Biographies, History, Philosophy of Physics

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Discussion Overview

The discussion centers on the biographies, history, and philosophy of physicists, with participants sharing various articles and reflections on lesser-known figures in the field. The scope includes historical accounts, personal reflections, and contributions to the philosophy of physics, as well as connections to broader societal issues.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Historical
  • Conceptual clarification
  • Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants highlight Berta Karlik's contributions to physics and her role in pioneering women's academic careers in Austria, expressing regret over her relative obscurity.
  • Others note the tendency for prominent physicists to overshadow lesser-known figures, emphasizing the importance of recognizing all contributions to the field.
  • Several participants share links to biographies and reflections on various physicists, including Lars Brink and Titus Pankey, discussing their significance and achievements.
  • One participant mentions the historical context of mathematics in ancient India, exploring its evolution and limitations.
  • There are references to various archives and resources for exploring the history of physics and mathematics, including oral histories and biographical databases.
  • Some participants express a desire to keep the discussion focused on serious academic contributions while avoiding metaphysical debates.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants generally agree on the importance of discussing lesser-known physicists and their contributions, but there is no consensus on specific figures or the direction of the discussion. Multiple competing views on the relevance of certain topics and figures remain present.

Contextual Notes

Some contributions reference articles that may not be widely known or accessible, and there is an acknowledgment of the limitations in discussing figures who may not have received significant recognition in mainstream narratives.

Who May Find This Useful

This discussion may be of interest to those studying the history and philosophy of physics, as well as individuals looking to explore the contributions of lesser-known scientists in the field.

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  • #123
My friends and my path in physics


Dedication to my untimely departed friends, Dmitry Igorevich Diakonov, Viktor Yur'evich Petrov and Maxim Vladimirovich Polyakov.
 
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  • #124
sbrothy said:
My friends and my path in physics


Dedication to my untimely departed friends, Dmitry Igorevich Diakonov, Viktor Yur'evich Petrov and Maxim Vladimirovich Polyakov.
This is amazingly short. More references than text.
 
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  • #125
pines-demon said:
This is amazingly short. More references than text.
Yeah. I figure most of the references are suggested reading. Otherwise it doesn't make much sense. Well apart from them being papers by the departed.
 
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  • #126
pines-demon said:
Great read on Frédéric Joliot, it has become a forgotten figure even in France:
[...]

"Joliot was gifted, gutsy, and—not least—good-looking and personable.".

I may be a little prejudiced, if not outright bigoted, but those qualities seems to me to be in short supply among geniuses (genii?).

Attention is almost always drawn to their eccentricities / idiosyncrasies (to put it nicely).

:smile:

EDIT: I mean the personable one obviously.
 
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  • #132
Physicist David Bohm was one of Oppenheimer's students at Berkeley. He was invited to work on the Manhattan Project but couldn't get a security clearance. He did research on nuclear scattering at Berkeley -- (I once walked up to the cyclotron, nobody was around). The data was so useful it was classified, which meant Bohm was forbidden by law to write up his research for his thesis. So they made an exception and gave him the degree without it.

Later he was arrested for refusing to answer the questions of the House Committee on Unamerican Activities. Though acquitted this rendered him unemployable in the USA. On the strength of letters of recommendation from Oppenheimer and Einstein Mr. Bohm got a job in Brazil. His passport was revoked. In order to travel he became a citizen of Brazil, this requiring him to give up US citizenship. After a sojourn in Israel Bohm went to England and had a long career there as a professor of physics, honored with a fellowship in the Royal Society. He had a lengthy correspondence about psychology with mystic Jiddu Krishnamurti. In 1986 after a long legal battle Bohm was able to win back his American citizenship.
 
  • #133
Hornbein said:
Physicist David Bohm was one of Oppenheimer's students at Berkeley. He was invited to work on the Manhattan Project but couldn't get a security clearance. He did research on nuclear scattering at Berkeley -- (I once walked up to the cyclotron, nobody was around). The data was so useful it was classified, which meant Bohm was forbidden by law to write up his research for his thesis. So they made an exception and gave him the degree without it.

Later he was arrested for refusing to answer the questions of the House Committee on Unamerican Activities. Though acquitted this rendered him unemployable in the USA. On the strength of letters of recommendation from Oppenheimer and Einstein Mr. Bohm got a job in Brazil. His passport was revoked. In order to travel he became a citizen of Brazil, this requiring him to give up US citizenship. After a sojourn in Israel Bohm went to England and had a long career there as a professor of physics, honored with a fellowship in the Royal Society. He had a lengthy correspondence about psychology with mystic Jiddu Krishnamurti. In 1986 after a long legal battle Bohm was able to win back his American citizenship.
If there is no link, that fit this thread better: https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/interesting-anecdotes-in-the-history-of-physics.1059261/
 
  • #134
An article about the "Helgoland myth of Heisenberg 1925", it's interesting because this year we celebrate 100 years of quantum mechanics:
 
  • #135
 
  • #136
pines-demon said:
An article about the "Helgoland myth of Heisenberg 1925", it's interesting because this year we celebrate 100 years of quantum mechanics:
Huh. Killjoy. Heis may have had the key insight on Helgoland, and what little evidence we have points to it.
 
  • #138
This looks like fun :smile: :

Tachyons Before Tachyons: Lev Strum (1890-1936) and Superluminal Velocities


"No particle or signal carrying information can travel at a speed exceeding that of light in vacuum. Although this has for a long time been accepted as a law of nature, prior to Einstein's 1905 theory of special relativity the possibility of superluminal motion of electrons was widely discussed by Arnold Sommerfeld and other physicists. Besides, it is not obvious that special relativity rules out such motion under all circumstances. From approximately 1965 to 1985 the hypothesis of tachyons moving faster than light was seriously entertained by a minority of physicists. This paper reviews the early history concerning superluminal signals and pays particular attention to the ideas proposed in the 1920s by the little known Ukrainian physicist Lev Strum (Shtrum). As he pointed out in a paper of 1923, within the framework of relativity it is possible for a signal to move superluminally without violating the law of causality. Part of this article is devoted to the personal and scientific biography of the undeservedly neglected Strum, whose career was heavily and eventually fatally influenced by the political situation in Stalin's Russia. Remarkably, to the limited extent that Strum is known today, it is as a literary figure in a novel and not as a real person."
 
  • #139
I can't really speak for the scientific rigor or even value of this one but I always find these papers fun. I must also admit that this one seems to be philosophy for it's own sake. As always with interpretations of QM it veers into metaphysics pretty quickly. I'm not sure it makes sense to ask what particles "are", or "why" they're there instead of some other things. It looks like they did some work though (boldness mine):

How to be an orthodox quantum mechanic

"This work sets out to answer a single question: what is the orthodox interpretation of quantum mechanics? However, we adopt a different approach to that normally used. Rather than carefully surveying the precise details of the thoughts of Bohr and Heisenberg, we extract an orthodoxy empirically. To do this we review a collection of 33 textbooks on quantum mechanics, encompassing the most popular and prominent works of this nature. We then gauge their response to 12 propositions to build up a picture of exactly what is believed by an orthodox quantum mechanic. We demonstrate that this orthodoxy is largely unchanged over the past century, with some interesting emerging deviations, and has many aspects of Copenhagen-like viewpoints. However, it is more nuanced than some reductive characterisations that condense it down to the ontological primacy of the quantum state. The revealed orthodoxy has two main pillars: measurement inherently disturbs quantum states and these states refer to individual instances, not ensembles. More fully it entails that individual particles exist in wave-like super-positions and present particle behaviours only when forced to by outside influences. The act of measuring such a system inherently changes its state in a random fashion, manifesting in a form of measurement error that corresponds to the uncertainty principle. This implies that measurement does not reveal underlying values of quantum properties."
 
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  • #140
sbrothy said:
This looks like fun :smile: :

Tachyons Before Tachyons: Lev Strum (1890-1936) and Superluminal Velocities


"No particle or signal carrying information can travel at a speed exceeding that of light in vacuum. Although this has for a long time been accepted as a law of nature, prior to Einstein's 1905 theory of special relativity the possibility of superluminal motion of electrons was widely discussed by Arnold Sommerfeld and other physicists. Besides, it is not obvious that special relativity rules out such motion under all circumstances. From approximately 1965 to 1985 the hypothesis of tachyons moving faster than light was seriously entertained by a minority of physicists. This paper reviews the early history concerning superluminal signals and pays particular attention to the ideas proposed in the 1920s by the little known Ukrainian physicist Lev Strum (Shtrum). As he pointed out in a paper of 1923, within the framework of relativity it is possible for a signal to move superluminally without violating the law of causality. Part of this article is devoted to the personal and scientific biography of the undeservedly neglected Strum, whose career was heavily and eventually fatally influenced by the political situation in Stalin's Russia. Remarkably, to the limited extent that Strum is known today, it is as a literary figure in a novel and not as a real person."
"A pint of lager please"

A tachyon walked into a bar.

Sorry could not resist.
 
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  • #141
pinball1970 said:
"A pint of lager please"

A tachyon walked into a bar.

Sorry could not resist.
That was also the level of seriousness I expected them to be received with, so it's all good. :smile:
 
  • #142
Einstein, Free Creations, and His Worldly Cloister

"This paper examines "Free Creations of the Human Mind: The Worlds of Albert Einstein" by Diana Kormos Buchwald and Michael D. Gordin. The authors seek to dispel the long-standing myths of Einstein as the "lone genius" of Bern and the "stubborn sage" of Princeton, drawing on newly uncovered archival materials to illuminate his intellectual networks and collaborative engagements. By exploring the authors' reasoning, this paper engages with their interpretations, highlighting the strengths of their archival revelations and areas where alternative perspectives may enrich the understanding of Einstein's intellectual development."

Only skimmed this one so far. I think we're all aware that Einstein, contrary to popular myth, didn't work in a vacuum, I seem to remeber reading that math wasn't his strongest side (still light years ahead of me, admitted). So I was a little surprised that - at least - Poincare and Minkowski wasn't mentioned in the paper at all. There's this BBC radio documentary:

The Mathematicians Who Helped Einstein,

who mentions he was helped by Jonas Bolyai, Nicolas Loachevski and Bernhard Riemann.

I think he also credited Newton, and Lorentz although that may have been more their research he meant.

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300th anniversary of the birth of Father Eliseo della Concezione: the scientific contribution in the Royal Academy of Studies of Palermo

"2025 marks the 300th birthday of Father Eliseo della Concezione, professor of Experimental Physics at the Royal Academy of Studies of Palermo. To celebrate this anniversary, the Physics and Chemistry Library of the University Library System and the Department of Physics and Chemistry - Emilio Segre' have organized several cultural activities. In the article, after a brief biographical description of Father Eliseo della Concezione, we will present the activities carried out and discuss the historical and educational aspects of Father Eliseo's work carried out during his stay at the Royal Academy of Palermo at the end of 18th century."

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Revisiting the Einstein-de Haas experiment: the Amp{è}re Museum's hidden treasure.

"Unearthed in the Amp{è}re Museum near Lyon, France, a genuine version of the Einstein-de Haas experiment apparatus offers a rare glimpse into Einstein's experimental interests. This remarkable find not only connects us to a crucial epoch in history of science but also highlights Einstein's rare tangible legacy in the realm of experimental physics."
 
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  • #143
How One Quiet Man Became Everyone's Sage: The Spiritual Recasting of Einstein


This paper critically examines the central thesis of Kieran Fox's "I Am a Part of Infinity: The Spiritual Journey of Albert Einstein"-namely, that Einstein's intellectual development constitutes a coherent spiritual path culminating in a form of pantheistic mysticism shaped by both Western and Eastern traditions. Fox presents Einstein as the modern heir to a long-suppressed lineage of rational spirituality, extending from Pythagoras and Spinoza to Vedanta and Buddhism, unified by wonder, reverence for nature, and a vision of cosmic unity. While Fox's account is imaginatively rich and philosophically syncretic, it risks conflating distinct conceptual registers -- scientific, metaphysical, and spiritual -- thereby oversimplifying Einstein's intellectual complexity. Drawing on Einstein's scientific writings and personal reflections, this study reconstructs a historically grounded portrait of his thought, emphasizing its tensions, ambiguities, and resistance to spiritual closure. The paper argues that, though rhetorically compelling, Fox's interpretation substitutes a harmonizing spiritual mythology for the conceptual rigor and epistemic humility that defined Einstein's actual worldview.
 
  • #146
Hornbein said:
So interesting. Has any progress been made?
Progress in what direction?
 
  • #147
martinbn said:
Progress in what direction?
Yeah, I kinda wondered what to answer but you beat me to it. :smile:
 
  • #148
A commented translation of Boltzmann's work, "Ueber die sogenannte H-Curve."

"Boltzmann's work, ``Ueber die sogenannte H-Curve," discusses his demonstration of the essential characteristics of the H-curve in a clear, concise, and precise style, showcasing his efforts to persuade his peers. To make these findings more widely accessible, the author aims to provide a translated version of the original article, while also correcting some typographical errors in the mathematical expressions with explanatory footnotes. The final section offers concluding remarks with graphs and relevant references for interested readers."
 
  • #149
From Geometry to Physics -- AZ: touches to the portrait

The process launched by Lobachevsky. The movement of the Kazan school of geometry towards physics. Personal memories of Alexei Zinovievich Petrov, the great Kazan geometer and theoretical physicist, who became the Author's Guiding Star. KeyWords: Alexey Zinovievich Petrov, geometry, general theory of relativity, Kazan University, Department of Relativity and Gravitation Theory, methods of teaching exact sciences.
 
  • #150
I have difficulty judging the seriousness of this one:

Like a coin spinning in the air: the effect of (non-)metaphorical explanations on comprehension and attitudes towards quantum technology

The complexity of the science underlying quantum technology may pose a barrier to its democratization. This study investigated whether metaphors improve comprehension of, and shape attitudes toward, quantum technology. In an online experiment (n = 1,167 participants representative of the Dutch population), participants read a news article that included a metaphorical, non-metaphorical, or no explanation of a quantum phenomenon. Both explanation types reduced perceived comprehension of the news article compared to the control group, but increased actual comprehension of the quantum phenomenon. No direct effects were found on affect-based or cognition-based attitudes. Mediation analyses revealed a very small negative indirect effect of explanations on attitudes, through lower perceived comprehension, and a very small positive indirect effect of explanations on attitudes via increased actual comprehension - though the latter was counteracted by a negative direct effect. As metaphors offered no additional benefit over non-metaphorical explanations, the findings suggest they do not provide a communicative advantage for enhancing understanding or shaping attitudes in this context.
 

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