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Scientific Report 2007-2009
History of Physics and Physics Education
History of Physics and Physics Education
Researches in history of physics have been pursued for a long time now in our department.
Beside the direct interest and active role of a figure like Edoardo Amaldi, it is at least since the
late seventies that a group of researchers has been engaged in the field as its main object of study.
In the last decade efforts have been concentrated on the development of Italian physics in late
19th and 20th centuries, revisiting in a new light topics that had been already discussed (mainly
through the protagonists recollections) and opening new vistas on subjects not yet explored by
historians. This is largely due to the circumstance that in past years we have done a great deal of
work locating, collecting, preserving and cataloguing a number of relevant sources, mainly personal
papers of physicists who played a significant role in Italian science (in Rome and elsewhere); so that
at the same time our department can easily claim to be the repository of the largest collection
of primary sources for the history of contemporary Italian physics, and a wealth of previously
unexplored documentation has been made available to researchers. These sources have been duly
used, and a stream of studies has come out as a result, giving a fresh impetus to the reprisal of
attention toward the history of modern physics in Italy (and its connections to the international
context and to close disciplines).
In the last years these studies have been concentrated along three main directions: the transition
from the early study of physics in the Papal university to the institutional development of physics
in Rome after 1870, through the work of the first director of the Physics Institute of the new
University built soon after the unification of the country, Pietro Blaserna [H1]; the role of Edoardo
Amaldi in the years of reconstruction following WWII, both as a scientific leader and institutional
organizer, and as an active researcher in cosmic ray and particle physics [H1]; and the early times
of space science in Italy, from the late fifties to the early seventies, where again institutional
themes are mixed with disciplinary developments, namely as a follow-up of the long standing
Italian tradition in cosmic ray physics [H2]. The last line of research was born out of a wider
international project, sponsored by ESA (European Space Agency), aimed at a full study of the
history of the European effort in space science, in which De Maria and collaborators have been
involved. Battimelli and Ianniello are presently working at bridging the gaps and linking their
respective works and time periods of interest to produce a full history of the development of the
physics school in Rome from the beginnings to the 1960s.
Research in physics education [H3] has for historical reasons a strong tie with studies in the
history of the discipline, since the two fields of research have always been joined in the same
disciplinary group for academic purposes. There is, however, more than just a formal reason
for their proximity: most of the problems discussed at the educational level have their roots
in foundational issues that can in turn be properly treated only if an historical perspective on
the subject is considered. Such is certainly the case for the research topic in which Tarsitani
is engaged: his present involvement in the pedagogical and conceptual problems raised by the
effective teaching of introductory quantum physics stems naturally from his previous interest in
the early history of quantum mechanics, and in the foundational problems connected to that
development. This research is conducted in close collaboration with other groups both in Italy
(Bologna and Udine) and abroad. It should be noted that, in spite of the large literature exisiting
on the teaching of classical physics and relativity, very scarce attention has been paid in the
field of physics education to the pedagogical problems poised by quantum mechanics; this line of
research thus looks so much more promising as it is a field relatively untouched up to very recent
times.
Giovanni Battimelli
Sapienza Università di Roma 171 Dipartimento di Fisica