TY - JOUR
T1 - Properties and phenomena
T2 - Basic plasma physics and fusion research in Postwar America
AU - Weisel, Gary J.
N1 - Funding Information:
During the years of secrecy of the 1950s, fusion scientists reported many of their results at gaseous-electronics conferences, but shortly after the declassification of fusion research in 1958, the fusion-research and gaseous-electronics communities largely segregated, especially after the Division of Plasma Physics (DPP) of the American Physical Society (APS) was founded in 1959. As Allis noted, “We hoped they [the fusion scientists] would continue [to meet] with us but in fact their work is mostly too specialized and they soon established their own conference.”30 Indeed, the Conference on Plasma Physics and Controlled Nuclear Fusion Research, sponsored by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna in 1961, catered to the fusion community by design: The IAEA spoke of the need for “an international conference entirely devoted to work in plasma physics directed specifically to fusion research.” Topics concerning “fundamental processes in gas discharges” were “excluded” from the conference. Gaseous-electronics researchers were asked instead to submit their work to the Fifth International Conference on Ionization Phenomena in Gases, which would meet one week earlier.31 Even GE’s Lewi Tonks, whose work with Irving Langmuir was considered to be one of the foundations of plasma physics, experienced difficulty participating in the IAEA conference. Tonks had a contract from Lawrence Livermore Laboratory to develop a theoretical interpretation of its Astron machine, and after he requested funds from the AEC to enable him to attend the IAEA meeting, Arthur E. Ruark supported his request, declaring that “any international conference on plasma physics and controlled thermonuclear research without Lewi Tonks present would be something like Hamlet without the ghost, and without Hamlet.”32 Nevertheless, the American planning committee for the IAEA conference rejected Tonks’s paper, and Livermore informed him that it could not spare funds for his trip to Vienna.
Funding Information:
The work was progressing nicely, at which time almost all funding for university plasma research was cut to zero by the AEC.… So, without funding for what was a relatively large project, for a university, I was forced to abandon this research.70
PY - 2008/12
Y1 - 2008/12
N2 - I review the changing conceptions of basic physics that the U.S. plasma-physics community put forward in postwar America. I give special attention to the tense relationship between fusion research and the more general study of plasmas in astrophysics, space science, and industry.Although fusion research often led to results that were regarded as basic plasma physics, its dominating influence tended to weaken other plasma work, as becomes evident when I compare the public statements and professional fortunes of plasma scientists during the 1960s, when fusion research experienced a downturn, with those of the 1970s, when fusion research flourished. I also show that the plasmaphysics community's conceptions of basic physics were not highly regarded or easily understood by science administrators and the general physics community. To make this point, I contrast two general ideas of basic physics: the Big Questions conception and the Properties and Phenomena conception.
AB - I review the changing conceptions of basic physics that the U.S. plasma-physics community put forward in postwar America. I give special attention to the tense relationship between fusion research and the more general study of plasmas in astrophysics, space science, and industry.Although fusion research often led to results that were regarded as basic plasma physics, its dominating influence tended to weaken other plasma work, as becomes evident when I compare the public statements and professional fortunes of plasma scientists during the 1960s, when fusion research experienced a downturn, with those of the 1970s, when fusion research flourished. I also show that the plasmaphysics community's conceptions of basic physics were not highly regarded or easily understood by science administrators and the general physics community. To make this point, I contrast two general ideas of basic physics: the Big Questions conception and the Properties and Phenomena conception.
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U2 - 10.1007/s00016-007-0371-1
DO - 10.1007/s00016-007-0371-1
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:57449109160
SN - 1422-6944
VL - 10
SP - 396
EP - 437
JO - Physics in Perspective
JF - Physics in Perspective
IS - 4
ER -