Physics And The Rise Of Scientific Research In Canada

Download or read book Physics and the Rise of Scientific Research in Canada written by Yves Gingras and published by McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. This book was released on 1991-03-01 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The teaching of engineering and a change in liberal arts curricula, both stimulated by industrial growth, encouraged the creation of specialized courses in the sciences. By the 1890s, Gingras argues, trained researchers had begun to appear in Canadian universities. The technological demands of the First World War and the founding, in 1916, of the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) accelerated the growth of scientific research. The Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada could no longer publish everything submitted to it because of the disproportionately large number of research papers from the fields of science. In response, the NRC created the Canadian Journal of Research, a journal specifically dedicated to the publication of scientific research. By 1930, a stable, national system of scientific research was in place in Canada. Following the dramatic increase in the national importance of their disciplines, scientists faced the problem of social identity. Gingras demonstrates that in the case of physics this took the form of a conflict between those who promoted a professional orientation, necessary to compete successfully with engineers in the labour market, and those, mainly in the universities, who were concerned with problems of the discipline such as publication, internal management, and awards. Physics and the Rise of Scientific Research in Canada is the first book to provide a general analysis of the origins of scientific research in Canadian universities. Gingras proposes a sociological model of the formation of scientific disciplines, distinguishing the profession from the discipline, two notions often confused by historians and sociologists of science.

Download or read book The History and Heritage of Scientific and Technological Information Systems written by W. Boyd Rayward and published by Information Today, Inc.. This book was released on 2004 with total page 444 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Emphasis for the second conference on the history of information science systems was on scientific and technical information systems in the period from the Second World War up through the early 1990s. These proceedings present the papers of historians of science and technology, information scientists, and scientists in other fields on a wide range of topics: informatics in chemistry; biology and medicine; information developments in multinational, industrial, and military settings; biographical studies of pioneering individuals; and the transformation of information systems and formats in the twentieth century.

Download or read book The Science of War written by Donald Avery and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 1998-01-01 with total page 450 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Second World War, with its emphasis on innovative weapons and defence technology, brought about massive changes in the role of scientists in Canada, the United States, and Great Britain. Canadian scientists, working through the auspices of the National Research Council and the Department of National Defence, made important contributions to the development of alliance warfare. Before 1939, Canada had only a minute military establishment and a limited industrial and academic capacity for research and development. With the outbreak of war, all this changed dramatically. This book explains how and why Canada was able to play in the big leagues of military technology, including the development of radar, RDX explosives, proximity fuses, chemical and biological warfare, and the atomic bomb. It also investigates the evolution of the Canadian national security state, which attempted to protect defence secrets both from the Axis powers and from Canada's wartime ally, the Soviet Union. The Science of War provides both a cross-disciplinary overview of the scientific and military activity of this period in several countries and a fascinating analysis of what the author calls 'Big Science' in Canada.

Download or read book Historical Identities written by Euthalia Lisa Panayotidis and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2006-01-01 with total page 449 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As intellectual engines of the university, professors hold considerable authority and play an important role in society. By nature of their occupation, they are agents of intellectual culture in Canada. Historical Identities is a new collection of essays examining the history of the professoriate in Canada. Framing the volume with the question, 'What was it like to be a professor?' editors Paul Stortz and E. Lisa Panayotidis, along with an esteemed group of Canadian historians, strive to uncover and analyze variables and contexts - such as background, education, economics, politics, gender, and ethnicity - in the lives of academics throughout Canada's history. The contributors take an in-depth approach to topics such as academic freedom, professors and the state, faculty development, discipline construction and academic cultures, religion, biography, gender and faculty wives, images of professors, and background and childhood experiences. Including the best and most recent critical research in the field of the social history of higher education and professors, Historical Identities examines fundamental and challenging topics, issues, and arguments on the role and nature of intellectualism in Canada.

Download or read book UNESCO science report written by UNESCO and published by UNESCO Publishing. This book was released on 2015-11-09 with total page 818 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There are fewer grounds today than in the past to deplore a North‑South divide in research and innovation. This is one of the key findings of the UNESCO Science Report: towards 2030. A large number of countries are now incorporating science, technology and innovation in their national development agenda, in order to make their economies less reliant on raw materials and more rooted in knowledge. Most research and development (R&D) is taking place in high-income countries, but innovation of some kind is now occurring across the full spectrum of income levels according to the first survey of manufacturing companies in 65 countries conducted by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics and summarized in this report. For many lower-income countries, sustainable development has become an integral part of their national development plans for the next 10–20 years. Among higher-income countries, a firm commitment to sustainable development is often coupled with the desire to maintain competitiveness in global markets that are increasingly leaning towards ‘green’ technologies. The quest for clean energy and greater energy efficiency now figures among the research priorities of numerous countries. Written by more than 50 experts who are each covering the country or region from which they hail, the UNESCO Science Report: towards 2030 provides more country-level information than ever before. The trends and developments in science, technology and innovation policy and governance between 2009 and mid-2015 described here provide essential baseline information on the concerns and priorities of countries that could orient the implementation and drive the assessment of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in the years to come.

Download or read book The Canadian Space Program written by Andrew B. Godefroy and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-05-03 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Canada’s space efforts from its origins towards the end of the Second World War through to its participation in the ISS today are revealed in full in this complete and carefully researched history. Employing recently declassified archives and many never previously used sources, author Andrew B. Godefroy explains the history of the program through its policy and many fascinating projects. He assesses its effectiveness as a major partner in both US and international space programs, examines its current national priorities and capabilities, and outlines the country’s plans for the future. Despite being the third nation to launch a satellite into space after the Soviet Union and the United States; being a major partner in the US space shuttle program with the iconic Canadarm; being an international leader in the development of space robotics; and acting as one of the five major partners in the ISS, the Canadian Space Program remains one of the least well-known national efforts of the space age. This book attempts to shed a clearer light on the progress made by the CSA thus far, with more ambitious goals ahead. Technical information, diagrams, glossaries, a chronology, and extensive notes on sources are also included in this volume.

Download or read book Creating Complicated Lives written by Marelene Rayner-Canham and published by McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. This book was released on 2012-12-01 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why have Canadian women scientists been written out of the historical record? Who were they? What did they accomplish? What were their life paths? These are some of the questions answered in this authoritative work. Over decades of research, Marianne Ainley identified, tracked down, and interviewed surviving scientists. Creating Complicated Lives weaves the lives and work of these pioneers with the author's own experiences as an immigrant scientific technician and later a feminist historian. Ainley argues that we must look at the lives of women scientists through a new historical lens that takes into account both the advances of science and concurrent debates about the advancement of women. Rather than having linear career trajectories, many women shifted fields, coped with discrimination, and endeavoured to find niches in which they could make significant contributions. Never before has there been a survey of the lives and work of early Canadian women scientists. This nuanced study brings their stories to light, comparing, contrasting, and interpreting their very complicated lives.