Gerald Holton – författare

In a unique effort, this book brings together, for the first time, scholarly analyses by eminent researchers of the historical, social, legal, and cultural influences on the young newcomers' lives as well as reports by practitioners in major aid organizations about the concrete work that their organizations have been carrying out.

This book, a companion to the textbook, Understanding Physics, is your guide to observations and explorations in the world of physics. Prepare for ch- lenging work, fun, and some surprises. One of the best ways to learn physics is by doing physics, in the laboratory and everywhere. One cannot rely on reading and class work alone. The explorations in this book are your - portunity to gain some actual, hands-on experience with physics. Many of these explorations will assist you to design your own experiments and to discover many of the important ideas of science yourself. As you will see from the Contents, this Student Guide provides a variety of potentially helpful materials. Following the Introduction is a review of units, mathematics, and scientific notation, and a list of suggested further reading and Web Sites. However, a large portion of the Student Guide c- tains further materials relating to many of the textbook chapters, as well as to laboratory explorations. In the section containing “Further Chapter - terials” you will find elaborations on topics in many of the chapters, as well as derivations of important equations. A complete list of the suggested mi- and major-laboratory explorations is also given in the Contents. Each - ploration is keyed to specific portions of the textbook, and lists are also provided of the explorations pertaining to each part of the text.

Understanding Physics is a completely revised, updated, and expanded e- tion of the Project Physics Course. It is an integrated introductory physics course, developed with funding from the Carnegie Corporation and the Sloan Foundation and with the close cooperation of Springer-Verlag New York. In approach and content, Understanding Physics follows the trail blazed by the earlier versions, but it includes more recent developments in physics and a stronger emphasis on the relationships among physics, technology, and society. We have sought especially to incorporate the salient lessons of recent physics education research and practical experience gained in the classroom. The Audience Understanding Physics is written primarily for undergraduate college s- dents not intending (at least initially) to enter careers in science or en- neering. These may include liberal-arts students, business majors, prelegal, and prospective architecture students. We have found that when the course is taken with laboratory work, it has been deemed suitable by medical schools for premedical students.

This book, a companion to the textbook, Understanding Physics, is your guide to observations and explorations in the world of physics. Prepare for ch- lenging work, fun, and some surprises. One of the best ways to learn physics is by doing physics, in the laboratory and everywhere. One cannot rely on reading and class work alone. The explorations in this book are your - portunity to gain some actual, hands-on experience with physics. Many of these explorations will assist you to design your own experiments and to discover many of the important ideas of science yourself. As you will see from the Contents, this Student Guide provides a variety of potentially helpful materials. Following the Introduction is a review of units, mathematics, and scientific notation, and a list of suggested further reading and Web Sites. However, a large portion of the Student Guide c- tains further materials relating to many of the textbook chapters, as well as to laboratory explorations. In the section containing “Further Chapter - terials” you will find elaborations on topics in many of the chapters, as well as derivations of important equations. A complete list of the suggested mi- and major-laboratory explorations is also given in the Contents. Each - ploration is keyed to specific portions of the textbook, and lists are also provided of the explorations pertaining to each part of the text.

Understanding Physics provides a thorough grounding in contemporary physics while placing physics into its social and historical context. Based in large part on the highly respected Project Physics Course developed by two of the authors, it also integrates the results of recent pedagogical research. The text thus: - teaches about the basic phenomena in the physical world and the concepts developed to explain them - shows that science is a rational human endeavor with a long and continuing tradition, involving many different cultures and people - develops facility in critical thinking, reasoned argumentation, evaluation of evidence, mathematical modeling, and ethical values The treatment emphasizes not only what we know but also how we know it, why we believe it, and what effects that knowledge has: - Why do we believe the Earth and planets revolve around the Sun? - Why do we believe that matter is made of atoms? - How do relativity theory and quantum mechanics alter our conception of Nature and in what ways do they leave the classical concepts unchanged? - What impact does the knowledge of finite energy resources have on our society? - How have applications of fundamental science (such as the steam engine, the laser, the electric generator, the transistor) affected our lives? - How does the evidence for non-scientific ideas, such as UFOs, ESP, and the like, differ from the evidence for accepted scientific results?

“[The] book makes a wonderfully cohesive whole. It is rich in ideas, elegantly expressed. I highly recommend it to any serious student of science and culture.”—Lucy Horwitz, Boston Book Review“An important and lasting contribution to a more profound understanding of the place of science in our culture.”—Hans C. von Baeyer, Boston Sunday Globe“[Holton’s] themes are central to an understanding of the nature of science, and Holton does an excellent job of identifying and explaining key features of the scientific enterprise, both in the historical sense and in modern science…I know of no better informed scientist who has studied the nature of science for half a century.”—Ron Good, Science and EducationThrough his rich exploration of Einstein’s thought, Gerald Holton shows how the best science depends on great intuitive leaps of imagination, and how science is indeed the creative expression of the traditions of Western civilization.

How did Albert Einstein's ideas shape the imaginations of twentieth-century artists and writers? Are there national differences between styles of scientific research? By what mechanisms is progress in science achieved despite the enormous diversity of individual, often conflicting, efforts?These are just a few of the questions posed in The Advancement of Science, and Its Burdens. Gerald Holton, one of the century's leading historians of science, continues his analysis of how modern science works and how it influences our world, with particular emphasis on the role of the thematic elements--those often unconscious presuppositions that guide scientific work to success or failure. Many of the conclusions emerge from the author's extensive study of the contributions of Albert Einstein. Indeed, Holton's new introduction for this edition, "Einstein and the Cultural Roots of Modern Science," demonstrates that Einstein's daring main pursuit, the discovery of unity among seemingly disparate aspects of physics, was psychologically supported by a surprising ally: the high literary works in which he immersed himself, above all Goethe's. This case study alone may well be a classic example for studying the interaction of science and culture.

Never has the power of scientific research to solve existing problems and uncover new ones been more evident than it is today. Yet there exists widespread ignorance about the larger contexts within which scientific research is carried out. For example, the point of view some scientists adopt in their work or in their social commitments may become clearer if considered in light of the opposing views held by other scientists.This is a theme Gerald Holton addresses in his new collection. Whether considering conflicts between Heisenberg and Einstein, Bohr and Einstein, or P. W. Bridgman and B. F. Skinner; tracing I. I. Rabi's shift of attention from superb science to education and scientific statesmanship; or examining the emergence, in the last few decades, of the need to connect scientific research to societal needs--in each case, Holton demonstrates a masterly understanding of modern science and how it influences our world.The author shows why, at any given time--even in the mature phase of science--there exists no single "paradigm," but rather a spectrum of competing perspectives; and why so much good science has been based, from antiquity to today, on a relatively small number of presuppositions.

What is good science? What goal--if any--is the proper end of scientific activity? Is there a legitimating authority that scientists mayclaim? Howserious athreat are the anti-science movements? These questions have long been debated but, as Gerald Holton points out, every era must offer its own responses. This book examines these questions not in the abstract but shows their historic roots and the answers emerging from the scientific and political controversies of this century.Employing the case-study method and the concept of scientific thematathat he has pioneered, Holton displays the broad scope of his insight into the workings of science: from the influence of Ernst Mach on twentiethcentury physicists, biologists, psychologists, and other thinkers to the rhetorical strategies used in the work of Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, and others; from the bickering between Thomas Jefferson and the U.S. Congress over the proper form of federal sponsorship of scientific research to philosophical debates since Oswald Spengier over whether our scientific knowledge will ever be "complete." In a masterful final chapter, Holton scrutinizes the "anti-science phenomenon," the increasingly common opposition to science as practiced today. He approaches this contentious issue by examining the world views and political ambitions of the proponents of science as well as those of its opponents-the critics of "establishment science" (including even those who fear that science threatens to overwhelm the individual in the postmodern world) and the adherents of "alternative science" (Creationists, New Age "healers," astrologers). Through it all runs the thread of the author's deep historical knowledge and his humanistic understanding of science in modern culture.Science and Anti-Science will be of great interest not only to scientists and scholars in the field of science studies but also to educators, policymalcers, and all those who wish to gain a fuller understanding of challenges to and doubts about the role of science in our lives today.

New scientific ideas are subjected to an extensive process of evaluation and validation by the scientific community. Until the early 1980s, this process of validation was thought to be governed by objective criteria, whereas the process by which individual scientists gave birth to new scientific ideas was regarded as inaccessible to rational study. In this book Gerald Holton takes an opposing view, illuminating the ways in which the imagination of the scientist functions early in the formation of a new insight or theory. In certain crucial instances, a scientist adopts an explicit or implicit presupposition, or thema, that guides his work to success or failure and helps determine whether the new idea will draw acclaim or controversy. Using firsthand accounts gleaned from notebooks, interviews, and correspondence of such twentieth-century scientists as Einstein, Fermi, and Millikan, Holton shows how the idea of the scientific imagination has practical implications for the history and philosophy of science and the larger understanding of the place of science in our culture. The new introduction, "How a Scientific Discovery Is Made: The Case of High-Temperature Superconductivity," reveals the scientific imagination at work in current science, by disclosing the role of personal motivations that are usually hidden from scientific publications, and the lessons of the case for science policy today.

The highly acclaimed first edition of this major work convincingly established Gerald Holton’s analysis of the ways scientific ideas evolve. His concept of “themata,” induced from case studies with special attention to the work of Einstein, has become one of the chief tools for understanding scientific progress. It is now one of the main approaches in the study of the initiation and acceptance of individual scientific insights.Three principal consequences of this perspective extend beyond the study of the history of science itself. It provides philosophers of science with the kind of raw material on which some of the best work in their field is based. It helps intellectual historians to redefine the place of modern science in contemporary culture by identifying influences on the scientific imagination. And it prompts educators to reexamine the conventional concepts of education in science.In this new edition, Holton has masterfully reshaped the contents and widened the coverage. Significant new material has been added, including a penetrating account of the advent of quantum physics in the United States, and a broad consideration of the integrity of science, as exemplified in the work of Niels Bohr. In addition, a revised introduction and a new postscript provide an updated perspective on the role of themata. The result of this thoroughgoing revision is an indispensable volume for scholars and students of scientific thought and intellectual history.

More than fifty years after his death, Albert Einstein's vital engagement with the world continues to inspire others, spurring conversations, projects, and research, in the sciences as well as the humanities. Einstein for the 21st Century shows us why he remains a figure of fascination. In this wide-ranging collection, eminent artists, historians, scientists, and social scientists describe Einstein's influence on their work, and consider his relevance for the future. Scientists discuss how Einstein's vision continues to motivate them, whether in their quest for a fundamental description of nature or in their investigations in chaos theory; art scholars and artists explore his ties to modern aesthetics; a music historian probes Einstein's musical tastes and relates them to his outlook in science; historians explore the interconnections between Einstein's politics, physics, and philosophy; and other contributors examine his impact on the innovations of our time. Uniquely cross-disciplinary, Einstein for the 21st Century serves as a testament to his legacy and speaks to everyone with an interest in his work. The contributors are Leon Botstein, Lorraine Daston, E. L.Doctorow, Yehuda Elkana, Yaron Ezrahi, Michael L. Friedman, Jurg Frohlich, Peter L. Galison, David Gross, Hanoch Gutfreund, Linda D. Henderson, Dudley Herschbach, Gerald Holton, Caroline Jones, Susan Neiman, Lisa Randall, Jurgen Renn, Matthew Ritchie, Silvan S. Schweber, and A. Douglas Stone.

Based on papers presented at the Jerusalem Einstein Centennial Symposium in March 1979, this volume sets forth an articulated sequence of chapters on the impact of Einstein's work, not only in science but in humanistic studies and problems such as international security in the nuclear age. Originally published in 1982. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Based on papers presented at the Jerusalem Einstein Centennial Symposium in March 1979, this volume sets forth an articulated sequence of chapters on the impact of Einstein's work, not only in science but in humanistic studies and problems such as international security in the nuclear age. Originally published in 1982. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Understanding Physics provides a thorough grounding in contemporary physics while placing physics into its social and historical context. Based in large part on the highly respected Project Physics Course developed by two of the authors, it also integrates the results of recent pedagogical research. The text thus: - teaches about the basic phenomena in the physical world and the concepts developed to explain them - shows that science is a rational human endeavor with a long and continuing tradition, involving many different cultures and people - develops facility in critical thinking, reasoned argumentation, evaluation of evidence, mathematical modeling, and ethical values The treatment emphasizes not only what we know but also how we know it, why we believe it, and what effects that knowledge has: - Why do we believe the Earth and planets revolve around the Sun? - Why do we believe that matter is made of atoms? - How do relativity theory and quantum mechanics alter our conception of Nature and in what ways do they leave the classical concepts unchanged? - What impact does the knowledge of finite energy resources have on our society? - How have applications of fundamental science (such as the steam engine, the laser, the electric generator, the transistor) affected our lives? - How does the evidence for non-scientific ideas, such as UFOs, ESP, and the like, differ from the evidence for accepted scientific results?

Woran erkennt man "gute Wissenschaft"? Was ist Ziel und Zweck wissenschaftlicher Tätigkeit? Gerald Holton analysiert anhand konkreter historischer Fälle die lange konfliktreiche Beziehung zwischen wissenschaftlicher Weltsicht und ihren anti-wissenschaftlichen Kritikern."Gerald Holtons Buch ist eine außergewöhnlich durchdachte, herausfordernde und kenntnisreiche Studie für jeden, der sich mit der Zukunft der Wissenschaften befaßt." (John Ziman in Nature)