Session C02: History of Physics

Who Was Carolyn Beatrice Parker?

Carolyn Beatrice Parker (1917 -- 1966) is unknown to both the general public and the scientific community. She studied under Elmer S. Imes at Fisk University, achieving a BA degree in physics in 1938. This was followed by a MA degree in mathematics from the University of Michigan in 1941. For five years (1943 -- 1947), she was involved with the Manhattan Project at the Dayton, Ohio site. There she became contaminated with plutonium. Later, she enrolled at MIT and received the MA degree for experimental work on pion-nucleus (brass) scattering in 1951. Unfortunately, she died of radiation poisoning before completing the requirements for the doctorate in physics. We will discuss her family and social background, her career, and her scientific achievements. We will also focus on Parker's educational and professional attainments in relation to the restrictions imposed on the African American middle class during the period 1920 -- 1960.   

The Ideas of Particle Physics : four decades past and the next

Over the last four decades, many outstanding questions in particle physics have been answered, but our increasingly sophisticated level of understanding has led to even deeper questions. The recently confirmed phenomenon of neutrino oscillations (and so neutrino mass) is definitely beyond its scope. In addition, cosmological observations now indicate that as much as 96 percent of the Universe is made up of unknown sources of `dark matter' and `dark energy'. On the theoretical side, yet another string revolution has resulted in a new understanding of string theories as the limit of `M-theory', but whose exact structure is not yet known, leaving a possible quantum theory of gravity as elusive as ever. This talk presents the story of the Ideas of Particle Physics from its origins mid-last century, and outlines the challenges ahead for the next.   

On Demand

In her recent book, "Why Trust Science?", Harvard University historian of science Naomi Oreskes argues that the credibility of a scientific result or theory is established largely through a complex social process in which a skeptical, diverse scientific community reaches consensus on a subject — for example, anthropogenic climate change. I examine this proposition in the context of the discovery of quarks during the 1970s and their acceptance by essentially the entire physics community by the end of that decade, a topic about which I wrote in my 1987 book, "The Hunting of the Quark." In so doing, I address the social constructivist picture of this process, and the nature and role of scientific consensus in establishing the "reality" of a new "object."   

Rise and Fall of the Wheeler Geon

John Wheeler's first published paper on General Relativity, entitled Geons, was one of the leading factors in the renaissance of that field in the 1950s. We will discuss how it came about, how it was received, its influence on the field, and the eventual collapse of this model.   

On Demand

One of the most surprising of Einstein's contributions was his preface to Upton Sinclair's 1930 book on telepathy, ``Mental Radio.'' While he likely wrote that piece as a favor to Sinclair, it was emblematic of a period in which other believers attempted to pin down Einstein's position on paranormal phenomena. Thanks, in part, to J.W. Dunne's widely selling ``An Experiment With Time,'' Einstein was asked to address false claims of connections between relativity and precognition. Conceivably, such encounters contributed to Einstein's later rhetoric in supporting local realism versus quantum entanglement.