Doctoral Dissertation Research: The New Prophet: Harold C. Urey, Scientist, Atheist, and Defender of Religion

博士论文研究：新先知：哈罗德·尤里 (Harold C. Urey)，科学家、无神论者和宗教捍卫者

• 批准号: 0848435
• 负责人: Naomi Oreskes
• 金额: $ 0.8万
• 依托单位: University of California-San Diego
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-02-15 至 2012-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0848435&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; New; Prophet

This doctoral dissertation project funded is by the Science, Technology, and Society Program. It is a social and biographical study of the life and career of the American physical chemist Harold Clayton Urey (1893-1981). It focuses primarily on the public work Urey did as an American Nobel Laureate to negotiate the respective roles of science and religion in society. Although he was a dedicated atheist from a young age, Urey eventually became a public advocate of the importance of religion for public and scientific life. From the Depression of the 1930s to the height of the Cold War, his public positions on science and religion evolved in the midst of changing social and political contexts. They also evolved as he moved between research projects from the isotope chemistry that won him the Nobel Prize in 1934, to the Manhattan Project, to geochemistry, and finally to cosmic chemistry and planetary exploration. This project uses oral histories, archives, and published sources from the periods in question to put Urey's public positions in context and to examine the relationship between Urey's experiences as scientist and citizen from WWI to NASA's Apollo program and his ideas of the relationship between science and religion. It also examines Urey's inability to act on these ideas or to gain acceptance for them among the majority of his peers.Urey's evolving discussions of science and religion are important for two principal reasons. First, the dominant narrative of the 20th century is one of secularization, with science and scientists billed as the primary forces of secularization. Urey's story will thus give us an interesting perspective from which to question and add some needed nuance this narrative. Second, Urey's ideas of science and religion, while shaped by social and political contexts, also reflected the role that he felt science and scientists should play in society. Studying Urey's ideas more closely in the context of his scientific work will give us insight into Urey's motivations for engaging in Big Science projects such as the Apollo program.This project relies upon several archives and libraries: the papers of Harold C. Urey at the University of California, San Diego Mandeville Special Collections Library; the oral history collection and journal collection of the Chemical Heritage Foundation; the archives of the Conference on Science, Philosophy, and Religion (1939-1968) at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America; the papers of Linus Pauling at the Special Collections Library of Oregon State University; the archives of the Atomic Scientists of Chicago at the Special Collections Library of the University of Chicago; the oral history interview with Harold C. Urey at the Columbia University Library; and the oral history collection of the American Institute of Physics.

这个资助的博士学位论文项目由科学，技术和社会计划。这是对美国物理化学家哈罗德·克莱顿·乌里（Harold Clayton Urey）（1893-1981）的生活和职业的社会和传记研究。 它主要关注Urey作为美国诺贝尔奖获得者在社会上谈判各自的科学和宗教作用的公共著作。尽管他从小就成为敬业的无神论者，但尤里最终成为公开倡导宗教对公共和科学生活的重要性的倡导者。从1930年代的萧条到冷战的高峰，他在科学和宗教上的公开立场在不断变化的社会和政治环境中演变。当他在研究项目之间从1934年赢得诺贝尔奖的同位素化学转变为曼哈顿项目，地球化学，最后转变为宇宙化学和行星探索时，他们也发展了。该项目使用所讨论的时期的口述历史，档案和已发表的来源，将Urey的公共立场置于上下文中，并研究Urey作为科学家的经历与从第一次世界大战到NASA阿波罗计划的经验与他对科学与宗教之间关系的思想之间的关系。它还研究了乌里无法对这些想法采取行动或在他的大多数同龄人中对它们的接受。首先，20世纪的主要叙述是世俗化的叙述，科学和科学家被称为世俗化的主要力量。因此，Urey的故事将为我们提供一个有趣的观点，可以从中质疑并增加一些必要的细微差别。其次，乌雷（Urey）的科学和宗教思想在社会和政治背景下塑造的同时，也反映了他认为科学和科学家在社会中应发挥的作用。在他的科学工作的背景下，更仔细地研究乌里的思想将使我们深入了解乌里（Urey）从事大型科学项目的动机，例如阿波罗计划（Apollo Program）。该项目依靠几个档案和图书馆：哈罗德·C·乌里（Harold C.化学遗产基金会的口述历史收集和期刊集合；美国犹太神学院的科学，哲学与宗教会议（1939-1968）的档案；俄勒冈州立大学特别收藏图书馆的Linus Pauling论文；芝加哥大学特殊收藏图书馆的芝加哥原子科学家的档案；哥伦比亚大学图书馆的Harold C. Urey的口述历史采访；以及美国物理研究所的口述历史收集。