The momentous complexity of modern physics is often seen as a stumbling block whenever one is asked to explain to the wider public – or to new students – how beautiful all of it is, and ho...
Read article: Nature’s geometric uniqueness
The wonder of astronomy is expressed in a collection of poems by Rebecca Elson
Many think that the Greek philosopher impeded science - but Michael Rowan-Robinson disagrees
Read article: Was Aristotle the first physicist?
Some 15 years and four RAEs later, departments are no longer judged against some statistical average but in terms of the quality of their research as measured against national and international standa...
Read article: Life after another RAE
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...
Read article: Marconi’s painful centenary
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...
A full review by Per Dahl, formerly at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, appears in the December issue of Physics World. Somewhat for convenience, the simplistic answer to the question “...
“But the greatest error of all is mistaking the ultimate end of knowledge. For some men covet knowledge out of a natural curiosity and inquisitive temper; some to entertain the mind with variety...
Read article: Are physicists useful?
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 ...
Letters by Niels Bohr that have been kept secret since his death could explain the mystery of why Werner Heisenberg visited him in Copenhagen in 1941
Read article: Secret letters cast light on Copenhagen
