Evolution of physics between historical research and museology

The activity focuses on the development of effective relationships between the research sectors in the history of physics, museology and issues related to the protection and enhancement of scientific and technological heritage.

Important developments in the legislative and academic field in the last twenty years - such as the approval of the Code of Cultural Heritage and Landscape and the "material turn" in research in the history of science - require us to look at scientific objects and instruments as material testimonials to high cognitive potential, especially with regard to the evolution of physics and its practices.

Developing a historical approach to the discipline that is functional to the implementation of this potential, not only through the realization of museum itineraries but also that of projects that are placed in the broader panorama of scientific communication is the main aim of this group's work.

The study and research activities make use of the collaboration and support of the University Museum System of the University of Bologna.

Settori ERC

SH6_10 History of ideas, intellectual history, history of sciences and techniques

Collaborazioni nazionali e internazionali

The work is conducted with the collaboration and support of colleagues and research groups of prestigious national and international institutes:

Paolo Brenni, Fondazione Scienza e Tecnica Firenze

Anna Giatti, Fondazione Scienza e Tecnica Firenze

Peter Heering, University of Flensburg, Germany

Sébastien Soubiran, Université de Strasbourg – Jardin des Sciences

Research Institute of the “Deutsches Museum von Meisterwerken der Naturwissenschaft und Technik”, Munich, Germany

Produzione scientifica

Bertozzi, E. (2010). La disputa fra Galileo Galilei e Guidobaldo del Monte in una attività di divulgazione scientifica, Giornale di Fisica, vol. LI, Issue 4, p. 283-293, ISSN: 0017-0283, doi: 10.1393/gdf/i2010-10127-3.

Bertozzi, E. (2016). «The Wilson cloud chamber» (presso la Fondazione Scienza e Tecnica – Florence), documentario scientifico (curatela e ricerca storica).

Bertozzi, E. (2016). Technology-embedding instruments and performative goals: the case of the fully automatized cloud chamber by the Officine Galileo in Florence, Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society, June Issue N.129.

Bertozzi, E. (2017). Toward a history of explanation in science communication: the case of Madame Wu experiment on parity-violation, Journal of Science Communication, Special Issue: “History of Science Communication”, JCOM, 16 (03), A10, 1 -13.

Bertozzi, E. (2018). “Frankenstein Senior” (Sistema Museale di Ateneo – University of Bologna), docu-fiction (curatela scientifica e testo).

Bertozzi, E. (2019). Establishing and consolidating a research field: The biography of the Wilson cloud chamber in the history of particle physics, Historical Studies on the Natural Sciences (scheduled for publication in Vol. 49, Issue 2, April 2019, see letter by the Editor)