Penha Maria Cardozo Dias, Mariana Faria Brito Francisquini, Carlos Eduardo Aguiar, Marta Feijó Barroso
{"title":"What the Middle-Aged Galileo Told the Elderly Galileo: Galileo’s Search for the Laws of Fall","authors":"Penha Maria Cardozo Dias, Mariana Faria Brito Francisquini, Carlos Eduardo Aguiar, Marta Feijó Barroso","doi":"10.1007/s00016-019-00243-y","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00016-019-00243-y","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Recent historiographic results in Galilean studies disclose the use of proportions, graphical representation of the kinematic variables (distance, time, speed), and the medieval double distance rule in Galileo’s reasoning; these have been characterized as Galileo’s “tools for thinking.” We assess the import of these “tools” in Galileo’s reasoning leading to the laws of fall (<span>(v^{2} propto D)</span> and <span>(v propto t)</span>). To this effect, a reconstruction of folio 152<i>r</i> shows that Galileo built proportions involving distance, time, and speed in uniform motions, and applied to them the double distance rule to obtain uniformly accelerated motions; the folio indicates that he tried to fit proportions in a graph. Analogously, an argument in <i>Two New Sciences</i> to the effect that an earlier proof of the law of fall started from an incorrect hypothesis (<i>v?</i>∝<i>?D</i>) can be recast in the language of proportions, using only the proof that <i>v?</i>∝<i>?t</i> and the hypothesis.</p>","PeriodicalId":727,"journal":{"name":"Physics in Perspective","volume":"21 3","pages":"194 - 221"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2019-09-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1007/s00016-019-00243-y","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"4602469","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Karl Przibram: Radioactivity, Crystals, and Colors","authors":"Wolfgang L. Reiter","doi":"10.1007/s00016-019-00242-z","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00016-019-00242-z","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Karl Przibram is one of the pioneers of early solid state physics in the field of the interdependence of coloration effects and luminescence in solids (crystals, minerals) induced by radiation. In 1921 Przibram discovered the effect of radio-photoluminescence, the light-stimulated phosphorescence in activated crystals induced by gamma rays. In 1926 Przibram was the first to use the term, <i>Farbzentrum</i> (color center, F-center), and in 1923 he advanced the view of atomic centers as carriers of coloration. Being a pupil of Ludwig Boltzmann and Franz S. Exner, he dedicated his early work to condensation and conductivity phenomena in gases and Brownian motion. Under the influence of Stefan Meyer, he began his lifelong interest in mineralogy, setting up his own research group at the Vienna Radium Institute, which pioneered investigations on thermoluminescence and gave a first description of glow curves. Being of Jewish descent, Przibram had to leave Austria after the Nazis took power; he found shelter in Belgium and returned to Austria in 1946 as professor for experimental physics at the University of Vienna. This paper is a first attempt to give an overview of the cultural and scientific background of Przibram’s life and science in context of the cultural and political developments from 1900 to 1950 in Austria.</p>","PeriodicalId":727,"journal":{"name":"Physics in Perspective","volume":"21 3","pages":"163 - 193"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2019-08-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1007/s00016-019-00242-z","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"4486505","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"From Liverpool to Beijing and Chongqing: William Band’s Adventure in Wartime China","authors":"Danian Hu","doi":"10.1007/s00016-019-00241-0","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00016-019-00241-0","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Trained at University of Liverpool in both theoretical and experimental physics, William Band accepted in 1929 an appointment at Christian Yenching University in Beijing, China, where he established his career through the 1930s, heading the physics department and nurturing dozens of distinguished Chinese researchers in its MSc program. Despite the Japanese occupation of Beijing in summer 1937, Band continued his work at Yenching—an American property and an oasis of freedom for Chinese students in?North China. In the wake of Pearl Harbor, Band joined a breathtaking and successful escape from Yenching, just before the Japanese raid?reached the campus. He sought refuge in Communist guerrilla bases in North China, where he taught calculus, college physics, and radio theory to radio technicians?of guerrilla forces. After trekking one thousand miles through Japanese occupied areas, escorted by Communist?guerrillas, Band arrived first in Yan’an, the Chinese Communist headquarters, where he met and?conversed with?Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, and then?in Chongqing, China’s wartime capital, where he served in the Sino-British Science Cooperation Office to help war-ridden Chinese scientists until his departure for Britain in December 1944. Band’s adventure provides a unique and useful lens to explore uncharted aspects of science in Republican China.</p>","PeriodicalId":727,"journal":{"name":"Physics in Perspective","volume":"21 3","pages":"222 - 251"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2019-08-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1007/s00016-019-00241-0","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"4071866","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"From Desire to Data: How JLab’s Experimental Program Evolved Part 3: From Experimental Plans to Concrete Reality, JLab Gears Up for Research, mid-1990 through 1997","authors":"Catherine Westfall","doi":"10.1007/s00016-019-00238-9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00016-019-00238-9","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This is the third in a three-part article describing the development of the experimental program at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, from the first dreams of incisive electromagnetic probes into the structure of the nucleus through the era in which equipment was designed and constructed and a program crafted so that the long-desired experiments could begin. These developments unfolded against the backdrop of the rise of the more bureaucratic New Big Science and the intellectual tumult that grew from increasing understanding and interest in quark-level physics. Part 3, presented here, focuses on the period from 1990 to through 1997. During this period of continued revolutionary change, laboratory personnel and would be users labored to proceed from the approved 1990 experimental equipment conceptual design report, the official blueprint for the project, to fully constructed, commissioned, operating equipment under the watchful eye of Department of Energy officials and expert reviewers. The article ends with an assessment of the actual experimental resources and results compared with the initial scientific desires that prompted the decades-long effort to bring the project to life.</p>","PeriodicalId":727,"journal":{"name":"Physics in Perspective","volume":"21 2","pages":"108 - 159"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2019-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1007/s00016-019-00238-9","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"4029803","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Robert P. Crease, Joseph D. Martin, Richard Staley
{"title":"Decolonizing Physics: Learning from the Periphery","authors":"Robert P. Crease, Joseph D. Martin, Richard Staley","doi":"10.1007/s00016-019-00240-1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00016-019-00240-1","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":727,"journal":{"name":"Physics in Perspective","volume":"21 2","pages":"91 - 92"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2019-06-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1007/s00016-019-00240-1","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"4545333","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Making Research More Diverse: How Peripheral Members Join a Scientific Community","authors":"Deepanwita Dasgupta","doi":"10.1007/s00016-019-00239-8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00016-019-00239-8","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Against the background of the current drive toward diversity in modern scientific communities, this paper explores how a scientific practice might become more diverse by the inclusion of peripheral members. To demonstrate how peripheral members gain contributory expertise in the sciences in the absence of mentors and a readymade community, I present a case study of the Indian physicist C. V. Raman and his early self-training in the analysis of wave phenomena, especially in musical acoustics. Evaluating Raman’s example, I suggest that such peripheral agents might give us helpful pointers about our modern project of bringing diversity into a scientific community.</p>","PeriodicalId":727,"journal":{"name":"Physics in Perspective","volume":"21 2","pages":"93 - 107"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2019-06-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1007/s00016-019-00239-8","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"4507164","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Robert P. Crease, Joseph D. Martin, Richard Staley
{"title":"What We Talk about When We Talk about Physics","authors":"Robert P. Crease, Joseph D. Martin, Richard Staley","doi":"10.1007/s00016-019-00237-w","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00016-019-00237-w","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":727,"journal":{"name":"Physics in Perspective","volume":"21 1","pages":"1 - 2"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2019-03-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1007/s00016-019-00237-w","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"4309339","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Physical Review: From the Periphery to the Center of Physics","authors":"Mahdi Khelfaoui, Yves Gingras","doi":"10.1007/s00016-019-00235-y","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00016-019-00235-y","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In this paper, we analyze in a quantitative manner the changing position of <i>Physical Review</i> in the global field of physics, compared to other important physics journals, since the beginning of the twentieth century. This approach complements existing intellectual and institutional accounts of <i>Physical Review</i>’s historical evolution and offers a dynamical portrait of the global landscape of physics journals, based on a bibliometric analysis of the relations between journals obtained through co-citation analysis. The co-citation networks constructed for successive twenty-year periods provide a measure of the rising position of <i>Physical Review</i> from the periphery to the center of physics. The intellectual content of the journal, with its evolving topics and most influential authors, is also analyzed using the bibliographical references contained in all its articles.</p>","PeriodicalId":727,"journal":{"name":"Physics in Perspective","volume":"21 1","pages":"23 - 42"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2019-02-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1007/s00016-019-00235-y","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"4452403","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Shifting Trends in Modern Physics, Nobel Recognition, and the Histories That We Write","authors":"Mary Jo Nye","doi":"10.1007/s00016-019-00234-z","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00016-019-00234-z","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Since the late-nineteenth century, scientists have been labeled with disciplinary fields and scientific achievements have been identified largely with heroic individuals. Reward systems such as the highly visible Nobel Prizes have reinforced such a view of science. This paper examines long-term trends in Nobel Physics awards since 1901 and asks whether the awards have registered the increasing specialization, collaboration, and transdisciplinary research that mark the course of modern physics. A second major question is the extent to which, in turn, histories of physics since the 1960s have reflected trends in physics or in Nobel recognition. Historians of physics appear to have favored accounts of particle physics and relativity theory over other areas of physics, with biography remaining a strong tradition in the history of physics, even while institutional and social history has become significant. Concluding remarks address hierarchies of prestige in science, the accessible and emotional appeal of heroic and revolutionary accounts of science, and the perennial appeal of fundamental questions, like reductionism and emergence.</p>","PeriodicalId":727,"journal":{"name":"Physics in Perspective","volume":"21 1","pages":"3 - 22"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2019-02-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1007/s00016-019-00234-z","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"4448987","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}