Lise Meitner: a nuclear heroine?
In 1897 Max Planck wrote the following about the question of whether women should be allowed to study at German universities: “If a woman has a special gift for the tasks of theoretical physics&...
Meet Lynda Williams – ‘the physics chanteuse’
Originally inspired by the astronomer and science popularizer Carl Sagan, Lynda Williams began singing about her favourite subject – physics – in 1995. At the time she was a graduate physi...
Emerging from Hawking’s shadow
Physics World is not in the habit of reviewing books by non-physicists, but when the author was married to one of the most famous physicists of the 20th century, we can make an exception. In this book...
Reflections on the life of a laser pioneer
Charles Townes has written a biography – but it is not clear if it is his own or that of the laser. The laser is now such a feature of our everyday life that the remarkable story of its birth ne...
Read article: Isidor Isaac Rabi: walking the path of God
Isidor Isaac Rabi: walking the path of God
I I Rabi's work on the magnetic properties of nuclei, including the development of nuclear magnetic resonance, and his role as a peace campaigner during the Cold War have had profound and far-reaching...
No time or ties for independent scientist
It was a beautiful October afternoon in 1963 when Julian Barbour’s life changed forever. He was travelling by train with a student friend to climb the Watzmann in the Bavarian Alps when he start...
J D Bernal: genius yes, sage no
At the age of two, John Desmond Bernal was taken by his American mother from their farm in Ireland to see his grandmother in California. He amazed other passengers on the steamship by talking in both ...
George Brown, strong supporter of US science, dies
Brown joined the science committee in 1965 and became chairman in 1990, losing his position when the Republicans gained control of Congress in 1995. The current chairman of the committee, James Sensen...
Feynman’s spirit lives on in computing
Richard Feynman, both as a man and as a scientist, excited varied reactions: you either loved him or you hated him. As a man, he was either narrow-minded and sexist, or else charming and completely fa...
