Abstracts of the History of Science Society 2004 Austin Meeting 18 ...

Schottky at Siemens & Hauske in Berlin argued that the discrete nature of electrons results in disruptive fluctuations”shot noise”at tube
current. In 1925, John B. Johnson and Harry Nyquist at the Bell Telephone Laboratories also suggested that the current passing a resistor
exhibits fluctuations “thermal noise”-due to electrons’ random thermal motions, and tube noise is largely thermal noise of tube’s
input resistance. Based on statistical-mechanical reasoning, the shot-noise and the thermal-noise theories predicted relationships
between noise intensity and fundamental constants such as electron’s charge or Boltzmann’s constant, which became the objects of
experimental verification. General Electric researchers Albert Hull and N. W. Williams’s determination of charge of electron from measuring
shot noise and Johnson’s determination of Boltzmann’s constant from measuring thermal noise offered major empirical evidence
for noise’s physical theories. By the 1930s, radio engineers used such theories to reduce and to characterize vacuum tubes’ noise levels,
and to predict the ultimate limit of electronic devices’ performances. The statistical treatments of noise in these endeavors would lead
to Claude Shannon’s information theory in the 1940s that revolutionized modern communication technology. The history of noise
therefore sheds light on how modern science and engineering extract useful information from uncertainties and disturbances while controlling
their detrimental effects.
Charles N Yood, Lyman Briggs School of Science, Michigan State University (cny1@psu.edu)
Friday, 19-Nov-04, 3:30 - 5:30 PM - Hill Country C
Building Big Iron: Applied Mathematics, “Hybrid Areas”
and the Social Organization of Computational Science at Argonne National Laboratory, 1949-1970
From 1949-1970, the work and organization of Argonne’s Applied Mathematics Division contributed significantly to the emergence of
“computational science” in the late 1980s as a distinct methodological approach to the investigation of physical and biological phenomena
(alongside theory and experiment). While the advancement of digital computer technology is a significant part of this story, possibly
more important was the AMD’s efforts to integrate computers and their attendant personnel into the scientific process. Early on,
the directors of the AMD envisioned a new role for applied mathematicians vis-à-vis scientists and engineers in the development of
mathematical models suitable for digital computers. In particular, the pursuit of “computational science” required that applied mathematicians
be incorporated more directly in all stages of science and engineering practices from problem formulation to the definition
of what constituted a solution. Arguments in favor of such a collaborative structure drew on Cold War rhetoric, debates within the
mathematical profession, and issues surrounding the increasing quantification of the sciences. While computers (and the need for
sophisticated, yet efficient mathematical models) allowed applied mathematicians to contend for such a position, it was also necessary
for applied mathematicians to stake out a new research agenda that balanced their service requirement to scientists and engineers with
the necessity to conduct research in the foundations of mathematics.
Chris Young, Alverno College (chris.young@alverno.edu)
Friday, 19-Nov-04, 9:00 - 11:45 AM - Texas Ballroom VII
Status and Agenda in Wildlife Preservation: William T. Hornaday as Zoologist and Activist
William T. Hornaday led wildlife conservation efforts in the late 19th century. His training in zoology provided a basis for setting national
agendas at a time when conservation was only an emerging concern. Being in the mainstream of biological science a the turn of the
century and particularly having interests in conservation of wildlife, Hornaday also demonstrated consistent support for eugenic notions
of human groups and the importance of preserving favored groups over others. The consistency of this agenda raises challenging questions
about broader connections between conservation of wildlife and eugenics, which historians of science have only begun to explore.
In this paper, I am especially interested in how Hornaday’s status as a leader in conservation provided greater status to his eugenic views,
whether the reverse association was more significant, or whether the connection can even be demonstrated as significant to either
approach. Finally, I am exploring what legacy of eugenics, if any, carries forward in conservation efforts to the middle of the twentieth
century, by which time Aldo Leopold ranked as a leading voice.
Jeris Stueland Yruma, Princeton University (stueland@princeton.edu)
Friday, 19-Nov-04, 1:30 - 3:10 PM - Hill Country D
How Experiments are Remembered: Discovery, Discipline, and the Birth of Fission
The story of fission begins with facts: in December of 1938, in Berlin, Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann demonstrated chemically that
some of the uranium atoms they had bombarded with neutrons had split into various elements, including barium. Hahn and
Strassmann’s colleague, Lise Meitnerin Sweden having recently fled Nazi Germany and her nephew Otto Frisch then offered a physical
explanation for the process and Frisch christened it “nuclear fission.” From here, though, the story is contested. Otto Hahn alone was
awarded the Nobel Prize for the discovery. He would later argue that until her flight, Lise Meitner’s physical mindset had prevented him
from realizing that fission was taking place in their experiments. Historians in turn have argued the presentation of fission as a chemical
discovery facilitated physicist Meitner’s being written out of the story. An examination of newspaper and journal articles on fission,
however, suggests that the presentation of fission as a chemical discovery necessitates the presentation of its physical explanation as
well. When Hahn is called a “chemist,” Meitner as physicist is mentioned. When Hahn is termed a “scientist,” he, or he and Strassmann
alone are discussed.