| FT-53214-05 | Research Programs: Summer Stipends | Christopher John Pincock | Grasping El Niño: Philosophy of Mathematics and Science in the 19th and 20th Centuries | 6/1/2005 - 8/31/2005 | $5,000.00 | Christopher | John | Pincock | | | | Purdue University | West Lafayette | IN | 47907-2040 | USA | 2005 | History and Philosophy of Science, Technology, and Medicine | Summer Stipends | Research Programs | 5000 | 0 | 5000 | 0 |
This project is a historical study of the early stages of the scientific investigation of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), emphasizing the criteria that were employed to evaluate mathematical models of this complex climactic phenomena. I focus mainly on the pioneering work of Sir J. Norman Lockyer (1836-1920), his son William Lockyer (1868-1934) and Sir Gilbert Walker (1868-1958) in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. While many disparage these early models, I argue that there is considerable overlap between the criteria that the Lockyers and Walker used, and the criteria that we find in the work of contemporary climatologists. |