Physics as a human endeavour

The way you were taught quantum mechanics depends on when you were a student; pedagogical approaches over the last century have been driven by social and political trends. Physicist and historian, David Kaiser, charts how the emphasis of quantum education has oscillated between philosophy and practicality.

Raphaël Lévy, one of the principal investigators of NanoBubbles — an interdisciplinary project that explores how, when and why science fails to correct itself, talks about the importance of questioning and correcting the scientific record.

Venkatesh Narayanamurti and Jeffrey Y. Tsao discuss lessons learned from the success of the great 20th-century industrial research labs and warn against three common misconceptions about the nature and nurture of research.

Pietro Barabaschi, Director General of ITER, calls for measures and incentives to carefully document the entire research process, including dead ends and failures, instead of reporting just the successful final results.

Established almost 100 years ago, Bell Labs made a great contribution to advancing both fundamental science and technology. Was that the result of a unique set of circumstances or is there a reproducible recipe for success?

Sarah Williams discusses the pressing need to involve the younger generations in the current discussions and decisions about future big projects in particle physics.

Many scientists consider peer review a crucial part of science, but are frustrated by its perceived failures. Historian of science Melinda Baldwin suggests we consider peer review’s historical development to better understand its present-day form.

The abstract as a 200-word summary that readers click through to access a full article is a staple of scientific publishing. But as Aileen Fyfe explains, this is only one of the roles that abstracts have performed in the history of scientific communication.

The paranormal looms large in pop culture — witness the phenomenon of the Paranormal Activity film franchise — and in the late 19th and early 20th centuries it was of interest to many scientists. What does this history reveal about the boundaries of science?

“Girls don’t like physics” is a common refrain, but this perception has not always existed, nor does it occur everywhere in the world today. We call on our readers to fight such unfounded stereotypes.

Women and people of colour are underrepresented in physics in many parts of the world, to the detriment of the field. How do academics’ beliefs about the role of ‘brilliance’ in career success contribute to these representation gaps, and what can be done to address them?

When students are in our physics classes, they are doing physics and are part of the professional physics community. Martha-Elizabeth Baylor explains how treating students as professionals and training them in all aspects of what it means to be a physicist benefits both students and the wider community.

In 1931, the psychoanalyst Carl Jung took on an unusual patient, the brilliant young physicist, Wolfgang Pauli. Arthur I. Miller tells the story of their friendship, how they impacted each other’s work, and reflects on creativity.

Science and society are inextricably entangled, but the discussion of social issues in optics and photonics is, at best, treated as peripheral to the field. A group of researchers, technicians, administrative staff, and clinical liaisons share how they came together to start a conversation recognizing these oft-disregarded issues.

In the 20th century, Bell Labs was a renowned industrial research lab in the US, known as the birthplace of the transistor and for the discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation. It was also home to a 40-year minority outreach programme that went on to create a generation of Black scientists. What can initiatives today learn from the success of this fellowship?

To complement our Collection “Physics as a human endeavour”, we share some reading on the history and sociology of physics.

Although the practice of doing physics has a long history, the term ‘physicist’ is less than 200 years old. Historian Iwan Rhys Morus traces the roots of the word and discusses its slow acceptance by the community it came to describe.

On the centenary of the founding of the Electrical Association for Women, three historians of science and technology reflect on the impact of bringing physics literacy into our daily lives.

Claims that artificial intelligence will usher in a new scientific and social era have been attracting funding for decades, but the changes they’ve achieved have not been as advertised. Historian James Sumner considers the limits of science’s ability to plan a revolution.

Sociotechnical visions of the future can motivate researchers to create a better world, but as social scientist Benjamin K. Sovacool argues, they can also blind the scientific community to potential downsides.

In 2021, physicist and writer, Carlo Rovelli, helped launch an open letter to the world’s politicians calling for a small proportion of military funding to address climate change, poverty and pandemics — the Global Peace Dividend. He discusses the pressing need for global cooperation on common interests.

Condensed matter is one of the largest and most prolific areas of physics, but it looms small in the public imagination. In this Comment, historian Joseph D. Martin argues that its relationship with technology might be to blame.

Making physics more sustainable raises complex interdisciplinary questions. Answering them needs input from the humanities and social sciences.

The International Union for Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) celebrates its centenary this year, but its beginnings were far from easy. Roberto Lalli and Jaume Navarro reflect on IUPAP’s evolving role in promoting international cooperation.