Image and Logic: A Material Culture of Microphysics

by Peter Galison

"I want to get at the blown glass of the early cloud chambers and the oozing noodles of wet nuclear emulsion; to the resounding crack of a high-voltage spark arcing across a high-tension chamber and leaving the lab stinking of ozone; to the silent, darkened room, with row after row of scanners sliding trackballs across projected bubble-chamber images. Pictures and pulses—I want to know where they came from, how pictures and counts got to be the bottom-line data of physics." (from the preface)

Image and Logic is the most detailed engagement to date with the impact of modern technology on what it means to "do" physics and to be a physicist. At the beginning of this century, physics was usually done by a lone researcher who put together experimental apparatus on a benchtop. Now experiments frequently are larger than a city block, and experimental physicists live very different programming computers, working with industry, coordinating vast teams of scientists and engineers, and playing politics.

Peter L. Galison probes the material culture of experimental microphysics to reveal how the ever-increasing scale and complexity of apparatus have distanced physicists from the very science that drew them into experimenting, and have fragmented microphysics into different technical traditions much as apparatus have fragmented atoms to get at the fundamental building blocks of matter. At the same time, the necessity for teamwork in operating multimillion-dollar machines has created dynamic "trading zones," where instrument makers, theorists, and experimentalists meet, share knowledge, and coordinate the extraordinarily diverse pieces of the culture of modern work, machines, evidence, and argument.

Genres: Science, Physics, Philosophy, History Of Science, Nonfiction, History, Sociology

982 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1997

Reviews

[Kevin Orrman-Rossiter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Exploring 20th century physics of the microworld through the grubby lens of practice. The image and logic of the title refers to the dtectors that were developed over this period; the images from cloud and bubble chambers and the logic of counters and statistics - culminating the the combined image and logic detectors that now feature in current practice at facilities like CERN. Galison tells a compelling story of the intercalation of theory, experiment and instrument in physics. Most importantly presenting an image of science that gains its strength through this disorder of the scientific community. A monumental history and philosophy of science book, 4 stars as it not for a 'general' audience definitely one for the anyone interested or studying history and philosophy of science and for those science educated who want to think a little more deeply about science as it is. Galison writes well, researches deeply and thinks expansively - this book is well worth the effort to read.

[Edward Fenner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heavy and dense but really interesting. Curiously, Galison spends a lot of time with the Rad Lab at MIT but zero time with the High Voltage Lab.

[Marinho Lopes · Rating 4 out of 5]

O livro tem três componentes: História da Física de Partículas, um pouco da própria Física e ainda Filosofia da Ciência. O objectivo é a Filosofia, a qual é muito bem justificada com a História. Pareceu-me que a Física é como que o “bónus” que o autor não conseguiu conter no seu entusiasmo sobre os temas abordados. Digo isto, porque com a Física, o livro é algo pesado para a maioria dos leitores que não tenham formação na disciplina, o que implica que a mensagem filosófica possa não chegar a todos. Porém, para mim, tornou a leitura ainda mais agradável. Por outro lado, pode argumentar-se que para filosofar sobre ciência é inevitável o conhecimento sobre a mesma. Gostei muito de conhecer em detalhe a História da Física de Partículas do século XX. Também adquiri uma melhor compreensão sobre como o financiamento científico mudou ao longo do século, em grande parte impulsionado pela Segunda Guerra Mundial e pela Guerra Fria. Ao contrário de Kuhn e de Feyerabend, a posição filosófica de Peter Galison é bastante plausível, muito bem justificada e difícil de recusar (é também muito mais moderada e equilibrada). Gostei bastante deste livro.

[Yisu Z. · Rating 4 out of 5]

为了自己的研究读了第四章关于战后物理学的改变，六个案例，印象最深刻的是普林斯顿和MIT。共通之处是战争极大程度改变了大学和国家的关系，以及科学家自己看待实验室研究的态度。「大科学」的生成伴随着科学文化和组织结构的变化。写得相当好。