Hist of Sci Launches ‘Commission’ Course

It’s a class with no papers, no midterms, and no final exam.

As their one and only project, students in History of Science 295r, “Scientific and Legal Doubt: Inter-School, Faculty-Student Workshop,” will have to produce a report examining the uses and abuses of scientific consensus, expert authority, and statistical evidence in major legal battles.

Co-taught by Pellegrino University Professor Peter L. Galison ’77 and Smith Jr. Professor of Law Martha L. Minow, the class is conducted as a commission—the first of its kind at Harvard.

“We both think that increasingly, science is involved with some of the crucial legal decisions of our time, and the way science appears in the courtroom has often been very problematic,” said Galison in a phone interview from New York.

Capped at 20 students, the course attracted a fairly equal mix of undergraduates, graduate students, and law school students in its first meeting on Wednesday. They will listen to experts who have testified in related cases and split into three groups to make recommendations in the final report for debates on climate change, evolution and intelligent design, and the causal relationship between tobacco and cancer. The report will be accessible to the public via the Internet.

This isn’t the first time the pair has joined forces and bridged divisions between Harvard’s schools. In 2004, Galison and Minow taught History of Science 283, “Technoprivacy.”

The second time around, Galison and Minow were fueled by their own research project and decided to combine their research and teaching.

“One very interesting distinction that emerged in our first class, is the way that law has to come up with a decision that’s final,” Minow said. “But science as an enterprise is continuously revising its findings.”

The inter-school course has been “actively supported” by University Provost Steven E. Hyman, whose office provided funding to help invite some of the experts who will be visiting the course, according to Galison.

Experts will include Harvard scholars as well as outside pundits. Allan M. Brandt, Kass professor of the history of medicine and professor of the history of science, will be discussing his testimony as the main expert witness in U.S. v. Philip Morris et al.

The course will also hear from John E. Jones, the judge who presided over Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, the landmark 2005 case that struck down the teaching of intelligent design in public schools.

Originally attracted to the course by the reputation of the professors, Nicholas L. Tsang ’07 said he agreed with Minow’s claim that it will be a fun experience.

“The interdisciplinary nature of the subject matter definitely struck me the most, as well as the diversity of student background,” he said.

The other course requirements include a weekly posting on the course website and compiling background materials to support the commission report.

—Staff writer Lulu Zhou can be reached at luluzhou@fas.harvard.edu.