Solvay Conferences mechanics

In 1925 quantum mechanics arrived, a new theory with which Einstein never found peace. His celebrated dialogue with Niels Bohr on this topic started at the 1927 Solvay Conference. They were to argue almost until Einstein s death without agreeing. 

MSN. 102. I. Prigogine, Entropy, time and kinetic description, in Order and Fluctuations in Equilibrium and Nonequilibrium Statistical Mechanics, 17th International Solvay Conference on Physics, G. Nicolis, G. Dewel, and J. W. Turner, eds., Wiley, 1980, pp. 35-75. 

The International Institutes of Physics and Chemistry were founded by Emest Solvay at the beginning of this century. The Solvay Conferences in Brussels have played an essential role in the history of physics, as remarked by one of the founders of quantum mechanics, Werner Heisenberg. The first Solvay Conference on Physics in 1911 became famous for its discussions on the birth of quantum mechanics, a marked departure from classical concepts, by Marie Curie, Albert Einstein, Max Planck, Henri Poincare, and many others. 

Einstein became a member of the Scientific Committee and took an active part in the discussions on quantum mechanics, which was the theme of the 1927 Conference. Indeed, the famous Einstein-Bohr discussions on classical determinism versus the quantum statistical causality took place in Brussels at the Solvay Conferences of 1927 and 1930, and continued thereafter. 

The first conference of this group is the 4th Solvay Conference on The Electrical Conductivity of Metals held in April 1924.84 The conference was in some way premature. It took place just before the advent of quantum mechanics, in particular 2 years in advance of the first formulation... 

The last Solvay Conference that I have rather arbitrarily put in this class is the 17th on Order and Fluctuations in Equilibrium and Nonequilibrium Statistical Mechanics held in October 1978.92... 

J. des Cloizeaux, private communication cited in E. Brezin, in Order tmd Fluctuation in Equilibrium and Nonequilibrmm Statistical Mechanics (17th Solvay Conference, 1978), edited by G. Nichols, G. Dewel, and J. W. Turner (Wiley-Interscience, New York, 1981). 

For all his interest in combining physics and chemistry, Lowry was not much convinced in 1925, on the eve of the breakthroughs by Heitler and London, Hund, and Erich Hiickel, that the physicists most recent mechanics had benefited chemists. No doubt, Lowry told colleagues at the second Solvay chemistry conference, the physical chemist should learn to think in terms of quanta and energy levels, but the mineral chemist and the organic chemist had not yet gained much from these latest physical theories.35 In 1931, as we saw in chapter 6, Kirrmann still was of the opinion that the time had not yet arrived for the "mathematical stage" of chemical explanation. 

Participants in the second conference (April 1925) of the Institut International de Chimie Solvay in Brussels. The topic was "Structure and Activity," and four papers were devoted to activation or mechanism in chemical reactions. Henry Armstrong and Jean Perrin are seated at the center section of the adjoining tables. Andre Job and Thomas Martin Lowry are to Perrin s left. Courtesy of the Instituts Intemationaux de Physique et Chimie (Solvay), Brussels. 

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