Albert Abraham Michelson (1907, Physics, USA)
(b. 1852, Strelno, Prussia; d. 1931, Pasadena, California, USA)
Specialised in optics and with E. W. Morley demonstrated that light travels at a constant speed in all inertial systems of reference (Michelson-Morley experiment). He was the first American to receive a Noble Prize in Physics, which was awarded "for his optical precision instruments and the spectroscopic and metrological investigations carried out with their aid".
More on Albert A. Michelson and his work
Books:
Stanley Goldberg and Roger H. Stuewer (eds.), The Michelson Era in American Science, 1870-1930 (1988)
Bernard Jaffe, Michelson and the Speed of Light (1960, reprinted 1979)
Dorothy M. Livingston, The Master of Light (1979, University Of Chicago)
Loyd S. Swenson, Jr., The Ethereal Aether: A History of the Michelson-Morley-Miller Aether Drift Experiments, 1880-1930 (1972).
Niels Henrik David Bohr (1922, Physics, Denmark)
(b. 1885, Copenhagen, Denmark; d. 1962, Copenhagen, Denmark)
One of the greatest physicists of the twentieth century. The son of an eminent physiologist, he studied in Copenhagen and Cambridge and worked with Ernest Rutherford at the University of Manchester. He was involved in the development of the first atomic bomb at Los Alamos, New Mexico, and later began working to develop peaceful uses for atomic energy. He was awarded the Nobel Prize "for his services in the investigation of the structure of atoms and of the radiation emanating from them."
More on Niels Bohr
Books:
Niels Bohr, The Theory of Spectra and Atomic Constitution (University Press, Cambridge, 1922/2nd. ed., 1924)
Niels Bohr, Atomic Theory and the Description of Nature (University Press, Cambridge, 1934/reprint 1961)
Ruth Moore, Niels Bohr: The Man, His Science, and the World They Changed (Knopf, 1966)
Abraham Pais, Niels Bohr's Times, In Physics, Philosophy and Polity (Oxford University Press, USA, 1994)
Jim Ottaviani, Suspended In Language: Niels Bohr's Life, Discoveries, And The Century He Shaped (G.T. Labs, 2004)
Niels Blaedel, Harmony and Unity : The Life of Niel's Bohr (Springer, 1997)
A. P French and P.J. Kennedy (ed.), Neils Bohr: A Centenary Volume (Harvard University Press, 1987)
Michael Frayn, Copenhagen (Methuen Drama, 1998) Stefan Rozental (ed.), Niels Bohr: His Life and Work as Seen by His Friends and Colleagues (John Wiley & Sons, 1964)
Richard Phillips Feynman (1965, Physics, USA)
(b. 1918, New York, NY, USA; d. 1988, Los Angeles, California, USA)
Theretical physicist, teacher and populariser of science known for his contribution to the field of quantum electrodynamics. He shared the Nobel Prize with Sin-Itiro Tomonaga and Julian Schwinger "for their fundamental work in quantum electrodynamics, with deep-ploughing consequences for the physics of elementary particles". He participated in the development of the atomic bomb at Los Alamos, New Mexico, in the 1940s.
Richard Feynman Lectures
Books:
Freeman J. Dyson, Richard P. Feynman, and Jeffery Robbins, The Pleasure of Finding Things Out: The Best Short Works of Richard Feynman (Penguin Books Ltd, 2001)
Ralph Leighton and Richard P. Feynman, Surely You're Joking, Mr.Feynman!: Adventures of a Curious Character (W. W. Norton & Company, 1997)
James Gleick, Genius: Richard Feynman and Modern Physics (Abacus, 1994)
John Gribbin and Mary Gribbin, Richard Feynman: A Life in Science (Penguin USA, 1998)
Richard Phillips Feynman and Laurie M. Brown, Selected Papers of Richard Feynman: with Commentary (World Scientific Series in 20th-century Physics) (World Scientific Publishing, 2001)
Leonard Mlodinow, Feynman's Rainbow: A Search for Beauty in Physics and in Life (Warner Books, 2004)
Max Ferdinand Perutz (1962, Chemistry, UK)
(b. 1914, Vienna, Austria; d. 2002, Cambridge, England, UK)
Left Austria in 1936 to become a research student at the Cavendish laboratory in Cambridge. He remained at Cambridge and in 1959 determined the structure of haemoglobin. He shared the Nobel Prize with British biochemist John C. Kendrew "for their studies of the structures of globular proteins". In 1988 he was awarded the Order of Merit.
Interview with Max Perutz
Books:
Max Perutz, Is Science Necessary?: Essays on Science and Scientists (Oxford University Press, USA, 1991)
Max Perutz, I Wish I'd Made You Angry Earlier: Essays on Science, Science, Scientists, and Humanity (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, 2002)
Max Perutz, Proteins and Nucleic Acids: Structure and Function (Elsevier Pub. Co.,1962)
Max Perutz, Science is Not a Quiet Life: Unravelling the Atomic Mechanism of Haemoglobin (World Scientific Pub. Co. Inc., 1998)
Georgina Ferry, Max Perutz and the Secret of Life (Chatto and Windus, 2007)
Sir Ernst Boris Chain (1945, Physiology or Medicine, UK)
(b. 1906, Berlin, Germany; d. 1979, Castlebar, Ireland)
The son of a chemist and industrialist, he graduated in chemistry in Berlin in 1930. When the Nazis came to power in 1933 he emigrated to Britain where he worked as a biochemist, first in Cambridge and then at Oxford University. In 1948 he became the Scientific Director of the International Research Centre for Chemical Microbiology in Rome and, in 1961, returned to Britain on his appointment as Professor of Biochemistry at Imperial College, University of London. His research covered a wide range of topics but his best known work involved the reinvestigation of penicillin, leading to the discovery of its chemotherapeutic action. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1945 (with Alexander Fleming and Walter Florey) "for the discovery of penicillin and its curative effect in various infectious diseases". He was also the recipient of many international honours.
Ernst B. Chain - Banquet Speech
Books:
Ronald William Clark, The Life of Ernst Chain: Penicillin and Beyond (Palgrave Macmillan, 1986)
Ernst Chain, Howard Walter Florey, Et Al, Penicillin as a Chemotherapeutic Agent. + Further Observations on Penicillin (London, Hazell, Watson & Viney, 1940-41)
Max Born (1954, Physics, UK)
(b. 1882, Breslau, Germany; d. 1970, Göttingen, Germany )
Born into an influential family, he was educated at the Universities of Breslau, Heidelberg, Zurich and Göttingen. After a series of academic posts he emigrated to England where he worked at Cambridge in the field of nonlinear electrodynamics and later at the University of Edinburgh as professor of natural philosophy. He became a British subject and a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1939. In 1954 he was awarded half the Nobel Prize "for his fundamental research in quantum mechanics, especially for his statistical interpretation of the wavefunction".
More on Max Born
Books:
Nancy Thorndike Greenspan, The End of the Certain World: The Life and Science of Max Born (Basic Books, 2005)
Albert Einstein and Max Born, The Born - Einstein Letters: Friendship, Politics and Physics in Uncertain Times (Macmillan, 2004)
Albert Einstein (1921, Physics, USA)
(b. 1879, Ulm, Germany; d. 1955, Princeton, New Jersey, USA)
Physicist famous for his 1905 special theory of relativity and the equation e=mc², describing the relationship between energy and matter. His groundbreaking work had a profound impact on everything from quantum theory to nuclear power and the atom bomb. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics "for his services to Theoretical Physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect". In 1952 he was offered the presidency of the State of Israel, which he declined. He collaborated with Dr Chaim Weizmann in establishing the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Einstein: His Image and Impact
Books:
Walter Isaacson, Einstein: His Life and Universe (Simon & Schuster, 2007)
Alice Calaprice, Freeman Dyson, and Albert Einstein, The New Quotable Einstein (Princeton University Press, 2005)
Albert Einstein, Albert Einstein: Out of My Later Years Through His Own Words (Castle Books, 2005)
Robert Cwiklik, Albert Einstein and the Theory of Relativity (Solutions Series) (Barron's Educational Series, 1987)
Joshua Lederberg (1958, Physiology or Medicine, USA)
(b. 1925, Montclair, New Jersey, USA; d. 2008, New York, USA)
Important 20th century scientist whose work in genetics and microbiology helped lay the foundations of new approaches to medicine and biotechnology. At the age of 33 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (one of three recipients) "for his discoveries concerning genetic recombination and the organization of the genetic material of bacteria". In 1994, he headed the Defense Department Task Force on Persian Gulf War Health Effects, "which concludes that there is insufficient epidemiological evidence for a coherent Gulf War Syndrome".
Interview with Prof. Lederberg
Books:
Krishna R. Dronamraju (Ed.), Haldane's Daedalus Revisited (Oxford University Press, 1995)
Joshua Lederberg (Ed. in Chief), Encyclopedia of Microbiology (Academic Press, 2000)
Samuel S. Epstein(Ed.) and Joshua Lederberg (Ed.), Drugs of Abuse: Their Genetic and Other Chronic Nonpsychiatric Hazards (The MIT Press, 1971)
Brian David Josephson (1973, Physics, UK)
(b. 1940, Cardiff, Wales, UK)
A brilliant undergraduate at Cambridge University, he developed an interest in superconductivity which would lead him, as a 22 year old graduate student, to make important discoveries in the field. He was awarded a share of the Nobel Prize "for his theoretical predictions of the properties of a supercurrent through a tunnel barrier, in particular those phenomena which are generally known as the Josephson effects". After a period working in research in the USA he returned to Cambridge in 1967 and in 1974 was appointed Professor of Physics. His scientific curiosity took a different direction with an interest in parapsychology and the paranormal and he is currently director of the Mind-Matter Unification Project at the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge.
Brian Josephson on irrational bias against unconventional ideas
Books:
Brian D. Josephson, Michael A. Thalbourne, and Lance Storm, Parapsychology In The Twenty-First Century: Essays On The Future Of Psychical Research (McFarland & Company, 2004)
K. K. Likharev, Dynamics of Josephson Junctions and Circuits (CRC, 1986)
Sir Hans Adolf Krebs (1953, Physiology or Medicine, UK)
(b. 1900, Hildesheim, Germany; d. 1981, Oxford, England, UK)
The son of an ear, nose and throat surgeon, he studied medicine and chemistry in Germany before emigrating to England in 1933. He worked in the biochemistry department at Cambridge University before becoming professor of biochemistry at the University of Sheffield in 1945 and at Oxford University in 1954. He won half of the Nobel Prize "for his discovery of the citric acid cycle", describing the key sequence of metabolic chemical reactions that produces energy in cells. He was made a Knight of the British Empire in 1958.
More on Sir Hans Krebs
Books:
Frederic L. Holmes, Hans Krebs: The Formation of a Scientific Life, 1900-33 Vol 1 (Monographs on the History & Philosophy of Biology) (Oxford University Press Inc., 1991)
Hans Adolf Krebs, W. Bartley, and J. R. Quayle, Essays in cell metabolism: Hans Krebs dedicatory volume (Wiley-Interscience, 1970)
This page was last modified on 22 April, 2008