After the Breakthrough
The Emergence of High-Temperature Superconductivity as a Research Field

Short book on the history and sociology of science surrounding the discovery of high-temperature superconductivity.

Helga Nowotny (Author), Ulrike Felt (Author)

9780521524797, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 22 August 2002

224 pages, 2 b/w illus. 2 tables
23.6 x 19.1 x 1.8 cm, 0.43 kg

'… thoughtful book.' John Ziman, Nature

The discovery of high-temperature superconductivity was hailed as a major scientific breakthrough, inducing an unprecedented excitement and expectation among the scientific community and in the international press. This book sets this research breakthrough in context, and reconstructs the history of the discovery. The authors analyse the emergence of this new research field and the way its development was shaped by scientists and science policy-makers. They also examine the various settings in which the research was undertaken, as well as considering the scientific backgrounds and motivations of researchers who entered the field following the original discovery. The industrial connection and the general belief in promises of future applications were important elements in strategies devised to obtain funding. A remarkable factor in this process was the media's role. The sustained attention that followed the discovery of high-temperature superconductivity resulted in it being seen as the symbol of a new technological frontier.

1. Introduction: the emergence of a new research field
2. The context of the discovery
3. Reconfiguring actors and knowledge: the organization of a new research field
4. Academic research, science policy, and the industrial connection: setting up national high-temperature superconductivity programs
5. Science and the media: newspapers and their 'HTS story'
6. The innovation machinery of science: the case of HTS
Bibliography.

Subject Areas: History of science [PDX]