Does Physics History Matter? by Robert H
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HistoryN E W S L E T T E R of Physics A F O R U M O F T H E A M E R I C A N P H Y S I C A L S O C I E T Y • V O L U M E I X N O . 6 • S P R I N G 2 0 0 6 Report From The Chair Does Physics History Matter? by Robert H. Romer, Amherst College, Forum Chair Perhaps the title got your attention, so let me promptly explain leading experimental results. It might just help them to understand what I mean. Is it important that serious history of physics be that the fact that Darwinian or neo-Darwinian evolution does not included in the professional education of physicists? I think that explain every last detail of every living organism does not mean for many of us who belong to and support the APS history forum, that some other idea, untested or untestable, has an equal claim to even — or perhaps especially — for those like me who are not time in the science classroom, that the fact that none of us were professional historians of physics, it is almost an article of faith present at the big bang does not mean that the big bang is “just a that the answer to my question is an unqualified “yes.” I said as theory” with no successful explanations to its credit, that someone much myself several years ago, in my election statement when I else’s creation myth is just as deserving of our attention. Labora- was a candidate for the forum position I now occupy. But I won- tory experience, too, is important for those who are not en route der whether this is really true. My own formal education included to scientific careers. In their high school science labs they are not many of the usual tidbits of history (“Newton was born in the year going to “discover the law of conservation of momentum” (what that Galileo died.” “Einstein was – or was not – influenced by the a ridiculous idea!), but they will learn that real experiments deal Michelson-Morley experiment.”). But would I have been a better with real objects in the real world, that many experiments do not physicist if I had had a course or two in the history of physics? work, that equipment is often broken or dropped and that resistors Did Feynman’s time at MIT and Princeton expose him in a seri- burn out. So-called “simulated experiments” are not only oxymo- ous way to the fascinating history of our subject? Was he familiar rons but also, as I have written elsewhere, creations of the devil. with the “Bohr model”, with the trials and tribulations of the “Old When I was editor of the American Journal of Physics, I once Quantum Theory,” and if so, did it help (or perhaps hinder) him used that term in a letter to a would-be author, rejecting a paper on the way to his formulation of QED? because, I added, his simulation had nothing to do with physics. Now there is a very large group of people, those who will That letter did not make me a new friend. (Few rejection letters not become professional scientists, who definitely should be ex- do, and making friends is not part of an editor’s responsibility posed to enough of the history of science — preferably in their anyhow.) high school or introductory college courses — so that they will Those who go on to careers in science will learn all too soon understand that neither physics nor any other science is a finished that many if not most theoretical adventures are unsuccessful, that product, that there are numerous false starts, dead-ends, and mis- continued on page 2 INSIDE Report from the Chair 1 Forum Affairs 8 Candidate Bios and Statements 3 FHP Bylaws 7 Book Reviews 11 Other Items of Interest 15 Feynman and Schwinger — See page 19. Report from Associate Editor HistorN E W S L E T T E R y of Physics For the past three years, Ben Bederson impressive book that I was pleased to be The Forum on History of Physics of has done an exemplary job as Editor of the a part of. Ben has a soft but firm approach the American Physical Society pub- History of Physics Newsletter, the principal to editing, encouraging his authors along lishes this Newsletter semiannually. voice of our Forum, after assuming this but setting clear deadlines and making sure Nonmembers who wish to receive the extremely important post from our long- they respect them. Newsletter should make a donation to standing (and long-suffering?) Editor Bill His administrative skills really came the Forum of $5 per year (+ $3 addi- Evenson. All Forum members owe Ben through during the years he chaired the tional for airmail). Each 3-year volume a debt of gratitude for his service — not Forum’s Award Committee. We had diffi- consists of six issues. only in this role but also as Forum Chair cult goals to achieve and issues to resolve, Editor and also Chair of the committee that estab- and often disagreed on specifics, but Ben’s Benjamin Bederson lished the Pais Prize. I have been fortunate gentle guiding hand on the gavel kept us New York University to work with him as Associate Editor and working together well and focused on our Physics Department to serve as a member of that committee. objectives. We almost always reached a 4 Washington Place A few of Ben’s fine attributes are his consensus that all of us could enthusiasti- New York , NY 10003 organizational skills, his ability to keep cally support. The fact that we surpassed [email protected] projects or publications moving forward on our original goals and were able to estab- (212) 998 7695 schedule, and his talent for working well lish an APS Prize rather than an Award Associate Editor with a wide variety of often headstrong can be attributed in part to Ben’s steadying Michael Riordan scientists. No doubt he developed some leadership. Institute of Particle Physics of these attributes while serving as APS Forum Chair Robert Romer has asked University of California Editor in Chief, Editor of Physical Review me to step in and try to fill Ben’s shoes as Santa Cruz, CA 95064 [email protected] A and as Department Chair and Dean of Editor for the next three years, and — sub- (831) 459 5687 Graduate Studies at New York University. ject to approval of the Forum Executive The Forum has been the immediate ben- Committee when it meets in Dallas — I ERRATA eficiary of his editorial and administrative look forward to this opportunity. As Editor The book review “Obsessive Genius: The experience. and then Contributing Editor of the SLAC Inner World of Marie Curie” which appeared in the last Newsletter inadvertently reversed I first encountered Ben’s editorial side quarterly journal Beam Line, I have good the author and the reviewer. The author is when contributing an article to the volume experience working with physicist authors Barbara Goldsmith. The reviewer is Noemie More Things on Heaven and Earth: A and on articles about physics history. After Benczer Koller. We apologize to both reviewer Celebration of Physics at the Millennium, serving an apprenticeship with Ben as the and author for this error. There was an error in the book review “Ernest Rutherford: Father of a collection of articles on the history of Associate Editor of the Newsletter, I feel Nuclear Science.” The reviewer of the book was physics that he edited in 1999. Published ready to take on this responsibility. ■ the son of Catherine Westfall, not the author by the APS and Springer Verlag, it is an Naomi Pasachoff. by Michael Riordan Report from the Chair continued from page 1 data are almost always contaminated with field. And exposure to the subject will physicists who are successful but not so noise and experimental uncertainties, that enrich anyone’s life, as will exposure to much in the limelight and to ascertain not experiments fail as often as they succeed. Caravaggio and Shakespeare. so much the recollections they have in They do not need to take a course to learn But still I wonder whether history of their old age but to talk to them in mid- those lessons. physics is important in the professional career or earlier. Now, of course history of physics education of physicists, as physicists. There Several years ago, I would have is important and the question mark on may well be a literature on this topic that thought the question raised in my first the title of this brief essay should not be I am unaware of. The few studies I have paragraph had a simple answer. But the taken as implying anything else. It is an seen of the professional education of phys- privilege of serving as an officer of this important field of scholarship that should icists consisted largely of interviews with forum led me to wonder about this issue be pursued and supported, like so many quite distinguished scientists, generally late — though in no way has it diminished my others, from medieval history to biology in their careers when their memories of view of the importance of this group and and physics itself. Those of us who are the factors that influenced them are often of its activities. ■ physicists but who make no claim to be becoming unreliable with the passage of historians of physics are in a particularly time.