The Marconi story (see article) has featured a cast of interesting characters. Marconi himself was a larger-than-life scion of a wealthy Irish-Italian family, an energetic mix of entrepreneur, invento...
This review first appeared in the news section of PhysicsWeb on 8 November. It is said that one of the world’s most eminent quantum-gravity theorists was once asked to explain in his institution...
There has been a growing awareness in the scientific community – and to some degree among the reading public – that the Sun is a marvellously variable and mysterious object about which we ...
When the author Michael Frayn spent two years writing Copenhagen, he had no idea how successful the play would become. He doubted that audiences would sit through a historical drama about a war-time m...
Six years on, all that has changed. Now it is possible to watch the chair of the Nobel physics committee announce the winners live over the Web, and sites like PhysicsWeb – the Web site of Physi...
It seems unlikely that we will ever lose our fascination for the man whom David Berlinski calls “the largest figure in the history of Western science” and the author of “the greatest...
Such a degree would accept students with lower mathematical ability and “build mathematical knowledge and competence during the course of study” (see UK tackles student shortage and pages ...
In his recent book Faith, Science and Understanding, the physicist-turned-Anglican priest John Polkinghorne makes the claim that, in practice at least, “almost all scientists” are, philoso...
With the new academic year about to begin, undergraduate students will soon be thinking about whether to apply for a PhD. Doing a doctorate can, of course, be a very rewarding experience. It allows st...
There is no doubt that Italy is a world force in physics. When the nations of the world are ranked by the number of physics papers that they publish, Italy is sixth. It also makes the top ten when nat...