History of Science - Any comments very welcome!!!!!!

Hello all, I'm gonna keep this short as I think I have slight RSI, so sos if I don’t type amazingly. anyways

I have managed to get into my 1st choice Uni which I am pleased about because I thought it was outta my league, however I was already unsure of going since they ran out of accommodation and I know I'll 100% regret not living in halls later, even thought that may be stupid.

The issue is, that I originally wanted to do media but not all media as I wanted to do something more educational also, so I opted for biology and science communication. This was mainly because out of my A level subjects I had Media, Biology and History and I got A, C and E grades for those (in that order).

Obviously I couldn't pick history, I nearly dropped History, but I felt myself improving and enjoying it massively more when set a massive Individual Study which I picked 'Were reductions in death rate from 1850-1900 mainly as a result of improvements in public health?/medicine. I thought this would combine biology... but actually it was more about governments

anywhoo I managed to improve my grade to a high B and I'm really proud. It’s not like I screwed up my as exam, I utterly and truly WAS E grade level material at the time, and did not get it.

Now I'm thinking I should be doing history...
I really like the idea of Doing History of Science/Biology (even though there would be no media involved :O()
however atm I cannot research courses as that part of UCAS is down, so with google I have limited info but I think such courses are available.
I think however they also involve Philosophy which I've never done

has anyone done this course or one like it?
Is science actually a big part? because for instance to understand HOW a scientist discovered something (e.g. Mendel - genetics, the sense strand thing (heavy nitrogen?? I forget) capsules for some virususes etc etc) you do need biological knowledge which is good, I don't want it to be JUST history with no understanding
however although I find all history of science interesting (documentaries, books (when researching I felt so studenty - lol, best education ever), I don’t know much chem. or Physics so this may be a prob.
I dunno astrology or geology wither but they sound really interesting

ummm, also philosophy, i'm thinking this will be about evolutionally theory, world is flat, sun goes around earth and all those beliefs and that... I may be wrong, but it sounds cool too
but I don’t really know anything about it... so this worries me

Would I have good job prospects? Or would I have nowhere to go career wise?? dunno if it is respected
if it is mainly biology/science/philosophy/history O_______O

Please help, any info/advice even if you don’t know much or anything

xoxoxox thanks fellow TSR, I think this is my longest thread posted ever...

Reply 1

moogle301

hmmmmmmmm
I can't search properly, but it seems most courses are
history AND philsophy of science

I don't know it means we philisophise about science and then learn about history sepeartely..
i want kinda stuff: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_science#Astronomy
not this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy_of_science

but maybe the dgrees would be a combination

it seems only uber good places like UCL and Camrbride and Kings and LSE do it, tho i think maybe Leeds also does

anyone?? :O)

oh well :O(

bump *sob*

lol, I've never heard of it, though it sounds interesting. If good unis offer it, it can't be bad.

Reply 6

Oneupthebumdonttellmum

Well, I'm not sure what you want. I don't even think you know what you want! Am I right?

Science is very interesting, challenging and sometimes difficult, alot of people knock it before they try it. I think if you're interested in science you should pursue it. There's alot of options, for example a foundation year, before science degrees if you don't have the A-levels you need.

I'm very science biased because I'm a science student. I think it's important to realise that science opens many doors, is vast and diverse, and can be extremely interesting.

Perhaps you'd be interested in something like Science Journalism. Writing about old and new science. In this case I'd recommend taking a science degree and doing journalism part time.

Reply 7

buttons45

im doin an As in the history, philosophy ad ethics of sci. In the history part we looked at different developments leadin to certain discoveries (including mistakes) and lookin at the social and motivational factors with it. In philosophy we did about how philosophers have viewed the process of scienctific development which i did find interesting, for example some people think things can never be proven as it always relies on induction, others that things should always be falsified and not proven, others that scientist look at the world differently according to the ideas that they hold etc as well as critising and analysing argumants etc.

Reply 8

moogle301

Oneupthebumdonttellmum

omg, did NOT reaslie people had replied

yes i don't know what I want, I'm set to go off ther RHUL very soon and i still don't know it's thr right shoice
I don't want to limit myself if doing a very speicifc dgree is a bad thing
also if only 3 universities offer it its difficult to get in
esp. as i want to be in london so that would only leave UCL
..
and also, what with me going off to uni i don't really know what to do

however its true it is good uni's offering it, so it may be good

Leeds also sounds nice, i havea firend going there and it just souds great for many reasons.. duno if i'd wana be so far away tho O_____O
god im so confused
thanx ppls so far

Reply 9

ChemistBoy

I think one has to study both the history and philosophy of science to some level to gain a contextual appreciation of either. History of science is used as a benchmark to set philosophical descriptions of science against and the philosophy of science is used to describe the history (circular, I know but that is the nature of it). Some philosophers and historians of science have a science degree so it is perfectly possible to go into the field at postgraduate level. In fact, having a scientific backgroun yourself may provide some useful insights into the field when you are looking from outside it.