This Week in Physics History: Oct. 27 - Nov. 2

Nov. 2, 1929 - Canadian-American physicist Richard E. Taylor is born. Taylor shared the 1990 Nobel Prize in physics for work in particle scattering that helped lead to the quark model of particle physics.

Oct. 30, 1941 - German physicist Theodor Wolfgang Hansch is born. He shared half of the 2005 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on laser-based precision spectroscopy, which involves something called the "optical frequency comb technique."

Nov. 1, 1950 - American physicist Robert B. Laughlin is born. Laughlin's explanation of the fractional quantum Hall effect earned him the 1998 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Oct. 27, 1968 - Austrian-born physicist Lise Meitner dies. Meitner was involved in work that lead to the discovery of nuclear fission, but was not named when her collaborator Otto Hahn received the 1944 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Oct. 30, 1975 - German experimental physicist Gustav Ludwig Hertz dies. Hertz, along with James Franck, conducted the Franck-Hertz experiments regarding inelastic collisions in gases, which earned the pair the 1925 Nobel Prize in Physics. Gustav was the nephew of famed physicist Heinrich Rudolph Hertz, for whom the SI unit of frequency - the hertz - is named.

Oct. 27, 1980 - American physicist John Hasbrouck Van Vleck dies. Van Vleck received the 1977 Nobel Prize in physics for work understanding the behavior of electrons in magnetic materials.

Oct. 31, 1986 - American physicist & chemist Robert Mullikan dies. His work in molecular orbital theory earned him the 1966 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Oct. 27, 1992 - David Bohm, American physicist, dies at age 75. Bohm contributed to theoretical physics, introducing a controversial alternative to traditional quantum physics interpretations involving hidden variables, which has gained some measure of support in recent years, though is still considered a marginal theory. He also worked with the Manhattan Project. He left the United States in 1951, after being released from jail for refusing to answer questions to the House Un-American Activities Committee regarding previous connections with Communists.

Oct. 27, 1999 - American physicist Robert Mills dies. Mills is best known for his work Chen Ning Yang in developing the Yang-Mills field equations, crucial in quantum field theory and the principles of gauge fields.

CHANDRAYAAN-1

CHANDRAYAAN-1: India's first mission to the Moon

"THE MOON" with the history of the early solar system etched on it beckons mankind from time immemorial to admire its marvels and discover its secrets. Understanding the moon provides a pathway to unravel the early evolution of the solar system and that of the planet earth. Through the ages, the Moon, our closest celestial body has aroused curiosity in our mind much more than any other objects in the sky. This led to scientific study of the Moon, driven by human desire and quest for knowledge. This is also reflected in the ancient verse. Exploration of the moon got a boost with the advent of the space age and the decades of sixties and seventies saw a myriad of successful unmanned and manned missions to moon.Following this, a hiatus of about one and a half-decade followed. During this period we refined our knowledge about the origin and evolution of the moon and its place as a link to understand the early history of the Solar System and of the earth.

This Week in Physics History: Oct. 13 - 20

Monday October 13, 2008

Oct. 15, 1878 - The Edison Electric Light Company begins operation.

Oct. 17, 1887 - German physicist Gustav Kirchhoff dies. Kirchhoff worked extensively in the fields of electricity, spectroscopy, and thermal radiation. He coined the term black body radiation. He is probably best known for the Kirchhoff's Laws in electronics. There is also a Kirchhoff's law of thermal equilibrium, which states "At thermal equilibrium, the emissitivity of a body (or surface) equals its absorptivity."

Oct. 20, 1891 - English physicist Sir James Chadwick is born. Chadwick discovered the neutron and led the way for the discovery of nuclear fission.

Oct. 19, 1910 - American astrophysicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar is born in Lahore, British India (now Pakistan). His work on stellar evolution earned him the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Oct. 14, 1914 - American chemist & physicist Raymond Davis Jr. is born. Davis received the 2002 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work in astrophysics, especially related to cosmic neutrino detection.

Oct. 17, 1933 - Fleeing Nazi Germany, Albert Einstein immigrates to the United States.

Oct. 19, 1937 - New Zealand physicist Ernest Rutherford dies. His discovery of Rutherford scattering led to the orbital theory of the atom, which helped earn him the 1908 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Oct. 20, 1984 - British theoretical physicist Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac dies. Dirac is one of the founders of quantum physics. He made many mathematical innovations that helped with analysis of physical systems ranging from electromagnetic phenomena to quantum physics. He earned the 1933 Nobel Prize in physics, along with Erwin Schroedinger, "for the discovery of new productive forms of atomic theory." The "Dirac equation" that he developed describes the behavior of fermions.

Oct. 13, 1987 - American physicist Walter Brattain dies. Brattain, along with Bell Labs coworkers John Bardeen and William Shockley, invented the transistor, for which the trio received the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Oct. 13, 2003 - Canadian physicist Bertram Brockhouse dies. Brockhouse received the 1994 Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of neutron scattering techniques to probe the structure of matter.

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2008

“Discovery of Broken Symmetries”

This year’s Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded to Yoichiro Nambu, USA and jointly to Makoto Kobayashi, Japan and Toshihide Maskawa, Japan for their “discovery of Broken Symmetries”. This year’s Nobel Laureates in Physics have presented theoretical insights that give us a deeper understanding of what happens far inside the tiniest building blocks of matter.

Yoichiro Nambu

1/2 of the prize

USA

Enrico Fermi Institute, University of Chicago Chicago, IL, USA

"for the discovery of the mechanism of spontaneous broken symmetry in subatomic physics"

Makoto Kobayashi

1/4 of the prize

Japan

High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK) Tsukuba, Japan

"for the discovery of the origin of the broken symmetry which predicts the existence of at least three families of quarks in nature"

Toshihide Maskawa

1/4 of the prize

Japan

Kyoto Sangyo University; Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics (YITP), Kyoto University Kyoto, Japan

"for the discovery of the origin of the broken symmetry which predicts the existence of at least three families of quarks in nature"