Making 20th century science
Subtitle: how theories became knowledge
By: Stephen G. Brush with Ariel Segal
Contributors: Segal, Ariel, 1976- author
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2015
Language: eng
Number of pages: 531
ISBN-13: 9780199978151
Subjects: Science; Methodology; History
Other titles: Making twentieth century science
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 501-512) and index.
Table of contents: title: Machine generated contents note: -- 1.; title: Who Needs the Scientific Method? -- -- 1.1.; title: The Rings of Uranus -- -- 1.2.; title: Maxwell and Popper -- -- 1.3.; title: What is a Prediction? A Mercurial Definition -- -- 1.4.; title: Hierarchy and Demarcation -- -- 1.5.; title: What's Wrong with Quantum Mechanics? -- -- 1.6.; title: Was Chemistry More Scientific than Physics (1865-1980)? Mendeleev's Periodic Law -- -- 1.7.; title: Scientific Chemists: Benzene and Molecular Orbitals -- -- 1.8.; title: The Unscientific (But Very Successful) Method of Dirac and Einstein: Can We Trust Experiments to Test Theories? -- -- 1.9.; title: Why was Bibhas De's paper rejected by Icarus? -- -- 1.10.; title: The Plurality of Scientific Methods -- -- 2.; title: Reception Studies by Historians of Science -- -- 2.1.; title: What is Reception? -- -- 2.2.; title: The Copernican Heliocentric System -- -- 2.3.; title: Newton's Universal Gravity -- -- 2.4.; title: Darwin's Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection -- -- 2.5.; title: Bohr Model of the Atom -- -- 2.6.; title: Conclusions and Generalizations; title: 3.; title: Prediction-Testing in the Evaluation of Theories: A Controversy in the Philosophy of Science -- -- 3.1.; title: Introduction -- -- 3.2.; title: Novelty in the Philosophy of Science -- -- 3.3.; title: What is a Prediction? (Revisited) -- -- 3.4.; title: Does Novelty Make a Difference? -- -- 3.5.; title: Evidence from Case Histories -- -- 3.6.; title: Are Theorists Less Trustworthy Than Observers? -- -- 3.7.; title: The Fallacy of Falsifiability: Even the Supreme Court Was Fooled -- -- 3.8.; title: Conclusions -- -- 4.; title: The Rise and Fall of Social Constructionism 1975-2000 -- -- 4.1.; title: The Problem of Defining Science and Technology Studies -- -- 4.2.; title: The Rise of Social Constructionism -- -- 4.3.; title: The Fall of Social Constructionism -- -- 4.4.; title: Postmortem -- -- 4.5.; title: Consequences for Science Studies -- -- 5.; title: Mendeleev's Periodic Law -- -- 5.1.; title: Mendeleev and the Periodic Law -- -- 5.2.; title: Novel Predictions -- -- 5.3.; title: Mendeleev's Predictions -- -- 5.4.; title: Reception By Whom? -- -- 5.5.; title: Tests of Mendeleev's Predictions -- -- 5.6.; title: Before the Discovery of Gallium -- -- 5.7.; title: The Impact of Gallium and Scandium; title: 5.8.; title: The Limited Value of Novel Predictions -- -- 5.9.; title: Implications of the Law -- -- 5.10.; title: Conclusions -- -- 6.; title: The Benzene Problem 1865-1930 -- -- 6.1.; title: Kekulé's Theory -- -- 6.2.; title: The First Tests of Kekulé's Theory -- -- 6.3.; title: Alternative Hypotheses -- -- 6.4.; title: Reception of Benzene Theories 1866-1880 -- -- 6.5.; title: New Experiments, New Theories 1881-1900 -- -- 6.6.; title: The Failure of Aromatic Empiricism 1901-1930 -- -- 7.; title: The Light Quantum Hypothesis -- -- 7.1.; title: Black-Body Radiation -- -- 7.2.; title: Planck's Theory -- -- 7.3.; title: Formulation of the Light-Quantum Hypothesis -- -- 7.4.; title: The Wave Theory of Light -- -- 7.5.; title: Einstein's Heuristic Viewpoint -- -- 7.6.; title: What Did Millikan Prove? -- -- 7.7.; title: The Compton Effect -- -- 7.8.; title: Reception of Neo-Newtonian Optics before 1923 -- -- 7.9.; title: The Impact of Compton's Discovery -- -- 7.10.; title: Rupp's Fraudulent Experiments -- -- 7.11.; title: Conclusions -- -- 8.; title: Quantum Mechanics -- -- 8.1.; title: The Bohr Model -- -- 8.2.; title: The Wave Nature of Matter -- -- 8.3.; title: Schrodinger's Wave Mechanics -- -- 8.4.; title: The Exclusion Principle, Spin, and the Electronic Structure of Atoms; title: 8.5.; title: Bose-Einstein Statistics -- -- 8.6.; title: Fermi-Dirac Statistics -- -- 8.7.; title: Initial Reception of Quantum Mechanics -- -- 8.8.; title: The Community Is Converted -- -- 8.9.; title: Novel Predictions of Quantum Mechanics -- -- 8.10.; title: The Helium Atom -- -- 8.11.; title: Reasons for Accepting Quantum Mechanics After 1928 -- -- 9.; title: New Particles -- -- 9.1.; title: Dirac's Prediction and Anderson's Discovery of the Positron -- -- 9.2.; title: The Reception of Dirac's Theory -- -- 9.3.; title: The Transformation of Dirac's Theory -- -- 9.4.; title: Yukawa's Theory of Nuclear Forces -- -- 9.5.; title: Discovery of the Muon and Reception of Yukawa's Theory -- -- 9.6.; title: The Transformation of the Yukon -- -- 9.7.; title: Conclusions -- -- 10.; title: Benzene and Molecular Orbitals 1931-1980 -- -- 10.1.; title: Resonance, Mesomerism, and the Mule 1931-1945 -- -- 10.2.; title: Reception of Quantum Theories of Benzene 1932-1940 -- -- 10.3.; title: Chemical Proof of Kekulé's Theory -- -- 10.4.; title: Antiresonance and the Rhinoceros -- -- 10.5.; title: The Shift to Molecular Orbitals After 1950 -- -- 10.6.; title: Aromaticity -- -- 10.7.; title: The Revival of Predictive Chemistry -- -- 10.8.; title: Reception of Molecular Orbital Theory By Organic Chemists; title: 10.9.; title: Adoption of MO in Textbooks -- -- 10.10.; title: A 1996 Survey -- -- 10.11.; title: Conclusions -- -- 11.; title: Relativity -- -- 11.1.; title: The Special Theory of Relativity -- -- 11.2.; title: General Theory of Relativity -- -- 11.3.; title: Empirical Predictions and Explanations -- -- 11.4.; title: Social-Psychological Factors -- -- 11.5.; title: Aesthetic-Mathematical Factors -- -- 11.6.; title: Early Reception of Relativity -- -- 11.7.; title: Do Scientists Give Extra Credit for Novelty? The Case of Gravitational Light-Bending -- -- 11.8.; title: Are Theorists Less Trustworthy Than Observers? -- -- 11.9.; title: Mathematical-Aesthetic Reasons for Accepting Relativity -- -- 11.10.; title: Social-Psychological Reasons for Accepting Relativity -- -- 11.11.; title: A Statistical Summary of Comparative Reception -- -- 11.12.; title: Conclusions -- -- 12.; title: Big Bang Cosmology -- -- 12.1.; title: The Expanding Universe Is Proposed -- -- 12.2.; title: The Age of the Earth -- -- 12.3.; title: The Context for the Debate: Four New Sciences and One Shared Memory -- -- 12.4.; title: Cosmology Constrained by Terrestrial Time -- -- 12.5.; title: Hubble Doubts the Expanding Universe -- -- 12.6.; title: A Radical Solution: Steady-State Cosmology; title: 12.7.; title: Astronomy Blinks: Slowing the Expansion -- -- 12.8.; title: Lemaitre's Primeval Atom and Gamow's Big Bang -- -- 12.9.; title: Arguments for Steady-State Weaken -- -- 12.10.; title: The Temperature of Space -- -- 12.11.; title: Discovery of the Cosmic Microwave Background -- -- 12.12.; title: Impact of the Discovery on Cosmologists -- -- 12.13.; title: Credit for the Prediction -- -- 12.14.; title: Conclusions -- -- 13.; title: Morgan's Chromosome Theory -- -- 13.1.; title: Introduction -- -- 13.2.; title: Is Biology Like Hypothetico-Deductive Physics? -- -- 13.3.; title: Precursors -- -- 13.4.; title: Morgan's Theory -- -- 13.5.; title: The Problem of Universality -- -- 13.6.; title: Morgan's Theory in Research Journals -- -- 13.7.; title: Important Early Supporters -- -- 13.8.; title: Bateson and the Morgan Theory in Great Britain -- -- 13.9.; title: The Problem of Universality Revisited -- -- 13.10.; title: Books and Review Articles on Genetics, Evolution, and Cytology -- -- 13.11.; title: Biology Textbooks -- -- 13.12.; title: Age Distribution of Supporters and Opponents -- -- 13.13.; title: Conclusions -- -- 14.; title: The Revival of Natural Selection 1930-1970 -- -- 14.1.; title: Introduction; title: 14.2.; title: Fisher: A New Language for Evolutionary Research -- -- 14.3.; title: Wright: Random Genetic Drift, a Concept Out of Control -- -- 14.4.; title: Haldane: A Mathematical-Philosophical Biologist Weighs In -- -- 14.5.; title: Early Reception of the Theory -- -- 14.6.; title: Dobzhansky: The Faraday of Biology? -- -- 14.7.; title: Evidence for Natural Selection, Before 1941 -- -- 14.8.; title: Huxley: A New Synthesis Is Proclaimed -- -- 14.9.; title: Mayr: Systematics and the Founder Principle -- -- 14.10.; title: Simpson: No Straight and Narrow Path for Paleontology -- -- 14.11.; title: Stebbins: Plants Are Also Selected -- -- 14.12.; title: Chromosome Inversions in Drosophila -- -- 14.13.; title: Ford: Unlucky Blood Groups -- -- 14.14.; title: Resistance to Antibiotics -- -- 14.15.; title: Two Great Debates: Snails and Tiger Moths -- -- 14.16.; title: Selection and/or Drift? The Changing Views of Dobzhansky and Wright -- -- 14.17.; title: The Views of Other Founders and Leaders -- -- 14.18.; title: The Peppered Moth -- -- 14.19.; title: The Triumph of Natural Selection? -- -- 14.20.; title: Results of a Survey of Biological Publications; title: 14.21.; title: Is Evolutionary Theory Scientific? -- -- 14.22.; title: Context and Conclusions -- -- 15.; title: Which Works Faster: Prediction or Explanation? -- -- 15.1.; title: Comparison of Cases Presented in this Book -- -- 15.2.; title: From Princip to Principe -- -- 15.3.; title: Can Explanation Be Better Than Prediction? -- -- 15.4.; title: Special Theory of Relativity: Explaining "Nothing" -- -- 15.5.; title: The Old Quantum Theory: Many Things Are Predicted, But Few Are Explained -- -- 15.6.; title: Quantum Mechanics: Many Things are Explained, But Predictions Are Confirmed Too Late -- -- 15.7.; title: Millikan's Walk.