-
Identifying and Understanding Historical Scientific Instruments: The Case of the Physics Cabinet of the University of Bologna Phys. Perspect. (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2024-03-18 Laura Rigotti, Eugenio Bertozzi
-
A New Literary Style of Science: The Rise of Acronyms in Physics and Astronomy Phys. Perspect. (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2024-03-18 Helge Kragh
-
Dreams of Declassification: The Early Cold War Quest for Nuclear Knowledge in The Netherlands and Norway Phys. Perspect. (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2023-12-01 Machiel Kleemans
-
JASON in Europe: Contestation and the Physicists’ Dilemma about the Vietnam War Phys. Perspect. (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2023-10-05 Gerardo Ienna, Simone Turchetti
This article examines the contestation that in the summer of 1972 disrupted workshops in Western Europe featuring renowned physicists affiliated to the top-secret JASON advisory group. Set up by the US Department of Defense research division, JASON was responsible for outlining new bombing strategies in the context of the Vietnam War. Some of the physicists involved in the protest had contributed instead
-
Calculating and Mapping the Disposition of Future Heavens: Ferdinand Verbiest’s Weather Forecasting and Its Termination During the Qing Court (1669–1680) Phys. Perspect. (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2023-09-10 Weixing Niu, Yejing Ge, Haohao Zhu
-
Before and After the Fall: Geography of Soviet and Post-Soviet Physics Surveyed via Leading Journals Phys. Perspect. (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2023-05-25 Ivan Sterligov
-
Between Old and New Interpretations of Life: Animal Electricity at the First Congress of Italian Scientists Phys. Perspect. (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2023-04-10 Roberto Mantovani
-
Laboratory Life Instead of Nuclear Weapons: A New Perspective on the German Uranium Club Phys. Perspect. (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2023-01-11 Christian Forstner
-
(Mis)Translating Entropy?: Camille Flammarion and the Multiple Theologies of the Death of the Universe Phys. Perspect. (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2022-12-23 Nadya D. Kelly
-
Not Just Boys at Via Panisperna: Women at the Royal Physics Institute in Rome Phys. Perspect. (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2022-11-02 Miriam Focaccia
-
“Philosophysics” at the University of Vienna: The (Pre-)History of Foundations of Quantum Physics in the Viennese Cultural Context Phys. Perspect. (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2022-10-17 Flavio Del Santo, Emanuel Schwarzhans
-
Brecht, Galileo, and Møller: A View from Copenhagen, 1938–1939 Phys. Perspect. (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2022-07-18 Helge Kragh
-
Drama around a Wartime Heisenberg Letter Phys. Perspect. (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2022-02-07 Stephan Schwarz
A recently published letter written by Werner Heisenberg in October 1943 has been interpreted as reporting on a sudden chasm in a close relationship between Heisenberg and Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker. The interpretation is interesting because (as will be argued) it is counterintuitive. There are alternatives; for example, it could be an afterthought following extended nightly small talk, not to be
-
Making and Collecting Instruments in Fair Verona: The Case of the Italian Amateur Scientist Gaetano Spandri (1796–1859) Phys. Perspect. (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2022-01-27 Roberto Mantovani
Gaetano Spandri (1796–1859) was a “diligent scholar of the physical sciences,” a private collector and maker of scientific instruments who worked in Verona in the first half of the nineteenth century. Born in Verona, the city famous as the setting of Shakespeare’s iconic masterpiece Romeo and Juliet Spandri was primarily a physicist and astronomer, but he was also interested in meteorology and natural
-
Walter Scott Hill and Uruguayan Physics Phys. Perspect. (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2022-01-24 Juan A. Queijo Olano, Antonio A. P. Videira
The history of physics in Uruguay has long been misunderstood by the country’s historians. This article proposes a new way of considering that past, researching the career of Walter Scott Hill at the Institute of Physics of the University of the Republic of Uruguay (Udelar). By doing so, not only can we fill a gap in the history of Uruguayan science, but we can also understand how important a role
-
CERN’s Balancing Act Between Unity and Disunity: The “Sister Experiments” UA1 and UA2 and CERN’s First Nobel Prize Phys. Perspect. (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2021-11-25 Grigoris Panoutsopoulos, Theodore Arabatzis
In this paper, we employ Ian Hacking’s insight that “unity” has a double meaning, singleness and harmonious integration, to revisit a major episode from the recent history of CERN: the UA1 and UA2 experiments in the early 1980s, which led to the discovery of the W and Z bosons. CERN is a complex institution, where diverse groups are called upon to cooperate. We argue that this lack of unity, in the
-
American Nineteenth-Century Manufacturers and Importers of Philosophical Apparatus Phys. Perspect. (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2021-11-22 Greenslade, Thomas B.
Professors of physics in nineteenth-century America had two options for procuring the apparatus that they needed to demonstrate the phenomena of physics to their students. Some apparatus was available from makers and dealers in Europe, mostly in France (for optical apparatus) and Germany. A few teachers, such as Ebenezer Snell of Amherst, made some of their own apparatus. The rest of the instruments
-
From England to Italy: The Intriguing Story of Poli’s Engine for the King of Naples Phys. Perspect. (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2021-10-14 Esposito, Salvatore
An interesting, yet unknown episode concerning the effective permeation of the scientific revolution in eighteenth-century Kingdom of Naples (and Italy more generally) is recounted. The intriguing story of James Watt’s steam engine, prepared to serve a Royal Estate of the King of Naples in Carditello, reveals a fascinating piece of the history of that kingdom, as well as an unknown step in the history
-
The Past Looks Like an Onion: The Centennial “Great Debate” Through Journalists’ Testimonies Phys. Perspect. (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2021-09-14 Flório, Victória, Freire Júnior, Olival
The discussion between California astronomers Harlow Shapley of Mount Wilson Observatory and Heber Doust Curtis of Lick Observatory during the 1920 NAS meeting in Washington, DC, is now a centennial vestige of early twentieth-century scientists’ efforts to map the universe. Historians have reconstructed that evening session using surviving archives (such as the formal accounts published in the Bulletin
-
The Scientific Revolution in Art Phys. Perspect. (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2021-09-01 Fleck, Robert
In the continuing spirit of narrowing the gap between the “two cultures,” this essay illustrates, quite literally through representative works of Western art, the striking parallels between the visual arts and the discoveries made during the Scientific Revolution, the period between Copernicus’s 1543 De revolutionibus and Newton’s 1687 Principia when the foundations of modern science swept away the
-
The Occupation of Niels Bohr’s Institute: December 6, 1943–February 3, 1944 Phys. Perspect. (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2021-03-02 Stephan Schwarz
The occupation of the Niels Bohr Institute by German authorities in war-time Denmark has hitherto not been described or analyzed in detail, leaving a number of questions open, such as the background and purpose of the occupation, the lack of planning of the operation, formation, mandate and actual work of the “Expert Commission,” and the justification of release without conditions. These questions
-
Writing Things Up: Endings and Beginnings Phys. Perspect. (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2021-03-01 Robert P. Crease,Joseph D. Martin,Richard Staley
-
Observation and Annihilation: The Discovery of the Antiproton Phys. Perspect. (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2021-02-27 Kevin Orrman-Rossiter
This paper is the first investigation of the events associated with the discovery of the antiproton. The 1955 observation of the antiproton by Owen Chamberlain, Emilio Segrè, Clyde Wiegand, and Thomas Ypsilantis was “no surprise,” in Chamberlain’s words, and might therefore be understood as a classic example of an experimental proof of an existing theory—except there was no complete theory—at best
-
Professors of Natural Philosophy in the Nineteenth Century Phys. Perspect. (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2020-12-01 Thomas B. Greenslade
The introductory physics course taught in American College and Universities in the twenty-first century is a descendent of the natural philosophy—later, physics—course that developed in these institutions in the nineteenth century. In the present paper, I discuss the backgrounds of a number of prominent professors of natural philosophy who taught these courses. These came, variously from experience
-
The Problem of Reflection in Eighteenth-Century Projectile Theories of Light Phys. Perspect. (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2020-12-01 Breno Arsioli Moura
This paper explores the mechanical models elaborated by projectile theorists throughout the eighteenth century to explain the reflection of light. Influenced by Isaac Newton’s Opticks, these projectile theorists proposed that repulsion was the cause of reflection. My purpose is to show that their models were not unified and lacked a deeper understanding of the origin of repulsive powers. This analysis
-
Fundamental Themes in Physics from the History of Art Phys. Perspect. (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2020-11-27 Robert Fleck
Mindful of a stated Project 2061 goal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, emphasizing that “scientific literacy includes seeing the scientific endeavor in the light of cultural and intellectual history,” and in the continuing spirit of narrowing the gap between the “two cultures” by enhancing STEAM awareness and education, this essay illustrates, quite literally through well-known
-
Redshifts versus Paradigm Shifts: Against Renaming Hubble’s Law Phys. Perspect. (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2020-09-28 Cormac O’Raifeartaigh, Michael O’Keeffe
We consider the proposal by many scholars and by the International Astronomical Union to rename Hubble’s law as the Hubble-Lemaitre law. We find the renaming questionable on historic, scientific, and philosophical grounds. From a historical perspective, we argue that the renaming presents an anachronistic interpretation of a law originally understood as an empirical relation between two observables
-
A Reconsideration of Ştefania Mărăcineanu’s Measurements of Polonium-210’s Half-Life: Understanding Her Claim to the Discovery of Artificial Radioactivity Phys. Perspect. (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2020-08-11 Dorel Bucurescu
I re-examine the raw data of the measurements of the half-life of 210Po from the Romanian physicist Ştefania Mărăcineanu’s doctoral thesis, performed at the Institut du Radium, 1921–1923, under the supervision of Marie Curie. The half-life values reported in the thesis show relatively large divergences and a possible dependence on the (metallic) support on which the Po source was deposited. These findings
-
Joshua Nall, News from Mars: Mass Media and the Forging of a New Astronomy, 1860–1910, Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2019, 287 pages, $50 (hardcover) Phys. Perspect. (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2020-08-09 Robert W. Smith
-
Enrico Fermi’s Discovery of Neutron-Induced Artificial Radioactivity: A Case of “Emanation” from “Divine Providence” Phys. Perspect. (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2020-07-06 Francesco Guerra, Matteo Leone, Nadia Robotti
We reconstruct Enrico Fermi’s remarkable discovery of neutron-induced radioactivity in March 1934 with a focus on the experimental apparatus he used, such as the original neutron sources preserved in Italy and abroad. Special attention is paid to the role of the Radium Office of the Institute of Public Health in Rome in providing to Fermi the “radium emanation” (Radon-222) used to make his radon-beryllium
-
The Battle of the Astronomers: Johann Adam Schall von Bell and Ferdinand Verbiest at the Court of the Celestial Emperors (1660–1670) Phys. Perspect. (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2020-06-01 Stefano Salvia
The paper is focused on the two most outstanding figures among the Jesuit missionaries in seventeenth-century China: Johann Adam Schall von Bell and Ferdinand Verbiest. Schall aimed to introduce the telescope into Chinese astronomy, which was traditionally based on naked-eye observation and calculation. With the advent of the Qing dynasty, he became head of the Mathematical Board and director of the
-
The Concept of Fact in German Physics around 1900: A Comparison between Mach and Einstein Phys. Perspect. (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2020-05-22 Elske de Waal, Sjang L. ten Hagen
The concept of fact has a history. Over the past centuries, physicists have appropriated it in various ways. In this article, we compare Ernst Mach and Albert Einstein's interpretations of the concept. Mach, like most nineteenth-century physicists, contrasted fact and theory. He understood facts as real and complex combinations of natural events. Theories, in turn, only served to order and communicate
-
When Missionary Astronomy Encountered Chinese Astrology: Johann Adam Schall von Bell and Chinese Calendar Reform in the Seventeenth Century Phys. Perspect. (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2020-05-22 Liyuan Liu
Western missionaries played an important role as go-betweens, promoting communication and interaction between Europe and China in science, culture, and religion. In 1644, the Qing government appointed the Germany Jesuit missionary Johann Adam Schall von Bell head of the Bureau of Astronomy, placing him in charge of reforming the Chinese calendar. In the traditional calendar, in addition to dates based
-
Recentering the History of Physics Phys. Perspect. (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2020-03-01 Robert P. Crease,Joseph D. Martin,Richard Staley
-
“It’s better to forget physics”: The Idea of the Tactical Nuclear Weapon in the Early Cold War Phys. Perspect. (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2020-03-01 Christian P. Ruhl
The American physicist John Wheeler once told his colleague Richard Feynman that, in case of war, “it’s better to forget physics and tell the admirals and generals how to do tactical and strategic this-and-that.” This article explores the history of this-and-that distinctions between tactical and strategic nuclear weapons in the early Cold War. The idea of tactical nuclear weapons was intertwined with
-
In Europe Phys. Perspect. (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2020-03-01 Jeroen van Dongen
As the History of Science Society, which is based in America, holds its annual meeting in Utrecht, one of the key academic centers on the European continent, one may surmise that the field has returned home. Yet, this hardly reflects how today’s world of scholarship is constituted: in the historiography of science, “provincializing Europe” has become an important theme, while the field itself, as is
-
Correction to: Einstein’s Gyros Phys. Perspect. (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2020-02-11 József Illy
The article ‘Einstein’s Gyros’ written by József Illy was originally published electronically
-
Einstein’s Gyros Phys. Perspect. (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2019-12-01 József Illy
Einstein’s life-long effort to develop a theory that unifies gravitation and electromagnetism was not a purely theoretical enterprise. The technical environment of a gyrocompass factory triggered his search for a novel connection between the rotation of an electrically uncharged body and its magnetic field. The dimensional equality of the electric unit charge and the mass of a body multiplied by the
-
Varying Constants of Nature: Fragments of a History Phys. Perspect. (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2019-11-29 Helge Kragh
The concept of constants of nature originated in the late-nineteenth century and has since then increasingly occupied the minds of physicists. But are the constants truly constant? Inspired by Paul Dirac’s suggestion that the gravitational constant varies slowly in time, the question was addressed not only by physicists but also by astronomers, geologists, and paleontologists. Pascual Jordan in Germany
-
Correction to: From Liverpool to Beijing and Chongqing: William Band’s Adventure in Wartime China Phys. Perspect. (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2019-09-06 Danian Hu
In the original publication of this article, the author noticed some minor errors.
-
Biography and the History of Physics Phys. Perspect. (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2019-09-01 Robert P. Crease,Joseph D. Martin,Richard Staley
-
What the Middle-Aged Galileo Told the Elderly Galileo: Galileo’s Search for the Laws of Fall Phys. Perspect. (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2019-09-01 Penha Maria Cardozo Dias, Mariana Faria Brito Francisquini, Carlos Eduardo Aguiar, Marta Feijó Barroso
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 ( $$v^{2} \propto D$$ and
-
Karl Przibram: Radioactivity, Crystals, and Colors Phys. Perspect. (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2019-08-12 Wolfgang L. Reiter
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, Farbzentrum
-
From Liverpool to Beijing and Chongqing: William Band’s Adventure in Wartime China Phys. Perspect. (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2019-08-02 Danian Hu
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
-
Decolonizing Physics: Learning from the Periphery Phys. Perspect. (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2019-06-01 Robert P. Crease,Joseph D. Martin,Richard Staley
-
Making Research More Diverse: How Peripheral Members Join a Scientific Community Phys. Perspect. (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2019-06-01 Deepanwita Dasgupta
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
-
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 Phys. Perspect. (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2019-06-01 Catherine Westfall
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
-
What We Talk about When We Talk about Physics Phys. Perspect. (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2019-03-01 Robert P. Crease,Joseph D. Martin,Richard Staley
-
Sabine Hossenfelder, Lost in Math: How Beauty Leads Physics Astray, Basic Books, 2018, 304 pages, $17.99 (hardcover). Phys. Perspect. (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2019-02-11 Jeremy Butterfield
-
Shifting Trends in Modern Physics, Nobel Recognition, and the Histories That We Write Phys. Perspect. (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2019-02-11 Mary Jo Nye
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
-
Physical Review: From the Periphery to the Center of Physics Phys. Perspect. (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2019-02-11 Mahdi Khelfaoui, Yves Gingras
In this paper, we analyze in a quantitative manner the changing position of Physical Review 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 Physical Review’s historical evolution and offers a dynamical portrait of the global landscape of physics journals
-
Embattled Cooperation(s): Peaceful Atoms, Pacifist Physicists, and Partisans of Peace in the Early Cold War (1947–1957) Phys. Perspect. (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2019-02-07 Stefano Salvia
The famous nuclear physicist Bruno Pontecorvo, who defected to the USSR in 1950, was affiliated to the internationalist network called “Partisans of Peace,” founded in 1949. Later renamed the World Peace Council, it was an organization of pacifist scientists, intellectuals, and artists like Frédéric Joliot-Curie and Pablo Picasso that was similar to the Pugwash movement, but part of the Comintern (later
-
Four Facts Everyone Ought to Know about Science: The Two-Culture Concerns of Philip W. Anderson Phys. Perspect. (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2018-11-27 Andrew Zhang, Andrew Zangwill
Lay people have a large appetite for information about scientific and technological issues that affect them, such as self-driving automobiles, gene manipulation, and climate change. However, this information must be clear and accurate if they are to use it to make informed political decisions. In 1994, the Nobel prize–winning physicist Philip W. Anderson used a newspaper essay to convey his concerns
-
Interrogating the Legend of Einstein's “Biggest Blunder” Phys. Perspect. (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2018-11-26 Cormac O’Raifeartaigh, Simon Mitton
It is well known that, following the emergence of the first evidence for an expanding universe, Albert Einstein banished the cosmological constant term from his cosmology. Indeed, he is reputed to have labelled the term, originally introduced to the field equations of general relativity in 1917 in order to predict a static universe, his “biggest blunder.” However, serious doubts about this reported
-
Fueling Peter’s Mill: Mikhail Lomonosov’s Educational Training in Russia and Germany, 1731–1741 Phys. Perspect. (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2018-08-17 Robert P. Crease, Vladimir Shiltsev
This article, the second in a series about the Russian scientist Mikhail Lomonosov (1711–1765), traces his education from his arrival in Moscow in 1731 to study at the Slavic-Greco-Latin Academy, through his admission to the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences in 1736, to his trip abroad to complete his educational studies from 1736 to 1741. Lomonosov’s story during this time opens a vista on the introduction
-
Ludvig Lorenz and His Non-Maxwellian Electrical Theory of Light Phys. Perspect. (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2018-07-03 Helge Kragh
Maxwell’s celebrated electromagnetic theory of light dates from 1865. Two years later, without appealing to the ether as a carrier of light waves, the Danish physicist Ludvig Lorenz (1829–1891) independently published another electrical theory of light based on optical equations and the novel idea of retarded potentials. In spite of resting on a very different conceptual foundation, Lorenz’s theory
-
Celebrity Physicist: How the Press Sensationalized Einstein’s Search for a Unified Field Theory Phys. Perspect. (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2018-06-26 Paul Halpern
In Einstein’s later years, from the late 1920s onward, his reputation in the physics community as an innovator had faded as he pursued increasingly unrealistic unified field theories. Yet from the perspective of the press, his image and ideas were still marketable. We will see how his various attempts to craft a unified field theory generated numerous headlines, despite their lack of experimental evidence
-
How Pressure Became a Scalar, Not a Vector Phys. Perspect. (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2018-04-19 Alan Chalmers
The gradual emergence of a science of hydrostatics during the course of the seventeenth century is testament to the fact that a technical concept of pressure that was up to the task was far from obvious. The first published version of a theory of hydrostatics containing the essentials of the modern theory appeared in book 2 of Isaac Newton’s Principia. Newton derived the propositions of hydrostatics
-
When Science and Politics Collide Phys. Perspect. (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2018-04-11 Robert P. Crease,Joseph D. Martin,Peter Pesic
-
The Fiftieth Anniversary of Brookhaven National Laboratory: A Turbulent Time Phys. Perspect. (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2018-03-06 Peter D. Bond
The fiftieth anniversary year of Brookhaven National Laboratory was momentous, but for reasons other than celebrating its scientific accomplishments. Legacy environmental contamination, community unrest, politics, and internal Department of Energy issues dominated the year. It was the early days of perhaps the most turbulent time in the lab’s history. The consequences resulted in significant changes