History Newsletter CENTER FOR HISTORY OF PHYSICS&NIELS BOHR LIBRARY & ARCHIVES Vol. 46, No. 2 • Fall 2014 The History Programs Publish Physics Entrepreneurship and Innovation By R. Joseph Anderson, Director, Niels Bohr Library & Archives We completed our most recent study PhD physicists and other professionals energy sources, and laser sensors and of physicists working in the private who co-founded and work at some 91 communications, along with a variety of sector at the end of 2013, and the startup companies in 14 states that were new manufacturing tools. final report, Physics Entrepreneurship established in the last few decades. and Innovation, is now available The four-year study is focused on both in print and online. While the investigating the structure and physicists in the study don’t fit the dynamics of physics entrepreneurship conventional model of hard-driving, and understanding some of the risk taking entrepreneurs, physics- factors that lead to the success or based entrepreneurship plays a vital failure of new startups, including role in innovation and the ongoing funding, technology transfer, location, transformation of American industry business models, and marketing. We in just about every business sector. have also considered ways that the companies can work with private For much of the 20th century, and public archives to preserve technological innovations that drove historically valuable records so that U.S. economic growth emerged from future researchers can understand "idea factories" housed within large today’s technology and economy. Our companies—research units like Bell findings include: Labs or Xerox PARC that developed everything from the transistor to • No national standard of entrepre- the computer mouse. In recent neurship and innovation exists, decades, however, many large high- despite efforts to create regional tech companies have eliminated clusters modeled on the successes or downsized in-house research of the Silicon Valley and the greater Boston area. programs, turning instead to startup The physics that is being done by • Startups in the study can be broadly companies as their primary source of the companies in the study offer the divided into two business models breakthrough innovations. potential for major breakthroughs and new technologies in areas as diverse as that we call “market-pull” and Physics Entrepreneurship and Innovation medical devices, superfast and nano “technology-push.” Market-pull is based on extensive interviews with 140 transistors, optical switching , alternative (Continued on page 2) In this issue... The History Programs Publish Physics Entrepreneurship and Innovation ............................... 1 Love, Literature, and the Quantum Atom ..................................13 Paul Forman Book Digitization Project ....................................... 2 New Valentine Telegdi Photo Collection ...................................13 On the Road with Heisenberg ................................................. 3 Grants-in-Aid Support Scholarly Endeavors ................................14 Found in the Stacks: “Facts About the Automobile” ...................... 4 New Minority Book Titles ......................................................15 The Bohrs: Physics Runs in the Family ....................................... 5 Physics Heritage & Promise: Special Initiatives Campaign .............17 Feynman’s Hughes Lecture Notes Now Online ............................ 6 The Second AIP Early-Career Conference Inside the Papers of Karl K. Darrow .......................................... 7 on the History of the Physical Sciences .................................19 The Legacy from Segrè’s Camera .............................................. 9 Recent Publications of Interest ...............................................20 Shelving Replacement in the Archive Stacks ..............................10 Documentation Preserved .....................................................21 Teachers Guide on African-American Physicists ..........................10 Friends of the Center for History of Physics ...............................28 History of the American Center for Physics ................................11 The Role of the Archival Assistant ............................................12 Cover Image: Papers of Rotblat, Richardson, and Grad Cover photo of Physics Entrepreneurship and Innovation, available Now Accessible to Researchers ...........................................12 in print by contacting [email protected] and online at goo.gl/toXTf2. AIP Member Societies: Acoustical Society of America • American Association of Physicists in Medicine • American Association of Physics Teachers • American Astronomical Society • American Crystallographic Association • American Meteorological Society • American Physical Society • AVS: Science and Technology of Materials, Interfaces, and Processing • The Optical Society • The Society of Rheology (“Entrepreneurship”, continued from page 1) • Participants found problems with This material is based upon work startups tend to improve upon government funding and venture supported by the National Science existing technologies. Technology- capital, although they typically saw Foundation under Grant No 0849616, push companies work to spin out both as critical to their business' as well as the Avenir Foundation and new, game-changing technologies overall success. the American Institute of Physics. Any from university research for • Perhaps because most of the opinions, findings, and conclusions or undeveloped markets. startups in the study are not recommendations expressed in this • Funding is a critical factor in the yet commercially profitable,material are those of the author(s) and success or failure of new companies. tax policies were not a major do not necessarily reflect the views of Venture capital/angels and govern- concern. However, interviewees the National Science Foundation or the ment funding through the Small saw current immigration policies other funders. Business Innovative Research (SBIR)/ and International Traffic in Arms Small Business Technology Transfer Regulations as hostile to American For a free print copy of Physics Entrepre- (STTR) programs have played critical high-tech competitiveness. neurship and Innovation, call us at +1- roles in funding startups, but their • The study also found potential 301-209-3165 or e-mail [email protected]. The roles have changed significantly over mechanisms for preserving histo- full report is also available on our website the course of time. rically valuable records. at goo.gl/toXTf2. ■ Paul Forman Book Digitization Project By Elaina Vitale, Assistant Librarian In 2011, historian of science Paul for challenging established notions parties. The Forman pilot project will Forman donated a collection of historic of rationalist philosophies of science, also allow staff to gather statistics of German texts to the Niels Bohr Library as well as challenging the notion of scanning time as well as staffing and and Archives. Forman’s 1971 “Forman German national identity. Forman’s supply needs. Upon completion, the thesis” argued that the culture of donation, which includes important Library will not only have preserved Weimar Germany greatly influenced and rare German mechanics texts from a vital historical collection, ensured early interpretations of quantum the late nineteenth and early twentieth a collection’s future safety and use, mechanics. His thesis was significant centuries, is a critical and exciting but also have determined appropriate documentation of his further scanner uses and projects. thesis. Of additional interest are Forman’s The preservation assistant and librarian useful and careful will scan approximately one book per annotations throughout week and scanning began in January of the collection. The texts 2014. Complying with current archival are in various physical standards, the Forman collection conditions, and many are will be saved in tif file formats. The unfortunately printed on preservation assistant has 3–6 hours per acidic and brittle wood- week dedicated to scanning, and this pulp paper. will allow suitable time for scanning, file cleanup and quality control. The In 2014, to best preserve books will be scanned in publication Forman’s donation, staff order, from oldest to newest. After the at the NBLA will make completion of the project, NBL&A staff digital use copies of 44 will provide digital copies of these fair books from his donated use scans to online communities. It is collection using the hoped that the Forman pilot project Library’s new Zeutschel will be completed by the end of 2014. ■ book scanner. Digital use copies will ensure the immediate preservation Declare the past, diagnose the of Forman’s sources, and “ present, foretell the future. The Stars Above Us or the Conquest of Superstition by Ernst will be available for in- Hippocrates Zinner. Part of the Forman collection at the Niels Bohr Library library use to interested & Archives. Photo courtesy Niels Bohr Library & Archives. ” 2 History Newsletter | Fall 2014 www.aip.org/history On the Road with Heisenberg By Greg Good, Director, Center for History of Physics After the defeat of Germany in 1945, 2014 recipient of the APS Abraham Pais Rory Gilchrist, a St. John’s student him- ten German scientists and engineers Prize for History of Physics. Cassidy’s self, directed the reading and played the were interned at an English estate, Farm play, “Farm Hall,” has had two previous British army officer who was charged Hall,