Discipline Dynamics

Most scientists involved in radioactive research had a background in chemistry or physics, and up to World War I little distinction was made between the physical and chemical aspects of radioactive research. As Ruth Sime points out, radioactivity split after the war. In 1917, to give an example, the radioactive section at the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut fur Chemie in Berlin-Dahlem split into a physical section (headed by Meitner) and a chemical section (headed by Hahn). In some sense, however, the field retained its unity radiochemistry was kept much alive at the Institut du Radium in Paris, and this expertise helped in the discovery of artificial radioactivity, when phosphorus had to be isolated in three minutes. The subdisciplinary divide was informed by a common interest in radioactive substances. This division did not so much reflect the independence of radiophysics and radiochemistry, as the mutual confidence of their practitioners. As Sime puts it Physicists and chemists collaborated across a pronounced disciplinary divide... they trusted each other s expertise without always understanding each other s limitations . 

However, Sime goes on to stress that the pursuit of synthetic elements brought together nuclear physicists and radiochemists in what may be called a neo-classical period of interdisciplinary research , after the relative independence of the 1920s. Collaboration was again essential to clarify the behavior of uranium under neutron 

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Progress in the theoretical description of reaction rates in solution of course correlates strongly with that in other theoretical disciplines, in particular those which have profited most from the enonnous advances in computing power such as quantum chemistry and equilibrium as well as non-equilibrium statistical mechanics of liquid solutions where Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics simulations in many cases have taken on the traditional role of experunents, as they allow the detailed investigation of the influence of intra- and intemiolecular potential parameters on the microscopic dynamics not accessible to measurements in the laboratory. No attempt, however, will be made here to address these areas in more than a cursory way, and the interested reader is referred to the corresponding chapters of the encyclopedia. 

The visualization of volumetric properties is more important in other scientific disciplines (e.g., computer tomography in medicine, or convection streams in geology). However, there are also some applications in chemistry (Figure 2-125d), among which only the distribution of water density in molecular dynamics simulations will be mentioned here. Computer visualization of this property is usually realized with two or three dimensional textures [203]. 

Chemical vapor deposition is a synthesis process in which the chemical constituents react in the vapor phase near or on a heated substrate to form a solid deposit. The CVD technology combines several scientific and engineering disciplines including thermodynamics, plasma physics, kinetics, fluid dynamics, and of course chemistry. In this chapter, the fundamental aspects of these disciplines and their relationship will be examined as they relate to CVD. 

In physics, fluid dynamics is a sub-discipline of fluid mechanics that deals with fluid flow —the natural science of fluids (liquids and gases) in motion. It has several subdisciplines itself, including aerodynamics (the study of air and other gases in motion) and hydrodynamics (the study of liquids in motion). Fluid dynamics offers a systematic structure that underlies these practical disciplines, that embraces empirical and semi-empirical laws derived from flow measurement and used to solve practical problems. The solution to a fluid dynamics problem typically involves calculating various properties of the fluid, such as velocity, pressure, density, viscosity and temperature, as functions of space and time. 

The purpose is manifold, mainly to provide a modern reference for graduate instruction and for active researchers in the two disciplines, as well as to document that electrocatalysis and electrochemistry are dynamic fields that expand rapidly and likewise rapidly change in their scientific profiles. 

This section provides a short introductory survey of an area of science which is not only mathematically exacting, but also of fundamental importance for certain aspects of biogenesis. Thermodynamics, a sub-discipline of physics, deals not only with heat and dynamics , but formulated more generally, thermodynamics is concerned with energy and entropy and deals with theorems which are valid across almost all areas of physics. 

The introduction of the Bom-Oppenheimer approximation (BOA) set the stage for the development of electronic structure theory and molecular dynamics as separate disciplines. Certainly this separation has been fruitful and has in large measure fostered the rapid development of the fields. However, it is also clear that a comprehensive approach to chemistry must remain cognizant of the interplay between electronic structure and nuclear dynamics. Inferring dynamical behavior... 

Nye, Mary Jo. 1993. From Chemical Philosophy to Theoretical Chemistry Dynamics of Matter and Dynamics of Disciplines 1800-1950. Berkeley University of California Press. 

It is hard to imagine a scientific discipline older than the study of dynamical systems. The remarkable history of the field testifies to nature s inexhaustible store of subtlety and ability to surprise. Ever since Galileo, remarkable experiments, deep theoretical insights, and powerful calculational tools have all contributed to creating the rich panorama that the field presents today. 

Recently there has been an increasing interest in self-oscillatory phenomena and also in formation of spatio-temporal structure, accompanied by the rapid development of theory concerning dynamics of such systems under nonlinear, nonequilibrium conditions. The discovery of model chemical reactions to produce self-oscillations and spatio-temporal structures has accelerated the studies on nonlinear dynamics in chemistry. The Belousov-Zhabotinskii(B-Z) reaction is the most famous among such types of oscillatory chemical reactions, and has been studied most frequently during the past couple of decades [1,2]. The B-Z reaction has attracted much interest from scientists with various discipline, because in this reaction, the rhythmic change between oxidation and reduction states can be easily observed in a test tube. As the reproducibility of the amplitude, period and some other experimental measures is rather high under a found condition, the mechanism of the B-Z reaction has been almost fully understood until now. The most important step in the induction of oscillations is the existence of auto-catalytic process in the reaction network. 

From chemical philosophy to theoretical chemistry dynamics of matter and dynamics of disciplines, 18001950 / Mary Jo Nye. p. cm. 

For chemistry as a whole, and for each of these chemical disciplines, there developed a historical (indeed, genealogical) legacy and a core literature, as well as a set of shared problems, practices, principles, and values. Thomas Kuhn has treated such disciplinary components as categories of the "paradigm" or the "disciplinary matrix," which are useful in understanding normal science before its transformation during a period of revolution.5 My concern is not revolution but the evolution of eighteenth-century chemical philosophy, whose practitioners aspired to understand the dynamics of matter, into twentieth-century theoretical chemistry, whose practitioners claimed to do so. 

The first premise is that we risk overlooking the crux of a scientific discipline if we do not understand the discipline s values and problems. These provide a unity that no merely institutional history can explain. The second premise is that a programmatic conceptual core of chemical thought from the eighteenth century through the twentieth century was what I call the problem of the dynamics of matter (What holds a substance together What makes it change ). An early expression for this problem of dynamics was the concept of "chemical affinity."... 

Dynamics, namely, the mechanism of chemical reactivity, was not the only conceptual core to chemistry. We might focus as well on the concepts of chemical "species" and chemical "constitution," and indeed these concepts figure in the history that follows. However, the dynamics of matter was a kernel at the heart of chemistry, with varying paces of growth. It constituted both disputed and common territory for practitioners of chemical philosophy and natural philosophy. More recently, it provided a point of controversy and an area of compromise for practitioners of the disciplines of physics and chemistry. Thus, the dynamics of matter is a theme providing especially important insights into the relations between chemistry and physics as intellectual systems, at the same time that the social dynamics of individuals and groups also helps to explain disciplinary development.8... 

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