In the 116 year history of the Nobel Prize in Physics, only two women have won the award; Marie Curie (1903) and Maria Mayer (1963). During the 60 years between those awards, several women did work of similar calibre. This book focuses on those women, providing biographies for each that discuss both how they made their discoveries and the gender-specific reception of those discoveries. It also discusses the Nobel process and how society and the scientific community's treatment of them were influenced by their gender.
The present book is based on the experience of the author. The experience is mainly the result of years of research, of consulting work, and in participation in policy decision making in many felds, most, but not all, related to outdoor lighting. To some degree, the book represents the preference of the author. The selection of the subjects is based on more than 50 years of experience of what is desirable to know for persons engaged in scientifc research or practical application in the felds of lighting and vision. The subjects deal with a number of fundamental aspects. The theorists must have them at their fngertips, whereas the practical engineers may assume them as known in their daily work. The selection of subjects is based in part by the questions that came to the author over the years, but even more by the preference of the author himself. In this respect, it is a personal book. Thus, it should be stressed that the book is not a ‘handbook’ or even a ‘textbook’; many subjects that commonly are treated in such books are not included here. Not because they lack importance, but because the author feels that they are adequately treated elsewhere. Some relevant works are mentioned in the References. Over the years, the author has been engaged in giving courses on vision and lighting, lately more in particular on Masterclasses on a post-graduate or post-doctorate level.
This book takes readers back and forth through time and makes the past accessible to all families, students and the general reader and is an unprecedented collection of a list of events in chronological order and a wealth of informative knowledge about the rise and fall of empires, major scientific breakthroughs, groundbreaking inventions, and monumental moments about everything that has ever happened.
In 1932, world-renowned physicist Wolfgang Pauli had already done the work that would win him the 1945 Nobel Prize. He was also suffering after a series of troubling personal events. He was drinking heavily, quarrelling frequently, and experiencing powerful, disturbing dreams. Pauli turned to C. G. Jung for help, forging an extraordinary intellectual conjunction not just between a physicist and a psychologist but between physics and psychology. As their acquaintance developed, Jung and Pauli discussed the nature of dreams and their relation to reality, finding surprising common ground between depth psychology and quantum physics and profoundly influencing each other's work. This portrait of an incredible friendship will fascinate readers interested in psychology, science, creativity, and genius.
Focussing on the formulation of mathematical models for the light curves of eclipsing binary stars, and on the algorithms for generating such models, this book provides astronomers, both amateur and professional, with a guide for - specifying an astrophysical model for a set of observations - selecting an algorithm to determine the parameters of the model - estimating the errors of the parameters. It is written for readers with knowledge of basic calculus and linear algebra; appendices cover mathematical details on such matters as optimisation, co-ordinate systems, and specific models. While emphasising the physical and mathematical framework, the discussion remains close to the problems of actual implementation. The book concludes with chapters on specific models and approaches and the authors'views on the structure of future light-curve programs.
In an epoch when particle physics is awaiting a major step forward, the Large Hydron Collider (LHC) at CERN, Geneva will soon be operational. It will collide a beam of high energy protons with another similar beam circulation in the same 27 km tunnel but in the opposite direction, resulting in the production of many elementary particles some never created in the laboratory before. It is widely expected that the LHC will discover the Higgs boson, the particle which supposedly lends masses to all other fundamental particles. In addition, the question as to whether there is some new law of physics at such high energy is likely to be answered through this experiment. The present volume contains a collection of articles written by international experts, both theoreticians and experimentalists, from India and abroad, which aims to acquaint a non-specialist with some basic issues related to the LHC. At the same time, it is expected to be a useful, rudimentary companion of introductory exposition and technical expertise alike, and it is hoped to become unique in its kind. The fact that there is substantial Indian involvement in the entire LHC endeavour, at all levels including fabrication, physics analysis procedures as well as theoretical studies, is also amply brought out in the collection.
Exploring the phenomenology of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, LHC Physics focuses on the first years of data collected at the LHC as well as the experimental and theoretical tools involved. It discusses a broad spectrum of experimental and theoretical activity in particle physics, from the searches for the Higgs boson and physics beyond the Standard Model to studies of quantum chromodynamics, the B-physics sector, and the properties of dense hadronic matter in heavy-ion collisions. Covering the topics in a pedagogical manner, the book introduces the theoretical and phenomenological framework of hadron collisions and presents the current theoretical models of frontier physics. It offers overviews of the main detector components, the initial calibration procedures, and search strategies. The authors also provide explicit examples of physics analyses drawn from the recently shut down Tevatron. In the coming years, or perhaps even sooner, the LHC experiments may reveal the Higgs boson and offer insight beyond the Standard Model. Written by some of the most prominent and active researchers in particle physics, this volume equips new physicists with the theory and tools needed to understand the various LHC experiments and prepares them to make future contributions to the field.
The book presents an extended version of the lecture course on the theory of nuclear reactions that has been given by the author for some years in Kiev State University. An account is given of the nonrelativistic nuclear reaction theory. The R -- matrix description of nuclear reactions is considered and the dispersion method is formulated. Mechanisms of nuclear reactions and their relationship are studied in detail. Attention is paid to nuclear reactions involving the compound nuclear formation and to direct nuclear processes. The optical model, the diffraction approach and high -- energy diffraction nuclear processes involving composite particles are discussed. It also deals with some problems treated only in special journal papers.
From the bestselling author of Einstein's Dreams comes this lyrical and insightful collection of science writing that delves into the mysteries of the scientific process--physics, astronomy, mathamatics--and exposes its beauty and intrigue. In these brilliant essays, Lightman explores the emotional life of science, the power of imagination, the creative moment, and the alternate ways in which scientists and humanists think about the world. Along the way, he provides in-depth portraits of some of the great geniuses of our time, including Albert Einstein, Richard Feynman, Edward Teller, and astronomer Vera Rubin. Thoughtful, beautifully written, and wonderfully original, A Sense of the Mysterious confirms Alan Lightman's unique position at the crossroads of science and art.
This book is a collection of essays written by the very scientists and engineers who have led, and continue to lead, the scientific quest known as SETI, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. Divided into three parts, the first section, ‘The Spirit of SETI Past’, written by the surviving pioneers of this then emerging discipline, reviews the major projects undertaken during the first 50 years of SETI science and the results of that research. In the second section, ‘The Spirit of SETI Present’, the present-day science and technology is discussed in detail, providing the technical background to contemporary SETI instruments, experiments, and analytical techniques, including the processing of the received signals to extract potential alien communications. In the third and final section, ‘The Spirit of SETI Future’, the book looks ahead to the possible directions that SETI will take in the next 50 years, addressing such important topics as interstellar message construction, the risks and assumptions of interstellar communications, when we might make contact, what aliens might look like and what is likely to happen in the aftermath of such a contact.
