Gravity's Ghost and Big Dog

图书信息

作者	Collins, Harry
出版社	University of Chicago Press
ISBN	9780226052328
出版时间	2014-01-23
字数	76.3万
分类	University of Chicago Press,进口书,外文原版书,文学,自传,回忆录

读书简介

Gravity's Ghost and Big Dog brings to life science's efforts to detect cosmic gravitational waves. These ripples in space-time are predicted by general relativity, and their discovery will not only demonstrate the truth of Einstein's theories but also transform astronomy. Although no gravitational wave has ever been directly detected, the previous five years have been an especially exciting period in the field. Here sociologist Harry Collins offers readers an unprecedented view of gravitational wave research and explains what it means for an analyst to do work of this kind.?Collins was embedded with the gravitational wave physicists as they confronted two possible discoveries-"e;Big?Dog,"e; fully analyzed in this volume for the first time, and the "e;Equinox Event,"e; which was first chronicled by Collins in Gravity's Ghost. Collins records the agonizing arguments that arose as the scientists worked out what they had seen and how to present it to the world, along the way demonstrating how even the most statistical of sciences rest on social and philosophical choices. Gravity's Ghost and Big Dog draws on nearly fifty years of fieldwork observing scientists at the American Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory and elsewhere around the world to offer an inspired commentary on the place of science in society today.

目录

Cover

Copyright Page

Title Page

Dedication

Contents

Preface to the Enlarged Edition

I Gravity’s Ghost: The Equinox Event

Introduction

1 Gravitational-Wave Detection

2 The Equinox Event: Early Days

3 Resistance to Discovery

4 The Equinox Event: The Middle Period

5 The Hidden Histories of Statistical Tests

6 The Equinox Event: The Denouement

7 Gravity’s Ghost

Envoi. Science in the Twenty-First Century

Postscript. Thinking after Arcadia

Appendix 1. The Burst Group Checklist as of October 2007

Appendix 2. The Arcadia Abstract

II Big Dog

Introduction. Big Dog Barks

8 Black Holes Observed?

9 Evidential Culture and Time

10 Time Slides and Trials Factor

11 Little Dogs

12 Discovery or Evidence

13 Closing Arguments

14 Twenty-Five Philosophical Decisions

15 Arcadia. Opening the Envelope

Appendix 3. Parameter Estimation

Glossary of Tree Pseudonyms with Descriptors

III The Trees and the Forest: Sociological and Methodological Reflection

16 The Sociology of Knowledge and Three Waves of Science Studies

17 Methodological Reflection: On Going Native

Appendix 4. A Sociologist Tries to Do Some Physics

Notes

Acknowledgments

References

Index