Focusing on the life and achievements of Soviet physicist Leonid Isaakovich Mandelstam, this biography highlights his significant contributions to physics and technology. It also delves into the scientific community that emerged around him, providing insights into his influence and collaborations. The narrative is enriched with previously unpublished archival material, offering a deeper understanding of his impact on the field and the historical context of his work.
The biography explores the life and contributions of Soviet physicist Leonid Isaakovich Mandelstam, highlighting his role as a professor and academician while examining the scientific community he fostered, known as the Mandelstam School. It contextualizes his achievements against the backdrop of significant historical events, including World War I and the Socialist Revolution. The narrative delves into the influence of German scientific culture on Russian science and the evolution of Soviet higher education, alongside a detailed reconstruction of Mandelstam's philosophy of science, supported by unpublished archives and personal interviews.
This biography of the famous Soviet physicist Leonid Isaakovich Mandelstam (1889-1944), who became a Professor at Moscow State University in 1925, describes his contributions to both physics and technology, as well as discussing the scientific community which formed around him, usually called the Mandelstam school. Mandelstam’s life story is thereby placed in its proper cultural context. The following more general issues are taken under consideration: the impact of German scientific culture on Russian science; the problems and fates of Russian intellectuals during the revolutionary and post-revolutionary years; the formation of the Soviet Academy of Sciences; and transformation of the system of higher education in the USSR during the 1920's and 1930's.The author shows that Mandelstam’s fundamental writings and his lectures notes allow to reconstruct his philosophy of science and his approach to the social and ethical functions of science and science education. That reconstruction is enhanced through extensive use of hitherto unpublished archival material as well as the transcripts of personal interviews conducted by the author.
This book offers a survey of the historic development of selected areas of chemistry and chemical physics, discussing in detail the European, American and Russian approaches to the development of chemistry. Other key topics include the kinetics and non-linear thermodynamics of chemical reactions and mathematical modeling, which have found new applications in the theory of dynamical systems. The first observations of the periodicity of chemical reactions were lost in the mist of time. In the second half of the 19th century, the phenomenon of chemical periodicity was studied in relation to electrochemistry, solutions and colloids. Discovered in the late 19th century, Liesegang rings are still enigmatic and remain attractive for researchers. However, the discovery of the Belousov–Zhabotinsky reaction marked the successful culmination of the efforts to find a true chemical oscillatory reaction. The book investigates chemical phenomena that were neglected in the past, but have been rediscovered, placing them into a new conceptual framework. For example, it notes that William Bray, who discovered the first oscillatory homogeneous reaction in 1921, was influenced by the first bio-mathematicians who predicted chemical oscillations in homogeneous systems.