This edited collection helps update treatment of Costa Rican science history of the last decade by Marshall C. Eakin and Sterling Evans, as well as broader Latin American surveys by Juan José Saldaña, Hebe Vessuri, and more recently María M. Portuondo. This work proceeds beyond science history to encompass transdisciplinary considerations “to build a bridge between the so-called ‘two cultures’ ” (p. 9). Emerging from the third meeting (2006) of the Programa de Estudios Sociales de la Ciencia, la Técnica y el Medio Ambiente, the work represents collaborative efforts among physicists, historians, and social scientists at the University of Costa Rica along with other conference attendees.
Geographically, the work explores nature and science in Costa Rica, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, and Paraguay. The editors organize the collection in two sections, the first on Latin America and the second focusing on Costa Rica. Varying widely in format, the chapters fall into three...