Before Big Science: The Pursuit of Modern Chemistry and Physics, 1800-1940

By Mary Jo Nye

Book Overview

The vast multinational scientific monoliths of the late-1990s bear little resemblance to the modest laboratories of the early 19th-century. Yet early in that century - when heat and electricity were still counted among the elements - changes were already under way that would revolutionize chemistry and physics into the big science of the late 20th-century, expanding tiny, makeshift laboratories into bustling research institutes. It also replaced the scientific amateurs and generalist savants of the early Victorian era with the professional specialist of contemporary physical science.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0674063821
• ISBN13: 9780674063822
• Release Date: April 1999
• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Length: 300 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 0.5" x 5.5"