| Research at the Laboratory of Physics of the University of Lisbon |
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This book aims at contributing to a social and cultural history of LFUL (Physics Laboratory of Lisbon University) as a research centre, in the period 1929-1947. It interconnects social and political contexts with the appropriation of research in radioactivity and nuclear physics staged at Geneva, Paris, Rome and Zurich. The focus of this study is the small physicist community of LFUL and, particularly, its study of X-ray spectrography, radioactivity and nuclear physics, whether as a program for training candidates or as an actual activity of research. For this reason activities of other Portuguese physics laboratories will not be considered unless relevant to the clarification of this study. With this book I contribute a step towards the writing of the history of physics in Portugal integrating the research undertaken at all three Portuguese universities, in a manner similar to what has already been done for the cases of the United States of America and of France. The hard core of this book is an approach to the History of Science in which the scientific component plays a key role, but only when considered in its multiple connections with the social and political components inextricably intertwined with it. To fulfil this objective particular attention is paid both to the foundation of state supported institutions of scientific research, JEN (Board of National Education), IAC (Institution for High Culture), and informal mechanisms such as the Núcleo de Matemática, Física e Química (Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry Nucleus). From a methodological point of view, notions such as material culture, technoscience and moral economy were explored to analyse characteristics of the research school that the duo Cyrillo Soares-Valadares was able to create at LFUL, in a geographical and scientific periphery connected with various scientific centres. |
Júlia Gaspar,