Pioneers in Optics: Antonie van Leeuwenhoek and James Clerk Maxwell

2012 ◽  
Vol 20 (6) ◽  
pp. 50-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael W. Davidson
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Electromagnetic Waves ◽  
University Education ◽  
History Of Biology ◽  
James Clerk Maxwell ◽  
Modern Physics ◽  
History Of ◽  
Basket Maker

Leeuwenhoek was born in Delft, Holland on October 24, 1632. His father was a basket maker, and although Leeuwenhoek did not receive a university education and was not considered a scholar, his curiosity and skill allowed him to make some of the most important discoveries in the history of biology.James Clerk Maxwell was one of the greatest scientists of the nineteenth century. He is best known for the formulation of the theory of electromagnetism and in making the connection between light and electromagnetic waves. He also made significant contributions in the areas of physics, mathematics, astronomy, and engineering. He is considered by many as the father of modern physics.

Pioneers in Optics: James Clerk Maxwell and Chandrasekhar Venkata Raman

2012 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-49
Author(s):  
Michael W. Davidson
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Electromagnetic Waves ◽  
James Clerk Maxwell ◽  
Modern Physics

James Clerk Maxwell was one of the greatest scientists of the nineteenth century. He is best known for the formulation of the theory of electromagnetism and for making the connection between light and electromagnetic waves. He also made significant contributions in the areas of physics, mathematics, astronomy, and engineering. He is considered by many to be the father of modern physics.

Humboldtian plant geography after Humboldt: the link to ecology

1996 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 289-310 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malcolm Nicolson
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
History Of Biology ◽  
Plant Geography ◽  
Alexander Von Humboldt ◽  
Carl Linnaeus ◽  
History Of

In his classic textbook,The History of Biology, Erik Nordenskiöld suggested that there had existed, throughout the nineteenth century, not one but two distinct forms of plant geography. He designated one of these traditions of inquiry ‘floristic’ plant geography, tracing its origins back to the work of Carl Linnaeus on species and their distributions. The second form Nordenskiöld termed ‘morphological’, by which he meant that its practitioners concentrated upon the study of vegetation rather than flora. He located the origins of this tradition of inquiry within the botanical work of Alexander von Humboldt.

Scientists and Broad Churchmen: an Early Victorian Intellectual Network

1964 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Walter F. Cannon
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Indirect Method ◽  
Science And Religion ◽  
Matthew Arnold ◽  
Scientific Excellence ◽  
James Clerk Maxwell ◽  
Thomas Huxley ◽  
History Of ◽  
Lord Kelvin

The late Victorians popularized several ideas which have tended to obscure what was actually going on in intellectual matters in the early part of the nineteenth century. One of these is the notion that, whenever science and religion came into contact, some degree of scientific excellence was sacrificed, if only because the scientists themselves believed in the theological ideas. Another is the judgment that Dean Stanley, a “passive peaceable Protestant” always seeking compromise, was the typical Broad Churchman. And a third is the acceptance of Leslie Stephen's description of an arid “Cambridge rationalism” not only as enlightening (which it is) but also as complete.These and other similar misconceptions could be propagated because the later Victorian intellectual “aristocracy” or “self-reviewing circle,” as described so well by Noel Annan, was not continuous with that of the earlier period. Such physical descendants as did remain, notably Matthew Arnold and Leslie Stephen, played quite different roles in the new circle from those which their fathers had filled in the older, looser, grouping. The founders of the new aristocracy selected their mythic figures with an eye to current usefulness rather than with strict attention to the history of the earlier generation. This was to be expected. One could not expect Thomas Huxley to emphasize the great abilities of the geologist Adam Sedgwick when it was just such a reputation which supported “the old Adam” in his attack on Darwin's theories.In order to indicate the inadequacy of the three conceptions listed above, and others like them, it is the purpose of this article to use the indirect method of sketching the coming together of those men who were the mentors not only of Darwin but also of Stanley, of Tennyson, of Frederick Denison Maurice, of Lord Kelvin, and of James Clerk Maxwell.

How to Benefit from Received Ideas (2001)

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wiktor Stoczkowski
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Molecular Genetics ◽  
History Of Science ◽  
Western World ◽  
Scientific Practices ◽  
History Of Archaeology ◽  
Disciplinary History ◽  
Modern Physics ◽  
History Of ◽  
Renaissance Medicine

Like Gulliver, the intrepid explorer depicted in Samuel Butler’s novella Erewhon visits an odd country whose image, inverted as its name, is evidently that of the Western world. Throughout his travels, the adventurer converses with the eccentric scholars of Erewhon who devote themselves to singular enterprises, such as the formation of the ‘Society for the Suppression of Useless Knowledge’ (Butler 1985). If somebody were to suppress useless knowledge in this day and age, there could be a substantial number of victims. Fortunately, no one finds it necessary to question the raison d’être of institutionally established knowledge, provided that sufficient funds are available to ensure its survival. The question of usefulness is only raised where marginal knowledge is concerned. The fact that we question whether the history of archaeology is useful or not testifies to its marginality. For it is marginal, despite belonging to the history of science, a domain in which all disciplines should theoretically inspire historians’ interest to the same extent. This, however, is not the case. Historians seem to prefer studying either sciences considered as the greatest conquests of Western rationality (such as modern physics, Darwinism, molecular genetics, etc.) or theories supposed to be excessively irrational (such as Renaissance medicine, Stalinist genetics, Nazi biology, astrology, etc.). It is commonly believed that archaeology does not belong to either of these categories. The history of archaeology is as marginal to archaeologists as it is to historians. This is particularly apparent in France, where most archaeologists would not hesitate to respond in the negative to the question of whether disciplinary history matters to current scientific practices. Since the nineteenth century, certain French archaeologists and prehistorians have indeed written on the history of their discipline, but this activity was a task usually reserved for emeritus scholars who took it up in a somewhat nonchalant manner, as if to crown their archaeological œuvre, and probably motivated by the same reasons which prompt certain people, at the same point in their lives, to write their memoirs. There are some notable exceptions, of which are the works of Alain Schnapp, particularly his monumental The Discovery of the Past (Schnapp 1996).

Book reviews - James Joule: a biography

1990 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 311-313
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
New York ◽  
Dynamical Theory ◽  
International Unit ◽  
Central Figure ◽  
Scientific Establishment ◽  
Modern Physics ◽  
History Of ◽  
Humphry Davy

Donald S.L. Cardwell, James Joule: a biography . Manchester University Press, Manchester and New York, 1989. Pp. x + 333. £35.00. ISBN 0-7190-3025-0. Of all the distinguished British physicists from the nineteenth century the most neglected until now has been James Prescott Joule. Commemorated today by a plaque in Westminster Abbey and in the international unit of energy named after him, he has hitherto been denied any major biography. Yet it was Joule whose experiments pointed to a mechanical equivalent of heat and opened up a way to measure it. Leading to the dynamical theory of heat and to the establishment of thermodynamics, Joule’s researches also dealt a mortal blow to the old understanding of heat as some kind of a fluid, caloric. Until his time all opponents of caloric (with the possible exception of Humphry Davy) had been marginal figures, hovering on the fringe of the scientific establishment. For this alone (and he did much else) Joule is worthy to be remembered. He was a central figure in the history of modern physics.

scholarly journals Rethinking ‘Classical Physics’

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Graeme Gooday ◽  
Daniel Jon Mitchell
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Electromagnetic Waves ◽  
X Rays ◽  
Max Planck ◽  
Classical Physics ◽  
Experimental Physics ◽  
Modern Physics ◽  
Comparative Case Studies

This article discusses the reasons for rethinking ‘classical physics’, building upon Richard Staley’s historical enquiry into the origins of the distinction between ‘classical’ and ‘modern physics’. In particular, it challenges Staley’s thesis that ‘classical’ and ‘modern physics’ were invented simultaneously by Max Planck at the Solvay conference in 1911, arguing instead that the emergence of these notions took place separately over a period that reached as late as the 1930s. The article first considers how the identification of the ether as a key feature of classical physics has drawn historians’ attention towards its changing metaphysical fortunes during the nineteenth century. It then describes the connections between physics and industry that are obscured by the theoretical bias of any dichotomy between ‘classical’ and ‘modern physics’. Finally, it highlights continuity in the field of French experimental physics by focusing on three comparative case studies dealing with electrocapillarity, electromagnetic waves, and X-rays.

Divine Patterns: Louis Agassiz and American Men of Letters. Some Preliminary Explorations

1976 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 349-381
Author(s):  
Ian F. A. Bell
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Turn Of The Century ◽  
History Of Ideas ◽  
History Of Biology ◽  
History Of ◽  
Natural Historian ◽  
Louis Agassiz ◽  
Asa Gray ◽  
The Way

To arrive at Pound's Canto XXIII from Poe's ‘ Sonnet to Science ’ is a problematic task for more and less obvious reasons. Part of the way in which we may make the approach is through the resonances of certain figures prominent in the history of ideas; in particular to Louis Agassiz, the Swiss-born geologist and natural historian who was a central personality in Cambridge circles from his arrival in America in 1846 until his death in 1873. Apart from Edward Lurie's excellent biography, Louis Agassiz, A Life in Science (Chicago, 1960), the twentieth century bears only scattered reference to him, whereas the latter half of the nineteenth century celebrated his work enthusiastically and prolifically. Part of the reason for his diminished presence after the turn of the century lies undoubtedly in his position outside the mainstream of contemporary biological thinking, particularly as a result of his quarrel with Asa Gray during the 1850s; Agassiz was the only scientist of influential standing to oppose himself to the doctrine of Evolution. Consequently, he occupies a far less prominent place in the history of biology than he did in his own era.

The Rise of Statistical Thinking, 1820-1900

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theodore M. Porter
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Statistical Models ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Statistical Tools ◽  
James Clerk Maxwell ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
History Of Statistics

This book explores the history of statistics from the field's origins in the nineteenth century through to the factors that produced the burst of modern statistical innovation in the early twentieth century. The book shows that statistics was not developed by mathematicians and then applied to the sciences and social sciences. Rather, the field came into being through the efforts of social scientists, who saw a need for statistical tools in their examination of society. Pioneering statistical physicists and biologists James Clerk Maxwell, Ludwig Boltzmann, and Francis Galton introduced statistical models to the sciences by pointing to analogies between their disciplines and the social sciences. A new preface looks at how the book has remained relevant since its initial publication, and considers the current place of statistics in scientific research.

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