As a powerful research technology, electron microscopy has shaped various natural and technical sciences. With its help, previously invisible pathogens such as viruses or bacteriophages became visible. After first successes in medical and biological research, it became a crucial research tool in the materials sciences, in chemistry, and solid state physics. The book focuses on the emergence and genesis of electron microscopy in Germany from its beginnings in the early 1930s to the 1960s. Large corporations such as Siemens and AEG vied for supremacy in the development and sale of this innovative technology. In its early development, the success story of the electron microscope was characterized by strategic calculations, propaganda work, and tough patent negotiations, by conflicts among the protagonists over an appropriate place in future memory and by the entanglements with officials and organizations of the National Socialist State. The scientific and technical contributions of the electrical engineer and 1986 Nobel Prize winner in physics, Ernst Ruska, serve as a biographical thread.

Discusses scientific, technological, economic, and political conditions for the emergence of a new research technology Explores network building and de/escalation strategies of competing actors in patent and priority conflicts Provides an in-depth history of the development of the electron microscope

Autorentext

Falk Müller studied physics at the University of Oldenburg. He finished his doctoral degree in 2003 with a thesis on the history of gas discharge research in the 19th century. From 2004 to 2010, he served as Assistant Professor in the History of Science Group at Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main. From 2010 to 2013, he was Research Director at the Humanities Research Center at Goethe University. Afterwards he was head of the research group "Knowledge in Interstices" at the Collaborative Research Center "Discourses of Weakness and Resource Regimes" funded by the German Research Foundation. Currently, he is teaching history of science at Goethe University and is responsible for the division of research promotion at Evangelisches Studienwerk, Villigst. Previous publications: Jenseits des Lichts. Siemens, AEG und die Anfänge der Elektronenmikroskopie in Deutschland. Göttingen 2021. Gasentladungsforschung im 19. Jahrhundert. Berlin/Diepholz 2004. Weak Knowledge: Forms, Functions, and Dynamics. Annette Imhausen, Moritz Epple, and Falk Müller (eds.). Frankfurt 2020.

Inhalt

Between University and Industrial Laboratory.- Resource Management at Siemens.- The Beginnings of Electron Microscopy at Siemens.- The Institutional Order of Electron Microscopy.- The Symbolic Order of the Electron Microscope.- The Electron Microscope Goes to War.- Orientation in a New World.- Reconstruction on the Open Sea Continues for Now.- Visiting a 'Diverse Community'.