In some periods great conceptual revolutions shake the world of physics; at other times research seems to plod ahead within the confines of an established framework. And the structure of the physics community must change in a way that somehow matches the changing style of research. What, then, has been the form of physics during our own lifetime, and how has it changed? This is a difficult, but not impossible question. Only history can give us an inkling of the answer.
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Spencer R. Weart (1981) studied this question.
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