Effects of Physics on Development of Optometry in the United States from the Late 19th to the Mid 20th Century / 의사학

In this paper, it was studied how physics affected development of optometry in the United States, from aspects of formation and academization of optometry. It was also revealed that history of optometry was analogous to history of engineering. Optics in the 19th century was divided into electromagnetic study of light and visual optics. Development of the visual optics promoted professionalization of ophthalmology that had already started in the 18th century. The visual optics also stimulated formation of optometry and optometrists body in the late 19th century of the United States. The American optometrists body were originated from opticians who had studied visual optics. Publication of several English academic textbooks on visual optics induced appearance of educated opticians (and jewelers). They acquired a right to do the eye examination in the early 20th century after C. F. Prentice's trial in 1897, evolving into optometrists. The opticians could be considered as craftsmen, and they were divided into (dispensing) opticians and optometrists. Such history of American optometrists body is analogous to that of engineers body in the viewpoints of craftsmen origin and separation from craftsmen. Engineers were also originated from educated craftsmen, but were separated from craftsmen when engineering was built up. Education system and academization of optometry was strongly influenced by physics, too. When college education of optometry started at American universities, it was not belonged to medical school but to physics department. Physics and optics were of great importance in curriculum, and early faculty members were mostly physicists. Optometry was academized in the 1920s by the college education, standardization of curriculum, and formation of the American Academy of Optometry. This is also analogous to history of engineering, which was academized by natural sciences, especially by mathematics and physics. The reason why optometry was academized not by medicine but by physics is because ophthalmologists did not have conciliatory attitudes to optometry education. Optometry became independent of physics from the 1930s to the 1940s. Optometric researches concentrated on binocular vision that is not included to discipline of physics, and faculty members who majored in optometry increased, so that optometry departments and graduate schools were established around 1940. Such independence from natural sciences after academization also resembles history of engineering. On the contrary, history of optometry was different from history of ophthalmology in several aspects. Ophthalmology had already been formed in the 18th century before development of visual optics, and was not academized by visual optics. Ophthalmologists body were not originated from craftsmen, and were not separated from craftsmen. History of optometry in the United States from the late 19th to the mid 20th century is analogous to history of engineering rather than history of medicine, though optometry is a medical discipline.

Thomas Alva Edison: su contribución a la calidad de vida y a la radiología / Thomas Alva Edison: his contribution to life quality and to radiology

Se revisa la vida de este gran inventor, sus aportes principales a la calidad de vida disfrutada en la actualidad y los que realizó a la radiología.

Salazar y Zegers: los rayos x / Salazar and Zegers: X-rays

La gran revolución de la física ocurrida a comienzos del siglo XX fue posible gracias a las bases sentadas en esta disciplina en la segunda mitad del siglo anterior: una cobinación de avanzada experimentación y teoría con aplicaciones práticas muy exitoras, todo edificado sobre la sólida base de la mecánica clásica. Los resultados de Faraday y Maxwell en electromagnestismo se aplicaban a fuentes de energía y luz elétrica y abrían el camino para la comunicación inalámbrica. La termodinámica, que había permitido la construcción del motor de combustión interna, comenzaba a influir en el diseño de fuentes de calor y plantas químicas. Sin embargo, el punto de quiebre en el conocimiento lo iban a producir otras áreas de la física, entre las cuales destaca la de los fenómenos asociados a las descargas elétricas, que no tenían explicación en términos de la física clásica. En efecto, gracias a experimentos en tubos de descarga se logró, entre otros, el descubriemiento de los rayos X y el electrón, dos hechos fundamentales para el nacimiento de la física del micromundo, la física cuántica.

Physics and the origins of molecular biology.

Bohr, Delbrück and Schrödinger were physicists who had important influences on biology in the second half of the twentieth century. They thought that future studies of the gene might reveal new principles or paradoxes, analogous to the wave/particle paradox of light propagation, or even new physical laws. This stimulated several physicists to enter the field of biology. Delbrück founded the bacteriophage group which provided one of the roots of molecular biology. Another was X-ray crystallography which led to the discovery of DNA structure. The strength and success of molecular biology came from the many interactions between geneticists, physicists, chemists and biochemists. It was also characterized by a powerful combination of theoretical and experimental approaches.

Meio ambiente e física / Environment and physical

O autor explica como a física contribui para os questionamentos e as soluções dos problemas ambientais. De linguagem didática e acessível, mas sem sacrificar o caráter técnico de sua abordagem, esse livro é direcionado a estudantes e leigos interessados no assunto. A Série Meio Ambiente apresenta-se no sentido de tornar o tema atualizado e bem fundamentado, aproximando-o de outras áreas do conhecimento e tendo sempre em conta a intenção didática. Série Meio Ambiente nº 4.

The gifts of physics to modern medicine.

The advancement of medical science was, and is, and will always be dependent on the progress of fundamental sciences like mathematics, physics and chemistry. It is true that pure science is not rapidly converted to applied science. That has always to depend on further technological advancement and on craftsmen's innovation. The role of physics in the evolution of some modern medical equipment - both diagnostic and therapeutic, is simply unique. A chemical pathology laboratory comprises, overall physics (i.e. laboratory machinery, pressures, radioactivity, voltage,