Centennial History of the Carnegie Institution of Washington: Volume 2, The Department of Terrestrial Magnetism: Department of Terrestrial Magnetism v. 2

EAN: 9780521830799
Published 10/03/2005
Language: English

In 1902, Andrew Carnegie founded the Carnegie Institution of Washington, to support innovative science research. Since its creation two years later, the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism has undertaken a broad range of research from terrestrial magnetism, ionospheric physics and geochemistry to biophysics, radio astronomy and planetary science. This second volume in a series of five histories of the Carnegie Institution describes the people and events, the challenges and successes that the Department has witnessed over the last century. Contemporary photographs illustrate some of the remarkable expeditions and instruments developed in pursuit of scientific understanding, from sailing ships to nuclear particle accelerators and radio telescopes to mass spectrometers. These photographs show an evolution of scientific progress through the century, often done under trying, even exciting circumstances.

Preface
1. Establishment
2. Cruises and war
3. Expeditions
4. Measurements - magnetic and electric
5. The Fleming transition
6. The last cruise
7. The magnetic observatories and final land observations
8. The ionosphere
9. Collaboration and evaluation
10. The Tesla coil
11. The Van de Graaff
12. The nuclear force
13. Fission
14. Cosmic rays
15. The proximity fuze and the war effort
16. The Tuve transition
17. Post-war nuclear physics
18. The cyclotron
19. Biophysics
20. Explosion seismology
21. Isotope geology
22. Radio astronomy
23. Image tubes
24. Computers
25. Earthquake seismology
26. Strainmeters
27. The Bolton and Wetherill years
28. Astronomy
29. The Solar System
30. Geochemistry
31. Island-arc volcanoes
32. Seismology revisited
33. Geochemistry and cosmochemistry
34. The Solomon transition
35. The support staff
Epilogue
References and notes.