Tufts STS Department
The full name of "STS"
What is: Science, Technology, & Society
The 2020 Netflix documentary Coded Bias explained how this type of technology was failing to consistently detect nonwhite users
What are: facial recognition technologies/algorithms
The cost of a one-way trip on an MBTA bus
What is: $1.70
The year Siri was introduced in Apple technology
What is: 2011
Largely credited as the first science fiction work, this novel by 18-year-old Mary Shelley follows the life of a scientist and his creature among themes of parenthood, fate vs. free will, revenge, exploration, and affection—themes that can be extrapolated as a dissection of women’s roles in 19th century society
What is: Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818)
Degree programs offered by the Tufts STS department
What is: Co-Major and Minor
Prosthetics, implants, and bioengineering—and even piercings or tattoos—could be considered examples of this technological intervention of the “natural” body
What is: body modification
An airport, creepy basement hallway, or empty staircase all belong to this difficult to define category of space
What is: Liminal Space
This technology, developed by OpenAI, can generate human-like text based on prompts, completing tasks such as translation and summarization (and wrote most of these AI prompts)
What is: (Chat)GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer)
This scientist is most popularly remembered for having her data ‘stolen’ (used for comparison without permission and then they took the credit) by Watson & Crick in the 1950s, leading to the public discovery of the double helix DNA structure
Who is: Rosalind Franklin
Name this weekly gathering for (free) food and STS presentations
What is: the STS Lunch Seminar Series
Coined in 1960 by NASA consultants amid the cold war, "Cyborg" is a portmanteau of these 2 words
What is: cybernetic organism
A dip in the sidewalk better facilitating wheelchair movement
What is: Curb Cut
This type of AI algorithm mimics the workings of the human brain in processing data and creating patterns for decision making
What is: a neural network
This famous early-20th century chemist/physicist discovered the elements radium & polonium, and was the first woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize
Who is: Marie Curie
The epic Lantern event that STS chair Nick Seaver participated in last spring
What is: the Hot Ones Showdown & Magazine Launch Party!!!
Uniquely “immortal” (HeLa) cells from this famous cervical cancer patient (treated at Johns Hopkins in the 1950s) led to significant advances in blood cancer research and chemotherapy, BUT the test samples were taken without her or her family’s knowledge and tested on for decades.
When this came to light in the 1970s, it opened up new conversations about medical ethics, informed consent and patients' rights in research.
Who is: Henrietta Lacks
A Boston megaproject putting a highway underground and the MBTA in debt for probably ever
What is: The Big Dig
Concerns about AI systems collecting and analyzing vast amounts of personal data are central to discussions about this fundamental right
What is: privacy
The first African American woman to go into space (1983) and/or the first Hispanic woman to go into space (1993)
Who is: Dr. Mae C. Jemison, and/or Ellen Ochoa
Name the 3 "concentrations" of the co-major (no longer required after fall 2023)
What is: "science and the state," "bodies, health, & medicine," and "math, maps, and modeling"
The first human cadaveric dissections were performed in ancient Greece (3rd century BCE), but the practice became more common in 14th century medieval Italy on this type of socially outcasted bodies
What are: criminals / incarcerated bodies
The catchy name of the newly introduced MBTA program that has raised data privacy concerns
What is: Tap-to-Ride
In 1997, this AI system developed by IBM defeated world chess champion Garry Kasparov in a highly publicized match
What is: Deep Blue
Author of “A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the late Twentieth Century” (1985) and “Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective” (1988)
Who is: Donna Haraway