Author: J.W. Boag
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 0444596178
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 448
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Book Description
The unusual career of the famous Soviet physicist Peter Kapitza was divided between Cambridge and Moscow. In Cambridge he was a protegé of Rutherford and while studying there he opened up a new area of research in magnetism and low temperature physics. However, in 1934, during a summer visit to the Soviet Union, Kapitza was prevented from returning to Cambridge and remained in Moscow for the rest of his long life. In spite of many ups and downs and considerable difficulties in his relations with top political figures in the Kremlin, he continued to enhance his scientific reputation and late in life was awarded the Nobel Prize.After an introductory biographical memoir, the greater part of the book consists of extracts from the numerous letters Kapitza wrote throughout his life, letters which are distinguished by their eloquence, the originality of his opinions and his forthrightness. His very interesting correspondence with Rutherford and above all his many letters to top political figures in the Soviet Union such as Molotov, Stalin and Khrushchev on questions of scientific and industrial policy are all included in this unique document. Together they provide a rounded picture of a remarkable personality who contributed so much to the scientific and cultural life of both England and the Soviet Union.This fascinating book is illustrated with an impressive collection of historical photographs and should be of interest to science historians, to low temperature physicists and to `Sovietologists', but above all the book should appeal to the general reader for its human interest. Some of the letters reveal his emotional reactions to the major blows he had to suffer on several occasions, while others provide penetrating and often amusing comments on English life and institutions as seen by a Russian, and on Soviet life from the inside.
Author: Петр Леонидович Капица
Publisher: North Holland
ISBN: 9780444987532
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
The unusual career of the famous Soviet physicist Peter Kapitza was divided between Cambridge and Moscow. In Cambridge he was a protegé of Rutherford and while studying there he opened up a new area of research in magnetism and low temperature physics. However, in 1934, during a summer visit to the Soviet Union, Kapitza was prevented from returning to Cambridge and remained in Moscow for the rest of his long life. In spite of many ups and downs and considerable difficulties in his relations with top political figures in the Kremlin, he continued to enhance his scientific reputation and late in life was awarded the Nobel Prize. After an introductory biographical memoir, the greater part of the book consists of extracts from the numerous letters Kapitza wrote throughout his life, letters which are distinguished by their eloquence, the originality of his opinions and his forthrightness. His very interesting correspondence with Rutherford and above all his many letters to top political figures in the Soviet Union such as Molotov, Stalin and Khrushchev on questions of scientific and industrial policy are all included in this unique document. Together they provide a rounded picture of a remarkable personality who contributed so much to the scientific and cultural life of both England and the Soviet Union. This fascinating book is illustrated with an impressive collection of historical photographs and should be of interest to science historians, to low temperature physicists and to `Sovietologists', but above all the book should appeal to the general reader for its human interest. Some of the letters reveal his emotional reactions to the major blows he had to suffer on several occasions, while others provide penetrating and often amusing comments on English life and institutions as seen by a Russian, and on Soviet life from the inside.
Author: D. Ter Haar
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 1483152677
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 547
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Book Description
Collected Papers of P. L. Kapitza, Volume I compiles the scientific papers written between 1916 and 1934 by Piotr Leonidovich Kapitza, a leading Soviet physicist and Nobel laureate. This book begins by introducing the life and career of P. L. Kapitza, which includes his studies and investigations of nuclear physics, strong magnetic fields, liquefaction, liquid helium, and high-power electronics. Other topics discussed include electron inertia in molecular ampere currents; Koch recording microphotometer; metallic conductivity and its change in a magnetic field; and methods of experimenting in strong magnetic fields. The liquefaction of helium by an adiabatic method; Zeeman and Paschen-Back effects in strong magnetic fields; and theoretical and empirical expressions for the heat transfer are also emphasized in this text. This compilation is a good reference for students and researchers conducting work on the biography and scientific contributions of P. L. Kapitza.
Author: Andrew Brown
Publisher: Plunkett Lake Press
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 403
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Book Description
James Chadwick (1891-1974) came from a humble background: his father was a cotton spinner. He was accepted in the physics department of Sir Ernest Rutherford at Manchester University in 1908 on a scholarship, and soon started publishing new findings about radioactivity. This led to a traveling scholarship to Berlin, where he made the important discovery of the continuous spectrum of β-particles. When the World War I broke out, Chadwick was interned by the Germans as an enemy alien for the next four years, but continued experiments in the prison camp. On his return to England in broken health, Rutherford invited Chadwick to join the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge where he became Rutherford’s deputy and oversaw much groundbreaking physics research over the next 15 years. Chadwick concentrated on finding evidence for the neutron, an uncharged nuclear particle whose existence was first proposed by Rutherford in 1920. Having noticed anomalous results from the Curie laboratory in Paris in 1932, Chadwick used simple bench-top apparatus to convince himself, after weeks of intense observations, that he had definite evidence for the existence of the neutron. The Nobel Prize for physics followed in 1935; that year he moved to Liverpool University to head his own department. At the outbreak of World War II, the feasibility of atomic bombs of unprecedented explosive power was already being discussed. Chadwick drafted the British MAUD committee's historic reports in the summer of 1941 which concluded that atomic bombs were indeed feasible with sufficient industrial capacity. In wartime Britain this was impossible, but in 1943 Chadwick moved to the US as head of the British scientists working on the Manhattan Project. He formed an unlikely alliance with its leader, General Leslie Groves, and became an adroit scientist-diplomat. Witnessing the first explosion of a plutonium-fueled device at the Trinity Test shattered him. Chadwick believed that dropping atomic bombs on Japanese cities was justified but the development of nuclear weapons as an unintended consequence of his discovery of the neutron caused him deep personal anguish. “Until this excellent book by Andrew Brown, [Chadwick] has remained the most shadowy of the atomic scientists who, for better or worse, gave the human species mastery over nuclear energy.” — Nigel Calder, New Scientist “Andrew Brown’s biography beautifully reveals [Chadwick’s] scientific, diplomatic and personal achievements.” — Roger H Stuewer, Physics Today “I can warmly recommend this book to all interested in the life of a remarkable scientist who played a crucial role in a formative period of the modern world.” — Hermann Bondi, Times Higher Education Supplement “This is the biography of a physicist who made one of the most important discoveries in nuclear physics, but retained to his old age the shyness of a young lad... Andrew Brown takes us through Chadwick’s life as an adventure... I found it a very good read.” — Hans Bethe, American Journal of Physics “The tale of so sterling a character, even when told as well as in this book, may be a little short on light moments, but any reader interested in the evolution of physics from an academic passion to a leading role on the world stage will find it a fascinating story and a worthy tribute to a great scientist.” — Brian Pippard, Nature “... makes absorbing reading... more than the life story of a remarkable man... unfolds the tremendous transformation that science underwent in the 20th century.” —Joseph Rotblat “… avidly researched and artfully written... This biography... blends elegantly direct scientific descriptions with often witty episodes and character summaries.” — William Lanouette, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
Author: Walter Gratzer
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 9780198609407
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 374
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Book Description
A collection of fascinating stories, entertainingly told, revealing the human face of science. Eurekas and Euphorias encompasses some 200 anecdotes brilliantly illustrating scientists in all their shapes: the obsessive and the dilettantish, the genial, the envious, the preternaturally brilliant and the slow-witted who sometimes see further in the end, the open-minded and the intolerant, recluses and arrivistes. Told with wit and relish by Walter Gratzer, here are stories to delight, astonish, instruct, and most especially, entertain the general reader, scientist and non-scientist alike.
Author: Arun Agarwal
Publisher: APH Publishing
ISBN: 9788176487436
Category : Nobel Prize winners
Languages : en
Pages : 350
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Book Description
The book opens with the portrait of the man behind the awards: Alfred Bernhard Nobel and his biographical sketch. It gives an introduction to the Nobel foundation, prizes,selection of prize winners, and prize ceremonies. Nobel diplomas and Nobel Prize amounts are described in brief. In the end, a list of all 168 Nobel Prizewinners are given which includes the prize-awarding year and prize winning work.Also included is a short account of the laureates' life and work, followed by a historical and explanatory introduction to the particular discovery or achievement which gained him or her the prize.
Author: Jagdish Mehra
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9780387951829
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 956
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Book Description
Quantum Theory, together with the principles of special and general relativity, constitute a scientific revolution that has profoundly influenced the way in which we think about the universe and the fundamental forces that govern it. The Historical Development of Quantum Theory is a definitive historical study of that scientific work and the human struggles that accompanied it from the beginning. Drawing upon such materials as the resources of the Archives for the History of Quantum Physics, the Niels Bohr Archives, and the archives and scientific correspondence of the principal quantum physicists, as well as Jagdish Mehra's personal discussions over many years with most of the architects of quantum theory, the authors have written a rigorous scientific history of quantum theory in a deeply human context. This multivolume work presents a rich account of an intellectual triumph: a unique analysis of the creative scientific process. The Historical Development of Quantum Theory is science, history, and biography, all wrapped in the story of a great human enterprise. Its lessons will be an aid to those working in the sciences and humanities alike.||Comments by distinguished physicists on "The Historical Development of Quantum Theory":||"¿the most definitive work undertaken by anyone on this vast and most important development in the history of physics. Jagdish Mehra, trained in theoretical physics under Pauli, Heisenberg, and Dirac, pursued the vision of his youth to write about the historical and conceptual development of quantum theory in the 20th century¿This series of books on the HDQT has thus become the most authentic and permanent source of our knowledge of how quantum theory, its extensions and applications developed. My heartfelt congratulations."|-Hans A. Bethe, Nobel Laureate||"A thrilling and magnificent achievement!"|-Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, FRS, Nobel Laureate||"¿capture(s) precisely, accurately, and thoroughly the very essence and all the fundamental details of the theory, and that is a remarkable achievement¿I have greatly enjoyed reading these books and learned so many new things from them. This series of books will remain a permanent source of knowledge about the creation and development of quantum theory. Congratulations!"|-Paul A. Dirac, FRS, Nobel Laureate||"The wealth and accuracy of detail in 'The Historical Development of Quantum Theory' are breathtaking."|-Richard P. Feynman, Nobel Laureate
Author: Jeffrey L. Roberg
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1349262900
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 180
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Book Description
Roberg examines the relationship between the political leadership of the Soviet Union and Soviet science. Previously, this relationship was typically characterized as one of Communist Party dominance over the sciences. He argues that the relationship between scientists and the leadership is better viewed as bi-directional. The author concludes that scientists had an influence on policy-makers in the areas of nuclear policy and human rights although not to the same degree as the Party had on science and scientists.
Author: Jean Matricon
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
ISBN: 9780813532950
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 292
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Book Description
There is no temperature below absolute zero, and, in fact, zero itself is impossible to reach. The quest to reach it has lured scientists for several centuries revealing interesting and unexpected phenomena along the way. Atoms move more slowly at low temperatures, but matter at bareLy above absolute zero is not immobile or even necessarily frozen. Among the most peculiar of matter's strange behaviors is superconductivity3/4simply described as electric current without resistance3/4discovered in 1911. With the 1986 discovery that, contrary to previous expectations, superconductivity was possible at temperatures well above absolute zero, research into practical applications has flourished. Superconductivity has turned out to be a fruitful arena for developments in condensed matter physics, which have proved applicable in particle physics and cosmology as well. Cold Wars tells the history of superconductivity, providing perspective on the development of the field and its relationship with the rest of physics and the history of our time. The authors provide a rare look at the scientists and their research, mostly little known beyond a small coterie of specialists. Superconductivity provides an excellent example of the evolution of physics in the twentieth century: the science itself, its epistemological foundations, and its social context. Cold Wars will be of equal interest to students of physics and the history of science and technology, and general readers interested in story behind this remarkable phenomenon.
Author: Jagdish Mehra
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9780387950860
Category : Quantum theory
Languages : en
Pages : 964
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Book Description
