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In October 1993 the US Congress terminated the Superconducting Super Collider at the time the largest basic-science project ever attempted, with a total cost estimated to exceed $10 billion. Its termination was a watershed event a pivot point not only in the history of physics but also for science in general. "Tunnel Visions" follows the evolution of the endeavor from its origins in the Reagan Administration s military buildup of the early 1980s to its post-Cold War demise a decade later. The failure of the SSC raises the question of whether Big Science has become too big and expensive; can scientists and their government backers effectively manage such enormous undertakings? The case of the Super Collider offers important lessons about the conditions required to build and sustain a large scientific laboratory, and the rise and fall of the SSC also serves as a cautionary tale about the long-term viability of a research community that comes to depend as much as did US high-energy physics upon a single experimental facility of such an unprecedented scale. Riordan, Hoddeson, and Kolb have written the definitive history of the SSC. "
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, located in the western suburbs of Chicago, has stood at the frontier of high-energy physics for forty years. Fermilab is the first history of this laboratory and of its powerful accelerators told from the point of view of the people who built and used them for scientific discovery. Focusing on the first two decades of research at Fermilab, during the tenure of the laboratory’s charismatic first two directors, Robert R. Wilson and Leon M. Lederman, the book traces the rise of what they call “megascience,” the collaborative struggle to conduct large-scale international experiments in a climate of limited federal funding. In the midst of this new climate, Fermilab illuminates the growth of the modern research laboratory during the Cold War and captures the drama of human exploration at the cutting edge of science.
Higgs Force tells the dramatic story of how physicists produced their modern understanding of the Cosmos by unlocking the secrets of matter. Physicists believe that the universe began in a state of perfect symmetry. As the universe expanded and the temperature fell, much of this symmetry was lost in an all-encompassing transformation. We see the results all around us - the evolution of a complex and dynamic universe supporting the existence of sentient life. Deep beneath the Franco-Swiss border, CERN, with the mighty Large Hadron Collider, is seeking the ultimate confirmation of these ideas - the elusive Higgs particle, known to some as the God Particle.
This book explores how physicists, astronomers, chemists, and historians in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries employed ‘epistemic virtues’ such as accuracy, objectivity, and intellectual courage. In doing so, it takes the first step in providing an integrated history of the sciences and humanities. It assists in addressing such questions as: What kind of perspective would enable us to compare organic chemists in their labs with paleographers in the Vatican Archives, or anthropologists on a field trip with mathematicians poring over their formulas? While the concept of epistemic virtues has previously been discussed, primarily in the contexts of the history and philosophy ...
A Mind Over Matter is a biography of the Nobel Prize-winning theoretical physicist, Philip W. Anderson. Anderson is widely regarded as one of the most accomplished and influential physicists of the second half of the twentieth century. Unlike the physicists who appear on television or write popular books, Anderson studied the physics of the very many, i.e., the science of how vast numbers of atoms conspire together to create everything from liquid water to sparkling diamonds, and from semiconductors (essential for cell phones and computers) to superconductors (essential for MRI machines). More than any other single person, Anderson transformed the patchwork field of solid-state physics into the intellectually coherent discipline now called condensed matter physics. He developed important concepts that transcended physics, and influenced the scientifically literate public through his essays and articles. Book jacket.
On the transformative role of greed in global science and technology during the 1980s. In the 1980s, a transformative era emerged where profit-driven motives and an entrepreneurial spirit dominated scientific research and technological innovation. This collection of essays, edited by Michael D. Gordin and W. Patrick McCray, examines how greed reshaped the global scientific community through the relentless pursuit of money, fame, and celebrity. Profiting off science and technology was not a new phenomenon, nor were the soaring ambitions of some of its most fervent advocates. However, the global currents of knowledge production in the 1980s saw major cultural and scientific shifts: the increas...
A compelling exploration of one of the most ill-advised and calamitous interventions in colonial development history.
This book takes the readers through the science behind particle accelerators, colliders and detectors: the physics principles that each stage of the development of particle accelerators helped to reveal, and the particles they helped to discover. The book culminates with a description of the Large Hadron Collider, one of the world’s largest and most complex machines operating in a 27-km circumference tunnel near Geneva. The book provides the material honestly without misrepresenting the science for the sake of excitement or glossing over difficult notions. The principles behind each type of accelerator is made accessible to the undergraduate student and even to a lay reader with cartoons, illustrations and metaphors. Simultaneously, the book also caters to different levels of reader’s background and provides additional materials for the more interested or diligent reader.
The Wiley Blackwell Companion to the History of Science is a single volume companion that discusses the history of science as it is done today, providing a survey of the debates and issues that dominate current scholarly discussion, with contributions from leading international scholars. Provides a single-volume overview of current scholarship in the history of science edited by one of the leading figures in the field Features forty essays by leading international scholars providing an overview of the key debates and developments in the history of science Reflects the shift towards deeper historical contextualization within the field Helps communicate and integrate perspectives from the history of science with other areas of historical inquiry Includes discussion of non-Western themes which are integrated throughout the chapters Divided into four sections based on key analytic categories that reflect new approaches in the field
In a career that included tenures as president of Stony Brook University, director of Brookhaven National Laboratory, and science advisor to President George W. Bush, John Marburger (1941–2011) found himself on the front line of battles that pulled science ever deeper into the political arena. From nuclear power to global warming and stem cell research, science controversies, he discovered, are never just about science. Science Policy Up Close presents Marburger’s reflections on the challenges science administrators face in the twenty-first century. In each phase of public service Marburger came into contact with a new dimension of science policy. The Shoreham Commission exposed him to t...