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144Richard Moore, Nuclear Illusion, Nuclear Reality: Britain, the United States and Nuclear Weapons, 1958-64 (review)Technology and Culture 53 28-30. 2016.
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144Nicholas J. Wade, Destined for Distinguished Oblivion: The Scientific Vision of William Charles Wells . History and Philosophy of Psychology. New York, Boston, Dordrecht, London and Moscow: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2003. Pp. xi+310. ISBN 0-306-47385-2. $95.00 (review)British Journal for the History of Science 39 (2): 292-292. 2006.
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141Geoffrey C. Bunn, The Truth Machine: A Social History of the Lie Detector. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012. Pp. ix+246. ISBN 978-1-4214-0530-8. £18.00 (review)British Journal for the History of Science 46 (3): 540-541. 2013.
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140Charles C. Townes, How the Laser Happened: Adventures of a Scientist (review)Ambix 50 328-329. 2003.
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138Jon Agar, Science and Spectacle: The Work of Jodrell Bank in Post War British Culture (review)Science and Public Policy 26 215-216. 1999.
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134P. Weingart and N. Stehr, Practising Interisciplinarity (review)Science and Public Policy 29 151-152. 2002.
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131Xiang Chen, Instrumental Traditions and Theories of Light: The uses of instruments in the optical revolution. Science and philosophy, 9. dordrecht, boston and London: Kluwer academic publishers, 2000. Pp. XXIII+211. Isbn 0-7923-6349-3. £60·00, $99·00 (review)British Journal for the History of Science 35 (1): 97-123. 2002.
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128Crowd-sourced science: societal engagement, scientific authority and ethical practiceJournal of Information Ethics 26 (1): 49-65. 2017.This paper discusses the implications for public participation in science opened by the sharing of information via electronic media. The ethical dimensions of information flow and control are linked to questions of autonomy, authority and appropriate exploitation of knowledge. It argues that, by lowering the boundaries that limit access and participation by wider active audiences, both scientific identity and practice are challenged in favor of extra-disciplinary and avocational communities such…Read more
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128Richard Stalley, Einstein's Generation: The Origins of the Relativity Revolution (review)Metascience 20 53-73. 2011.
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127P. Klaus Hentschel and Axel D. Wittmann , The Role of Visual Representations in Astronomy: History and Research Practice. Acta historica astronomiae, 9. thun and Frankfurt am main: Verlag harri Deutsch, 2000. Pp. 148. ISBN 3-8171-1630-6. (review)British Journal for the History of Science 35 (3): 347-379. 2002.
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124The telephone in ScotlandIn K. Veitch (ed.), Scottish Life and Society: A Compendium of Scottish Ethnology, Vol 8: Transport and Communications, Birlinn Limited. pp. 716-727. 2009.On technical and social origins of telephone usage in Scotland.
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120József Illy, The Practical Einstein: Experiments, Patents, Inventions. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012. Pp. xi+202. ISBN 978-1-4214-0457-8. £31.00 (review)British Journal for the History of Science 47 (2): 382-383. 2014.
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81Revisiting the history of relativity Content Type Journal Article DOI 10.1007/s11016-010-9466-4 Authors Lewis Pyenson, Department of History, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI 49008-5242, USA Sean F. Johnston, School of Interdisciplinary Studies, University of Glasgow, Rutherford-McCowan Building, Dumfries, Glasgow, Scotland G2 0RB, UK Alberto A. Martínez, Department of History, University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station B7000, Austin, TX 78712-0220, USA Richard Staley, Departm…Read more
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73Techno-Fixers: Origins and Implications of Technological FaithMcGill-Queen's University Press. 2020.This is the story of a seductive idea and its sobering consequences. The twentieth century brought a new cultural confidence in the social powers of invention – but also saw the advance of consumerism, world wars, globalisation and human-generated climate change. Techno-Fixers traces how passive optimism and active manipulations were linked to our growing trust in technological innovation. It pursues the evolving idea through engineering hubris, radical utopian movements, science fiction fanzine…Read more
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65Environmental Ethics and Behavioural ChangeRoutledge. 2017.Environmental Ethics and Behavioural Change takes a practical approach to environmental ethics with a focus on its transformative potential for students, professionals, policy makers, activists, and concerned citizens. Proposed solutions to issues such as climate change, resource depletion and accelerating extinctions have included technological fixes, national and international regulation and social marketing. This volume examines the ethical features of a range of communication strategies and …Read more
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50John Gillott and Manjit Kumar, Science and the Retreat from Reason (review)Public Understanding of Science 5 179-181. 1996.
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36Implanting a Discipline: The Academic Trajectory of Nuclear Engineering in the USA and UKMinerva 47 (1): 51-73. 2009.The nuclear engineer emerged as a new form of recognised technical professional between 1940 and the early 1960s as nuclear fission, the chain reaction and their applications were explored. The institutionalization of nuclear engineering—channelled into new national laboratories and corporate design offices during the decade after the war, and hurried into academic venues thereafter—proved unusually dependent on government definition and support. This paper contrasts the distinct histories of th…Read more
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30The Construction of Colorimetry by CommitteeScience in Context 9 (4): 387-420. 1996.The ArgumentThis paper explores the confrontation of physical and contextual factors involved in the emergence of the subject of color measurement, which stabilized in essentially its present form during the interwar period. The contentions surrounding the specialty had both a national and a disciplinary dimension. German dominance was curtailed by American and British contributions after World War I. Particularly in America, communities of physicists and psychologists had different commitments …Read more
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20A History of Light and Colour Measurement: Science in the ShadowsInstitute of Physics Press. 2001.2003 Paul Bunge Prize of the Hans R. Jenemann Foundation for the History of Scientific Instruments Judging the brightness and color of light has long been contentious. Alternately described as impossible and routine, it was beset by problems both technical and social. How trustworthy could such measurements be? Was the best standard of intensity a gas lamp, an incandescent bulb, or a glowing pool of molten metal? And how much did the answers depend on the background of the specialist? A Histor…Read more
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19Beginner's Guide to the History of ScienceSimon & Schuster / OneWorld. 2009.Weaving together intellectual history, philosophy, and social studies, Sean Johnston offers a unique appraisal of the history of science and the nature of this evolving discipline. Science is all-encompassing and new developments are usually mired in controversy; nevertheless, it is a driving force of the modern world. Based on its past, where might it lead us in the twenty-first century?
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19Holograms: A Cultural HistoryOxford University Press. 2015.Holograms have been in the public eye for over a half-century, but their influences have deeper cultural roots. No other visual experience is quite like interacting with holograms; no other cultural product melds the technological sublime with magic and optimism in quite the same way. As holograms have evolved, they have left their audiences alternately fascinated, bemused, inspired or indifferent. From expressions of high science to countercultural art to consumersecurity, holograms have repres…Read more
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14THOMAS P. HUGHES, Human-Built World: How to Think about Technology and Culture. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2004. Pp. xii+223. ISBN 0-226-35933-6. £16.00, $22.50 (review)British Journal for the History of Science 39 (3): 441-442. 2006.
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13Vaunting the independent amateur: Scientific American and the representation of lay scientistsAnnals of Science 75 (2): 97-119. 2018.This paper traces how media representations encouraged enthusiasts, youth and skilled volunteers to participate actively in science and technology during the twentieth century. It assesses how distinctive discourses about scientific amateurs positioned them with respect to professionals in shifting political and cultural environments. In particular, the account assesses the seminal role of a periodical, Scientific American magazine, in shaping and championing an enduring vision of autonomous sci…Read more
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7The Neutron's Children: Nuclear Engineers and the Shaping of IdentityOxford University Press. 2012.The first nuclear engineers emerged from the Manhattan Project in the USA, UK and Canada, but remained hidden behind security for a further decade. Cosseted and cloistered by their governments, they worked to explore applications of atomic energy at a handful of national labs. This unique bottom-up history traces how the identities of these unusually voiceless experts - forming a uniquely state-managed discipline - were shaped in the context of pre-war nuclear physics, wartime industrial managem…Read more
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6Scaling Up: The Institution of Chemical Engineers and the Rise of a New ProfessionKluwer Academic. 2000.Chemical engineering - as a recognised skill in the workplace, as an academic discipline, and as an acknowledged profession - is scarcely a century old. Yet from a contested existence before the First World War, chemical engineering had become one of the 'big four' engineering professions in Britain, and a major contributor to Western economies, by the end of the twentieth century. The subject had distinct national trajectories. In Britain - too long seen as shaped by American experiences - the …Read more
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5Holographic Visions: A History of New ScienceOxford University Press UK. 2006.Holography exploded on the scientific world in 1964, but its slow fuse had been burning much longer. Over the next four decades, the echoes of that explosion reached scientists, engineers, artists and popular culture. Emerging from classified military research, holography evolved to represent the power of post-war physics, an aesthetic union of art and science, the countercultural meanderings of holism, a cottage industry for waves of would-be entrepreneurs and a fertile plot device for science …Read more
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A cultural history of the hologramLeonardo 41 (3): 223-229. 2008.The hologram, the novel imaging medium conceived in 1947, underwent a series of technical mutations over the following 50 years. Those successive adaptations altered the form of the medium, broadened its imaging capabilities and promoted wider perceptions of its functions and possibilities. Appropriated by disparate technical communities and presented to varied audiences, the hologram and its cultural meanings evolved dramatically. This paper relates the fluidity of the form, function and meanin…Read more
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