核科学与核时代——对核时代到来的科学社会史考察

THE NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND THE NUCLEAR AGE——AN INSPECTION TO THE COMING OF THE NUCLEAR AGE WITH SOCIAL HISTORY OF SCIENCE

人类进入核时代已经40余年了。40余年来,核武器的数量、种类及其在世界各地的分布决定了世界政治稳定的局势。科学技术会对社会产生影响已经成为新时代人们普遍接受的观念。科学技术在许多发达国家已经成为立国之本。在这样的历史背景下,我们以科学社会学的思路追踪导致核时代到来的科学及其社会因素无疑是有其现实意义的。

This paper analyses how the development of nuclear science has brought the human being into nuclear age from the point of view of the social history of science. In the early part of the twentieth century,nuclear physics was born when the discovery of X-ray had led to the general suspicion about the Principle of Conservation of Energy and nearly all principles seemed to come to an end.Analysed from the social function of sciences,the development of nuclear science is always accompanied with the thinking about whether energy can be released in a great quantity.The study in the release of nuclear energy can be said as a"trilogy";i)Rutherford and Soddy’ s experiment on controlling the decay rate of atoms ;ii)Szilard’ s attempt of chain reaction ;iii)Otto Hahn and Felix Strassmann’ s theory of nuclear fusion.Many of the predictions about the nuclear age made by men of letters, which promote the development of the nuclear science. In the meantime,a lot of scientists are doubtfull about these predictions. Nuclear scientists are the only people who really realize the nature of the nuclear age. In Manhattan Project,they analysed and realized the effect of nuclear weapon on society and politics.and so become the witness of the coming of nuclear age.