I am sorry to report the passing of Ralph Alpher, of the famous “Alpher-Bethe-Gamow” paper. I don’t know many details, but he’s been in poor health for some time, so this is sad but not surprising news. Ralph Alpher was an astrophysicist and cosmologist whose thesis work with George Gamow on the origin of the… Continue reading Ralph Asher Alpher, 1921-2007
Category: Physics
No Love for Germer?
I’m working on something at the moment that involves talking a bit about the historical development of quantum theory, and specifically the demonstration of the wave nature of electrons. One of the famous proofs of this is the Davisson-Germer experiment, showing that electrons bouncing off a nickel target produce a diffraction pattern. (As an aside,… Continue reading No Love for Germer?
Dorky Poll: Optics or Thermo?
This might be too abstract for a really good Dorky Poll, but I’ve got a bunch of stuff that I really need to do, and I’ve been thinking a bit about curricular issues, so this came to mind: Which would you rather know more about, Classical Optics or Thermodynamics? Imagine that you’re being offered a… Continue reading Dorky Poll: Optics or Thermo?
The Theory of Almost Everything by Robert Oerter
In case you can’t pick up his direction from the subtitle of The Theory of Almost Everything (“The Standard Model, the Unsung Triumph of Modern Physics”), Robert Oerter lays it all out for you in the second paragraph of the Introduction: the Standard Model has a surprisingly low profile for such a fundamental and successful… Continue reading The Theory of Almost Everything by Robert Oerter
Physics “News”: Bio and Astro
I’m on vacation this week, and taking this opportunity to clear out a large backlog of news items that I flagged as interesting, but never got around to commenting on. I’ll group them thematically, just to spread things out over a few days, and this post lumps together some results from biophysics and astrophysics that… Continue reading Physics “News”: Bio and Astro
Physics “News”: Precision Measurements Edition
I’m on vacation this week, and taking this opportunity to clear out a large backlog of news items that I flagged as interesting, but never got around to commenting on. I’ll group them thematically, just to spread things out over a few days, and this lot is a bunch of articles about fiendishly difficult experiments… Continue reading Physics “News”: Precision Measurements Edition
Physics “News”: Solid State Edition
I’m on vacation this week, and taking this opportunity to clear out a large backlog of news items that I flagged as interesting, but never got around to commenting on. I’ll group them thematically, just to spread things out over a few days, and this lot is a bunch of articles about new developments in… Continue reading Physics “News”: Solid State Edition
Physics “News”: Clever Gadgets Edition
I’m on vacation this week, and taking this opportunity to clear out a large backlog of news items that I flagged as interesting, but never got around to commenting on. I’ll group them thematically, just to spread things out over a few days, and this lot is a bunch of articles about nifty new widgets… Continue reading Physics “News”: Clever Gadgets Edition
Physics “News”: Quantum Optics Edition
I’m on vacation this week, and taking this opportunity to clear out a large backlog of news items that I flagged as interesting, but never got around to commenting on. I’ll group them thematically, just to spread things out over a few days, and this post highlights a couple of new things in the quantum… Continue reading Physics “News”: Quantum Optics Edition
Why Do Polarized Sunglasses Work?
In the previous post about light polarization, I promised to post an explanation of why it is that “Polarized” is a selling point for sunglasses. Given that sunlight is unpolarized, the only obvious benefit would be that polarized sunglasses will automatically block half of the light hitting them, but it’s actually much better than that.… Continue reading Why Do Polarized Sunglasses Work?