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Cargando... How the Laser Happened: Adventures of a Scientistpor Charles H. Townes
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In How the Laser Happened, Nobel laureate Charles Townes provides a highly personal look at some of the leading events in twentieth-century physics. Townes was inventor of the maser, of which the laser is one example; an originator of spectroscopy using microwaves; and a pioneer in the study of gas clouds in galaxies and around stars. Throughout his career he has also been deeply engaged with issues outside of academic research. He worked on applied research projects for Bell Labs; served on the board of directors for General Motors; and devoted extensive effort to advising the government on science, policy, and defense. This memoir traces his multifaceted career from its beginnings on the family farm in South Carolina. Spanning decades of ground-breaking research, the book provides a hands-on description of how working scientists and inventors get their ideas. It also gives a behind-the-scenes look at the scientific community, showing how scientists respond to new ideas and how they approach a variety of issues, from priority and patents to the social and political implications of their work. In addition, Townes touches on the sociology of science, uncovering some of the traditions and values that are invisible to an outsider. A towering and energetic figure, Townes has explored or pioneered most of the roles available to the modern scientist. In addition to fundamental research, he was actively involved in the practical uses of the laser and in the court cases to defend the patent rights. He was a founding member of the Jasons, an influential group of scientists that independently advises the government on defense policy, and he played an active part in scientific decisions and policies from the Truman through the Reagan administration. This lively memoir, packed with first-hand accounts and historical anecdotes, is an invaluable resource for anyone interested in the history of science and an inspiring example for students considering scientific careers. No se han encontrado descripciones de biblioteca. |
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 Google Books — Cargando...GénerosSistema Decimal Melvil (DDC)621.36Technology Engineering and allied operations Applied physics Electrical, magnetic, optical, communications, computer engineering; electronics, lighting Optical engineeringClasificación de la Biblioteca del CongresoValoraciónPromedio: (3.5)
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review for Ambix 50 (2003), 328-9. How the Laser Happened: Adventures of a Scientist, Charles H. TownesPp: iii+200Illus.IndexOxford University Press2002 (pbk) (first published 1999 (hbk))Lb. 9.99 (pbk)ISBN: 0-19-515376-6
Charles Townes is best known as the co-winner with Nikolai Basov and Alexander Prokhorov of the1964 Nobel Prize for “fundamental work in quantum electronics which led to the production of oscillators and amplifiers according to the maser-laser principle”.Encouragingly, the Introduction begins with Townes’s assertion about the importance of “scientific sociology”. He defines this, though, in a much narrower sense than did Merton or even Kuhn some decades ago, as concerning “people, their interactions and mutual stimulation” (p. 1). The book portrays his own good science as the product of networking between the accidental acquaintances made at universities, committees and advisory boards. Indeed, Townes cites his personal experiences to argue that the production of new knowledge is unpredictable and uncertain until the importance and potential of a novel idea is recognised, after which “the sociology of science asserts its power”, when “symbiotic,mutually amplifying ideas get traded back and forth among people with a variety of backgrounds and points of view, insuring that the field will develop and grow” (p. 83).Despite telling his personal story of the maser and laser as an “unpredictable but perhaps natural path”(p. 15), Townes provides only the sketchiest of accounts of others’ contributions. Indeed, much of what he does write is to correct public misrepresentations of priority disputes. Thus he is careful to emphasise that Basov and Prokhorov did not build the first maser. He also gives a chronology of his interactions with Gordon Gould, who was later to claim precedence in a number of ideas concerning laser design –summarised by Townes as “a peculiar episode in the story of the laser” (p. 95). The laser, in fact, gets rather little mention in the book – scarcely two dozen pages hinting at the physics, design concepts and patent disputes. Rather more space is devoted to Townes’s contributions as scientific advisor to government and industry.These interestingly illustrate the contingency of decision-making regarding infrared technology, the space programme, ICBMs and other policy issues. Here, too, Townes attempts to right the historical record: he emphasises that military programmes often were encouraged as much by free-wheeling scientists as by military planners. Townes also stresses that he was misrepresented by students and some colleagues at Berkeley in the late 1960s and early 1970s as irresponsibly hawkish, and casts himself as a‘southern liberal’ who attempted to reduce American involvement in Vietnam and, much later, the Strategic Defence Initiative. In isolated passages the scientific enthusiasm comes across well (e.g. his description of the ammonia atom as a “nitrogen atom slung in a triangular trapeze formed by hydrogen atoms”, p. 40) but other sections (especially chapter 1) seem redrafted to appeal to a pop science readership.
Readers seeking a history of the laser will not find it here, but they will get an autobiographical account, written for Americans, of the career highlights of one influential scientist.