'Keeping in the race': Physics, publication speed and national publishing strategies in Nature, 1895-1939

British Journal for the History of Science

Volumn 47, Issue 2, 2014, Pages 257-279

  Baldwin, Melinda ^a  

^a HARVARD UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; EUROPE; HISTORY; PHYSICS; PUBLICATION; PUBLISHING; UNITED KINGDOM; UNITED STATES;

EUROPE; GREAT BRITAIN; HISTORY, 19TH CENTURY; HISTORY, 20TH CENTURY; PERIODICALS AS TOPIC; PHYSICS; PUBLISHING; UNITED STATES;

EID: 84899819324     PISSN: 00070874     EISSN: 1474001X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0007087413000381     Document Type: Article

References (228)

1. 'News and views', Nature (10 February 1934) 133, p. 203.
2. For a more complete investigation of Nature's Britishness prior to the Second World War, please see Melinda Baldwin, 'Nature and the making of a scientific community, 1869-1939', unpublished PhD dissertation, Princeton University, 2010, Chapters 4 and 5.
3. On popular-science writing in Victorian Britain see Ruth Barton, 'Just before Nature: the purposes of science and the purposes of popularization in some English popular science journals of the 1860s', Annals of Science (1998) 55, pp. 1-33
4. Gowan Dawson, Darwin, Literature and Victorian Respectability, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007
5. Aileen Fyfe, Science and Salvation: Evangelical Popular Science Publishing in Victorian Britain, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2004
6. Bernard Lightman, Victorian Popularizers of Science: Designing Nature for New Audiences, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2007
7. James A. Secord, Victorian Sensation: The Extraordinary Publication, Reception, and Secret Authorship of Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2000
8. G.N. Cantor (ed.), Science in the Nineteenth-Century Periodical: Reading the Magazine of Nature, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004
9. G.N. Cantor and Sally Shuttleworth (eds.), Science Serialized: Representations of the Sciences in Nineteenth-Century Periodicals, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2004
10. Louise Henson et al., Culture and Science in the Nineteenth-Century Media, Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004.
11. On the twentieth century see Peter Bowler, Science for All: The Popularization of Science in Early Twentieth-Century Britain, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2009.
12. On the history of the scientific journal see A.J. Meadows, Communication in Science, London: Butterworths, 1974, Chapter 3
13. Meadows (ed.), Development of Science Publishing in Europe, New York: Elsevier, 1980
14. Thomas Broman, 'Periodical literature', in Marina Frasca-Spada and Nicholas Jardine (eds.), Books and the Sciences in History, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000, pp. 225-238
15. Adrian Johns, The Nature of the Book: Print and Knowledge in the Making, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1998, Chapter 3
16. Johns, 'Miscellaneous methods: authors, societies and journals in early modern England', BJHS (2000) 33, pp. 159-186
17. Jim Secord, 'Science, technology and mathematics', in David McKitterick (ed.), The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain, vol. 6: 1830-1914, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009, pp. 443-474.
18. There has been some influential scholarship devoted to the study of modern scientific communication, including studies of journal citation patterns, and some scholarly attention has been focused on changes in the language of the scientific article. Such studies, however, are usually interested in the scientific journal's current form and do not seek to analyse the journal's historical development. See, for example, Dwight Atkinson, Scientific Discourse in Sociohistorical Context: The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, 1675-1975, Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1999
19. Diana Crane, Invisible Colleges: Diffusion of Knowledge in Scientific Communities, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1972
20. Derek de Solla Price, Science since Babylon, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1961
21. De Solla Price, 'Networks of scientific papers', Science (1965) 149, pp. 510-515
22. Peter Dear (ed.), The Literary Structure of Scientific Argument, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1994
23. Alan G. Gross, Joseph E. Harmon and Michael Reidy, Communicating Science: The Scientific Article from the 17th Century to the Present, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.
24. R.M. Macleod, various articles, Nature (1969) 224, pp. 417-461
25. Gary Werskey, 'Nature and politics between the wars', Nature (1969) 224, pp. 462-472
26. John Maddox, 'Introduction', in Nature 1869-1879, London: Macmillan, 2002, pp. 1-19
27. David A. Roos, 'The "aims and intentions" of Nature', in James Paradis and Thomas Postlewait (eds.).
28. Victorian Science and Victorian Values: Literary Perspectives, New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1981, pp. 159-180.
29. On Nature's history before 1900 see Melinda Baldwin, 'The shifting ground of Nature: establishing an organ of scientific communication in Britain, 1869-1900', History of Science (2012) 50, pp. 125-154.
30. On X-rays see Otto Glasser, Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen and the Early History of the Roentgen Rays, Springfield: Thomas, 1934
31. Bern Dibner, Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen and the Discovery of X Rays, New York: Watts, 1968.
32. On the Curies see Denis Brian, The Curies: A Biography of the Most Controversial Family in Science, Hoboken: John Wiley and Sons, 2005
33. Soraya Boudia, Marie Curie et son laboratoire: Sciences et industrie de la radioactivité en France, Paris: Editions des Archives contemporaines, 2001
34. Susan Quinn, Marie Curie: A Life, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1995
35. Marilyn Bailey Ogilvie, Marie Curie: A Biography, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2004
36. Helena M. Pycior, 'Reaping the benefits of collaboration while avoiding its pitfalls: Marie Curie's rise to scientific prominence', Social Studies of Science (1993) 23, pp. 301-323.
37. 'Notes', Nature (16 January 1896) 53, p. 253.
38. W.C. Röntgen, 'On a new kind of rays', trans. Arthur Stanton, Nature (23 January 1896) 53, pp. 274-276.
39. A.A.C. Swinton, 'Professor Röntgen's discovery', Nature (23 January 1896) 53, pp. 276-277.
40. On Swinton see A.A.C. Swinton, Autobiographical and Other Writings, London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1930
41. J.D. McGee, 'The contribution of A. A. Campbell Swinton to television', Notes and Records of the Royal Society (1977-1978) 32, pp. 91-105.
42. For examples of Chemical News articles on Röntgen rays see 'Professor Röntgen's new discovery', Chemical News (31 January 1896) 73, p. 49
43. Jean Perrin, 'Certain properties of Röntgen's rays', Chemical News (7 February 1896) 73, p. 61
44. John Waddell, 'The permeability of various elements to the Röntgen rays', Chemical News (18 December 1896) 74, pp. 298-299
45. William Ackroyd, 'Action of the metals and their salts on the ordinary and on the Röntgen rays', Chemical News (20 November 1896) 74, p. 257.
46. For example, Oliver Lodge, 'On the present hypotheses concerning the nature of Röntgen's rays', The Electrician (7 February 1896) 36, pp. 471-473.
47. For example, John Burke, 'Some experiments with Röntgen rays', The Electrician (17 July 1896) 37, pp. 373-375.
48. For 'Intelligence and miscellaneous articles' pieces on Röntgen rays see Henry A. Rowland, N.R. Charmichael and L.J. Briggs, 'Notes of observations on the Röntgen rays', Philosophical Magazine, 5th series (April 1896) 41, pp. 381-382
49. R.W. Wood, 'Note on "focus tubes" for producing X-rays', Philosophical Magazine, 5th series (April 1896) 41, pp. 382-383
50. Franz Streinitz, 'On an electrochemical action of the Röntgen rays on silver bromide', Philosophical Magazine, 5th series (May 1896) 41, pp. 462-463
51. M. Carey Lea, 'Röntgen rays not present in sunlight', Philosophical Magazine, 5th series (June 1896) 41, pp. 528-530.
52. Augusto Righi, 'On experiments with Röntgen rays', Philosophical Magazine, 5th series (July 1896) 42, p. 530.
53. On Nature's audience see Baldwin, op. cit. (7); Peter C. Kjærgaard, '"Within the bounds of science": redirecting controversies to Nature', in Henson et al., op. cit. (3), pp. 211-221.
54. Alex Csiszar, 'Broken pieces of fact: the scientific periodical and the politics of search in nineteenthcentury France and Britain', unpublished PhD dissertation, Harvard University, 2010, Chapter 2.
55. For mentions of Becquerel's work see 'Societies and academies', Nature (5 March 1896) 53, pp. 430-432
56. 'Notes', Nature (12 March 1896) 53, pp. 443-447.
57. 'Recent work with Röntgen rays', Nature (2 April 1896) 53, pp. 522-524.
58. Societies and academies', Nature (2 April 1896) 53, pp. 526-528.
59. Societies and academies', Nature (23 July 1896) 54, pp. 286-288.
60. 'The Röntgen rays', Nature (30 July 1896) 54, pp. 302-306.
61. For Thomson's article see J.J. Thomson, 'The Röntgen rays', Nature (23 April 1896) 53, pp. 581-583.
62. 'Notes: Röntgeniana', The Electrician (4 December 1896) 38, pp. 173-174.
63. Henri Becquerel, 'On the invisible radiations emitted by the salts of uranium', Chemical News (10 April 1896) 73, pp. 167-168
64. Henri Becquerel, 'On the different properties of the invisible radiations emitted by uranium salts and the radiation of the antikathodic [sic] wall of a Crookes tube', Chemical News (24 April 1896) 73, pp. 189-190
65. Henri Becquerel, 'Emission of new radiations by metallic uranium', Chemical News (26 June 1896) 73, p. 295.
66. Lawrence Badash, 'Radium, radioactivity, and the popularity of scientific discovery', Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society (1978) 122, p. 145.
67. Mary Jo Nye, Before Big Science: The Pursuit of Modern Chemistry and Physics, 1800-1940, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1996, p. 151.
68. On radioactivity and radium in the popular press see Lawrence Badash, Radioactivity in America: Growth and Decay of a Science, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1979, p. 19.
69. See also Matthew Lavine, 'A cultural history of radiation and radioactivity in the United States, 1895-1945', unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Wisconsin, 2008, pp. 29-90.
70. Pierre and Marie Curie, 'Chemical effects produced by Becquerel's rays', Philosophical Magazine, 5th series (February 1900) 49, pp. 242-244.
71. P. Curie and Mdme. P. Curie, 'Radio-activity due to Becquerel rays', Chemical News (8 December 1899) 80, p. 269
72. Mdme. Sklodowska Curie, 'Radio-active substances', Chemical News (1903) 88, pp. 85-86, 97-99, 134-135, 145-147, 159-160, 169-171, 175-177, 187-188, 199-201, 211-212, 223-224, 235-236, 247-249, 259-261, 271-272.
73. For mentions of the Curies and their work on radioactivity in Nature before 1900 see 'Societies and academies', Nature (21 April 1898) 57, pp. 599-600
74. see 'Societies and academies', Nature (21 April 1898) 57, pp. 599-600.
75. 'Societies and academies', Nature (28 July 1898) 58, pp. 311-312.
76. 'Societies and academies', Nature (29 December 1898) 59, pp. 214-216.
77. 'Notes', Nature (5 January 1899) 59, pp. 230-233.
78. 'Societies and academies', Nature (5 January 1899) 59, pp. 239-240.
79. 'Notes', Nature (25 May 1899) 60, pp. 84-88.
80. 'Societies and academies', Nature (26 October 1899) 60, pp. 635-636.
81. 'Societies and academies', Nature (16 November 1899) 61, pp. 70-72.
82. 'Notes', The Electrician (14 March 1902) 48, p. 803.
83. On the growth in international congresses see Elisabeth Crawford, Nationalism and Internationalism in Science, 1880-1939: Four Studies of the Nobel Population, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992, pp. 35-41
84. Debra Everett-Lane, 'International scientific congresses, 1878-1913: community and conflict in the pursuit of knowledge', unpublished PhD dissertation, Columbia University, 2004.
85. On scientific internationalism more generally see Elisabeth Crawford, Terry Shinn and Sverker Sörlin (eds.), Denationalizing Science: The Contexts of International Scientific Practice, Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1993
86. Brigitte Schroeder-Gudehus, 'Division of labour and the common good: the International Association of Academies, 1899-1914', in Carl Gustaf Berhard, Elisabeth Crawford and Per Sörbom (eds.), Science, Technology and Society in the Time of Alfred Nobel, Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1982, pp. 3-20.
87. The Annalen was previously known as the Journal der Physik (from 1790 to 1794), the Neues Journal der Physik (from 1795 to 1799), and the Annalen der Physik (from 1799 to 1824). Johann Christian Poggendorff christened it Annalen der Physik und Chemie to reflect his goal of acknowledging and illuminating the shared ground between the various branches of the physical sciences. See Christa Jungnickel and Russell McCormmach, Intellectual Mastery of Nature: Theoretical Physics from Ohm to Einstein, vol. 1, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1990, pp. 37-38.
88. See 'Jacques Danne (1882-1919)', Le radium (May 1919) 11, pp. 193-194.
89. These articles contain a brief postscript note indicating the name of the person who translated it into French. Frequent translators include Léon Bloch, A. Laborde, P. Razet and Gaston Danne (Jacques Danne's younger brother). Examples of articles by foreign physicists in Le radium include Bertram Boltwood, 'Sur les quantités relatives de radium et d'uranium contenus dans quelques minéraux', Le radium (15 August 1904) 1, pp. 45-48
90. E. Rutherford and O. Hahn, 'Masse et vitesse des particules ? émises par le radium et l'actinium', Le radium (November 1906) 3, pp. 321-326
91. F. Soddy, 'La table périodique des elements', Le radium (January 1914) 11, pp. 6-8.
92. For secondary sources on Rutherford see E.N. da C. Andrade, Rutherford and the Nature of the Atom, New York: Doubleday, 1964
93. Lawrence Badash, Ernest Rutherford and Theoretical Physics, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1987.
94. Mario Bunge and William R. Shea (eds.), Rutherford and Physics at the Turn of the Century, New York: Science History Publications, 1979
95. John Campbell, Rutherford: Scientist Supreme, Christchurch, NZ: AAS Publications, 1999
96. Thaddeus J. Trenn, The Self-Splitting Atom: The History of the Rutherford-Soddy Collaboration, London: Taylor & Francis, 1977
97. David Wilson, Rutherford: Simple Genius, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1983.
98. On Rutherford's New Zealand background see Lawrence Badash, 'The influence of New Zealand on Rutherford's scientific development', in Nathan Reingold and Marc Rothenberg (eds.), Scientific Colonialism: A Cross-cultural Comparison, Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1987, pp. 379-389
99. Katrina Dean, 'Inscribing settler science: Ernest Rutherford, Thomas Laby and the making of careers in physics', History of Science (2003) 41, pp. 217-240.
100. Ernest Rutherford to Mary Newton, 22 April 1898, printed in A.S. Eve, Rutherford: Being the Life and Letters of the Rt. Hon. Lord Rutherford, O.M., New York: The Macmillan Company, 1939, pp. 50.
101. On the Macdonald Physics Laboratory see Lewis Pyenson, 'The incomplete transmission of a European image: physics at Greater Buenos Aires and Montreal, 1890-1920', Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society (April 1978) 122, pp. 92-114.
102. See also Lawrence Badash, 'The origins of Big Science: Rutherford at McGill', in Bunge and Shea, op. cit. (32), pp. 23-41
103. John L. Heilbron, 'Physics at McGill in Rutherford's time', in Bunge and Shea, op. cit. (32), pp. 42-73.
104. On Soddy see G.B. Kauffman (ed.), Frederick Soddy, 1877-1956, Boston: D. Reidel, 1985
105. Linda Merricks, The World Made New: Frederick Soddy, Science, Politics, and Environment, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996
106. Mark Morrison, Modern Alchemy: Occultism and the Emergence of Atomic Theory, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.
107. For the Rutherford-Soddy paper see Ernest Rutherford and Frederick Soddy, 'Radioactive change', Philosophical Magazine, 6th series (1903) 5, pp. 576-591.
108. M. and Mme. P. Curie, 'Sur la radioactivité provoquée par les rayons de Becquerel', Comptes rendus (20 November 1899) 129, pp. 714-716.
109. Ernest Rutherford, 'On radioactivity produced in substances by the action of thorium compounds', Philosophical Magazine, 5th series (February 1900), 49, pp. 161-192.
110. Rutherford quoted in Wilson, op. cit. (32), p. 147.
111. Lawrence Badash, op. cit. (35), pp. 32-33.
112. For example, E. Rutherford, 'Emanations from radio-active substances', Nature (13 June 1901) 64, pp. 157-158.
113. Rutherford, 'Heating effect of the radium emanation', Nature (29 October 1903) 68, p. 622
114. Rutherford, 'Nature of the ? rays from radium', Nature (10 March 1904) 69, pp. 436-437
115. Rutherford, 'Charge carried by the ? rays from radium', Nature (2 March 1905) 71, pp. 413-414
116. Rutherford, 'Absorption of the radio-active emanations by charcoal', Nature (25 October 1906) 74, p. 634
117. Rutherford, 'Production of radium from actinium', Nature (17 January 1907) 75, pp. 270-271.
118. E. Rutherford and F. Soddy, 'Radio-activity of thorium compounds', Chemical News (1902) 85, pp. 261, 271-272, 282-285, 293-295, 304-308.
119. Continued in Rutherford and Soddy, 'Radio-activity of thorium compounds', Chemical News (1902) 86, pp. 97-101, 132-135, 169-170.
120. Rutherford did co-author a Chemical News article with Boltwood in 1905 announcing Boltwood's forthcoming paper in the American Journal of Science. E. Rutherford and B.B. Boltwood, 'Relative proportion of radium and uranium in radioactive minerals', Chemical News (28 July 1905) 92, pp. 38-39.
121. On Rutherford's admiration for Heaviside's articles in The Electrician see 'Annual dinner of the Manchester Section of the Institution of Electrical Engineers', The Electrician (7 March 1913) 70, p. 1021.
122. See also Paul J. Nahin, Oliver Heaviside: The Life, Work, and Times of an Electrical Genius of the Victorian Age, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002, p. 259. In 1897
123. In 1897, J.J. Thomson sent The Electrician a shorter version of his protégé's forthcoming paper in the Philosophical Magazine. E. Rutherford, 'On the electrification of gases exposed to Röntgen rays, and the absorption of Röntgen radiation by gases and vapours', The Electrician (23 April 1897) 38, pp. 865-868.
124. William Crookes to Norman Lockyer, 20 August 1895, Norman Lockyer Papers (hereafter NLP), Special Collections, University of Exeter Library, Exeter, MSS 110. Crookes's helium paper was published shortly after he wrote the letter. SeeWilliam Crookes, 'The spectrum of helium', Nature (1895) 52, pp. 428-430. A note on the article indicates that Crookes's paper also appeared in that week's edition of the Chemical News.
125. Ernest Rutherford to J.J. Thomson, 26 March 1901, printed in Eve, op. cit. (34), p. 77.
126. Ernest Rutherford to Martha Thompson Rutherford, 17 December 1906, as printed in Eve, op. cit. (34), p. 148.
127. See William Dawson to Norman Lockyer, 10 May 1898, NLP, Special Collections, University of Exeter Library, Exeter, MSS 110; Ernest Rutherford to J. Norman Lockyer, 31 October 1906, NLP, MSS 110.
128. See Baldwin, op. cit. (2), Chapters 1 and 2; Ruth Barton, 'Scientific authority and scientific controversy in Nature: North Britain against the X Club', in Henson et al., op. cit. (3), pp. 223-235.
129. For example, M.L. Oliphant, P. Harteck and E. Rutherford, 'Transmutation effects observed with heavy hydrogen', Nature (17 March 1934) 133, p. 413
130. E. Rutherford and J. Chadwick, 'The bombardment of elements by ?-particles', Nature (29 March 1924) 113, p. 457
131. E. Rutherford, 'The boiling point of the radium emanation', Nature (18 February 1909) 79, pp. 457-458.
132. For the full correspondence see Lawrence Badash (ed.), Rutherford and Boltwood: Letters on Radioactivity, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1969.
133. Bertram Boltwood to Ernest Rutherford, 11 April 1905, printed in Badash, op. cit. (56), p. 60.
134. The Nature article to which Boltwood refers is 'Societies and academies', Nature (13 April 1905) 71, p. 574, whichincludes an abstract of Otto Hahn's preliminary communication to the Royal Society, 'A new radio-active element, which evolves thorium emanation'. Boltwood evidently held up the letter for several days after beginning it on 11 April while awaiting the latest issue of Nature.
135. Bertram Boltwood to Ernest Rutherford, 7 November 1906, printed in Badash, op. cit. (56), pp. 142-143.
136. The communications Boltwood mentions in his letter were both printed; see Bertram Boltwood, 'The production of radium from actinium', Nature (15 November 1906) 75, p. 54
137. Boltwood, 'Note on the production of radium by actinium', American Journal of Science (December 1906) 22, pp. 537-538.
138. Ernest Rutherford to Bertram Boltwood, 20 June 1904, printed in Badash, op. cit. (56), p. 32.
139. The Nature letter Rutherford mentions is Frederick Soddy, 'The life-history of radium', Nature (12 May 1904) 70, p. 30.
140. Ernest Rutherford to Bertram Boltwood, 14 October 1906, as printed in Badash, op. cit. (56), p. 139.
141. Otto Hahn, 'A new product of actinium', Nature (12 April 1906) 73, pp. 559-560
142. Hahn, 'The origin of radium', Nature (14 November 1907) 77, pp. 30-31
143. Otto Hahn and Otto von Baeyer, 'Magnetic deflection of ? rays', Nature (26 May 1910) 83, p. 369.
144. Hugo de Vries, 'Das Spaltungsgesetz der Bastarde', Berichte der deutschen botanischen Gesellschaft (1900) 18, pp. 83-90
145. Carl Correns, 'G. Mendel's Regel über das Verhalten der Nachkommenschaft der Rassenbastarde', Berichte der deutschen botanischen Gesellschaft (1900) 18, pp. 158-168
146. Eric von Tschermak, 'Über künstliche Kreuzung bei Pisum sativum', Berichte der deutschen botanischen Gesellschaft (1900) 18, pp. 232-239.
147. On this famous case of simultaneous rediscovery see Augustine Brannigan, The Social Basis of Scientific Discoveries, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981.
148. On the debate between Bateson and the biometricians see Lyndsay A. Farrall, 'Controversy and conflict in science: a case study', Social Studies of Science (1975) 5, pp. 269-301
149. P. Froggatt and N.C. Nevin, 'The "law of ancestral heredity" and the Mendelian-ancestrian controversy in England 1889-1906', Journal of Medical Genetics (1971) 8, pp. 1-36
150. Daniel Kevles, 'Genetics in the United States and Great Britain 1890-1930: a review with speculations', Isis (1980) 71, pp. 441-455
151. D. Mackenzie and S.B. Barnes, 'Scientific judgment: the biometry-Mendelism controversy', in S.B. Barnes and Steven Shapin (eds.), Natural Order: Historical Studies of Scientific Culture, London: Sage Publications, 1979, pp. 191-210
152. Robert Olby, 'The dimensions of scientific controversy: the biometric-Mendelian debate', BJHS (1989) 22, pp. 299-320
153. Theodore M. Porter, Karl Pearson: The Scientific Life in a Statistical Age, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004, Chapters 8 and 9
154. Jan Sapp, 'The struggle for authority in the field of heredity, 1900-1932: new perspectives on the rise of genetics', Journal of the History of Biology (1983) 16, pp. 311-342.
155. See, for example, a 1903 exchange over Mendelian inheritance in mice between Bateson and the biometrician W.F.R. Weldon: W. Bateson, 'Mendel's principles of heredity in mice', Nature (19 March 1903) 67, pp. 462-463
156. W.F.R. Weldon, 'Mendel's principles of heredity in mice', Nature (2 April 1903) 67, p. 512
157. W. Bateson, 'Mendel's principles of heredity in mice', Nature (23 April 1903) 67, pp. 585-586
158. W.F.R. Weldon, 'Mendel's principles of heredity in mice', Nature (30 April 1903) 67, p. 610.
159. See, for example, a 1907 discussion over whether Mendelian inheritance applied to parthenogenic reproduction: G. Archdall Reid, 'The interpretation of Mendelian phenomena', Nature (3 October 1907) 76, p. 566
160. R.H. Lock, 'The interpretation of Mendelian phenomena', Nature (17 October 1907) 76, p. 616
161. G. Archdall Reid, 'The interpretation of Mendelian phenomena', Nature (31 October 1907) 76, p. 662-663
162. Geo. P. Mudge, 'The interpretation of Mendelian phenomena', Nature (7 November 1907) 77, pp. 8-9
163. G. Archdall Reid, 'The interpretation of Mendelian phenomena', Nature (7 November 1907) 77, p. 9
164. R.H. Lock, 'The interpretation of Mendelian phenomena', Nature (14 November 1907) 77, p. 32
165. J.T. Cunningham, 'The interpretation of Mendelian phenomena', Nature (21 November 1907) 77, p. 54
166. G. Archdall Reid, 'The interpretation of Mendelian phenomena', Nature (21 November 1907) 77, pp. 54-55
167. W.T. Thiselton-Dyer, 'Specific stability and mutation', Nature (28 November 1907) 77, pp. 77-79
168. R.H. Lock, 'Specific stability and mutation', Nature (12 December 1907) 77, p. 127
169. W.T. Thiselton-Dyer, 'Specific stability and mutation', Nature (12 December 1907) 77, p. 127.
170. There are many excellent scholarly works on genetics in different national contexts in the early twentieth century. On France see Christophe Bonneuil, 'Mendelism, plant breeding and experimental cultures: agriculture and the development of genetics in France', Journal of the History of Biology (2006) 39, pp. 281-308
171. Richard M. Burian, Jean Gayon and Doris Zallen, 'The singular fate of genetics in the history of French biology, 1900-1940', Journal of the History of Biology (1988) 21, pp. 357-402.
172. On the United States see Daniel Kevles, In the Name of Eugenics: Genetics and the Uses of Human Heredity, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1985
173. Robert Kohler, Lords of the Fly: Drosophila Genetics and the Experimental Life, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1994.
174. The historiography of German genetics is strongly tied to the literature about the race-hygiene movement and eugenics. Works specifically on early genetics and Mendelism in Germany include Jonathan Harwood, Styles of Scientific Thought: The German Genetics Community, 1900-1933, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1993.
175. Similarly, the literature on Russian genetics is heavily dominated by Lysenkoism. For more general treatments of early Russian genetics see A.E. Gaissinovich, 'Problems of variation and heredity in Russian biology in the late nineteenth century', Journal of the History of Biology (1973) 6, pp. 97-123
176. Douglas R. Weiner, 'The roots of "Michurinism": transformist biology and acclimatization as currents in the Russian life sciences', Annals of Science (1985) 42, pp. 243-260.
177. For a useful analysis of genetics and eugenics in multiple national contexts see Mark B. Adams, The Wellborn Science: Eugenics in Germany, France, Brazil, and Russia, Oxford: Oxford, University Press, 1990.
178. For examples of material about relativity in Nature see A.S. Eddington, 'Gravitation and the principle of relativity', Nature (28 December 1916) 98, pp. 328-330
179. Oliver J. Lodge, 'Gravitation and light', Nature (4 December 1919) 104, p. 354
180. Alexr. Anderson, 'The displacement of light rays passing near the sun', Nature (4 December 1919) 104, p. 354
181. Joseph Larmor, 'Gravitation and light', Nature (25 December 1919) 104, p. 412
182. Arthur Schuster, 'The deflection of light during a solar eclipse', Nature (8 January 1920) 104, p. 468
183. J. Joly, 'Relativity and radioactivity', Nature (8 January 1920) 104, p. 468.
184. On the acceptance of relativity theory in Great Britain see Alistair Sponsel, 'Constructing a "revolution in science": the campaign to promote a favourable reception for the 1919 solar eclipse experiments', BJHS (2002) 35, pp. 439-467
185. Matthew Stanley, '"An expedition to heal the wounds of war": the 1919 eclipse and Eddington as Quaker adventurer', Isis (2003) 94, pp. 57-89
186. Andrew Warwick, Masters of Theory: Cambridge and the Rise of Mathematical Physics, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2003, Chapter 9.
187. A. Einstein, 'A brief outline of the development of the theory of relativity', trans. Robert W. Lawson, Nature (17 February 1921) 106, pp. 782-784
188. H. Weyl, 'Electricity and gravitation', trans. RobertW. Lawson, Nature (17 February 1921) 106, pp. 800-802
189. H.A. Lorentz, 'The Michelson-Morley experiment and the dimensions of moving bodies', Nature (17 February 1921) 106, pp. 793-795.
190. Niels Bohr, 'The spectra of hydrogen and helium', Nature (4 March 1915) 95, pp. 6-7. The signature on the letter indicates that it was submitted from Manchester.
191. Rutherford died unexpectedly at the age of sixty-six following surgery for a minor hernia. For a helpful summary of the Bohr-Rutherford correspondence see Rudolf Peierls, 'Rutherford and Bohr', Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London (1988) 42, pp. 229-241.
192. For examples of letters to the editor from Copenhagen see S. Rosseland, 'Origin of radioactive disintegration', Nature (17 March 1923) 111, p. 357
193. Oskar Klein, 'The atomicity of electricity as a quantum theory law', Nature (9 October 1926) 118, p. 516
194. G. Gamow, 'The quantum theory of nuclear disintegration', Nature (24 November 1928) 122, pp. 805-806
195. G. Hevesy and Hilde Levi, 'Action of slow neutrons on rare earth elements', Nature (1 February 1936) 137, p. 185.
196. D. Coster and G. Hevesy, 'On the missing element of atomic number 72', Nature (20 January 1923) 111, p. 79.
197. For other Nature letters on hafnium see H.M. Hansen and S. Werner, 'The optical spectrum of hafnium', Nature (10 March 1923) 111, p. 322
198. D. Coster and G. Hevesy, 'On celtium and hafnium', Nature (7 April 1923) 111, pp. 462-463.
199. The French scientists Georges Urbain and Alexandre Dauvillier briefly challenged the Coster-Hevesy priority claim; Urbain and Dauvillier claimed they had discovered element 72 first, and had named it celtium. See Helge Kragh, 'Anatomy of a priority conflict: the case of element 72', Centaurus: International Magazine of the History of Mathematics, Science, and Technology (1979-1980) 23, pp. 275-301.
200. Irène Curie and Frederic Joliot, 'Effet d'absorption de rayons ?e très haute fréquence par projection de noyaux légers', Comptes rendus (1932) 194, pp. 708-711.
201. J. Chadwick, 'Possible existence of a neutron', Nature (27 February 1932) 129, p. 312.
202. There were a vast number of letters about neutron research published in Nature during the 1930s. For examples of letters involving research on neutrons and neutron-induced radioactivity see D. Iwanenko, 'The neutron hypothesis', Nature (28 May 1932) 129, p. 798
203. Irène Curie and F. Joliot, 'New evidence for the neutron', Nature (9 July 1932) 130, p. 57
204. Norman Feather, 'Artificial disintegration by neutrons', Nature (13 August 1932) 130, p. 237
205. M. le Duc de Broglie and L. Leprince-Ringuet, 'Absorption of boron neutrons by lead', Nature (27 August 1932) 130, p. 315
206. Ig. Tamm, 'Exchange forces between neutrons and protons, and Fermi's theory', Nature (30 June 1934) 133, p. 981
207. Leo Szilard and T.A. Chalmers, 'Radioactivity induced by neutrons', Nature (19 January 1935) 135, pp. 98-99
208. W. Ehrenberg and Hu Chien Shan, 'Absorption of slow neutrons', Nature (15 June 1935) 135, pp. 993-994
209. Seishi Kikuchi, Hiroo Aoki and Kodi Husimi, 'Emission of beta-rays from substances bombarded with neutrons', Nature (14 November 1936) 138, p. 841.
210. Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann, 'Über den Nachweis und das Verhalten der bei der Bestrahlung des Urans mittels Neutronen entstehenden Erdalkalimetalle', Naturwissenschaften (1939) 27, p. 11-15.
211. Lise Meitner and Otto Frisch, 'Disintegration of uranium by neutrons: a new type of nuclear reaction', Nature (11 February 1939) 143, p. 239.
212. 'News and views', Nature (12 November 1938) 142, p. 865.
213. See, for example, O.R. Frisch and E.T. Sørensen, 'Velocity of slow neutrons', Nature (17 August 1935) 136, p. 258
214. O.R. Frisch, G. Hevesy and H.A.C. McKay, 'Selective absorption of neutrons by gold', Nature (25 January 1936) 137, pp. 149-150
215. O.R. Frisch and G. Placzek, 'Capture of slow neutrons', Nature (29 February 1936) 137, p. 357
216. O.R. Frisch, H. von Halban Jr. and Jørgen Koch, 'A method of measuring the magnetic moment of free neutrons', Nature (1 May 1937) 139, pp. 756-757
217. O.R. Frisch, H. von Halban, jun., and Jørgen Koch, 'Sign of the magnetic moment of free neutrons', Nature (12 June 1937) 139, p. 1021
218. O.R. Frisch, H. von Halban, Jun., and Jørgen Koch, 'Capture of slow neutrons in light elements', Nature (20 November 1937) 140, p. 895.
219. For examples of international letters on genetics see J. Brontë Gatenby, 'Czechoslovakian cytology', Nature (4 August 1928) 122, p. 168
220. M. José Capinpin, 'Chromosome behaviour of triploid OEnothera', Nature (27 September 1930) 126, pp. 469-470
221. B.N. Sidorov, N.N. Sokolov and I.E. Trofimov, 'Forces of attraction of homologous loci and chromosome conjugation', Nature (20 July 1935) 136, pp. 108-109
222. S. Frolova, 'Development of the inert regions of the salivary gland chromosomes of Drosophila', Nature (20 August 1938) 142, pp. 357-358
223. Holger Klingstedt, 'Genetics of hybrid sterility', Nature (24 December 1938) 142, p. 1118
224. Flávio Resende, 'Chromosome structure as observed in root tips', Nature (9 September 1939) 144, pp. 481-482.
225. 'News and views', Nature (14 April 1934) 133, p. 558
226. 'News and views', Nature (19 January 1935) 134, p. 94.
227. 'News and views', Nature (22 February 1936) 137, p. 306. The journal also began printing fifty-word summaries of the week's letters at the end of the column.
228. 'News and views', Nature (22 February 1936) 137, p. 306.