Journey into the Atom: Glossary

[an error occurred while processing this directive] Journey into the Atom: Glossary

J.J. Thomson is the person who started it all. In 1897, Thomson made his greatest contribution to particle physics by finding the electron. From then on, every particle physicist in the world was hoping to be the one to find a new particle. Although it took a hundred years to find them (of course, we can never be sure), Thomson created the field of particle physics. (1856 - 1940)

Max Planck is best known for his complete revolution in the theories behind particle physics. In 1900, Planck totally renounced classical physics on the atomic scale and introduced the idea of a quantum of energy, in which all energy comes in "packets". After his discovery, Max Planck stayed in Germany teaching at a number of institutions throughout his lifetime. Numerous institutions and schools in Germany are named after this revolutionary thinker. (1858 - 1947)

Most people remember Albert Einstein for his famous equation, E = mc². But there are two things wrong with this: 1. Most people don't know what it actually means, that matter is just another form of energy. 2. Most people don't know that Albert Einstein was not just a physicist. In fact, his greatest pleasures came from social issues, politics, and religion. When he lectured, it was not about how energy turned into matter and vice versa (although you came away with that information in your head). He would talk about all topics in life that related to the subject and not related to the subject. His most loved vocations did not include physics. There are many great books on Einstein and most biographers and physicists will refer to him as a Renaissance man rather than just a physicist. We hope that after reading more about him, you will agree. (1879 - 1955)

Wolfgang Pauli's contributions to Physics have made a major difference in the way physicists view the model of the atom today. In 1925, he introduced his exclusion principle, in which he states that no two electrons can have the exact same properties (including position and velocity) at the same time, although they can have different spin (If you don't know what that is, you'll find out in the debriefing). Also, Pauli hypothesized in 1931 of the existence of the neutrino. For his work, he was awarded the 1945 Nobel prize in Physics. (1900 - 1958)

Enrico Fermi was another 20th century physicist that made a huge discovery of his own. He is known to have created the first controlled nuclear fission chain reaction (and that's why Fermilab, the largest particle accelerator in the US, is named after him). Fermi also worked on the atomic bomb throughout the extent of World War II, though he afterwards condemned the use of the hydrogen bomb. Since his death from cancer, the Enrico Fermi award is given annually to the person who has contributed the most towards the use, development, or control of atomic energy. (1901 - 1954)

Werner Heisenberg's contribution to physics makes the subject somewhat less clear, believe it or not. Heisenberg discovered the uncertainty principle which states the fact that you can not know the exact position and velocity of a particle at the same time. The product of the uncertainties in these two values must be greater than or equal to a constant. Among other experiments he did, Heisenberg invented the the system of matrix mechanics, in which mathematical formulae are created based on the amplitudes and wavelengths of the radiation absorbed and emitted by an atom (don't worry if you didn't get any bit of that). (1901 - 1976)

Paul Dirac is best known for his work in theoretical quantum mechanics. His theories first showed the existence of anti-particles. In 1930, he published his paper, The Principles of Quantum Mechanics, and won the Nobel Prize for physics in 1933. Throughout his lifetime, Dirac taught at a number of places, including Cambridge and Florida State University. (1902 - 1984)

Richard Feynman was one of the greatest physics lecturers of our time. His work on quantum mechanics provided a whole new perspective for physicists looking at quantum interactions. Based on his doctoral thesis, Feynman developed a graphical way of representing the complex mathematical functions that were used to describe the interactions of particles with each other. They are now called Feynman diagrams. For these, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for physics in 1965. Before this, he worked on the atomic bomb both at Princeton University and Los Alamos, Texas. Among other work Feynman did, his theories on spin and "partons" (which led to the theory of quarks) provided a better understanding of particle physics as we know it today. However, he knew that not everyone was a physicist, so he sought to make it easier for everyone to understand particle physics in his book, QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter. (1918 - 1988)

Murray Gell-Mann is known for his work in fundamental particle physics. His work brought order to the chaos of the discovery of something like 100 particles in the atom's nucleus. Through this work, Gell-Mann found that the main particles, like the proton and neutron, were made of smaller particles which he called "quarks". In turn, they were confined to a small space by forces from the exchange of "gluons". Later, he and a few other physicists constructed the quantum field theory of quarks and gluons, also known as "quantum chromodynamics". Unlike many of the others listed on this page, he's still alive and well! (1929 - )

Stephen Hawking has been referred to as the Einstein of our time. He now lives in England with his wife and kids and holds a professorship at Oxford (the same one that Newton once held). One of the most striking things about Hawking when you first see him is that he suffers from motor neuron disease and is now not able to speak, but it has not stopped him - a classic example of what you can do when you put your mind to it. He, like Richard Feynman, wanted to write a book that explained to average people what these weird physics theories mean. In his book, A Brief History of Time, he mentions that someone once told him that every equation he wrote in the book would halve the sales in the end. And maybe that's why it became an international best seller: only one equation, E = mc², appears in the whole book. Reading his book is a definite eye-opener to the world of particle physics and its many theories and in conjunction with QED (Richard Feynman's book), the two are the best introduction a non-scientist can have to the field. (1942 - )