Nobel Prize for physics

Nuclear magnetic resonance is another characterisation technique of great practical importance, and yet another that became associated with a Nobel Prize for Physics, in 1952, jointly awarded to the American pioneers, Edward Purcell and Felix Bloch (see Purcell et at. 1946, Bloch 1946). In crude outline, when a sample is placed in a strong, homogeneous and constant magnetic field and a small radiofrequency magnetic field is superimposed, under appropriate circumstances the... 

The immense importance of Si in transistor technology stems from the chance discovery of the effect in Ge at Bell Telephone Laboratories, New Jersey, in 1947, and the brilliant theoretical and practical development of the device by J. Bardeen, W. H. Brattain and W. Shockley for which they were awarded the 1956 Nobel Prize for Physics. A brief description of the physics and chemistry underlying transistor action in Si is given in the Panel (p. 332). 

H. Kammerling Onnes (Nobel Prize for Physics, 1913) discovered superconductivity in Leiden in 1911 when he cooled mercury to the temperature of liquid helium. Many other materials, mostly metals and alloys, were subsequently found to display superconductivity at very low temperatures. 

With Thomson s benevolent support, the men and women at Cavendish did critically important research on the structure of the atom. Seven of them went on to secure the biggest prize in science, the Nobel. Thomson himself won the Nobel Prize for physics in 1906, as well as many other scientific honors. Surprisingly, this outstanding scientist and research director was not a very good experimentalist. "J.J. was very awkward with his fingers," said one of his assistants, "and I found it very necessary not to encourage him to handle the instruments. 

It was exactly this purism that was the guiding principle for the choice of researchers presented. This is already clear with the example of Wilhelm Rontgen (1845-1923 first Nobel Prize for physics 1901). Rontgen made no direct contribution to... 

The guiding principle that was decisive in the choice of Rontgen is also true for Antoine H. Bec-guerel (1852-1908 Nobel Prize for physics 1903 together with Pierre and Marie Curie). His discovery of radioactivity was not only the basis for the unraveling of new elements (radium and polonium by the Curies). Radioactivity and its phenomena became a universal tool that provided succeeding chemists and physicists with insight into the world of atoms. 

Sir Joseph Thomson (1856-1940 Nobel Prize for physics 1906) discovered the free electron in 1897 and researched its properties. On the basis... 

Max Planck (1858-1947 Nobel Prize for physics 1918) at first did not have the atom in his sights. He was more interested in thermodynamics, and especially in the laws of radiation. In 1900 he surprised the Physical Society of Berlin — and later the whole world — with an experimentally based realization that changed the world view. In contrast to time and space, energy is guantized. Thus it does not form a continuum, but is essentially "grainy". The smallest unit is the Planck constant, a fundamental natural constant. 

Niels Bohr (1885-1962 Nobel Prize for physics 1922) became famous for his equally elegant, but nevertheless incorrect, atom model. In 1913 all facts seemed to indicate that the electrons did not buzz like bees around the nucleus. 

Werner Heisenberg (1901-1976 Nobel Prize for physics 1932) developed quantum mechanics, which allowed an accurate description of the atom. Together with his teacher and friend Niels Bohr, he elaborated the consequences in the "Copenhagen Interpretation" — a new world view. He found that the classical laws of physics are not valid at the atomic level. Coincidence and probability replaced cause and effect. According to the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, the location and momentum of atomic particles cannot be determined simultaneously. If the value of one is measured, the other is necessarily changed. 

Erwin Schrodinger (1887-1961 Nobel Prize for physics 1932) transferred the concept of wave-particle duality of matter developed by L. V. de Broglie for electrons to the whole atom and thus developed wave mechanics. The Schrodinger equation allows a description of orbitals as the probability of the location of the electrons. Wave mechanics represented a significant development, but were subsequently shown to be insufficient. 

Max Born (1882-1970 Nobel Prize for physics 1954) laid down the foundation for the further development of quantum theory in 1926 with his statistical interpretation of quantum mechanics. Above all, a theoretical interpretation of the chemical bond was possible. Max Born was one of the most... 

John William Lord Rayleigh (1842-1919 Nobel Prize for chemistry 1904) and Sir William Ramsay (1852-1916 Nobel Prize for physics 1904). Isolated by liquefaction of air and identified as a new element by spectral analysis. 

B1934 Nobel Prize for physics 1903 and for chemistry 1911) detected it in pitchblende after laborious enrichments. 

Emilio Gino Segre (1905-1989 Nobel Prize for physics 1959), together with Dale Raymond Corson ( 1914) and Kenneth Ross Mackenzie ( 1912) obtained the element in tiny amounts by bombardment of bismuth with alpha particles. Halogen with no stable isotope. 

Marie Curie (1867-1934) and Pierre Curie (1859-1906) Nobel Prize for physics 1903. Only 0.1 g of radium chloride was isolated from about 500 kg or uranium pitchblende (1 5 million). 

Name in honor or Ernest 0. Lawrence (1901-1958 Nobel Prize for physics 1939), inventor of the cyclotron... 

Marie Curie named polonium after her native country of Poland. She is also given credit for coining the world radioactivity. She is one of only two chemists to receive two Nobel Prizes. In 1903 both the Curies and Antoine-Henri Becquerel (1852—1908) shared the Nobel Prize for Physics for their work on radioactivity in 1911 Madame Curie received the prize for chemistry for the discovery of radium and plonium. (The other scientist who received two Nobel Prizes was Linus Pauling [1901-1994], one for chemistry in 1954, and a Nobel Peace... 

Max von Laue, 1879-1960. German physicist who in 1912 discovered the interference of X-rays diffracted by crystals, measured the wave lengths of X rays, and studied the structure of crystals. In 1914 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for physics. 

From 1875 to 1895 J.D. van der Waals was a member of the Dutch Royal Academy of Science. In 1908, at the age of 71, J. D. van der Waals resigned as a professor. During his life J. D. van der Waals was honored many times. He was one of only 12 foreign members of the Academie des Sciences in Paris. In 1910 he received the Nobel prize for Physics for the incredible work he had done on the equations of state for gases and fluids—only the fifth Dutch physicist to receive this honor. J. D. van der Waals died on March 8, 1923 at the age of 85. 

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