The Chemistry of Instruments. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance and Mass Spectrometry in Chemical Research, 1950-1980

在第二次世界大战后的三十年里，物理仪器的迅速引入导致了化学研究的巨大转变。正如物理学家和分子生物学家一样，化学家采用了新的组织形式，并大大扩展了自己研究能力的规模和范围。研究化学家、仪器制造商、化学公司和政府机构形成了一个紧密联系的网络，这一联盟促进了仪器和技术的跨学科转移。在这个过程中，化学家们积极地使物理技术适应他们实验培养的需要和条件。在建立良好的社会和智力环境的同时，他们创造了“乐器化学”。因此，高科技仪器成为化学研究的必要条件，也是其向外延伸的唯一最重要的标志。这项研究广泛借鉴了基于美国科学的案例研究，将现代化学史与20世纪世纪后半叶物理学和生物学大科学的历史著作相提并论。

During the three decades following World War II, the widespreadintroduction of physical instrumentation led to a dramatictransformation of chemical research. As we also the case withphysicists and molecular biologists, chemists adopted novelforms of organization and deeply expanded the scale and scopeof their own research capabilities. Research chemists,instrument manufacturers, chemical firms, and governmentagencies formed a web of close interconnections an alliancesthat enhanced the transfer of instruments and techniques acrossdisciplinar boundaries. In thes process, chemists activelyadapted phaysical techniques to the needs and conditions oftheir experimental culture. While building favorable social andintellectual environments, they created the ’chemistry ofinstruments’. As a result, high-technology instrumentationbecame both the sine qua non for chemical research and thesingle most important symbol of its outward reach. Drawingextensively on case studies based on American science, thisstudy brings the history of modern chemistry on a par withhistorical work on big science in physics and biology duringthe second half of the twentieth century.