Doctoral Dissertation Research: The New Prophet: Harold C. Urey, Scientist, Atheist, and Defender of Religion

本博士论文项目由科学，技术和社会计划资助。这是一个社会和传记研究的生活和职业生涯的美国物理化学家哈罗德克莱顿尤里（1893年至1981年）。 它主要关注尤里作为美国诺贝尔奖获得者所做的公共工作，以谈判科学和宗教在社会中的各自作用。虽然他从小就是一个虔诚的无神论者，但他最终成为了宗教对公众和科学生活重要性的公开倡导者。从20世纪30年代的大萧条到冷战的高潮，他在科学和宗教方面的公共立场在不断变化的社会和政治背景中演变。随着他在不同的研究项目之间的转换，从1934年为他赢得诺贝尔奖的同位素化学，到曼哈顿计划，再到地球化学，最后到宇宙化学和行星探索，他们也在不断发展。这个项目使用口述历史，档案，并公布的来源，从有关时期把尤里的公共立场的背景下，并检查尤里的经验之间的关系作为科学家和公民从第一次世界大战到美国宇航局的阿波罗计划和他的想法之间的关系科学与宗教。它还考察了尤里无法采取行动的这些想法或获得接受他们之间的大多数同龄人。尤里的不断发展的科学和宗教的讨论是重要的两个主要原因。首先，20世纪的主导叙事是世俗化，科学和科学家被称为世俗化的主要力量。因此，尤里的故事将为我们提供一个有趣的视角，从这个角度来质疑并添加一些必要的细微差别。第二，尤里的科学和宗教的思想，虽然形成了社会和政治背景，也反映了他认为科学和科学家应该在社会中发挥的作用。在他的科学工作的背景下更密切地研究尤里的想法将使我们深入了解尤里参与阿波罗计划等大科学项目的动机。Urey在加州大学圣地亚哥曼德维尔特藏图书馆;口述历史收藏和化学遗产基金会的期刊收藏;科学，哲学和宗教会议的档案（1939-1968）在美国犹太神学院;莱纳斯鲍林的论文在俄勒冈州州立大学特别收藏图书馆;芝加哥大学特藏图书馆中的芝加哥原子科学家档案;对哈罗德·C.尤里在哥伦比亚大学图书馆;和美国物理研究所的口述历史收藏。

This doctoral dissertation project funded is by the Science, Technology, and Society Program. It is a social and biographical study of the life and career of the American physical chemist Harold Clayton Urey (1893-1981). It focuses primarily on the public work Urey did as an American Nobel Laureate to negotiate the respective roles of science and religion in society. Although he was a dedicated atheist from a young age, Urey eventually became a public advocate of the importance of religion for public and scientific life. From the Depression of the 1930s to the height of the Cold War, his public positions on science and religion evolved in the midst of changing social and political contexts. They also evolved as he moved between research projects from the isotope chemistry that won him the Nobel Prize in 1934, to the Manhattan Project, to geochemistry, and finally to cosmic chemistry and planetary exploration. This project uses oral histories, archives, and published sources from the periods in question to put Urey's public positions in context and to examine the relationship between Urey's experiences as scientist and citizen from WWI to NASA's Apollo program and his ideas of the relationship between science and religion. It also examines Urey's inability to act on these ideas or to gain acceptance for them among the majority of his peers.Urey's evolving discussions of science and religion are important for two principal reasons. First, the dominant narrative of the 20th century is one of secularization, with science and scientists billed as the primary forces of secularization. Urey's story will thus give us an interesting perspective from which to question and add some needed nuance this narrative. Second, Urey's ideas of science and religion, while shaped by social and political contexts, also reflected the role that he felt science and scientists should play in society. Studying Urey's ideas more closely in the context of his scientific work will give us insight into Urey's motivations for engaging in Big Science projects such as the Apollo program.This project relies upon several archives and libraries: the papers of Harold C. Urey at the University of California, San Diego Mandeville Special Collections Library; the oral history collection and journal collection of the Chemical Heritage Foundation; the archives of the Conference on Science, Philosophy, and Religion (1939-1968) at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America; the papers of Linus Pauling at the Special Collections Library of Oregon State University; the archives of the Atomic Scientists of Chicago at the Special Collections Library of the University of Chicago; the oral history interview with Harold C. Urey at the Columbia University Library; and the oral history collection of the American Institute of Physics.