This past year, under the leadership of Roger Stuewer, has been one of enormous success for the Forum. At the Centennial Meeting of the American Physical Society in Atlanta, the Forum sponsored three sessions-two on physics in the twentieth century and one on I.I. Rabi - and cosponsored two others. These sessions were both intellectual and popular successes. I attended each one, and I was informed, enlightened, entertained, and moved. I have no words to describe my feelings as I listened to ninety-two year old Hans Bethe reminiscing about his friend and colleague I.I. Rabi. It was magic. You had to have been there. This year we have a chance to build on this success. In addition to our usual symposia at the March and April meetings, we will have contributed paper sessions on the history of physics at the April meeting in Long Beach, California. The leadership of the APS has recognized that historical work does not fit conveniently into the 10-minute contributed paper format, and they have allowed us, as an experiment, to have 20-minute contributed papers. I encourage you to submit abstracts for our contributed paper sessions at the April meeting (January 7, 2000 deadline). This is a chance to show our colleagues the good work done by members of the Forum.

I'd also like to take this opportunity to preach a little. Now that the furor over the "Science Wars" and the "Sokal Affair" has died down, it is time to address what I believe are some of the fundamental issues underlying these controversies. The first is the issue of scientific knowledge. Does science, in general, and physics, in particular, produce knowledge? I believe that it does and that that knowledge is based on valid experimental evidence and on reasoned and critical discussion. In short, I believe that science is a reasonable enterprise. Our critics disagree. To combat this view we need more good history of physics, which includes its technical details. The history of science involves science.

This does not mean that I advocate a history of science that shows only unbroken progress and success. We can, and should, show science as it is, with errors, wrong turns, and dead ends. The structure of twentieth century physics-quantum mechanics, relativity, quantum field theory, string theory and the experiments that support and test these theories, is, I believe, humanity's greatest collective intellectual achievement. But twentieth century physics also includes episodes like the 17-keV neutrino and the "Fifth Force" in gravity. These are episodes in which interesting and legitimate speculations have been shown to be wrong by experimental evidence. They are also an important part of physics. Discussing how the decision was reached that these speculations were wrong also supports the view that science is a reasonable enterprise. We must also be careful to distinguish between "wrong" but "good" science, and "bad" science. Our critics do not seem to make this distinction. Cold fusion is not, as some have claimed, science as usual. It is unusual, and bad, science. We also need to address the issue of the scientific education of our students and of the general public. The fact that, as Gross and Levitt and Sokal and Bricmont have pointed out, Latour and Derrida do not understand relativity, or that Irigaray does not understand fluid dynamics, would not be troubling if their views were confined to rarely-read academic journals. Unfortunately these views also appear not only in the popular press, but also in what some, but certainly not all, of our colleagues in the humanities and social sciences are teaching to our students. I believe this is inadequate education and we should take steps to improve it.

This is not, however, a battle between the "good" scientists and the "bad" humanists and social scientists. There are many scholars in the humanities and social science who share our intellectual values and standards, and who respect the achievements of science. They are our allies, not our enemies. As George Levine, one of the contributors to the famous, or infamous, "Science Wars" issue of Social Text, remarked in his aptly titled book, One Culture, "It [his book] takes seriously the view that science is one of the great achievements of the human mind, that it matters powerfully to us, for better or worse, in the way we live, the way we think, and the way we imagine. There is no literature more important." We need to provide scholars like George, our students, both science and nonscience majors, and the general public, with understandable and accurate accounts of the history of physics. It may seem that I am asking for an impossibility-studies of the history of physics that include technical details and also studies that are intended for a nonscientific audience. It may be difficult to do both at once, but we can certainly do both separately.

-Allan D. Franklin, Forum Chair

Caption: Physicist Hans Bethe who shared his reminiscences about I. I. Rabi in a Forum-sponsored session at the Atlanta APS Centennial meeting.

Photograph by Roy Bishop, Acadia University, courtesy of AIP Emilio SegrS Visual Archives

I find anniversaries a nice opportunity to look back at important events in physics and to be reminded of some that I have not kept up on. This is also a chance for public education and getting the attention of our students to interesting physics. I look forward to seeing historical notes on the work of some of the following important physicists with anniversaries in the coming year. These include

• 150th anniversary of the birth of Oliver Heaviside and Augusto Righi
• 100th anniversary of the birth of Fr,d,ric Joliot, Fritz London, and Wolfgang Pauli And perhaps more significant are the anniversaries of important discoveries, such as
• 400th anniversary of William Gilbert's De Magnete, the first work of physical science based completely on experimentation.
• 200th anniversary of William Herschel's discovery of infrared radiation, Alessandro Volta's invention of the voltaic cell.
• 150th anniversary of Rudolf Clausius's formulation of the second law of thermodynamics and of Foucault's accurate determination of the speed of light.
• 100th anniversary of Planck's radiation law, Planck's constant, and the introduction of energy quanta. Also of the Rayleigh-Jeans formula and the Wien formula. Lorentz-FitzGerald contraction observed; Becquerel shows that uranium beta rays are electrons; Villard detects gamma rays in uranium radiation; Richardson discovers thermoelectric emission.
• 50th anniversary of Alfred Kastler's development of optical pumping and Alan Turing's proposal of the 'Turing test.'
• 25th anniversary of Benoit Mandelbrot's coining of the term 'fractal.' And no doubt many more.

-Bill Evenson, Editor

Notes & Announcements

Job Notices

From time to time we receive notices of position openings in history of physics. Since these often come out of sequence with the Newsletter publishing schedule, the notices are put on the FHP web site. If you are looking for a position, please check the web site regularly: www.aps.org/FHP/index.cfm, then follow the announcements link.

Internship Opportunities

The NASA History Office currently has an internship program for undergraduates. They are looking for interns for both the academic year and the summer. The unpaid internship is approximately 20 hours per week, and college sophomores and juniors are preferred. Interns have the opportunity to take on significant responsibilities in editing, doing research, answering information requests, and preparing documents in HTML for the World Wide Web. See http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/interncall.html on the web for more information.

Physics in Perspective: A New Journal

Most journals are targeted to a small group of scholars. That is not the case for the new journal Physics in Perspective, which is published for a wide audience: historians, philosophers, physicists, and the interested public. The editors believe that scholarly papers written by historians of physics, philosophers of physics, and physicists themselves can be an effective means for bringing the ideas, the substance, and the methods of physics to non- specialists, provided jargon is avoided and care is taken in the writing. Physics in Perspective is published quarterly. Besides articles and book reviews, the journal has two regular features: first, "The Physical Tourist," identifies sites for the traveler whose interests include artifacts from the history of physics, laboratories with historical significance, birthplaces of well-known physicists, and the like; second, "In Appreciation" is written about a physicist by a student, first-hand acquaintance, or colleague. Physics in Perspective is available to members of the American Physical Society at the special subscription rate of $35 per year plus $10 shipping and handling. Additional information can be found at the Birkh,user Verlag web site, www.birkhauser.ch/journals/1600/1600_tit.cfm.

First-hand accounts of participants in interesting and important research projects - experimental, theoretical, or computational - often become documents of historical import. The editors of Physics in Perspective welcome such first- hand accounts and hereby extend an invitation to physicists, and particularly to members of the Forum on History of Physics, to submit manuscripts for publication. (John S. Rigden, American Institute of Physics, One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, jsr@aip.org and Roger H. Stuewer, Tate Laboratory of Physics, University of Minnesota, 116 Church Street SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455, rstuewer@physics.spa.umn.edu)

New History of Science Prize Offered

The British Society for the History of Science announces the inauguration of a new prize generously donated by one of its members, Dr. Ivan Slade. The competition will take place biennially, and the prize of 300 pounds is offered for an essay (published or unpublished) that makes a critical contribution to the history of science. Examples would be scholarly work that critically engages a prevalent interpretation of a historical episode, scientific innovation, or scientific controversy.

The prize will be awarded for the first time in 1999, and submissions are now invited. There is no age limit, and entry is not limited to members of BSHS or UK citizens. Entries should be in English, and should have been published or written in the two years prior to the closing date. They should not exceed 10,000 words in length and should be accompanied by an abstract of 500 words. Three copies of the essay and abstract should be sent to the BSHS Secretary, Dr. Jeff Hughes, CHSTM, Maths Tower, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, United Kingdom. The deadline is 31 October 1999.

National Endowment for the Humanities Programs

NEH OUTLOOK, an email newsletter of the National Endowment for the Humanities (www.neh.gov) can be obtained by sending an email to newsletter@neh.gov; type the word "subscribe" in the body of the message.

NEH offers summer programs for professors and school teachers and supports Chautauquas around the country in addition to summer stipends for research and other programs. One summer program this year dealt with a re-examination of the cold-war era in light of documentary sources newly available with the political transformation of the former Soviet Union and its Eastern European satellites. This summer, NEH offered 23 seminars and institutes for college and university teachers, and 29 for school teachers. Information about these programs is available on their web site. The application deadline for stipends for the summer of 2000 is October 1, 1999. Colleges and universities may nominate up to two faculty members for awards; independent scholars may apply directly to NEH. Prospective applicants should contact the chief academic officer at their institutions, or view the application guidelines at the NEH web site. Requests for hard copies of the guidelines and application instructions may be emailed to stipends@neh.gov and must include a complete postal address.

NASA

NASA History: News and Notes is published quarterly by the NASA History Division, Office of Policy and Plans, Code ZH, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC 20546. You can receive NASA History: News and Notes via email. To subscribe, send a message to domo@ hq.nasa.gov. Leave the subject line blank. In the text portion simply type "subscribe history" without the quotation marks. You will receive confirmation that your account has been added to the list for the newsletter and to receive other announcements that may interest you. The latest issue of this newsletter is also available on the web at http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/nltrc.html.

NASA's Education Program debuted a "New" NASA Education homepage at last spring's NSTA Conference in Boston. You can see the new and improved homepage at http://education.nasa.gov

"Space Exploration at the Millennium: In Remembrance of Carl Sagan," was a symposium co-sponsored by NASA that took place on 24 March 1999 at American University in Washington, DC. The symposium featured presentations by Buzz Aldrin, Andrew Chaikin, Hugh Downs, John Glenn, Dan Goldin, Ted Koppel, Bill Nye, and Fred Ordway among others. A videotape of the symposium is available from NASA's Center for Aerospace Information (CASI). A VHS tape of the symposium is available for $36.50, including shipping and handling (stock number 1999-00- 36756, stock title: "Space 2000 Symposium"). Betacam, or broadcast quality, copies are also available. CASI can be reached by telephone at 301-621-0390, via email at help@sti.nasa.gov, or at http://www.sti.nasa.gov.

Apollo 11 Thirtieth Anniversary Web Site
A thirtieth anniversary web site for Apollo 11 has been set up at http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/ ap11ann/introduction.cfm. The site includes a variety of newly available information such as interviews with the three crew members and interesting historical documents. It also includes links to many other useful pages on Apollo, both within and outside NASA.

The Marc-Auguste Pictet Prize

The Societ, de Physique et d'Histoire Naturelle de GenSve has announced the Marc-Auguste Pictet Prize for the year 2000, intended for a young researcher for outstanding work, unpublished or recently published, in the field of history of science. In 1998 the prize was 14,000 Swiss francs. The theme for the prize in 2000 is 'History of Electricity and Electromagnetism in the XVIIIth and XIXth Centuries.' Full details from Pr,sident de la SPHN, Mus,e d'Histoire Naturelle, Case postale 6434, Ch-1211 Geneva 6, Switzerland.

Rockefeller Archive Center Grants

The Rockefeller Archive Center awards grants for researchers engaged in work that requires use of the collections at the Center. The closing date for applications is 30 November 1999. Details from Darwin H. Stapleton, Director, Rockefeller Archive Center, 15 Dayton Avenue, North Tarrytown, New York 10591- 1598, archive@ rockvax.rockefeller.edu or http://www.rockefeller.edu/archive.ctr.

Meetings

From 7-10 October 1999, the annual meeting of the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT) will be held in Detroit, Michigan. Contact: Lindy Biggs, SHOT Secretary, History Department, 310 Thach Hall, Auburn University, AL 36849-5259, (334) 844-6645, fax at (334) 844-6673, or email: biggslb@mail.auburn.edu. The Institute of Physics History Group is sponsoring a conference on Volta and the Invention of the Electrochemical Battery at Oxford on 23 October 1999. Details from Neil Brown, n.brown@physics.org.

From 3-7 November 1999, the seventy-fifth anniversary meeting of the History of Science Society will be held in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. Contact: Fred Gregory, email: fgregory@ufl.edu or Edith Sylla, email: Edith_Sylla@ncsu.edu. On 4-7 November 1999 the American Assoc. for the Rhetoric of Science and Technology, an affiliate of the National Communications Association, will host panels at the NCA annual conference in Chicago, Illinois; topics will include rhetorical analysis of science and technology policy debates, scientific and technical texts, and the impact of popular representations of science. Contact: Alan Gross, email: grossalang@aol.com.

From 7-10 January 2000, the American Historical Association will hold its annual meeting in Chicago, IL. Contact AHA, 400 A Street, SE, Washington, DC 20003, phone (202) 544-2422. The German Geophysical Society will hold a session on the History of Geophysics and Space Physics in Munich in March 2000. Contact Dr. Wilfried Schr"der, Hechelstrasse 8, D-28777 Bremen-Roennebeck, Germany.

From 30 March-2 April 2000 the Organization of American Historians and the National Council on Public History will hold a joint annual meeting in St. Louis, MO. Contact OAH, 112 North Bryan Street, Bloomington, IN 47408, phone (812) 855-7311.

Science in the 19th-century Periodical: An Interdisciplinary Conference will be held 10-12 April 2000 at University of Leeds, UK. Details from Dr. J. R. Topham, School of Philosophy, University of Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK, j.r.topham@leeds.ac.uk. A conference on the History of Science and the Public Understanding of Science will be held in April 2000. The conference will explore the history of 'science communication' to diverse audiences and ask what roles history of science can play in public understanding of science today. Further details from Dr. J. Hughes, CHSTM, Maths Tower, The University, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK, hughes@fs4.ma.man.ac.uk.

Tentative joint British Society for the History of Science/British Society for the History of Mathematics meeting on the History of Computing, fifty years after the completion of the Pilot Automatic Computing Engine (ACE) designed by Alan Turing: ACE2000 in London, 6-7 May 2000. Details from David Anderson (andersond@sis.port.ac.uk), Janet Burt (burtj@sis.port.ac.uk), Jack Copeland (JackCopeland@compuserve.com).

Conference on Portraiture and Scientific Identity at the National Portrait Gallery, London, 23-24 June 2000. Proposals for papers due 1 November 1999. Contact Prof. Ludmilla Jordanova, School of World Art Studies and Museology, University of East Anglia, Norwich, Norfolk, NR4 7TJ, UK, l.jordanova@uea.ac.uk.

The History of Philosophy of Science Group (HOPOS) will hold its Third International History of Philosophy of Science Conference in Vienna on 6-9 July, 2000. Details from Institute Vienna Circle, Museumstrasse 5/2/17, A-1070, Wien, Austria, i_v_c@ping.at (write 'HOPOS 2000' on the subject line) or http://scistud.umkc.edu/hopos/index.html.

What is to be done? History of Science in the New Millennium, a conference in St. Louis on 3-6 August 2000, will be the fourth British-North American joint meeting of the British Society for the History of Science, the Canadian Society for the History and Philosophy of Science, and the History of Science Society. Paper proposals are due by 15 December 1999. See http://depts.washington.edu/hssexec/ or email hssexec@u.washington.edu.

The International Committee of Historical Sciences will hold its 19th international congress in Oslo, Norway, on 6-13 August 2000. It invites proposals for presentations on all subjects. Contact the 19th International Congress of Historical Sciences, Department of History, P.O. Box 1008, Blindern, N-0315, Oslo, Norway or Renate Bridental, Ph.D. Program in History, Graduate School and University Center, City University of New York, 33 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036-8099.

From 17-20 August 2000 the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT) will hold its annual meeting at the Munich Center for the History of Science and Technology, Munich, Germany. Contact Lindy Biggs, SHOT Executive Director, 310 Thach Hall, Auburn University, AL 36849-5259, (334) 844-6645, fax at (334) 844- 6673, or email: biggslb@mail.auburn.edu.

On 12-15 October 2000 St. Louis University is sponsoring, Writing the Past, Claiming the Future: Women and Gender in Science, Medicine, and Technology. Papers on all aspects of gender in science and technology are invited. Deadline for proposals is 1 January 2000. Contact Charlotte G. Borst, Department of History, St. Louis University, 3800 Lindell Blvd., P.O. Box 56907, St. Louis, MO 63156.

An International Conference on Galileo, sponsored by the Canary Orotava Foundation for the History of Science, will be held in February 2001 at Tenerife, Canary Islands. Details from s_orotava@redestb.es. On 26-29 April 2001 the Organization of American Historians will hold its annual meeting at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles, CA, with the theme, "Connections: Rethinking our Audiences." Proposals are invited, and must be postmarked no later than 12 January 2000. Contact the 2001 Program Committee, Organization of American Historians, 112 North Bryan Avenue, Bloomington, IN 47408-4199. For further information on the conference visit the OAH web page: http://www.indiana.edu/˜oah/meetings/2001 program/call.cfm.

XXIst International Congress of History of Science. During the LiSge Congress in 1997, the proposal of Mexico to host the XXIst International Congress of History of Science in 2001 (July 8-14) was accepted. The Announcement of the Congress has been distributed and a copy can be obtained if you ask for it from: Prof. Juan Jos, Salda a, Chairman of the Organizing Committee of the XXIst ICHS. Apartado postal 21-873, 04000 Mexico D.F.,MEXICO; email: xxiichs@ servidor.unam.mx; or visit the web site of the IHUPS/DHS: www.cilea.it/history/DHS

Dibner Institute for the History of Science and Technology: Fellows Programs 2000-2001

The Dibner Institute for the History of Science and Technology invites applications to its two fellowship programs for the academic year 2000-2001: the Senior Fellows program and the Postdoctoral Fellows Program. There will be some twenty Fellows at the Institute each term. The Dibner Institute is an international center for advanced research in the history of science and technology, established in 1992. It draws on the resources of the Burndy Library, a major collection of both primary and secondary material in the history of science and technology, and enjoys the participation in its programs of faculty members and students from the universities that make up the Dibner Institute's consortium: The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the host institution; Boston University; Brandeis University; and Harvard University. The Institute's primary mission is to support advanced research in the history of science and technology, across a wide variety of areas and a broad spectrum of topics and methodologies. The Institute favors projects that address events dating back thirty years or more.

Senior Fellows Program: Candidates for Senior Fellowships should have advanced degrees in disciplines relevant to their research and show evidence of substantial scholarly accomplishment and professional experience. Senior fellows may apply for a second fellowship appointment five years after their first successful application. Scholars may apply to the Senior Fellows Program for the Fall (Term 1), the Spring (Term 2), or both. Term 1 extends from August 1 through December 31, with full activities beginning on September 1; Term 2 extends from January 1 through May 31, with full activities beginning on February 1. At the time of application, Term 1 candidates may request an arrival date in August; Term 2 candidates may request an extension into June. The Institute prefers, if possible, that senior fellows apply for a two-term residency.

Postdoctoral Fellows Program: Fellowships are awarded to outstanding scholars of diverse countries of origin who have been awarded the Ph.D. or equivalent within the previous five years. Postdoctoral Fellowships run for one year, from September 1 through August 31, and may be extended for a second and final year at the discretion of the Dibner Institute. Terms and Conditions: All Dibner Fellows are expected to reside in the Cambridge/Boston area during the terms of their grants, to participate in the activities of the Dibner Institute community, and to present their current work once during their fellowship appointments. Fellowships provide office space, support facilities, and full privileges at the Burndy Library and at the libraries of consortium universities. Fellows will have access to the entire spectrum of activities that take place at the Dibner Institute, where they will be able to collaborate in an atmosphere of collegiality and find the resources and appropriate settings to carry on their work. Funds are available for housing, living expenses, and one round-trip fare for international fellows. Estimates of costs, as well as the average stipend awarded in 1999-2000, are provided with the application forms. The deadline for receipt of applications for 2000-2001 is December 31, 1999. Fellowship recipients will be announced in March 2000. Please send requests for further information and for application forms directly to: Trudy Kontoff, Program Coordinator, Dibner Institute for the History of Science and Technology, Dibner Building, MIT E56-100, 38 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139. Phone: 617. 253.6989, Fax: 617. 253.9858, email: dibner@mit.edu

Dibner Institute Names Resident, Visiting and Postdoctoral Fellows for 1999-2000

The Dibner Institute for the History of Science and Technology is pleased to announce the appointments of the Dibner Institute Fellows for 1999-2000. The Institute has appointed nineteen Senior and eleven Postdoctoral Fellows. They come from several nations and pursue many different aspects of the history of science and technology.

The following nineteen persons have been appointed as Dibner Institute Senior Fellows:

Davis Baird, Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy, University of South Carolina, is the author of Inductive Logic: Probability and Statistics (1992) and the 1998 article, "Encapsulating Knowledge: The Direct Reading Spectrometer." At the Dibner Institute he plans to complete a manuscript, "Instrument Knowledge: A Philosophy of Scientific Instruments" and begin research on Baird Associates, a company that developed and manufactured scientific instruments, founded by his father in 1936.

Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent, Professor at Universit, Paris X, is the author of Elogie du Mixte. Materiaux Nouveaux et Philosophie Ancienne (1998) and Lavoisier, Memoires d'une Revolution (1993). In 1997 she received the Dexter Award for outstanding achievement in the history of chemistry. The project she will be working on at the Dibner Institute is titled "Nature and Artifact in Chemical Industries, 1900-2000."

Christine Blondel is Charg,e de Recherche at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), France. She is the author of Histoire de l',lectricit, (1994) and, with A. C. Vauge, Repertoire de l'histoire des sciences et des techniques en France (1994). At the Dibner Institute she will be working on a project about the history of electricity in France from the 1770s - 1914 titled "French Amateurs in Electricity at the End of the Eighteenth Century."

David Bloor, Professor at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, and Director of its Science Studies Unit, is the author of Wittgenstein, Rules and Institutions (1997) and Knowledge and Social Imagery (1991). During his visit at the Dibner Institute he plans to test Sir Frederic Bartlett's 1932 case study, Remembering, in which Bartlett claims that different national groups produce culturally and nationally specific forms of technological devices. He will concentrate on sound-locator equipment as developed by the Germans, the British, the French, and the Americans.

William Brock, Emeritus Professor of History of Science, the University of Leicester, UK, is the author of Justus von Liebig. The Chemical Gatekeeper (1997) and The Fontana History of Chemistry (London 1992), issued as The Norton History of Chemistry (New York 1993). At the Dibner Institute he will continue his research for a book with the working title, "Sir William Crookes (1832-1919) and the Business of Science."

Kenneth Caneva, Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, is the author of the volume, Robert Mayer and the Conservation of Energy (1993) and the 1998 article, "Colding, Orsted, and the Meanings of Force." Professor Caneva's project while at the Dibner Institute is tentatively titled "The Reconstruction of Scientific Knowledge: From Personal Conviction to Collective Acceptance."

Claudine Cohen is Associate Professor at Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris. Her dissertation, "La GenSse de Telliamed: Th,orie de la Terre et Historie naturelle . l'aube des LumiSres," is being published in 1999. She is also the author of Le Destin du Mammouth (1994). Her research project at the Dibner Institute will explore the interactions betwen French and American paleontological sciences from 1830 - 1950.

Jack Copeland, Professor at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand, is the author of Artificial Intelligence (1993) and the forthcoming volume, "Turing's Machines." For his work at the Dibner Institute he plans to continue a work-in-progress, titled "Synopsis of 'Turing's Machines,' A Work in the History and Philosophy of Computation."

Mordechai Feingold, Professor of Science Studies at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, is the author of "The Oxford Curriculum in Seventeenth-Century Oxford," pp. 211-503 of volume four of The History of the University of Oxford (1997) and The Mathematicians' Apprenticeship: Science, Universities and Society in England, 1560-1640 (1984). At the Dibner Institute he will continue work on his book, "Cast a Giant Shadow: A History of the Royal Society, 1660-1850, Vol. I: A House Divided, A House Besieged 1660-1727."

Yves Gingras, Professeur Titulaire in the Department of History, University of Qu,bec at Montr,al, is the author with Peter Keating and Camille Limoges, of Du scribe au savant. Les porteurs du savoir de l'Antiquit, . la R,volution industrielle (1998) and Pour l'avancement des sciences. Histoire de l'ACFAS 1923-1993 (1994). At the Dibner Institute he will continue research for his project on the relationship between the mathematization of physics and the transformation of the notion of substance.

Ruth Glasner is a Senior Lecturer at Hebrew University, Jerusalem. She is the author of the book, A Fourteenth-Century Scientific-Philosophical Controversy: Jedaiah ha-Penini's 'Treatise on Opposite Motions' and 'Book of Confutation' (1998), as well as the article, "Gersonides' Lost Commentary on the Metaphysics." Her project at the Dibner Institute is titled "The Hebrew Supercommentaries on Aristotle's Physics."

Helen Lang is Professor and Chair of the Philosophy Department, Trinity College, Hartford, CT. She is the author of The Order of Nature in Aristotle's Physics: Place and the Elements (1998) and Aristotle's Physics and its Medieval Varieties (1992). She will be doing research at the Dibner Institute for a project titled "Place and Extension: The Problems and Language of Ancient Physics."

Wenlin Li is Research Professor at the Institute of Mathematics, Academia Sinica, Beijing, China. He is the author of Highlights of Classics of Mathematics (a source book in Mathematics) (1998) and, with Li Xixian, et al. On Science as System (1995), and the article, "G"ttingen's Influence on the Development of Mathematics in East Asia." At the Dibner Institute he will continue his investigations into mathematical exchanges between China and western countries by exploring the transmission of mathematical knowledge between the United States and China.

Nancy Nersessian, Professor, Program in Cognitive Science at Georgia Institute of Technology, is author of the book in press, "Creating Science: A Cognitive- historical Approach to Conceptual Change" and Faraday to Einstein: Constructing Meaning in Scientific Theories (1984, reprint 1990). At the Dibner Institute she will continue to work on her NSF-sponsored research project, "Culture in Cognition: Toward an Integrative Analysis of Representation in Science."

William Newman, Professor at Indiana University, is the author of Gehennical Fire: The Lives of George Starkey, An American Alchemist in the Scientific Revolution (1994) and The Summa Perfectionis of Pseudo-Geber. A Critical Edition, Translation and Study (1991). During the fall term he will continue his collaboration with Lawrence Principe, working on the laboratory notebooks of George Starkey and Robert Boyle. Professor Newman will also undertake a reconsideration of early modern matter-theory, exploring the relationship between the re-emergence of atomism in early modern science and medieval Aristotelian theories of matter.

Lawrence Principe, Associate Professor, Johns Hopkins University, is the author of The Aspiring Adept: Robert Boyle and His Alchemical Quest (1998) and the forthcoming article, "The Alchemies of Robert Boyle and Isaac Newton: Alternate Approaches and Divergent Deployments" in the volume, In Canonical Imperatives: Rethinking the Scientific Revolution, edited by Margaret Osler. At the Dibner Institute he will continue his collaboration with William Newman exploring the importance of experiment in seventeenth-century alchemy and the influence of George Starkey on Robert Boyle.

Gregor Schiemann is Assistant Professor at Humboldt Unversit,t, Institut f
r Philosophie, Berlin. He is the author of Wahrheitsgewissheitsverlust. Hermann von Helmholtz' Mechanismus im Anbruch der Moderne. Eine Studie zum sbergang von Klassicher zu moderner Naturphilosophie (1997) and the editor, with Michael Hauskeller and Christoph Rehmann-Sutter, of Naturerkenntnis und Natursein (1997). The title of his research project while at the Dibner Institute is "Aristotle and Descartes' Concept of Nature and the Transformation of Psychology in the 16th and 17th Centuries."

Ana Simoes is Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics, University of Lisbon, Portugal. She is the author, with Ana Carneiro and Maria Paula Diogo, of "Constructing Knowledge, Eighteenth-Century Portugal and the New Sciences" and, with Kostas Gavroglu, of "Different Legacies and Common Aims: Robert Mulliken, Linus Pauling and the Origins of Quantum Chemistry." At the Dibner Institute she will be working on two projects. The first is the completion of a history of quantum chemistry, written with Kostas Gavroglu, tracing the development of the field of quantum chemistry from the 1920s - early 1950s and the communities of quantum chemists in the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom. The second project is a biography of Jos, Correia da Serra (1750-1823), a Portuguese man of letters, diplomat, Freemason, and botanist.

John Stillwell, Associate Professor of Mathematics, Monash University, Victoria, Australia, is the author of Numbers and Geometry (1998) and Elements of Algebra: Geometry, Numbers, Equations (1994). At the Dibner Institute he plans to write a book on "Exceptional Objects" and their role in the history of mathematics.

The Dibner Institute has made the following eight Postdoctoral Fellowship appointments:

Luca Ciancio received his Ph.D. at the University of Florence. He is the editor of A Calendar of the Correspondence of John Strange F.R.S. (1732-1799) (1998) and the author of Autopsie della Terra. Illuminismo e geologia in Alberto Fortis (1741-1803) (1997). His project at the Dibner Institute is titled "Interpreting the Temple of Serapis. A Case-study in the Relationship between Geology and Antiquarianism (1750-1830)."

Slava Gerovitch, received his Ph.D. from MIT's Program in Science, Technology and Society Program. He has translated Loren Graham's book, Science in Russia and the Soviet Union, into Russian. He contributed "Striving for 'Optimal Control': Soviet Cybernetics as a 'Science of Government' " to Cultures of Control in the Machine Age, in press. At the Dibner Institute he will complete a book on the history of Soviet cybernetics, based on his dissertation.

Michael Gorman completed the work for his Ph.D. at the European University Institute, Florence, Italy. He has written several articles, now in press, including "Mathematics and Modesty in the Society of Jesus: The Problems of Christoph Grienberger", to appear in Archimedes and and "From the 'Eyes of All' to Usefull Quarries in Philosophy and Good Literature': Consuming Jesuit Science 1600-1665," to appear in the book, The Jesuits: Culture, Learning and Arts. For his research proposal at the Dibner Institute he plans to conduct a reappraisal of the origins of Jesuit science practice against the background of the 'science policy' of the Jesuit order.

Christophe Lecuyer, a recipient of the Ph.D. from Stanford University, is the author of the articles "University-Industry Relations during the Progressive Era: The Case of MIT" and "Instrument Makers and Discipline Builders: The Case of NMR." The title of his research project at the Dibner Institute is "From the Lab to the Fab: Physics Research, Manufacturing Practice, and Ion Implantation at High Voltage Engineering Corporation and Fairchild Semiconductor, 1962-1978."

Massimo Mazzotti, is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. He is the author of the following forthcoming articles: "The Geometers of God. Mathematics and Reaction in the Kingdom of Naples" and "L'immagine della scienza nel 'Bullettino' di Baldassarre Boncompagni (1868-1887)." His research project at the Dibner Institute is titled "Conservative Thought and Scientific Knowledge: A Socio-Historical Perspective."

Jutta Schickore, a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Max-Planck Institut, Berlin, is the author of the articles, "Sehen, Sichtbarkeit und empirische Forschung" and "Theoriebeladenheit der Beobachtung: Neubesichtigung eines alten Problems." She will work at the Dibner Institute on a project titled "Constructive Constraints: Exploring Errors and Pitfalls in Microscopy."

Brett Steele, Lecturer in the Department of History at UCLA, is the author of the articles, "Symmetry and Symbiosis: The Science of Mechanics and the Art of War" and "Rational Mechanics as Military Technology: Leonard Euler and Interior Ballistics." His work at the Dibner Institute will use recent archival research to develop further his dissertation, "The Ballistics Revolution: Military and Scientific Change from Robins to Napoleon."

R. Andre Wakefield, currently an exchange scholar at Harvard University, is the author of the forthcoming article, "Das Verm,chtnis einer Verbindung: Freiberg und die Bergbauwissenschaften in den Best,nden der G"ttingen Universit,tsbibliothek" and "Police Chemistry," based on a paper presented at the 1998 Annual History of Science Society Meeting. He plans to work on a project titled "An Early Modern Chemistry of the Mines, 1710 - 1800" while at the Dibner Institute.

The Dibner Institute has reappointed the following persons to a second year as Postdoctoral Fellows:

Arne Hessenbruch is the editor of the forthcoming "Reader's Guide to the History of Science," and author of "The Spread of Precision Measurement in Scandinavia 1660-1800." At the Dibner Institute, his project is a book titled "Scientific Quantification and Money."

Klaus Staubermann completed his dissertation, "Controlling Vision - The Photometry of K.F. Zoellner" at Cambridge University, UK. For his work at the Dibner Institute, he will analyze the scientific practice of three leading astrophotometrists, G. M
ller at Potsdam, E. Pickering at Harvard, and C. Pritchard at Oxford.

Benno van Dalen was an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Fellow at the Institut f
r Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften, Frankfurt. He is the author of "A Statistical Method for Recovering Unknown Parameters from Medieval Astronomical Tables" and "On Ptolemy's Table for the Equation of Time." At the Dibner Institute, he has started work on a manuscript tentatively titled "The Activities of Muslim Astronomers in China During the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty (1260-1368)."

Dibner Institute names seven Graduate Student Fellows for 1999-2000

The Dibner Institute for the History of Science and Technology is pleased to announce that fellowship awards have been made to seven Ph.D. candidates enrolled in programs at three Dibner Institute consortium-member institutions: the Dibner Institute's host institution, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Boston University; and Harvard University. The Dibner Graduate Fellowship program is open to students writing their doctoral dissertations. Selection is based on excellence and scholarly promise, without regard for need.

Babak Ashrafi, MIT, received an S.B. in Physics and Mathematics from MIT and a Ph.D. in Physics from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He is studying the efforts in the 1930s and 1940s to write a relativistic version of quantum mechanics for his thesis, "From Relativistic Electrons to Quantum Fields."

David Kaiser, Harvard University, has been working in a "double" Ph.D. program. In 1997 he defended his dissertation, "Post-Inflation Reheating in an Expanding Universe," for the Department of Physics, and he is preparing a second dissertation for the Department of the History of Science. This work is titled "Making Theory: Training American Theoretical Physicists in an Age of Big Science, 1948-1969." He graduated summa cum laude from Dartmouth College with a major in physics.

Matthew Jones, Harvard University, received an M. Phil. from Cambridge University and an A.B. magna cum laude from Harvard College with majors in History and Science. His dissertation is titled "The Aesthetics of Inference: The Mathematics of Descartes and Leibniz and the Dream of Systematic Public Knowledge in the Seventeenth Century."

Robert Martello, MIT, received a B.S. from MIT with a major in Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Science and an M.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering. His dissertation, "Paul Revere's Last Ride: The Road to Rolling Copper," is a study of Paul Revere's lifelong technological education and his development, at the age of 65, of America's first copper rolling mill.

Benjamin Pinney, MIT, has received an M.A. in Architecture from Princeton University and the B.A. magna cum laude in Political Economy from Williams College. His dissertation is titled "Organizing Engineering Labor: A History of Project Management to 1970."

Gerald A. Ward, Boston University, received a B.A. and an ALM, summa cum laude in History of Science, Harvard Extension School. His dissertation is titled "From Merchant Adventurers to Merchants of Light: The Development of English Oceanic Commerce and New World Colonies and the Making of Bacon's Great Instauration."

Timothy Wolters, MIT, received an M.A. at the University of Maryland, and the B.A. magna cum laude in History/Computer Applications at the University of Notre Dame. The working title of his dissertation is "Carrier Aviation Policy and Procurement in the US Navy, 1936-1955."
 

APS and AIP News

2000-2001 APS/AIP Congressional Science Fellowship Programs

The American Institute of Physics and the American Physical Society are accepting applications for their 2000-2001 Congressional Science Fellowship Programs. Fellows serve one year on the staff of a Member of Congress or congressional committee, learning the legislative process while they lend scientific expertise to public policy issues. Qualifications include a PhD or equivalent research experience in physics or a closely related field. Fellows are required to be U.S. citizens and, for the AIP Fellowship, members of 1 or more of the AIP Member Societies. A stipend of up to $49,000 is offered, in addition to allowances for relocation, in-service travel, and health insurance premiums. Applications should consist of a letter of intent, a 2-page resume, and 3 letters of recommendation. Please see our websites (http://www.aip.org/pubinfo or /public_affairs/fellow.cfm) for detailed information on applying. If qualified, applicants will be considered for both programs. All application materials must be postmarked by January 15, 2000, and sent to: APS/AIP Congressional Science Fellowship Programs, One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740-3843.

AIP Center for the History of Physics

New History of Physics Exhibits on the Internet

"Werner Heisenberg / Quantum Uncertainty", and "Andrei Sakharov: Soviet Physics, Nuclear Weapons and Human Rights," two new historical exhibits on the World Wide Web, have been announced by the Center for History of Physics of the American Institute of Physics. The exhibits are designed to be useful for educational purposes to a wide spectrum of audiences including high-school and college students, teachers, scientists and historians. Besides many outstanding photographs and other illustrations, both exhibits include supplementary documentation and clips of the physicists' voices. They add to the Center's existing award-winning exhibits "Albert Einstein, Image and Impact" and "The Discovery of the Electron," and can all be accessed from the Center's homepage: http://www.aip.org/history/

Heisenberg (1901-1976), one of the greatest physicists of the twentieth century, is best known as a founder of quantum mechanics and especially for the uncertainty principle in quantum theory. He also played a controversial role as a leader of Germany's nuclear fission research under the Nazi regime. After World War II he was active in elementary particle physics and West German science policy. All these topics are covered in the exhibit written by Professor David Cassidy of Hofstra University, the author of the major biography Uncertainty: The Life and Science of Werner Heisenberg (1992). Sakharov (1921-1989), the Soviet physicist who became, in the words of the Nobel Peace Committee, a "spokesman for the conscience of mankind," was fascinated by fundamental physics and cosmology, but first he spent two decades designing nuclear weapons. He came to be regarded as the father of the Soviet hydrogen bomb, contributing perhaps more than anyone else to the military might of the USSR. But gradually Sakharov became one of the regime's most courageous critics, a defender of human rights and democracy. He could not be silenced, and helped bring down one of history's most powerful dictatorships. The exhibit, which includes numerous photos provided by Sakharov's family, is authored by Dr. Gennady Gorelik, who is currently working on a scholarly biography of Sakharov. Several further historical exhibits are in planning, including ones on Marie Curie, Max Planck and the quantum, and twentieth century cosmology. The Center invites comments on the existing exhibits and encourages historians to consider cooperating and using our services for additional projects in their areas of expertise. (See the Website for contact information.)

Grants-in-Aid for History of Modern Physics and Allied Fields (Astronomy, Geophysics, etc.)

The AIP Center for History of Physics has a program of grants-in-aid for research in the history of modern physics and allied sciences (such as astronomy, geophysics, and optics) and their social interactions. Grants can be up to $2500 each. They can be used only to reimburse direct expenses connected with the work. Preference will be given to those who need funds for travel and subsistence to use the resources of the Center's Niels Bohr Library (near Washington, DC), or to microfilm papers or to tape-record oral history interviews with a copy deposited in the Library. Applicants should name the persons they would interview or papers they would microfilm, or the collections at the Library they need to see; you can consult the online catalog at our web site, http://www.aip.org/history, and please feel free to make inquiries about the Library's holdings.

Applicants should either be working toward a graduate degree in the history of science (in which case they should include a letter of reference from their thesis adviser), or show a record of publication in the field. To apply, send vitae, a letter of no more than two pages describing your research project, and a brief budget showing the expenses for which support is requested to: Spencer Weart, Center for History of Physics, American Institute of Physics, One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740; phone: 301-209-3174, Fax: 301-209-0882 e-mail: sweart@aip.org. Deadlines for receipt of applications are June 30 and December 31 of each year.

History of Physics Syllabi on the Internet. Call for Syllabi.

As an aid to teaching and studying the history of physics, and as an introduction to the vast literature in the field, the AIP Center for History of Physics has put together a collection of syllabi. With the kind permission of their authors, sample syllabi are exhibited on the internet at http://www.aip.org/history/syllabi/ They feature courses taught at a variety of universities, including "Scientific Revolution," "History of Modern Physics," "Nuclear Age", "Science after WWII," and "Historical Experimentation." If you are teaching a course on the history of physics or a related science, please visit our homepage and send us your comments. And please send a copy of your syllabus or reading list, in any paper or electronic format. (Alexei Kojevnikov and Spencer Weart, chp@aip.org)

New Grants to Archives

The AIP Center for History of Physics has announced a new program of grants to archives to make accessible records and papers which document the history of modern physics and allied fields (such as astronomy, geophysics, and optics). Grants can be up to $10,000 each and can be used only to cover direct expenses connected with preserving, inventorying, arranging, describing, or cataloging appropriate collections. Expenses may include acid-free storage materials and staff salary/benefits but not overhead. The AIP History Center's mission is to help preserve and make known the history of modern physics and allied fields, and this new grant program is intended to help support significant work to make original sources accessible to researchers. Preference will accordingly be given to medium size or larger projects for which the grant will be matched from other sources or by the parent organization. Application deadline for this year was July 1, but the program will be offered annually if funds permit. For grant guidelines or for more information on the Center and its programs, check their web site at http://www.aip.org/history/grntgde.html, or call (301) 209-3165.

Annual Bibliography

The annual bibliography of recent books in the history of physics, produced by the AIP Center for History of Physics in cooperation with the Forum, is now entering its fifth year. Among other uses, the list can help readers to suggest books for purchase by their institutional libraries. Stephen Brush, who inaugurated and diligently compiled the bibliography, is turning over the reins to Per and Eleanor Dahl, who have generously agreed to carry on this valuable task. The bibliography is published each Fall in the Center's free AIP History of Physics Newsletter, and is available on its web site at http://www.aip.org/history/web-news.html#bibl.
 

Books of Possible Interest

The Particle Century

Gordon Fraser, ed., (Institute of Physics Publishing, Bristol, 1998). 236 pages, $59.50

Reviewed by Martin L. Perl
Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, Stanford University

Gordon Fraser has performed a very welcome service by commissioning and editing nineteen essays on the history of elementary particle physics in the twentieth century, with just about every essay being written by the physicists who made that history.

The essays come in a pleasant variety of forms and types of content. Some essays summarize a broad area of experimental discoveries. Thus W.O. Lock tells about the extraordinary discoveries in cosmic rays of new particles, ranging from the finding of the positron in the early 1930's to the finding of strange particles in the 1950's. And Nicholas Samios tells the corresponding story of the discoveries of new particles using the first accelerators, the most amazing being the finding of the omega-minus hyperon in 1964.

Other essays concentrate on particular experiments that brought us spectacular new knowledge. Examples are: the description by Jerome Friedman and Henry Kendall of the electron scattering experiments that demonstrated the quark structure of the nucleons, the essay by Sau Lan Wu on the experimental demonstration of the existence of gluons, the description by Roy Schwitters of the 'November Revolution' in particle physics, and Melvyn Shochet's history of the finding of the top quark. The essays on the experimental history are well illustrated by all sorts of diagrams, graphs and photographs; many of the photographs are wonderfully nostalgic such as the 1938 cloud chamber picture of a positive muon obtained by Nedermeyer and Anderson and the photograph of the UA1 detector in the essay by Carlo Rubbia on the discovery of the W and Z bosons.

Being an experimenter, my first interest naturally went to the essays on the experimental history of particle physics. But the essays on the great theoretical advances in particle physics are equally enjoyable. There is M. Veltman's insightful discussion of gauge theories, Christine Sutton's summary of weak interaction theory, and an introduction to today's hot topic of CP violation by Ahmed Ali and Boris Keyser.

This beautifully published volume also contains a number of essays on broader topics in elementary particle physics and related fields. The so-called standard model of particle physics, a term I detest, is summarized in essays by Yuval Ne'eman, Guido Altarelli and by Graham Ross; it is the phrase standard model that I detest, not the essays. Connections between particle physics, cosmology and astronomy are sketched in stimulating essays by John Ellis, Qaisar Shafi and A. C. Fabian.

The collection is made complete by three essays summarizing more general historical aspects of particle physics: Catherine Westfall and John Krige write about international aspects of particle physics, E. J. N. Wilson summarizes particle accelerator history and David Saxon summarizes particle detector history. These essays also contain some wonderful photographs. I was very touched by the photograph of the Cosmotron at Brookhaven National Laboratory, the accelerator where I worked on my first particle physics experiment. The Cosmotron looked so large at the time, 1958; it looks so small in the photograph. There are also two useful additions to the book, a particle physics glossary and a list of Nobel Laureates in physics.

So this is a fascinating and entertaining history of particle physics; most older particle physicists, dare I use the word older, will treasure it. Others with an interest in particle physics will want to keep The Particle Century on their bookshelf, dipping into it for information and sheer reading pleasure. I must add that the excellent introductory notes to each essay by Gordon Fraser will be of particular value to this second group of readers. Finally this is the book I will give to all my beginning graduate students in particle physics, if this doesn't stimulate them to wonderful dreams and hopes, nothing will. This review is for the History of Physics Newsletter and so I should comment on the value of the book to science historians. The facts and dates of advances and discoveries in particle physics will certainly be very useful, as will the formal descriptions of how these advances and discoveries were made. But I wish that the essayists had written from a more personal viewpoint, telling something about their hopes and fears and mistakes and lucky breaks. This would provide more insight for the historians. I realize it is not the style in physics; we are all so macho, so technically proper. There is one essay that properly describes the hopes and fears and mistakes and lucky breaks; this essay by Roy Schwitters entitled "Unexpected Windfall" tells about the discovery of the Psi/J particle. Schwitters writes the magical words "A greater magicalsurprise was lurking in the data at 3.1 GeV."; he writes about a busy weekend when ". a fresh Pacific storm boiled over the hills west of SLAC..". W. O. Lock also gets some human feeling into his essay entitled "Cosmic Rain," but he has much to tell in a few pages, and cannot give any details.

The Defining Ye