Summer School Lille 2019 - Schedule 2019, 3rd June

1. Nanotechnologies, Applied Science [Prof. Delerue, France]

2019-05-10T15:06:07+00:00

Title

Colloidal Semiconductor Nanocrystals: Historical Perspective and Recent Developments

Abstract

Semiconductor nanocrystals prepared by colloidal chemistry have been studied for more than three decades but it is only now that they are employed in mass-market commercial applications. Nowadays, these nano-objects can be fabricated with an excellent control of their composition, size and shape in such manner that their electronic structure and their optical properties can be accurately tuned. This historical perspective on the development of colloidal nanocrystals will be reviewed in the first part of the talk. In particular, the reasons why semiconductor nanocrystals can be sometimes considered as artificial atoms will be discussed. The second part of the presentation will be focused on recent advances in the field that potentially open totally new perspectives of application. We will show that the artificial atoms can be self-assembled to form new types of two-dimensional crystals characterized by original electronic band structures.

References

https://physique.iemn.fr/en/electronic-structure/members/christophe-delerue

Contact

christophe.delerue@iemn.fr

2. History and Epistemology of Science [Emeritus Prof. Dhombres, France]

2015-01-25T16:42:44+00:00

Title

« Thought experiments » as a Tool in History of Science to Understand Innovations

Abstract

Many authors are credited with the uses of « thought experiments », such as Ernst Mach (Gedanken Experiment), Alexandre Koyré (Expérience de pensée) and Ludwick Fleck (DenkExperiment). And so there were interesting explanations not only about innovations, but also about the way to make science appear as an adventure. This worked quite well with Galileo, Kepler, Carnot, Fourier and as is well known with Einstein and the Langevin traveller. Such ways of explanation – after all the main motivation for writing history of science – are more or less openly related to controversies about realism and idealism, or about where to classify « mathematical physics ». This last expression is generally used for official purposes in research programs, but generally, it is avoided for university curriculum. My purpose here is not to detail specific cases, even if I may use some, but to investigate the epistemological and even ideological purposes for such qualifications as « thought experiments ». What are they bringing, and what are they avoiding? Can’t it be a way of to provide a historical support to the notion of construction of science, somewhat embarrassed in–between sociology and epistemology?

References

Aczel J, Dhombres J (2008) Functional equations in several variables 2nd edition. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge.
Dhombres, J (2012) De l’écriture des mathématiques en tant que technique de l’intellect. In Guichard E (ed). Ecritures : Sur les traces de Jack Goody. Presses de l’ENSSIB, Lyon, pp. 157-198.
Dhombres, J (2016) De Marin Mersenne à Joseph Fourier : La boîte à outils graphiques du physico-mathématicien. Sciences et Techniques en Perspective, IIe série 18/2:2016:67-130.
Faraday M (1839–1855) Experimental Researches in Electricity. 3 vols. Taylor, London.
Fleck L (1935) Entstehung und Entwicklung einer wissenschaftlichen Tatsache. Einführung in die Lehre vom Denkstil und Denkkollektiv, B. Schwabeund Co., Verlagbuchhandlung, Basel. [Translated under the title, Genesis and development of a scientific fact, Chicago-London, 1979].
Fourier J (sd) The manuscript entitled, Sur la propagation de la chaleur. Kept at the Ecole nationale des Ponts et Chaussées. Ms 1851, 121 folios, recto and verso. It has been transcribed and commented by Ivor Grattan-Guinness, in collaboration with J.R. Ravetz.
Fourier J ([1768-1830] 1972) A survey of his life and work, based on a critical edition of his monograph on the propagation of heat, presented to the Institut de France in 1807. MIT Press, Cambridge–Massachusetts–London, 1972.
Fourier J ([1878] 2009) The Analytical Theory of Heat, translated of the 1822 book with notes by Alexander Freeman. The Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [1955. Reprinted New York; available on line].
Koyré A (1939) Etudes galiléennes. Hermann, Paris
Mach E (1888) Die Mecanische in ihrer Entwicklung. Historisch-kritisch dargestellt. Brockhaus, Leipzig.

Contact

jean.dhombres@cnrs.fr

3. History-phil of Science [Dr. Morfouli, France]

2015-01-25T16:08:49+00:00

Title

Early Natural Philosophy Methodological Approach

Abstract

The end of the XVIth century and the beginning of the XVIIth is a period characterised by historiographers as a significant change on the study of Nature. Qualitative arguments are being replaced by quantitative ones and magnitude measurements become more and more precise. For a long-time historiography has maintained a hypothesis of an intrinsic relationship between the mathematization of nature and the precise measurement of time. This presentation is a case study on the emergence of Natural Philosophy and more particularly on the relation between the creation of a physical theory and the accuracy in time measurements, Galileo’s work and correspondence will be re-examined. Through the study proposed here, by contextualizing the results of measurements that appeared in the texts, which influenced great scholars of the XVIIth century, we will examine the truth of this historiographical proposal. The aim of the presentation is to demonstrate how with a contextualized methodological approach, historians can bring new light to older historical conclusions.

References

Drake S (1978) Galileo at Work. Dover Publications, New York.
Galilei G ([1632] 1992), Dialogue sur les deux grands systèmes du monde, traduit par René Fréreux. Seuil, Paris.
Galilei G ([1638] 1995) Discours concernant deux sciences nouvelles, introduction, traduction, notes et index par Maurice Clavelin. PUF, Paris.
Galilei G (1898) Le Opere di Galileo Galilei. Vol. 8. Barbera, Firenze, pp. 453-455.
Galilei G (1901) Le Opere di Galileo Galilei. Vol. 11. Barbera, Firenze, p. 610.
Galilei G (1906) Le Opere di Galileo Galilei. Vol. 17. Barbera, Firenze, pp. 413-414.
Galileo G (1904) Le Opere di Galileo Galilei. Vol. 14. Barbera, Firenze, pp. 342-344.
Gapaillard J (1993) Et pourtant elle tourne : Le mouvement de la Terre. Seuil, Paris.
Koyré A (1973) Chute des corps et mouvement de la terre de Kepler à Newton. Vrin, Paris.
Locher JG (1614) Disquisitiones mathematicae, de controversiis et novitatibus astronomicis, Ingolstadii : ex typographeo Ederiano apud Elisabetham Angermariam.
Mersenne M (1634) Traité des Mouvemens, et de la chuete des corps pesans, & et de la proportion de leurs differentes vitesses. Dans laquelle l’on verra plusieurs experiences très exactes. Paris : Chez Jacques Villery, avec le privilege du Roy.
Mersenne M (1636-37) Harmonie Universelle, contenant la théorie et la pratique de la musique. Cramoisy, Paris.
Mersenne M (1959) « Lettre No. 404, Mersenne à Paris, à Nicolas Fabri de Peiresc, à Aix, 15 Janvier 1635 ». In : Correspondance, De Waard C (ed), CNRS, Paris, Tome V:24-26.
Moscovici S (1967) L’expérience du mouvement. Hermann Paris.

Contact

meropi.morfouli@obspm.fr