Caught-up by Politics?

If the Solvay Conferences on Physics and Chemistry have traditionally drawn the attention of scientists and historians of science for whom they provide a long-lasting case study in the changing course of scientific theories, they also deserve more than a footnote to the social historian of science. These international congresses constitute a fascinating interweaving of science and politics, actors and institutions, mythology and history through the twentieth century. The Solvay Conferences, which are still held today, derived from the organization of a Solvay Council on Physics in Brussels in late October 1911. The event gathered a small group of physicists at the invitation of the Belgian industrialist Ernest Solvay and under the scientific chairmanship of Hendrik A. Lorentz. Some of the participants were already Nobel laureates (Hendrik Lorentz, Marie Curie, Ernest Rutherford), but many others would obtain the award later on (Wilhelm Wien, Walther Nernst, Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, Max Planck, Albert Einstein, Jean Perrin). These prestigious names—“the highest ranking officers of an army, all the most brilliant generals” ¹ —partly explain the legendary impact of the first Solvay Council in the history of science, as well as the imprint it left on the later Solvay Councils organized afterwards every three years, with some exceptions. Of course, the groundbreaking scientific agenda developed during these meetings—like the quantum theory in 1911—largely contribute to spread the image of a gathering intending to break away with the classical Newtonian physical sciences. A final reason allowing for the important historical legacy of the first Solvay Council is due to its style of an invitation-only “quasi-private” confidential meeting designed to solve specific problems. These characteristics suffice to depict the 1911 Solvay Council as a “new kind of conference”, which paved the way to the birth of modern physics. ²