4, 5–6 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2008.382

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