Putting a Soul into Science
By HSS Communications Office

Asst Prof Hallam Stevens, a historian of science, talks about his research interest that cuts across the “exquisite” humanities and the “hard” sciences.

Applying nail polish is considered as a common feminine habit, one hardly sees men doing this. However, Asst Prof Hallam Stevens who recently joined HSS, is one of the rare few. He paints his nails with pastel green and sometimes blue, purple, pink and orange polish "out of fun". His liking for fashion across both gender practices is perhaps a reflection of his research interest in the history of science, which brings together two fields at opposite ends of the academic spectrum – the "exquisite" humanities and the "hard" sciences.

As a historian of science, Asst Prof Stevens explores the evolution of scientific inquiry. He is fascinated with how people from different eras think about nature differently.

For instance, he says, biologists back in the 1980s were researching on one gene at a time using test tubes. However, there are more computers than test tubes in a laboratory today. Biologists can now download the entire human genome online and analyse them using algorithms and statistical tools.

The methods of scientific enquiry have evolved, but more importantly, Asst Prof Stevens says, the scale of the questions asked by scientists has changed.

"When you have to deal with something like test tubes, it is often the case that you will look at one cell or one gene. And in fact, biologists have spent decades or even their whole careers just investigating one gene, coming to understand in a lot of detail."

"Not that there is anything wrong with that. But now you can ask questions like, 'What percentage of all the genes is alternatively spliced?' These are very general and broad questions which you can now begin to answer – with computers and tools of statistics."

Bioprospecting History
The young academic, who obtained his PhD from Harvard University in 2010, had been a lecturer at his alma mater prior to joining NTU. But he left Boston for Singapore with his wife because he saw the "centre of knowledge of production", along with "economic power", shifting from the West to Asia.

With that, Singapore, pouring billions of dollars into its biomedical research drive, presents to him a unique opportunity to research the history of bioprospecting in the country and the region.

Bioprospecting, he explains, refers to the search for plants with potential economic value in extreme environments such as rainforests and deserts. A familiar example is the rubber tree, which was introduced to Malaya (now Malaysia) from South America. Malaysia eventually became the world's largest rubber producer.

IMPRESSIVE YOUNG HISTORIAN

Asst Prof Hallam Stevens, who holds a Master degree from Cambridge University and a Bachelor degree from Harvard College, obtained his PhD from Harvard University's Department of History of Science in 2010. The revised version of his PhD dissertation, Life out of sequence: bioinformatics from the ARPANET to postgenomics, will be published by the University of Chicago Press. This is a remarkable achievement for a new academic. Equally impressive is the fact that he has published papers in top journals – in both social sciences and natural sciences. These include Biosocieties; Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences; Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences which has an impact factor of 9.432; and Langmuir, which is ranked second in citations out of the 121 journals that are under the category of Physical Chemistry.

Not much research has been done to put the development of science and technology in the region into historical, social and cultural contexts. Asst Prof Stevens plans to research the history of bioprospecting in Singapore from its colonial era, and trace how it eventually turned the country into a modern biomedical research hub of today.

"I think of Singapore as a network that is more and more connected to big pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, flow of money, and bio-material from all over the world," says the specialist in the history of contemporary biology.

"I want to make sense of what is going on here. This is not just about a piece of technology, but a symbol of globalisation and what is happening around in Asia."

Started Off As A Physics Undergraduate
Asst Prof Stevens looks forward to teaching NTU students, especially those from the Engineering and Science Schools. After all, he used to be one of them. He was a Physics major during his undergraduate days in Harvard University.

He feels that it is important for Engineering and Science students to have a full perspective of their disciplines, especially in Singapore where development of science and technology is accelerating.

"Students need to think about science from a different perspective," says Asst Prof Stevens.

"Not just from a straight-forward scientific or mathematical perspective, but from perspectives that take into account how it links to politics, how it links to culture, how it links to the imagination."

For a start, students, especially those who are into social network media, can look forward to attending his class on Cybersociety. Students will get to explore the social, cultural, and political influences of Facebook, Second Life and Twitter on our everyday lives.

Thanks to the historian of science, it is probably apt to say that science in NTU now has a soul.