Isotope landscape and labscapes in Portugal (1952-1962)

• Autores: Júlia Gaspar
• Localización: The Circulation of Science and Technology: Proceedings of the 4th International Conference of the European Society for the History of Science. Barcelona, 18-20 November 2010 / coord. por Antoni M. Roca Rosell, 2012, ISBN 978-84-9965-108-8, págs. 754-758
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Political events led to the appointment of Julio Palacios, professor at Madrid University and an experienced researcher in areas other than nuclear physics, as first director of the Centre for Nuclear Physics Studies, and to the choice of its location at a university research hospital, away from the Faculty of Sciences of Lisbon, in 1952.

    In this site a laboratory was set where isotope applied research was conducted mainly by physicists.

    The same year isotope research was also launched at the National Laboratory of Civil Engineering, in Lisbon, by Armando Gibert, ex-teaching assistant at the Faculty of Sciences of Lisbon, and a researcher with experience in nuclear physics. Together with new laboratory premises, isotope work took place by the seaside at the estuaries of the rivers Tagus and Mondego, and at Póvoa de Varzim harbour.

    Location in a hospital influenced the lines of research of the Centre for Nuclear Energy which included chemical manipulation inherent to isotope handling, cancer treatment, and physicians training. As for Gibert, he concentrated on a specific topic –tracing sand movements with radioisotopes. Both groups contributed with papers to the International Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy, Geneva 1955, and published in a small number of foreign journals. However, most of the work was addressed to a Portuguese audience through Revista da Faculdade de Ciências de Lisboa, in the case of the university group, and Laboratório Nacional de Engenharia Civil publications, in the other case.

    This talk uses a comparative approach to contrast different backgrounds, profiles and research agendas of two Portuguese research groups both embracing radioisotopes applications in various labscapes and landscapes settings.