Treccani History of Science
The second Scientific Revolution
I6 – Physics and chemistry
Part A - Culmination of European science, 1870-1920
Edited by John L. Heilbron
Physical science around 1900
• 1. The world
• 2. The profession
• 3. The discipline
• 4. The borderlands and the microworld
Institutional innovation
• 1. Technical institutes
• 2. Industrial laboratories
• 3. Independent research institutes
• 4. National laboratories
Atoms, molecules and ions
• 1. Physical and chemical atomism
• 2. A new deal
• 3. The inner and outer atom
Grand syntheses
• 1. Chemistry: a science of synthesis
• 2. Intellectual syntheses
• 3. Reduced and service science?
The optics and the electrodynamics of moving bodies
• 1. The motion of the ether
• 2. The stellar aberration and the immobile ether
• 3. The Fresnel coefficient: the formula and its physical interpretation
• 4. Deciding between Stokes and Fresnel: the experiments of Michelson and Morley
• 5. Maxwellian electrodynamics and the relation between ether and matter
• 6. Lorentz's immobile ether theory: the theorem of corresponding states and the contraction hypothesis
Special relativity
• 1. The physical problem
• 2. Poincaré's approach
• 3. The special theory of relativity
• 4. The length contraction and the time dilation
• 5. The derivations of the mass-energy equivalence
• 6. The article for <em>Jahrbuch</em> of 1907
Relativity and gravitation
• 1. Problems of Newtonian gravitation
• 2. The path to general relativity
• 3. The successes of general relativity
Ray physics and chemistry
• 1. Cathode and other rays
• 2. X rays and radioactivity
• 3. Closer looks
Radiation and the quantum
• 1. The quantum of action
• 2. Quantum discontinuity
• 3. The two trends of quantum physics
• 4. Elaborations of Bohr's theory
Atomic structure
• 1. An almost fresh subject
• 2. Tentative structures
• 3. Radioactivity and the elements
• 4. Quantizing the atom
Cryogenics, superconductivity and superfluidity
• 1. Cryogenics
• 2. Superconductivity and superfluidity
Synthetic chemicals from coal-tar and coal
• 1. Dyestuffs
• 2. Other techniques, diversification and spinoffs
• 3. Science and industry
Communication technologies
• 1. Telegraphy and early telephony
• 2. Theory without technology
• 3. The loaded cable
• 4. The marvellous vacuum tube
The chemists' war: 1914-1918
• 1. Mobilization
• 2. Explosives
• 3. Raw materials, intermediates and other products
• 4. Gas and chemical warfare agents
The physicists' war
• 1. To and from the battlefield
• 2. With the artillery
• 3. Elsewhere