Changing Landscapes of Nuclear Physics: A Scientometric Study on the Social and Cognitive Position of German-Speaking Emigrants Within the Nuclear Phy

ISBN-13: 9783540564805 / Angielski / Miękka / 1993 / 256 str.

Klaus Fischer

Opis

Nuclear physics between 1921 and 1947 shaped more than any other science thepolitical landscape of our century and the public opinion on physical research. Using quantitative scientometric methods, a new branch in the history of science, the author focuses on the developments of nuclear physics in these formative years paying special attention to theimpact of German emigrants on the evolution of the field as a cognitive and social unity. The book is based on a thorough analysis of various citation analyses thus producing results that should be more replicable and more objective. The scientometric techniques should complement the more qualitative approach usually applied in historical writing. This makes the text an interesting study also for the historian in general.

Spis treści

General Preface.- Introduction: The Effects of Scientific Emigration: Special Methodological Questions.- A. Method.- B. Data Base and Preliminary Descriptive Analyses.- C. Emigrants as Literary Producers in Nuclear Physics.- D. Recognizing Emigrants’ Scientific Achievement: Temporal Order, Social Stratification, and Type of Journal.- E. Disciplinary Landscapes in Nuclear Physics: Social and Cognitive.- I. Simple Ranking by Citation Counts.- II. After the Quantum Revolution: Nuclei, Atoms, and Molecules 1926–1930.- III. Nuclear Physics in Its Revolutionary Phase: From the ‘Annus Mirabilis’ 1932 to Fermi’s Pioneering Discovery.- IV. The Fate of a ‘Normal’ Science in 1941: The Public Role of the Nuclear Researcher Under Attack.- V. The Failure to Return to Normality: Nuclear Physics as a Benefactor of, and Debtor to, Politics.- F. Biography in Context.- I. Educational and Institutional Background of Emigrant Nuclear Physicists.- II. Physical Genealogies: Group Biography of Emigrant Atomic and Nuclear Physicists in Institutional Context.- References.

O autorze

The book describes the formative years of nuclear physics and how they influenced both the public view of physics and the political landscape of our century. Especially it analyses the role of German emigrants thereby assessing the myth-ladden history of German nuclear research before and during World War II. The quantitative scientometric methods systematically used by the author should be of interest for historians. The book addresses historians, especially historians of science, and the general public.