The American Physical Society Celebrates Its 100Th
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Load more
Recommended publications
-
Igor Tamm 1895 - 1971 Awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1958
Igor Tamm 1895 - 1971 Awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1958 The famous Russian physicist Igor Evgenievich Tamm is best known for his theoretical explanation of the origin of the Cherenkov radiation. But really his works covered various fields of physics: nuclear physics, elementary particles, solid-state physics and so on. In about 1935, he and his colleague, Ilya Frank, concluded that although objects can’t travel faster than light in a vacuum, they can do so in other media. Cherenkov radiation is emitted if charged particles pass the media faster than the speed of light ! For this research Tamm together with his Russian colleagues was awarded the 1958 Nobel Prize in Physics. Igor Tamm was born in 1895 in Vladivostok when Russia was still ruled by the Tsar. His father was a civil engineer who worked on the electricity and sewage systems. When Tamm was six years old his family moved to Elizavetgrad, in the Ukraine. Tamm led an expedition to He graduated from the local Gymnasium in 1913. Young Tamm dreamed of becoming a revolutionary, but his father disapproved . However only his mother was able to convince him to search for treasure in the Pamirs change his plans. She told him that his father’s weak heart could not take it if something happened to him. In 1923 Tamm was offered a teaching post at the Second Moscow University and later he was And so, in 1913, Tamm decided to leave Russia for a year and continue his studies in Edinburgh. awarded a professorship at Moscow State University. -
James Chadwick: Ahead of His Time
July 15, 2020 James Chadwick: ahead of his time Gerhard Ecker University of Vienna, Faculty of Physics Boltzmanngasse 5, A-1090 Wien, Austria Abstract James Chadwick is known for his discovery of the neutron. Many of his earlier findings and ideas in the context of weak and strong nuclear forces are much less known. This biographical sketch attempts to highlight the achievements of a scientist who paved the way for contemporary subatomic physics. arXiv:2007.06926v1 [physics.hist-ph] 14 Jul 2020 1 Early years James Chadwick was born on Oct. 20, 1891 in Bollington, Cheshire in the northwest of England, as the eldest son of John Joseph Chadwick and his wife Anne Mary. His father was a cotton spinner while his mother worked as a domestic servant. In 1895 the parents left Bollington to seek a better life in Manchester. James was left behind in the care of his grandparents, a parallel with his famous predecessor Isaac Newton who also grew up with his grandmother. It might be an interesting topic for sociologists of science to find out whether there is a correlation between children educated by their grandmothers and future scientific geniuses. James attended Bollington Cross School. He was very attached to his grandmother, much less to his parents. Nevertheless, he joined his parents in Manchester around 1902 but found it difficult to adjust to the new environment. The family felt they could not afford to send James to Manchester Grammar School although he had been offered a scholarship. Instead, he attended the less prestigious Central Grammar School where the teaching was actually very good, as Chadwick later emphasised. -
The Manhattan Project and Its Legacy
Transforming the Relationship between Science and Society: The Manhattan Project and Its Legacy Report on the workshop funded by the National Science Foundation held on February 14 and 15, 2013 in Washington, DC Table of Contents Executive Summary iii Introduction 1 The Workshop 2 Two Motifs 4 Core Session Discussions 6 Scientific Responsibility 6 The Culture of Secrecy and the National Security State 9 The Decision to Drop the Bomb 13 Aftermath 15 Next Steps 18 Conclusion 21 Appendix: Participant List and Biographies 22 Copyright © 2013 by the Atomic Heritage Foundation. All rights reserved. No part of this book, either text or illustration, may be reproduced or transmit- ted in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, reporting, or by any information storage or retrieval system without written persmission from the publisher. Report prepared by Carla Borden. Design and layout by Alexandra Levy. Executive Summary The story of the Manhattan Project—the effort to develop and build the first atomic bomb—is epic, and it continues to unfold. The decision by the United States to use the bomb against Japan in August 1945 to end World War II is still being mythologized, argued, dissected, and researched. The moral responsibility of scientists, then and now, also has remained a live issue. Secrecy and security practices deemed necessary for the Manhattan Project have spread through the govern- ment, sometimes conflicting with notions of democracy. From the Manhattan Project, the scientific enterprise has grown enormously, to include research into the human genome, for example, and what became the Internet. Nuclear power plants provide needed electricity yet are controversial for many people. -
Unerring in Her Scientific Enquiry and Not Afraid of Hard Work, Marie Curie Set a Shining Example for Generations of Scientists
Historical profile Elements of inspiration Unerring in her scientific enquiry and not afraid of hard work, Marie Curie set a shining example for generations of scientists. Bill Griffiths explores the life of a chemical heroine SCIENCE SOURCE / SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY LIBRARY PHOTO SCIENCE / SOURCE SCIENCE 42 | Chemistry World | January 2011 www.chemistryworld.org On 10 December 1911, Marie Curie only elements then known to or ammonia, having a water- In short was awarded the Nobel prize exhibit radioactivity. Her samples insoluble carbonate akin to BaCO3 in chemistry for ‘services to the were placed on a condenser plate It is 100 years since and a chloride slightly less soluble advancement of chemistry by the charged to 100 Volts and attached Marie Curie became the than BaCl2 which acted as a carrier discovery of the elements radium to one of Pierre’s electrometers, and first person ever to win for it. This they named radium, and polonium’. She was the first thereby she measured quantitatively two Nobel prizes publishing their results on Boxing female recipient of any Nobel prize their radioactivity. She found the Marie and her husband day 1898;2 French spectroscopist and the first person ever to be minerals pitchblende (UO2) and Pierre pioneered the Eugène-Anatole Demarçay found awarded two (she, Pierre Curie and chalcolite (Cu(UO2)2(PO4)2.12H2O) study of radiactivity a new atomic spectral line from Henri Becquerel had shared the to be more radioactive than pure and discovered two new the element, helping to confirm 1903 physics prize for their work on uranium, so reasoned that they must elements, radium and its status. -
Wave Nature of Matter: Made Easy (Lesson 3) Matter Behaving As a Wave? Ridiculous!
Wave Nature of Matter: Made Easy (Lesson 3) Matter behaving as a wave? Ridiculous! Compiled by Dr. SuchandraChatterjee Associate Professor Department of Chemistry Surendranath College Remember? I showed you earlier how Einstein (in 1905) showed that the photoelectric effect could be understood if light were thought of as a stream of particles (photons) with energy equal to hν. I got my Nobel prize for that. Louis de Broglie (in 1923) If light can behave both as a wave and a particle, I wonder if a particle can also behave as a wave? Louis de Broglie I’ll try messing around with some of Einstein’s formulae and see what I can come up with. I can imagine a photon of light. If it had a “mass” of mp, then its momentum would be given by p = mpc where c is the speed of light. Now Einstein has a lovely formula that he discovered linking mass with energy (E = mc2) and he also used Planck’s formula E = hf. What if I put them equal to each other? mc2 = hf mc2 = hf So for my photon 2 mp = hfhf/c/c So if p = mpc = hfhf/c/c p = mpc = hf/chf/c Now using the wave equation, c = fλ (f = c/λ) So mpc = hc /λc /λc= h/λ λ = hp So you’re saying that a particle of momentum p has a wavelength equal to Planck’s constant divided by p?! Yes! λ = h/p It will be known as the de Broglie wavelength of the particle Confirmation of de Broglie’s ideas De Broglie didn’t have to wait long for his idea to be shown to be correct. -
The Royal Society Medals and Awards
The Royal Society Medals and Awards Table of contents Overview and timeline – Page 1 Eligibility – Page 2 Medals open for nominations – Page 8 Nomination process – Page 9 Guidance notes for submitting nominations – Page 10 Enquiries – Page 20 Overview The Royal Society has a broad range of medals including the Premier Awards, subject specific awards and medals celebrating the communication and promotion of science. All of these are awarded to recognise and celebrate excellence in science. The following document provides guidance on the timeline and eligibility criteria for the awards, the nomination process and our online nomination system Flexi-Grant. Timeline • Call for nominations opens 30 November 2020 • Call for nominations closes on 15 February 2021 • Royal Society contacts suggested referees from February to March if required. • Premier Awards, Physical and Biological Committees shortlist and seek independent referees from March to May • All other Committees score and recommend winners to the Premier Awards Committee by April • Premier Awards, Physical and Biological Committees score shortlisted nominations, review recommended winners from other Committees and recommend final winners of all awards by June • Council reviews and approves winners from Committees in July • Winners announced by August Eligibility Full details of eligibility can be found in the table. Nominees cannot be members of the Royal Society Council, Premier Awards Committee, or selection Committees overseeing the medal in question. More information about the selection committees for individual medals can be found in the table below. If the award is externally funded, nominees cannot be employed by the organisation funding the medal. Self-nominations are not accepted. -
Famous Physicists Himansu Sekhar Fatesingh
Fun Quiz FAMOUS PHYSICISTS HIMANSU SEKHAR FATESINGH 1. The first woman to 6. He first succeeded in receive the Nobel Prize in producing the nuclear physics was chain reaction. a. Maria G. Mayer a. Otto Hahn b. Irene Curie b. Fritz Strassmann c. Marie Curie c. Robert Oppenheimer d. Lise Meitner d. Enrico Fermi 2. Who first suggested electron 7. The credit for discovering shells around the nucleus? electron microscope is often a. Ernest Rutherford attributed to b. Neils Bohr a. H. Germer c. Erwin Schrödinger b. Ernst Ruska d. Wolfgang Pauli c. George P. Thomson d. Clinton J. Davisson 8. The wave theory of light was 3. He first measured negative first proposed by charge on an electron. a. Christiaan Huygens a. J. J. Thomson b. Isaac Newton b. Clinton Davisson c. Hermann Helmholtz c. Louis de Broglie d. Augustin Fresnel d. Robert A. Millikan 9. He was the first scientist 4. The existence of quarks was to find proof of Einstein’s first suggested by theory of relativity a. Max Planck a. Edwin Hubble b. Sheldon Glasgow b. George Gamow c. Murray Gell-Mann c. S. Chandrasekhar d. Albert Einstein d. Arthur Eddington 10. The credit for development of the cyclotron 5. The phenomenon of goes to: superconductivity was a. Carl Anderson b. Donald Glaser discovered by c. Ernest O. Lawrence d. Charles Wilson a. Heike Kamerlingh Onnes b. Alex Muller c. Brian D. Josephson 11. Who first proposed the use of absolute scale d. John Bardeen of Temperature? a. Anders Celsius b. Lord Kelvin c. Rudolf Clausius d. -
Samuel Goudsmit
NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES SAMUEL ABRAHAM GOUDSMIT 1 9 0 2 — 1 9 7 8 A Biographical Memoir by BENJAMIN BEDERSON Any opinions expressed in this memoir are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Academy of Sciences. Biographical Memoir COPYRIGHT 2008 NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES WASHINGTON, D.C. Photograph courtesy Brookhaven National Laboratory. SAMUEL ABRAHAM GOUDSMIT July 11, 1902–December 4, 1978 BY BENJAMIN BEDERSON AM GOUDSMIT LED A CAREER that touched many aspects of S20th-century physics and its impact on society. He started his professional life in Holland during the earliest days of quantum mechanics as a student of Paul Ehrenfest. In 1925 together with his fellow graduate student George Uhlenbeck he postulated that in addition to mass and charge the electron possessed a further intrinsic property, internal angular mo- mentum, that is, spin. This inspiration furnished the missing link that explained the existence of multiple spectroscopic lines in atomic spectra, resulting in the final triumph of the then struggling birth of quantum mechanics. In 1927 he and Uhlenbeck together moved to the United States where they continued their physics careers until death. In a rough way Goudsmit’s career can be divided into several separate parts: first in Holland, strictly as a theorist, where he achieved very early success, and then at the University of Michigan, where he worked in the thriving field of preci- sion spectroscopy, concerning himself with the influence of nuclear magnetism on atomic spectra. In 1944 he became the scientific leader of the Alsos Mission, whose aim was to determine the progress Germans had made in the development of nuclear weapons during World War II. -
The Physical Tourist Physics and New York City
Phys. perspect. 5 (2003) 87–121 © Birkha¨user Verlag, Basel, 2003 1422–6944/05/010087–35 The Physical Tourist Physics and New York City Benjamin Bederson* I discuss the contributions of physicists who have lived and worked in New York City within the context of the high schools, colleges, universities, and other institutions with which they were and are associated. I close with a walking tour of major sites of interest in Manhattan. Key words: Thomas A. Edison; Nikola Tesla; Michael I. Pupin; Hall of Fame for GreatAmericans;AlbertEinstein;OttoStern;HenryGoldman;J.RobertOppenheimer; Richard P. Feynman; Julian Schwinger; Isidor I. Rabi; Bronx High School of Science; StuyvesantHighSchool;TownsendHarrisHighSchool;NewYorkAcademyofSciences; Andrei Sakharov; Fordham University; Victor F. Hess; Cooper Union; Peter Cooper; City University of New York; City College; Brooklyn College; Melba Phillips; Hunter College; Rosalyn Yalow; Queens College; Lehman College; New York University; Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences; Samuel F.B. Morse; John W. Draper; Columbia University; Polytechnic University; Manhattan Project; American Museum of Natural History; Rockefeller University; New York Public Library. Introduction When I was approached by the editors of Physics in Perspecti6e to prepare an article on New York City for The Physical Tourist section, I was happy to do so. I have been a New Yorker all my life, except for short-term stays elsewhere on sabbatical leaves and other visits. My professional life developed in New York, and I married and raised my family in New York and its environs. Accordingly, writing such an article seemed a natural thing to do. About halfway through its preparation, however, the attack on the World Trade Center took place. -
The Riches of Uranium Uranium Is Best Known, and Feared, for Its Involvement in Nuclear Energy
in your element The riches of uranium Uranium is best known, and feared, for its involvement in nuclear energy. Marisa J. Monreal and Paula L. Diaconescu take a look at how its unique combination of properties is now increasingly attracting the attention of chemists. t is nearly impossible to find an uplifting, and can be arrested by the skin, making found about uranium’s superior catalytic funny, or otherwise endearing quote on depleted uranium (composed mainly of 238U) activity may not be an isolated event. The Iuranium — the following dark wisecrack1 safe to work with as long as it is not inhaled organometallic chemistry of uranium was reflects people’s sinister feelings about this or ingested. born during the ‘Manhattan project’ — code element: “For years uranium cost only a few Studying the fundamental chemistry of name of the development of the first nuclear dollars a ton until scientists discovered you uranium is an exotic endeavour, but those who weapon during the Second World War. This could kill people with it”. But, in the spirit of embrace it will reap its benefits. Haber and field truly began to attract interest in 1956 rebranding, it is interesting to note that the Bosch found that uranium was a better catalyst when Reynolds and Wilkinson reported the main source of Earth’s internal heat comes than iron for making ammonia2. The preparation of the first cyclopentadienyl from the radioactive decay of uranium, isolation of an η1-OCO complex derivatives6. The discovery of thorium and potassium-40 that keeps the of uranium3 also showed uranocene electrified the field outer core liquid, induces mantle convection that, even though it is as much as that of ferrocene and, subsequently, drives plate tectonics. -
50 31-01-2018 Time: 60 Min
8thAHMED BIN ABOOD MEMORIAL State Level Physics-Maths Knowledge Test-2018 Organized by Department of Physics Department of Mathematics Milliya Arts, Science and Management Science College, BEED Max. Marks: 50 31-01-2018 Time: 60 min Instructions:- All the questions carry equal marks. Mobile and Calculators are not allowed. Student must write his/her names, college name and allotted seat number on the response sheet provided. Student must stick the answer in the prescribed response sheet by completely blacken the oval with black/blue pen only. Incorrect Method Correct Method Section A 1) If the earth completely loses its gravity, then for any body……… (a) both mass and weight becomes zero (b) neither mass nor weight becomes zero (c) weight becomes zero but not the mass (d) mass becomes zero but not the weight 2) The angular speed of a flywheel is 3π rad/s. It is rotating at…….. (a) 3 rpm (b) 6 rpm (c) 90 rpm (d) 60 rpm 3) Resonance occurs when …. (a) a body vibrates at a frequency lower than its normal frequency. (b) a body vibrates at a frequency higher than its normal frequency. (c) a body is set into vibrations with its natural frequency of another body vibrating with the same frequency. (d) a body is made of the same material as the sound source. 4) The SI unit of magnetic flux density is…… (a) tesla (b) henry (c) volt (d) volt-second 5) Ampere’s circuital law is integral form of….. (a) Lenz’s law (b) Faraday’s law (c) Biot-Savart’s law (d) Coulomb’s law 1 6) The energy band gap is highest in the case of ……. -
Journal BAS ^ Association of Jewish Refugees the Rescue of Refugee Scholars
VOLUME 9 NO.2 FEBRUARY 2009 journal BAS ^ Association of Jewish Refugees The rescue of refugee scholars eventy-five years ago, in 1933, Robbins on the spot. The AAC, which was the Academic Assistance Council, essentially mn from within the academic known from 1936 as the Society for community in Britain, then came into being the Protection of Science and very quickly. SLeaming, was founded. The AAC/SPSL was In May 1933, a letter signed by a list of a remarkable body that played a unique part leading figures in British university and in the rescue of scholars and scientists, intellectual life was published in The Times, mostly Jewish, who had been dismissed by proposing the establishment of an organi the Nazis from their posts at German and sation to rescue the careers and lives of Austrian universities and whose livelihoods, displaced academics. The Council's initial and lives, were endangered. declaration was signed by over 40 of Brit After the passing of the Gesetz zur ain's most eminent men of scholarship, Wiederherstellung des Bemfsbeamtentums including John Maynard Keynes, Gilbert of 7 April 1933, aimed at removing racially Murray, the Presidents of the Royal Society and politically undesirable persons from and the British Academy, and 9 Chancel the civil service, something like a quarter Esther Simpson OBE lors or Vice-Chancellors of universities and of the academic staff at German sciences), an extraordinary record of 7 Masters or Directors of colleges. The universities and research institutes were academic achievement. celebrated scientist Lord Rutherford became dismissed, of whom some 2,000, or about The two principal initiators of the AAC the AAC's first president.