Disasters—and related topics such as risk, forecasting, and anthropogenic climate change—are of increasing interest to historians of science and allied fields. The very concept, however, is a slippery one, raising a host of related questions. What types of events or processes truly constitute “disasters”? How have disasters been defined historically, and how have these categories shifted over time? How have science and technology shaped social and cultural understandings of catastrophe? With an eye toward these questions, this Focus section examines the central, fundamental role that science has played in delineating disaster in the modern era. The contributors to this section interrogate the multifaceted relationship between disasters and the history of science. Taking a deliberately expansive view of both “disaster” and “science” as categories of analysis, their essays invite readers to consider catastrophe in novel ways and from a variety of perspectives.

中文翻译：

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简介：论灾难

科学史和相关领域的历史学家对灾害以及风险、预测和人为气候变化等相关主题越来越感兴趣。然而，这个概念本身就很模糊，引发了一系列相关问题。什么类型的事件或过程真正构成“灾难”？历史上是如何定义灾害的，这些类别是如何随着时间变化的？科学和技术如何塑造了对灾难的社会和文化理解？着眼于这些问题，本焦点部分探讨了科学在描述现代灾难方面所发挥的核心、基本作用。本节的撰稿人探讨了灾害与科学史之间的多方面关系。