Science in the public sphere: Understanding the meanings of "applied science" in the era of war, industrial research and modernism, 1900-1939

今天我们可能会用“技术”这个词，但在20世纪初，“应用科学”这个词被广泛用于描述科学与实践之间的空间。了解它和其他相关术语是如何被科学家、政治家和外行使用的，有助于我们今天理解当时是如何解释科学的，以及我们从那个时代的用法和故事中继承下来的假设。这项研究将是从法国大革命到冷战结束应用科学意义研究的第二阶段。从20世纪初到第二次世界大战开始，随着新产品、科学及其组织在民用和军事领域的迅速发展，有许多人要求在人工制品、工艺和文化中体现“应用科学”。它的内涵可以包括工业研究；知识和教育的一种形式；现代设备，如电话、无线设备和武器；自动化;以及整个现代生活方式。这项研究不会评估关于科学与实践之间关系的说法的准确性，而是会揭示对时代的看法。在科学界，所谓的纯科学与其应用之间的关系是“应用科学”一词明确争论的问题。在20世纪20年代的文化危机中，它再次受到牵连，包括呼吁“科学假期”，并在20世纪30年代初成为政治争议的问题，当时科学与失业和投资重整军备联系在一起。第一次世界大战中的毒气战经常被引用为应用科学带来危险的一个例子，对许多人来说，这是对科学带来威胁的警告，但对其他人来说，如JBS霍尔丹，它的使用和经常的非致命效果是对促进公众对科学理解的挑战。应用科学让广受欢迎的HG Wells以及Aldous Huxley和James Joyce等重要文学人物着迷。当时，人们对私人领域和公共领域的相互作用有了极大的认识，像朱利安·赫胥黎（Julian Huxley）这样的著名科学家经常进行广播。这些知识分子的讨论将在这里与公共领域术语意义的演变结合起来。最重要的是，这项研究将通过公众辩论和历史故事来追踪它们的发展，这些故事通常是对现在和未来的寓言，这些寓言运用了这个术语。这项研究将利用当时许多报纸和杂志最近的数字化，调查和解释他们对短语和同源术语的使用。英国广播公司出版的《听众杂志》刊登了许多与科学有关的无线广播。这项研究还将关注在伦敦新开放的科学博物馆以及在温布利和格拉斯哥的大帝国展览中吸引了数百万游客的展览。它们被认为是了解科学的重要公众窗口，因此皇家学会专门举办了一个纯科学展览，作为1924年温布利展览的一部分。最后，这项研究将使用当时重要人物的许多档案，包括第一批科学记者，如曼彻斯特卫报的JG Crowther，以及科学家管理人员和HG Wells。与这项研究有关的几项重要的领导活动将促进对基本问题的更广泛讨论。为了鼓励在更广泛的历史学界对当时应用科学的意义进行讨论，我们将与著名的文学和设计历史学家一起组织一次关于现代主义的大型会议。为了帮助科学史家了解当时科学与实践之间的联系，将会有关于两次世界大战期间工业研究发展和第一次世界大战影响的研讨会。

Where today we might use the word "technology", in the early 20th century the term "applied science" was popularly used to describe the space between science and practice. Understanding how it and other related terms were deployed by scientists, politicians and laypeople, helps us today make sense of how science was interpreted then, and the assumptions that we have inherited through usages and stories from that time. This study will be a second stage in a study of the meanings of applied science from the French Revolution to the end of the Cold War.With the rapid development of new products, of science and its organisation, in civilian and military fields during the years between the beginning of the twentieth century and the start of the Second World War, there were many claims for the embodiment of "applied science" in artefacts, processes and culture. Its connotations could include industrial research; a form of knowledge and education; modern devices such as telephones, the wireless, and weapons; automation; and the modern way of life as a whole. The study will not evaluate the accuracy of claims about the relations between science and practice, but rather will reveal perceptions of the time. In scientific circles, the relations between what was termed pure science and its applications were issues in which the term "applied science" was explicitly debated. Again it was implicated in cultural crises in the 1920s including the call for a "science holiday", and became a matter of political dispute in the early 1930s when science was associated with both unemployment and with investment towards rearmament. The gas warfare practiced in World War 1, frequently cited as an example of danger posed by applied science, was to many people a warning of the threat posed by science, but to others, such as JBS Haldane, its use and frequently non-lethal effects was a challenge to the promotion of public understanding of science.Applied science fascinated the much-read HG Wells and such key literary figures as Aldous Huxley and James Joyce. There was great awareness at the time of the interaction of the private and public spheres, and leading scientists such as Julian Huxley broadcast frequently. The discussions of such intellectuals will be integrated here with the evolution of term's meanings in the public square. Above all, this study will follow their development through public debate, and through historical tales often serving as allegories for present and future, which deployed the term.The study will make use of the recent digitisation of many newspapers and magazines of the time to survey and interpret the uses they made of the phrase and cognate terms. The Listener Magazine published by the BBC printed many of the science-related wireless broadcasts. This study will look, too, at exhibitions which attracted millions of visitors at the newly reopened Science Museum in London and at the great Empire exhibitions in Wembley and Glasgow. These were considered such important public windows into science that the Royal Society mounted an exhibit specifically on pure science as part of the broader 1924 Wembley exhibition. Finally the study will use the many archives of important people of the time, including the first science journalists such as JG Crowther of the Manchester Guardian as well as scientist-administrators and HG Wells. Several important leadership activities, associated with the research, will promote the wider discussion of the fundamental issues. To encourage discussion of the meaning of applied science at the time within the wider historical community, there will be a major conference on modernism organised together with leading literary and design historians. To help historians of science engage with the interface between science and practice at the time, there will be workshops on the development of industrial research in the interwar years and on the impact of the First World War.