Sarah Franklin was principal investigator of this project, funded by the ESRC and running from September 2013 to August 2015. This seminar series proposed to host an extended discussion of 'IVF Cultures and Histories' focussing on the interrelation of three main themes: its technological development and visual emergence as an iconic twentieth century technology, the interface between IVF and the media (particularly in its crucial transition stage from experimental technique into clinical practice, 1970-80), and its role as an 'ethical crucible' through which a new 'social contract' was forged between innovative research science and public morality in the late-twentieth century.
Image: 'Early Human Embryos,' by ZEISS Microscopy [CC BY-SA 2.0]