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Author: Jessica Wang Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press ISBN: 0807867101 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 392
Book Description
No professional group in the United States benefited more from World War II than the scientific community. After the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, scientists enjoyed unprecedented public visibility and political influence as a new elite whose expertise now seemed critical to America's future. But as the United States grew committed to Cold War conflict with the Soviet Union and the ideology of anticommunism came to dominate American politics, scientists faced an increasingly vigorous regimen of security and loyalty clearances as well as the threat of intrusive investigations by the notorious House Committee on Un-American Activities and other government bodies. This book is the first major study of American scientists' encounters with Cold War anticommunism in the decade after World War II. By examining cases of individual scientists subjected to loyalty and security investigations, the organizational response of the scientific community to political attacks, and the relationships between Cold War ideology and postwar science policy, Jessica Wang demonstrates the stifling effects of anticommunist ideology on the politics of science. She exposes the deep divisions over the Cold War within the scientific community and provides a complex story of hard choices, a community in crisis, and roads not taken.
Author: Jessica Wang Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press ISBN: 0807867101 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 392
Book Description
No professional group in the United States benefited more from World War II than the scientific community. After the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, scientists enjoyed unprecedented public visibility and political influence as a new elite whose expertise now seemed critical to America's future. But as the United States grew committed to Cold War conflict with the Soviet Union and the ideology of anticommunism came to dominate American politics, scientists faced an increasingly vigorous regimen of security and loyalty clearances as well as the threat of intrusive investigations by the notorious House Committee on Un-American Activities and other government bodies. This book is the first major study of American scientists' encounters with Cold War anticommunism in the decade after World War II. By examining cases of individual scientists subjected to loyalty and security investigations, the organizational response of the scientific community to political attacks, and the relationships between Cold War ideology and postwar science policy, Jessica Wang demonstrates the stifling effects of anticommunist ideology on the politics of science. She exposes the deep divisions over the Cold War within the scientific community and provides a complex story of hard choices, a community in crisis, and roads not taken.
Author: Gabor Somorjai Publisher: Archway Publishing ISBN: 1480801453 Category : Juvenile Fiction Languages : en Pages : 268
Book Description
As a young man, Gabor Somorjai couldn’t have known he would one day be forced to flee his native Hungary. But upheaval in Europe during and after World War II led him to the U.S. where he immersed himself in science and soon began building a research group at one of the powerhouses of scientific discovery. The timing couldn’t have been better. The Sputnik wakeup call that triggered the huge influx of government support for scientific research in the second half of the 20th century bolstered fundamental research programs like the one Somorjai established at the University of California, Berkeley, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Key discoveries in his field—surface science—led the way to advances in catalysis know-how that underpin today’s energy storage and transformation technology and safeguard the environment. By revealing the unique ways microscopically thin layers of atoms and molecules control the chemistry and physics of surfaces, modern surface science also spawned rapid development in microelectronics, high-power computing, and communication and information technology. But the scientific impact of the field that Professor Somorjai shaped doesn’t end there. Key discoveries in surface science also supported the development of new medical instruments for non-invasive investigation of the human body, as well as tools and techniques for repairing organs and bones. These discoveries have helped increase our life expectancy and vastly improved our quality of life. Through a fascinating account of his life story, Gabor Somorjai leads us through the dramatic changes in science and technology that took hold during the last half century and are sure to influence our lives in the years to come.
Author: Christoph Irmscher Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt ISBN: 0547577672 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 453
Book Description
A provocative new life restoring Agassiz--America's most famous natural scientist of the 19th century, inventor of the Ice Age, stubborn anti-Darwinist--to his glorious, troubling place in science and culture.
Author: Freeman Dyson Publisher: New York Review of Books ISBN: 1590178815 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 400
Book Description
From Galileo to today’s amateur astronomers, scientists have been rebels, writes Freeman Dyson. Like artists and poets, they are free spirits who resist the restrictions their cultures impose on them. In their pursuit of nature’s truths, they are guided as much by imagination as by reason, and their greatest theories have the uniqueness and beauty of great works of art.Dyson argues that the best way to understand science is by understanding those who practice it. He tells stories of scientists at work, ranging from Isaac Newton’s absorption in physics, alchemy, theology, and politics, to Ernest Rutherford’s discovery of the structure of the atom, to Albert Einstein’s stubborn hostility to the idea of black holes. His descriptions of brilliant physicists like Edward Teller and Richard Feynman are enlivened by his own reminiscences of them. He looks with a skeptical eye at fashionable scientific fads and fantasies, and speculates on the future of climate prediction, genetic engineering, the colonization of space, and the possibility that paranormal phenomena may exist yet not be scientifically verifiable. Dyson also looks beyond particular scientific questions to reflect on broader philosophical issues, such as the limits of reductionism, the morality of strategic bombing and nuclear weapons, the preservation of the environment, and the relationship between science and religion. These essays, by a distinguished physicist who is also a prolific writer, offer informed insights into the history of science and fresh perspectives on contentious current debates about science, ethics, and faith.
Author: Jeremy Bernstein Publisher: Harvard University Press ISBN: 0674073622 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 221
Book Description
Jeremy Bernstein guides readers through high-energy physics from early twentieth-century atomic models to leptons, mesons, quarks, and the newly discovered Higgs boson, drawing them into the excitement of a universe where 80 percent of all matter has never been identified. From molecules to galaxies, the more we discover, the less we seem to know.
Author: MOYER ALBERT E Publisher: Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press ISBN: Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 410
Book Description
By the time of his death in 1878, Joseph Henry was America's most eminent physical scientist. His achievements in the study of electricity, magnetism, and telegraphy earned him a 30-year tenure as the first secretary of the Smithsonian. This biography illuminates not only the character of 19th-century scientific exploration but also the place of science in American culture. 12 illustrations.
Author: Eli Maor Publisher: Princeton University Press ISBN: 0691175888 Category : Art Languages : en Pages : 206
Book Description
An exquisite visual celebration of the 2,500-year history of geometry If you've ever thought that mathematics and art don't mix, this stunning visual history of geometry will change your mind. As much a work of art as a book about mathematics, Beautiful Geometry presents more than sixty exquisite color plates illustrating a wide range of geometric patterns and theorems, accompanied by brief accounts of the fascinating history and people behind each. With artwork by Swiss artist Eugen Jost and text by math historian Eli Maor, this unique celebration of geometry covers numerous subjects, from straightedge-and-compass constructions to intriguing configurations involving infinity. The result is a delightful and informative illustrated tour through the 2,500-year-old history of one of the most important branches of mathematics.
Author: István Hargittai Publisher: Oxford University Press ISBN: 0195365569 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 370
Book Description
If science has the equivalent of a Bloomsbury group, it is the five men born at the turn of the twentieth century in Budapest: Theodore von Kármán, Leo Szilard, Eugene Wigner, John von Neumann, and Edward Teller. From Hungary to Germany to the United States, they remained friends and continued to work together and influence each other throughout their lives. As a result, their work was integral to some of the most important scientific and political developments of the twentieth century. István Hargittai tells the story of this remarkable group: Wigner won a Nobel Prize in theoretical physics; Szilard was the first to see that a chain reaction based on neutrons was possible, initiated the Manhattan Project, but left physics to try to restrict nuclear arms; von Neumann could solve difficult problems in his head and developed the modern computer for more complex problems; von Kármán became the first director of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, providing the scientific basis for the U.S. Air Force; and Teller was the father of the hydrogen bomb, whose name is now synonymous with the controversial "Star Wars" initiative of the 1980s. Each was fiercely opinionated, politically active, and fought against all forms of totalitarianism. Hargittai, as a young Hungarian physical chemist, was able to get to know some of these great men in their later years, and the depth of information and human interest in The Martians of Science is the result of his personal relationships with the subjects, their families, and their contemporaries.
Author: Britt Rusert Publisher: NYU Press ISBN: 1479805726 Category : Literary Criticism Languages : en Pages : 320
Book Description
Honorable Mention, 2019 MLA Prize for a First Book Sole Finalist Mention for the 2018 Lora Romero First Book Prize, presented by the American Studies Association Exposes the influential work of a group of black artists to confront and refute scientific racism. Traversing the archives of early African American literature, performance, and visual culture, Britt Rusert uncovers the dynamic experiments of a group of black writers, artists, and performers. Fugitive Science chronicles a little-known story about race and science in America. While the history of scientific racism in the nineteenth century has been well-documented, there was also a counter-movement of African Americans who worked to refute its claims. Far from rejecting science, these figures were careful readers of antebellum science who linked diverse fields—from astronomy to physiology—to both on-the-ground activism and more speculative forms of knowledge creation. Routinely excluded from institutions of scientific learning and training, they transformed cultural spaces like the page, the stage, the parlor, and even the pulpit into laboratories of knowledge and experimentation. From the recovery of neglected figures like Robert Benjamin Lewis, Hosea Easton, and Sarah Mapps Douglass, to new accounts of Martin Delany, Henry Box Brown, and Frederick Douglass, Fugitive Science makes natural science central to how we understand the origins and development of African American literature and culture. This distinct and pioneering book will spark interest from anyone wishing to learn more on race and society.
Author: Jessica Wang
Author: Jessica Wang
Author: Gabor Somorjai
Author: Lorraine Daston
Author: Christoph Irmscher
Author: Freeman Dyson
Author: Jeremy Bernstein
Author: MOYER ALBERT E
Author: Eli Maor
Author: István Hargittai
Author: Britt Rusert