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 - Couverture rigide

Tanford, Charles

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0822308762 ISBN 13 : 9780822308768

Editeur : Duke University Press, 1989

Synopsis

Among the many phenomena which engaged the scientific imagination of Benjamin Franklin (1773) is the fact that a drop of oil, if placed on water, spreads out to form a film too thin even to produce prismatic colors but capable still of smoothing the waves. The author, formerly a professor of phy

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur

When Benjamin Franklin, the 18th-century American statesman and scientist, watched the calming effect of a drop of oil on the waves and ripples of a London pond, he was observing what Pliny the Elder and generations of seafarers had done before him. Franklin, though, was the first to wonder exactly what was happening to the oil, and to investigate this strange phenomenon. Following Franklin's lead, a motley crowd of scientists over the next two centuries and more chose to investigate the nature of atoms and molecules through the interaction of fluid membranes. They included Lord Rayleigh, an altruistic English Lord, Agnes Pockels, who conducted experiments in her kitchen and became one of the earliest women to make lasting contributions to science, the renowned Dutch pediatrician Evert Gorter, and Irving Langmuir, one of America's greatest industrial scientists. Building on Franklin's original experiments, their work has culminated in the discovery of the structure of cell membranes, research that continues to bear fruit today. Ben Franklin Stilled the Waves is far more than the story of oil on water; it is a voyage into the very nature of science and its place in our history.

Biographie de l'auteur

Charles Tanford is Emeritus Professor at Duke University, Durham, NC, USA and a former Guggenheim Fellow. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) and lives in Easingwold, UK.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Duke University Press
• Date d'édition: 1989
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0822308762
• ISBN 13: 9780822308768
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 237
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible