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9The Shadow of Enlightenment: Optical and Political Transparency in France, 1789–1848 (review)Isis 101 240-241. 2010.
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3The Command of Light: Rowland’s School of Physics and the Spectrum (review)Isis 94 154-155. 2003.
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10Translating in the History of Science: A Concerted EffortIsis 109 (4): 760-766. 2018.A translator and her science consultant, who have worked together on many books, consider the problems of translating primary and secondary texts in science. Various problems encountered in translating an ongoing documentary edition in the history of science are discussed using the collected works of Albert Einstein as a test case. For instance, each language has its own preferred sentence structure; moreover, not every historical term finds a perfect equivalent in modern usage, and historical a…Read more
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8The Mystery of the Moon Illusion: Exploring Size Perception (review)British Journal for the History of Science 37 (2): 233-233. 2004.
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3Tools and Modes of Representation in the Laboratory Sciences (review)British Journal for the History of Science 36 (1): 111-112. 2003.
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13The Conversion of St. John: A Case Study on the Interplay of Theory and ExperimentScience in Context 6 (1): 137-194. 1993.The ArgumentGravitational redshift of spectral lines as one of the three early-known experimental implications of Einstein's general theory of relativity and gravitation was intensively searched for by researchers all over the world, but around 1920 most of the contemporary evidence in the sun's Fraunhofer-spectrum conflicted with the predictions of relativity theory.In 1923 the American astrophysicist Charles Edward St. John announced that his own solar spectroscopic data would force him to ret…Read more
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4Spectroscopic PortraitureAnnals of Science 59 (1): 57-82. 2002.This paper describes a now widely forgotten tradition in the nineteenth century which - to borrow a simile used or implied by the actors themselves - may be described as 'spectroscopic portraiture'. Quite unlike the later obsession with numerical precision in wavelength measurement, and also in stark contrast to the contemporary vogue of photographic mapping which presumptuously claimed 'mechanical objectivity', that is avoidance of any human intervention in the recorded data, there was among so…Read more
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200The Interplay of Instrumentation, Experiment, and Theory: Patterns Emerging from Case Studies on Solar Redshift, 1890–1960Philosophy of Science 64 (4): 64. 1997.This paper discusses a series of case studies on observations, experiments, and the theoretical interpretation between 1890 and 1960 of a shift of dark Fraunhofer lines in the solar spectrum. I argue for the use of flow charts to analyze interconnections and to identify sequences of research strategies. Also I advocate using a newly-developed tool called "block diagram" representation of experimental systems as an appropriate method to identify recurrent patterns in the interplay of instrumentat…Read more
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10Serving the Reich: The Struggle for the Soul of Physics under Hitler - by Philip BallCentaurus 57 (4): 276-277. 2015.
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1Rezension: Einstein's Generation: The Origins of the Relativity Revolution von Richard StaleyBerichte Zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte 32 (3): 304-305. 2009.
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2Spying on Science: Western Intelligence in Divided Germany, 1945–1961 (review)Isis 100 439-440. 2009.
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12Photons: The History and Mental Models of Light QuantaSpringer Verlag. 2018.This book focuses on the gradual formation of the concept of ‘light quanta’ or ‘photons’, as they have usually been called in English since 1926. The great number of synonyms that have been used by physicists to denote this concept indicates that there are many different mental models of what ‘light quanta’ are: simply finite, ‘quantized packages of energy’ or ‘bullets of light’? ‘Atoms of light’ or ‘molecules of light’? ‘Light corpuscles’ or ‘quantized waves’? Singularities of the field or spat…Read more
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29Philosophical Interpretations of Relativity Theory: 1910-1930PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1990. 1990.The paper (given in the section on "Recent work in the History of Philosophy of Science) discusses the method and some of the results of the doctoral dissertation on philosophical interpretations of Einstein's special and general theories of relativity, submitted to the Dept. for History of Science, Univ. of Hamburg, in 1989, also published by Birkhauser, Basel, in 1990. It is claimed that many of the gross oversimplifications, misunderstandings and misinterpretations occurring in more than 2500…Read more
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4Proposal for a Complete Edition of Ernst Mach’s CorrespondenceIn Friedrich Stadler (ed.), Ernst Mach – Life, Work, Influence, Springer Verlag. pp. 675-680. 2019.To compile a comprehensive edition of the correspondence of the world-famous physicist, physiologist, philosopher, and pioneer historian of science, Ernst Mach is an urgent desideratum. An estimated 5000 letters to and from Mach are kept in public and private archives worldwide. The largest part of this correspondence was formerly kept in the Ernst Mach Institut für Kurzzeitdynamik der Fraunhofergesellschaft in Freiburg/Breisgau and is now archived at the Deutsches Museum in Munich. A smaller pa…Read more
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1Physik, Astronomie und Architektur: der Einstein-Turm alsIn Stephen Everson (ed.), Language, Cambridge University Press. 1994.
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64On Feyerabend's Version of 'Mach's Theory of Research and its Relation to Einstein'Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 16 (4): 387. 1985.
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26Macedonio Melloni über strahlende WärmeNTM Zeitschrift für Geschichte der Wissenschaften, Technik und Medizin 13 (4): 216-237. 2005.For more than twenty years, Macedonio Melloni (1798â1854) experimented with radiant heat rays. Until 1841 he thought of them as ontologically different from light, but in 1842 he converted to the opposite view according to which they are similar in kind, but only differ in wavelength. In this article I analyze the arguments which induced him to change his interpretation of radiant heat and I describe the instruments with which he arrived at these insights
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17Measurements of gravitational redshift between 1959 and 1971Annals of Science 53 (3): 269-295. 1996.The paper presents and discusses measurements of gravitational redshift made between 1959 and 1971 by Pound and Rebka, Schiffer and Marshall, Brault, Blamont and Roddier, and finally by Snider. It emphasizes the importance of new measurement techniques such as wavelength modulation, electronic amplification, and scattering of atomic beams to the emergence of new tests of Einstein's GRS prediction, which were perceived by the scientific community as the first ‘clean’ verifications of GRS. In part…Read more
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26MATTHEW R. EDWARDS , Pushing Gravity: New Perspectives on Le Sage's Theory of Gravitation. Montreal: Apeiron, 2002. Pp. iv+316. ISBN 0-9683689-7-2. $25.00 (review)British Journal for the History of Science 37 (2): 234-235. 2004.
Areas of Specialization
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History of Science |
General Philosophy of Science |
History of Physics |
History of Science, Misc |
History of Western Philosophy |
Scientific Change |