物理学史与哲学

The fine-structure constant alpha approximately 1/137 is traditionally regarded as a fundamental dimensionless parameter. I argue instead that alpha is a scaled quantity that arises only where the structural scales contributed by classical…

We are interested in a result found in the thesis of the astronomer Alexandre V\'eronnet (1876-1951) : "Precession of a fluid ring rotating along a parallel axis. Zone of maximum crustal compression at 35$^\circ$. A cause of earthquakes".…

In 1857, Kirchhoff published two seminal papers on the motion of electricity in wires. In that work, he was the first to derive what we now call the telegrapher`s equations, which describes the propagation of electromagnetic signals along a…

While the migration of scientists from the Soviet Union to the West occurred at a modest pace during the 1970s and 1980s, the dissolution of the USSR in 1991 and the ensuing economic and social hardships precipitated a massive exodus that…

This work is a study of the relationship between astronomy and landscape focused on the orientation of Christian churches of the three main Manorial (Se\~nor\'io) Islands of the Canary archipelago (Spain): Lanzarote, La Gomera and…

This paper investigates the determination of the Qibla direction using both astronomical and geometrical approaches. The study reviews historical and classical methods employed by Muslim scholars and astronomers including the use of…

Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND) is a framework of theories that adjust Newton's laws of gravity to explain effects such as galactic rotation anomalies, offering an alternative to dark matter. This essay examines the justification of MOND…

The introduction of the color quantum number is conventionally narrated as a linear progression from the quark-model statistics paradox to quantum chromodynamics (QCD). This paper challenges that teleology by arguing that "color" emerged as…

This work analyses the extent to which the "blurred orbits" of the current model for the atom, drafted by Heisenberg in 1926, fits the image of a bunch of wandering electrons around a nucleus. We will deal with early appearances of the…

Einstein's 1935 critique of quantum mechanics is often associated with the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) argument, yet his private correspondence from that year reveals a more exact conceptual structure guiding his claim that the…

From al-Sufi's tenth-century observation of the Andromeda Galaxy as a "little cloud" to contemporary space missions, Islamic astronomy represents a millennium-spanning tradition of innovation and knowledge. This study traces its trajectory…

The NRAO 59th Karl Jansky Lecture was presented on 24 October 2024, 22 November 2024, and 4 December 2024 in Charlottesville, Virginia, Socorro, New Mexico, and Green Bank, West Virginia, respectively. The lecture covered the circumstances…

Philosophers increasingly treat semantics as decisive for realism about dark matter. In this paper, I consider a recent proposal from Vaynberg (2024) anchored in the causal-descriptive theory of reference from Psillos (1999, 2012). I argue…

A comet appears in the Bayeux Tapestry between the scene showing the death of the English king Edward the Confessor and the election of his successor, Harold Godwinson. The Tapestry's inscription only refers to this as a star, though we can…

Scottish mathematician Colin MacLaurin (1698-1746) is best known for his A Treatise of Fluxions (1742), An Account of Sir Isaac Newton's Philosophical Discoveries (1748), and the appellation for a type of power series. However, it is hardly…

This paper aims to resolve the incompatibility between two extant gauge-invariant accounts of the Abelian Higgs mechanism: the first account uses global gauge symmetry breaking, and the second eliminates spontaneous symmetry breaking…

This paper offers a historical overview of the origins and enduring significance of gravitational particle creation, a groundbreaking discovery first formulated in Leonard Parker's 1966 doctoral thesis at Harvard University. By tracing the…

C/1910 A1 was one of the Great Comets of the twentieth century. Although it was widely observed from the Northern Hemisphere, it was first discovered by observers south of the Equator. The comet arrived just months before the widely…

This work analyses the 1921 article by Erich Bessel-Hagen entitled \"Uber die Erhaltungss\"atze der Elektrodynamik ("On the conservation laws of electrodynamics"). The article is based on Noether's theorems, which were formulated by Emmy…

Speculation about the existence of advanced forms of life in the Universe and in our galaxy, has been since ever a subject of fascination and discussion in fiction, as well as in astrophysics, biology and philosophy. The well-known Fermi's…