Dorothy Nelkin

Dorothy Wolfers Nelkin ( – ) was an American sociologist of science most noted for her work researching and chronicling interplay between science, technology and the general public. Her work often highlighted the ramifications of unchecked scientific advances and potential threats to privacy and civil liberties. in Boston, Massachusetts, and grew up in Brookline, Massachusetts. Nelkin was the first member of her family to attend college. By 1990, she was a university professor at NYU and a member of the Law School faculty. which she stated was "one of a series of exercises to get religion back into schools."

As her career progressed, Nelkin focused on the "uneasy relationship" between science, technology, and society. She also served on the Advisory Council for the National Center for Science Education, as well as on editorial boards for journals in sociology, science studies, law, history and public health. The book documented the differing stakeholder perspectives, including scientists from Cornell University, the Citizen's Committee to Save Cayuga Lake, representatives from the Atomic Energy Commission, New York State Department of Health, and NYSE&G. As one critic wrote, Nelkin was "sympathetic, but alarmed" at what she considered a "growth of intolerance, a new rigidity in values". According to Nelkin, there is a link between creationism and areas of high technology", with some creationists representing themselves as scientists. One critic called the book "balanced" and "richly factual", It reflects her concern about "science by press conference". She posited that scientists and journalists have differing agendas that cause a "distortion of scientific progress". The scientific community, on the other hand, deals with the "continuous process of research". and "a very good description of the way science journalism is practiced today,

Biomedicine Dangerous Diagnostics: The Social Power of Biological Information, a book Nelkin co-wrote with Lawrence Tancredi, was critically viewed as provocative and explored issues with biomedicine, including the use and misuse of biological information. in the form of institutionalized social control. – and is being used to "explore fundamental questions about human life, to define the essence of human existence, and to imagine immortality". The authors researched how the media (e.g., books, newspapers, magazine and journal articles, movies, and comic books) impacted genetic ideas within popular culture. The book covers reproductive issues, eugenics, genetic discrimination (e.g., by insurance companies, educational settings, and workplaces), intelligence, criminal behavior, homosexuality, and addiction.

Personal life

Nelkin was married to physicist Mark S Nelkin, John Desmond Bernal Prize of the Society for the Social Studies of Science (1988)

Selected publications On the Season: Aspects of the Migrant Labor System (1970). New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Cornell University. The University and Military Research: Moral Politics at MIT (1972). Cornell University Press. Jetport: The Boston Airport Controversy (1975). Transaction Books. Science Textbook Controversies and the Politics of Equal Time (1977). MIT Press. The Atom Besieged: Extra-Parliamentary Dissent in France and Germany (with Michael Pollak; 1981). MIT Press. The Creation Controversy: Science or Scripture in the Schools (1982). New York: W.W. Norton. Workers at Risk: Voices from the workplace (with M.S. Brown; 1984). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. The Language of Risk: Conflicting Perspectives in Occupational Health (1985). SAGE Publications. Selling Science: How the press covers science and technology (1987). W.H., Freeman Press. Translated into Japanese and Spanish. Dangerous Diagnostics (1989). New York: Basic. A Disease of Society: The Cultural Response to AIDS (with D. Willis, eds.; 1991). Cambridge U. Press. The Animal Rights Crusade (with James M. Jasper; 1991). Free Press. The Body Bazaar: The Market for Human Tissue in the Biotechnology (2001). Age Crown Books. Translated into Korean, Chinese, Japanese, and Italian. The Molecular Gaze (with Suzanne Anker; 2003). Cold Spring Harbor Press.