Benjamin Sims
Biographic Data
| ID | 3945968 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Benjamin Sims |
| GIVEN NAMES | Benjamin |
| FAMILY NAME | Sims |
| SIGNATURE | SIMS B |
| AFFILIATIONS | Los Alamos National Laboratory |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1521-0329 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 8 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 52 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 8 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1999 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2020 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Repairing Infrastructures
An investigation of the causes and consequences of the strange, ambivalent, and increasingly central role of infrastructure repair in modern life. Infrastructures—communication, food, transportation, energy, and information—are all around us, and their enduring function and influence depend on the constant work of repair. In this book, Christopher Henke and Benjamin Sims explore the causes and consequences of the strange, ambivalent, and increasi…
The American Lab
Reviewed by: The American Lab: An Insider's History of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory by C. Bruce Tarter Benjamin Sims (bio) The American Lab: An Insider's History of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory By C. Bruce Tarter. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2018. Pp. 472. In The American Lab, former Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory director C. Bruce Tarter provides a detailed history of the laboratory from its ori…
Repairing credibility
During the Cold War, the credibility of US nuclear weapons scientists was backed up by an integrated system for designing, testing, and manufacturing nuclear weapons. As the Cold War drew to a close in the 1990s, weapons scientists warned that their knowledge was so deeply embedded in the design and testing of nuclear weapons that it might not survive if this system were disrupted. Sociologists Donald MacKenzie and Graham Spinardi used this as ev…
Maintenance and Transformation in the U.S. Nuclear Weapons Complex
With the end of "Cold War" the U.S. nuclear weapon design laboratories has new work to do and their budgets remained intact. The paper discusses the different programs and proposals regarding the maintenance and transformation in the U.S. nuclear weapons
Things Fall Apart
Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned ... (William Butler Yeats, excerpted from The Second Coming) Watching the tragedy that was Hurricane Katrina unfold along the US Gulf Coast was a profoundly disturbing experience. Although in retrospect th…
The Day After the Hurricane’
Safe Science
Scientific laboratories can sometimes be dangerous places to work, and safety concerns can have a significant impact on the scientific research process. Because safety practices specify both behavioral norms and technical standards, they provide an opportunity to better understand the relationships between the organizational and epistemic aspects of scientific culture. This paper presents a case study of a ‘pulsed-power’ facility at the US Los Al…
Concrete Practices
Successful testing depends upon projecting from a test situation to the performance of a technology under working conditions. Some have argued that projection is made possible primarily through a collective agreement that the test circumstances and working conditions are similar in crucial ways. This paper argues that projection is better understood in many cases as a set of local practices through which testing produces change in a wider context…
Concrete Practices
Successful testing depends upon projecting from a test situation to the performance of a technology under working conditions. Some have argued that projection is made possible primarily through a collective agreement that the test circumstances and working conditions are similar in crucial ways. This paper argues that projection is better understood in many cases as a set of local practices through which testing produces change in a wider context…
Repairing credibility
During the Cold War, the credibility of US nuclear weapons scientists was backed up by an integrated system for designing, testing, and manufacturing nuclear weapons. As the Cold War drew to a close in the 1990s, weapons scientists warned that their knowledge was so deeply embedded in the design and testing of nuclear weapons that it might not survive if this system were disrupted. Sociologists Donald MacKenzie and Graham Spinardi used this as ev…
The Day After the Hurricane’
Safe Science
Scientific laboratories can sometimes be dangerous places to work, and safety concerns can have a significant impact on the scientific research process. Because safety practices specify both behavioral norms and technical standards, they provide an opportunity to better understand the relationships between the organizational and epistemic aspects of scientific culture. This paper presents a case study of a ‘pulsed-power’ facility at the US Los Al…
Things Fall Apart
Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned ... (William Butler Yeats, excerpted from The Second Coming) Watching the tragedy that was Hurricane Katrina unfold along the US Gulf Coast was a profoundly disturbing experience. Although in retrospect th…
Concrete Practices
Successful testing depends upon projecting from a test situation to the performance of a technology under working conditions. Some have argued that projection is made possible primarily through a collective agreement that the test circumstances and working conditions are similar in crucial ways. This paper argues that projection is better understood in many cases as a set of local practices through which testing produces change in a wider context…
Safe Science
Scientific laboratories can sometimes be dangerous places to work, and safety concerns can have a significant impact on the scientific research process. Because safety practices specify both behavioral norms and technical standards, they provide an opportunity to better understand the relationships between the organizational and epistemic aspects of scientific culture. This paper presents a case study of a ‘pulsed-power’ facility at the US Los Al…
Things Fall Apart
Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned ... (William Butler Yeats, excerpted from The Second Coming) Watching the tragedy that was Hurricane Katrina unfold along the US Gulf Coast was a profoundly disturbing experience. Although in retrospect th…
The Day After the Hurricane’
Maintenance and Transformation in the U.S. Nuclear Weapons Complex
With the end of "Cold War" the U.S. nuclear weapon design laboratories has new work to do and their budgets remained intact. The paper discusses the different programs and proposals regarding the maintenance and transformation in the U.S. nuclear weapons
Repairing credibility
During the Cold War, the credibility of US nuclear weapons scientists was backed up by an integrated system for designing, testing, and manufacturing nuclear weapons. As the Cold War drew to a close in the 1990s, weapons scientists warned that their knowledge was so deeply embedded in the design and testing of nuclear weapons that it might not survive if this system were disrupted. Sociologists Donald MacKenzie and Graham Spinardi used this as ev…
Repairing Infrastructures
An investigation of the causes and consequences of the strange, ambivalent, and increasingly central role of infrastructure repair in modern life. Infrastructures—communication, food, transportation, energy, and information—are all around us, and their enduring function and influence depend on the constant work of repair. In this book, Christopher Henke and Benjamin Sims explore the causes and consequences of the strange, ambivalent, and increasi…
The American Lab
Reviewed by: The American Lab: An Insider's History of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory by C. Bruce Tarter Benjamin Sims (bio) The American Lab: An Insider's History of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory By C. Bruce Tarter. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2018. Pp. 472. In The American Lab, former Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory director C. Bruce Tarter provides a detailed history of the laboratory from its ori…
Computer Science (5 works) · Engineering (4 works) · Law (4 works) · Political science (4 works) · Politics (4 works) · Sociology (4 works) · Cold war (3 works) · History (3 works) · Mechanical Engineering (3 works) · Context (archaeology (2 works)