Device physics vis-à-vis fundamental physics in Cold War America: the case of quantum optics.
Historians have convincingly shown the close ties U.S. physicists had with the military during the Cold War and have raised the question of whether this alliance affected the content of physics. Some have asserted that it distorted physics, shifting attention from fundamental problems to devices. Yet the papers of physicists in quantum electronics and quantum optics, fields that have been exemplary for those who hold the distortion thesis, show that the same scientists who worked on military devices simultaneously pursued fundamental and foundational topics. This essay examines one such physicist, Marlan O. Scully, with attention to both his extensive foundational studies and the way in which his applied and basic researches played off each other.
Bromberg
Joan Lisa
JL
Department of the History of Science and Technology, Johns Hopkins University, 3505 North Charles Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, USA.
D004867:Equipment Design; D005197:Famous Persons; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D010825:Physics / Q000266:history*; D011789:Quantum Theory / Q000266:history*; D014481:United States; D014857:Warfare