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Stanislav Nikolaevich Rodionov (–)
SCIENCE & GLOBAL SECURITY ,VOL.,NO.,– http://dx.doi.org/./.. Memoriam: Stanislav Nikolaevich Rodionov (–) Oleg Prilutsky and Frank von Hippel Stanislav Rodionov was a member of the first post-World War II generation of Soviet physicists. He began his scientific career in 1953 in what is now known as the National Research Center “Kurchatov Institute” where he carried out an exper- iment in which, for the first time in the Soviet Union, he captured electrons from tritium decay in a magnetic mirror adiabatic trap. From 1958 to 1973, he worked in the Nuclear Physics Institute of the Siberian Division of USSR Academy of Sciences in Akademgorodok near Novosibirsk. Dur- ing the 1960s, while Rodionov was there, this institute, directed by Academician Budker, built one of the first electron-positron colliders in the world (VEPP-2). Rodionov played a very important scientific-organizational role as the Secretary of the institute’s Scientific Council—its “Round Table.” In 1974, Rodionov returned to Moscow to join the staff of the Soviet Academy of Sciences’ Space Research Institute (IKI) directed by Roald Sagdeev. There he partici- pated in the organization of international collaborations in space research programs, which was a pioneering contribution to opening up Soviet science to the world. Rodionov also supported Sagdeev in doing arms-control research under the aus- pices of the Committee of Soviet Scientists for Peace and Against the Nuclear Threat. This Committee was established during a 17–19 May 1983 All-Union conference of scientists within the Soviet Academy called in response to President Reagan’s 23 MarchspeechaskingAmericanscientiststojoininaStrategicDefenseInitiative to make nuclear-armed ballistic missiles “impotent and obsolete.” Evgeny Velikhov was the first chairman with Sagdeev, Sergei Kapitza and Andrei Kokoshin as his Vice Chairmen. -
Placing World War I in the History of Mathematics David Aubin, Catherine Goldstein
Placing World War I in the History of Mathematics David Aubin, Catherine Goldstein To cite this version: David Aubin, Catherine Goldstein. Placing World War I in the History of Mathematics. 2013. hal- 00830121v1 HAL Id: hal-00830121 https://hal.sorbonne-universite.fr/hal-00830121v1 Preprint submitted on 4 Jun 2013 (v1), last revised 8 Jul 2014 (v2) HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Placing World War I in the History of Mathematics David Aubin and Catherine Goldstein Abstract. In the historical literature, opposite conclusions were drawn about the impact of the First World War on mathematics. In this chapter, the case is made that the war was an important event for the history of mathematics. We show that although mathematicians' experience of the war was extremely varied, its impact was decisive on the life of a great number of them. We present an overview of some uses of mathematics in war and of the development of mathematics during the war. We conclude by arguing that the war also was a crucial factor in the institutional modernization of mathematics. Les vrais adversaires, dans la guerre d'aujourd'hui, ce sont les professeurs de math´ematiques`aleur table, les physiciens et les chimistes dans leur laboratoire. -
Theological Metaphors in Mathematics
STUDIES IN LOGIC, GRAMMAR AND RHETORIC 44 (57) 2016 DOI: 10.1515/slgr-2016-0002 Stanisław Krajewski University of Warsaw THEOLOGICAL METAPHORS IN MATHEMATICS Abstract. Examples of possible theological influences upon the development of mathematics are indicated. The best known connection can be found in the realm of infinite sets treated by us as known or graspable, which constitutes a divine-like approach. Also the move to treat infinite processes as if they were one finished object that can be identified with its limits is routine in mathemati- cians, but refers to seemingly super-human power. For centuries this was seen as wrong and even today some philosophers, for example Brian Rotman, talk critically about “theological mathematics”. Theological metaphors, like “God’s view”, are used even by contemporary mathematicians. While rarely appearing in official texts they are rather easily invoked in “the kitchen of mathemat- ics”. There exist theories developing without the assumption of actual infinity the tools of classical mathematics needed for applications (For instance, My- cielski’s approach). Conclusion: mathematics could have developed in another way. Finally, several specific examples of historical situations are mentioned where, according to some authors, direct theological input into mathematics appeared: the possibility of the ritual genesis of arithmetic and geometry, the importance of the Indian religious background for the emergence of zero, the genesis of the theories of Cantor and Brouwer, the role of Name-worshipping for the research of the Moscow school of topology. Neither these examples nor the previous illustrations of theological metaphors provide a certain proof that religion or theology was directly influencing the development of mathematical ideas. -
Plasma Physics in the 20Th Century As Told by Players”
Eur. Phys. J. H 43, 337{353 (2018) https://doi.org/10.1140/epjh/e2018-90061-5 THE EUROPEAN PHYSICAL JOURNAL H Editorial Editorial introduction to the special issue \Plasma physics in the 20th century as told by players" Patrick H. Diamond1,a , Uriel Frisch2, and Yves Pomeau3 1 University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0319, USA 2 Universit´eC^oted'Azur, OCA, Lab. Lagrange, CS 34229, 06304 Nice Cedex 4, France 3 Ladhyx, Ecole´ Polytechnique, Palaiseau, France Received 31 October 2018 Published online 30 November 2018 c EDP Sciences, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature, 2018 Our ancestors lived in a world where { as far as they were aware { electrons and ions lived happily bound together. But with suitable conditions, e.g. low density and/or high temperature, electrons and ions will unbind and we obtain a plasma, a state of matter of which we became increasingly aware in the 20th century, and which pervades our universe near and far. There are also many applications of plasma physics: chip etching, TV screens, torches, propulsion, fusion (through magnetic or inertial confinement), astrophysics and space physics, and laser physics, to cite just a few. At the crossroads of electrodynamics, continuum physics, kinetic theory and nonlinear physics, plasma physics enjoys an abundance of riches. Actually, so much that we can only cover a fraction of its history in this limited volume. The history of plasma physics presented here covers mostly the period from 1950 to 2000. The issue is focussed both on fundamentals and on applications in controlled fusion through magnetic confinement, which in turn raises a host of fundamental and interesting questions in various areas. -
Alwyn C. Scott
the frontiers collection the frontiers collection Series Editors: A.C. Elitzur M.P. Silverman J. Tuszynski R. Vaas H.D. Zeh The books in this collection are devoted to challenging and open problems at the forefront of modern science, including related philosophical debates. In contrast to typical research monographs, however, they strive to present their topics in a manner accessible also to scientifically literate non-specialists wishing to gain insight into the deeper implications and fascinating questions involved. Taken as a whole, the series reflects the need for a fundamental and interdisciplinary approach to modern science. Furthermore, it is intended to encourage active scientists in all areas to ponder over important and perhaps controversial issues beyond their own speciality. Extending from quantum physics and relativity to entropy, consciousness and complex systems – the Frontiers Collection will inspire readers to push back the frontiers of their own knowledge. Other Recent Titles The Thermodynamic Machinery of Life By M. Kurzynski The Emerging Physics of Consciousness Edited by J. A. Tuszynski Weak Links Stabilizers of Complex Systems from Proteins to Social Networks By P. Csermely Quantum Mechanics at the Crossroads New Perspectives from History, Philosophy and Physics Edited by J. Evans, A.S. Thorndike Particle Metaphysics A Critical Account of Subatomic Reality By B. Falkenburg The Physical Basis of the Direction of Time By H.D. Zeh Asymmetry: The Foundation of Information By S.J. Muller Mindful Universe Quantum Mechanics and the Participating Observer By H. Stapp Decoherence and the Quantum-to-Classical Transition By M. Schlosshauer For a complete list of titles in The Frontiers Collection, see back of book Alwyn C. -
Naming Infinity: a True Story of Religious Mysticism And
Naming Infinity Naming Infinity A True Story of Religious Mysticism and Mathematical Creativity Loren Graham and Jean-Michel Kantor The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press Cambridge, Massachusetts London, En gland 2009 Copyright © 2009 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Graham, Loren R. Naming infinity : a true story of religious mysticism and mathematical creativity / Loren Graham and Jean-Michel Kantor. â p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-674-03293-4 (alk. paper) 1. Mathematics—Russia (Federation)—Religious aspects. 2. Mysticism—Russia (Federation) 3. Mathematics—Russia (Federation)—Philosophy. 4. Mathematics—France—Religious aspects. 5. Mathematics—France—Philosophy. 6. Set theory. I. Kantor, Jean-Michel. II. Title. QA27.R8G73 2009 510.947′0904—dc22â 2008041334 CONTENTS Introduction 1 1. Storming a Monastery 7 2. A Crisis in Mathematics 19 3. The French Trio: Borel, Lebesgue, Baire 33 4. The Russian Trio: Egorov, Luzin, Florensky 66 5. Russian Mathematics and Mysticism 91 6. The Legendary Lusitania 101 7. Fates of the Russian Trio 125 8. Lusitania and After 162 9. The Human in Mathematics, Then and Now 188 Appendix: Luzin’s Personal Archives 205 Notes 212 Acknowledgments 228 Index 231 ILLUSTRATIONS Framed photos of Dmitri Egorov and Pavel Florensky. Photographed by Loren Graham in the basement of the Church of St. Tatiana the Martyr, 2004. 4 Monastery of St. Pantaleimon, Mt. Athos, Greece. 8 Larger and larger circles with segment approaching straight line, as suggested by Nicholas of Cusa. 25 Cantor ternary set. -
(Extra)Terrestrial Intelligence Soviet Radio Astronomers, Scientific Internationalism and Outer Space Imaginary
Háskóli Íslands Hugvísindasvið Hugmynda- og vísindasaga Communication with (Extra)Terrestrial Intelligence Soviet Radio Astronomers, Scientific Internationalism and Outer Space Imaginary Ritgerð til MA-prófs í History of Ideas and Science Gabriela Radulescu Kt.: 240489-3769 Leiðbeinandi: Prof. Emeritus Einar H. Guðmundsson January 2020 Abstract In the early 1960s, the prospect of contacting extraterrestrial civilizations became a scientific concern for radio astronomers. The Soviet contributions in this field have been largely overlooked by historians so far. More particularly, little attention has been given to the international collaboration in which the Soviet Union was active in the 1960s and up until 1976 - and which came to be known as ‘Communication with Extraterrestrial Intelligence’ (CETI). This dissertation research investigates this episode of scientific internationalism in the history of the Cold War. The main question it seeks to answer is how were Soviet conceptualizations of extraterrestrial intelligence and of intelligent radio signals entangled with or informed by the ways in which scientists cooperated beyond state borders? In order to probe into this question, I have worked mostly with the following written sources: conference proceedings, scientific articles, as well as (auto)biographical accounts of the era together with some publications from the 1980s and 1990s. The record attests for a bottom-up process in which Soviet scientists were able to initiate surprising discussions considering the historical context of that time. By envisaging a communication with the Extraterrestrial Other, Soviet scientists facilitated a space for the political imagination to unfold. These findings reveal how the first real international scientific attempt to imagine the possibility of interacting with non-human intelligence beyond the limits of the Earth was articulated in the context of modern empirical science (radio astronomy). -
Spitzer S 100Th: Founding PPPL & Pioneering Work in Fusion Energy
(1) Spitzer’s 100th: Founding PPPL & Pioneering Work in Fusion Energy Greg Hammett (2) Some Stories From Working with Spitzer In the Early Years Russell Kulsrud Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory Colloquium Dec. 4, 2013 These are shorter versions of talks we gave at the 100th Birthday Celebration for Lyman Spitzer, October 19-20, 2013, Peyton Hall, Princeton University, http://www.princeton.edu/astro/news-events/public-events/spitzer-100/ https://www.princeton.edu/research/news/features/a/?id=11377 Video of a longer talk by Kulsrud, “My Early Years Spent Working with Lyman Spitzer“: https://mediacentral.princeton.edu/id/1_1kil7s0p Thanks for slides: Dale Meade, Rob Goldston, Eleanor Starkman and PPPL photo archives, ... PPPL Historical Photos: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/tjv8lbx2844fxoa/FtubOdFWU2 June 19, 2014: added historical info. Jul 9, 2015: pointer to updated figure Lyman Spitzer Jr.’s 100th: Founding PPPL & Pioneering Work in Fusion Energy Outline: • Pictorial tour: from Spitzer’s early days, the Model-C stellarator (1960’s), to TFTR’s 10 megawatts of fusion & the Hubble Space Telescope (Dec. 9-10, 1993) • Russell Kulsrud: A few personal reflections on early days working with Lyman Spitzer. • The road ahead for fusion: – Interesting ideas being pursued in fusion, to improve confinement & reduce the cost of power plants I never officially met Prof. Spitzer, though I saw him at a few seminars. Heard many stories from Tom Stix, Russell Kulsrud, & others, learned from the insights in his book and his ideas in other books. 2 2 Lyman Spitzer, Jr. 1914-1997 Photo by Orren Jack Turner, from Biographical Memoirs V. -
Science and Nation After Socialism in the Novosibirsk Scientific Center, Russia
Local Science, Global Knowledge: Science and Nation after Socialism in the Novosibirsk Scientific Center, Russia Amy Lynn Ninetto Mohnton, Pennsylvania B.A., Franklin and Marshall College, 1993 M.A., University of Virginia, 1997 A Dissertation presented to the Graduate Faculty of the University of Virginia in Candidacy for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Dcpartmcn1 of Anthropology University of Virginia May 2002 11 © Copyright by Amy Lynn Ninetta All Rights Reserved May 2002 lll Abstract This dissertation explores the changing relationships between science, the state, and global capital in the Novosibirsk Scientific Center (Akademgorodok). Since the collapse of the state-sponsored Soviet "big science" establishment, Russian scientists have been engaging transnational flows of capital, knowledge, and people. While some have permanently emigrated from Russia, others travel abroad on temporary contracts; still others work for foreign firms in their home laboratories. As they participate in these transnational movements, Akademgorodok scientists confront a number of apparent contradictions. On one hand, their transnational movement is, in many respects, seen as a return to the "natural" state of science-a reintegration of former Soviet scientists into a "world science" characterized by open exchange of information and transcendence of local cultural models of reality. On the other hand, scientists' border-crossing has made them-and the state that claims them as its national resources-increasingly conscious of the borders that divide world science into national and local scientific communities with differential access to resources, prestige, and knowledge. While scientists assert a specifically Russian way of doing science, grounded in the historical relationships between Russian science and the state, they are reaching sometimes uneasy accommodations with the globalization of scientific knowledge production. -
President Bush's 1990 Policy on the Commercial Space
Journal of Air Law and Commerce Volume 58 | Issue 4 Article 3 1993 President Bush's 1990 Policy on the Commercial Space Launch Industry: A Thorn in Economic and Political Reform in the Former Soviet Union: A Proposal for Change Jennifer A. Manner Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.smu.edu/jalc Recommended Citation Jennifer A. Manner, President Bush's 1990 Policy on the Commercial Space Launch Industry: A Thorn in Economic and Political Reform in the Former Soviet Union: A Proposal for Change, 58 J. Air L. & Com. 981 (1993) https://scholar.smu.edu/jalc/vol58/iss4/3 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Journals at SMU Scholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Air Law and Commerce by an authorized administrator of SMU Scholar. For more information, please visit http://digitalrepository.smu.edu. PRESIDENT BUSH'S 1990 POLICY ON THE COMMERCIAL SPACE LAUNCH INDUSTRY: A THORN IN ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL REFORM IN THE FORMER SOVIET UNION: A PROPOSAL FOR CHANGE JENNIFER A. MANNER* PREFACE** ALMOST TWO years ago, the Soviet Union, as the £I3world knew it, ceased to exist. It split into independ- ent sovereign states, with Russia taking the title of the continuing state of the Soviet Union. Presently, the exact role of Russia in the world is uncertain. However, two things are evident. First, it is likely, if unfortunate, that President Clinton will continue President Bush's policy, originally aimed at the Soviet Union essentially banning the use of Russian commercial space launch vehicles, launched from Russian sites, to carry U.S. -
Spitzer 100Th Hammett 2013.Key
Spitzer’s Pioneering Fusion Work and the Search for Improved Confinement Greg Hammett Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory 100th Birthday Celebration for Lyman Spitzer Peyton Hall, October 19-20, 2013 Thanks for slides: Dale Meade, Rob Goldston, Eleanor Starkman and PPPL photo archives, ... 1 (revised Oct. 22, 2013) Spitzer’s Pioneering Fusion Work and the Search for Improved Confinement Outline: • Pictorial tour from Spitzer’s early days to TFTR’s achievement of 10 MW of fusion power. • Key physics of magnetic confinement of particles • Physical picture of microinstabilities that drive small-scale turbulence in tokamaks • Interesting ideas being pursued to improve confinement & reduce the cost of fusion reactors • I never officially met Prof. Spitzer, though I saw him at a few colloquia. Heard many stories from Tom Stix, Russell Kulsrud, & others, learned from the insights in his book and his ideas in other books. 2 Photo by Orren Jack Turner, from Biographical Memoirs V. 90 (2009), National Academies Press, by Jeremiah P. Ostriker. http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/spitzer-lyman.pdf 3 • 1960, director of PPPL (1951-1961, and simultaneously, chair of Dept. of Astrophysical Sciences, 1947-1979.) 4 Spitzer’s First Exploration of Fusion • 25 June, 1950, Korean war started. • Lyman Spitzer and John Wheeler think about starting a theoretical program at Princeton studying thermonuclear explosions. • March 24, 1951, President Peron of Argentina claimed his scientist, Ronald Richter, had produced controlled fusion energy in the lab. Quickly dismissed by many (later shown to be bogus), but got Spitzer thinking on the Aspen ski slopes. • Spitzer had been studying hot interstallar gas for several years and had recently heard a series of lectures by Hans Alfven on plasmas (according to John Johnson). -
Arxiv:1710.05659V1 [Math.HO]
FROM POLAND TO PETERSBURG: THE BANACH-TARSKI PARADOX IN BELY’S MODERNIST NOVEL NOAH GIANSIRACUSA∗ AND ANASTASIA VASILYEVA∗∗ ABSTRACT. Andrei Bely’s novel Petersburg, first published in 1913, was declared by Vladimir Nabokov one of the four greatest masterpieces of 20th-century prose. The Banach-Tarski Paradox, published in 1924, is one of the most striking and well-known results in 20th-century mathematics. In this paper we explore a potential connection between these two landmark works, based on various interactions with the Moscow Mathematical School and passages in the novel itself. 1. INTRODUCTION Andrei Bely (1880-1934) was a poet, novelist, and theoretician who helped lead the Symbolist movement in Russia in the early 20th century. His most regarded work is the modernist novel Petersburg, published serially in 1913-1914 then in a revised and shortened form in 1922. Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977) famously declared Petersburg one of the four greatest works of prose of the 20th century, along with Joyce’s Ulysses, Kafka’s Metamorphosis, and Proust’s A` la recherche du temps perdu. As with these three other works, the scholarly literature on Petersburg is vast and continues to grow; for instance, a volume of essays on Petersburg celebrating its centennial was just released [Coo17]. An emerging direction of scholarship has been to better understand the origins and meaning of the remarkably frequent mathematical imagery in Petersburg [Szi02, Szi11, GK09, Sve13, Kos13, GV17]. That Bely had an interest in math is not surprising: his father was the influential math- ematician Nikolai Bugaev1 (1837-1903) who is credited with creating the Moscow Mathemat- ical School, one of the most active and successful groups of mathematicians in recent history [Dem14, DTT15].