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SUMMARY:Planetary microbes: Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg\, the agency and
  the politics of microbes\, 1840s–1850s - Mathias Grote (Universität Gr
 eifswald)
DTSTART:20240219T130000Z
DTEND:20240219T140000Z
UID:TALK210703@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Tom Banbury
DESCRIPTION:Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg (1795–1876) researched living 
 and fossil microbes (infusoria) from air\, sediment or food samples. His d
 iscovery around 1840 that infusoria thriving in the Berlin underground wou
 ld damage buildings caused an early microbe scare in public. Around 1848\,
  Ehrenberg devoted his attention to 'blood' prodigies associated with the 
 cholera\, the basis of which he identified as an innocuous red microbe. Bo
 th cases allow us to grasp the goals of Ehrenberg's natural history of mic
 robes: following up on Alexander von Humboldt\, he aimed at a full picture
  of microbes' place in nature\, such as in biological and geological proce
 sses\, as well as for humans. What is more\, understanding the context of 
 his investigations in a time of political instability reveals a dimension 
 of this story beyond historiography of microbiology: Ehrenberg's conservat
 ive-reformist perspective on materialism\, religion and the state sheds ne
 w light on the relationship of science and politics in Prussia around 1848
 . Not least\, Ehrenberg's mid-19th century arguments about the omnipresenc
 e and impact of microscopic life resonates with contemporary ecological de
 bates about microbes' effects on geology or the climate.
LOCATION:Seminar Room 2\, Department of History and Philosophy of Science
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