Cavendish Laboratory Lecture Series

44 CONFERENCE REPORT based upon the understanding of the particle in its simplest possible context - The Electron Centenary: in vacuo - rather than in its normal setting within atoms, molecules and bulk matter. Unsurprisingly, therefore, the first applic Cavendish Laboratory ations of the new knowledge during the first half of this century were concerned with electrons in vacuum: vacuum tubes Lecture Series and cathode-ray oscilloscopes. In England in the 1870s and 1880s interest in cathode-ray phenomena had On 13th., 14th. and 21st. March Trinity Advanced Study, Princeton. been stirred by the spectacular demon College and the Cavendish Laboratory What is Chemistry? 100 Years After strations of William Crookes. His Cambridge, UK, celebrated the centenary J.J. Thomson’s Discovery - Prof. Ahmed “Crookes’ tubes” (see front cover illus of the discovery of the electron in 1897 by Zewail, California Institute of Technology. tration) displayed the magic of gas dis J.J. Thomson, Cavendish Professor from March 14 charges in luminous striations, sinuous 1884 to 1919 and then Master of Trinity The Electron in Photosynthesis - glows, scintillations and phosphorescences College, Cambridge. The celebration took Lord Porter, Imperial College, London. - all forerunners of our neon tubes and the form of a series of lectures held at the Electrons and Positrons in Medical colour TVs. The popularisation of the Cavendish by distinguished international Imaging - Prof. Laurie Hall, University of mystique and imagery of cathode rays speakers. The programme for the first two Cambridge. contributed to the growing debate over days (during the full term period, so that The Microelectronic Revolution - their nature. In 1893 J.J. Thomson surveyed undergraduates could attend) was spon Prof. Alec Broers, Vice-Chancellor, the complex gas-discharge process as sored by Trinity College, with the organ University of Cambridge. follows: “The phenomena attending the isation in the competent hands of Dr. March 21 electric discharge through gases are so Gordon Squires. The final day’s speakers J.J. Thomson and the Discovery of the beautiful and varied that they have had been invited by the Physics Depart Electron - Dr. G. Squires. attracted the attention of numerous ment, the arrangements made by Prof. A. The Electron as a Fundamental Particle - observers. The attention given to these Howie. The audience at both series of Prof. C. Llewellyn-Smith, CERN. phenomena is not, however, due so much to lectures was an invited one, a veritable Pulsar Radiation Mechanisms - Prof. A. the beauty of the experiments, as to the spectrum of celebrated personalities from Hewish, Cavendish Laboratory, widespread conviction that there is perhaps the academic sector in the UK and abroad Cambridge. no other branch ofphysics which affords us attending, as well as physicists, engineers From Ceramics to SQUIDS: a Tale of Two so promising an opportunity ofpenetrating and other scientists from industry and the Electrons - Prof. J. Clarke, Berkeley. the secret of electricity.” government. Several Nobel laureates were Electron Transfers in Chemistry and In this era where it has become all too sighted. Biology - Prof. R. Marcus, Cal. Tech. fashionable to dismiss pure research as Timing of the lectures was such that Quantum Dots and Single Electron irrelevant to future real world needs, to there was ample opportunity to visit the Effects - Prof. K. von Klitzing, MPI look back on the last 100 years of physics Cavendish museum, with a special display Stuttgart. achievement alone is a humbling reminder honouring J.J. Thomson, and to look into The Electron Microscope in Structural of the evolutionary influence on mankind the laboratories at ongoing Cavendish Biology - Sir Aaron Klug, President of the of fundamental research. Carried out with work on the electron. This really meant Royal Society, University of Cambridge. modest means by today’s standards, tow visiting almost any laboratory because the Scanning Tunneling Microscopy - a ards the end of the Victorian era, how can electron is literally everywhere: high en Tool with and for Electrons - Dr. H. Rohrer, we not appreciate the research that is ergy physics; radio astronomy; semi IBM Zurich. leading us inexorably towards continuing conductor physics; microelectronics; opto Electron Holography - Dr. A. Tonomura, miniaturisation - to wristwatch-phones, electronics; heavy electrons; superconduct Hitachi. wallet-computers and flat-screen tele ivity; electronic structure theory of solids Microelectronics Industrial Fabrication - visions? and molecules; and electron microscopy. Dr. G. Moore, Intel. It is our hope that with a century’s The lecture programmes were as follows: This list of lecture titles alone shows understanding of this discovery and its March 13 the impact the discovery of the first sub overwhelming consequences, it might be Introduction - Prof. Archie Howie, and Sir atomic particle has had on modern possible to incite general interest for Michael Atiyah; science, technology and society. Thomson instead of inadequate understanding of J.J. Thomson and the Discovery of the gave the twentieth century not just atomic science; to induce strategic vision of Electron - Dr. Gordon Squires, University and quantum physics, but modern elec research rather than shortsightedness in of Cambridge. tronics - practically every device we its financial planning. And, finally, we Recollections of J.J. Thomson - depend on in our daily lives! He heralded must never cease in our efforts to ensure Prof. Samuel Devons, Columbia the information revolution and the global that future generations are given the University, New York City. village; science without the electron, freedom to realise and successfully exploit Does the Charge of the Electron Stay technology and business without scientific revolutions. Constant as the Universe Evolves? - electronics? - inconceivable! C.C.J. Schneider Europhysics News 28 28 News 1997 Europhysics Prof. Freeman Dyson, Institute for The discovery of the electron was.

Load more