DOCSLIB.ORG

The Strangest Man: the Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Mystic of the Atom Reviewed by Brian E

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Strangest Man: the Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Mystic of the Atom Reviewed by Brian E Book Review The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Mystic of the Atom Reviewed by Brian E. Blank bizarre, genially mad, unworldly, and completely, The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Mystic of the Atom decidedly difficult in their behavior toward their Graham Farmelo fellow man.” Even in that eccentric company, Dirac Basic Books, 2009 stood out. In a conversation with Kurt Gottfried US$29.95, 560 pages in 1959, Bohr remarked that, of all the visitors to ISBN-13: 978-0-465-01827-7 his institute, “Dirac was the strangest man.” Graham Farmelo, Senior Research Fellow at London’s Science Museum and Adjunct Professor In September 1926 Paul Dirac began a five-month of Physics at Northeastern University, has cleverly visit with Niels Bohr at the Institute for Theo- co-opted Bohr’s characterization of Dirac for the retical Physics in Copenhagen. Dirac, then barely title of his recently published biography. With twenty-four years old, had been in possession of his Ph.D. since only May of that year. Bohr was a spareness that would meet Dirac’s approval, middle aged and already a Nobel laureate, but The Strangest Man does double duty as a title: he was accustomed to working with junior col- it intrigues the reader who is only moderately leagues. Nevertheless, collaboration between the interested in Farmelo’s subject, and it announces two physicists proved to be impossible. Whereas a trait of Dirac that the reader will find relentlessly Dirac was taciturn, Bohr was voluble: his habit stressed. Farmelo’s subtitle, The Hidden Life of of thinking out loud produced a constant stream Paul Dirac, Mystic of the Atom, may also be an of sentences in need of revision or retraction. By effective hook, but it is a deceptive one: the phrase bouncing half-baked ideas off Dirac, Bohr elicited “hidden life” suggests a kinky, shady, or salacious little more than the response, “At school I was side of Dirac that did not exist. He did not deal in always taught not to start a sentence until I knew nuclear secrets, he abstained entirely from alcohol how to finish it.” When Bohr bemoaned to Ernest and tobacco, and he accepted only the weakest Rutherford, “Dirac never says anything,” Ruther- doses of caffeine. His love life was conventionally ford replied with a story about a shop owner proper. When an incredulous physicist asked Dirac assuaging a dissatisfied customer who had pur- if he had any vices, the reply was, “No obvious chased a parrot that would not speak. “Please ones.” Nothing in Farmelo’s book contradicts that. forgive me. You wanted a parrot that talks, and I Of course, Dirac did keep many aspects of gave you the parrot that thinks.” his life private, and, as a conscientious biogra- Dirac departed Copenhagen in January 1927 pher, Farmelo has made every effort to ferret to stay with Max Born in Göttingen. In doing so, them out. Dirac could, for example, spend a he joined the steady flow of promising young day at the cinema watching Mickey Mouse films, physicists who traveled between those two cen- a vice he kept secret from his Cambridge col- ters of quantum physics in the 1920s. According leagues.He also concealedhis romance with Margit to Max Delbrück, one of Born’s students and a Balázs (née Wigner), Eugene Wigner’s younger future Nobelist, these peripatetics were “highly sister. When anyone knocked at his door, the Brian E. Blank is associate professor of mathematics at thirty-three-year-old bachelor took down a pic- Washington University in St. Louis. His email address is ture of Margit and hid it in a drawer. For [email protected]. Dirac, keeping a photograph of his swimsuited 1278 Notices of the AMS Volume 58, Number 9 future wife on the mantelpiece was as lurid the University of Bristol arranged for him to pur- as it got. sue a mathematics degree free of charge. On the Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac was born in Bristol completion of those studies, Dirac was awarded a on August 8, 1902, to a Cornish mother and more substantial scholarship to Cambridge, which francophone Swiss father. Paul’s childhood was he entered in October 1923. not a happy one. In interviews he gave late in By 1923 the atom had been actively studied his life, Paul portrayed his father, Charles, as a for over a quarter century. Two constituents of cold tyrant who psychologically abused him and the atom were then known: the electron, discov- his older brother. It is this family dynamic that ered in 1897, and the proton, discovered in 1919. Farmelo highlights in the prologue with which he For more than two decades, beginning with Max begins his work. The setting for the prologue is an Planck’s derivation of blackbody radiation in 1900 evening in 1980 when Margit and Paul entertained and Einstein’s explanation of the photoelectric a friend in their home. In the course of this social effect in 1905, quantum theory had been used to occasion, an innocuous detail Margit mentioned elucidate atomic phenomena. An important con- triggered a two-hour monologue during which Paul firmation of quantum physics was provided by unburdened himself before his startled guest. “I Arthur Holly Compton when, in 1923, he pub- never knew love or affection when I was a child,” lished his observations of collisions between the Paul volunteered. He also spoke of the tragedy of photons of incident electromagnetic radiation and his brother, who, in 1925, bullied and frustrated the free electrons of an irradiated target, thereby by Charles at every turn, took his own life. Paul’s demonstrating the particle nature of light. And visitor, aware ofhis host’s reputationfor equability yet, when Dirac arrived in Cambridge, he consid- and pathological reticence, was shocked to hear ered atoms to be “very hypothetical things”. It was him angrily unleash the demons that had haunted his research supervisor, Ralph H. Fowler, a rising him for seventy years. theoretical physicist in close contact with both Farmelo precedes his prologue with a brief Bohr and Born, who introduced atomic theory to extract from Samuel Butler’s novel, The Way of Dirac. All Flesh: “Unkindness and selfishness on the Despite its successes, quantum theory was then parts of parents towards children…may cast a in an unsatisfactory state: the Bohr-Sommerfeld gloom over their children’s lives for many years.” quantization rules for the spectroscopy of the This self-evident observation, expressed without hydrogen atom were puzzling, and the theory the wit or elegance usually found in a quota- was completely inadequate for the treatment of tion, is actually an ingenious reference. Butler’s complex atoms. A radically new approach was semi-autobiographical story of Ernest Pontifex needed, and Werner Heisenberg, then a Privat- happened to be published a few months after Paul dozent at Göttingen, hesitantly supplied it. On Dirac’s birth. Charles Dirac might as well have July 9, 1925, he completed the final draft of the used Ernest’s father, Theobald, as a model for paper that would introduce quantum mechanics. becoming a cruel, miserly, domineering paterfa- Among his innovations was a multiplication of milias. Whereas Ernest was forced to sing hymns atomic quantities, the noncommutativity of which before Theobald, Paul was forced to speak French he considered to be “a significant difficulty”. Be- to Charles. Just as Ernest was beaten when he fore departing Göttingen for visits in Leiden and mispronounced a word of a hymn, so was Paul Cambridge, Heisenberg, worried that his paper punished for every error he made speaking French. was “crazy”, deposited the manuscript with Born, When such slips occurred at dinner, Paul was re- who was to determine whether it was publication fused permission to leave the table, even if he worthy. was sick. Time and again, Paul, who suffered from On July 28 Heisenberg, still uncertain of the digestive problems all his life, was forced to stay value of his recent work, lectured about the old put and vomit. In Paul’s mind, this treatment was quantum theory in Cambridge. He did, however, the basis of one of his trademark idiosyncrasies: discuss his new approach with Fowler in private to avoid punishment, he learned to say nothing. and, a few weeks later, mailed his English host After graduating with a first-class honors de- the proofs of his article, which Born had, in the gree in electrical engineering from the Merchant meantime, submitted. Fowler scribbled “What do Venturers’ Technical College, an antecedent insti- you think of this?” on the first page and for- tution of the University of Bristol, Dirac won a warded Heisenberg’s paper to Dirac, who received small scholarship to Cambridge. Because Charles it in Bristol early in September. Dirac’s initial im- was unwilling to provide the remaining funds pression was that Heisenberg’s work was “of no necessary for attendance, Dirac searched for a interest”. It was in October, when he was back job instead. At the time, England was suffering in Cambridge, that Dirac recognized the similar- from its worst economic slump since the Indus- ity between the Poisson bracket he remembered trial Revolution, and Dirac joined the ranks of the from classical dynamics and the commutator of two million unemployed. His luck turned when two of Heisenberg’s variables. Very quickly, Dirac October 2011 Notices of the AMS 1279 reformulated Heisenberg’s quantum mechanics, yet allowed that there was still room to doubt simplified the mathematics, clarified the break the foundations on which Dirac and Pauli were with classical theory, and significantly extended building.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Arthur S. Eddington the Nature of the Physical World
    Arthur S. Eddington The Nature of the Physical World Arthur S. Eddington The Nature of the Physical World Gifford Lectures of 1927: An Annotated Edition Annotated and Introduced By H. G. Callaway Arthur S. Eddington, The Nature of the Physical World: Gifford Lectures of 1927: An Annotated Edition, by H. G. Callaway This book first published 2014 Cambridge Scholars Publishing 12 Back Chapman Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2XX, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2014 by H. G. Callaway All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-4438-6386-6, ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-6386-5 CONTENTS Note to the Text ............................................................................... vii Eddington’s Preface ......................................................................... ix A. S. Eddington, Physics and Philosophy .......................................xiii Eddington’s Introduction ................................................................... 1 Chapter I .......................................................................................... 11 The Downfall of Classical Physics Chapter II ......................................................................................... 31 Relativity Chapter III
    [Show full text]
  • Einstein's Mistakes
    Einstein’s Mistakes Einstein was the greatest genius of the Twentieth Century, but his discoveries were blighted with mistakes. The Human Failing of Genius. 1 PART 1 An evaluation of the man Here, Einstein grows up, his thinking evolves, and many quotations from him are listed. Albert Einstein (1879-1955) Einstein at 14 Einstein at 26 Einstein at 42 3 Albert Einstein (1879-1955) Einstein at age 61 (1940) 4 Albert Einstein (1879-1955) Born in Ulm, Swabian region of Southern Germany. From a Jewish merchant family. Had a sister Maja. Family rejected Jewish customs. Did not inherit any mathematical talent. Inherited stubbornness, Inherited a roguish sense of humor, An inclination to mysticism, And a habit of grüblen or protracted, agonizing “brooding” over whatever was on its mind. Leading to the thought experiment. 5 Portrait in 1947 – age 68, and his habit of agonizing brooding over whatever was on its mind. He was in Princeton, NJ, USA. 6 Einstein the mystic •“Everyone who is seriously involved in pursuit of science becomes convinced that a spirit is manifest in the laws of the universe, one that is vastly superior to that of man..” •“When I assess a theory, I ask myself, if I was God, would I have arranged the universe that way?” •His roguish sense of humor was always there. •When asked what will be his reactions to observational evidence against the bending of light predicted by his general theory of relativity, he said: •”Then I would feel sorry for the Good Lord. The theory is correct anyway.” 7 Einstein: Mathematics •More quotations from Einstein: •“How it is possible that mathematics, a product of human thought that is independent of experience, fits so excellently the objects of physical reality?” •Questions asked by many people and Einstein: •“Is God a mathematician?” •His conclusion: •“ The Lord is cunning, but not malicious.” 8 Einstein the Stubborn Mystic “What interests me is whether God had any choice in the creation of the world” Some broadcasters expunged the comment from the soundtrack because they thought it was blasphemous.
    [Show full text]
  • The Development of Military Nuclear Strategy And
    The Development of Military Nuclear Strategy and Anglo-American Relations, 1939 – 1958 Submitted by: Geoffrey Charles Mallett Skinner to the University of Exeter as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History, July 2018 This thesis is available for Library use on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. I certify that all material in this thesis which is not my own work has been identified and that no material has previously been submitted and approved for the award of a degree by this or any other University. (Signature) ……………………………………………………………………………… 1 Abstract There was no special governmental partnership between Britain and America during the Second World War in atomic affairs. A recalibration is required that updates and amends the existing historiography in this respect. The wartime atomic relations of those countries were cooperative at the level of science and resources, but rarely that of the state. As soon as it became apparent that fission weaponry would be the main basis of future military power, America decided to gain exclusive control over the weapon. Britain could not replicate American resources and no assistance was offered to it by its conventional ally. America then created its own, closed, nuclear system and well before the 1946 Atomic Energy Act, the event which is typically seen by historians as the explanation of the fracturing of wartime atomic relations. Immediately after 1945 there was insufficient systemic force to create change in the consistent American policy of atomic monopoly. As fusion bombs introduced a new magnitude of risk, and as the nuclear world expanded and deepened, the systemic pressures grew.
    [Show full text]
  • A Singing, Dancing Universe Jon Butterworth Enjoys a Celebration of Mathematics-Led Theoretical Physics
    SPRING BOOKS COMMENT under physicist and Nobel laureate William to the intensely scrutinized narrative on the discovery “may turn out to be the greatest Henry Bragg, studying small mol ecules such double helix itself, he clarifies key issues. He development in the field of molecular genet- as tartaric acid. Moving to the University points out that the infamous conflict between ics in recent years”. And, on occasion, the of Leeds, UK, in 1928, Astbury probed the Wilkins and chemist Rosalind Franklin arose scope is too broad. The tragic figure of Nikolai structure of biological fibres such as hair. His from actions of John Randall, head of the Vavilov, the great Soviet plant geneticist of the colleague Florence Bell took the first X-ray biophysics unit at King’s College London. He early twentieth century who perished in the diffraction photographs of DNA, leading to implied to Franklin that she would take over Gulag, features prominently, but I am not sure the “pile of pennies” model (W. T. Astbury Wilkins’ work on DNA, yet gave Wilkins the how relevant his research is here. Yet pulling and F. O. Bell Nature 141, 747–748; 1938). impression she would be his assistant. Wilkins such figures into the limelight is partly what Her photos, plagued by technical limitations, conceded the DNA work to Franklin, and distinguishes Williams’s book from others. were fuzzy. But in 1951, Astbury’s lab pro- PhD student Raymond Gosling became her What of those others? Franklin Portugal duced a gem, by the rarely mentioned Elwyn assistant. It was Gosling who, under Franklin’s and Jack Cohen covered much the same Beighton.
    [Show full text]
  • Iasinstitute for Advanced Study
    IAInsti tSute for Advanced Study Faculty and Members 2012–2013 Contents Mission and History . 2 School of Historical Studies . 4 School of Mathematics . 21 School of Natural Sciences . 45 School of Social Science . 62 Program in Interdisciplinary Studies . 72 Director’s Visitors . 74 Artist-in-Residence Program . 75 Trustees and Officers of the Board and of the Corporation . 76 Administration . 78 Past Directors and Faculty . 80 Inde x . 81 Information contained herein is current as of September 24, 2012. Mission and History The Institute for Advanced Study is one of the world’s leading centers for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. The Institute exists to encourage and support fundamental research in the sciences and human - ities—the original, often speculative thinking that produces advances in knowledge that change the way we understand the world. It provides for the mentoring of scholars by Faculty, and it offers all who work there the freedom to undertake research that will make significant contributions in any of the broad range of fields in the sciences and humanities studied at the Institute. Y R Founded in 1930 by Louis Bamberger and his sister Caroline Bamberger O Fuld, the Institute was established through the vision of founding T S Director Abraham Flexner. Past Faculty have included Albert Einstein, I H who arrived in 1933 and remained at the Institute until his death in 1955, and other distinguished scientists and scholars such as Kurt Gödel, George F. D N Kennan, Erwin Panofsky, Homer A. Thompson, John von Neumann, and A Hermann Weyl. N O Abraham Flexner was succeeded as Director in 1939 by Frank Aydelotte, I S followed by J.
    [Show full text]
  • Ontology in Quantum Mechanics
    Ontology in quantum mechanics Gerard 't Hooft Faculty of Science, Institute for Theoretical Physics, Utrecht University, Princetonplein 5, 3584 CC Utrecht, The Netherlands e-mail: [email protected] internet: http://www.staff.science.uu.nl/˜hooft101/ Abstract It is suspected that the quantum evolution equations describing the micro-world as we know it are of a special kind that allows transformations to a special set of basis states in Hilbert space, such that, in this basis, the evolution is given by ele- ments of the permutation group. This would restore an ontological interpretation. It is shown how, at low energies per particle degree of freedom, almost any quantum system allows for such a transformation. This contradicts Bell's theorem, and we emphasise why some of the assumptions made by Bell to prove his theorem cannot hold for the models studied here. We speculate how an approach of this kind may become helpful in isolating the most likely version of the Standard Model, combined with General Relativity. A link is suggested with black hole physics. Keywords: foundations quantum mechanics, fast variables, cellular automaton, classical/quantum evolution laws, Stern-Gerlach experiment, Bell's theorem, free will, Standard Model, anti-vacuum state. arXiv:2107.14191v1 [quant-ph] 29 Jul 2021 1 1 Introduction Since its inception, during the first three decades of the 20th century, quantum mechanics was subject of intense discussions concerning its interpretation. Since experiments were plentiful, and accurate calculations could be performed to com- pare the experimental results with the theoretical calculations, scientists quickly agreed on how detailed quantum mechanical models could be arrived at, and how the calculations had to be done.
    [Show full text]
  • Notices of the American Mathematical Society
    • ISSN 0002-9920 March 2003 Volume 50, Number 3 Disks That Are Double Spiral Staircases page 327 The RieITlann Hypothesis page 341 San Francisco Meeting page 423 Primitive curve painting (see page 356) Education is no longer just about classrooms and labs. With the growing diversity and complexity of educational programs, you need a software system that lets you efficiently deliver effective learning tools to literally, the world. Maple® now offers you a choice to address the reality of today's mathematics education. Maple® 8 - the standard Perfect for students in mathematics, sciences, and engineering. Maple® 8 offers all the power, flexibility, and resources your technical students need to manage even the most complex mathematical concepts. MapleNET™ -- online education ,.u A complete standards-based solution for authoring, nv3a~ _r.~ .::..,-;.-:.- delivering, and managing interactive learning modules \~.:...br *'r¥'''' S\l!t"AaITI(!\pU;; ,"", <If through browsers. Derived from the legendary Maple® .Att~~ .. <:t~~::,/, engine, MapleNefM is the only comprehensive solution "f'I!hlislJer~l!'Ct"\ :5 -~~~~~:--r---, for distance education in mathematics. Give your institution and your students cornpetitive edge. For a FREE 3D-day Maple® 8 Trial CD for Windows®, or to register for a FREE MapleNefM Online Seminar call 1/800 R67.6583 or e-mail [email protected]. ADVANCING MATHEMATICS WWW.MAPLESOFT.COM I [email protected]\I I WWW.MAPLEAPPS.COM I NORTH AMERICAN SALES 1/800 267. 6583 © 2003 Woter1oo Ma')Ir~ Inc Maple IS (J y<?glsterc() crademork of Woterloo Maple he Mar)leNet so troc1ema'k of Woter1oc' fV'lop'e Inr PII other trcde,nork$ (ye property o~ their respective ('wners Generic Polynomials Constructive Aspects of the Inverse Galois Problem Christian U.
    [Show full text]
  • British Library Courses Study Day: Exploring Diaries, 1660-2019
    British Library Courses www.bl.uk/courses Study Day: Exploring Diaries, 1660-2019 Dates Sunday 24 March 2019 Times 9.45 – 16:00 Location Knowledge Centre Level All levels Cost £55 Overview Six expert speakers discuss the origins and development of diary-keeping from Samuel Pepys to 21st- century vloggers, by way of Romantic travellers, Antarctic explorers and office workers. We also discover how the British Library acquires, preserves and curates diaries, making these unique works available to the public. Programme Registration from 9.30am Tea, coffee and biscuits from 9.45am Morning session 10am – 12.30pm Welcome and Introduction - Dr Emma McEvoy, University of Westminster Kate Loveman, University of Leicester Early Modern Diaries: Samuel Pepys and his friends Emma McEvoy, University of Westminster Touring Britain: Travel Journals 1780-1830 Laura Walker, British Library Cultivating gardens to crossing the ice: Collecting and curating diaries at the British Library Panel Q&A 1 12.30pm – 1.30pm LUNCH BREAK (lunch not provided) Afternoon session 1.30pm – 4pm Graham Farmelo, University of Cambridge Using diaries in writing scientific biographies Joe Moran, Liverpool John Moores University 20th-century diaries and the history of the everyday Clare Brant, King’s College London Diaries in the digital age Panel Q&A Tea and coffee 4pm Event ends Speakers Morning Kate Loveman is an Associate Professor in English 1600-1789 at the University of Leicester, working on the history of reading, sociability and information exchange. She is an expert on Samuel Pepys and recently edited a new annotated selection of his Diary (Everyman 2018). Her other publications include Samuel Pepys and his Books: Reading, Newsgathering, and Sociability 1660–1703 (2015), Reading Fictions 1660-1740: Deception in English Literary and Political Culture (2008) and work on the introduction of chocolate into England in the seventeenth century.
    [Show full text]
  • Graham Farmelo: CV in Brief
    Graham Farmelo: CV in brief Fellow of Churchill College, University of Cambridge E: [email protected], T: 07973 894926 2003–2018 Author and international consultant in public engagement • Author ‘The Universe Speaks in Numbers,’ to be published in UK and USA in May 2019 • Elected Fellow of Churchill College, University of Cambridge (2017) • Director’s visitor at the IAS, Princeton, every summer 2004-2018 • Chair, CERN History Forum’s on public dimensions of history, CERN, 1 February 2018 • Led series of art-science events involving Institute of Physics and national arts institutions: Royal Opera House (2014), Royal Shakespeare Company (2015) and Tate Modern (2015) • Organised public discussion between novelist Ian McEwan and physicists Nima Arkani-Hamed about the relationship between art and science – opening of ‘Collider’ exhibition at the Science Museum, 13 November 2014 • Writer-in-residence Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of California at Santa Barbara (2015) and at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics (2016) • Speaker at Blue Plaque event for Patrick Blackett’s residence in Chelsea, London, 10 April 2015 • Published ‘Churchill’s Bomb’ in US, Canada and UK (2013) • Awarded 2012 Kelvin Prize and Medal by the UK Institute of Physics • Chair, two International Panels for the Irish Government to review public provision for science communication and education in (2012, 2008) • Elected Honorary Fellow, British Science Association (2011) • Author of ‘The Strangest Man’, a biography of Paul Dirac (2009): winner, UK Costa Prize for Biography (2010), the Los Angeles Times Science Book Prize (2010); finalist for 2010 PEN biography in biography (New York); Physics World’s book of the 2009, one of Nature’s books of the year.
    [Show full text]
  • Extraction: Art on the Edge of the Abyss
    EXTRACTION ART ON THE EDGE OF THE ABYSS Preview of a Glorious Ruckus Michael Traynor Earth Day ❧ april 22, 2021 “Tap ‘er light.” Dedicated to the memory of Edwin Dobb. Michael Traynor, Senior Counsel at Cobalt LLP in Berkeley, California, is an honorary life trustee of Earthjustice and a member of its Council, a member of the Leadership Council of the Environmental Law Institute, an honorary life trustee of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights under Law, President Emeritus of the American Law Institute, a Fellow of the Ameri- can Academy of Arts & Sciences, and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He acknowledges with appreciation the many generous and helpful suggestions from friends and family. The views stated are personal. A compilation of references selected from the growing litera- ture accompanies this preview. Jetsonorama, I Am the Change, installation, photograph by Ben Knight Copyright © 2018 and 2021 by Michael Traynor. INTRODUCTION Layout and design by Samuel Pelts & Peter Koch. At this critical time of climate disruption and unsustainable extraction of natural For noncommercial purposes, you may copy, redistribute, resources, Peter Koch,¹ a printer, publisher and fine artist, has conceived of quote from, and adapt this preview and compilation pursuant Extraction: Art on the Edge of the Abyss (www.extractionart.org).² He, and the late Ed- to Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 Inter- win Dobb,³ a writer and teacher of environmental stories, and a growing group national License (CC BY-NC 4.0), https://creativecommons. of allies, launched this inspiring project in 2018. They created “a multi-layered, org/licenses/by/4.0/.
    [Show full text]
  • Lise Meitner 1878 – 1968
    Discoveries that changed the world: 1932 – 1942 James Chadwick 1891 – 1974 Lise Meitner 1878 – 1968 I „The road to the neutron“ Staff and research students at the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge, 1923. (Names from left to right. Front row: J. Chadwick, G. Stead, F.W. Aston, Prof. Sir J. J. Thomson, Prof. Sir E. Rutherford, J.A. Crowther, Miss B. Trevelyan, G.I. Taylor, Second row: P. Kapitza, H. de W. Smyth, T. Alty, J.E. Crackston, H. Robinson, L.F. Curtiss, E.S. Bieler, A.G.D. West, P. Mercier. Back row: P.M.S. Blackett, R.E. Clay, H.W.B. Skinner, H.D. Griffith, A.W. Barton, L.F. Bates, J.S. Rogers, K.G. Emeleus.) The room which Rutherford and Chadwick used for their scattering experiments in the 1920s. The work was carried out in the dark, often to the accompaniment of Rutherford singing „Onward Christian Soldiers“. Rutherford had already proposed the neutron in 1920 in his Bakerian Lecture at the Royal Society. He talked about a “neutral doublet” (at that time considered a proton and electron) that could be difficult to detect and move easily through matter. Curie & Joliot published (incorrectly) in Jan. 1932 the observation: 9Be + 4He → 12C + 1n I. Curie and F. Joliot, C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris 194, 273 (1932) When the radiation was passed through wax the ionisation increased! This increase was due to knock-on protons. To explain this the Curie’s suggested that the emission was of a 55 MeV γ ray, an energy much greater than anything yet seen! Moreover, the radiation also passed through lead This experiment was first performed in 1930 by Walter Bothe and Herbet Becker at U.
    [Show full text]
  • International History, Philosophy and Science Teaching
    International History, Philosophy and Science Teaching Group NEWSLETTER www.ihpst.net April-May 2014 CONTENTS 1. Science & Education Journal, Volume 23 Number 4 Thematic Issue: History of Science in Museums & Varia Guest Editors: Anastasia Filippoupoliti & Dimitris Koliopoulos 2. Science & Education Journal, Volume 23 Number 5 First IHPST Asian Regional Conference Guest Editors: Jinwoong Song, Sungook Hong, Sang Wook Yi 3. Science & Education Journal, Report (a) Rationale and Purpose of the Journal (b) Journal on the Web (c) Manuscript Submissions (d) Copyediting Assistance Required for Manuscripts from Non-Anglo Authors (e) Article Downloads (f) Thematic Issues (g) Journal Reviewing 4. Journal Thematic Issue, Call for Papers, The Interplay of Physics and Mathematics: Historical, Philosophical and Pedagogical Considerations 5. The 3rd Latin American Regional IHPST Conference, November 17-19, 2014, Santiago, Chile 6. The 2nd Asian Regional IHPST Conference, December 4 –7, 2014, Taipei, Taiwan 7. European Society of History of Science, 6th International Conference, Lisbon, 4-6 September 2014 8. 15th Congress of Logic, Methodology, and Philosophy of Science, 3-8 August 2015, Helsinki 9. International Handbook of Research in History, Philosophy and Science Teaching 10. Book Reviews (i) Kostas Kampourakis (ed.) (2013) The Philosophy of Biology: A Companion for Educators, Springer. [CHARBEL N. EL-HANI] (ii) Sally Gregory Kohlstedt (2010): Teaching Children Science: Hands-on Nature Study in North America, 1890-1930. The University of Chicago Press [MARIA ELICE BRZEZINSKI PRESTES] (iii) Carl F. Craver and Lindley Darden (2013) In Search of Mechanisms: Discoveries across the Life Sciences. University of Chicago Press [Stuart Glennan] (iv) Virginia Berridge and Martin Gorsky (eds.) (2012) Environment, Health and History.
    [Show full text]