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Title: Surviving to tell the tale : Argonne's Intense Pulsed Neutron Source from an ecosystem perspective.

Abstract

At first glance the story of the Intense Pulsed Neutron Source (IPNS), an accelerator-driven neutron source for exploring the structure of materials through neutron scattering, seems to be one of puzzling ups and downs. For example, Argonne management, Department of Energy officials, and materials science reviewers continued to offer, then withdraw, votes of confidence even though the middling-sized IPNS produced high-profile research, including work that made the cover of Nature in 1987. In the midst of this period of shifting opinion and impressive research results, some Argonne materials scientists were unenthusiastic, members of the laboratory's energy physics group were key supporters, and materials scientists at another laboratory provided, almost fortuitously, a new lease on life. What forces shaped the puzzling life cycle of the IPNS? And what role - if any - did the moderate price tag and the development of scientific and technological ideas play in the course it took? To answer these questions this paper looks to an ecosystem metaphor for inspiration, exploring how opinions, ideas, and machinery emerged from the interrelated resource economies of Argonne, the DOE, and the materials science community by way of a tangled web of shifting group interactions. The paper will conclude withmore » reflections about what the resulting focus on relationality explains about the IPNS story as well as the underlying dynamic that animates knowledge production at U.S. national laboratories.« less

Authors:
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
OSTI Identifier:
986299
Report Number(s):
ANL/OTD/JA-67166
Journal ID: 1939-1811; TRN: US1006321
DOE Contract Number:  
DE-AC02-06CH11357
Resource Type:
Journal Article
Journal Name:
Hist. Stud. Nat. Sci.
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 40; Journal Issue: 3 ; Summer 2010
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
ENGLISH
Subject:
72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS; ECOSYSTEMS; LEASES; LIFE CYCLE; MACHINERY; MANAGEMENT; NEUTRON SOURCES; NEUTRONS; PHYSICS; PRICES; PRODUCTION; SCATTERING

Citation Formats

Westfall, C, and Office of The Director. Surviving to tell the tale : Argonne's Intense Pulsed Neutron Source from an ecosystem perspective.. United States: N. p., 2010. Web. doi:10.1525/hsns.2010.40.3.350.
Westfall, C, & Office of The Director. Surviving to tell the tale : Argonne's Intense Pulsed Neutron Source from an ecosystem perspective.. United States. https://doi.org/10.1525/hsns.2010.40.3.350
Westfall, C, and Office of The Director. 2010. "Surviving to tell the tale : Argonne's Intense Pulsed Neutron Source from an ecosystem perspective.". United States. https://doi.org/10.1525/hsns.2010.40.3.350.
@article{osti_986299,
title = {Surviving to tell the tale : Argonne's Intense Pulsed Neutron Source from an ecosystem perspective.},
author = {Westfall, C and Office of The Director},
abstractNote = {At first glance the story of the Intense Pulsed Neutron Source (IPNS), an accelerator-driven neutron source for exploring the structure of materials through neutron scattering, seems to be one of puzzling ups and downs. For example, Argonne management, Department of Energy officials, and materials science reviewers continued to offer, then withdraw, votes of confidence even though the middling-sized IPNS produced high-profile research, including work that made the cover of Nature in 1987. In the midst of this period of shifting opinion and impressive research results, some Argonne materials scientists were unenthusiastic, members of the laboratory's energy physics group were key supporters, and materials scientists at another laboratory provided, almost fortuitously, a new lease on life. What forces shaped the puzzling life cycle of the IPNS? And what role - if any - did the moderate price tag and the development of scientific and technological ideas play in the course it took? To answer these questions this paper looks to an ecosystem metaphor for inspiration, exploring how opinions, ideas, and machinery emerged from the interrelated resource economies of Argonne, the DOE, and the materials science community by way of a tangled web of shifting group interactions. The paper will conclude with reflections about what the resulting focus on relationality explains about the IPNS story as well as the underlying dynamic that animates knowledge production at U.S. national laboratories.},
doi = {10.1525/hsns.2010.40.3.350},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/986299}, journal = {Hist. Stud. Nat. Sci.},
number = 3 ; Summer 2010,
volume = 40,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 2010},
month = {Thu Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 2010}
}