Between The Earth And The Heavens Historical Studies In The Physical Sciences

Author : Helge Kragh
Publisher : World Scientific
Page : 413 pages
File Size : 45,5 Mb
Release : 2021-03-24
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781786349866

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Between The Earth And The Heavens: Historical Studies In The Physical Sciences by Helge Kragh Pdf

Consisting of separate cases organized by chapter and divided into independent sections, this is no ordinary history of science book. Between the Earth and the Heavens is an episodic history of modern physical sciences covering the chronological development of physics, chemistry and astronomy since about 1860. Integrating historical authenticity and modern scientific knowledge, the cases within deal with the often surprising connections between science done in the laboratory (physics, chemistry) and science based on observation (astronomy, cosmology).Between the Earth and the Heavens presupposes an interest in and a certain knowledge of the physical sciences, but it is written for non-specialists and includes only a limited number of equations which are all clearly explained in simple terms. For readers who wish to delve further, the book is fully documented and ends with a bibliography of cited quotations and other relevant sources.

Author : Christopher B. Kaiser
Publisher : BRILL
Page : 462 pages
File Size : 48,9 Mb
Release : 2021-12-06
Category : History
ISBN : 9789004474116

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Creational Theology and the History of Physical Science: The Creationist Tradition from Basil to Bohr by Christopher B. Kaiser Pdf

This volume documents the role of creational theology in discussions of natural philosophy, medicine and technology from the Hellenistic period to the early twentieth century. Four principal themes are the comprehensibility of the world, the unity of heaven and earth, the relative autonomy of nature, and the ministry of healing. Successive chapters focus on Greco-Roman science, medieval Aristotelianism, early modern science, the heritage of Isaac Newton, and post-Newtonian mechanics. The volume will interest historians of science and historians of the idea of creation. It simultaneously details the persistence of tradition and the emergence of modernity and provides the historical background for later discussions of creation and evolution.

Author : Aitor Anduaga Egaña
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 359 pages
File Size : 51,6 Mb
Release : 2016
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780198755159

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Geophysics, Realism, and Industry by Aitor Anduaga Egaña Pdf

Did industry and commerce affect the concepts, values and epistemic foundations of different sciences? If so, how and to what extent? This book suggests that the most significant influence of industry on science in the two case studies treated here had to do with the issue of realism. Using wave propagation as the common thread, this is the first book to simultaneously analyse the emergence of realist attitudes towards the entities of the ionosphere and of the earth's crust. However, what led physicists and engineers to adopt realist attitudes? This book suggests that a new kind of realism --a realism of social and cultural origins- is the answer: a preliminary, entity realism responding to specific commercial and engineering interests, and a realism that was neither strictly instrumental nor exclusively operational. The book has two parts: while Part I focuses on the study of the ionosphere and how the British radio industry affected ionospheric physics, Part II focuses on the study of the Earth's crust and how the American oil industry affected crustal seismology.

Author : Aitor Anduaga
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 368 pages
File Size : 55,6 Mb
Release : 2015-12-17
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780191071386

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Geophysics, Realism, and Industry by Aitor Anduaga Pdf

Did industry and commerce affect the concepts, values and epistemic foundations of different sciences? If so, how and to what extent? This book suggests that the most significant influence of industry on science in the two case studies treated here had to do with the issue of realism. Using wave propagation as the common thread, this is the first book to simultaneously analyse the emergence of realist attitudes towards the entities of the ionosphere and of the earth's crust. However, what led physicists and engineers to adopt realist attitudes? This book suggests that a new kind of realism —a realism of social and cultural origins- is the answer: a preliminary, entity realism responding to specific commercial and engineering interests, and a realism that was neither strictly instrumental nor exclusively operational. The book has two parts: while Part I focuses on the study of the ionosphere and how the British radio industry affected ionospheric physics, Part II focuses on the study of the Earth's crust and how the American oil industry affected crustal seismology.

Author : Thomas Owens
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 224 pages
File Size : 50,9 Mb
Release : 2019-05-30
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9780192577573

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Wordsworth, Coleridge, and 'the language of the heavens' by Thomas Owens Pdf

Thomas Owens explores some of the exultant visions inspired by Wordsworth's and Coleridge's close scrutiny of the night sky, the natural world, and the domains of science. He examines a set of scientific patterns drawn from natural, geometric, celestial, and astronomical sources which Wordsworth and Coleridge used to express their ideas about poetry, religion, literary criticism, and philosophy, and establishes the central importance of analogy in their creative thinking. Analogies prompted the poets' imaginings in geometry and cartography, in nature (representations of the moon) and natural history (studies of spider-webs, streams, and dew), in calculus and conical refraction, and in the discovery of infra-red and ultraviolet light. Although this is primarily a study of the patterns which inspired their writing, the findings overturn the prevalent critical consensus that Wordsworth and Coleridge did not have the access, interest, or capacity to understand the latest developments in nineteenth-century astronomy and mathematics, which they did in fact possess. Wordsworth, Coleridge, and 'the language of the heavens' reinstates many relationships which the poets had with scientists and their sources. Most significantly, the book illustrates that these sources are not simply another context or historical lens through which to engage with Wordsworth's and Coleridge's work but are instead a controlling device of the symbolic imagination. Exploring the structures behind Wordsworth's and Coleridge's poems and metaphysics stakes out a return to the evidence of the Romantic imagination, not for its own sake, but in order to reveal that their analogical configuration of the world provided them with a scaffold for thinking, an intellectual orrery which ordered artistic consciousness and which they never abandoned.

Author : David Aubin,Charlotte Bigg,H. Otto Sibum
Publisher : Duke University Press
Page : 400 pages
File Size : 44,6 Mb
Release : 2010-01-26
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780822392507

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The Heavens on Earth by David Aubin,Charlotte Bigg,H. Otto Sibum Pdf

The Heavens on Earth explores the place of the observatory in nineteenth-century science and culture. Astronomy was a core pursuit for observatories, but usually not the only one. It belonged to a larger group of “observatory sciences” that also included geodesy, meteorology, geomagnetism, and even parts of physics and statistics. These pursuits coexisted in the nineteenth-century observatory; this collection surveys them as a coherent whole. Broadening the focus beyond the solitary astronomer at his telescope, it illuminates the observatory’s importance to technological, military, political, and colonial undertakings, as well as in advancing and popularizing the mathematical, physical, and cosmological sciences. The contributors examine “observatory techniques” developed and used not only in connection with observatories but also by instrument makers in their workshops, navy officers on ships, civil engineers in the field, and many others. These techniques included the calibration and coordination of precision instruments for making observations and taking measurements; methods of data acquisition and tabulation; and the production of maps, drawings, and photographs, as well as numerical, textual, and visual representations of the heavens and the earth. They also encompassed the social management of personnel within observatories, the coordination of international scientific collaborations, and interactions with dignitaries and the public. The state observatory occupied a particularly privileged place in the life of the city. With their imposing architecture and ancient traditions, state observatories served representative purposes for their patrons, whether as symbols of a monarch’s enlightened power, a nation’s industrial and scientific excellence, or republican progressive values. Focusing on observatory techniques in settings from Berlin, London, Paris, and Rome to Australia, Russia, Thailand, and the United States, The Heavens on Earth is a major contribution to the history of science. Contributors: David Aubin, Charlotte Bigg, Guy Boistel, Theresa Levitt, Massimo Mazzotti, Ole Molvig, Simon Schaffer, Martina Schiavon , H. Otto Sibum, Richard Staley, John Tresch, Simon Werrett, Sven Widmalm

Author : Naomi Oreskes
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 749 pages
File Size : 50,5 Mb
Release : 2021-04-19
Category : History
ISBN : 9780226732411

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Science on a Mission by Naomi Oreskes Pdf

A vivid portrait of how Naval oversight shaped American oceanography, revealing what difference it makes who pays for science. What difference does it make who pays for science? Some might say none. If scientists seek to discover fundamental truths about the world, and they do so in an objective manner using well-established methods, then how could it matter who’s footing the bill? History, however, suggests otherwise. In science, as elsewhere, money is power. Tracing the recent history of oceanography, Naomi Oreskes discloses dramatic changes in American ocean science since the Cold War, uncovering how and why it changed. Much of it has to do with who pays. After World War II, the US military turned to a new, uncharted theater of warfare: the deep sea. The earth sciences—particularly physical oceanography and marine geophysics—became essential to the US Navy, which poured unprecedented money and logistical support into their study. Science on a Mission brings to light how this influx of military funding was both enabling and constricting: it resulted in the creation of important domains of knowledge but also significant, lasting, and consequential domains of ignorance. As Oreskes delves into the role of patronage in the history of science, what emerges is a vivid portrait of how naval oversight transformed what we know about the sea. It is a detailed, sweeping history that illuminates the ways funding shapes the subject, scope, and tenor of scientific work, and it raises profound questions about the purpose and character of American science. What difference does it make who pays? The short answer is: a lot.

Author : Ernest B. Hook
Publisher : Univ of California Press
Page : 398 pages
File Size : 46,8 Mb
Release : 2002-10-02
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780520231061

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Prematurity in Scientific Discovery by Ernest B. Hook Pdf

"In preparing this remarkable book, Ernest Hook persuaded an eminent group of scientists, historians, sociologists and philosophers to focus on the problem: why are some discoveries rejected at a particular time but later seen to be valid? The interaction of these experts did not produce agreement on 'prematurity' in science but something more valuable: a collection of fascinating papers, many of them based on new research and analysis, which sometimes forced the author to revise a previously-held opinion. The book should be enthusiastically welcomed by all readers who are interested in how science works."—Stephen G. Brush, co-author of Physics, The Human Adventure: From copernicus to Einstein and Beyond "Prematurity and Scientific Discovery contains interesting and insightful papers by numerous well-known scientists and scholars. It will be of wide interest, not only to science studies scholars but also to working scientists and to science-literate general readers."—Thomas Nickles, editor of Scientific Discovery, Logic, and Rationality

Author : Marc Rothenberg
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 637 pages
File Size : 51,7 Mb
Release : 2012-10-12
Category : History
ISBN : 9781135583187

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History of Science in United States by Marc Rothenberg Pdf

This Encyclopedia examines all aspects of the history of science in the United States, with a special emphasis placed on the historiography of science in America. It can be used by students, general readers, scientists, or anyone interested in the facts relating to the development of science in the United States. Special emphasis is placed in the history of medicine and technology and on the relationship between science and technology and science and medicine.

Author : Chen-Pang Yeang
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 378 pages
File Size : 45,6 Mb
Release : 2013-07-02
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780226015194

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Probing the Sky with Radio Waves by Chen-Pang Yeang Pdf

By the late nineteenth century, engineers and experimental scientists generally knew how radio waves behaved, and by 1901 scientists were able to manipulate them to transmit messages across long distances. What no one could understand, however, was why radio waves followed the curvature of the Earth. Theorists puzzled over this for nearly twenty years before physicists confirmed the zig-zag theory, a solution that led to the discovery of a layer in the Earth’s upper atmosphere that bounces radio waves earthward—the ionosphere. In Probing the Sky with Radio Waves, Chen-Pang Yeang documents this monumental discovery and the advances in radio ionospheric propagation research that occurred in its aftermath. Yeang illustrates how the discovery of the ionosphere transformed atmospheric science from what had been primarily an observational endeavor into an experimental science. It also gave researchers a host of new theories, experiments, and instruments with which to better understand the atmosphere’s constitution, the origin of atmospheric electricity, and how the sun and geomagnetism shape the Earth’s atmosphere. This book will be warmly welcomed by scholars of astronomy, atmospheric science, geoscience, military and institutional history, and the history and philosophy of science and technology, as well as by radio amateurs and electrical engineers interested in historical perspectives on their craft.

Author : Lewis Pyenson,Russell K. McCormmach,Roy S. Turner
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 344 pages
File Size : 41,9 Mb
Release : 1979-01-01
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 0835781666

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Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences by Lewis Pyenson,Russell K. McCormmach,Roy S. Turner Pdf

Author : Reuben Parsons
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 636 pages
File Size : 48,8 Mb
Release : 1897
Category : Church history
ISBN : COLUMBIA:CR00150584

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Studies in Church History by Reuben Parsons Pdf

Author : Allan A. Needell
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 420 pages
File Size : 42,5 Mb
Release : 2013-02-01
Category : History
ISBN : 9781135852795

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Science, Cold War and the American State by Allan A. Needell Pdf

This book illuminates how Berkner became a model that produced the scientist/advisor/policymaker that helped build post-war America. It does so by providing a detailed account of the personal and professional beliefs of one of the most influential figures in the American scientific community; a figure that helped define the political and social climates that existed in the United States during the Cold War.

Author : David C. Lindberg,Mary Jo Nye,Roy Porter,Ronald L. Numbers
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 714 pages
File Size : 53,9 Mb
Release : 2003
Category : Mathematics
ISBN : 0521571995

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The Cambridge History of Science: Volume 5, The Modern Physical and Mathematical Sciences by David C. Lindberg,Mary Jo Nye,Roy Porter,Ronald L. Numbers Pdf

A new and comprehensive examination of the history of the modern physical and mathematical sciences.

Author : Monika Renneberg,Mark Walker
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 448 pages
File Size : 44,8 Mb
Release : 2003-09-25
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 0521528607

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Science, Technology, and National Socialism by Monika Renneberg,Mark Walker Pdf

This 1993 book provides a survey of the development of scientific disciplines and technical projects under National Socialism in Germany. Each contribution addresses a different aspect which is important for judging the interaction between science, technology and National Socialism. In particular, the personal conduct of individual scientists and engineers as well as the functionality of certain theories and projects are examined. All essays share a common theme: continuity and discontinuity. All authors cover a period from the Weimar Republic to the post-war period. This unanimity of approach provides answers to major questions about the nature of Hitler's regime and about possible lines of continuity in science and technology which may transcend political upheaval. The book is also the most comprehensive to date on this subject, and includes essays on engineering, geography, biology, psychology, physics, mathematics, and science policy.