The Social Function of Science
The Social Function of Science

Author: J. D. Bernal

Publisher: Faber & Faber

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 528

ISBN-13: 9780571272723

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

J. D. Bernal's important and ambitious work, The Social Function of Science, was first published in January 1939. As the subtitle -What Science Does, What Science Could Do - suggests it is in two parts. Both have eight chapters. Part 1: What Science Does: Introductory, Historical, The Existing Organization of Scientific Research in Britain, Science in Education, The Efficiency of Scientific Research, The Application of Science, Science and War and International Science. Part 11: What Science Could Do: The Training of the Scientist, The Reorganization of Research, Scientific Communication, The Finance of Science, The Strategy of Scientific Advance; Science in the Service of Man, Science and Social Transformation and The Social Function of Science. To quote Bernal's biographer, Andrew Brown, 'The Social Function of Science . . . was Bernal's attempt to ensure that science would no longer be just a protected area of intellectual inquiry, but would have as an inherent function the improvement of life for mankind everywhere. It was a groundbreaking treatise both in exploring the scope of science and technology in fashioning public policy, with Bernal arguing that science is the chief agent of change in society, and in devising policies that would optimize the way science was organized. The sense of impending war clearly emerges. Bernal deplored the application of scientific discoveries in making war ever more destructive, while acknowledging that the majority of scientific and technical breakthroughs have their origins in military exigencies, both because of the willingness to spend money and the premium placed on novelty during wartime.' Anticipating by two decades the schism C. P. Snow termed 'The Two Cultures', Bernal remarked that 'highly developed science stands almost isolated from a traditional literary culture.' He found that wrong. Again, quoting Andrew Brown, 'to him, science was a creative endeavour that still depended on inspiration and talent, just as much as in painting, writing or composing.' The importance of this book was such that twenty-five years after its publication, a collection of essays, The Science of Science, was published, in part in celebration, but also to explore many of the themes Bernal had first developed.

J.D. Bernal
J.D. Bernal

Author: Brenda Swann

Publisher: Verso

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 368

ISBN-13: 9781859848548

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

An eminent molecular physicist and path-breaking crystallographer, an eloquent and prescient writer on the social implications of science, an early foe of pseudo-scientific racism and an indefatigable campaigner for peace and civil rights: as a scientist and a Communist intellectual, J.D. Bernal was caught up in many of the dramas of the twentieth century. As Eric Hobsbawm describes here, Bernal played a major role in the dynamic 'red science' movement of the 1930s, whose ideas on links between science and society are only now being accorded their full significance. Bernal's The Social Function of Science remains a classic analysis of the way in which wider social relations may determine the boundaries of both scientific understanding and practice. Impressed by Bernal's relentless questioning of received ideas, Mountbatten recruited him to the brilliant scientific team of his 'Department of Wild Talents' during World War Two, to help in planning the Normandy landings. After the war, Bernal strove to combine running the Department of Physics at Birkbeck College, London, with travelling and campaigning through six continents against the nuclear threat of the Cold War. In a field notorious for its mysoginism, Bernal's laboratories at Birkbeck were a haven for many of the leading women scientists of the day, among them Rosalind Franklin and the Nobel Laureate Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin. And, as James Watson has acknowledged, Bernal's X-ray photographs of molecular structures formed a vital piece of evidence on the path leading to the discovery of DNA. In this wide-ranging collection of essays, different facets of Bernal's life and work are recounted and assessed by Eric Hobsbawm, Hilary and Steven Rose, Ivor Montagu, Ritchie Calder, Francis Aprahamian, Brenda Swann, Roy Johnston, Chris Freeman and Peter Mason

The Emergence of Science
The Emergence of Science

Author: J. D. Bernal

Publisher:

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 398

ISBN-13: 9780571273003

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

J. D. Bernal's monumental work, Science in History, was the first full attempt to analyse the reciprocal relations of science and society throughout history, from the perfection of the flint hand-axe to the hydrogen bomb. In this remarkable study he illustrates the impetus given to (and the limitations placed upon) discovery and invention by pastoral, agricultural, feudal, capitalist, and socialist systems, and conversely the ways in which science has altered economic, social, and political beliefs and practices. In this first volume Bernal discusses the nature and method of science before describing its emergence in the Stone Age, its full formation by the Greeks and its continuing growth (probably influenced from China) under Christendom and Islam in the Middle Ages. Andrew Brown, Bernal's biographer, with a nice sense of paradox, has said of him, he 'was steeped in history, in part because he was always thinking about the future.' He goes on to say, 'Science in History is an encyclopaedic, yet individual and colourful account of the emergence of science from pre-historic times. There is detailed coverage of the scientific revolution of the Enlightenment, the Industrial Age and the first two-thirds of the twentieth century. . . The writing flows and is devoid of the tortured idioms that mar so many academic histories of science. After reading it, it is easy to agree with C. P. Snow's orotund observation that Bernal was the last man to know science. Faber Finds are reissuing the illustrated four volume edition first published by Penguin in 1969. The four volumes are: Volume 1: The Emergence of Science, Volume 2: The Scientific and Industrial Revolutions, Volume 3: The Natural Sciences in Our Time, Volume 4: The Social Sciences: Conclusion. 'This stupendous work . . . is a magnificent synoptic view of the rise of science and its impact on society which leaves the reader awe-struck by Professor Bernal's encyclopaedic knowledge and historical sweep.' Times Literary Supplement

Atlas of Science
Atlas of Science

Author: Katy Borner

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2010-09-17

Total Pages: 267

ISBN-13: 0262014459

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Science maps that can help us understand and navigate the immense amount of results generated by today's science and technology. Cartographic maps have guided our explorations for centuries, allowing us to navigate the world. Science maps have the potential to guide our search for knowledge in the same way, allowing us to visualize scientific results. Science maps help us navigate, understand, and communicate the dynamic and changing structure of science and technology—help us make sense of the avalanche of data generated by scientific research today. Atlas of Science, featuring more than thirty full-page science maps, fifty data charts, a timeline of science-mapping milestones, and 500 color images, serves as a sumptuous visual index to the evolution of modern science and as an introduction to “the science of science”—charting the trajectory from scientific concept to published results. Atlas of Science, based on the popular exhibit, “Places & Spaces: Mapping Science”, describes and displays successful mapping techniques. The heart of the book is a visual feast: Claudius Ptolemy's Cosmographia World Map from 1482; a guide to a PhD thesis that resembles a subway map; “the structure of science” as revealed in a map of citation relationships in papers published in 2002; a visual periodic table; a history flow visualization of the Wikipedia article on abortion; a globe showing the worldwide distribution of patents; a forecast of earthquake risk; hands-on science maps for kids; and many more. Each entry includes the story behind the map and biographies of its makers. Not even the most brilliant minds can keep up with today's deluge of scientific results. Science maps show us the landscape of what we know.

Science in History
Science in History

Author: J. D. Bernal

Publisher: Faber & Faber

Published: 2012-10-04

Total Pages: 361

ISBN-13: 0571287581

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

J. D. Bernal's monumental work, Science in History , was the first full attempt to analyse the reciprocal relations of science and society throughout history, from the perfection of the flint hand-axe to the hydrogen bomb. In this remarkable study he illustrates the impetus given to (and the limitations placed upon) discovery and invention by pastoral, agricultural, feudal, capitalist, and socialist systems, and conversely the ways in which science has altered economic, social, and political beliefs and practices. In this first volume Bernal discusses the nature and method of science before describing its emergence in the Stone Age, its full formation by the Greeks and its continuing growth (probably influenced from China) under Christendom and Islam in the Middle Ages. Andrew Brown, Bernal's biographer, with a nice sense of paradox, has said of him, he 'was steeped in history, in part because he was always thinking about the future.' He goes on to say, ' Science in History is an encyclopaedic, yet individual and colourful account of the emergence of science from pre-historic times. There is detailed coverage of the scientific revolution of the Enlightenment, the Industrial Age and the first two-thirds of the twentieth century. . . The writing flows and is devoid of the tortured idioms that mar so many academic histories of science. After reading it, it is easy to agree with C. P. Snow's orotund observation that Bernal was the last man to know science. Faber Finds are reissuing the illustrated four volume edition first published by Penguin in 1969. The four volumes are: Volume 1: The Emergence of Science , Volume 2: The Scientific and Industrial Revolutions , Volume 3: The Natural Sciences in Our Time , Volume 4: The Social Sciences: Conclusion . 'This stupendous work . . . is a magnificent synoptic view of the rise of science and its impact on society which leaves the reader awe-struck by Professor Bernal's encyclopaedic knowledge and historical sweep.' Times Literary Supplement

Marxism and the Philosophy of Science
Marxism and the Philosophy of Science

Author: Helena Sheehan

Publisher: Verso Books

Published: 2018-01-23

Total Pages: 465

ISBN-13: 1786634260

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A masterful survey of the history of Marxist philosophy of science Sheehan retraces the development of a Marxist philosophy of science through detailed and highly readable accounts of the debates that shaped it. Skilfully deploying a large cast of characters, Sheehan shows how Marx and Engel’s ideas on the development and structure of natural science had a crucial impact on the work of early twentieth-century natural philosophers, historians of science, and natural scientists. With a new afterword by the author.