Article ID: CBB487757640

“Electron Theory” and the Emergence of Atomic Physics in Japan (2018)

unapi

This paper discusses one aspect of the context in which atomic physics developed in Japan between 1905 and 1931. It argues that during this period, there was a social context in which atomic physics was valued as a study of the electron and was thus relevant to electrical engineering. To demonstrate this, I first show that after the Russo-Japanese War, electrical engineering was deemed a valuable and viable field of research in Japan. Second, I show that physicists wrote textbooks and popular accounts about the electron, covering topics from both atomic physics and electrical engineering and presenting the former as relevant to the latter. Finally, as an example of how atomic physics partially emerged from this context, I discuss the group of Kujirai Tsunetarō, an electrical engineer who worked in the physics department of the Institute for Physical and Chemical Research (RIKEN). From Kujirai's group, Nishina Yoshio started his career and became the most important Japanese atomic and nuclear physicist of the 1930s.

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Article Shaul Katzir (2018) Introduction: Physics, Technology, and Technics during the Interwar Period. Science in Context (pp. 251-261). unapi

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Authors & Contributors
Kim, Dong-Won
Ito, Kenji
Eckert, Michael
Wang, Lei
Toma Kawanishi
Artin, Tom
Concepts
Physics
Atomic, nuclear, and particle physics
Quantum mechanics
Science and society
Electrons
Electron physics; ionization
Time Periods
20th century, early
20th century
20th century, late
19th century
Places
Japan
Germany
Europe
Austria
England
United States
Institutions
Munich. Universität
Carnegie Institute of Technology
Tokyo Institute of Technology
Rikagaku Kenkyu-Jo
Niels Bohr Institutet, Copenhagen
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