1. Introduction (October 7)

2. The Suspicion

Mary Douglas, Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo (1966), chapter 2: Secular Defilement.

3. The Contamination

Carol Nemeroff, Paul Rozin, The Contagion Concept in Adult Thinking in the United States: Transmission of Germs and of Interpersonal Influence. Ethos, Vol. 22, No. 2 (1994), 158-186.

(group 1)

Cyrus C.M. Mody, “A Little Dirt Never Hurt Anyone: Knowledge-Making and Contamination in Material Science”, Social Studies of Science, Vol. 31, No. 1 (Feb. 2001), 7-36.

(group 2)

3. The Fomite Transmission of Covid-19

Selected papers (medicine, virology, epidemiology).

4. Replications

G. D. L. Travis, Replicating Replication? Aspects of the Social Construction of Learning in Planarian Worms. Social Studies of Science , Feb., 1981, Vol. 11, No. 1, Special Issue: 'Knowledge and Controversy: Studies of Modern Natural Science' (Feb., 1981), pp. 11-32.

5. The Fomite-Thesis: Replicating Experiments?

Selected papers (medicine, virology, epidemiology).

6. Controversies

Robert K. Merton, "The Normative Structure of Science", in Merton, Robert K. (ed.), The Sociology of Science: Theoretical and Empirical Investigations, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp. 267–278.

7. Controversies

Harry M. Collins, "Son of Seven Sexes: The social Destruction of a Physical Phenomenon", Social Studies of Science, Vol. 11, No. 1, Feb. 1981, pp. 33-62.

8. Missing Controversies

Helga Nowotny, “Social Aspects of the Nuclear Power Controversy,” IIASA Research Memorandum. IIASA, Laxenburg, Austria: RM-76-033.

9. Missing Controversies

Andrew Pickering, “Constraints on Controversy: The Case of the Magnetic Monopole.” Social Studies of Science, vol. 11, 1981, pp. 63-93.

10. Fading Theories

Selected papers (medicine, virology, epidemiology).

11. Fading Theories. Conclusions

The Aerosol-Thesis.