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SUMMARY:Ether: the multiple lives of a resilient concept - Jaume Navarro (
 University of the Basque Country)
DTSTART:20180118T130000Z
DTEND:20180118T140000Z
UID:TALK98548@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Richard Staley
DESCRIPTION:In this session I propose to discuss the text of the introduct
 ion to a collective volume on the ether in the early twentieth century soo
 n to be published by Oxford University Press. This book is a snapshot of t
 he ether qua epistemic object in the early twentieth century. The contribu
 ted papers show that the ether was not necessarily regarded as the residue
  of old-fashioned science\, but often as one of the objects of modernity\,
  hand in hand with the electron\, radioactivity or X-rays. Instrumental wa
 s the emergence of wireless technologies and radio broadcasting\, certainl
 y a very modern technology\, which brought the ether into social audiences
  that would otherwise have never heard about such an esoteric entity. Foll
 owing the prestige of scientists like Oliver Lodge and Arthur Eddington as
  popularisers of science\, the ether became common currency among the gene
 ral educated public. Modernism in the arts was also fond of the ether in t
 he early twentieth century: the values of modernism found in the complexit
 ies and contradictions of modern physics such as wireless action or wave-p
 article puzzles a fertile ground for the development of new artistic langu
 ages\; in literature as much as in the pictorial and performing arts.\n\nT
 he question of what was meant by 'ether' (or 'aether') in the early twenti
 eth century at the scientific and cultural levels is also central to this 
 volume. The essays in this volume display a complex array of meanings that
  will help elucidate the uses of the ether before its purported abandonmen
 t. Rather than thinking of the ether as simply a name that remained popula
 r among several publics\, this book shows the complexities of an epistemic
  object that saw\, in the early twentieth century\, the last episode in th
 e long tradition of stretching its meaning and uses.
LOCATION:Seminar Room 2\, Department of History and Philosophy of Science
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