Science in the Early Twentieth Century An Encyclopedia Jacob Darwin Hamblin Santa Barbara, California Denver, Colorado Oxford, England © 2005 by Jacob Darwin Hamblin All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review, without prior permission in writing from the publisher Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Hamblin, Jacob Darwin Science in the early twentieth century : an encyclopedia / Jacob Darwin Hamblin p cm — (ABC-CLIO’s history of science series) Includes bibliographical references and index ISBN 1-85109-665-5 (acid-free paper)–ISBN 1-85109-670-1 (eBook) Science—History—20th century I Title: Science in the early 20th century II Title III Series ABC-CLIO’s history of science series Q121.H345 2005 509—.041—dc22 2004026328 06 05 04 03 10 This book is available on the World Wide Web as an eBook Visit abc-clio.com for details ABC-CLIO, Inc 130 Cremona Drive, P.O Box 1911 Santa Barbara, California 93116-1911 This book is printed on acid-free paper Manufactured in the United States of America Contents Acknowledgments, xi Introduction, xiii Topic Finder, xxix Science in the Early Twentieth Century: An Encyclopedia A Boas, Franz, 31 Bohr, Niels, 33 Boltwood, Bertram, 36 Bragg, William Henry, 37 Brain Drain, 38 Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Age of the Earth, Amino Acids, Anthropology, Antibiotics, Arrhenius, Svante, Artificial Elements, 10 Astronomical Observatories, 11 Astrophysics, 13 Atomic Bomb, 15 Atomic Energy Commission, 17 Atomic Structure, 18 C Cancer, 41 Carbon Dating, 43 Cavendish Laboratory, 44 Chadwick, James, 45 Chandrasekhar, Subrahmanyan, 47 Chemical Warfare, 49 Cherenkov, Pavel, 51 Chromosomes, 52 Cloud Chamber, 53 Cockcroft, John, 53 Cold War, 55 Colonialism, 57 Compton, Arthur Holly, 59 Computers, 61 Conservation, 63 B Bateson, William, 21 Becquerel, Henri, 22 Big Bang, 24 Biochemistry, 26 Biometry, 27 Birth Control, 29 Bjerknes, Vilhelm, 31 vii viii Contents Continental Drift, 64 Cosmic Rays, 66 Cosmology, 67 Crime Detection, 70 Curie, Marie, 72 Cybernetics, 74 Cyclotron, 76 D Davisson, Clinton, 79 Debye, Peter, 81 Determinism, 83 DNA, 84 E Earth Structure, 87 Ecology, 89 Eddington, Arthur Stanley, 90 Ehrlich, Paul, 92 Einstein, Albert, 93 Electronics, 96 Elitism, 98 Embryology, 99 Endocrinology, 101 Espionage, 102 Eugenics, 104 Evolution, 105 Extraterrestrial Life, 107 Gödel, Kurt, 128 Great Depression, 130 Gutenberg, Beno, 132 H Haber, Fritz, 133 Haeckel, Ernst, 135 Hahn, Otto, 136 Haldane, John Burdon Sanderson, 137 Hale, George Ellery, 138 Heisenberg, Werner, 140 Hertzsprung, Ejnar, 142 Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 144 Hormones, 146 Hubble, Edwin, 148 Human Experimentation, 150 I Industry, 153 Intelligence Testing, 154 International Cooperation, 156 International Research Council, 158 J Jeffreys, Harold, 161 Johannsen, Wilhelm, 162 Joliot, Frédéric, and Irène Joliot-Curie, 164 Jung, Carl, 166 Just, Ernest Everett, 167 F Federation of Atomic Scientists, 109 Fermi, Enrico, 110 Fission, 112 Franck, James, 114 Freud, Sigmund, 116 K Kaiser Wilhelm Society, 171 Kammerer, Paul, 173 Kapteyn, Jacobus, 174 Koch, Robert, 175 Kurchatov, Igor, 177 G Game Theory, 119 Gamow, George, 120 Genetics, 122 Geology, 124 Geophysics, 126 L Lawrence, Ernest, 179 Leakey, Louis, 180 Leavitt, Henrietta Swan, 181 Light, 183 Contents Lowell, Percival, 185 Loyalty, 186 Lysenko, Trofim, 188 M Manhattan Project, 191 Marconi, Guglielmo, 194 Marine Biology, 196 Mathematics, 197 McClintock, Barbara, 198 Mead, Margaret, 199 Medicine, 201 Meitner, Lise, 203 Mental Health, 205 Mental Retardation, 206 Meteorology, 208 Microbiology, 209 Millikan, Robert A., 211 Missing Link, 212 Mohorovi§ifl, Andrija, 213 Morgan, Thomas Hunt, 214 Mutation, 215 N National Academy of Sciences, 217 National Bureau of Standards, 218 National Science Foundation, 219 Nationalism, 220 Nazi Science, 222 Nobel Prize, 224 Nutrition, 225 O Oceanic Expeditions, 227 Oceanography, 228 Office of Naval Research, 231 Oort, Jan Hendrik, 232 Origin of Life, 233 P Patronage, 235 Pavlov, Ivan, 238 Peking Man, 239 Penicillin, 240 Pesticides, 242 Philosophy of Science, 243 Physics, 245 Piaget, Jean, 247 Pickering’s Harem, 249 Piltdown Hoax, 250 Planck, Max, 251 Polar Expeditions, 253 Popper, Karl, 254 Psychoanalysis, 255 Psychology, 257 Public Health, 260 Q Quantum Mechanics, 263 Quantum Theory, 265 R Race, 269 Radar, 271 Radiation Protection, 272 Radio Astronomy, 274 Radioactivity, 276 Raman, Chandrasekhara Venkata, 278 Rediscovery of Mendel, 279 Relativity, 280 Religion, 282 Richter Scale, 284 Rockets, 285 Royal Society of London, 286 Russell, Bertrand, 288 Rutherford, Ernest, 289 S Schrödinger, Erwin, 293 Science Fiction, 295 Scientism, 297 Scopes Trial, 297 Seismology, 299 Shapley, Harlow, 300 ix x Contents V Simpson, George Gaylord, 302 Skinner, Burrhus Frederic, 303 Social Progress, 305 Social Responsibility, 307 Solvay Conferences, 308 Soviet Science, 310 Sverdrup, Harald, 311 Szilard, Leo, 312 Vavilov, Sergei, 329 Venereal Disease, 330 Von Laue, Max, 332 Vygotsky, Lev, 333 W T Technocracy, 317 Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre, 318 Thomson, Joseph John, 320 Turing, Alan, 321 U Uncertainty Principle, 323 Uranium, 325 Urey, Harold, 326 Wegener, Alfred, 335 Women, 336 World War I, 338 World War II, 341 Wright, Sewall, 344 X X-rays, 347 Y Yukawa, Hideki, 349 Chronology, 353 Selected Bibliography, 367 Index, 379 About the Author, 399 Acknowledgments Victoria Special thanks go to Cathy and Paul Goldberg, whose sunny dispositions could melt an iceberg My parents, Les and Sharon Hamblin, deserve far more credit and praise than I have ever acknowledged, and I know that my sense of determination came from them I also owe a debt of gratitude to our dog Truman, who kept me smiling throughout Last, at least in order of birth, I thank my daughter Sophia for putting everything into perspective In a more practical vein, I should mention that the students in my History of Science course at California State University, Long Beach, have been more useful than they ever will know in helping me learn how to communicate ideas I thank Sharon Sievers for asking me to teach the history of science, Albie Burke for enlisting me to teach it in the honors program, and Marquita GrenotScheyer for her efforts to keep us in Long Beach We are starting to like it At ABCCLIO, I thank Simon Mason, the editor in Oxford who guided this project, and William Burns, the series editor, whose comments helped to make the text clearer and more balanced Writing an encyclopedia is an enormous task Although our lives are filled with projects that call to mind our ignorance, this one was very humbling for me It required me to branch out considerably from my own areas of expertise, to try to justice to profound On July 6, 2003, during a house renovation maneuver marked by stupidity and inexperience, a wall-sized mirror broke in half and slashed open my left leg Although I hesitate to thank the mirror for this, I must acknowledge that being laid up for the rest of the summer accounts, in part, for my ability to finish this encyclopedia It took longer than a summer to write, of course, but I established a pace during that time that I tried to enforce once the semester began and I was back to teaching classes During that time, I relied heavily on the love and support of my wife, Sara Goldberg-Hamblin, who has agreed to keep a blunt object handy should I agree to write any more encyclopedia entries in the course of my career I also relied on the good humor and encouragement of friends and family In particular, I thank Houston Strode Roby IV, who routinely refused to denigrate the project Others include Ben Zulueta and Gladys Ochangco (particularly Ben, who helped muse over the alphabetical interpretation of history), Fred and Viki Redding (prouda ya but miss ya!), Stacey and Branden Linnell (who supplied the mirror but also supplied Rice Krispie treats), Shannon Holroyd (for staying here in Long Beach), Lara and Eli Ralston (for always being around when we need them), and Denny and Janet Kempke (for treating me like family) I also thank my longest-standing friend, my sister Sara, who gave us our niece, xi xii Acknowledgments and complex ideas, and to capture the sense of the times I learned a great deal along the way Having said that, I confess that my notions of the era covered in this book come largely from a few authors, including Lawrence Badash, Daniel J Kevles, J L Heilbron, Peter J Bowler, Margaret Rossiter, Helge Kragh, John North, Spencer Weart, and the many contributors to Isis and other journals This does not exhaust, by any stretch of the imagination, the list of authors whose work made this encyclopedia possible It simply acknowledges a deep imprint This is especially true of my mentor Lawrence Badash, whose expertise in the history of twentieth-century physics I can only hope to approximate Jacob Darwin Hamblin California State University, Long Beach Introduction The first half of the twentieth century saw science catapult to the world stage as a crucial aspect of human knowledge and human relations Revolutions in physics replaced Newton’s laws with relativity and quantum mechanics, and biologists saw the birth of genetics and the mainstreaming of evolution Science was used by racist ideologues to pass discriminatory laws, adapted to political ideology to justify persecution, and used to create the most destructive weapons of modern times Science was at the forefront of social controversy, in issues related to race, religion, gender, class, imperialism, and popular culture By mid-century, amidst atomic bombs and wonder drugs, the practice of science had changed dramatically in terms of scale and support, while society tentatively and often begrudging accorded scientists a status in society unprecedented in history Reinvigoration of Physics Although some physicists believed that the vast majority of the great discoveries in their field had already been made and that future work would simply be a matter of establishing greater precision, the last years of the nineteenth century decisively changed that view (see Physics) The fundamental discoveries that reinvigorated physics and shaped its course throughout the twentieth century came from studies of cathode rays, which were produced by the discharge of electricity through a tube of highly rarefied gas Experiments led to the accidental discovery by German physicist Wilhelm Röntgen of Xrays, later recognized as an intense form of electromagnetic radiation (see X-Rays) The strange “see through” phenomenon of X-rays inspired more studies, resulting in Henri Becquerel’s 1896 discovery of “uranium rays,” later called radioactivity (see Becquerel, Henri; Radioactivity) The flurry of research on mysterious “rays” sometimes yielded false identifications of new phenomena, but soon researchers realized that the X-rays (resulting from electricity) and radioactivity (emanating from certain substances without needing any “charge” by electricity or by the sun) were rather different The cathode rays were in 1897 deemed to be streams of particles, or “corpuscles.” These little bodies soon came to be called electrons (see Thomson, Joseph John) Around the turn of the century, Marie Curie earned a worldwide reputation for isolating and identifying radioactive elements previously unknown to mankind, such as polonium and radium (see Curie, Marie) These developments indicated avenues for understanding objects even smaller than atoms Other fundamental changes in physics were theoretical In 1900, Max Planck attempted to fix a mathematical problem of energy distribution along the spectrum of light He inserted a tiny constant into equations measuring xiii xiv Introduction energy according to frequency, thus making energy measurable only as a multiple of that tiny number If theory could be generalized into reality, energy existed in tiny packets, or quanta (see Planck, Max; Quantum Theory) Albert Einstein claimed that if this were true, then light itself was not a stream, but rather was made up of tiny “photons” that carried momentum, even though light has no mass Einstein’s famous equation, E = mc2, made energy equivalent to a certain amount of mass (see Einstein, Albert; Light) Another of Einstein’s well-known ideas, special relativity, was first formulated in 1905 It did away with the nineteenth-century concept of the ether and redefined concepts such as space and time Ten years later, he published a general theory of relativity that provided explanations of gravitation and argued that light itself sometimes follows the curvature of space (see Relativity) Quantum theory and relativity were controversial in the first two decades of the century, and one major vehicle for disseminating both ideas was discussion at the Solvay Conferences (see Solvay Conferences) The bending of light, a crucial aspect of general relativity, was observed by Arthur Eddington in 1919 during a solar eclipse (see Eddington, Arthur Stanley) The behavior of electromagnetic radiation, such as X-rays, continued to inspire research during the first few decades of the century In 1912, German physicist Max von Laue discovered that X-rays were diffracted by crystals (see Von Laue, Max) Based on this discovery, Englishmen William Henry Bragg and his son William Lawrence Bragg used Xrays to investigate crystals themselves, because each metal diffracted X-rays differently, yielding unique spectra This was the beginning of the new field of X-ray crystallography, immensely useful in studying the properties of metals (see Bragg, William Henry; Debye, Peter) But still the properties of electromagnetic radiation, such as Xrays and the higher-energy “gamma rays,” were poorly understood Major discoveries about the interplay of electromagnetic radia- tion and charged particles (such as electrons) were discovered in the 1920s and 1930s In 1923, Arthur Compton noted that changes in wavelength during X-ray scattering (now known as the “Compton effect”) could be interpreted through quantum physics: A photon of radiation strikes an electron and transfers some of its energy to the electron, thus changing the wavelength of both His work provided experimental evidence for quantum theory and suggested that electrons behave not only as particles but also as waves (see Compton, Arthur Holly) In 1928, Indian physicist Chandrasekhara Raman observed that the same is true for ordinary light passing through any transparent medium; it also changes wavelength, because of the absorption of energy by molecules in the medium (see Raman, Chandrasekhara Venkata) The importance of the medium was paramount, because the theoretical rules governing light could change, including the notion that light’s speed cannot be surpassed In the Soviet Union, Pavel Cherenkov in 1935 discovered a bluish light emitted when charged particles were passed through a medium The strange light was soon interpreted by his colleagues to be an effect of the particles “breaking” the speed of light, which is only possible in a transparent solid or liquid medium (see Cherenkov, Pavel) Studies of electrons provoked new questions about the nature of radioactivity and the structure of the atom itself U.S experimental physicist Robert Millikan was the first, in 1910, to measure the charge of an electron, and he determined that all electrons were the same He used the “oil-drop” method, measuring the pull of an electric field against that of gravity (see Millikan, Robert A.) New Zealand physicist Ernest Rutherford suggested that radioactivity was the “new alchemy,” meaning that some elements were unstable and gradually transformed themselves into other elements Radioactivity simply was the ejection of one of two kinds of particles, called alpha and beta, in unstable atoms Beta particles were electrons, and their release ... use the intelligence quotient (IQ) to demonstrate the mental inferiority in some immigrant groups (see Intelligence Testing) The first decades of the century saw a renewed interest in studying the. .. accept these new estimates, because they came from outside their discipline Geologists’ methods for determining the age of the earth were in measuring the deposition of sediments, or in measuring the. .. 1975 Amino Acids The structures of living organisms—such as skin, tendons, and muscles—are made up of proteins These proteins are seemingly infinite in number and are the building blocks of the