Continuity and Discontinuity in the
Physical Sciences Since the Enlightenment:

A Conference for Graduate Students and Early-Career Scholars

Thursday, July 28 – Sunday, July 31, 2011
American Institute of Physics, College Park, MD

Conference Program

Jump to: Wednesday, July 27 | Thursday, July 28 | Friday, July 29 | Saturday, July 30 | Sunday, July 31

Wednesday, July 27
Varies	Arrival at hotel Hilton Garden Inn at 7810 Walker Drive, Greenbelt MD (phone 240-542-2530).
6:00pm	Informal gathering with Dr. Greg Good at hotel pub/restaurant "The American Grill."

Thursday, July 28
7:45 – 8:45am	Breakfast at the Hilton Garden Inn / shuttle service to AIP
8:45 – 9:00am	Registration
9:00 – 9:10am	Official welcome
SESSION 1: KEYNOTE 1 Chair: Amy Fisher, Center for History of Physics, American Institute of Physics
9:10 – 10:25am	Jaume Navarro, Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte and University of Cambridge William Whewell in Action: Continuity and Discontinuity in the British Physical Sciences
10:25 – 10:40am	Coffee and tea break
SESSION 2: INSTRUMENTATION Chair: Joseph D. Martin, University of Minnesota
10:40 – 11:10am	Sebastian Korff, University of Flensburg Walter Mueller's Role in the Development of the Geiger-Mueller Counter
11:10 – 11:40am	Adriana Minor García, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México Scientific Instruments in Transit: The Acquisition of a Van de Graaff for Mexico during the Postwar
11:40 – 12:10pm	Mari Yamaguchi, University of Tokyo From a Tool to an Icon: The Ball Model and the Field Ion Micrograph
12:10 – 12:35pm	Discussion (Commentator: Dieter Hoffmann, Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte)
12:35 – 1:20pm	Lunch
SESSION 3: INTERPRETING MEASUREMENTS Chair: Fábio Freitas, Universidade Federal da Bahia
1:20 – 1:50pm	Roberto Lalli, Università degli Studi di Milano and Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Relation Between the Reception of Relativity and Ether-drift Experiments in the '20s
1:50 – 2:20pm	Frederik Moreira dos Santos, Universidade Federal da Bahia A Forgotten Debate: E. P. Wigner and H. Margenau versus H. Putnam on Quantum Mechanics Measurement Problem
2:20 – 2:35pm	Coffee and tea break
2:35 – 3:05pm	Thiago Hartz, Universidade Federal da Bahia A Controversy about the Quantization of Gravity and the Quantum Measurement Process (1962–1965)
3:05 – 3:35pm	Lisa Crystal, Harvard University Atomic Times: Clockmaking in the Postwar Era
3:35 – 4:00pm	Discussion (Commentator: Richard Staley, University of Wisconsin-Madison)
4:00 – 5:00pm	Tour of the Niels Bohr Library & Archives and Emilio Segrè Visual Archives
5:00 – 6:30pm	BBQ / Welcome reception

Friday, July 29
8:30am – 9:30am	Breakfast at the Hilton Garden Inn / shuttle service to AIP
SESSION 4: DEFINING DISCIPLINES Chair: Pierre Teissier, Centre François Viète, Université de Nantes
9:30 – 10:00am	Climério Silva Neto, Universidade Federal da Bahia Introducing Discontinuity in Optics: Consolidating Quantum Optics through Textbooks
10:00 – 10:30am	Adrien Vila Valls, Université de Lyon Louis de Broglie and the Reception of Quantum Mechanics in France
10:30 – 10:45am	Coffee and tea break
10:45 – 11:15am	Josep Simon, Institut de Recherches Philosophiques, Université Paris Ouest Rupture and Nurture: Textbook Science and the 'Invention' of Physics
11:15 – 11:45am	Imogen Clarke, University of Manchester A 'Conservative Attitude'? Continuity, Discontinuity and the Contested Rise of 'Modern Physics'
11:45 – 12:10pm	Discussion (Commentator: Alexei Kojevnikov, University of British Columbia)
12:15 – 1:00pm	Lunch
SESSION 5: STATISTICAL MECHANICS Chair: Alex Wellerstein, Center for History of Physics, American Institute of Physics
1:00 – 1:30pm	David R. Crawford, Duke University / University of Pittsburgh Boltzmann and Fisher: the Role of Statistical Mechanical Theory in the Development of Mathematical Population Genetics
1:30 – 2:00pm	Hajime Inaba, Kyoto University Statistical Mechanics and its Scope in the 19th century
2:00 – 2:30pm	Massimiliano Badino, Max Planck Institute für Wissenschaftsgeschichte / Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society How Theories Begin: Max Planck and the Genesis of Quantum Theory
2:30 – 2:55pm	Discussion (Commentator: Michel Janssen, University of Minnesota)
2:55 – 3:10pm	Coffee and tea break
SESSION 6: EARTH AND SPACE SCIENCES Chair: Ann E. Robinson, University of Massachusetts Amherst
3:10 – 3:40pm	Anna Carlsson-Hyslop, University of Manchester Continuity and Discontinuity in British Storm Surge Science, 1919–1959
3:40 – 4:10pm	Thorleif A. Kristiansen, University of Oslo Disseminating Knowledge from the Center to the Periphery: Lars Vegard and the Development of Norwegian Auroral Research
4:10 – 4:40pm	Roger Turner, Rochester Institute of Technology Infrastructural Science: A New Perspective on Practice and the Development of Theory in the Physical Sciences
4:40 – 5:10pm	Discussion (Commentator: Roger Launius, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution)
5:30 – 6:45pm	Reception for conference attendees and History Center public
6:45pm –	Science Heritage Public Lecture Chair: Greg Good, Center for History of Physics, American Institute of Physics How the Cold War Changed the Smithsonian's Astrophysical Observatory By David H. DeVorkin Senior Curator of History of Astronomy and the Space Sciences National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution

Saturday, July 30
8:00 – 9:00am	Breakfast at the Hilton Garden Inn / shuttle service to AIP
SESSION 7: CONCEPTUALIZING MATTER AND ENERGY Chair: Christian Joas, Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte
9:00 – 9:30am	Axel Petit, Centre François Viète, Université de Nantes The Coming of Ions in the Nineteenth Century: Discrete or Continuous Charges
9:30 – 10:00am	Marta Jordi Taltavull, Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte On the Border Between Light and Matter: Continuity and Discontinuity in the Development of Optical Dispersion
10:00 – 10:30am	Indianara Lima Silva, Universidade Federal da Bahia and Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Vicissitudes of the Concept of Photon in the Twentieth Century
10:30 – 10:45am	Coffee and tea break
10:45 – 11:15am	Thomas Pashby, University of Pittsburgh Predicting the Positron: Theory, Interactions and Arguments
11:15 – 11:45am	Alexander Blum, Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte Vacuum Polarization – A Case Study of an Infinite Quantity in Early Quantum Field Theory
11:45 – 12:10pm	Discussion (Commentator: Christoph Lehner, Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte)
12:10 – 1:00pm	Lunch
SESSION 8: KEYNOTE 2 Chair: Amy Fisher, Center for History of Physics, American Institute of Physics
1:00 – 2:15pm	Michel Janssen, Program in the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine, University of Minnesota Arcs and Scaffoldings in the Construction of Relativity and Quantum Theory
2:15 – 2:30pm	Coffee and tea break
SESSION 9: APPLYING TECHNIQUE IN THEORY AND EXPERIMENT Chair: Joseph D. Martin, University of Minnesota
2:30 – 3:00pm	Charles Midwinter, University of Minnesota Continuity in Technique: Perturbation Theory in the Old Quantum Theory and Matrix Mechanics
3:00 – 3:30pm	Martin Jaehnert, Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte From Continuity to Discontinuity: The Correspondence Principle and the Transformation of Mechanics
3:30 – 4:00pm	Vivien Hamilton, Harvey Mudd College "Incongruent Bedfellows": Physics and Medicine in Early 20th Century X-ray Therapy
4:00 – 4:30pm	Silke Fengler, University of Vienna "…how the right technique emerged at the right time" – A History of the Photographical Method During the Cold War
4:30 – 4:55pm	Discussion (Commentator: Joan Bromberg, Johns Hopkins University)
5:00pm –	Dinner (sign-up sheets provided) or baseball game (Nationals vs. Mets)

Sunday, July 31
8:00 – 9:00am	Breakfast at the Hilton Garden Inn Hotel
SESSION 10: ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION Chair: Greg Good, Center for History of Physics, American Institute of Physics
9:00 – 11:00am	Whither the History of the Physical Sciences? (All conference participants welcome) Greg Good, Amy Fisher, Alex Wellerstein (AIP); Christian Joas (MPIWG); Joseph D. Martin (U. Minnesota)
11:00am	Conference adjourns. Have a safe journey home!

Continuity and Discontinuity in thePhysical Sciences Since the Enlightenment:

A Conference for Graduate Students and Early-Career Scholars

Continuity and Discontinuity in the
Physical Sciences Since the Enlightenment: