The Physicists

This is a comparative analysis between the original German text and the English translation of the play entitled The Physicists: one of the most performed theatre pieces in German speaking countries and one of the most successful plays after World War II

The Physicist - Philosophers: The Legacy of James Clerk Maxwell and Herrmann von Helmholtz

One of the most effective, and most mysterious, tools of modern theoretical physics is a mathematical method including what is here called “field theory.” The success of this procedure in unraveling the “zoology” of fundamental particles and their behavior is a marvel. The philosophical context of this marvel is the source of endless academic controversy. The core of the method is a blend of mathematics and description created by “physicist-philosophers,” from Maxwell and Helmholtz to Einstein and Schrödinger. This book tries to unravel the mystery, or at least chronicle it.https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/facbooks/1000/thumbnail.jp

Higher dimensional theories in physics, following the Kaluza model of unification

This thesis traces the origins and evolution of higher dimensional models in physics, with particular reference to the five-dimensional Kaluza-Klein unification. It includes the motivation needed, and the increasing status and significance of the multidimensional description of reality for the 1990's. The differing conceptualisations are analysed, from the mathematical, via Kasner's embedding dimensions and Schrodinger's waves, to the high status of Kaluza-Klein dimensions in physics today. This includes the use of models, and the metaphysical interpretations needed to translate the mathematics. The main area of original research is the unpublished manuscripts and letters of Theodor Kaiuza, some Einstein letters, further memoirs from his son Theodor Kaiuza Junior and from some of his original students. Unpublished material from Helsinki concerns the Finnish physicist Nordstrom, the real originator of the idea that 'forces' in 4-dimensional spacetime might arise from gravity in higher dimensions. The work of the Swedish physicist Oskar Klein and the reactions of de Broglie and Einstein initiated the Kaluza-Klein connection which is traced through fifty years of neglect to its re-entry into mainstream physics. The cosmological significance and conceptualisation through analogue models is charted by personal correspondence with key scientists across a range of theoretical physics, involving the use of aesthetic criteria where there is no direct physical verification. Qualitative models implicitly indicating multidimensions are identified in the paradoxes and enigmas of existing physics, in Quantum Mechanics and the singularities in General Relativity. The Kaluza-Klein philosophy brings this wide range of models together in the late 1980's via supergravity, superstrings and supermanifolds. This new multidimensional paradigm wave is seen to produce a coherent and consistent metaphysics, a new perspective on reality. It may also have immense potential significance for philosophy and theology. The thesis concludes with the reality question, "Are we a four-dimensional projection of a deeper reality of many, even infinite, dimensions?

Pierre Duhem’s philosophy and history of science

LEITE (Fábio Rodrigo) – STOFFEL (Jean-François), Introduction (pp. 3-6). BARRA (Eduardo Salles de O.) – SANTOS (Ricardo Batista dos), Duhem’s analysis of Newtonian method and the logical priority of physics over metaphysics (pp. 7-19). BORDONI (Stefano), The French roots of Duhem’s early historiography and epistemology (pp. 20-35). CHIAPPIN (José R. N.) – LARANJEIRAS (Cássio Costa), Duhem’s critical analysis of mecha­ni­cism and his defense of a formal conception of theoretical phy­sics (pp. 36-53). GUEGUEN (Marie) – PSILLOS (Stathis), Anti-­scepticism and epistemic humility in Pierre Duhem’s philosophy of science (pp. 54-72). LISTON (Michael), Duhem : images of science, historical continuity, and the first crisis in physics (pp. 73-84). MAIOCCHI (Roberto), Duhem in pre-war Italian philos­ophy : the reasons of an absence (pp. 85-92). HERNÁNDEZ MÁRQUEZ (Víctor Manuel), Was Pierre Duhem an «esprit de finesse» ? (pp. 93-107). NEEDHAM (Paul), Was Duhem justified in not distinguishing between physical and chemical atomism ? (pp. 108-111). OLGUIN (Roberto Estrada), «Bon sens» and «noûs» (pp. 112-126). OLIVEIRA (Amelia J.), Duhem’s legacy for the change in the historiography of science : An analysis based on Kuhn’s writings (pp. 127-139). PRÍNCIPE (João), Poincaré and Duhem : Resonances in their first epistemological reflec­tions (pp. 140-156). MONDRAGON (Damián Islas), Book review of «Pierre Duhem : entre física y metafísica» (pp. 157-159). STOFFEL (Jean-François), Book review of P. Duhem : «La théorie physique : son objet, sa structure» / edit. by S. Roux (pp. 160-162). STOFFEL (Jean-François), Book review of St. Bordoni : «When historiography met epistemology» (pp. 163-165)

An optimal nephelometric model design method for particle characterisation

Scattering nephelometry is a particle characterisation method applicable to fluid suspensions containing impurities. Solutions derived by the method feature particle classification by size (diameter), volume or texture as well as continuous on-line and in-situ monitoring, The replacement of turbidimeters with nephelometers in many existing turbidity applications could result in suppression of side effects caused by limitations and uncontrolled parameter drifts and satisfaction of problem-defined constraints at virtually no change in implementation cost. A major issue of nephelometric model design is the selection of a mathematical tool suitable for the modelling of the data analysis system. [Continues.

Higher derivative gravity and holography

In de afgelopen eeuw heeft de inzet van natuurkundigen geleid tot een theorie die drie fundamentele natuurkrachten beschrijft, de elektromagnetische kracht, de zwakke kernkracht en de sterke kernkracht. Elke poging om de vierde natuurkracht, zwaartekracht, hiermee te verenigen is tot nu toe onbevredigend geweest. Om de aard van de zwaartekracht beter te begrijpen is het holografisch principe ontwikkeld. Dit is geïnspireerd door de eigenschappen van zwarte gaten en laat een verband zien tussen de zwaartekrachttheorie en de veel beter begrepen kwantum velden theorie. Men kan zich dan afvragen of het mogelijk is om beperkingen of onbekende effecten te vinden als we buiten de bekende formulering van het holografisch principe kijken. Dit proefschrift probeert deze vraag te beantwoorden door wiskundige structuren en fysische grootheden te gebruiken als gereedschap om het principe mee te verkennen. Dit wordt gedaan in de context van een aangepaste zwaartekrachttheorie genaamd New Massive Gravity. We zien dat New Massive Gravity ons meer vrijheid geeft in deze verkenning omdat het een breder spectrum aan oplossingen biedt. Daarnaast laat het bestuderen van de fysische grootheid verstrengelingsentropy zien dat er een relatie is tussen de kwantum eigenschappen van materie en de wiskundige eigenschappen van een geometrisch object. Deze relatie kan alleen bestaan als we het holografisch principe beschouwen met een aangepaste zwaartekrachttheorie

Higher derivative gravity and holography

In de afgelopen eeuw heeft de inzet van natuurkundigen geleid tot een theorie die drie fundamentele natuurkrachten beschrijft, de elektromagnetische kracht, de zwakke kernkracht en de sterke kernkracht. Elke poging om de vierde natuurkracht, zwaartekracht, hiermee te verenigen is tot nu toe onbevredigend geweest. Om de aard van de zwaartekracht beter te begrijpen is het holografisch principe ontwikkeld. Dit is geïnspireerd door de eigenschappen van zwarte gaten en laat een verband zien tussen de zwaartekrachttheorie en de veel beter begrepen kwantum velden theorie. Men kan zich dan afvragen of het mogelijk is om beperkingen of onbekende effecten te vinden als we buiten de bekende formulering van het holografisch principe kijken. Dit proefschrift probeert deze vraag te beantwoorden door wiskundige structuren en fysische grootheden te gebruiken als gereedschap om het principe mee te verkennen. Dit wordt gedaan in de context van een aangepaste zwaartekrachttheorie genaamd New Massive Gravity. We zien dat New Massive Gravity ons meer vrijheid geeft in deze verkenning omdat het een breder spectrum aan oplossingen biedt. Daarnaast laat het bestuderen van de fysische grootheid verstrengelingsentropy zien dat er een relatie is tussen de kwantum eigenschappen van materie en de wiskundige eigenschappen van een geometrisch object. Deze relatie kan alleen bestaan als we het holografisch principe beschouwen met een aangepaste zwaartekrachttheorie

Staying with the Trouble through Design: Critical-feminist Design of Intimate Technology

This dissertation explores staying with the trouble through design as a design theory of intimacy and intimate technology. To research and design with the subject of intimacy is to trouble and to ask for trouble, and by staying with the trouble of intimacy, to paraphrase Donna Haraway, I articulate and perform a way of designing not as a way out of trouble, but as a way of making trouble and staying with the trouble. I argue that by staying with the trouble, designers may learn to be “truly present” and respond to social, cultural and political issues of intimate technology.The methodology interweaves design research, feminist technoscience, critical theory and software studies into a critical-feminist design methodology. As a response to design and designing intimate technology I have engaged in Donna Haraway’s “Staying with the Trouble” (Donna J. Haraway 2016) and solutionism as a critique of technology development, as well as feminist theories on fantasies of “the good life” and gender and technology, and critical theories on the role of intimacy in digital culture.Within the field of interaction design research, this dissertation’s contribution can be divided into three parts: 1) an exploration of the role of intimate technologies in our everyday lives and ways of being, 2) a critical and feminist design methodology of staying with the trouble through design, and 3) design proposals that stay with the trouble of designing with intimacy.My design research has evolved through four design projects that interweave different intimate topics and technologies through varied design practices: 1. PeriodShare: an internet-connected menstrual cup. 2. Marcelle: a wearable sex toy reacting on wifi-activity. 3. Ingrid: a woman living with electromagnetic hypersensitivity. And 4. Intimate Futures: two digital personal assistants where one is pushing back on sexual harassment and the other is assisting with hormone level tracking.The main contribution of the dissertation is the design methodology staying with the trouble through design, which is an anti-solutionist approach to design that interweaves the situated, personal and political role of design. By responding to/with trouble, rather than designing solutions to problems, staying with the trouble through design aims to better understand the conflicts and responsibilities involved in complex social, cultural and political issues, in order to imagine and design still possible futures. The design methodology interweaves three practices that unfold the self-reflective, ethnographic and collaborative process of staying with the trouble through design. The first practice, the willful practice of Staying with the Wrong, is a continuous process of becoming a feminist designer and it includes actively learning to be present; question the given as given, stay with the feelings you wish would go away, continuously practice self-reflection on own positionality and using feminist humour when designing with taboos. The second practice, Curious Visiting, encourages the designer to go beyond their own positionality, by listening to stories of pleasure and pain and visiting ongoing pasts and alternatives nows. This challenges the designer’s notion of the present by interweaving fact and fiction, and it highlights that this practice is never innocent but involves risks. Lastly, the third practice Collective Imagining highlights how design by proposing future change can respond to and/or with trouble and how we collectively can engage with futures to rewrite collective imaginings and tell other possible stories within and across social and cultural contexts. Together, these three interwoven practices propose a way of staying with the trouble through design, as a feminist contribution to current critical approaches within interaction design.

Agency is molecular: moved by being moved to moving or co-constitution in intra-active knowledge production

This practice-based PhD aims to intertwine theoretical research and artistic practice on the basis of knowledge production by conceptually thinking through motion, with movement informing the methodological counterpart in performative research settings. I argue that movement and the concept of motion, in their immanent potential for in/determinancy, transport possibilities of transversality that have been neglected in western Modernity. Both offer the means of moving beyond the bifurcated exceptionalism of Modernity's epistemology. The project interrogates its own positioning from within by affirming embodied ways of knowing, which are marginalised within the rationalised epistemes in European Universalisms (Wallerstein). In doing so it also takes a stand against appropriation. From a feminist position, new materialism's situatedness (Haraway) and relational objectivity (Barad) are particularly suitable tools for a shift from within. The apparatus definitions of Agential Realism gather insights through agential cuts that provide a transient exteriority-within, allowing modifying the bounds of knowing from within. The primary chapters examine the impact of practicing through theory and coalesce into a final experiment that reverses the process. Applied to the path of thoughts, movement's induction of changes to matter initiates an essential process of creating space for delinking (Mignolo/Walsh) and unlearning (Singh). The foundation of both practice- and theory-based approaches is Barad's notion of intra-active doing-being, which provides an understanding of agential intertwinement by approaching matter through and with interferences. In experiments, electronic devices were set to receive techno-sound-reverberations as diffractional concerns (noise), that transposed mattering (meaning) from co-constitutional forms. These 'voices', enacted in material-discursive experiments of various entangled engagements in different molecular matterings (body-mind, nature-culture, non-human-human, other-self) are typically ignored, denied, or misunderstood by the notorious bifurcation of the western metaphysical matrix (Jackson). Listening to matter’s iterative performativity (Barad) disclosed uneven levels of capacity (Wilderson) within such non-interrogated generalisations as the flattening to 'we' of the Anthropocene discourse. This awareness of interferential reverberations demands a multidirectional pluriverse of capabilities, which compromises any one-world (Law) exceptionality