Physics In Germany Research Articles

Academic socialization: On a neglected effect of competition in science

AbstractCompetition is usually considered a mechanism for the allocation of scarce resources. This paper draws attention to a neglected effect of academic competition: competition provides participants with a normative orientation about field-specific values by informing them about which activities will be rewarded. We conceptualize this as a socializing effect. We study the socializing effects of competition for postdocs because this group is especially exposed to the dynamics of academic competition. Drawing on qualitative interviews with 60 postdocs in history and physics in Germany, the analysis reveals the orientations and values that competition conveys to postdocs. Since different forms of competition for publications, funding, and jobs are not neatly synchronized, they convey various expectations. Postdocs cope with this multiplicity, prioritizing a specific form of competition that is competition for funding. This comes at the expense of activities and tasks that are not organized competitively. The socializing effect of competition should be reflected more thoroughly not only by scholarship on academic competition but also by research policy that promotes competition.

Christa Jungnickel and Russell McCormmach. The Second Physicist: On the History of Theoretical Physics in Germany. Cham: Springer, 2017. Pp. xxxi+460. $180.00 (cloth); $140.00 (e-book).

Christa Jungnickel and Russell McCormmach. <i>The Second Physicist: On the History of Theoretical Physics in Germany</i>. Cham: Springer, 2017. Pp. xxxi+460. $180.00 (cloth); $140.00 (e-book).

Crystal physics in Germany – The lifework of Siegfried Haussühl (*25th November 1927, †07th January 2014)

Article Crystal physics in Germany – The lifework of Siegfried Haussühl (*25th November 1927, †07th January 2014) was published on November 1, 2015 in the journal Zeitschrift für Kristallographie - Crystalline Materials (volume 230, issue 11).

Newly appointed editor of Archiv der Mathematik

Benjamin Klopsch, born 1974, studied mathematics and physics in Germany and in the UK. After completing his DPhil at the University of Oxford in 1999, he held postdoctoral fellowships in Israel and in Canada. Subsequently he worked as a Wissenschaftlicher Assistent at the University of Dusseldorf in Germany, obtaining his Habilitation in 2006. In 2007 he took up a lectureship at Royal Holloway, University of London, UK, where he was successively promoted up to the rank of a professor. In 2012 he accepted a professorship at the University of Magdeburg in Germany. Since 2013 he is a professor at the Heinrich-Heine-University in Dusseldorf, heading the algebra and number theory group. His research is centred around group theory and group actions, with a view toward arithmetic, combinatorial, geometric and representation-theoretic aspects. He takes a keen interest in p-adic Lie groups, general locally compact groups and their lattices.

&lt;p&gt;Impact of Climate and Geographic Location on Moisture Transport in Wood Construction Walls and Implications for Selecting Vapor Retarders&lt;/p&gt;

This research effort studied two similarly built homes in two different geographic locations in an attempt to demonstrate the affect that climatic conditions have on the selection and installation of appropriate vapor diffusion retarders to control moisture transport in wood-framed structures. Much misinformation and suppositions exist regarding which vapor diffusion retarder to use, where to place it within the structure, and whether it is even necessary. As a result, uncontrolled moisture transport is often a significant factor in the premature degradation of a structure; this also adds to poor indoor air quality resulting from the growth of mold and mildew. Nine climatic values of temperature, humidity, and air pressure were recorded at 20-30 minute intervals at various locations within the wall cavities and the outside of both test structures, for a 12-week period from January to March. These data allowed the researchers to perform calculations to predict the potential for growth of mold or mildew within the structure. Ultimately, these data were further compared for moisture transport behavior with the simulation software WUFI (“Wärme und Feuchtigkeit Instationären), a PC program developed by the Institute for Building Physics in Germany and the Oak Ridge National Laboratories in Tennessee for calculating coupled heat and moisture transfer in building components.

A Feature of Research with Practice Encouraging Girls to Learn Physics in Germany

A Feature of Research with Practice Encouraging Girls to Learn Physics in Germany

Notes on the legacy of the Röntgen rays.

The discovery of the Röntgen rays and the events connected to it are extraordinary in many respects. Röntgen never disclosed the full details of the experiment which led to the discovery on November 8, 1895. He observed the x-rays by chance. Neither he nor any other scientist had an idea that such radiation might exist. However, it needed a Röntgen to make the discovery, an experimenter of his superior capabilities. His achievement was the culmination point of the development of physics as an experimental science in the 19th Century. This development of physics is described in this report in some detail, together with the institutional structure of university physics in Germany and the status of technical achievements at the time of Röntgen. Röntgen was suspicious, if not disdainful, of theoretical physics which slowly had gained in importance and in institutional representation. Thus, Röntgen's famous discovery, possible only to a mind not prejudiced by theoretical considerations or expectations, happened at a point in the history of physics when predominantly theoretical concepts introduced the paradigm change from "classical" to "modern" physics: Maxwell's electromagnetic theory, Planck's quantum hypothesis, and Einstein's relativity principle and explanation of the photo-electric effect. The tremendous speed by which the news of the "new kind of rays" spread around the world and the sensation this news caused launched an intensity of research on x-rays unprecedented in other areas of research and is reflected in a description of the publication history. The traditional working style of the Institute Director Röntgen, the structure of his Institute, his lack of interest in theory, the burden of his sudden fame and other factors made it practically impossible for him to compete with the rapid development and to contribute substantially to the research on x-rays. Even the award of the first Nobel Prize in physics in 1901 did not stimulate him to undertake new research activities. He even succeeded in avoiding presentation of his Nobel Lecture. He took the role of the interested observer, sometimes diverted by priority disputes, mainly with Lenard, or by sensational press reports, and retreated increasingly into final solitude, possibly his answer also to the abundance of honors heaped upon him. The impact of his discovery was, however, enormous. In physics it gave impulses to the discovery of radioactivity, of the identification of the electron, and the development of the model of the atom; and in medicine in its immediate applications in diagnosis and therapy.

Max Planck and the ‘‘black year’’ of German physics

1994 is the hundredth anniversary of what Max Planck described in 1935 as the ‘‘black year’’ of German physics. In the eight months between January 1st and September 8th 1894, Heinrich Hertz, August Kundt, and Hermann von Helmholtz died. This article reviews the lives of these three important physicists, their research contributions, and their unique positions in the German physics community. In conclusion, the relationships of these three physicists to Planck are discussed, and Planck’s evaluation of the impact of 1894 on physics in Germany is appraised from our perspective of one hundred years.

Die Mathematisierung der Naturwissenschaften vor dem Hinter‐grund der Bildungsvorstellungen des 19. Jahrhunderts

Both, astronomy in the first half of the 19th century and physics in the second half of the 19th century functioned as models and paradigms for the other sciences. The paradigmatic character of a theoretical, mathematical astronomy was due mainly to its capability to predict future events. According to the influence of the Romantische Naturphilosophie the mathematization of physics in Germany took place belatedly compared to France. A modified Newtonian research program with its mathematical implications was adopted by German physicists only after the establishment of the principle of energy conservation. German physicists of the late 19th century claimed over and above the results of physicists the successes of German technology for physics and interpreted these achievements as “cultural” achievements.They combined this claim with a request for a better representation of physics in the curricula of secondary schools so as to be comparable to that of mathematics. The resistance of the most prestigious secondary schools, the Humanistische Gymnasien, against this request meant that the concept of Bildung as propagated by physicists was not accepted generally in Germany.

Intellectual Mastery of Nature: Theoretical Physics from Ohm to Einstein Vol 2 – The Now Mighty Theoretical Physics 1870–1925

Christa Jungnickel and Russell McCormmach 1986 Chicago: University of Chicago Press xv + 435 pp price £55.25 ISBN 0 226 41 584 8

Polymer physics in germany

Polymer physics in germany

A Report on the State of Physics in Germany

First Page

Physics in Germany

A DISCUSSION about the claims of technical physics to be regarded as a subject in its own right began at the International Congress for the Training of Engineers in Darmstadt in 1947, and has been carried on in Physikalische Blaetter (No. 8, 253 ; 1947. No. 1, 16 ; 1948 No. 3, 110; 1948), and is still going on.

Physics in Germany

(From a German Correspondent.) HERR STEFAN, of Vienna, has published a paper on a series of researches on adhesion. It is well known that two plane plates which are placed upon one another adhere together so firmly that they can only be separated by a certain amount of force. This phenomenon has hitherto been considered as caused by adhesion (i.e. by the action of molecular forces between the particles in contact between the two plates), and it was tried to determine the magnitude of this adhesion statically.