From X-rays to Quarks: Modern Physicists and Their Discoveries

Preface     ix
Introduction     1
The physicists' world in 1895
New horizons
Pieter Zeeman
Joseph John Thomson
Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen
H. Becquerel, the Curies, and the Discovery of Radioactivity     26
Becquerel's "predestined" discovery
The Curies and a great leap forward
Rutherford in the New World: The Transmutation of Elements     46
Rutherford's early career
Investigations in radioactivity
Disciples and the discovery of transmutation
Planck, Unwilling Revolutionary: The Idea of Quantization     61
The theoretical pillars of physics. An encompassing problem: the blackbody
Max Planck
Einstein-New Ways of Thinking: Space, Time, Relativity, and Quanta     78
An unconventional youth
Relativity
Grains of light and molecular hits
From patent office to world fame
The world order collapses and space is curved
The later years and Einstein's solitude
Sir Ernest and Lord Rutherford of Nelson     101
Back to England
New light on alpha particles
The atomic nucleus
The planetary atom
Same but different: the concept of isotopism
The disintegration of the nucleus
Director of the Cavendish Laboratory
Bohr and Atomic Models     119
The young Bohr and the hydrogen atom
X-rays come into their own
The quantized atom established
Weimar and Copenhagen physics
The exclusion principle
A True Quantum Mechanics at Last     149
Louis de Broglie: matter waves
WernerHeisenberg and Wolfgang Pauli: magic matrices
Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac: abstraction and mathematical beauty
Erwin Schrodinger
The meaning of the equations
A new look at reality: complementarity
Mysteries explained, but doubts remain
The Wonder Year 1932: Neutron, Positron, Deuterium, and Other Discoveries     175
The discovery of the neutron
The discovery of deuterium
The positron. The new nuclear physics
Enrico Fermi and Nuclear Energy     200
Discoveries at Rome
The discovery of fission
The steps to the atomic bomb
Transuranic elements
Physics mobilized
Consequences of the bomb
Fermi's final work
E. O. Lawrence and Particle Accelerators     223
Large-scale physics
The first accelerators
Lawrence and the cyclotron
Policies and personalities
Racing for ever-higher energies
Beyond the Nucleus     241
The elementary particles
The new science in Japan
Discovery of the pion
A horde of new particles
Antinucleons
The downfall of parity
The bubble chamber
Order in the wilderness
New Branches from the Old Stump     271
Quantum electrodynamics
Laser and maser
Nuclear physics
The Mossbauer effect
Superconductivity
Other macroscopic quantum effects
At the boundaries of physics: astrophysics, biology
The perplexed scientist
Conclusions     292
Future trends
The innards of physics
Appendixes
Stefan's law. Wien's law     301
Planck's hunt for the blackbody radiation formula      302
Einstein's heuristic argument for postulating the existence of light quanta     304
Brownian motion     306
Blackbody energy fluctuations according to Einstein     308
Specific heat of solids according to Einstein     310
A and B of Einstein     311
J. J. Thomson's parabola method for finding elm of ions     313
Bohr's hydrogen atom     314
Quantum mechanics in a nutshell     316
Bibliography     318
Name Index     329
Subject Index     335