| Full Text | Priority claims and public disputes in astronomy: E.M. Antoniadi, J. Comas i Solà and the search for authority and social prestige in the early twentieth century.
PEDRO RUIZ-CASTELL: Institut d'Història de la Medicina i de la Ciència ‘López Piñero', Universitat de València – CSIC, 46003 València, Spain.
Email: pedro.ruiz-castell@uv.es
Abstract
The reorganization of the astronomical community during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, due to the rise of astrophysics, was seen by some scientists as an opportunity to join an international community of prestigious researchers. This was the case of astronomers such as Josep Comas i Solà, who publicly argued with Eugène Michel Antoniadi during the first decades of the twentieth century about the veracity of astronomical observations and theoretical conclusions on Mars and Jupiter. Their priority claims and public disputes have to be understood in a new context that provided an exceptional opportunity for amateur and professional astronomers both to play an active role in the most interesting scientific debates of these years and to gain prestige, legitimacy and power.
Footnotes
Part of this paper was presented at the 6th STEP meeting, Looking back, STEPping forward: Scientific Travels, Textbooks, Popularization and Controversies in the European Periphery, held in Istanbul (Turkey) in June 2008. I am very grateful to Victor Navarro Brotóns, Agusti Nieto-Galán, Antoni Roca Rosell, Miguel Angel Granada, Oliver Hochadel, Néstor Herrán and two anonymous referees for their helpful comments and suggestions on early drafts of this article. I am also indebted to Peter D. Hingley, Josep M. Oliver, Josefina Fortuny and Ivan Rodas for their help with illustrating this paper. The Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación contributed through the Bases para una Historia de la Física en España en el siglo XX project (HAR2008-05039).
PEDRO RUIZ-CASTELL Priority claims and public disputes in astronomy: E.M. Antoniadi, J. Comas i Solà and the search for authority and social prestige in the early twentieth century.
The British Journal for the History of Science, Available on CJO doi:10.1017/S0007087410001536
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