1,097 research outputs found
“And nothing else exists to constitute the Universe”: Augusto Righi and the ultimate physical reality at the dawn of the 20th Century
No full textOn 12 April 1907, the well-known physicist Augusto Righi gave a lecture-demonstration for the opening of the Institute of Physics of the University of Bologna and engaged the audience with the notion of “electrical constitution of matter”. The paper reconstructs Righi’s explanation and shows how the subject stimulated interesting philosophical debates at the dawn of the Centur
Recensione del volume "Scienza e tecnica. Dalla rivoluzione scientifica alla rivoluzione digitale di Giulio Peruzzi e Valentina Roberti" (Roma, Donzelli – Padova, Padova University Press, 2022, VIII, 311 pp.)
No full textRecensione sul volume di Giulio Peruzzi, Valentina Roberti, Scienza e tecnica. Dalla rivoluzione scientifica alla rivoluzione digitale, Roma, Donzelli- Padova, Padova University Press, 2022, VII
BOOK REVIEW Historical Scientific Instruments in Contemporary Education. Leiden: Brill, 2021. xx, 304 pp., incl. 110 ill. isbn: 9789004499669.
No full textHistorical Scientific Instruments in Contemporary Education is the first volume
of the Scientific Instruments and Collections series entirely dedicated to the use
of historical scientific instruments in educational activities, and it is constituted
by selected papers from annual sic meetings by authors of nine countries
(Belgium, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Switzerland, The Netherlands
and the USA) and about twenty institutions
Technology-embedding Instruments and Performative Goals: the case of the fully-automatized cloud chamber by the Officine Galileo in Florence
No full textThe paper presents a study of a cloud chamber produced for teaching purposes by the Company “Officine Galileo” in Florence from 1948 to the late 1960s and designed by the Italian physicist Carlo Ballario. The instrument is built according to a modification introduced by C.T.R. Wilson in 1933 to his original cloud chamber of 1911 and, at the same time, shows a proper identity, as fully-automatized apparatus.
In the paper – on the basis of a close study of the instrument, an analysis of the correspondence between the designer and the Company and published and unpublished documents – I will argue that the fully-automatized character of the Italian cloud chamber can be understood in terms of a possible, specific performative goal for which the instrument was meant for. In the last part, the analysis of the circulation of the instruments provides insights on the market of Scientific Instruments in Italy and in the United States after the WWII
Un luogo di Scienza, Arte e Progresso: il Regio Museo di Fisica dell’Università di Bologna
No full textL'articolo fornisce una ricostruzione storica e descrizione dettagliata del Regio Museo di Fisica dell’Università di Bologna inaugurato da Augusto Righi il 12 Aprile 1907. Illustra inoltre la recente esposizione dedicata a tale tema realizzata presso il Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia "Augusto Righi" nella sede di Via Irnerio, 46
Augusto Righi and the intuition of the experiment
No full textIngenious experimental physicist, talented professor and science communicator,
committed Senator, Augusto Righi has been one of the greatest Italian physicists
across two epochs of physics history – the end of the 19th and the beginning of the
20th century. By means of a close look into Righi’s most significant experiments,
apparatuses and documents, the paper provides on overview on Righi’s major
contributions to classical electromagnetism and structure of matter and sheds light
on his peculiar “experimental intuition
‘Seeing with one's own eyes’ and speaking to the mind: a history of the Wilson cloud chamber in the teaching of physics'
No full textIn 1911 the Wilson cloud chamber opened new possibilities for physics pedagogy. The instrument, which visualized particles’ tracks as trails of condensed vapour, was adopted by physicists to pursue frontier research on the Compton effect, the positron and the transmutation of atomic nuclei. But as the present paper will show, Wilson's instrument did not just open up new research opportunities, but the possibility of developing a different kind of teaching. Equipped with a powerful visualization tool, some physicists–teachers employed Wilson's instrument to introduce their students to a wide range of phenomena and concepts, ranging from the behaviour of clouds to Einstein's photon, the wave–particle duality and the understanding of the nucleus. This paper uses the notes, books and prototypes of these pioneering physicists–teachers to compose a pedagogical history of the Wilson cloud chamber, documenting an episode of immense ingenuity, creativity and scientific imagination
Tra Scienza pura e Rivoluzione: esperimenti di Augusto Righi e Guglielmo Marconi condotti a Bologna tra il 1893 e il 1897
No full textThe paper revisits the introduction of wireless telegraphy at the end of the nineteenth century by the Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi within the framework of scientific revolution. It demonstrates how Marconi, building on the experiments conducted by Hertz, Righi, and other contemporary physicists who focused on verifying Maxwell’s electromagnetic theory, utilised electromagnetic waves to develop a communication system. The paper emphasises that the originality of Marconi’s revolution, particularly in its early stages, lay not so much in the invention of new instruments but in the refinement and skilful integration of existing one
Dal cielo delle regolarità al cielo dell’eccezionalità: i mostri celesti di Ulisse Aldrovandi
No full textI mostri celesti sono l’oggetto della trattazione sviluppata nell’ultimo capitolo del celebre volume Monstrorum Historia di Ulisse Aldrovandi, pubblicato nel 1642, a quasi quarant’anni dalla morte dello scienziato. Mostri celesti per antonomasia sono le comete, alle quali verrà dato particolare spazio nel presente articolo. L’analisi sviluppata permetterà di trarre conclusioni in merito al tema dell’illustrazione scientifica, introdotta nel testo aldrovandiano come strumento di valorizzazione dei testi antichi, greci e romani. Inoltre, un confronto tra alcuni passi della Monstrorum Historia e la celebre opera Sidereus Nuncius pubblicata da Galileo Galilei nel 1610, permetterà di evidenziare come ad appena nove anni dalla condanna di Galileo Galilei nel 1633, elementi simbolo della rivoluzione scientifica quali il cannocchiale, venivano integrati dai
successori di Aldrovandi al fine di aggiornare costantemente l’opera. L’analisi che si propone mostra inoltre come nella prima metà del Seicento, il cielo – già trasformato in laboratorio di osservazione privilegiato nella transizione verso la scienza moderna da scienziati quali Copernico, Kepler e Galilei – poteva ancora essere scrutato con altri intenti, in cerca di fenomeni rari ed eccezionali, i mostri
SYMMETRY AS CONCEPTUAL CORE OF THE STANDARD MODEL OF PHYSICS: ACTIONS FOR SCIENCE EDUCATION
No full textThe paper focuses on a project aimed at communicating to non scientists the ’cultural essence’ of the Standard Model of Physics – one of the most advanced intellectual achievements of contemporary physics. The project is based on the hypothesis that the cultural essence can be reached and analysed through the exploration of the meaning of ’Symmetry’ in XX Century. The teaching actions designed so far are presented in the paper. Each action is addressed to a particular audience: general public, secondary school students and university students. Strategies adopted and problematic issues are discussed
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