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By analyzing the contests that appeared in Popular Science Monthly from 1918 to 1938, this article discusses the rhetoric of public engagement with technological innovation, and the magazine's construction of a readership community. A close analysis of these contests reveals a burgeoning participatory culture within the context of the popularization of science and technology in the mass-circulation press of early twentieth-century America. Significantly, the contests frame their public as an active participant in the development of science and technology, in sharp contrast to the passive, diffusionist model of science popularization that dominated the interwar period in the United States.

"From 'dragon bones' to scientific research" : Peking Man and popular paleoanthropology in pre-1949 China -- "A united front against superstition" : science dissemination, 1940-1971 -- "The content of human" : in search of human identity, 1940-1971 -- "Labor created science" : the class politics of scientific knowledge, 1940-1971 -- "Presumptuous guests usurp the hosts" : dissemination and participation, 1971-1978 -- "Springtime for science," but what a garden : mystery, superstition, and fanatics in the post-Máo Era -- "From legend to science," and back again? : Bigfoot, science, and the people in post-Máo China -- "Have we dug at our ancestral shrine?" : post-Máo ethnic nationalism and its limits

Introduction: The beast within -- How ethology became popular -- The alchemy of aggression -- Weapons created man -- The biology of love -- The aggression debate -- Sociobiology and pop ethology: contextualizing E. O. Wilson -- Genes and gender: the sociobiology debate -- Conclusion: On the shores of Lake Turkana.

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- Introduction. The Beast Within -- 1 How Ethology Became Popular -- 2 The Alchemy of Aggression -- 3 Weapons Created Man -- 4 The Biology of Love -- 5 The Aggression Debate -- 6 Sociobiology and Pop Ethology: Contextualizing E. O. Wilson -- 7 Genes and Gender: The Sociobiology Debate -- Conclusion On the Shores of Lake Turkana -- Notes -- Acknowledgments -- Illustration Credits -- Index

From the 1950s to the digital age, Americans have pushed their children to live science-minded lives, cementing scientific discovery and youthful curiosity as inseparable ideals. In this multifaceted work, historian Rebecca Onion examines the rise of informal children's science education in the twentieth century, from the proliferation of home chemistry sets after World War I to the century-long boom in child-centered science museums. Onion looks at how the United States has increasingly focused its energies over the last century into producing young scientists outside of the classroom. She shows that although Americans profess to believe that success in the sciences is synonymous with good citizenship, this idea is deeply complicated in an era when scientific data is hotly contested and many Americans have a conflicted view of science itself. These contradictions, Onion explains, can be understood by examining the histories of popular science and the development of ideas about American childhood. She shows how the idealized concept of "science" has moved through the public consciousness and how the drive to make child scientists has deeply influenced American culture. -- Provided by publisher