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

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

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

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Book Description
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. Then
Langmuir'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 science
and 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.

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 ,Charles Tanford,Oxford University Press, USA,0192804944,1706-1790,Biography,Franklin, Benjamin,,General,History,Knowledge,Molecules,Science,Science/Mathematics,Scientists,United States,History of science,History, Other | History of Science,Popular science,Science / History

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