Lost Legacies and a Living Past

'Lost Legacies and a Living Past' is a research network which brings to contemporary attention the remarkable world of medieval science. The network exists to bring together medieval specialists and modern scientists, to create new ways to bring to life the breath-taking scope of medieval thinking on the world, the universe, and the place of man within creation. Putting medievalists and modern scientists together to re-examine medieval scientific texts reminds modern science of its deeper roots, and that a scientific approach to the world around us is older than the recent western scientific tradition suggests. In the Middle Ages the distinction between humanities and science did not exist; both formed part of the same intellectual culture. For medievalists, studying medieval scientific texts afresh alongside modern scientists offers opportunities to reflect on the process of interpretation, translation and presentation, and to confront modern scientific methodologies. The network aims to create the circumstances in which research communities both in humanities and in science can speak to each other, and together unpack the way in which medieval thinkers conceived their world.
More than this, however, the network will take the research on medieval science into the classroom. Educationalists and school teachers focused on science learning at secondary school level will form an integral part of the network. In so doing, further questions will be asked about how the research between medievalists and modern scientists can be shaped for the secondary school curriculum, and help to offer a fuller sense of the history of science. Secondary school history of science starts in its present form with the 17th century. 'Lost Legacies and a Living Past' will open a debate on how to present the importance of the deeper past within the school science curriculum and the benefit of engaging the education communities with research communities. In so doing, the network aims to engage with wider public debate on the nature of science and the role of the past in defining the present and inspiring the future.

The precursor exploratory project to this application, a Durham-based exploratory project on Grosseteste's c. 1225 treatise entitled De colore (On colour), suggests that this multi-disciplinary approach to medieval science writing has wide appeal amongst researchers from a range of disciplines, and from the non-academic community. It is primarily this potential for wider impact of our research that has prompted an application for a Network Grant.
The network will be publicised among the wider academic community, using international consortia such as the Fédération Internationale des Instituts d'Études Mediévales (FIDEM), the Co-operative for the Advancement of Research through a Medieval European Network. It will be similarly communicated within the science research community. The network will build on existing schemes, such as "Science into Schools". This is a cross-department programme that runs for final-year science undergraduates at Durham University. As part of their degree programme, students develop science projects whilst on placements hosted within a network of approximately 50 primary and secondary schools in the North East. The network will look to maximize its impact by making use of such existing links, harnessing established "pathways".
Through Dr Vanessa Kind, Director of the Science Learning Centre North-East (SLCNE), the network will be advertised to the education community. Those participants external to the research environment will develop, at the Durham meeting, a fuller strategy, with educationalists, as well as specialist research staff in medieval studies and natural science, for the impact of the research undertaken in the network within the classroom. Dr Kind in particular has experience of contributing to changing education policy. She chairs the Royal Society of Chemistry's Education Research Group and is pursuing research associated with teaching the Nature of Science, represented in the England and Wales Science Curriculum as "How Science Works". The remit of Science Centre staff is to mediate the impact of current research into the teaching environment. It aims to support teachers and technicians in enhancing their professional skills by learning more about contemporary scientific ideas, experimenting with effective teaching approaches and modern scientific techniques.
The network will be supported by a website, which will post regular updates on research progress. The website will be sustained after the life of the grant by the Institute of Medieval and Renaissance Studies at Durham University. Interest in principle has already been secured from the New Scientist for coverage of the network and the results of the collaborations that will arise. University Research Institutes at Durham have a dedicated press officer, Mr Paul Ging, with whom the PI will work closely in this respect. The poster-exhibition with preliminary results from a wide range of disciplinary perspectives will be hosted for the general public in the Durham World Heritage Visitor Centre. The exhibition will be able to travel between participant institutions, with a similar accent on public access. Both PI and Co-I have experience of managing impact related activity. The PI has recent experience of working with regional business and cultural institutions, including Durham Cathedral (organizing workshops with Cathedral staff and congregation on how to talk about medieval attitudes to prayer and the bible) and Blackfriars Restaurant, Newcastle (lending expertise on medieval culture and food, as the restaurant develops a commercial medieval menu, and an outreach element in the form of a termly lecture series). This last venture has been covered in the New Statesman. The Co-I has experience liaising with scientists and schools to enhance science teaching, both through the Science into Schools project, and through Royal Society Partnership Grants. She has also contributed to BBC Horizon and an exhibition at the Science Museum.