Atomic, Molecular and Orbital Iconography in Post-War Design

该项目将调查可视化技术在沟通，反映和塑造战后英国科学的专业和大众理解中的作用。历史案例研究关注的是从新的X射线晶体学技术中开发的图像的扩散，用于在原子和分子尺度上成像结构：通过设计师对这些图像的适应和采用，这些图像进入日常生活，用于英国公众购买和使用的表面图案和3D对象。这项研究的背景是历史的兴趣，通过新的视角来澄清我们对战后英国文化和社会的理解，但也是当代的，即当前对理解和传播科学发现在DNA测序和亚原子粒子物理学等领域的影响的新兴趣。在这方面，该项目支持为这一轮研究基金提出的科学和文化战略倡议。该学生将在皇家艺术学院（“RCA”）的设计史和科学博物馆的策展服务部门工作。这两个机构不仅在1851年的展览和地点在肯辛顿的起源，而且在历史研究，使用文物，对象，图像和口述历史，以阐明这些文物有意义的背景下，这些文物对文化和社会的影响，在他们的时期和随后的国际公认的专业知识。在设计和RCA的历史，学生将成为新兴和成熟的研究人员在设计和视觉传达的历史和实践工作的一个充满活力的队列的一部分。在科学博物馆，学生将加入一个研究社区，关注科学在日常生活中的存在，并与科学史和当代发展的有效沟通，以普通观众，一个关注平行于本研究的主题。该项目旨在通过分享科学发现及其流行的成像对设计实践和生产的影响的新知识，通过提高人们对设计在向公众传达科学理解和发现方面的重要性的认识，以及现代英国科学史。预期的研究成果不仅包括这是一本学术出版物，将有助于专家和学生了解战后英国的历史，现代科学史和设计史，而且对科学博物馆现代科学画廊的X射线晶体学展览也有重大贡献，该展览将向广大公众传达和解释科学发现的重要性及其在日常生活中的成像。关于科学可视化技术与战后日常生活的视觉和物质文化之间关系的研究结果也可以作为当代分析的影响和流行的理解的比较，这些分析正在开发和部署在气候科学，遗传学和亚原子物理学等领域。

The project will investigate the role of visualisation techniques in communicating, reflecting and shaping professional and popular understandings of science in post-war Britain. The historical case study concerns the diffusion of images developed from new X-ray crystallography techniques for imaging structures at the atomic and molecular scale: their inroads into daily life through designers' adaptation and adoption of these images for surface patterns and 3D objects for purchase and use by the British public. The context for the research is historical-interest in clarifying our understanding of post-war British culture and society through new perspectives-but also contemporary, namely current renewed interest in understanding and communicating the impact of scientific discoveries in areas such as DNA sequencing and sub-atomic particle physics in society today. In this aspect, the project supports the strategic initiative in Science and Culture proposed for this round of research funding.The student will be based within History of Design at the Royal College of Art ('RCA') and the curatorial services department of the Science Museum. These two institutions share not only their origin in the 1851 Exhibition and location in Kensington, but also internationally-recognized expertise in historical research that uses artefacts-objects, images-and oral histories to illuminate the contexts within which these artefacts have had meaning, and of the impact these artefacts have had on culture and society in the period they were made and subsequently. In History of Design and the RCA , the student will become part of a vibrant cohort of emerging and established researchers working in design and visual communication history and practice. At the Science Museum, the student will join a research community concerned with the presence of science in everyday life, and with the effective communication of the history of science and contemporary developments to a general audience, a concern that parallels the subject of this research. The project aims to contribute to the scholarly and general understanding of post-war British design, cultural and social history by sharing new knowledge of the impact of scientific discovery and its popular imaging on design practice and production, and to the history of modern British science by raising awareness of the importance of design in communicating scientific understanding and discovery to the public.Expected research outcomes include not only scholarly publications that will contribute to specialist and student knowledge in the history of post-war Britain, the history of modern science and the history of design, but also a major contribution to the X-ray crystallography exhibit in the Making of Modern Science Gallery at the Science Museum that will communicate and interpret the import of scientific discovery and its imaging in everyday life for a broad public audience. Research findings about the relationship between scientific visualisation techniques and the visual and material culture of everyday life in the post-war period may also serve as comparison for contemporary analyses of the impact and popular understanding of new imaging techniques being developed and deployed in areas such as climate science, genetics and sub-atomic physics today.