Scientizing the 'environment': Solly Zuckerman and the idea of the School of Environmental Sciences.

In 1960 Sir Solly Zuckerman proposed the idea of an interdisciplinary department of 'environmental sciences' (ENV) for the newly established University of East Anglia (UEA). Prior to this point, the concept of 'environmental sciences' was little known: since then, departments and degree courses have rapidly proliferated through universities and colleges around the globe. This paper draws on archival research to explore the conditions and contexts that led to the proposal of a new and interdisciplinary grouping of sciences by Zuckerman. It argues that the activities of Zuckerman and other scientists in Britain during the Second World War and in the post-war period helped to create fertile conditions for a new kind of scientific authority to emerge as a tool of governance and source of policy advice. In particular, the specific challenges of post-war Britain - as addressed through scientific advisers and civil servants - led to the 'environment' becoming both the subject of sustained scientific study and an object of concern.

From Florence to fossil fuels: Nursing has always been about environmental health.

BACKGROUND: Since its founding, professional nursing has applied an environmental lens to healing. METHODS: This CANS 2020 Keynote article describes the history of nursing environmental science and nurses important contributions to the US Environmental Justice Movement. Starting with Florence Nightingale's Notes on Nursing, which established Environmental Theory, the paper introduces key figures throughout nursing history who have studied and advocated for environmental health and justice. FINDINGS: The paper emphasizes that nursing has always been about environmental health and that, regardless of specialty or practice setting, all nurses are called to incorporate environmental science and translation into their research and practice. CONCLUSION: This call to action is especially critical today in the context of urgent issues like climate change, environmental racism and racial health disparities, emerging infectious diseases like COVID-19, and chemical exposures in the home and workplace (among others).

Leveraging legacy archaeological collections as proxies for climate and environmental research.

Understanding the causes and consequences of previous climate changes is essential for testing present-day climate models and projections. Archaeological sites are paleoenvironmental archives containing unique ecological baselines with data on paleoclimate transformations at a human timescale. Anthropogenic and nonanthropogenic forces have destroyed many sites, and others are under immediate threat. In the face of this loss, previously excavated collections from these sites-referred to as legacy collections-offer a source of climate and other paleoenvironmental information that may no longer exist elsewhere. Here, we 1) review obstacles to systematically using data from legacy archaeological collections, such as inconsistent or unreported field methods, inadequate records, unsatisfactory curation, and insufficient public knowledge of relevant collections; 2) suggest best practices for integrating archaeological data into climate and environmental research; and 3) summarize several studies to demonstrate the benefits and challenges of using legacy collections as archives of local and regional environmental proxies. Data from archaeological legacy collections contribute regional ecological baselines as well as serve to correct shifting baselines. They also enable regional climate reconstructions at various timescales and corroborate or refine radiocarbon dates. Such uses of legacy collections raise ethical concerns regarding ownership of and responsibility for cultural resources and highlight the importance of Indigenous involvement in planning and executing fieldwork and stewardship of cultural heritage. Finally, we discuss methodologies, practices, and policies pertaining to archaeological legacy collections and support calls for discipline-wide shifts in collections management to ensure their long-term utility in multidisciplinary research and public engagement.

[The Emergence of Genetic Prenatal Diagnosis from Environmental Research : On a Methodological Shift in Prevention Around 1970]. / Wie aus Umweltforschung die genetische Pränataldiagnostik entstand : Über eine Methodenverschiebung in der Vorsorge um 1970.

The history of genetic prenatal diagnosis has so far been analyzed as a part of the history of human genetics and its reorientation as a clinical and laboratory-based scientific discipline in the second half of the 20th century. Based on new source material, we show in this paper that the interest in prenatal diagnosis also arose within the context of research on mutagenicity (the capacity to induce mutations) that was concerned with environmental dangers to human health. Our analysis of the debates around the establishment of the German Research Foundation's (DFG) research program "Prenatal Diagnosis of Genetic Defects" reveals that amniocentesis was introduced in Western Germany by a group of scientists working on the dangers for the human organism caused by radiation, pharmaceuticals, and other substances and consumer goods. We argue that, in a period of growing environmental concern, the support of prenatal diagnosis aimed to close a perceived gap in the prevention of environmental mutagenicity, i. e. genetic anomalies induced by environmental factors. The expected financing of prenatal diagnosis by health insurance in the course of the reform of abortion rights was used as another argument for the new technology's introduction as a "defensive measure". Only in a second step did changes in research structures, but most importantly experience from gynecological practice lead to a reframing of the technology as a tool for the diagnosis and prevention of mostly genetic or spontaneously occurring anomalies. Eventually, prenatal diagnosis, as it became routinely used in Western Germany from the early 1980s onward, had little to do with "environmental" questions. This case study of the early history of genetic prenatal diagnosis analyzes the still poorly researched relationship between research in human genetics, environmental research and medical practice. Furthermore, we aim to shed new light on a shift in perspective in prevention around 1970 that has so far been described in different contexts.