TANFORD:BEN FRANKLIN STILLED THE WAVES:INFORM HIST POUR OIL WATE PAPER: An Informal History of Pouring Oil on Water with Reflections on the Ups and Downs of Scientific Life in General

by Charles Tanford

Benjamin Franklin was the first to report the phenomenon of oil's power to still troubled waters and to speculate on why it happened. A century later Lord Rayleigh performed an identical experiment. Irving Langmuir did it with minor variations in 1917, and won a Nobel Prize for it. Then Langmuir's work was followed by a Dutch pediatrician's in 1925. p Each experimenter saw a little more in the result than his predecessor had seen, and the sciences of physics, chemistry and biology have all been illuminated by the work. p Charles Tanford reflects on the evolving nature of science and of individual scientists. Recounting innovations in each trial, he follows the classic experiment from Franklin's drawing room to our present-day institutionalized scientific establishments and speculates on the ensuing changes in our approach to scientific inquiry.

Genres: Science

287 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1989

Reviews

[Rachael · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an enjoyable look into the development of the lipid bilayer model of cells through a very unexpected start. Tanford begins by discussing the scientific endeavors and personality of Ben Franklin through the lens of a particular experiment he did observing oil spread on water. He looks at many scientists from earlier and until the present day (at the time of his writing) including brief histories and personalities to understand their style and thinking. Along the way he presents some basic and important scientific ideas about atoms, molecules and their interactions.