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This paper provides a conceptual history of the development of early universe particle physics in the 1970s, focusing on the development of more sophisticated tools for constructing gauge-theories at finite-temperature. I start with a focus on early investigations into spontaneous symmetry restoration, and continue through the development of functional methods up to equilibrium finite-temperature field theory. I argue that the early universe provides an ideal setting for integrated modelling of thermal, gravitational, and particle physics effects due to its relative simplicity. I further argue that the development of finite-temperature field theory played an important secondary role in the rise of the effective field theory worldview, and investigate the status of the analogies between phase transitions in particle physics and condensed matter physics. I find that the division into "formal" versus "physical" analogies is too coarse-grained to understand the important physical developments at play. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1730, the Dutch cartographer and meteorological observer Nicolaas Samuel Cruquius constructed a spectacular map of the river Merwede. Cruquius's map is celebrated as one of the earliest to use lines of equal depth—or indeed any type of contour lines. So far, however, the secondary literature has paid no attention to why Cruquius created these lines or to the knowledge involved in his innovation. This essay makes three related points. First, Cruquius intentionally used lines representing equal depth in an entirely new way: whereas earlier maps had used similar lines to represent a river's navigability, for Cruquius they visualized river flow. Second, different technical and epistemic practices grounded the making of the map: Cruquius built on his expertise in surveying but also on practices from both natural history and mathematical physics, with which he was familiar through contacts at Leiden University and the Royal Society of London. Third, Cruquius's case does not fit with the way work cutting across different fields of expertise is usually conceptualized. Cruquius did not just straddle different fields. Instead, he gave new meaning to lines of equal depth by integrating specific practices from different fields of expertise and omitting others; through this integration, Cruquius created a way to visualize water flows and gave shape to possible new ways of acting on the river and its environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This obituary is a tribute to Roger H. Stuewer, a respected physicist and historian of science. Born in Shawano, Wisconsin, to German immigrant grandparents, Stuewer had a challenging upbringing marked by his father's strict discipline and his mother's health issues. Despite these difficulties, Stuewer excelled academically and pursued a career in physics and history of science. He made significant contributions to the field, including his work on the history of nuclear physics and his efforts to bridge the gap between historians and physicists. Stuewer was also known for his dedication to teaching and his love of travel and culture. He passed away in 2022, leaving behind a lasting legacy in the scientific community. [Extracted from the article]

Perturbative expansions have played a peculiarly central role in quantum field theory, not only in extracting empirical predictions but also in investigations of the theory's mathematical and conceptual foundations. This paper brings the special status of QFT perturbative expansions into focus by tracing the history of mathematical physics work on perturbative QFT and situating a contemporary approach, perturbative algebraic QFT, within this historical context. Highlighting the role that perturbative expansions have played in foundational investigations helps to clarify the relationships between the formulations of QFT developed in mathematical physics and high-energy phenomenology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the groundbreaking contributions of Hermann von Helmholtz and Erwin Schrödinger to the geometry of color space ‐a 3D space that correlates color distances with perceptual differences. Drawing upon his expertise in non‐Euclidean geometry, physics, and psychophysics, Helmholtz introduced the first Riemannian line element in color space between 1891 and 1892, inaugurating a new line of research known as higher color metric, a term coined by Schrödinger in 1920. During his tenure at the University of Vienna, Schrödinger extensively worked on color theory and rediscovered Helmholtz's forgotten line element. In his 1920 papers titled "Grundlinien einer Theorie der Farbmetrik im Tagessehen," published in the Annalen der Physik, Schrödinger elucidated certain shortcomings in Helmholtz's model and proposed his refined version of the Riemannian line element. This study delves into this captivating chapter in the history of color science, emphasizing the profound impact of Helmholtz's and Schrödinger's work on subsequent research in color metrics up to the present day. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

John L. Heilbron, a renowned scholar and historian of science, passed away in 2023 at the age of 89. He was known for his vast knowledge and expertise in various fields, ranging from the Scientific Revolution to the 20th century. Heilbron was born in San Francisco in 1934 and completed his education at the University of California, Berkeley. Throughout his career, he held positions at various universities and received numerous awards for his scholarly works. He authored over 20 books and made significant contributions to the history of physics and astronomy. Notably, he challenged the notion of a conflict between religion and science, arguing that the Catholic Church played a significant role in promoting astronomy. Heilbron's work on Galileo and his research on cathedrals as solar observatories were particularly influential. Heilbron's impact extended beyond his research, as he also organized and promoted research projects and mentored many scholars. His dedication to intellectual work and pursuit of truth will be greatly missed. [Extracted from the article]

The early history of string theory is marked by a shift from strong interaction physics to quantum gravity. The first string models and associated theoretical framework were formulated in the late 1960s and early 1970s in the context of the S -matrix program for the strong interactions. In the mid-1970s, the models were reinterpreted as a potential theory unifying the four fundamental forces. This paper provides a historical analysis of how string theory was developed out of S -matrix physics, aiming to clarify how modern string theory, as a theory detached from experimental data, grew out of an S -matrix program that was strongly dependent upon observable quantities. Surprisingly, the theoretical practice of physicists already turned away from experiment before string theory was recast as a potential unified quantum gravity theory. With the formulation of dual resonance models (the "hadronic string theory"), physicists were able to determine almost all of the models' parameters on the basis of theoretical reasoning. It was this commitment to "non-arbitrariness", i.e., a lack of free parameters in the theory, that initially drove string theorists away from experimental input, and not the practical inaccessibility of experimental data in the context of quantum gravity physics. This is an important observation when assessing the role of experimental data in string theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The very outer solar atmosphere (corona) is very hot with temperatures over a million degrees K, while the photosphere is of the order of 5000 K. Embedded in this hot outer corona are cool, =10,000 K, magnetic structures called solar prominences. As seen on the disk, they are long filamentary structures while on the solar limb they look like intricate loops. In this paper, we present the development of our understanding of solar prominences, which have played a central role in the development of solar science. Solar prominences were first observed during the few minute episodes of total eclipses. The introduction of spectroscopy allowed continuous observations, which also led to information on temperatures, temporal variations and dynamics of the associated plasma. The discovery of strong magnetic fields in sunspots provided a breakthrough in our understanding of the physics of the Sun. Weaker magnetic fields formed both the large and small-scale structures of prominences, their time-variable shapes, and explained why they could remain floating high above the solar surface in the less dense corona. Appearing as dark, thin, elongated filaments against a brighter solar disk, they provided further information through their interaction with and dependence on how magnetic fields are distributed on the solar surface, in the chromosphere and corona. Access to X-ray and short-wavelength ultraviolet radiation in prominences from spacecraft revealed large ranges of temperature in thin layers between the 10,000-degree prominence cores and the surrounding million-degree corona. The advent of increasingly more powerful computers has led to advanced modelling of prominence plasma based on radiative transfer and magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) calculations. Theoretical and observational progress has opened up new possible formation mechanisms. The spectacular eruptions of solar prominences have led to a considerable amount of observational and theoretical work on possibly similar events on other stars, which could affect the existence of life on their orbiting planets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last 70 years, Feynman diagrams have played an essential role in the development of many theoretical predictions derived from the standard model Lagrangian. In fact, today they have become an essential and seemingly irreplaceable tool in quantum field theory calculations. In this article, we propose to explore the development of computational methods for Feynman diagrams with a special focus on their automation, drawing insights from both theoretical physics and the history of science. From the latter perspective, the article particularly investigates the emergence of computer algebraic programs, such as the pioneering SCHOONSCHIP, REDUCE, and ASHMEDAI, designed to handle the intricate calculations associated with Feynman diagrams. This sheds light on the many challenges faced by physicists when working at higher orders in perturbation theory and reveal, as exemplified by the test of the validity of quantum electrodynamics at the turn of the 1960s and 1970s, the indispensable necessity of computer-assisted procedures. In the second part of the article, a comprehensive overview of the current state of the algorithmic evaluation of Feynman diagrams is presented from a theoretical point of view. It emphasizes the key algorithmic concepts employed in modern perturbative quantum field theory computations and discusses the achievements, ongoing challenges, and potential limitations encountered in the application of the Feynman diagrammatic method. Accordingly, we attribute the enduring significance of Feynman diagrams in contemporary physics to two main factors: the highly algorithmic framework developed by physicists to tackle these diagrams and the successful advancement of algebraic programs used to process the involved calculations associated with them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ludwig Boltzmann's move in his seminal paper of 1877, introducing a statistical understanding of entropy, was a watershed moment in the history of physics. The work not only introduced quantization and provided a new understanding of entropy, it challenged the understanding of what a law of nature could be. Traditionally, nomological necessity, that is, specifying the way in which a system must develop, was considered an essential element of proposed physical laws. Yet, here was a new understanding of the Second Law of Thermodynamics that no longer possessed this property. While it was a new direction in physics, in other important scientific discourses of that time—specifically Huttonian geology and Darwinian evolution, similar approaches were taken in which a system's development followed principles, but did so in a way that both provided a direction of time and allowed for non-deterministic, though rule-based, time evolution. Boltzmann referred to both of these theories, especially the work of Darwin, frequently. The possibility that Darwin influenced Boltzmann's thought in physics can be seen as being supported by Boltzmann's later writings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reasoning by analogies permeates theoretical developments in physics and astrophysics, motivated by the unreachable nature of many phenomena at play. For example, analogies have been used to understand black hole physics, leading to the development of a thermodynamic theory for these objects and the discovery of the Hawking effect. The latter, which results from quantum field theory on black hole space-times, changed the way physicists approached this subject: what had started as a mere aid to understanding becomes a possible source of evidence via the research programme of "analogue gravity" that builds on analogue models for field effects. Some of these analogue models may and can be realised in the laboratory, allowing experimental tests of field effects. Here, we present a historical perspective on the connection between the Hawking effect and analogue models. We also present a literature review of current research, bringing history and contemporary physics together. We argue that the history of analogue gravity and the Hawking effect is divided into three distinct phases based on how and why analogue models have been used to investigate fields in the vicinity of black holes. Furthermore, we find that modern research signals a transition to a new phase, where the impetus for the use of analogue models has surpassed the problem they were originally designed to solve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of main sources of uncertainty in modern cosmology is the present rate of the universe's expansion, H0, called the Hubble constant. Once again, different observational techniques bring about different results, causing new "Hubble tension". In the present work, we review the historical roots of the Hubble constant from the beginning of the twentieth century, when modern cosmology originated, to the present. We develop the arguments that gave rise to the importance of measuring the expansion of the Universe and its discovery, and we describe the different pioneering works attempting to measure it. There has been a long dispute on this matter, even in the present epoch, which is marked by high-tech instrumentation and, therefore, in smaller uncertainties in the relevant parameters. It is, again, currently necessary to conduct a careful and critical revision of the different methods before one invokes new physics to solve the so-called Hubble tension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reconstructs the process of identification and understanding of an ensemble of historic physics instruments carried out between 2021 and 2022 at the Department of Physics and Astronomy "Augusto Righi" of the University of Bologna. The ensemble of 244 instruments is part of the Collection of Physics of the University and corresponds to the main core of the nineteenth-century Cabinet of Physics of the University of Bologna. After a brief recollection of the complex history of the cabinet the paper brings into light the different aspects involved in the identification and understanding of a scientific instrument. The various challenges concern the use of the resources available, the role of the experts, the study in situ and the use of original archive sources. In addition, a contextualization of the present study in the current literature on material culture studies and history of scientific instruments will bring to light the importance of the analysis of historical and trade catalogues, both for retracing the trajectories of a specific artefact and for the study of its relationships with users, donors, collectors, previous owners, and other objects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the top of the trajectory, many physics students mistakenly assume that if the velocity is zero, the acceleration must be zero too. Tying these different arrows to the concepts of velocity and acceleration can reinforce that velocity and acceleration are different quantities - make these detached from the actual object, as this will be helpful to students in distinguishing them from force vectors introduced later. Here is where the realization that "gravity never turns off" and drawn-in velocity and acceleration vectors can again be helpful. Introductory physics students frequently confuse concepts of velocity and acceleration, as in the example of a projectile motion problem where an object (e.g., a ball) is tossed upward in a gravitational field and undergoes freefall. [Extracted from the article]

Some experiments from the history of physics became so famous that they not only made it into the textbook canon but were transformed into lecture demonstration performances and student laboratory activities in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. While, at first glance, some of these demonstrations as well as the related instruments do resemble their historical ancestors, a closer examination reveals significant differences both in the instruments themselves and in the practices and meanings associated with them. In this paper, I analyse the relation between the research instruments and the respective teaching demonstrations. In doing so, I particularly distinguish between demonstrations that address the process of the actual experimental procedures, and those that focus on the outcome or results (the product) of the experiment. This distinction will be illustrated in some exemplary case studies from the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth in which both the historical experiment and the related educational devices are analysed. The tension between the historical experiment on the one hand, and the different variants of the teaching version on the other, result in the educational as well as epistemological problems that are discussed in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern physics is based on Newton's laws of motion, which describe interaction via forces. In this paper, we argue that interaction needs to be described in terms of processes. By introducing the momentum work and the associated momentum energy in mechanics, we present a coherent formulation of the process equations for mechanics and thermodynamics. This naturally leads to a simple derivation of the Lorentz-transformed mass, according to which any object changes its mass in real terms when its velocity is changed. Momentum work requires a revision of Newton's laws of motion. For the first time in the history of physics, the elastic collision between objects, such as particles, can be described as a temporal process, not as interaction via force = counter-force. The mechanism of energy conversion during the elastic collision and other mechanical processes, such as free fall, becomes clear and demonstrates the validity of the principle of energy conservation on microscale at any point in time. The results suggest that physics can be rebuilt on a more coherent footing of dynamic processes up to quantum-process thermodynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a dataset of corresponding addresses in the Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics (JETP) and JETP Letters (JETPL), which were the leading venues for Soviet physics, we perform a large-scale survey of the spatial geography of Soviet and post-Soviet physics during the period 1975–2015, capturing the changing roles of different republics and cities within the USSR, post-Soviet states, and countries that were never part of the Soviet Union. We also pay attention to the role of Russian-speaking emigrants. Such a detailed and data-driven geography, based on two leading cross-physics publications, serves as a novel addition to the fields of the history of physics and Soviet/post-Soviet science and geopolitics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This separation of the imaging planes is still present in modern commercial PET/CT scanners, but with the PET and CT subsystems on independent gantries. The first prototype combined positron emission tomography/x-ray computed tomography (PET/CT) scanner was built at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in 1998. INNOVATION The main innovation of PET/CT imaging was the near-simultaneous PET and CT imaging of a patient with essentially the same physical alignment in both scans. However, the similarity in the physics of PET and CT imaging was the key enabler for CT-based attenuation correction. [Extracted from the article]

Over the last few decades, our theories of fundamental physics have become increasingly detached from empirical data. Recently, Richard Dawid has argued that the progressive separation of theory from experiment is concomitant with a number of changes in the methodology of the discipline. More precisely, Dawid has argued that the new methods of fundamental physics amount to a form of non-empirical confirmation, and that physical theories may therefore be confirmed even in the absence of empirical data. In this paper, I critically engage with Dawid's views on non-empirical physics. My main target is the excessively central role that, in my view, the notion of non-empirical confirmation plays on Dawid's analysis. I will therefore argue that, while non-empirical methods may legitimately be employed in physics, those are not always deployed with the purpose of confirming scientific theories. Non-empirical arguments may also be used in order to ground pragmatic choices regarding what theories deserve to be further developed—and this is an aspect of the work that non-empirical methods perform that cannot be solely understood in terms of Dawid's notion of non-empirical confirmation. I support these claims by making use of a case-study from the early history of particle physics. The case-study concerns a theory of the strong force that J. J. Sakurai introduced in 1960. As we shall see, both the genesis of Sakurai's theory as well as the arguments that he used to defend it provide direct support for my own views on the role that non-empirical methods play in physics. Finally, I conclude the paper by introducing a notion that I believe is useful in making sense of the manner in which the pragmatic and the epistemic dimensions of non-empirical reasoning relate to each other, namely the notion of a cognitive attitude. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined mediatized death and emotion, specifically parasocial grieving, toward high-profile celebrity Stephen Hawking's death from a global perspective. A thematic analysis of public tweets explored how social media mourners expressed parasocial grieving following Hawking's death and how that shaped mediatized global flows of emotion in terms of digital affect culture. Findings showed varied forms of mediatized emotional responses associated with parasocial grievings, such as sadness, shock, confusion, love, and longing. Mourners also adopted varied coping mechanisms, including individualized tributes, reminiscing, memorializing, and advocacy. Findings suggested that Hawking's mourners performed parasocial death rituals on Twitter as a legitimate public space of mourning. Findings contribute to parasocial grieving scholarship and mediatization of death and emotion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses six astronomers of the Society of Jesus who investigated the Coriolis Effect: the deflection of objects moving at Earth's surface that is caused by Earth's rotation. The paper includes introductory material on what the Coriolis Effect is and how it works, especially as regards the atmosphere of Earth and other planets. Four of the six Jesuits--Christoph Scheiner, Giovanni Battista Riccioli, Francesco Maria Grimaldi, and Claude François Milliet Dechales--worked in the seventeenth century. They envisioned the effect occurring if Earth rotated; they believed that no such effect actually occurred; and thus they investigated the effect as an argument against Earth's motion. The fifth, Angelo Secchi, experimented with the Foucault pendulum, the first clear demonstration of this effect. The sixth, Johann Georg Hagen, the first Jesuit Director of the Vatican Observatory, worked in the early twentieth century. He developed experimental tests for the effect. This paper provides a synopsis of information that recently has been published in books and journals related to physics and the history of astronomy regarding Jesuits and the Coriolis Effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the concept of Bode's law, also known as the Titius-Bode law, which is used to predict the distances between planets and the Sun. It discusses the history of Bode's law and its limitations, such as its failure to predict the location of Neptune and its inability to account for the asteroid belt. The article presents a project for students to investigate Bode's law and compare it with the laws of Kepler and Newton to evaluate its reliability as a predictor of planetary spacings. While Bode's law may have some predictive power in terms of orbital stability, it is not considered a scientifically accurate explanation for the spacing between planets. Kepler's laws, based on data fitting and ratios of squares and cubes, provide a more accurate description of planetary motion. [Extracted from the article]

In this paper I analyze the physical content of the main information concepts in the history of physics of the last seven decades. I argue that this physical character should be evaluated not by appealing to analytical-linguistic confusion (Timpson 2013) or to the usefulness of its applicability (Lombardi et al. 2016a), but properly from its capacity to allow us to acquire significant knowledge about the physical world. After systematically employing this epistemic criterion of physical significance I will conclude by rejecting the main strategies of ontological inflation and physical content of the main information concepts in the classical thermal physics literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cosmological recombination radiation (CRR) is one of the guaranteed spectral distortion signals from the early Universe. The CRR photons from hydrogen and helium pre-date the last scattering process and as such allow probing physical phenomena in the pre-recombination era. Here, we compute the modifications to the CRR caused by early dark energy models and varying electromagnetic fundamental constants. These new physics examples have seen increased recent activity in connection with the Hubble tension, motivating the exploratory study presented here. The associated CRR responses are spectrally rich but the level of the signals is small. We forecast the possible sensitivity of future spectrometers to these effects. Our estimates demonstrate that the CRR directly depends to changes in the expansion history and recombination physics during the pre-recombination era. However, futuristic sensitivities are required for spectrometer-only constraints that are competitive with other cosmological probes. Nevertheless, measurements of the CRR can directly reach into phases that otherwise remain inaccessible, highlighting the potential these types of observations could have as a probe of the early Universe. A combination with Planck data further shows that a synergistic approach is very promising. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In their article on theory-based measurement, Borgstede and Eggert (2023) argue that a substantive formal psychological theory that is capable of predicting expected measurement outcomes for the theoretical objects of measurement it posits to exist is both necessary and sufficient for psychological measurement. They reveal that measurement in psychology mostly concerns the estimation of latent variables and compares unfavorably to the development of measurement in the history of physics. They, however, fail to include a comparison with the great advances in theory-based measurement achieved in modern physics. In this commentary, I describe how measurement is formalized in classical physics and examine what would be required to formalize the physical measurement of psychological phenomena. I conclude that, without an examination of the theoretical assumptions underlying current measurement procedures and a formal notion of psychological measurement, it is unlikely that psychological science will be able to generate the substantive theories suggested by Borgstede and Eggert. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Here is a review of the book "History of Physics in Recife", recently published by Companhia Editora de Pernambuco. Throughout its seven chapters, are presented the historical antecedents of science in Pernambuco; Luiz Freire's role in the development of physics in Pernambuco; the beginnings of the creation of DF-UFPE and its evolution since its creation in 1971. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While these written contributions are valuable, the real mother lode of Hubbert lore comes from a series of face-to-face interviews carried out over nine multihour sessions in Bethesda, Maryland, by the science historian Ronald E. Doel in 1989, just before Hubbert's sudden death later that year. Hubbert replied that his conclusion that Muskat's expression for Darcy's law is physically erroneous "cannot be invalidated by the insertion of escape clauses to the effect that gravity is being neglected" (Hubbert [20]). After his foray into groundwater science, Hubbert went on to make paradigm-shifting contributions in several other subfields of geology, notably his explanation of the hydrodynamic entrapment of petroleum (Hubbert [18]), his study of the mechanisms of hydraulic fracturing (Hubbert and Willis [16]), and his solution to the longstanding mysteries around the mechanisms of overthrust faulting (Hubbert and Rubey [15]). In his review, Hubbert pillories Muskat for not correcting the pressure-based version of Darcy's law, despite "the twelve years which have elapsed" between the two books, and sarcastically suggests that this incorrect form "should hereafter be known as 'Muskat's law'" (Hubbert [19]). [Extracted from the article]

The quantitative description of the scientific conference MECO (Middle European Cooperation in Statistical Physics) based on bibliographic records is presented in the paper. Statistics of contributions and participants, coauthorship patterns at the levels of authors and countries, typical proportions of newcomers and permanent participants as well as other characteristics of the scientific event are discussed. The results of this case study contribute to better understanding of the ways of formalization and assessment of conferences and their role in individual academic careers. To highlight the latter, the change of perspective is used: in addition to the general analysis of the conference data, an ego-centric approach is used to emphasize the role of a particular participant for the conference and, vice versa, the role of MECO in the researcher's professional life. This paper is part of the special CMP issue dedicated to the anniversary of Bertrand Berche--a well-known physicist, an active member of the community of authors and editors of the journal, long time collaborator and dear friend of the author. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The history of the Institute of Physics at the University of Florence is traced from the beginning of the twentieth century, with the arrival of Antonio Garbasso as Director (1913), to the 1960s. Thanks to Garbasso's expertise, not only did the Institute gain new premises on Arcetri hill, where the Astronomical Observatory was already located, but it also formed a brilliant group of young physicists made up of Enrico Fermi, Franco Rasetti, Enrico Persico, Bruno Rossi, Gilberto Bernardini, Daria Bocciarelli, Lorenzo Emo Capodilista, Giuseppe Occhialini and Giulio Racah, who were engaged in the emerging fields of Quantum Mechanics and cosmic rays. This Arcetri School disintegrated in the late 1930s for the transfer of its protagonists to chairs in other universities, for the environment created by the fascist regime and, to some extent, for the racial laws. After the war, the legacy was taken up by some students of this school who formed research groups in the field of nuclear physics and elementary particle physics. As far as Theoretical Physics was concerned, after the Fermi and Persico periods these studies enjoyed a new expansion towards the end of the 1950s, with the arrival of Giacomo Morpurgo and above all, that of Raoul Gatto, who created the first real Italian school of Theoretical Physics at Arcetri. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Outstanding facts in the History of Physics at Central University "Marta Abreu" of Las Villas (UCLV) from its foundation, on November 30th of 1952, until the closing of Physics studies in 1985 are discussed in chronological order. The development achieved in the teaching of Physics and related scientific and technical achievements, are analyzed. The existence of a Physics Chair from the UCLV early days, the leading role of the Emeritus Professor Dr. José Enrique Villar Lorenzo and his legacy, the opening and closing of the degree course in Physics, the role of the Soviet collaboration on the development of Physics at UCLV and particularly on the Physics of Metals -which reached national prestige-are some of the elements under analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

However, nowhere does Darrigol discuss the impetus conception, although, at least in my understanding, it played a very important transitional role from Aristotelian physics to the Galilean-Newtonian physics. Standing on the shoulders of not so well-known giants: Olivier Darrigol: Relativity principles and theories from Galileo to Einstein. With the construction of the theories of relativity, physicists obtained solutions to most of the conceptual problems about motion, inertia, and relativity that had given rise to so much disagreement during the previous three hundred years. [Extracted from the article]

The use of computers and the role of women in radio astronomy and X-ray crystallography research at the Cavendish Laboratory between 1949 and 1975 have been investigated. We recorded examples of when computers were used, what they were used for and who used them from hundreds of papers published during these years. The use of the EDSAC, EDSAC 2 and TITAN computers was found to increase considerably over this time-scale and they were used for a diverse range of applications. The majority of references to computer operators and programmers referred to women, 57% for astronomy and 62% for crystallography, in contrast to a very small proportion, 4% and 13% respectively, of female authors of papers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vienna today is one of the capitals of research on foundations of quantum physics. We reconstruct the development of modern physics in Vienna, with a focus on foundations of quantum mechanics (FQM), which is a sub-field of quantum mechanics. We show that the influence of Erwin Schrödinger and, in more recent years, the initiatives of Anton Zeilinger—the two main intuitive reasons—cannot alone account for today's outstanding research landscape on FQM in Vienna. We highlight four additional factors that played a crucial role in the development of foundational research in Vienna: 1) the Viennese heritage of the cultural golden age just before World War II; 2) the long-lasting institutional connection between the faculty of physics and philosophy; 3) a rise of several initiatives that gave forum to the interplay of physics and philosophy; and 4) the influence of several external scholars in the Viennese scientific landscape. Our analysis is informed by interviews with the most pertinent scientists, a detailed survey of the relevant social networks, and review of the main primary literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chapter 7 of the book presents the philosophical controversies in which Maupertuis engaged while at the Berlin Academy, specifically the one relating to the theory of monads. One of the most significant contributions of the book consists in the presentation of Maupertuis as a multifaceted persona defined by the numerous roles he played: philosopher, academician, and polemist. Marco Storni's new book offers a rich and complex portrayal of a major figure in the history of philosophy and science, who equally impacted the French and German intellectual landscapes of the 18th century: Pierre-Louis Moreau de Maupertuis (1698-1759). [Extracted from the article]

This article from Physics in Perspective explores the divergent stories that can arise in the history of physics. It begins with physicist N. David Mermin reflecting on his collaboration with Walter Kohn and the disputed amount of time it took to solve a problem. The article then delves into the history of "Hitler's Atomic Bomb" and the different narratives that have been created over the years. The author emphasizes that historical questions are often reevaluated and that historians have different aims and perspectives. The article concludes by stating that the uses of history may not display the markers of progress seen in the physical sciences, but they are still valuable. [Extracted from the article]

While physics has a rather ahistoric teaching tradition, it is common to include at least anecdotal reference to historical events and actors. These brief remarks on the history are typically distorted. I take issue with the textbook narrative of the historical development of early quantum theory and rectify some of the more severe misrepresentations. This seems to be all the more important, since the history of physics is commonly (and rightly) regarded as a means to foster scientific literacy and a more appropriate understanding of the nature of science (NoS). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

If the decomposing particle moves, the opening angles of the ejected particles change according to the momentum of the decaying particle. A Short History of the Search for Axions in Nuclear Physics Very challenging nuclear physics experiments were initiated in 1978 to detect a new particle, the axion, predicted by Weinberg [[5]]. As we have seen from the history of nuclear physics, however, study of electron-positron pairs in nuclear transitions may also be an efficient way to look for new light particles. [Extracted from the article]

Purrington's book is not the first to attempt a history of quantum mechanics. Quantum mechanics comes of age: Robert Purrington: The heroic age: the creation of quantum mechanics 1925-1940. The few pages where Purrington deals with issues concerning the interpretation and foundations of quantum mechanics show a far more nuanced understanding of the so-called orthodox view than many other works of this kind. [Extracted from the article]

This article provides resources and information on the physics of smartphone cameras. It highlights the advancements in smartphone camera technology, including the integration of multiple cameras and rangefinders to produce high-quality images from a compact device. The article also discusses the design and technologies used in smartphone cameras, such as stabilization, detectors, and the use of plastic aspherical lens elements with antireflective coatings. It mentions the use of GRIN elements and prismatic periscopes in some newer camera designs. The future of smartphone cameras is predicted to involve image correction and synthesis using software, including artificial intelligence. [Extracted from the article]

We show that the star-formation history, the reionization history and the present luminosity function of galaxies are reproduced in a simple gravitational collapse model within the ΛCDM regime to an almost quantitative accuracy when the physical conditions, the Jeans criterion and the cooling process are taken into account. Taking a reasonable set of model parameters, the reionization takes place sharply at about redshift 1 + z ≃ 7.5, and the resulting luminosity function turns off at |$L\simeq 10^{10.7}\, {\rm L}_\odot$|⁠ , showing the consistency between the star-formation history and the reionization of the Universe. The model gives the total amount of stars Ωstar = 0.004 in units of the critical density, compared with the observational value of 0.0044 with a recycling factor of 1.6. In order to account for the observed star-formation rate and the present luminosity function, the star-formation efficiency is not halo-mass-independent but has a maximum at the halo mass |$\simeq 10^{12}\, {\rm M}_\odot$| and is suppressed for both lower- and higher-mass haloes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Further in his considerations (ch. 3), Sady indicates a certain influence of philosophical views on discoveries in physics. It seems that the view presented by Sady to some extent weakens the role of thought experiments in physics. The roots of the quantum revolution in physics Sady sees in theories about heat, which began to emerge at the end of the 18th century. In Wojciech Sady's book I The Structure of the Relativity and Quantum Revolution in Physics i (in Polish: I Struktura rewolucji relatywistycznej i kwantowej w fizyce i ) we find an interesting attempt to answer the question of how the two great scientific revolutions in 20th-Century physics emerged. [Extracted from the article]