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Totally agree. More broadly, I think we don't teach enough about the history of technology and how it transformed human life. Students ought to graduate with “industrial literacy”—they need a grounding in how industrial civilization was created and how it operates, the same way they need civics in order to understand how representative government was created and how it operates. But yes, I also agree that public health in particular is neglected even more than the rest of our scientific and technological achievements.

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Bravo Steven. I'll send it to Ian McEwan.

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Great stuff here. I will be bringing this into the class I teach at UCSD's School of Global Policy & Strategy. [I'd love to have you Zoom in, nudge nudge].

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I wish I had this book at STA

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You include Sir Percivall Pott, and Semmelweis? When I arrived at Keele Physics, I immediately went to the machine shop to make my acquaintance. The mechanitions we’re all wearing heavy leather aprons. I said Sir P. P. They all knew what I meant!

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