Promoting the Planck Club : how defiant youth, irreverent researchers and liberated universities can foster prosperity indefinitely / by Donald W. Braben.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Braben, Donald W., 1935- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Scientists--Biography.

Scientists.

Science--History.

Science.

History.

Discoveries in science.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

xvi, 222 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Hoboken, New Jersey : John Wiley & Sons Inc., [2014]

Summary:

The twentieth century's plethora of creative scientists challenged the thinking of their day with uninhibited studies that led to such unpredicted technologies as lasers, countless electronic and telecommunications components, nuclear power, biotechnology, and medical diagnostic breakthroughs. While the-potential of science is greater than ever, policies have changed over the past few decades. Proposals for new work must now be submitted to third parties for assessment of their national or societal benefits before they are considered for funding-making the possibility of securing financial backing increasingly difficult. This provocative book traces the economic and social impact of frontier scientific research and focuses on the revolutionary discoveries that emerged from the unorthodox work of some of science's greatest pioneers. Clearly written and engaging from beginning to end, Promoting the Planck Club: Provides numerous mini histories of such selected scientists as Max Planck, Benjamin Thompson, Humphry Davy, Michael Faraday, Oswald Avery, Francis Crick, Jamas Watson, Harry Kroto, Richard Smalley, Bob Curl, and more, Explores the scientific environment that led to the important discoveries in the twentieth century and compares it with today's worrisome approach to the funding of scientific research, Explains the consequences of current trends such as the "industrialization of science" and the "corporatization of universities", Stimulates discussion on the best atmosphere under which scientific research should be conducted, Recommended for general courses on science, Promoting the Planck Club: How defiant youth, irreverent researchers and liberated universities can foster prosperity indefinitely will appeal to scientists of various disciplines, engineers, economists, policy makers, and anyone interested in science, science policy, and the general nature of creativity. Book jacket.

Contents:

Accidents, coincidences and the luck of the draw : how Benjamin Thompson and Humphry Davy enabled Michael Faraday to electrify the world

Science, technology and economic growth : can their magical relationships be controlled?

Max Planck : a reluctant revolutionary with a hunger of the soul

Physics golden age : "Bliss it was in that dawn to be alive/But to be young was very heaven"

Oswald T Avery : a modest diminutive introverted scientific heavyweight

Barbara Mcclintock (1902-1992) : a patient integrating maverick interpreter of living systems

Charles Townes : a meticulously careful scientific adventurer

Carl Woese : a staunch advocate for classical biology. Molecular biologists can read the notes in the score but they can't hear the music?

Peter Mitchell : a high-minded creative and courageous bioenergetics accountant

Harry Kroto : an artistic adventurous chemist with a flair for astrophysics

John Mattick : a prominent critic of dogma and a pioneer of the idea that genomes contain hidden sources of regulation

Conclusions: How we can foster prosperity indefinitely.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Braben, D. W., author. Promoting the Planck Club

ISBN:

9781118546420

1118546423

OCLC:

861966389