Pierre Duhem, the History and Philosophy of Physics, and the Teaching of Physics

The distinguished physicist and historian and philosopher of science Pierre Duhem (1861 - 1916) not only taught physics, but also worked out in his Aim and Structure of Physical Theory a philosophical analysis of physics. Duhem's analysis offers important suggestions about how physics progresses and also how physics should be taught. This essay suggests what advice Duhem would give persons involved in physics teaching about how physics should be presented. In particular, it discusses Duhem's insightful critique of what he called the Newtonian method.     

Quantum–Matter–Spacetime: Peter Mittelstaedt’s Contributions to Physics and Its Foundations

In a period of over 50 years, Peter Mittelstaedt has made substantial and lasting contributions to several fields in theoretical physics as well as the foundations and philosophy of physics. Here we present an overview of his achievements in physics and its foundations which may serve as a guide to the bibliography (printed in this Festschrift) of his publications. An appraisal of Peter Mittelstaedt’s work in the philosophy of physics is given in a separate contribution by B. Falkenburg.     

Planck, the Quantum, and the Historians

In late 1900, the German theoretical physicist Max Planck derived an expression for the spectrum of black-body radiation. That derivation was the first step in the introduction of quantum concepts into physics. But how did Planck think about his result in the early years of the twentieth century? Did he assume that his derivation was consistent with the continuous energies inherent in Maxwellian electrodynamics and Newtonian mechanics? Or did he see the beginnings, however tentative and uncertain, of the quantum revolution to come? Historians of physics have debated this question for over twenty years. In this article, I review that debate and, at the same time, present Planck's achievement in its historical context.     

Physicists at the University of Göttingen, 1945–1955

With a focus on the question of continuity versus change, we present an overview of many aspects of academic physics in one local context for the immediate postwar years. Based on new archival findings, we discuss academic staffing, research topics, course offerings, student statistics, and two complementary biographical case studies of physicists at this former international center for experimental and theoretical physics.     

The Lorenz Number and the Lorenz Gauge—Known Concepts,Unknown Physicist

Ludvig Lorenz was Denmark's first theoretical physicist of international recognition. Despite his important contributions to a broad range of experimental and theoretical physics, he generally appears as a somewhat peripheral figure in histories of late‐nineteenth‐century physics and is completely overshadowed by his near‐namesake H. A. Lorentz. Herein, a selected number of Lorenz's works is introduced with an eye on those which are still of relevance to modern physics and today eponymously associated with his name. These contributions are known as the Lorenz number, the Lorenz gauge, the Lorenz–Lorentz law or formula, and the Lorenz–Mie scattering theory.     

Planting in his Neighbor's Garden: David Hilbert and Early Göttingen Quantum Physics

David Hilbert (1862-1943) played an important role in establishing quantum physics in Göttingen. I analyze the ways in which his influence was decisive by comparison with Woldemar Voigt (1850-1919). Voigt was the leading Göttingen theoretical physicist before the arrival of Peter Debye (1884-1966), who was appointed to a new professorship in 1914 at Hilbert's instigation. I portray the Göttingen mathematicians, above all Hermann Minkowski (1864-1909) and David Hilbert, as planting the seeds for the blossoming of quantum physics under their student Max Born (1882-1970) in the 1920s.     

Common Frontiers of the Exact Sciences and the Humanities

The physicist Franz Serafin Exner (1849-1926) was a prominent Austrian spokesman for the new developments that were coupled with turn-of-the-century experiments and theories related to entropy thermodynamics, the internally structured atom, quantum theory, and relativity. The Exner circle found its inspiration in the intellectual world of Ludwig Boltzmann and his teachers, colleagues, and students. Cross-discipline discussions on common and divergent frontiers of the exact sciences and the humanities meaningfully converged on the significance, comparison, and transfer of concepts such as the laws of nature, causality, probability, and chance. Oswald Spengler's Decline of the West, with its pessimistic, subjectivistic, and negative science-directed messages provided Exner with the opportunity to sharpen his support for the new scientific trends in physics - thus to champion the search for objective truth.     

The fifth dimension: Theodor Kaluza's ground‐breaking idea

Theodor Kaluza (1885–1954) attracted the attention of the physical community since 1921 with his unified field theory of gravitation and electromagnetism in five dimensions. Despite Einstein's great interest in Kaluza's theory, 50 years elapsed before it contributed toward a paradigm shift in modern theoretical physics. The biography of this still unknown scientist is briefly presented along with an outline of his work in physics. A short history of the theories of unification and the dimensionality of space‐time is followed by a discussion of the significance of Kaluza's five‐dimensional unified theory in modern physics from the point of view of superstring and M‐theory.     

Fueling Peter’s Mill: Mikhail Lomonosov’s Educational Training in Russia and Germany, 1731–1741

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 of modern physics and modern science into Russia. Michael D. Gordin has argued that Peter the Great’s plans to Westernize Russia were more broadly conceived than he is usually credited, with ambitions that exceeded mere utilitarian and pragmatic goals. Lomonosov’s career trajectory is a good example, illustrating how different aspects of the Petrine vision intersected with and reinforced each other. The article ends with Lomonosov’s return to Russia from Germany in 1741, an important landmark in the growth of the Academy and of Russian science.     

Fausto Fumi and the emergence of solid-state physics in Italy

Summary This paper surveys the early history of solid-state physics, particularly the period 1949–58, and the seminal role of Fausto Fumi in establishing the first school of modern solid-state physics in Italy. In honour of Prof. Fausto Fumi on the occasion of his retirement from teaching.     

A Physicist in the Corridors of Power: P. M. S. Blackett's Opposition to Atomic Weapons Following the War

In 1948, the year in which P. M. S. Blackett received the Nobel Prize in physics, he published a highly controversial book on the military and political consequences of atomic energy. The book appeared in the United States under the sensationalist title Fear, War and the Bomb. Blackett had been a naval officer during the First World War, a veteran of Ernest Rutherford's Cavendish Laboratory and head of the physics department at Manchester in the interwar years, and he was a founder of operational research during the Second World War. Vilified in the British and American press in the 1940s and 1950s, he continued to contest prevailing nuclear weapons strategy, finding a more favorable reception for his arguments by the early 1960s. This paper examines the publication and reception of Blackett's views on atomic weapons, analyzing the risks to a physicist who writes about a subject other than physics, as well as the circumstances that might compel one to do so.     

Between teaching and research: Adolphe Ganot and the definition of electrostatics (1851–1881)

Adolphe Ganot's Traité was a canonical physics textbook in 19th-century Europe. In this period, static electricity was largely based on research conducted during the eighteenth century. However, the discussion on the theories of electricity had an important role in the configuration of physics as a discipline through the replacement of imponderable fluids by other frameworks such as the conservation of energy. In spite of this process of unification, the practices defining nineteenth-century electrostatics were not uniform. In this paper we intend to provide a big picture of nineteenth-century electrostatics and to launch a fruitful dialogue between historians and scientists.     

The Contingency of Laws of Nature in Science and Theology

The belief that laws of nature are contingent played an important role in the emergence of the empirical method of modern physics. During the scientific revolution, this belief was based on the idea of voluntary creation. Taking up Peter Mittelstaedt’s work on laws of nature, this article explores several alternative answers which do not overtly make use of metaphysics: some laws are laws of mathematics; macroscopic laws can emerge from the interplay of numerous subsystems without any specific microscopic nomic structures (John Wheeler’s “law without law”); laws are the preconditions of scientific experience (Kant); laws are theoretical abstractions which only apply in very limited circumstances (Nancy Cartwright). Whereas Cartwright’s approach is in tension with modern scientific methodology, the first three strategies count as illuminating, though partial answers. It is important for the empirical method of modern physics that these three strategies, even when taken together, do not provide a complete explanation of the order of nature. Thus the question of why laws are valid is still relevant. In the concluding section, I argue that the traditional answer, based on voluntary creation, provides the right balance of contingency and coherence which is in harmony with modern scientific method.     

Galileo's Religion Versus the Church's Science? Rethinking the History of Science and Religion

Galileo's conflict with the Catholic Church is well recognized as a key episode in the history of physics and in the history of science and religion. This paper applies a new, historiographical approach to that specific episode. It advocates eliminating the science and religion. The Church concluded that the plainest facts of human experience agreed perfectly with an omniscient God's revealed word to proclaim the earth at rest. Supported by the Bible, Galileo, God-like, linked the elegance of mathematics to truths about nature. The Church, in effect, resisted Galileo's claim to be able to think like God, instead listening to God himself - and paying close attention to what man himself observed. We can thus see that the phrase "Galileo's religion versus the Church's science" is as meaningful (or meaningless) as the usual designation "Galileo's science versus the Church's religion."     

From Student of Physics to Historian of Science: T.S. Kuhn’s Education and Early Career, 1940–1958

I first show that Kuhn came to have doubts about physics soon after entering college but did not make up his mind to leave the discipline until 1947–1948 when a close association with Harvard’s President James B. Conant convinced him of the desirability of an alternative career in the history of science. I go on to maintain that it was realistic for Kuhn to prepare for such a career in essentially autodidactic ways both because he enjoyed Conant’s patronage and because he could expect that his credentials in physics would be an asset in this relatively young interdisciplinary specialty. I then suggest that it was through his work as a teacher, researcher, and journeyman gatekeeper in the history of science that Kuhn gradually came to identify with the field. Finally, I argue that his training in physics, his teaching of general-education courses, and his hopes of influencing current philosophy of science helped shape his early practice as a historian of science. By way of epilogue, I briefly consider Kuhn’s path from his tenuring at Berkeley in 1958 to the appearance of The Structure of Scientific Revolutions in 1962.     

Re-measurements of partial photoionization cross-sections of CH4, NH3 and H2O at 58.4 nm by He(I) photoelectron spectroscopy

Angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy (ARPES) is now a sophisticated and particularly powerful technique for studying the electronic structure of matter; in addition, the photoelectric effect has been of great significance in the history of 20th-century physics. This article seeks to uncover the origins and chart the development of the ARPES field, and focuses on the first half of this century; that is, up to the beginnings of the modern phase in the late 1960's. It is suggested that present workers will find interest in, and indeed profit from a knowledge of, the enormous experimental effort that was made to acquire quality data, the frustrating attempts that were initially made to understand them theoretically, and the contribution of early wave-mechanics, which brought order to a troubled field and thereby provided the necessary foundation for current studies. In addition, it is noted that the physicists involved often obtained inspiration and important insights which led them into studies of other significant problems of 20th-century physics.     

Professor Kr. Birkeland: His Life and Work

Professor Kr. Birkeland's electromagnetic gun is first discussed. Then, Birkeland's works on comets, zodiacal light, sun-weather relations, and the periodicity of polar storms are summarized. He based most of his ideas on models from the results of laboratory experiments. During the period 1894-1913, Birkeland contributed greatly to the study of solar-terrestrial physics. He introduced many ideas which still remain central to these fields. Although much of this work remained unrecognized for years, it was truly the foundation of modern space physics.     

In Appreciation

Leslie Foldy’s diminutive stature and modest demeanor gave little clue to the powerful intellect responsible for several significant advances in theoretical physics.Two were particularly important. His 1945 theory of the multiple scattering of waves laid out the fundamentals that most modern theories have followed (and sometimes rediscovered), while his work with Siegfried Wouthuysen on the nonrelativistic limit of the Dirac equation opened the way to a wealth of valuable insights. In this article we recall some of the milestones along Foldy’s path through a life in physics. Some of the anecdotes we report here were related to one of the authors (PLT) just before an event in 2000 celebrating Foldy’s 80th birthday, while others were told to us over the course of the nearly forty years during which we were colleagues. Still others were uncovered during the course of WJF’s research for his book, Physics at a Research University: Case Western Reserve 1830–1990 (Cleveland: Case Western Reserve University, 2006). Other details were provided by Foldy’s widow, Roma. Philip L. Taylor is the Perkins Professor of Physics and Professor of Macromolecular Science and Engineering at Case Western Reserve University. William J. Fickinger is Professor Emeritus of Physics at Case Western Reserve University.     

杰出的物理学家阿伯拉罕·派斯和他的物理学史著作

评述了阿伯拉罕·派斯的生平及其在理论物理学和物理学史上的贡献 ,介绍了他的著作InwardBound的新出版的中译本《基本粒子物理学史》 .     

Fuzzy spaces topology change as a possible solution to the black hole information loss paradox

The black hole information loss paradox is one of the most intricate problems in modern theoretical physics. A proposal to solve this is one related with topology change. However it has found some obstacles related to unitarity and cluster decomposition (locality). In this Letter we argue that modelling the black hole's event horizon as a noncommutative manifold – the fuzzy sphere – we can solve the problems with topology change, getting a possible solution to the black hole information loss paradox.