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Kamerlingh Onnes Laboratory and Lorentz Institute europhysicsnews 2015 • Volume 46 • number 2 Europhysics news is the magazine of the European physics community. It is owned by the European Physical Society and produced in cooperation with EDP Sciences. The staff of EDP Sciences are involved in the production of the magazine and are not responsible for editorial content. Most contributors to Europhysics news are volunteers and their work is greatly appreciated EPS HISTORIC SITES by the Editor and the Editorial Advisory Board. Europhysics news is also available online at: www.europhysicsnews.org General instructions to authors can be found at: www.eps.org/?page=publications Kamerlingh Onnes Laboratory Editor: Victor R. Velasco (SP) Email: [email protected] and Lorentz Institute Science Editor: Jo Hermans (NL) Email: [email protected] Leiden, The Netherlands Executive Editor: David Lee Email: [email protected] Graphic designer: Xavier de Araujo ‘The coldest place on earth’ Email: [email protected] Director of Publication: Jean-Marc Quilbé Editorial Advisory Board: Gonçalo Figueira (PT), Guillaume Fiquet (FR), On 9 February 2015, the site of the former Physics Zsolt Fülöp (Hu), Adelbert Goede (NL), Agnès Henri (FR), Martin Huber (CH), Robert Klanner (DE), Laboratory of Leiden University was officially Peter Liljeroth (FI), Stephen Price (UK), recognised as one of the ‘EPS Historic Sites’ Laurence Ramos (FR), Chris Rossel (CH), Claude Sébenne (FR), Marc Türler (CH) of the European Physical Society. On that day © European Physical Society and EDP Sciences EPS president-elect Christophe Rossel unveiled EPS Secretariat the commemorative plaque near the present-day Address: EPS • 6 rue des Frères Lumière 68200 Mulhouse • France entrance to the complex (since 2004 the location Tel: +33 389 32 94 40 • fax: +33 389 32 94 49 of Leiden University’s Law Faculty). www.eps.org Secretariat is open 09.00–12.00 / 13.30–17.30 CET except weekends and French public holidays. he tablet is only a few meters away from the bronze bust of the EDP Sciences man who made the building famous: Heike Kamerlingh Onnes. Chief Executive Officer: Jean-Marc Quilbé The text of the plaque reads: Publishing Director: Agnès Henri T Email: [email protected] European Physical Society – EPS Historic Site Production: Thierry Coville Kamerlingh Onnes Laboratory and Lorentz Institute Advertising: Jessica Ekon Here, in 1908, Heike Kamerlingh Onnes first succeeded in liquefying Email: [email protected] helium. This opened up a wide field of low-temperature experiments, Address: EDP Sciences 17 avenue du Hoggar • BP 112 • PA de Courtabœuf and led to the discovery of superconductivity in 1911. F-91944 Les Ulis Cedex A • France Here, in 1896, Pieter Zeeman discovered the splitting of atomic spectral Tel: +33 169 18 75 75 • fax: +33 169 28 84 91 www.edpsciences.org lines by a magnetic field. Hendrik Lorentz interpreted this as an effect of the magnetic force on the oscillation of hypothetical charged particles, Subscriptions which later became known as electrons. Individual Members of the European Physical Society receive Europhysics news free of charge. Members of EPS National Member Societies receive In 1859, a complex was built to accommodate the chemistry, physics Europhysics news through their society, except members and anatomy departments of Leiden University, in the heart of Leiden on of the Institute of Physics in the United Kingdom and the German Physical Society who have access to an e-version Steenschuur, the location which has now been honoured by the EPS. Eight at www.europhysicsnews.org. The following are 2014 years later, a new building arose at the back side of the complex. This was print version subscription prices available through EDP Sciences (Prices include postal delivery cost). the new Physiological Laboratory, led by Willem Einthoven, the inventor Institutions - European Union countries: 100 € of the electrocardiograph. (VAT not included, 20 %). Rest of the world: 119 € Student - European Union countries: 47.50 € (VAT not included, 20 %). Rest of the world: 57 € Two explosions Contact: EPN Europhysics News • BP 95 • And so at last the gaping hole was filled which an exploding gunpowder 92244 Malakoff Cedex • [email protected] or visit www.edpsciences.org ship had left by ruining dozens of houses along Rapenburg, on 12 January ISSN 0531-7479 • ISSN 1432-1092 (electronic edition) 1807. It was a devastating explosion which, as Carlo Beenakker (Lorentz Printer: Fabrègue • Saint-Yrieix-la-Perche, France Institute) so aptly put it at the official ceremony on last February 9, was Legal deposit: April 2015 followed around the turn of the century by a second blast – meaning the 04 EPN 46/2 EPS historic SITES NEWS More Nobel prizes In 1912 Lorentz left to become curator of the Physics Cabinet at Teylers Muse- um in Haarlem. His successor in Leiden was Paul Ehrenfest, a colourful physicist who organized weekly colloquia to dis- cuss the latest developments in the field of theoretical physics with great gusto and without mincing words – the Colloquia Ehrenfestii still exist. Among Ehrenfest’s students were Samuel Goudsmit and George Uhlenbeck, who discovered the electron spin in 1925. Another student was Jan Tinbergen, who obtained his doctorate under Ehrenfest with a thesis on an econometric subject in 1929. Forty years later he became the first Nobel prize sparkling research produced by Leid- director of Philips Research or NatLab mThe Kamerlingh winner in this new discipline. All these en’s physicists. as it was then called) also discovered Onnes building theoretical physicists operated from their and a part Physics in Leiden had already be- superconductivity. A century later, of the canal own institute, located next to the boiler gun to sparkle in 1873, when Johannes this discovery was distinguished with where in 1807 house of the Physics Laboratory – it was Diderik van der Waals obtained his a ‘Milestone Award’ by the IEEE. For a gunpowder renamed Kamerlingh Onnes Laboratory doctorate in Leiden with a thesis his pioneering helium research, Ka- ship exploded, in 1932. When the Physiological Labo- destroying many entitled Over de continuiteit van den merlingh Onnes received the Nobel houses and ratory moved to new premises in the gas- en vloeistoftoestand (On the con- prize in 1913. making place for 1960s and made way for new buildings tinuity of the gaseous and liquid state). the laboratory. to house the Physics Department, the Lei- The equation of state and the law of Theoretical breakthroughs den theoreticians were given their own corresponding states which he formu- In addition to these experimental Instituut-Lorentz on the third floor. lated in this pioneering study were at feats, Leiden made considerable the- The list of pioneering scientists in the heart of a programme later carried oretical contributions in the post-Van Leiden who engineered the ‘second out by Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, who der Waals era. In 1877 Hendrik An- blast’ on Steenschuur would not be had been appointed Professor of Ex- toon Lorentz was appointed Professor complete without Willem Einthoven. perimental Physics in Leiden in 1882. of Theoretical Physics, one of the first In 1903 this physiologist developed Heike was a man of vision, patience, in Europe to hold such a chair. His re- an extremely sensitive and fast string stamina, great organizational skills, search concerned the interaction be- galvanometer, making it the core of a diplomacy, guts and a gift for getting tween light and matter. In the 1890s he . Jan van device used to record heart sounds: the his way, all of which he used to create published his ‘electron theory’ based Ruitenbeek, electrocardiograph. Einthoven received president from scratch a cryogenics laboratory on the atomistic structure of elec- the Nobel Prize for Physiology in 1924. of the Dutch second to none in the world – a fore- tricity. When in 1896 Pieter Zeeman, Physical Society Six Nobel Prizes within the space of runner of Big Science. assistant to both Kamerlingh Onnes (left) and 25 years on a piece of land measuring and Lorentz, discovered the effect of Christophe Rossel, less than a hectare: worthy of an ‘EPS president-elect Coldest place on earth a magnetic field on the D spectral line Historic Site’! n of the EPS, On 10 July his programme led to a of sodium (initially a broadening of near the first major success when he succeed- the line, followed by splitting in later commemorative l Dirk van Delft ed in liquefying helium at a temper- more accurate experiments), Lorentz plaque Leiden University ature of 4 kelvin (and by evacuating came up with an explanation based on the helium in an attempt to solidify his electron theory within days. The it, Kamerlingh Onnes achieved a polarization of light from the edges temperature of approx. 2 kelvin that of the sodium line which Lorentz had same day). Leiden held on to its mo- also predicted in passing was actually nopoly position on liquid helium observed by Zeeman in a follow-up until 1923 and remained ‘the coldest experiment. In 1902 the two physicists place on earth’ into the 1930s. In 1911 were awarded the Nobel prize for the Kamerlingh Onnes and his research discovery of the so-called ‘Zeeman staff (including Gilles Holst, the first effect’ and Lorentz’ explanation. EPN 46/2 05.
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