Related papers: My rewarding life in science
This is an elementary review of the history and physics of neutrinos. The story of the discovery of neutrino mass through neutrino oscillations is described in some detail. Experiments on solar neutrinos and atmospheric neutrinos played an…
In 1963-71, a group of people, myself included, formulated and perfected a new approach to physics problems, which eventually came to be known under the names of scaling, universality, and renormalization. This work formed the basis of a…
Astronomy provides a laboratory for extreme physics, a window into environments at extremes of distance, temperature and density that often can't be reproduced in Earth laboratories, or at least not right away. A surprising amount of the…
The article is an historical overview of some of the major contributions from different areas of Science with which, for centuries, it has been built up a scientific, sound and consistent vision of the atom. Some experiments that led us to…
This is an attempt to illustrate the glorious history of logical foundations and to discuss the uncertain future.
I had the marvelous good fortune to be Ken Wilson's graduate student at the Physics Department, Cornell University, from 1972 to 1976. In this article, I present some recollections of how this came about, my interactions with Ken, and…
The present document is an excerpt of an essay that I wrote as part of my application material to graduate school in Computer Science (with a focus on Artificial Intelligence), in 1986. I was not invited by any of the schools that received…
Surprisingly, the chronology of nearly 50 years of the pulsar magnetosphere and pulsar wind research is quite similar to the history of our civilization. Using this analogy, I have tried to outline the main results obtained in this field.…
Over the past several years, the authors have served as teachers, qualified scientists, mentors, and/or parents on dozens of science projects. These projects ranged from elementary school projects that can be completed in a weekend to high…
I know better than to come between the experts here assembled and their research programs, so I confine these remarks to lessons to be drawn on the state of our subject from the histories of research in three Windows on the Universe:…
The Sun is a magnetically active star and is the source of the solar wind, electromagnetic radiation and energetic particles which affect the heliosphere and the Earths atmosphere. The magnetic field of the Sun is responsible for most of…
Immersive informal environments (such as summer camps, residential programs at museums and science centers, etc.) can provide a venue for young people to explore their scientific thinking in a less formalized context than is available in…
I review the discovery of the temperature fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background radiation. The underlying theory and the implications for cosmology are reviewed, and I describe the prospects for future progress.
A popular scientific contribution should not contradict any established facts and ought to be understandable. I complied with both these requirements and am offering a sufficiently full introduction to probability theory. Furthermore, I…
The past 50 years has seen cosmology go from a field known for the errors being in the exponents to precision science. The transformation, powered by ideas, technology, a paradigm shift and culture change, has revolutionized our…
Cosmology as an exact physical science is of new date, but it has long roots in the past. This essay is concerned with four important themes in the history of cosmological thought which, if taken together, offer a fairly comprehensive…
I present some reminiscences, both personal and scientific, over a lifetime of admiration of, and friendship with, one of the Grandmasters of our subject.
Nature's many varied complex systems (including galaxies, stars, planets, life, and society) are islands of order within the increasingly disordered universe. All organized systems are subject to physical, biological or cultural evolution,…
The symposium has shown the dynamism of this rapidly evolving discipline. I shall concentrate here on some highlights and some complementary informations. I conclude on open questions with some perspectives on solar & stellar activity and…
This document describes the results of a study, aiming to measure the impact of CERN and of its environment on the career of people who worked at the laboratory. The data was collected using two on-line questionnaires, launched in 2016 and…