Simone Turchetti
Biographic Data
| ID | 981714 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Simone Turchetti |
| GIVEN NAMES | Simone |
| FAMILY NAME | Turchetti |
| SIGNATURE | TURCHETTI S |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Manchester |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1834-2503 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 22 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 34 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 21 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2003 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
The World United in Studying Itself? Data and the Coloniality of the International Geophysical Year, 1957–1958
The International Geophysical Year (IGY, 1957–1958) pioneered worldwide collaborative research by uniting sixty-seven national committees in a data-gathering exercise across sixteen subdisciplines of the earth and environmental sciences. This essay seeks to offer a fresh perspective on its history by looking into the IGY planning meetings and focusing especially on talks regarding its data-collection strategies. It contends that, given the import…
Nothing Is Beyond Our Reach
Contesting American hegemony
This article focuses on the French communist scientists’ attack, executed in 1953, on US initiatives for the promotion of science in Europe. Collated in the anonymous booklet Un plan U.S.A. de mainmise sur la science, these accusations caused a sensation in the already tense political climate of the early 1950s by alleging that American initiatives offered cover to intelligence operations, and a chokehold on the development of European science. W…
Data Rules
This article explores the history of international scientific data organizations and documents their significance in the definition of new forms of global governance. It focuses in particular on the ancestry of two data organizations now operating under the International Science Council (formerly International Council of Scientific Unions -ICSU): the World Data System and the Committee on Data for Science and Technology. Examination of these orga…
Science on a Mission
Representing noise
Sketched in 1979 by graphic designer Peter Saville, the record sleeve of Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures seemingly popularized one of the most celebrated radio-astronomical images: the ‘stacked plot’ of radio signals from a pulsar. However, the sleeve's designer did not have this promotion in mind. Instead, he deliberately muddled the message it originally conveyed in a typical post-punk act of artistic sabotage. In reconstructing the historical…
Introduction
This special issue explores the power that images with a techno-scientific content can have in international relations. As we introduce the articles in the collection, we highlight how the study of this influence extends current research in the separate (but increasingly interacting) domains of history of science and technology, and political science. We then show how images of different types (photographs, cartoons and plots) can inform inter-st…
Trading Global Catastrophes
This essay explores the reception of ‘nuclear winter’ at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). This response is paradigmatic of how scientific predictions can work as stimuli for science diplomacy activities, and either inflate or deflate these forecasts’ public resonance. Those who elaborated the theory in the early 1980s predicted that the environmental consequences of a future nuclear conflict would have been catastrophic; possibly re…
Envisioning a “science diplomacy 2.0”
The term “science diplomacy” broadly identifies interactions between scientific and foreign policy communities connected to the promotion of international scientific exchanges (also as a way to establish constructive relations between countries), and the provision of scientific advice on issues of relevance to more than one nation. Science diplomacy initiatives have been positively portrayed by practitioners, while recent scholarship has undersco…
The post-war shaping of general relativity and gravitation studies
The Unflinching Mr. Smith and the Nuclear Age
This article focuses on the U.S. diplomat and nuclear arms control negotiator Gerald (Gerry) Coat Smith in order to cast new light on the importance of diplomats in the context of the set of international activities currently labelled as “science diplomacy.” Smith, a lawyer by training, was a key negotiator in many international agreements on post‐WW2 atomic energy projects, from those on uranium prospecting and mining, to reactors technologies t…
Evanthis Hatzivassiliou, The Nato Committee on the Challenges of Modern Society, 1969–1975. Transatlantic Relations, the Cold War and the Environment
Italian Psychology and Jewish Emigration Under Fascism
We know a great deal about the forced migration of Jewish academics and scientists from Nazi Germany, but not as much about those who fled Mussolini’s Italy. The prevailing view has always been that Jewish scholars in Italy were not as vexed as their German colleagues, and that the racial laws approved by Mussolini’s government in 1938 were just a dramatic twist in an otherwise more sensible approach to racial issues. Guarnieri’s book offers an o…
The Surveillance Imperative
Surveillance is a key notion for understanding power and control in the modern world, but it has been curiously neglected by historians of science and technology. Using the overarching concept of the ""surveillance imperative, "" this collection of essays offers a new window on the evolution of the environmental sciences during and after the Cold War
Introduction
In recent years, historians have debated the prospect of offering new ‘transnational’ or ‘global’ perspectives in their studies. This paper introduces the reader to this special issue by analysing characteristics, merits and flaws of these approaches. It then considers how historians of science have practised transnational history without, however, paying sufficient attention to the theoretical foundations of this approach. Its final part illustr…
A contentious business
1.-Introduction. 2.-A statistical survey. 3.-The isotope business before the war. 4.-Patents, isotopes and the war. 5.-The Patent Compensation Board (PCB) activities. 6.-Britain and Canada. 7.-Conclusions: the
The Recent Past is (also) a Foreign Country
On thick ice
This paper focuses on the role played by scientific internationalism in Antarctica during the two decades that followed the signing and ratification of the Antarctic Treaty in 1961. The paper shows that the Treaty was a response to the threat to the ‘free world’ represented by the installation of Soviet bases in Antarctica. Scientific internationalism was used as a diplomatic weapon to respond to that threat. In the 1960s, the development of inte…
Data in Antarctic Science and Politics
The internationalization of Antarctica as a continent for science with the Antarctic Treaty (1961) was heralded as bringing about international cooperation and the free exchange of data. However, both national rivalry and proprietorship of data, in varying degrees, remained integral to Antarctic science and politics throughout the 20th century. This paper considers two large field-surveys in Antarctica: first, an aerial photographic survey carrie…
Accidents and opportunities
This paper explores the history of radio echo-sounding (RES), a technique of glaciological surveying that from the late 1960s has been used to examine Antarctica's sub-glacial morphology. Although the origins of RES can be traced back to two accidental findings, its development relied upon the establishment of new geopolitical conditions, which in the 1960s typified Antarctica as a continent devoted to scientific exploration. These conditions ext…
For Slow Neutrons, Slow Pay
This essay focuses on the history of one of the “atomic patents.” The patent, which described a process to slow down neutrons in nuclear reactions, was the result of experimental research conducted in the 1930s by Enrico Fermi and his group at the Institute of Physics, University of Rome. The value of the patented process became clear during World War II, as it was involved in most of the military and industrial applications of atomic energy. Thi…
Atomic secrets and governmental lies
This paper focuses on the defection of nuclear physicist Bruno Pontecorvo from Britain to the USSR in 1950 in an attempt to understand how government and intelligence services assess threats deriving from the unwanted spread of secret scientific information. It questions whether contingent agendas play a role in these assessments, as new evidence suggests that this is exactly what happened in the Pontecorvo case. British diplomatic personnel invo…
Introduction
In recent years, historians have debated the prospect of offering new ‘transnational’ or ‘global’ perspectives in their studies. This paper introduces the reader to this special issue by analysing characteristics, merits and flaws of these approaches. It then considers how historians of science have practised transnational history without, however, paying sufficient attention to the theoretical foundations of this approach. Its final part illustr…
Data in Antarctic Science and Politics
The internationalization of Antarctica as a continent for science with the Antarctic Treaty (1961) was heralded as bringing about international cooperation and the free exchange of data. However, both national rivalry and proprietorship of data, in varying degrees, remained integral to Antarctic science and politics throughout the 20th century. This paper considers two large field-surveys in Antarctica: first, an aerial photographic survey carrie…
Atomic secrets and governmental lies
This paper focuses on the defection of nuclear physicist Bruno Pontecorvo from Britain to the USSR in 1950 in an attempt to understand how government and intelligence services assess threats deriving from the unwanted spread of secret scientific information. It questions whether contingent agendas play a role in these assessments, as new evidence suggests that this is exactly what happened in the Pontecorvo case. British diplomatic personnel invo…
For Slow Neutrons, Slow Pay
This essay focuses on the history of one of the “atomic patents.” The patent, which described a process to slow down neutrons in nuclear reactions, was the result of experimental research conducted in the 1930s by Enrico Fermi and his group at the Institute of Physics, University of Rome. The value of the patented process became clear during World War II, as it was involved in most of the military and industrial applications of atomic energy. Thi…
Trading Global Catastrophes
This essay explores the reception of ‘nuclear winter’ at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). This response is paradigmatic of how scientific predictions can work as stimuli for science diplomacy activities, and either inflate or deflate these forecasts’ public resonance. Those who elaborated the theory in the early 1980s predicted that the environmental consequences of a future nuclear conflict would have been catastrophic; possibly re…
Introduction
This special issue explores the power that images with a techno-scientific content can have in international relations. As we introduce the articles in the collection, we highlight how the study of this influence extends current research in the separate (but increasingly interacting) domains of history of science and technology, and political science. We then show how images of different types (photographs, cartoons and plots) can inform inter-st…
Accidents and opportunities
This paper explores the history of radio echo-sounding (RES), a technique of glaciological surveying that from the late 1960s has been used to examine Antarctica's sub-glacial morphology. Although the origins of RES can be traced back to two accidental findings, its development relied upon the establishment of new geopolitical conditions, which in the 1960s typified Antarctica as a continent devoted to scientific exploration. These conditions ext…
Atomic secrets and governmental lies
This paper focuses on the defection of nuclear physicist Bruno Pontecorvo from Britain to the USSR in 1950 in an attempt to understand how government and intelligence services assess threats deriving from the unwanted spread of secret scientific information. It questions whether contingent agendas play a role in these assessments, as new evidence suggests that this is exactly what happened in the Pontecorvo case. British diplomatic personnel invo…
For Slow Neutrons, Slow Pay
This essay focuses on the history of one of the “atomic patents.” The patent, which described a process to slow down neutrons in nuclear reactions, was the result of experimental research conducted in the 1930s by Enrico Fermi and his group at the Institute of Physics, University of Rome. The value of the patented process became clear during World War II, as it was involved in most of the military and industrial applications of atomic energy. Thi…
The Recent Past is (also) a Foreign Country
On thick ice
This paper focuses on the role played by scientific internationalism in Antarctica during the two decades that followed the signing and ratification of the Antarctic Treaty in 1961. The paper shows that the Treaty was a response to the threat to the ‘free world’ represented by the installation of Soviet bases in Antarctica. Scientific internationalism was used as a diplomatic weapon to respond to that threat. In the 1960s, the development of inte…
Data in Antarctic Science and Politics
The internationalization of Antarctica as a continent for science with the Antarctic Treaty (1961) was heralded as bringing about international cooperation and the free exchange of data. However, both national rivalry and proprietorship of data, in varying degrees, remained integral to Antarctic science and politics throughout the 20th century. This paper considers two large field-surveys in Antarctica: first, an aerial photographic survey carrie…
Accidents and opportunities
This paper explores the history of radio echo-sounding (RES), a technique of glaciological surveying that from the late 1960s has been used to examine Antarctica's sub-glacial morphology. Although the origins of RES can be traced back to two accidental findings, its development relied upon the establishment of new geopolitical conditions, which in the 1960s typified Antarctica as a continent devoted to scientific exploration. These conditions ext…
A contentious business
1.-Introduction. 2.-A statistical survey. 3.-The isotope business before the war. 4.-Patents, isotopes and the war. 5.-The Patent Compensation Board (PCB) activities. 6.-Britain and Canada. 7.-Conclusions: the
Introduction
In recent years, historians have debated the prospect of offering new ‘transnational’ or ‘global’ perspectives in their studies. This paper introduces the reader to this special issue by analysing characteristics, merits and flaws of these approaches. It then considers how historians of science have practised transnational history without, however, paying sufficient attention to the theoretical foundations of this approach. Its final part illustr…
The Surveillance Imperative
Surveillance is a key notion for understanding power and control in the modern world, but it has been curiously neglected by historians of science and technology. Using the overarching concept of the ""surveillance imperative, "" this collection of essays offers a new window on the evolution of the environmental sciences during and after the Cold War
Italian Psychology and Jewish Emigration Under Fascism
We know a great deal about the forced migration of Jewish academics and scientists from Nazi Germany, but not as much about those who fled Mussolini’s Italy. The prevailing view has always been that Jewish scholars in Italy were not as vexed as their German colleagues, and that the racial laws approved by Mussolini’s government in 1938 were just a dramatic twist in an otherwise more sensible approach to racial issues. Guarnieri’s book offers an o…
Envisioning a “science diplomacy 2.0”
The term “science diplomacy” broadly identifies interactions between scientific and foreign policy communities connected to the promotion of international scientific exchanges (also as a way to establish constructive relations between countries), and the provision of scientific advice on issues of relevance to more than one nation. Science diplomacy initiatives have been positively portrayed by practitioners, while recent scholarship has undersco…
The post-war shaping of general relativity and gravitation studies
The Unflinching Mr. Smith and the Nuclear Age
This article focuses on the U.S. diplomat and nuclear arms control negotiator Gerald (Gerry) Coat Smith in order to cast new light on the importance of diplomats in the context of the set of international activities currently labelled as “science diplomacy.” Smith, a lawyer by training, was a key negotiator in many international agreements on post‐WW2 atomic energy projects, from those on uranium prospecting and mining, to reactors technologies t…
Evanthis Hatzivassiliou, The Nato Committee on the Challenges of Modern Society, 1969–1975. Transatlantic Relations, the Cold War and the Environment
Trading Global Catastrophes
This essay explores the reception of ‘nuclear winter’ at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). This response is paradigmatic of how scientific predictions can work as stimuli for science diplomacy activities, and either inflate or deflate these forecasts’ public resonance. Those who elaborated the theory in the early 1980s predicted that the environmental consequences of a future nuclear conflict would have been catastrophic; possibly re…
Science on a Mission
Representing noise
Sketched in 1979 by graphic designer Peter Saville, the record sleeve of Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures seemingly popularized one of the most celebrated radio-astronomical images: the ‘stacked plot’ of radio signals from a pulsar. However, the sleeve's designer did not have this promotion in mind. Instead, he deliberately muddled the message it originally conveyed in a typical post-punk act of artistic sabotage. In reconstructing the historical…
Introduction
This special issue explores the power that images with a techno-scientific content can have in international relations. As we introduce the articles in the collection, we highlight how the study of this influence extends current research in the separate (but increasingly interacting) domains of history of science and technology, and political science. We then show how images of different types (photographs, cartoons and plots) can inform inter-st…
Contesting American hegemony
This article focuses on the French communist scientists’ attack, executed in 1953, on US initiatives for the promotion of science in Europe. Collated in the anonymous booklet Un plan U.S.A. de mainmise sur la science, these accusations caused a sensation in the already tense political climate of the early 1950s by alleging that American initiatives offered cover to intelligence operations, and a chokehold on the development of European science. W…
Data Rules
This article explores the history of international scientific data organizations and documents their significance in the definition of new forms of global governance. It focuses in particular on the ancestry of two data organizations now operating under the International Science Council (formerly International Council of Scientific Unions -ICSU): the World Data System and the Committee on Data for Science and Technology. Examination of these orga…
Nothing Is Beyond Our Reach
The World United in Studying Itself? Data and the Coloniality of the International Geophysical Year, 1957–1958
The International Geophysical Year (IGY, 1957–1958) pioneered worldwide collaborative research by uniting sixty-seven national committees in a data-gathering exercise across sixteen subdisciplines of the earth and environmental sciences. This essay seeks to offer a fresh perspective on its history by looking into the IGY planning meetings and focusing especially on talks regarding its data-collection strategies. It contends that, given the import…
Political science (18 works) · Law (16 works) · Law (13 works) · Politics (12 works) · Sociology (12 works) · Philosophy (9 works) · Twentieth Century Scientific Developments (9 works) · Computer Science (8 works) · History (7 works) · History (7 works)