What is international science and how does it function? This book answers these questions through a detailed study of international congresses on genetics held from 1899 to 1939. It presents a portrait of international science as a product of continuous interactions that involved scientists and their patrons within specific political, ideological, and disciplinary contexts. Drawing on a variety of archival sources - ranging from Stalin's personal papers to the records of the Gestapo and from the correspondence among scientists in different countries to the minutes of the Soviet government's top-secret meetings - it depicts the operations of international science at a time of great political tensions. Krementsov breaks with the view of science as either inherently national or quintessentially international, examining instead the intersection between national and international agendas in scientists' activities. Focusing on the dramatic history of the Seventh international genetics congress, he investigates contradictions inherent to scientists' dual loyalties to their country and their science. Through analysis of negotiations among three groups of actors involved with the organization of the congress, Krementsov examines the role of ideologies, patronage, and personal networks in the operations of international science.

Present trends indicate that in the years to come transnational science, whether basic or applied and involving persons, equipment or funding, will grow considerably. The main purpose of this volume is to try to understand the reasons for this denationalization of science, its historical contexts and its social forms. The Introduction to the volume sets out the socio-political, intellectual, and economic contexts for the nationalization and denationalization of the sciences, processes that have extended over four centuries. The articles examine the specific conditions that have given rise to the growth of transnational science in the 20th century. Among these are: the need for cognitive and technical standardization of scientific knowledge-products, pressure toward cost-sharing of large installations such as CERN, the voluntary and involuntary migration of scientists, and the global market for R&D products that has emerged at the end of the century. The volume raises many new questions for research by historians and sociologists of science and poses problems that are of concern both to scientists and science policy-makers.

This volume reprints Paul Forman's classic papers on the history of physics in post-World War I Germany and the invention of quantum mechanics. The Forman thesis has become famous as the first argument in favor of the cultural conditioning of scientific knowledge, in particular for its demonstration of the historical connection between the culture of Weimar Germany — known for its irrationality and antiscientism — and the emerging concept of quantum acausality. At the 2007 international conference in Vancouver, Canada, leading historians of physics discussed the implications of the Forman thesis in the historiography of modern science. Their papers collected in this volume represent a cutting-edge research on the history of quantum revolution.

The first synoptic history of how the Royal Society faced up to the challenges of continued relevance from 1960 onwards.

During the early decades of the Cold War, the People's Republic of China remained outside much of mainstream international science. Nevertheless, Chinese scientists found alternative channels through which to communicate and interact with counterparts across the world, beyond simple East/West divides. By examining the international activities of elite Chinese scientists, Gordon Barrett demonstrates that these activities were deeply embedded in the Chinese Communist Party's wider efforts to win hearts and minds from the 1940s to the 1970s. Using a wide range of archival material, including declassified documents from China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs Archive, Barrett provides fresh insights into the relationship between science and foreign relations in the People's Republic of China.

The official monthly record of United States foreign policy.