ABSTRACT The contribution of amateur scientists to the International Geophysical Year (IGY) was substantial, especially in the arena of spotting artificial satellites. This article examines how Fred L. Whipple and his colleagues recruited satellite spotters for Moonwatch, a program for amateur scientists initiated by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) in 1956. At the same time, however, the administrators with responsibility for the IGY program closely monitored and managed—sometimes even contested—amateur participation. IGY programs like Moonwatch provided valuable scientific information and gave (...) amateurs opportunities to contribute actively to the research of professional scientists. Moonwatch, which operated until 1975, eventually became the public face of a vast satellite‐tracking network that expanded the SAO’s global reach and helped further Whipple’s professional goals. Understanding amateurs’ interactions with the professional science community enables us better to understand the IGY as a phenomenon that enlisted broad participation and transcended traditional boundaries between professional and amateur scientists. (shrink)

This essay argues that science in twentieth‐century China is a rich topic that can be productively integrated into research and teaching on the history of modern science. It identifies major issues of science in twentieth‐century China and demonstrates that they can prove useful to any scholar who wishes to consider science in a comparative and trans/international context. The essay suggests two important steps for a fruitful investigation into the topic of science in twentieth‐century China: first, revising the historiographic assumptions and (...) categories that underlie much of the conventional historical narrative of modern science; and, second, breaking free from the tunnel history of national science. To illustrate these points, the essay examines a series of case studies of science in modern China and discusses the relevance of such subjects as scientific nationalism, Maoist mass science, and transnational scientific networks for the understanding of science in the twentieth‐century world. (shrink)

These essays collectively present new perspectives on the history of modern science in China since 1900. Fa‐ti Fan describes how science under the Republic of China after 1911 exhibited a complex local and international character that straddled both imperialism and colonialism. Danian Hu focuses on the fate of relativity in the physics community in China after 1917. Zuoyue Wang hopes that a less nationalist political atmosphere in China will stimulate more transnational studies of modern science, which will in turn reveal (...) the underlying commonalities in different national contexts. Sigrid Schmalzer compares the socialist and the capitalist contexts for science in China and reopens the sensitive question of the “mass line” during the Cultural Revolution. Grace Shen describes the tensions early Chinese scientists felt when choosing between foreign models for modern geology and their own professional identities in China. Taken together, these accounts present us with a comparative history of modern science in China that is both globally and locally informed. (shrink)