The disaster of the Nazi-power in science as reflected by some leading journals and scientists in physics - A bibliometric study

The consequences of the Nazi-power for the scientific process are described qualitatively in various articles and books. However, recent progress in information systems allows a quantitative reflection. Literature databases ranging back to the beginning of the 20th century, the ISI citation indexes ranging back to 1945 now and sophisticated search systems are suitable tools for this purpose. In this study the overall break in the scientific productivity and that of selected physical journals are examined. An overview of the citation impact of some 50 leading physicists is given. The productivity before and after departure is analyzed and connected to biographical data.Comment: 8 pages, 10 figures, 1 tabl

Is It Really Possible to Do the Kessel Run in Less than Twelve Parsecs and Should It Matter? Science and Film and its Policy Implications

The entertainment media influences our lives in a myriad of different ways--from the way we dress, to the language we use, to the products we buy. What might be less obvious are its influences on national policies. This Article, an introductory foray into the effects of media on policy, focuses on the effect that movies have on science policies in the United States and around the world. Through an analysis of both classic and recent blockbuster films and concurrent events involving science policies, this Article argues that Hollywood exerts an inordinate amount of influence on national science policies, and even extends beyond that to affect biotechnology markets. Acknowledging this important influence, the Article then examines why this may be the case. While a thorough analysis of related First Amendment jurisprudence suggests that some of the most radical solutions to tamp down Hollywood\u27s influences, including limited censorship, may not always run afoul of constitutional free speech rights, this Article nevertheless proposes that the scientific community should take proactive measures to either prevent or hamper Hollywood from promoting bad science policies

Science funding under an authoritarian regime: Portugal’s National Education Board and the European ‘academic landscape’ in the interwar period

This article enables an understanding of scientific practice and funding in a peripheral country ruled by a dictatorship in the interwar period, and thus provides the basis for comparison with studies of other non-democratic regimes. We examine the work of Portugal’s Junta de Educação Nacional (National Education Board), which administered and provided funding for science from 1929 to 1936. Our findings show that this public body encouraged the participation of the Portuguese academic community in international science networks. This scenario contrasts with the dominant historiographical thesis that between the wars the Portuguese academic community did not play a role in international networks, and that it lacked state support. Also in contrast with the dominant historiography, whose ideological bias meant that a simplified picture was portrayed, whereas the reality is shown to be complex, this study demonstrates that the Portuguese dictatorial state sought to foster scientific progress through the Junta, but that resentment among academics and the resistance of universities to innovation meant that this objective was only partially achieved. Finally, the memory of a number of scientists has been rescued from oblivion, as we show how their political stance during the dictatorship led to their being ignored by historiographers when democracy prevailed.IHC - Pólo da UE. FCT

Against the Tide. A Critical Review by Scientists of How Physics and Astronomy Get Done

Nobody should have a monopoly of the truth in this universe. The censorship and suppression of challenging ideas against the tide of mainstream research, the blacklisting of scientists, for instance, is neither the best way to do and filter science, nor to promote progress in the human knowledge. The removal of good and novel ideas from the scientific stage is very detrimental to the pursuit of the truth. There are instances in which a mere unqualified belief can occasionally be converted into a generally accepted scientific theory through the screening action of refereed literature and meetings planned by the scientific organizing committees and through the distribution of funds controlled by "club opinions". It leads to unitary paradigms and unitary thinking not necessarily associated to the unique truth. This is the topic of this book: to critically analyze the problems of the official (and sometimes illicit) mechanisms under which current science (physics and astronomy in particular) is being administered and filtered today, along with the onerous consequences these mechanisms have on all of us.\ud \ud The authors, all of them professional researchers, reveal a pessimistic view of the miseries of the actual system, while a glimmer of hope remains in the "leitmotiv" claim towards the freedom in doing research and attaining an acceptable level of ethics in science

Tracing the Atom

This book is about nuclear legacies in Russia and Central Asia, focusing on selected sites of the Soviet atomic program, many of which have remained understudied. Nuclear operations, for energy or military purposes, demanded a vast infrastructure of production and supply chains that have transformed entire regions. In following the material traces of the atomic programs, contributors pay particular attention to memory practices and memorialization concerning nuclear legacies. Tracing the Atom foregrounds historical and contemporary engagements with nuclear politics: How have institutions and governments responded to the legacies of the atomic era? How do communities and artists articulate concerns over radioactive matters? What was the role of radiation expertise in a broader Soviet and international context of the Cold War? Examining nuclear legacies together with past atomic futures and post-Soviet memory and nuclear heritage, sheds light on how modes of knowing intersect with livelihoods, compensation policies, and historiography. Bringing together a range of disciplines – history, science and technology studies, social anthropology, literary studies, and art history – this volume offers insights that broaden our understanding of 20th century atomic programs and their long aftermaths

On the Problem of Breathing, Eating, & Drinking Poison: An introduction to problem solving, nobility of purpose under adverse circumstances, and the search for truth with Sir Karl Popper on Prince Edward Island

This paper introduces Karl Popper's approach to problem solving in the social sciences. These methods fundamentally represent the scientific method of the natural sciences. Popper's problem solving technique is outlined in six steps, including an introductory treatment of his solution to Hume's Problem of Induction. These six steps are then applied in the form of a test and logical deduction of our illustrative theory: Cancer rates on Prince Edward Island have dramatically increased as a result of an extraordinary increase (900% in the past decade) in potato production, and a corollary increase of secondary agricultural inputs, namely an increase of chlorothalonil (trade name: Bravo) applications in less than ten years. We conclude our theory is true and, in order to complete our demonstration of Popper's methods, open this theory to criticism and refutations. APPENDIX A offers a brief review of relevant literature on the philosophy of science, and APPENDIX B offers readers a brief introduction to the fundamentals of relevant island-based methods.scientific method; karl popper; truth; falsity; probability theory; the problem of induction; industrial agriculture; prince edward island; insularity; manufacture of consent; the tragedy of the commons

Tracing the Atom

This book is about nuclear legacies in Russia and Central Asia, focusing on selected sites of the Soviet atomic program, many of which have remained understudied. Nuclear operations, for energy or military purposes, demanded a vast infrastructure of production and supply chains that have transformed entire regions. In following the material traces of the atomic programs, contributors pay particular attention to memory practices and memorialization concerning nuclear legacies. Tracing the Atom foregrounds historical and contemporary engagements with nuclear politics: How have institutions and governments responded to the legacies of the atomic era? How do communities and artists articulate concerns over radioactive matters? What was the role of radiation expertise in a broader Soviet and international context of the Cold War? Examining nuclear legacies together with past atomic futures and post-Soviet memory and nuclear heritage, sheds light on how modes of knowing intersect with livelihoods, compensation policies, and historiography. Bringing together a range of disciplines – history, science and technology studies, social anthropology, literary studies, and art history – this volume offers insights that broaden our understanding of 20th century atomic programs and their long aftermaths

German-Speaking Academic Émigrés in Turkey of the 1940s

The article explores the academic working conditions for about 144 German émigré professors in Turkey in the 1930s and 1940s. Many of them migrated from Nazi Germany to Turkey. It is asked how the exiled professors have been seen by post graduate students. This sheds light on the mentality of a new generation of academics, the first in the newly-established Republican Turkey. Some of these students have been interviewed (oral history). Memory, however, is not a mirror that represents historical facts, but a field where the past is reconstructed. Most of the interviewees are graduates of Ankara University and some were post-doctoral assistants at Ankara University. The focus is mainly on the faculties situated in the Turkish capital, specifically, DTCF (the Language, History and Geography Faculty) and the Faculty of Law. The former students concur with the interpretation that the exiled professors gave them new intellectual perspectives and took eminent influence on their careers. As it turns out, the German professors were well integrated into Turkish society in terms of governmental contacts, although they did not become part of the Turkish cultural scene. With rising Turkish nationalism and Pan-Turkism in the later 1940s they were facing an increasingly hostile political atmosphere. This led most of them to dismissal from their faculties; they left for America or other countries in Europe. The highly positive commemoration of the émigré professors by their former postgraduate students can also be read as the commemoration of the period of Atatürk and his reforms.The article explores the academic working conditions for about 144 German émigré professors in Turkey in the 1930s and 1940s. Many of them migrated from Nazi Germany to Turkey. It is asked how the exiled professors have been seen by post graduate students. This sheds light on the mentality of a new generation of academics, the first in the newly-established Republican Turkey. Some of these students have been interviewed (oral history). Memory, however, is not a mirror that represents historical facts, but a field where the past is reconstructed. Most of the interviewees are graduates of Ankara University and some were post-doctoral assistants at Ankara University. The focus is mainly on the faculties situated in the Turkish capital, specifically, DTCF (the Language, History and Geography Faculty) and the Faculty of Law. The former students concur with the interpretation that the exiled professors gave them new intellectual perspectives and took eminent influence on their careers. As it turns out, the German professors were well integrated into Turkish society in terms of governmental contacts, although they did not become part of the Turkish cultural scene. With rising Turkish nationalism and Pan-Turkism in the later 1940s they were facing an increasingly hostile political atmosphere. This led most of them to dismissal from their faculties; they left for America or other countries in Europe. The highly positive commemoration of the émigré professors by their former postgraduate students can also be read as the commemoration of the period of Atatürk and his reforms