Background
Helge S. Kragh was born on February 13, 1944, in Copenhagen, Denmark. He is a son of Carl S. and Lilly (Hansen) Kragh.
Helge Stjernholm Kragh
Helge Stjernholm Kragh
Helge Stjernholm Kragh
Helge Stjernholm Kragh
Helge Stjernholm Kragh
Helge Stjernholm Kragh
Helge Stjernholm Kragh
Helge Stjernholm Kragh
Nørregade 10, 1165 København, Denmark
Kragh studied mathematics and physics at the University of Copenhagen in 1970.
Universitetsvej 1, 4000 Roskilde, Denmark
Kragh obtained his Doctor of Philosophy in 1981 at the University of Roskilde.
Nordre Ringgade 1, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark
Kragh received a second doctorate, in philosophy, from the University of Aarhus in 2007.
Helge Stjernholm Kragh
(Although today it is generally accepted that the universe...)
Although today it is generally accepted that the universe started some ten billion years ago in a big bang, many readers may not fully realize that this standard view owed much of its formation to the steady-state theory. By exploring the similarities and tensions between the theories, Kragh provides the reader with an indispensable background for understanding much of today's commentary about our universe.
https://www.amazon.com/Cosmology-Controversy-Helge-Kragh/dp/069100546X/ref=sr_1_6?keywords=Helge+Kragh&qid=1579783188&sr=8-6
1999
(As a historian, Kragh skillfully outlines the social and ...)
As a historian, Kragh skillfully outlines the social and economic contexts that have shaped the field in the twentieth century. He writes, for example, about the impact of the two world wars, the fate of physics under Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin, the role of military research, the emerging leadership of the United States, and the backlash against science that began in the 1960s. He also shows.
https://www.amazon.com/Quantum-Generations-History-Physics-Twentieth/dp/0691095523/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=Helge+Kragh&qid=1579783188&sr=8-3
2002
(Cosmology is an unusual science with an unusual history. ...)
Cosmology is an unusual science with an unusual history. This book examines the formative years of modern cosmology from the perspective of its interaction with religious thought. As the first study of its kind, it reveals how closely associated the development of cosmology has been with considerations of a philosophical and religious nature. From nineteenth-century thermodynamics to the pioneering cosmological works of Georges Lemaître and Arthur E Milne, religion has shaped parts of modern cosmological theory. By taking the religious component seriously, a new and richer history of cosmology emerges.
https://www.amazon.com/Matter-Spirit-Universe-Scientific-Religious/dp/186094485X/ref=sr_1_12?qid=1579783264&refinements=p_27%3AHelge+Kragh&s=books&sr=1-12&text=Helge+Kragh
2004
(This first full-length biography of Paul Adrien Maurice D...)
This first full-length biography of Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac offers a comprehensive account of his physics in its historical context, including less known areas such as cosmology and classical electron theory.
https://www.amazon.com/Dirac-Scientific-Biography/dp/0521017564/ref=sr_1_8?keywords=Helge+Kragh&qid=1579783188&sr=8-8
2005
(Niels Bohr and the Quantum Atom is the first book that fo...)
Niels Bohr and the Quantum Atom is the first book that focuses in detail on the birth and development of Bohr's atomic theory and gives a comprehensive picture of it. At the same time it offers new insight into Bohr's peculiar way of thinking, what Einstein once called his 'unique instinct and tact'.
https://www.amazon.com/Niels-Bohr-Quantum-Atom-Structure/dp/0199654980/ref=sr_1_9?keywords=Helge+Kragh&qid=1579783188&sr=8-9
2012
(This book is a historical account of how natural philosop...)
This book is a historical account of how natural philosophers and scientists have endeavoured to understand the universe at large, first in a mythical and later in a scientific context. Starting with the creation stories of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, the book covers all the major events in theoretical and observational cosmology, from Aristotle's cosmos over the Copernican revolution to the discovery of the accelerating universe in the late 1990s.
https://www.amazon.com/Conceptions-Cosmos-Accelerating-Universe-Cosmology/dp/0199665141/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=Helge+Kragh&qid=1579783188&sr=8-4
2013
(The 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded for the disco...)
The 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded for the discovery of cosmic acceleration due to dark energy, a discovery that is all the more perplexing as nobody knows what dark energy actually is. We put the modern concept of cosmological vacuum energy into historical context and show how it grew out of disparate roots in quantum mechanics (zero-point energy) and relativity theory (the cosmological constant, Einstein's “greatest blunder”). These two influences have remained strangely aloof and still co-exist in an uneasy alliance that is at the heart of the greatest crisis in theoretical physics, the cosmological-constant problem.
https://www.amazon.com/Weight-Vacuum-Scientific-History-SpringerBriefs/dp/3642550894/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=Helge+Kragh&qid=1579783188&sr=8-5
2014
(Throughout history, people have tried to construct 'theor...)
Throughout history, people have tried to construct 'theories of everything': highly ambitious attempts to understand nature in its totality. This account presents these theories in their historical contexts, from little-known hypotheses from the past to modern developments such as the theory of superstrings, the anthropic principle, and ideas of many universes, and uses them to problematize the limits of scientific knowledge.
https://www.amazon.com/Higher-Speculations-Theories-Revolutions-Cosmology/dp/0198726376/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=Helge+Kragh&qid=1579783188&sr=8-2
2015
(Entropic Creation is the first English-language book to c...)
Entropic Creation is the first English-language book to consider the cultural and religious responses to the second law of thermodynamics, from around 1860 to 1920.
https://www.amazon.com/Entropic-Creation-Religious-Thermodynamics-Technology/dp/1138261831/ref=sr_1_10?keywords=Helge+Kragh&qid=1579783188&sr=8-10
2016
(In Simply Dirac, author Helge Kragh blends the scientific...)
In Simply Dirac, author Helge Kragh blends the scientific and the personal and invites the reader to get to know both Dirac the quantum genius and Dirac the social misfit. Featuring cameo appearances by some of the greatest scientists of the 20th century and highlighting the dramatic changes that occurred in the field of physics during Dirac’s lifetime, this fascinating biography is an invaluable introduction to a truly singular man.
https://www.amazon.com/Simply-Dirac-Great-Lives-Helge/dp/1943657092/ref=sr_1_11?keywords=Helge+Kragh&qid=1579783188&sr=8-11
2016
(The main focus of this book is on the interconnection of ...)
The main focus of this book is on the interconnection of two unorthodox scientific ideas, the varying-gravity hypothesis, and the expanding-earth hypothesis. As such, it provides a fascinating insight into a nearly forgotten chapter in both the history of cosmology and the history of the earth sciences.
https://www.amazon.com/Varying-Gravity-Cosmology-Geophysics-Historical/dp/3319243772/ref=sr_1_15?qid=1579783264&refinements=p_27%3AHelge+Kragh&s=books&sr=1-15&text=Helge+Kragh
2016
(The story of superheavy elements - those at the very end...)
The story of superheavy elements - those at the very end of the periodic table - is not well known outside the community of heavy-ion physicists and nuclear chemists. But it is a most interesting story which deserves to be known also to historians, philosophers, and sociologists of science and indeed to the general public.
https://www.amazon.com/Transuranic-Superheavy-Elements-SpringerBriefs-Technology/dp/3319758128/ref=sr_1_14?qid=1579783264&refinements=p_27%3AHelge+Kragh&s=books&sr=1-14&text=Helge+Kragh
2018
(The Oxford Handbook of the History of Modern Cosmology of...)
The Oxford Handbook of the History of Modern Cosmology offers a comprehensive and authoritative account of the history of cosmology from the late nineteenth century to the early twenty-first century. It provides a historical background to what we know about the universe today, including not only the successes but also the many false starts.
https://www.amazon.com/Oxford-Handbook-History-Cosmology-Handbooks/dp/0198817665/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Helge+Kragh&qid=1579783188&sr=8-1
2019
Helge S. Kragh was born on February 13, 1944, in Copenhagen, Denmark. He is a son of Carl S. and Lilly (Hansen) Kragh.
Kragh studied mathematics and physics at the University of Copenhagen in 1970 before obtaining his Doctor of Philosophy in 1981 at the University of Roskilde. He received a second doctorate, in philosophy, from the University of Aarhus in 2007.
Helge Kragh started his career as a research fellow at Roskilde University in 1978-1981. From 1987 to 1989 he was an associate professor at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. He also was a curator at Steno Museum, Aarhus in 1994-1995.
He worked as a professor at the University of Oslo (1995-1997), and at the Aarhus University (1997-2015). As of 2015, he retired, becoming an emeritus professor at the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen. He is also a professor emeritus at the Centre for Science Studies of Aarhus University.
Helge S. Kragh is a Danish science historian who has taught at Cornell University and Aarhus University. He is also the author of various English-language works on science. His early writings include An Introduction to the Historiography of Science, a 1987 publication concerning methods and sources used in undertaking histories of science. Timothy Lenoir, writing in American Historical Review, contended that Kragh’s book ignores breakthroughs in the field of science history, and he declared that it fails to acknowledge important sociological models. “None of the excitement of this wealth of new investigative frameworks is conveyed in Helge Kragh’s book,” Lenoir stated. “In fact, the subject of historiographical frameworks is not treated at all.” But J. L. McKnight, in a Choice review, affirmed that An Introduction to the Historiography of Science will serve as “a valuable addition” to collegiate resources.
In his next book, Dirac: A Scientific Biography, Kragh recounts the life and work of the theoretical physicist who received the Nobel Prize for physics in 1933. The biography explores Dirac’s work in quantum mechanics and transformation theory, and it examines his contributions to quantum field theory and electromagnetic science. In addition, the volume relates to personal information and considers Dirac’s career in academia. Science reviewer M. Dresden, who called Dirac “one of the greatest theoretical physicists of all time,” lauded Kragh’s book as “a serious, well documented, informative biography.” Dirac, M. Dresden continued, also serves “an important, highly professional contribution to the history of quantum theory.” Another reviewer, Philip Morrison, wrote in Scientific American that Dirac is “a delightful and instructive evocation of a remarkable human being,” and he described the book as “a judicious and documented passage downstream following the flow of modern physics.” Choice reviewer J. W. Dauben, meanwhile, concluded that the volume “will undoubtedly serve as the authoritative biography.”
Kragh followed Dirac: A Scientific Biography with Cosmology and Controversy: The Historical Development of Two Theories of the Universe, which traces the development of cosmology following discoveries of the expanding universe and the radiating cosmos. Edward R. Harrison, in his Sky and Telescope review, praised Cosmology and Controversy as an “impressive and learned book” and a “cosmopedic survey of ... cosmology.” Another enthusiast, Woodruff T. Sullivan III, lauded Cosmology and Controversy, in a Science assessment, as an “insightful, thoroughly researched treatment,” and he acknowledged Kragh’s achievement in relating cosmology to other fields. “Fascinating portions of the book deal with metascientific and extra-scientific aspects of twentieth-century cosmology - scientific methodology, epistemology and other aspects of philosophy, religion, and even politics,” Sullivan noted.
Kragh’s The Quantum Generations: A History of Physics in the Twentieth Century, which appeared in 1999, is a study of breakthroughs in fields such as nuclear research and theoretical physics. The book discusses Einstein’s theory of relativity, and it explores the development of the Big Bang theory, superconductivity, and subatomic research. A Publishers Weekly reviewer called The Quantum Generations “an impressive reference work, and a serious, rewarding read.”
(Although today it is generally accepted that the universe...)
1999(This first full-length biography of Paul Adrien Maurice D...)
2005(The Oxford Handbook of the History of Modern Cosmology of...)
2019(The 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded for the disco...)
2014(This book is a historical account of how natural philosop...)
2013(In Simply Dirac, author Helge Kragh blends the scientific...)
2016(The story of superheavy elements - those at the very end...)
2018(Niels Bohr and the Quantum Atom is the first book that fo...)
2012(Entropic Creation is the first English-language book to c...)
2016(The main focus of this book is on the interconnection of ...)
2016(Throughout history, people have tried to construct 'theor...)
2015(As a historian, Kragh skillfully outlines the social and ...)
2002(Cosmology is an unusual science with an unusual history. ...)
2004Kragh has worked on the history of the physical sciences including chemistry and astronomy, and often with an emphasis on interdisciplinary connections such as physical chemistry, astrophysics, and astrochemistry.
Since about 1990 he has cultivated the history of physical cosmology in particular. He has also studied the development of quantum and atomic theories with a focus on Bohr’s atomic theory. His most recent monograph is a scientific biography of the Danish nineteenth-century physicist Ludvig Lorenz.
Kragh was the president of the European Society for the History of Science (2008 - 2010). He is a member of Académie Internationale d'Histoire des Sciences (corresponding member since 1995, full member since 2005), member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, History of Science Society, American Chemical Society (history of chemistry division), European Physical Society (member of board on history of physics, since 1990).
Quotes from others about the person
"Helge Kragh is one of our best historians of physics and the author of several outstanding books. The idea of a history of highly speculative theories in physics is excellent. Although there are popular accounts of recent cosmological and grand-unifying theories, no historian has so far attempted to bring together old and new cases of such theories. The result makes fascinating reading and induces thought-provoking comparisons." - Olivier Darrigol.
Helge Kragh married Bodil B. Hansen on June 26, 1971, (divorced 1998). He has two children: Mikkel and Line.