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Les Prix Nobel en 1971 by Institutions Nobel; Nobel Lectures, Chemistry, 1963-1970 by Nobel Foundation; Nobel Lectures, Physics, 1963-1970 by Nobel Foundation Review by: Aaron J. Ihde Isis, Vol. 65, No. 4 (Dec., 1974), p. 544 Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of The History of Science Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/229366 . Accessed: 14/06/2014 07:31 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . The University of Chicago Press and The History of Science Society are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Isis. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 188.72.126.198 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 07:31:36 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

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Page 1: Les Prix Nobel en 1971by Institutions Nobel;Nobel Lectures, Chemistry, 1963-1970by Nobel Foundation;Nobel Lectures, Physics, 1963-1970by Nobel Foundation

Les Prix Nobel en 1971 by Institutions Nobel; Nobel Lectures, Chemistry, 1963-1970 by NobelFoundation; Nobel Lectures, Physics, 1963-1970 by Nobel FoundationReview by: Aaron J. IhdeIsis, Vol. 65, No. 4 (Dec., 1974), p. 544Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of The History of Science SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/229366 .

Accessed: 14/06/2014 07:31

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

The University of Chicago Press and The History of Science Society are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize,preserve and extend access to Isis.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 188.72.126.198 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 07:31:36 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 2: Les Prix Nobel en 1971by Institutions Nobel;Nobel Lectures, Chemistry, 1963-1970by Nobel Foundation;Nobel Lectures, Physics, 1963-1970by Nobel Foundation

544 BOOK REVIEWS-ISIS, 65 * 4 - 229 (1974)

ment complete with orthodoxy and en- trenched positions. The younger genera- tion then valiantly attacks but is put down by their elders, much as the college students of the 1960s were put down by ossified administrations. The result is caricature. We are told that the atmosphere at the Third International Poliomyelitis Confer- ence in Rome "was more like that of the court of the Borgias in Renaissance Florence than a scientific conference." (The Borgias were visiting the Medici?) The result was that "there was little of the compromise and mutual exchange that were supposed to occur at scientific meet- ings." The author, perhaps, would like to cite the compromises made by Einstein and Bohr or Pasteur and von Pettenkofer?

Science has a bad enough press today; it does not need gratuitous falsification to make it even more unattractive than it is to modern students.

L. PEARCE WILLIAMS

Department of History Cornell University

Ithaca, New York 14850

Institutions Nobel. Les Prix Nobel en 1971. 326 pp., illus., tbls., figs. Stockholm: Impri- merie Royale P. A. Norstedt & Soner, 1972; New York: American Elsevier, 1973. $22.50.

Nobel Foundation. Nobel Lectures, Chem- istry, 1963-1970. x + 359 pp., tbls., figs., index. Amsterdam/London/New York: Published for the Nobel Foundation by Elsevier, 1972. $38.

Nobel Foundation. Nobel Lectures, Physics, 1963-1970. xi + 351 pp., tbls., figs., in- dex. Amsterdam / London / New York: Pub- lished for the Nobel Foundation by Else- vier, 1972. $38.

These volumes are all continuations of ongoing series dealing with the Nobel prizes, their ceremonials, laureates, and the prize lectures. They therefore take their place as parts of reference sets which, unfortunately, are not as well known as might be wished. Since all of these volumes are stylized in format, there is little point

in an evaluative review. Instead, the con- tents will be described.

Le Prix Nobel is a publication of long standing, serving as a document of all of the prizes given in a particular year. The volume for 1971 carries the opening address of the President of the Nobel Foundation, U. S. von Euler, in Swedish with translations in French, English, and Spanish. There follow the presentation speeches, ceremonies, description and il- lustration of the diplomas and medals, the portraits and biographies, and the formal addresses presented by the laureates. Al- though the ceremonies are conducted in Swedish (or Norwegian in the case of the peace prize), all of the speeches and papers are also published in English translation when not delivered in that language. The science laureates in 1971 were D. Gabor in physics, G. Herzberg in chemistry, and E. W. Sutherland in physiology or medi- cine.

Nobel Lectures, Physics carries chronologi- cally in English the presentation speeches, the award addresses, and brief biographies. The volume is the fourth in the physics series, earlier volumes covering the years 1901-1921, 1922-1941, and 1942-1962.

Nobel Lectures, Chemistry fills the same role for the chemistry prizes between 1963 and 1970 and is the fourth volume of the series, the earlier volumes being subdivided into the same time spans as the physics volumes.

Three parallel volumes dealing with the prizes in physiology or medicine have been published. Presumably a fourth volume covering 1963-1970 will soon appear.

All of these volumes will be useful to historians of science, since they make con- veniently available a mass of information, particularly the addresses given by the laureates. The presentation speeches have value in reflecting insights into the work of the laureates and the basis for the award. The biographical sketches vary in quality and are mostly disappointingly meager. Portraits of the laureates are lacking in the collected volumes.

AARON J. IHDE Department of History of Science

University of Wisconsin Madison, Wisconsin 53706

This content downloaded from 188.72.126.198 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 07:31:36 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions