The Development of Ovonic Switches: a Case Study of a Scientific Controversy

Abstract

The discussion in this paper centres around the development by S. R. Ovshinsky, an American entrepreneur who has undergone no formal scientific training, of a new kind of semiconductor switch which, in contrast to the transistor, is based on randomly ordered amorphous (glassy) materials. It deals with three interrelated sets of propositions. Firstly, that there developed over the announcement by Ovshinsky of his work, a controversy of considerable bitterness and duration among certain solid state physicists and, to some extent, throughout the wider scientific community. Secondly, that there was some doubt expressed by the solid state physicists about the nature and significance of the results claimed by Ovshinsky. Thirdly, that in promoting and publicising his work Ovshinsky contravened some of the norms and values of the scientific community and that it was this, primarily, that precipitated the controversy. In the final section of this paper, we attempt to discuss the controversy in terms of the exchange-recognition model put forward by Hagstrom and others.' We consider that the controversy over Ovonic devices might be of interest to those concerned with the social dimensions of science and technology because it can be regarded as a striking example of an attempt at scientific innovation by an 'outsider' (i.e. someone with no formal scientific training) in an area of scientific activity which is highly structured in both the types of problems it undertakes and in its methods of tackling them, and boasts many scientists of international standing. As such, a case study of Ovshinsky and the devices which bear his name, will, we hope, make a useful contribution to our understanding of the social behaviour of the scientific community when its norms and values have been contravened. For as Merton has pointed out, social behaviour under such circumstances is particularly revealing: