Related papers: Fritz Haber: The Damned Scientist
Call an interval $\{N+1,\dots,N+H\}$ of consecutive natural numbers \emph{bad} if the product $(N+1) \dots (N+H)$ is divisible by the square of its largest prime factor; \emph{very bad} if this product is powerful, and \emph{type $F_3$} if…
In the early 18th century, J. E. E. Bessler, known as Orffyreus, constructed several wheels that he claimed could keep turning forever, powered only by gravity. He never revealed the details of his invention, but he conducted demonstrations…
The history of the discovery of nuclear fission and how science fiction had anticipated it.
The chemistry of the early Universe is a fascinating field of study. Even in the absence of any elements heavier than lithium, a surprising degree of chemical complexity proves to be possible, giving the topic considerable interest in its…
In this article an overview of the historical development of the key ideas in the field of magnetism is presented. The presentation is semi-technical in nature.Starting by noting down important contribution of Greeks, William Gilbert,…
Stirling Colgate was a remarkably imaginative physicist, an independent thinker with a wide breadth of interests and contagious enthusiasm, a born leader with enduring drive to attack fundamental problems in science. Among his many…
The Super-bomb issue contained two problems: feasibility of physical engineering and political need to get H-bomb ASAP. And there were two radically different assessments of these problems by outstanding physicists Hans Bethe and Edward…
The life of Ernst Ising and the steps to solving the model named after him are reported in parallel. Wilhelm Lenz suggested his student Ernst Ising to explain the existence of ferromagnetism on the basis of his publication in 1920. The…
Philosophers have spilled much ink over the discovery of ideas in the classical 'context of discovery'. However, there has been little engagement with the question of what constitutes a discovery of 'things in the world'. A much-overlooked…
In this short paper a new thought experiment has been introduced to illustrate the famous Heisenberg's uncertainty principle based on Otto-Wiener's experiment (1890) associated with standing light waves. This illustration is quite easy as…
Philip Warren Anderson was a pioneering theoretical physicist whose work fundamentally shaped our understanding of complex systems. Anderson received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1977 for his groundbreaking research on localization and…
Among the biogenic macroelements, phosphorus is the one bringing the most fascinating and unsolved mysteries for what concern its prebiotic history. It possibly landed on Earth as a metal phosphide (Schreibersite, (Fe,Ni)3P), throughout the…
As Nature's version of machine learning, evolution has solved many extraordinarily complex problems, none perhaps more remarkable than learning to harness an increase in chemical entropy (disorder) to generate directed chemical forces…
Credible reasons are presented to reveal that many of the lingering century old enigmas, surrounding the behavior of at least an individual quantum particle, can be comprehended in terms of an objectively real specific wave function. This…
As a tribute to our teacher and mentor on the occasion of his centennial celebration, we provide a brief historical overview and a summary of sustained interest in the topic of interaction of neutrons with alpha particles.
What if normal baryonic matter is compressed so tightly that atomic nuclei come into close contact? This question has been asked since 1930s. The fist answer was presented by Lev Landau whose speculation has been developed, and the concept…
The historical roots of the word plasma are recalled. It is suggested that possibly at the beginning of the researches in low-pressure gas discharges the driving motivation was related to the psychic phenomena investigated by Sir William…
Ammonia is a key component of fertilizer and a potential clean fuel and hydrogen carrier. The Haber-Bosch process for ammonia synthesis consumes more than half of industrial hydrogen and contributes up to ~3% of global greenhouse gas…
British physicist Stephen Hawkings most important discovery was that black holes are not so black, as they possess a temperature and emit thermal radiation. In his popular science texts, Hawking offered a detailed explanation of this…
This memoir honors the late Berni Julian Alder, who inspired both of us with his pioneering development of molecular dynamics. Berni's work with Tom Wainwright, described in the 1959 Scientific American[1], brought Bill to interview at…