Globalizing Physics

This is an open access book available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is free to read on the Oxford Academic platform and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. Following the centenary of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics, this volume features contributions from leading science historians from around the world on the changing roles of the institution in international affairs from its foundation in 1922 to the present. The case studies presented in this volume show the multitude of functions that IUPAP had and how these were related to the changing international political contexts. The book is divided into three parts. The first discusses the interwar period demonstrating how the exclusion of communities of the Central Powers from international scientific institutions imposed by victorious allied countries made IUPAP ineffective until the end of World War II. The second part analyzes the changing roles assumed by IUPAP starting from its complete renovation after World War II. Case studies covering the role of IUPAP in physics education, in metrology, in joint commissions with other unions and in defining the complex relations between pure and applied physics provide examples of IUPAP's impact on the world of science. Part III squarely addresses the science diplomacy aspects of IUPAP during the Cold War highlighting the importance of IUPAP in furthering diplomatic goals and explaining the origin of the pursuit of the free circulation of scientists as the activity that characterized the main function of international unions during the Cold War. Highlighting how often scientific agendas and political imperatives were entangled in the activities of IUPAP, the book analyzes the work of the Union as exercises of science diplomacy, thus contributing to the current debate on the use of science and technology in international relations.

The innovation inherent in this volume comes from the novelty of the subject matter and the historical sources. It represents an opportunity for a new analysis of physics in the framework of twentieth century geopolitics and international affairs.

Auteur

Roberto Lalli is an Assistant Professor in the History of Science and Technology at the Polytechnic University of Turin. He specializes in the history of physics from the second half of the nineteenth century to the present. After a MSc degree in physics, he earned a PhD in International History at the University of Milan in 2011. From 2011 to 2013, he was a post-doctoral fellowship at MIT, and from 2013 to 2022, he was a Research Scholar at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin. He has been developing quantitative methodologies for the investigation of historical developments of scientific fields and has published extensively on the interplay between science and diplomacy in the history of international scientific organizations during the Cold War.

Jaume Navarro is Ikerbasque Research Professor at the University of the Basque Country. A historian of science, he has previously held research positions at the University of Cambridge, Imperial College, the University of Exeter and the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science. His research interests lie in the history of physics and in the historiography of science and religion. He is the author of, among others, A History of the Electron. J.J. and G.P. Thomson (CUP 2012) and the editor of Ether and Modernity (OUP 2018).

Texte du rabat

Focusing on the history of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics following its centenary, this book provides a novel and unique perspective on the interrelation of science and politics in international arenas and describes the attempts of physicists to play a diplomatic role in governing international scientific institutions.

Contenu

• Preface

• Introduction

• PART I: IUPAP Between the Two World Wars

• 1: Danielle Fauque and Robert Fox: IUPAP and the Interwar World of Science

• 2: Jaume Navarro: The "Happy Thirties"? Millikan's Troubled Presidency of IUPAP

• PART II: Reshaping IUPAP after World War II

• 3: Roberto Lalli: From Diplomacy to Physics and Back Again: The Changing Roles of IUPAP in the Second Half of the 20th Century

• 4: Joseph D. Martin: Drawing the Line between Pure and Applied Physics

• 5: Danielle Fauque and Brigitte Van Tiggelen: Under the ICSU Umbrella: The Joint Commission on Radioactivity (1947-1955) Between IUPAP and IUPAC

• 6: Josep Simon: Restoring Physics: IUPAP's Commission on Education, Signature Pedagogies, and the Inter-National Politics of Science in the 1960s

• 7: Connemara Doran: The Role of IUPAP in Shaping Metrological Practice: International Negotiation and Collaboration

• 8: Kenji Ito: Repairing a Scientific Network: The International Conference of Theoretical Physics in 1953 and the Rehabilitation of the Japanese Physics Community

• Part III: Physics, Diplomacy, and the Cold War

• 9: Climério Paulo da Silva Neto and Alexei Kojevnikov: Socialist Internationalism and Science Diplomacy Across the Iron Curtain: Geneva, Dubna, IUPAP

• 10: Barbara Hof: Particles, Purity, Politics: Expanding International Exchange in High Energy Physics during the Cold War

• 11: Danian Hu, Jinyan Liu, and Xiaodong Yin: China's Tortuous Path to IUPAP: An Enlightening Case of Chinese Science Diplomacy during the Cold War

• 12: Doubravka Oláková: IUPAP, Cooperative Antagonism and the GDR

• 13: Daniele Cozzoli: Edoardo Amaldi and the Scientific Collaboration with the USSR

• 14: Luciana Vieira Souza da Silva: National Individuals and International Unions: Gleb Wataghin's Experience with IUPAP (1951-1959)

• 15: Simone Turchetti: The Only (Tense) Encounter of a Non-existent Relationship? NATO, IUPAP and the 1963 Travel Ban Controversy

• Appendix: National Membership and Fees, 1919-1947