I am the director of the Cohn Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Ideas. My interests and teaching range from ancient Greek to twentieth century science and technology in their social, philosophical, cultural and practical contexts. The focus of my research is in the history of the physical sciences and of physics-based technologies (especially those related to electricity and electronics) and their interactions in the 19th and 20th centuries. The main themes of my research include the relationships between science and technology, the role of and interactions between traditions and styles of research and their developments, theory development and choice including explanatory (molecular) theory versus phenomenological and general approach like those employing symmetry and energy, precise experimentation, measurements and measurement standards (in particular of time). I examine the development of physics by looking at “mundane” fields of study like piezoelectricity and electromagnetism as well as examining more famous and revolutionary fields like relativity and early quantum theory and emergence of central principles like those of energy conservation and symmetry.

Open cv in a pdf format

Sonar to Quartz Clock: Technology and Physics in War, Academy, and Industry, Oxford UP 2023

Selected articles in full text (for full list see cv)

• The use of the conservation of living force before Helmholtz, Annals of Science, 80 (2023): 337-356.

• "Employment Before Formulation: Uses of Proto-Energetic Arguments,” Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences, 49 (2019): 1-40.

• Editor: Interactions of Interwar Physics: Technology, Instruments, and Other Sciences, special issue of Science in Context, 31(3) (2018), including:

• Introduction: “Physics, Technology, and Technics during the Interwar Period,” 251-261

• and “The shaping of interwar physics by technology: the case of piezoelectricity,”: 321-350, prepublished manuschript,  official site

• "'In war or in peace:' The technological promise of science following the First World War," Centaurus, 59 (2017): 223-237.

• "Technological Entrepreneurship from Patenting to Commercializing: A Survey of Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Physics Lecturers,” History and Technology, 33 (2017): 109-125, prepublished manuscript                                     

• “Time standards for the twentieth century – telecommunication, physics and the quartz clock,” The Journal of Modern History, 89 (2017): 119–150.   

• “Variations and Combinations: Invention and Development of Quartz Clock Technologies at AT&T,” ICON (Journal of the International Committee for the History of Technology), 22 (2016): 78-114.                     

• “Pursuing frequency standards and control: the invention of quartz clock technologies,” Annals of Science, 73 (2016): 1-39, prepublished manuscript                                               

• “Manchester at war: Bohr and Rutherford on problems of science, war and international communication,” Finn Aaserud and Helge Kragh (eds.) One hundred years of the Bohr atom: Proceedings from a conference - Scientia Danica. Series M · Mathematica et physica, 1 (2015):  495-510. (Copenhagen: Danish Academy of science)           

• "Time Standards from Acoustic to Radio: The First Electronic Clock,” Lara Huber and Oliver Schlaudt (eds.) Standardization in Measurement: Philosophical, Historical and Sociological Issues, London: Pickering and Chatto, 2015, 111-124.                        

• “Theoretical challenges by experimental physics: radiation and its interaction with matter.” Traditions and transformations in the history of quantum physics, Katzir, Lehner and Renn (eds.), (Berlin: Edition open access, 2013),11-27  pdf ; html    

• “Scientific practice for technology: Hermann Aron’s development of the storage battery,” History of Science, 51 (2013): 481-500.                    

• Who knew Piezoelectricity? Rutherford and Langevin on submarine detection and the invention of sonar,” Notes and Records of the Royal Society, 66 (2012): 141-157.             

• “War and peacetime research in the road to crystal frequency control,”  Technology and Culture, 51 (2010): 99-125.                        

• “Hermann Aron’s electricity meters: Physics and invention in late nineteenth-century Germany,” Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences, 39 (2009): 444-481.                

• "The emergence of the principle of symmetry in physics," Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences, 35 (2004): 35-65.           

• " From explanation to description: Molecular and phenomenological theories of piezoelectricity" Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences, 34 (2003): 69-94.     

• עם נורית קירש ״בין כימיה לפוליטיקה - פעילותו המדעית של ויצמן  בשנות השלושים והארבעים״ במאיר חזן ואורי כהן (עורכים) ויצמן מנהיג הציונות, ירושלים: מרכז זלמן שזר, 2016: 413-39.              

Videos and audios of public talks

• בחינה מחודשת של יחסי פיזיקה וטכנולוגיה בתקופה המודרנית - הרצאה ב״פיזיקה ואסטרונומיה מהביסיד לאריסטו - יום עיון לכבוד ד״ר עדו יעבץ (יוני 2022)

• בין האקדמיה והתעשייה - מחקר ופיתוח תקני תדירות וזמן במעבדות מחקר לאומיות בין המלחמות - הרצאה בסמינר המחקר של מכון כהן (מרס 2022)

• המצאות מקבילות ותהליכי חדשנות מדעית - טכנולוגית - הרצאה בסמינר המחקר של מכון כהן (יוני 2020)

• מסמפור (semaphore) לוידאו: טלקומוניקציה ותקשורת בלתי אמצעית - הרצאה במסגרת הסלון הוירטואלי של הפקולטה למדעי הרוח בימי קורנה (אפריל 2020)

•  פודקאסט  - שיחה על התפתחות התפיסה שהמדע יביא לטכנולוגיה ורווחה חומרית  (אוגוסט 2019)

• ״מהו ניסוי מכריע? "מייכלסון מורלי" ותיאוריית היחסות הפרטית״ הרצאה במסגרת יום היכרות עם מכון כהן להיסטוריה ופילוסופיה של המדעים והרעיונות (תל אביב, מאי, 2019)  

• ״מסלולי חיים ומסלולי מחקר: הביוגרפיה כהסבר לבחירת נושאי מחקר״  הרצאה במסגרת יום העיון לזכרו של סם שוובר - החיים הפרטיים של המדע (תל אביב, אפריל, 2018)

• “‘In war or in peace:’ The technological promise of science following the First World War,” The Promises of Science. Historical Perspectives (Donostia/San Sebastian, April 2014)

• “Theoretical challenges by experimental physics: radiation and its interaction with matter,” 3rd International Conference on the History of Quantum Physics (Berlin, June 2010)

•  “Basic, applied research and technology through the lens of crystal frequency control,” Science Impact: Rethinking the Impact of Basic Research on Society and the Economy (Vienna, May 2007)