Dr Nick Hopwood, University of Cambridge

Sponsored by the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies of Reproduction (CISoR) and The Centre for the History of the Sciences 

Wednesday 2nd March 2015, 5.15pm

Born following in vitro fertilization in Oldham in 1978, Louise Brown made global news as the first ‘test-tube baby’. Yet since the 1940s various researchers had already reported having fertilized human eggs to produce embryos and even infants. The lecture will ask how they pressed these claims and how their colleagues assessed and contested them. The answer will pay special attention to the negotiation of standard criteria in journals, textbooks and newspapers, at conferences and on television. The result will be fresh perspectives on a founding achievement of reproductive biomedicine and on communication in science after World War II.