Prestige Asymmetry in American Physics: Aspirations, Applications, and the Purloined Letter Effect

Martin, Joseph D.

doi:10.1017/s0269889717000242

Prestige Asymmetry in American Physics: Aspirations, Applications, and the Purloined Letter Effect

Martin, Joseph D.

Authors

Dr Joseph Martin joseph.d.martin@durham.ac.uk
Associate Professor

Abstract

Why do similar scientific enterprises garner unequal public approbation? High energy physics attracted considerable attention in the late-twentieth-century United States, whereas condensed matter physics – which occupied the greater proportion of US physicists – remained little known to the public, despite its relevance to ubiquitous consumer technologies. This paper supplements existing accounts of this much remarked-upon prestige asymmetry by showing that popular emphasis on the mundane technological offshoots of condensed matter physics and its focus on human-scale phenomena have rendered it more recondite than its better-known sibling field. News reports about high energy physics emphasize intellectual achievement; reporting on condensed matter physics focuses on technology. And whereas frontier-oriented rhetoric of high energy physics communicates ideals of human potential, discoveries that smack of the mundane highlight human limitations and fail to resonate with the widespread aspirational vision of science – a consequence I call “the purloined letter effect.”

Citation

Martin, J. D. (2017). Prestige Asymmetry in American Physics: Aspirations, Applications, and the Purloined Letter Effect. Science in Context, 30(4), 475-506. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0269889717000242

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	May 17, 2017
Online Publication Date	Feb 8, 2018
Publication Date	Dec 1, 2017
Deposit Date	Sep 18, 2019
Publicly Available Date	Oct 4, 2019
Journal	Science in Context
Print ISSN	0269-8897
Electronic ISSN	1474-0664
Publisher	Cambridge University Press
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	30
Issue	4
Pages	475-506
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1017/s0269889717000242
Related Public URLs	https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/274133

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http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Copyright Statement
This article has been published in a revised form in Science in Context http://doi.org/10.1017/S0269889717000242. This version is published under a Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND. No commercial re-distribution or re-use allowed. Derivative works cannot be distributed. © copyright holder.