IHPST Research Seminar | Second Session Winter 2026

You are cordially invited to attend the Winter 2026 Research Seminar Series of the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, organized by Associate Professor Joseph Berkovitz

Professor Hélène Mialet (Department of Science Technology and Society, York University) will present:

Tracking modernity through the Nose of a Dog

In-Person Event

Abstract: In my current book-project about Type 1 Diabetes, tentatively entitled Animal Algorithms, I follow how humans, animals and machines through which diabetes is managed become sensitive to an “invisible being,” the scent of low blood sugar. These sensors, whether human, machine or animal, have different capabilities, skills, expertise, ontologies, but they are all created to read, listen, smell, attune, intuit, sense, be sensitive to something that is invisible, ephemeral, erratic and can put the life of a human being in danger. How humans, animals and machines become sensitive, capture, enter into interaction with an “invisible being” (the scent of low blood sugar) with “exactitude,” and how we (Moderns?) can be made sensitive to these “invisible” beings that have been disqualified (e.g., the agency of animals) are the kinds of questions I’m interested in. In the chapter I will be presenting, I invite the reader to follow me as I track how the scent upon which the dogs are trained to identify low blood sugar is transformed into a piece of evidence, the proof that the scent of low blood sugar is really there.

Participants are expected to read the paper in advance. To request a copy, please email the address listed below.