Lent 2008

This term we will be reading about atomic physics and quantum mechanics. Copies of all the texts will be placed in the Whipple Library box file at the beginning of term.

We meet on Mondays from 7.30 to 9pm in the upstairs seminar room of Darwin College. All are welcome! Organised by Daniel Friesner (Science Museum) and Melanie Keene (HPS).


21 Jan
We will look at the rise and fall of the "solar system" model of atomic structure, as it was presented in the popular journal Scientific American.

• A. H. Compton, "What Is Matter Made Of?" (May 15, 1915, pp. 451-2).
• S. Dushman, "Beyond the Microscope" (June 1922, pp. 372-3).
• A. T. Merrick, "Solar Systems Inside the Atom" (February 1925, pp. 80-1).
• A. T. Merrick, "The Marvellous Speeds of Atomic Particles" (March 1925, p.301).
• P. R. Heyl, "What Is An Atom?" (July 1928, pp. 9-12).
• "Our Point of View: Whose Fault is It?" (November 1931, p. 299).

(N.B. Copies of these readings are already available in the Whipple Library box file: please bring £1 to reimburse Daniel for the cost of photocopying to the first meeting)


4 Feb
Psychological roots of complementarity.

• William James, The Principles of Psychology (1890), Vol. 1, Chapter IX, "The stream of thought". London: Macmillan and Co, 1891, pp. 224-290 (esp. pp. 229-248).
• Niels Bohr, "The Quantum of Action and the Description of Nature" (1929). In Atomic Theory and the Description of Nature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1934, pp. 92-101.

18 Feb
Some literary uses of the new physics.

• Aldous Huxley, Those Barren Leaves, Part V, Chapter 1. London: Chatto and Windus, 1925, pp. 339-348.
• Robert Frost, "Version" (1962). We will use the complete text of this poem, as published in The Poetry of Robert Frost, ed. E. C. Lathem. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1966, p. 427.
• Michael Roberts, "On mechanical hallelujahs, or how not to do it". Poetry Review, Vol. XIX, 1928, pp. 433-8 (esp. pp. 437-8).
• Robert Frost, "Education by Poetry" (1931). In Selected Prose of Robert Frost, ed. H. Cox & E. C. Lathem. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1966, pp. 33-46 (esp. pp. 36-41).

3 March
Two stories about multiple worlds and uncertainty.

• Jorge Luis Borges, "The garden of forking paths" (1941). Several English translations available, e.g. by Helen Temple and Ruthven Todd in Ficciones, ed. A. Kerrigan. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1962, pp. 89-101.
• Fred Hoyle, "A jury of five". In Element 79. New York: New American Library, 1967, pp. 114-132.