Nobel Laureates and Twentieth-Century PhysicsUsing an original approach, Mauro Dardo recounts the major achievements of twentieth-century physics--including relativity, quantum mechanics, atomic and nuclear physics, the invention of the transistor and the laser, superconductivity, binary pulsars, and the Bose-Einstein condensate--as each emerged. His year-by-year chronicle, biographies and revealing personal anecdotes help bring to life the main events since the first Nobel Prize was awarded in 1901. The work of the most famous physicists of the twentieth century--including the Curies, Bohr, Heisenberg, Einstein, Fermi, Feynman, Gell-Mann, Rutherford, and Schrödinger--is presented, often in the words and imagery of the prize-winners themselves. Mauro Dardo is Professor of Experimental Physics at Amedeo Avogadro University. He has served as Dean of the new Faculty of Sciences at the University of Turin in Alessandria, Piedmont, and has also served as Director of the university's new department of Sciences and Advanced Technologies. |
Contents
Founding fathers | 7 |
Highlights of classical physics | 17 |
The triumphs of modern physics 19011950 | 31 |
New frontiers 19512003 | 235 |
New vistas on the cosmos | 279 |
The small the large the complex | 319 |
Big physics small physics | 369 |
New trends | 409 |
Glossary of terms | 475 |
Notes | 495 |
513 | |
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Academy of Sciences accelerator AIP Emilio Segrè Albert Einstein alpha particles atomic nuclei awarded beam became Bell Labs billion Bohr's born bosons called Cambridge Cavendish Laboratory CERN charged particles cosmic Courtesy AIP Emilio developed diffraction Dirac discovered discovery effect electric charge electromagnetic electron electron-volts Emilio Segrè Emilio Segrè Visual emitted experiment experimental Fermi force frequency German Göttingen gravitational Heisenberg helium helium-3 hydrogen Ibid Institute interactions invention J. J. Thomson laser later lepton light magnetic field mass mathematical molecules motion muon neutrino neutron Niels Bohr Nobel Foundation Nobel Lectures Nobel Prize Nobelist nuclear nucleus observed obtained optical particle physics Pauli Ph.D phenomena physicists Planck principle Prize for physics produced Professor of Physics protons quantum mechanics quantum theory quarks radiation radio radioactive relativity Rutherford Schrödinger scientific scientists Segrè Visual Archives semiconductor spectroscopy spin structure superconductivity superfluid Swedish Academy temperature theoretical physics transistor University wavelength waves X-rays