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City University of New York (CUNY)

2015

History of Science

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Technological Revolution In Astronomy, Michael Julio Feb 2015

Technological Revolution In Astronomy, Michael Julio

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis examines the evolution of technology in astronomy and how it has impacted our understanding of the universe. It also gives a brief history of the major figures that revolutionized the science through their innovations and discoveries. Technological advancements throughout the last four centuries have allowed for the construction of instruments that can be used to see further into the universe than ever before. Thanks to technology, astronomers can now look beyond the electromagnetic spectrum as the only means of studying the compositions of celestial objects, opening a whole new way in which we can study the universe. We …


The Phytotronist And The Phenotype: Plant Physiology, Big Science, And A Cold War Biology Of The Whole Plant., David Munns Jan 2015

The Phytotronist And The Phenotype: Plant Physiology, Big Science, And A Cold War Biology Of The Whole Plant., David Munns

Publications and Research

This paper describes how, from the early twentieth century, and especially in the early Cold War era, the plant physiologists considered their discipline ideally suited among all the plant sciences to study and explain biological functions and processes, and ranked their discipline among the dominant forms of the biological sciences. At their apex in the late-1960s, the plant physiologists laid claim to having discovered nothing less than the “basic laws of physiology.” This paper unwraps that claim, showing that it emerged from the construction of monumental big science laboratories known as phytotrons that gave control over the growing environment. Control …