Ben Franklin stilled the waves
an informal history of pouring oil on water with reflections on the ups and downs of scientific life in general
by Charles Tanford
Benjamin Franklin was the first to report the phenomenon of oil's power to still troubled waters and to speculate on why it happened. A century later Lord Rayleigh performed an identical experiment. Irving Langmuir did it with minor variations in 1917, and won a Nobel Prize for it. ThenLangmuir's work was followed by a Dutch pediatrician's in 1925. p Each experimenter saw a little more in the result than his predecessor had seen, and the sciences of physics, chemistry and biology have all been illuminated by the work. p Charles Tanford reflects on the evolving nature of scienceand of individual scientists. Recounting innovations in each trial, he follows the classic experiment from Franklin's drawing room to our present-day institutionalized scientific establishments and speculates on the ensuing changes in our approach to scientific inquiry.
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1
Ben Franklin stilled the waves: an informal history of pouring oil on water with reflections on the ups and downs of scientific life in general
2004, Oxford University Press
in English
0192804944 9780192804945
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Ben Franklin stilled the waves: an informal history of pouring oil on water with reflections on the ups and downs of scientific life in general
1989, Duke University Press
in English
0822308762 9780822308768
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Bibliography: p. [217]-221.
Includes index.
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- Created April 1, 2008
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