E.U. Condon: Science, Religion, and the Politics of World Peace

I set forth and discuss E.U. Condon’s views on science and society, focusing specifically on Condon’s views on science and religion, science and government, and the necessity for world peace. Even disregarding his contributions to theoretical physics, Condon proves an interesting case study for several reasons. He had extensive experience in academia, industry, and government, and was a scientist who easily crossed the insider-outsider divide between scientists in Cold War America. Moreover, Condon was a person of the Progressive Left advocating World Government as necessary for peace and warning of the dangers of the militarization of American society as well as of science itself. Known for being outspoken, he became an inviting target for the forces of anticommunism in Cold War America. In March 1948, the House Un-American Activities Committee charged that Condon was “one of the weakest links in our atomic security.” Michael A. Day is Professor of Physics at Lebanon Valley College. He holds doctorates in both physics and philosophy.     

晶体管发明60年

回顾了晶体管的发明,对最早3种晶体管在原理、性能上作了比较,谈了3位发明者肖克莱、巴丁、布拉顿的重大贡献和一些性格特点;并对晶体管诞生后60年来的后续发展如集成电路等作了回顾;总结了这一发明对我们的启示和教训.     

中国理论物理学家与生物学家结合的典范——回顾汤佩松和王竹溪先生对植物细胞水分关系研究的历史性贡献(上)

文章介绍了我国生物学家汤佩松先生和理论物理学家王竹溪先生42年前在植物生理学方面作出的一项具有重要历史意义的贡献．他们于1941年先于西方科学家二十多年提出解释植物细胞水分关系的热力学理论,首先引入了水势概念．然而这项贡献一直被埋没四十多年才得到承认．文章分析了汤佩松和王竹溪先生工作的内容、历史地位及其产生的背景,讨论了其在国内外的遭遇的原因及今日应当从中记取的教训．     

Leading US nano-scientists’ perceptions about media coverage and the public communication of scientific research findings

Despite the significant increase in the use of nanotechnology in academic research and commercial products over the past decade, there have been few studies that have explored scientists’ perceptions and attitudes about the technology. In this article, we use survey data from the leading U.S. nano-scientists to explore their perceptions about two issues: the public communication of research findings and media coverage of nanotechnology, which serves as one relatively rapid outlet for public communication. We find that leading U.S. nano-scientists do see an important connection between the public communication of research findings and public attitudes about science. Also, there is a connection between the scientists’ perceptions about media coverage and their views on the timing of public communication; scientists with positive attitudes about the media are more likely to support immediate public communication of research findings, while others believe that communication should take place only after research findings have been published through a peer-review process. We also demonstrate that journalists might have a more challenging time getting scientists to talk with them about nanotechnology news stories because nano-scientists tend to view media coverage of nanotechnology as less credible and less accurate than general science media coverage. We conclude that leading U.S. nano-scientists do feel a sense of responsibility for communicating their research findings to the public, but attitudes about the timing and the pathway of that communication vary across the group.     

Public understanding of science and the perception of nanotechnology: the roles of interest in science,methodological knowledge,epistemological beliefs,and beliefs about science

In this article, we report data from an online questionnaire study with 587 respondents, representative for the adult U.S. population in terms of age, gender, and level of education. The aim of this study was to assess how interest in science and knowledge as well as beliefs about science are associated with risk and benefit perceptions of nanotechnology. The findings suggest that the U.S. public is still rather unfamiliar with nanotechnology. Those who have some knowledge mainly have gotten it from TV and the Internet. The content of current media reports is perceived as fairly positive. Knowledge of scientific methods is unrelated to benefit and risk perceptions, at least when other predictors are controlled. In contrast, positive beliefs about science (e.g., its impact on economy or health) and more sophisticated epistemological beliefs about the nature of scientific knowledge are moderately linked to more positive perceptions of nanotechnology. The only exception is the perception of scientific uncertainty: This is associated with less positive evaluations. Finally, higher engagement with science is associated with higher risk perceptions. These findings show that laypersons who are engaged with science and who are aware of the inherent uncertainty of scientific evidence might perceive nanotechnology in a somewhat more differentiated way, contrary to how it is portrayed in the media today.     

I.I. Rabi: The Two Cultures and the Universal Culture of Science

I set forth and discuss I.I. Rabis views on the nature of science and society, focusing specifically on Rabis views on science and government, science and education, and science and religion. I also explore the influence of Rabi and C.P. Snow on each other. In the 1960s, Rabi set forth his mature and boldest positions, advocating science as the center of education and science as the replacement for religion. His positions culminate in science as the universal culture. I highlight Rabi not only as a scientist and public servant, but also as a public intellectual actively engaged with and connected to major issues of his time.Michael A. Day is Professor of Physics at Lebanon Valley College. He holds doctorates in both physics and philosophy.     

Physics courses in Victoria,Australia

In the last few decades, man's knowledge and understanding of his environment has increased at a prodigious rate. The great advances in science have brought with them three important consequences which must affect the teaching of physics. Firstly, there is a greatly increased demand for trained scientists; secondly, it is now desirable, perhaps even essential, for the average man and woman to have some idea of science; and thirdly, the sheer weight of new knowledge has now made it quite impossible for any course of instruction to cover the whole of any subject.     

Stochastic radiative transfer in Markovian mixtures: Past, present, and future

The Markovian approach, originally suggested in the early 1900s, has widespread practical use in many of our present-day studies and allows one to build bridges between diverse research areas such as statistical physics, astronomy, and computational science. This overview takes a broad sweep of several important examples with the emphasis on the stochastic radiative transfer in a cloudy atmosphere. In particular, the overview (i) highlights important contributions made by Pomraning and Titov to the neutron and radiation transport theory in a stochastic medium with homogeneous statistics and (ii) illustrates that ideas and tools introduced by these two distinguished scientists are gaining increasing impact and recognition in the atmospheric science.     

Evaluation of the scientific impact,productivity and biological age based upon the h‐index in three Latin American countries: the materials science case

We discuss the scientific impact of Latin American scientists in the field of materials science. The analysis is based on the h‐index as the scientometric index used to quantify the scientific productivity of an individual. In particular, we focus our analysis in México, Chile and Colombia. We compare the level of productivity between all these countries. We also analyzed the h‐index as function of the biological age, by using the first year of publication of a given scientists as a reference and discussed the general distribution of its quantification. We do not find a clear relationship between these two quantities. Based in our results we propose some political measures that these countries could implement to improve productivity as well as scientific development in this field.     

主编的话

Happy New Year! As many of you are aware that Chinese science is at the crucial stage of development. We are now seeing more and more high quality works being produced by Chinese scientists working in China. However, high quality scientific works are rarely published in Chinese scientific journals so far. Therefore, the development of scientific journals publishing in China now becomes a more and more important indication of the science development in China. In the development of the chemical physics research field in China, the Chinese Journal of Chemical Physics (CJCP) has made significant contributions in the past 18 years. Since CJCP is primarily a Journal published in Chinese previously, its impact in the international scientific community has been quite limited. At this moment, we believe CJCP should increase its impact in the international community. We believe that making CJCP an English journal is a crucial step to increase its in°uence internationally. Therefore, upon the recommendation of senior editorial members, we now change CJCP into an full English journal from this issue on. We have also formed a high quality editorial board to help the editorial matters in CJCP, and a prestigious advisory board to advise us of the future development. I am very honored to be selected as the new Editor-in-Chief for the next four years. I hope by the end of my term, the impact of this journal is significantly improved through the efforts of our editorial team. Building a high quality scientific journal is not an easy task. I hope that every member of our chemical physics community can provide strong support to this journal by sending your high quality research papers in the future. We are also thinking about adding new sections of this journal to attract more readers. With the support of our community, I am confident that we can make this journal a more successful one. Here, I want to take this opportunity to thank the great leadership provided by the Editor-in-Chief since the foundation of this journal, Professor Nan-quan Lou, who has just become a senior advisory board member of this journal. I also want to thank the senior associate editor, Prof. Shu-qin Yu, who has made great contributions to the development of CJCP. Many thanks also go to the other senior associate editors, Profs. Die-yan Chen, Hai-lung Dai, Xing-xiao Ma, Han-qing Wang, Hou-wen Xin, Cun-hao Zhang and Qi-he Zhu, who have made important contributions to CJCP in the past 18 years. We plan that CJCP will soon become available online so that members of our community can access this journal easily through internet. This will also help us to provide greater visibility of this journal in the international research community. Xue-ming Yang Editor-in-Chief February 12, 2006     

Properties and Phenomena: Basic Plasma Physics and Fusion Research in Postwar America

I review the changing conceptions of basic physics that the U.S. plasma-physics community put forward in postwar America. I give special attention to the tense relationship between fusion research and the more general study of plasmas in astrophysics, space science, and industry.Although fusion research often led to results that were regarded as basic plasma physics, its dominating influence tended to weaken other plasma work, as becomes evident when I compare the public statements and professional fortunes of plasma scientists during the 1960s, when fusion research experienced a downturn, with those of the 1970s, when fusion research flourished. I also show that the plasmaphysics community’s conceptions of basic physics were not highly regarded or easily understood by science administrators and the general physics community. To make this point, I contrast two general ideas of basic physics: the Big Questions conception and the Properties and Phenomena conception. Gary J.Weisel; Gary J.Weisel is Associate Professor of Physics at Penn State Altoona in Altoona, Pennsylvania. His historical research focuses on the development of subdisciplines in twentieth-century physics. He also carries out research in nuclear physics and materials science.     

The 1922 Einstein Film: Cinematic Innovation and Public Controversy

In 1922 Hanns Walter Kornblum produced a long and comprehensive educational film on Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity that made extensive use of trick shots. His film was considered to be a milestone in the history of film and also in the popularization of science. Although the original film has been lost, I have reconstructed its content and its reception by members of the German film industry and cultural sector, laymen, scientists and academics, and politically motivated opponents based upon the large collection of newspaper clippings that was assembled by the antirelativist physicist Ernst Gehrcke.     

Four decades of nuclear tracks research in India

The science of solid state nuclear track detectors (SSNTDs)—“Trackology”—developed by R.L. Fleischer, P.B. Price and R.M. Walker in the early 1960s of the last century is an interesting and potentially useful concept with something to offer to almost all branches of science and technology. In fact nuclear tracks find applications wherever solid state damage occurs. Apart from the direct applications of far reaching consequences in nuclear physics, other areas as diverse as bio-medical sciences, cosmic rays and space physics, environmental research, geological sciences, material science, microanalysis, mine safety, nuclear technology, uranium prospecting, etc. have been greatly influenced by SSNTDs.

In this presentation, we attempt to provide an overview of the growth of nuclear tracks research in India over the last four decades and the contributions of various groups from Universities, Institutes, Nuclear Track Society of India and the Department of Atomic Energy in nurturing nuclear track research in the country. Finally, a summary of the significant contributions made by Indian scientists is also presented in this paper along with the overall impact it has made at the national and international level in many areas of basic and applied sciences such as cosmic rays and space physics, fusion–fission and particle evaporation, heavy ion ranges and energy-loss measurements, country-wide indoor radon–thoron survey, geochronology, environmental sciences, track-etch membranes and ion tracks technology, material science, physics and chemistry of fission, etc.     

试论居里夫人的科研艺术

居里夫人关于放射性元素,特别是镭的发现与研究为原子物理学、放射化学和放射医学的发展奠定了基础,为此她先后获得了诺贝尔物理学奖和诺贝尔化学奖.居里夫人在科研过程中所运用的科学方法,如选题方法、实验方法、假说方法、逻辑思维方法等对现代的科技工作者仍具有重要的借鉴意义.     

Photon Detectors are Catching Up

Over the last 10 years, we have seen a paradigm change in the approach towards detector developments for accelerator-based X-ray science. Until the last decade, scientists at light sources used or adapted detectors that had been developed for entirely different applications, such as astronomy or medical imaging. Undisputedly, these systems made it possible to do state-of-the-art science, and as long as the source brilliance kept increasing exponentially, new science and new areas developed. However, it is also beyond doubt that these adopted detection systems were not able to get the most out of the source potential. The few dedicated development projects that were undertaken never managed to have a significant impact.     

The concept of energy and its early historical development

The concept of energy, the premier concept of physics and indeed of all science, is here investigated from the standpoint of its early historical origin and the philosophical implications thereof. The fundamental assumption is made that the root of the concept is the notion of invariance or constancy in the midst of change. Salient points in the development of this idea are presented from ancient times up to the publication of Lagrange'sMécanique Analytique (1788).     

The Hiroshima neutron dosimetry enigma: missing puzzle piece No. 6.

More than a decade has elapsed since the serious nature of the discrepancy between neutron dosimetry experiments (E) and neutron transport calculations (C) for the Hiroshima site was identified. Since that time extensive efforts to resolve this Hiroshima neutron dosimetry enigma have not only failed, but now demonstrate that the magnitude of this discrepancy is much greater than initially estimated. The currently evaluated E/C ratio for thermal neutron fluence at the Hiroshima site increases rapidly with increasing slant range from the epicenter. In the slant range region beyond 1000 m, E/C exceeds unity by one to two orders of magnitude depending on the specific dosimetry data that are utilized. Principal features that characterize the Hiroshima neutron dosimetry enigma are summarized. Puzzle Piece No. 6: In-situ production and Prompt fallout of radionuclides from Little Boy is advanced as a possible contributory phenomenon to this enigma. (The atom bomb detonated over Hiroshima was called Little Boy.) Measurements of 60Co and 152Eu specific activity at the Hiroshima site are used to obtain order of magnitude numerical estimates that show this conjecture is plausible. Comparison of different 60Co measurements at the Hiroshima site reveals that the variation of E/C with slant range depends on the method used to quantify 60Co specific activity as well as the type of dosimetry samples that are employed. These 60Co comparisons lend additional qualitative credence to this conjecture. Within the limits of presently available data, these assessments show that Puzzle Piece No. 6 qualitatively satisfies the principal features that characterize the Hiroshima neutron dosimetry enigma. Nevertheless, current lack of data prevent this conjecture from being conclusively confirmed or refuted. Consequently, specific recommendations are advanced to resolve the Hiroshima neutron dosimetry enigma with emphasis on experimental tests that can quantitatively evaluate Puzzle Piece No. 6.     

Making science in a fractal landscape.

There were times when any progress in science was associated with a social benefit. Public support of science was growing continuously without many questions being asked. These times have gone and the public asks now what science is good for and scientists are not yet well prepared to reply. A new social contract between scientists and society should be elaborated based on knowledge, tolerance and transparency.     

Chaos and beauty in a beaker: The early history of the Belousov‐Zhabotinsky reaction

Discovered in 1950 by Belousov in the Soviet Union and further investigated by Zhabotinsky and his research group in the 1960s, the Belousov‐Zhabotinsky reaction soon came to the wider attention of scientists on both sides of the Iron Curtain and made an important contribution to consolidating Prigogine's theory of nonequilibrium thermodynamics. Allowing scientists to study chaotic behavior in the laboratory, it also paved the way for further investigations of self‐organizing systems in biology and played an important part in the formation of the field of nonlinear science. Focusing on the period between 1950 and 1975, this paper explores the early history of this enigmatic reaction.     

Optics in Belorussia

Conclusion At the approach of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Belorussian Soviet Socialist Republic and the Communist Party of Belorussia, the scientists of the republic are experiencing a sense of well-deserved pride for all that has been achieved in the national economy, culture, and science. As a result of the unusually rapid development of the scientific investigations in the republic, the Academy of Sciences of the Belorussian SSR has become one of the leading scientific centers of the Soviet Union in a short time. In 1979 it will mark the 50th anniversary of its founding.The Belorussian scientists clearly understand that new, more complicated, and crucial problems now await them, and they are sure that they will handle them.Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Spektroskopii, Vol. 29, No. 6, pp. 965–986, December, 1978.