Ben Franklin Stilled the Waves An Informal History of Pouring Oil on Water with Reflections on the Ups and Downs of Scientific Life in General

by Tanford, Charles

• ISBN13: 9780192804945
• ISBN10: 0192804944
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-06-10
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

When Benjamin Franklin, the 18th-century American statesman and scientist, watched the calming effect of a drop of oil on the waves and ripples of a London pond, he was observing what Pliny the Elder and generations of seafarers had done before him. Franklin, though, was the first to wonderexactly what was happening to the oil, and to investigate this strange phenomenon.Following Franklin's lead, a motley crowd of scientists over the next two centuries and more chose to investigate the nature of atoms and molecules through the interaction of fluid membranes. They included Lord Rayleigh, an altruistic English Lord, Agnes Pockels, who conducted experiments in herkitchen and became one of the earliest women to make lasting contributions to science, the renowned Dutch pediatrician Evert Gorter, and Irving Langmuir, one of America's greatest industrial scientists. Building on Franklin's original experiments, their work has culminated in the discovery of thestructure of cell membranes, research that continues to bear fruit today.Ben Franklin Stilled the Waves is far more than the story of oil on water; it is a voyage into the very nature of science and its place in our history.

Author Biography

Charles Tanford is Emeritus Professor at Duke University, Durham, NC, USA and a former Guggenheim Fellow. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) and lives in Easingwold, UK.

Table of Contents

One Introduction	1	(13)
1. Pouring Oil on Troubled Waters	1	(2)
2. The Reverend Mr. Farish	3	(1)
3. Lords and Ladies and Even a Pediatrician	4	(3)
4. The World Outside	7	(3)
5. Connecting Threads	10	(4)
Two Benjamin Franklin	14	(20)
1. Gospel of St. Benjamin	14	(1)
2. The First Fifty Years	15	(8)
3. First Mission to London	23	(5)
4. Ten Tempestuous Years	28	(6)
Three Friends and Influences	34	(16)
1. The London Scene	34	(4)
2. The Club of Honest Whigs	38	(1)
3. Biographical Sketches	39	(11)
Four The French Connection	50	(5)
Five Pliny the Elder	55	(4)
Six Eighteenth-Century Science	59	(15)
1. Apologia	59	(1)
2. Newton's Legacy	60	(3)
3. Ultimate Particles	63	(4)
4. Distinction Between Atoms and Molecules	67	(3)
5. Heat, Light, and Electricity	70	(2)
6. Science and Mathematics	72	(2)
Seven Franklin's Experiment: The Observation	74	(18)
1. Author's Comments	74	(2)
2. Philosophical Letters	76	(2)
3. Farish Fails a Lesson	78	(3)
4. Franklin's Prologue	81	(2)
5. Experiment at Clapham	83	(2)
6. Subsequent Observations	85	(3)
7. Trial at Sea	88	(4)
Eight How Small Is a Molecule? The Calculation Franklin Did Not Make	92	(8)
1. A Layer One Molecule Thick	92	(4)
2. Another Puzzle?	96	(1)
3. Numbers Tell the Tale	97	(3)
Nine One Hundred Years Later. Science Comes of Age	100	(21)
1. Heart of the Empire	100	(4)
2. Science as Profession	104	(5)
3. Molecular Dimensions	109	(4)
4. Avogadro's Number	113	(2)
5. Note on the Birth of Modern Physics	115	(4)
6. Stilling Waves at Sea	119	(2)
Ten Lord Rayleigh	121	(22)
1. Amateurs in Science	121	(2)
2. Biographical Sketch. Physics as a Pleasure	123	(8)
3. Why the Sky Is Blue, and Other Profound Matters	131	(3)
4. Oil on Water on a Laboratory Scale	134	(5)
5. Noblesse Oblige	139	(4)
Eleven Meticulous Miss Pockels	143	(7)
Twelve Comrades in the Search. The Flavor of Late Nineteenth-Century Physics	150	(18)
Thirteen Ben Franklin Wonders Why (Molecular Interpretation)	168	(6)
Fourteen In Praise of Water	174	(10)
1. "Water is the Origin of All Things"	174	(2)
2. Atoms, Molecules, and Ions	176	(4)
3. Attractions and Repulsions	180	(2)
4. Why Water Is Special	182	(2)
Fifteen Irving Langmuir: Molecular Attitudes	184	(19)
1. America on the Move	184	(3)
2. General Electric	187	(2)
3. Questions of Priority	189	(2)
4. Award of the Franklin Medal	191	(2)
5. Molecules at the Interface	193	(10)
Sixteen Biology-Cells and Membranes	203	(17)
1. Missed Connections	203	(3)
2. Cells are the Building Blocks of Living Matter	206	(2)
3. Membranes Define a Cell	208	(2)
4. Dynamic Biochemistry	210	(2)
5. Chemistry of Lipids	212	(1)
6. Water Is Surely an Important Bio-Molecule?	213	(2)
7. Crusader for Water	215	(5)
Seventeen Ernest Overton-Gentle Genius	220	(9)
1. Prescient Intuition	220	(2)
2. Permeability of Cell Membranes	222	(3)
3. "Uphill" Transport	225	(1)
4. Molecular Basis for Anesthesia	226	(1)
5. The Farish Syndrome	227	(2)
Eighteen Gorter and Grendel: A Factor of Two	229	(19)
1. Progress Postponed	229	(1)
2. Evert Gorter. A Life of Combat	230	(3)
3. Source of Inspiration	233	(3)
4. A Truly Classic Paper	236	(4)
5. Philistine Doctrine	240	(2)
6. Autopsy. Why Did It Die?	242	(4)
7. Resurrection	246	(2)
Nineteen Epilogue-The Biological Frontier	248	(5)
Bibliography	253	(8)
Index	261