Consisting of separate cases organized by chapter and divided into independent sections, this is no ordinary history of science book. Between the Earth and the Heavens is an episodic history of modern physical sciences covering the chronological development of physics, chemistry and astronomy since about 1860. Integrating historical authenticity and modern scientific knowledge, the cases within deal with the often surprising connections between science done in the laboratory (physics, chemistry) and science based on observation (astronomy, cosmology).Between the Earth and the Heavens presupposes an interest in and a certain knowledge of the physical sciences, but it is written for non-specialists and includes only a limited number of equations which are all clearly explained in simple terms. For readers who wish to delve further, the book is fully documented and ends with a bibliography of cited quotations and other relevant sources.

The main focus of this book is on the interconnection of two unorthodox scientific ideas, the varying-gravity hypothesis and the expanding-earth hypothesis. As such, it provides a fascinating insight into a nearly forgotten chapter in both the history of cosmology and the history of the earth sciences. The hypothesis that the force of gravity decreases over cosmic time was first proposed by Paul Dirac in 1937. In this book the author examines in detail the historical development of Dirac's hypothesis and its consequences for the structure and history of the earth, the most important of which was that the earth must have been smaller in the past.

To all four of us, Carsten was the best possible friend and colleague. To Finn, he was a fellow student in the history of science for several years at the Niels Bohr Institute; to Relge, he was a welcome resource for personal and intellectual interac tion in an otherwise less than fertile environment for the history of science; Roger was Carsten's friend and advisor, not least in the development of the dissertation on which the present book is based; and as director of the Niels Bohr Archive, Erik was his main advisor in his historical work. Because he was the person closest to Carsten's work on his Ph. D. dissertation on the history of beta decay, on which the present book is based, it is only fitting that Erik stands as single author of the words in Carsten's memory at the very beginning of this book. Before his untimely death shortly after the completion of the Ph. D. disser tation, Carsten had himself plans to develop the dissertation into a book. Being a true perfectionist, he wanted to rework the manuscript substantively, especially with regard to relating it to the broader discussion among historians of science."

Modern chemistry, so alarming, so necessary, so ubiquitous, became a mature science in nineteenth-century Europe. As it developed, often from a lowly position in medicine or in industry, so chemists established themselves as professional men; but differently in different countries. In 1820 chemistry was an autonomous science of great prestige but chemists had no corporate identity. It was 1840 before national chemical societies were first formed; and many countries lagged fifty years behind. Chemists are the largest of scientific groups; and in this 1998 book we observe the social history of chemistry in fifteen countries, ranging from the British Isles to Lithuania and Greece. There are regularities and similarities; and by describing how national chemical professions emerged under particular economic and social circumstances, the book contributes significantly to European history of science.

The reception of the periodic system of elements has received little attention. Many historians have studied Mendeleev's discovery of the periodic system, but few have analyzed how the scientific community perceived and employed it. American historian of science Stephen G. Brush concluded that the periodic law had been generally accepted in the United States and Britain and suggested the need to extend this study to other countries. Early Responses to the Periodic System is the first collection of comparative studies on the reception, response, and appropriation of the periodic system of elements. This book examines the history of pedagogy and popularization in scientific communities, educational sectors, and popular culture from the 1870s to the 1920s. Fifteen historians of science explore eleven countries (and one region) central to chemical research, including Russia, Germany, the Czech lands, and Japan, one of the few nation-states outside the Western world to participate in nineteenth century scientific research. The collection, organized by nation-state, explores how local actors regarded the new discovery as law, classification, or theoretical interpretation. The section on France discusses how a small but significant group of authors, including Adolphe Wurtz and Edouard Grimaux, introduced the periodic system as support for the atomic theory-not as the final solution to the longstanding quest for a natural classification of elements. The chapter on Germany discusses the role of Lothar Meyer, also awarded The Davy Medal for the discovery of the periodic system. Meyer's role was considered less important, and he was forgotten in his home country, Germany where educational tradition was well established, and the periodic system was not used as a novel didactic approach. In addition to discussing the appropriation of the periodic system, the collection examines metaphysical reflections of nature based on the periodic system outside of chemistry and considers how far we can push the categories of "response " and "reception. "

The main focus of this book is on the interconnection of two unorthodox scientific ideas, the varying-gravity hypothesis and the expanding-earth hypothesis. As such, it provides a fascinating insight into a nearly forgotten chapter in both the history of cosmology and the history of the earth sciences. The hypothesis that the force of gravity decreases over cosmic time was first proposed by Paul Dirac in 1937. In this book the author examines in detail the historical development of Dirac's hypothesis and its consequences for the structure and history of the earth, the most important of which was that the earth must have been smaller in the past.

In 1920s, a long-lasting controversy on the interpretation of nuclear beta spectrum arose between Lise Meitner and Charles Drummond Ellis. This controversy, and the reactions from the contending parties when it was settled, reflect clearly the difference between the scientific communities in Berlin and Cambridge at that time. The Meitner-Ellis controversy ended in 1929, and it left an anomaly that attracted leading theoretical physicists. A new dispute, this time between Niels Bohr and Wolfgang Pauli, broke out. It concerned the explanation of the continuity of the primary beta particles and dominated the discussions for the next five years. Pauli argued for a new particle, and Bohr for a new theory; both suggestions were radical steps, but they reflected two different ways of doing physics.

Modern chemistry, so alarming, so necessary, so ubiquitous, became a mature science in nineteenth-century Europe. As it developed, often from a lowly position in medicine or in industry, so chemists established themselves as professional men; but differently in different countries. In 1820 chemistry was an autonomous science of great prestige but chemists had no corporate identity. It was 1840 before national chemical societies were first formed; and many countries lagged fifty years behind. Chemists are the largest of scientific groups; and in this 1998 book we observe the social history of chemistry in fifteen countries, ranging from the British Isles to Lithuania and Greece. There are regularities and similarities; and by describing how national chemical professions emerged under particular economic and social circumstances, the book contributes significantly to European history of science.

This first full-length biography of Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac offers a comprehensive account of his physics in its historical context, including less known areas such as cosmology and classical electron theory. It is based extensively on unpublished sources, including Dirac's correspondence with Bohr, Heisenberg, Pauli, Schrödinger, Gamow and others. Dirac was undoubtedly one of the most brilliant and influential physicists of the twentieth century. Between 1925 and 1934, the Nobel Prize laureate revolutionized physics with his brilliant contributions to quantum theory. This work examines Dirac's successes and failures, and pays particular attention to his opposition to modern quantum electrodynamics; an opposition based on aesthetic objections.

Niels Bohr’s atomic theory of 1913 is one of the absolute highlights in the history of modern science. It was only with this work that physicists realized that quantum theory is an essential ingredient in atomic physics, and it was also only with this work that Rutherford’s nuclear model dating from 1911 was transformed into a proper theory of atomic structure. In a longer perspective, Bohr’s quantum atom of 1913 gave rise to the later Heisenberg-Schrödinger quantum mechanics and all its marvellous consequences. This book is a detailed account of the origin of the Bohr atom centred around his original scientific articles of 1913 which are here reproduced and provided with the necessary historical background. In addition to the so-called trilogy – the three papers published in Philosophical Magazine – also two other and less well-known yet important papers are included. The present work starts with a condensed biographical account of Bohr’s life and scientific career, from his birth in Copenhagen in 1885 to his death in the same city 77 years later. It then proceeds with a chapter outlining earlier ideas of atomic structure and tracing Bohr’s route from his doctoral dissertation in 1911 over his stays in Cambridge and Manchester to the submission in April 1913 of the first part of the trilogy. The reproduction of Bohr’s five articles is followed by notes and comments directly related to the texts, with the aim of clarifying some of the textual passages and to explicate names and subjects that may not be clear or well known. The reception of Bohr’s radically new theory by contemporary physicists and chemists is discussed in a final chapter, which deals with the immediate reactions to Bohr's theory 1913-1915 mostly among British, German and American scientists. Historians of science have long been occupied with Bohr’s atomic theory, which was the subject of careful studies in connection with its centenary in 2013. The present work offers an extensive source-based account of the original theory aimed at a non-specialist audience with an interest in the history of physics and the origin of the quantum world. In 1922 Bohr was awarded the Nobel Prize for his theory. The coming centenary will undoubtedly cause an increased interest in how he arrived at his revolutionary picture of the constitution of atoms and molecules.

Throughout history, people have tried to construct 'theories of everything': highly ambitious attempts to understand nature in its totality. This account presents these theories in their historical contexts, from little-known hypotheses from the past to modern developments such as the theory of superstrings, the anthropic principle, and ideas of many universes, and uses them to problematize the limits of scientific knowledge. Do claims to theories of everything belong to science at all? Which are the epistemic standards on which an alleged scientific theory of the universe - or the multiverse - is to be judged? Such questions are currently being discussed by physicists and cosmologists, but rarely within a historical perspective. This book argues that these questions have a history and that knowledge of the historical development of 'higher speculations' may inform and qualify the current debate on the nature and limits of scientific explanation.

Niels Bohr and the Quantum Atom is the first book that focuses in detail on the birth and development of Bohr's atomic theory and gives a comprehensive picture of it. At the same time it offers new insight into Bohr's peculiar way of thinking, what Einstein once called his 'unique instinct and tact'. Contrary to most other accounts of the Bohr atom, the book presents it in a broader perspective which includes the reception among other scientists and the criticism launched against it by scientists of a more conservative inclination. Moreover, it discusses the theory as Bohr originally conceived it, namely, as an ambitious theory covering the structure of atoms as well as molecules. By discussing the theory in its entirety it becomes possible to understand why it developed as it did and thereby to use it as an example of the dynamics of scientific theories.

Throughout history, people have tried to construct 'theories of everything': highly ambitious attempts to understand nature in its totality. This account presents these theories in their historical contexts, from little known hypotheses from the past to modern developments such as the theory of superstrings, the anthropic principle and ideas of many universes, and uses them to problematize the limits of scientific knowledge. Do claims to theories of everything belong to science at all? Which are the epistemic standards on which an alleged scientific theory of the universe - or the multiverse - is to be judged?
Such questions are currently being discussed by physicists and cosmologists, but rarely within a historical perspective. This book argues that these questions have a history and that knowledge of the historical development of 'higher speculations' may inform and qualify the current debate of the nature and limits of scientific explanation.

Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac was undoubtedly one of the most brilliant and influential physicists of the twentieth century. Between 1925 and 1934, this Nobel Laureate revolutionized physics with his contributions to quantum theory. This book, the first full length biography of Dirac, offers a comprehensive account of his life and presents his physics in its historical context, including known areas such as cosmology and classical electron theory. The author examines Dirac's successes and failures, and pays particular attention to Dirac's opposition to modern quantum electrodynamics - an opposition based on aesthetic objections. This book, which draws extensively from unpublished sources, including Dirac's correspondence with Bohr, Heisenberg, Pauli, Schroedinger, Gamow, and other physicists, is a history of modern physics as seen through one scientist's career.

The story of superheavy elements  - those at the very end of the periodic table  - is not well known outside the community of heavy-ion physicists and nuclear chemists. But it is a most interesting story which deserves to be known also to historians, philosophers, and sociologists of science and indeed to the general public. This is what the present work aims at. It tells the story or rather parts of the story, of how physicists and chemists created elements heavier than uranium or searched for them in nature. And it does so with an emphasis on the frequent discovery and naming disputes concerning the synthesis of very heavy elements. Moreover, it calls attention to the criteria which scientists have adopted for what it means to have discovered a new element. In this branch of modern science it may be more appropriate to speak of creation instead of discovery. The work will be of interest to scientists as well as to scholars studying modern science from a meta-perspective.

At the end of the nineteenth century, some physicists believed that the basic principles underlying their subject were already known, and that physics in the future would only consist of filling in the details. They could hardly have been more wrong. The past century has seen the rise of quantum mechanics, relativity, cosmology, particle physics, and solid-state physics, among other fields. These subjects have fundamentally changed our understanding of space, time, and matter. They have also transformed daily life, inspiring a technological revolution that has included the development of radio, television, lasers, nuclear power, and computers. In "Quantum Generations," Helge Kragh, one of the world's leading historians of physics, presents a sweeping account of these extraordinary achievements of the past one hundred years.

The first comprehensive one-volume history of twentieth-century physics, the book takes us from the discovery of X rays in the mid-1890s to superstring theory in the 1990s. Unlike most previous histories of physics, written either from a scientific perspective or from a social and institutional perspective, "Quantum Generations" combines both approaches. Kragh writes about pure science with the expertise of a trained physicist, while keeping the content accessible to nonspecialists and paying careful attention to practical uses of science, ranging from compact disks to bombs. As a historian, Kragh skillfully outlines the social and economic contexts that have shaped the field in the twentieth century. He writes, for example, about the impact of the two world wars, the fate of physics under Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin, the role of military research, the emerging leadership of the United States, and the backlash against science that began in the 1960s. He also shows how the revolutionary discoveries of scientists ranging from Einstein, Planck, and Bohr to Stephen Hawking have been built on the great traditions of earlier centuries.

Combining a mastery of detail with a sure sense of the broad contours of historical change, Kragh has written a fitting tribute to the scientists who have played such a decisive role in the making of the modern world.

Scientific and popular literature on modern cosmology is very extensive; however, scholarly works on the historical development of cosmology are few and scattered. The Oxford Handbook of the History of Modern Cosmology offers a comprehensive and authoritative account of the history of cosmology from the late nineteenth century to the early twenty-first century. It provides historical background to what we know about the universe today, including not only the successes but also the many false starts. Big Bang theory features prominently, but so does the defunct steady state theory. The book starts with a chapter on the pre-Einstein period (1860-1910) and ends with chapters on modern developments such as inflation, dark energy and multiverse hypotheses. The chapters are organized chronologically, with some focusing on theory and others more on observations and technological advances. A few of the chapters discuss more general ideas, relating to larger contexts such as politics, economy, philosophy and world views.

How did our modern picture of the universe come into being? Masters of the Universe tells this fascinating story in an unusual format that blends factual and fictional elements. It is based on a series of interviews that a fictional person conducted with leading astronomers and physicists between 1913 and 1965. Among the interviewed scientists are giants such as Albert Einstein, Edwin Hubble, and George Gamow, but also scientists who are less well known today or not primarily known as cosmologists such as Karl Schwarzschild, Paul Dirac, and Svante Arrhenius. By following the interviews the reader gets a lively and "almost authentic" impression of the problems that faced this early generation of cosmologists. Although the interviews are purely fictional, a product of the author's imagination, they could have taken place in just the way that is described. They are solidly based on historical facts and, moreover, supplemented with careful annotations and references to the literature. In this way the book bridges the gap between scholarly and popular history of science.