Einstein's letter sold for $1.2 million at auction

Set up at a base price of $400,000, the letter containing Einstein's most well known formula has sold for $1.2 million at an auction conducted by RR Auction.

Buy in India

Buy in USA

The letter is said to be one of the three written records of Einstein's famous equation. It was sent to Polish-American physicist Ludwik Silberstein in 1946.

In this equation, energy is equal to mass, multiplied by the square of the velocity of light. It shows that very small amounts of mass may be converted into a very large amount of energy and vice versa.

For example: In an atomic bomb, uranium is transformed into krypton and barium. Their combined mass is slightly less than the mass of the original uranium. Though the difference is small, by virtue of speed of light, the energy which is released is enormous.

During the Second World War, Einstein feared that Germans might develop an atomic weapon based upon his groundbreaking discovery.

So, despite being a long-time pacifist, Einstein wrote a letter to Franklin Roosevelt, the then President of the United States, to urge him to develop the atomic bomb before the Germans.

Thus, today, the equation is dear to not only physicists but also to history lovers. Auction of the letter began on 13 May and its rarity set off a bidding war among five parties.

Sold for more than $1.2 million, the letter has garnered about three times more money than it was expected to get.

Who discovered that we are made from star stuff?

Astronomer Carl Sagan popularized the phrase "We are made of star stuff" when he said: Nitrogen in our DNA, calcium in our teeth, iron in our blood and carbon in our food; were made in the interiors of collapsing stars.

However, most people wouldn't know the name of that scientist who actually found it out. It was German American physicist Hans Bethe (1906-2005) who wrote it in a paper titled "Energy Production in Stars" as early as in 1939.

Buy in India

Buy in USA

In 1930s, at the time when European scientists were debating quantum mechanics, Bethe migrated to United States and contemplated the stars. He thus became the first person to figure out that conversion of hydrogen into helium was the primary source of energy in a star.

The process is called nuclear fusion in which many nuclei combine together to make a larger one. It so happens that the resultant nucleus is smaller in mass than the sum of the ones that made it. So, by virtue of Einstein's equation E=mc², the mass is converted to energy.

When a star would eventually run out of hydrogen (its primary fuel) it would start converting helium into carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and so on, in order to keep itself hot.

However, those reactions themselves will halt at some point and the star would no longer be able to support itself against its own gravity and it will die in an explosion.

Therefore, it was proposed that most of the material that we're made from, came out of the dead stars which spewed out those chemical elements into the universe for further use. Hence, we are made of star stuff.

Bethe's groundbreaking paper not only helped in understanding the inner workings of the stars but also solved the age-old questions like: 'How do stars shine?' 'Where did the chemical elements come from?'

Buy in India

Buy in USA

He won the 1967 Nobel Prize in physics for this theory of stellar nucleosynthesis. Bethe would continue to do research on supernovae, neutron stars, black holes and other problems of astrophysics well into his late nineties.

Carl Sagan and Hans Bethe share the stage at Cornell

Now, Carl Sagan, who was earlier at Harvard University, joined Cornell in 1976 and became immediate colleagues with Hans Bethe who had been at Cornell since coming to America in 1935. While Bethe was a professor of physics, Sagan was a professor of Astronomy.

It was unfortunate that the general public still did not know about stellar nucleosynthesis despite Bethe discovering it some 40 years ago and winning the highest prize for it a decade ago. Carl Sagan changed this.

Their common interests in science and politics brought them even closer. Bethe was also a fan of Sagan's 1980 show Cosmos: A personal voyage. In one of the episodes, when Sagan said "We are made of star stuff", he immortalized Bethe's work in television history.

7 Lessons To Learn From Richard Feynman

Richard Feynman (1918–1988) was a Nobel Prize winning American physicist whose life was a combination of his intellect, uncertainty and a childlike curiosity.

Although he was a late talker and did not speak until after his third birthday, we know Feynman best as the chatty one.

His life is a story of constant growth: First, as a student, then as an eminent physicist and ultimately as a beloved teacher. Following are seven motivating lessons from Feynman's life.

1. Pursue a hobby

Feynman has said: "Fall in love with some activity and do it. Because, nobody ever figures out what life is all about and it doesn't matter." Feynman used to draw on canvas in spare time. He also learned Portuguese just so he could impress his colleagues in Brazil.

2. Explore the world

Everyone wants to win but no one wants to play the game. That's what Feynman meant when he said: "Everything is really interesting if you go into it deeply enough." Try new things and work as hard and as much as you want to on the things you like to do the best.

3. Carve your own path

The essence of Feynman's autobiography is: "Don't think about what you want to be, but what you want to do." Don't care about what others think. However, keep up some kind of a minimum, such as a degree, so that society doesn't stop you from doing anything at all.

4. Keep learning

Feynman has said: "It is important to admit when you do not know." There is no shame in not knowing. The only shame is when you pretend that you know everything. So, read as many books as you can. Be as practical as you need to be.

5. You only live once

Feynman was the first to profess this popular life mantra when he said: "Of course, you only live one life. So, make all your mistakes now, and learn what not to do." Thus, life is a process of constantly growing up.

6. Blind belief is dangerous

Feynman mentions in his autobiography: "Have no respect whatsoever for authority; forget who said it and instead ask yourself, Is it reasonable?" In other words, do not blindly believe anyone and make up your own mind about the world.

7. Enjoy the process

Feynman did not become a scientist for honors or recognition. He said: "My interest in science is to simply find out more about the world." So, no matter what you choose to become in life, do it because you love it deeply.

Engineer Who Won The Nobel Prize Twice In Physics

Winning the Nobel Prize once is no easy feat let alone winning it twice! The first ever person to do win the Nobel Prize twice was celebrated chemist and physicist Marie Curie as many of you might already know.

Similarly, John Bardeen has won the prestigious prize for physics not once but twice! If you ever watched The Big Bang Theory, a show in which engineering as a field is consistently made fun of, it might come off as surprising that Bardeen was an engineer by education and profession.

John Bardeen (1908-1991) completed his bachelor and master degrees in electrical engineering in 1928 and 1929 respectively. He was then employed by Gulf Oil Corporation where he worked for four years.

However, his love for physics was intact and urged him to go back to school. Therefore, he enrolled at Princeton University to study physics and mathematics in 1933.

There he wrote a thesis on solid-state physics under the guidance of Nobel laureate Eugene Wigner. After graduating in 1935, he was chosen as Junior Fellow at Harvard University, a position he held for three years.

In 1939, the second world war broke out and John could no longer facilitate his individual research interests. The big break came after the war in October 1945 when he started working at Bell Labs.

Along with colleagues William Shockley and Walter Brattain, John invented the first transistor in 1947. Their relationship, however, soured when Shockley tried to take most of the credit for the invention.

Replica of the first transistor

Shockley prevented both Bardeen and Brattain from working any further on the transistor technologies. So, John left Bell Labs in 1951 and accepted an offer from the University of Illinois to study superconductivity.

In 1956, he shared the Nobel Prize in physics with Shockley and Brattain for their work on the transistor. Today, as you might know, most of computing technologies are unimaginable without the transistor.

When Bardeen brought only one of his three children to the prize distribution ceremony, the King of Sweden ridiculed him, to which Bardeen candidly replied: "Next time I will bring them all to Sweden."

In 1957, John wrote a theory of superconductivity along with Leon Cooper and John Schrieffer. It ushered a new era of transportation and medical technologies such as MagLev and MRI respectively.

15 years later, John kept the promise he made to the King of Sweden when he took his three children to the Nobel Prize distribution ceremony in 1972.

John stayed as a professor of engineering at University of Illinois until 1975. In 1983, Sony corporation, which owed much of its commercial success to inventions by John, created an honorary John Bardeen professorship at the university.

It's similar to the Lucasian professor of mathematics at Cambridge University, a chair founded in 1663 and held by icons like Newton, Dirac and Hawking.

In a 1988 interview, when Bardeen was asked to comment on religion, he said: "I am not a religious person and so do not think about it very much." John was a very humble scientist who donated much of his Nobel Prize money. He enjoyed hosting cookouts for neighbours who were unaware of his scientific achievements.

If you make a list of people – politicians, scientists, sportspersons, etc – who have had the greatest impact on the 20th century, John's name would certainly make it to the top ten. Because, without his work, none of the modern technologies would be possible.

Oppenheimer Helped Feynman Meet His Hero

Paul Dirac and Richard Feynman were two different physicists in terms of approach. For Dirac, physics was a search of pretty mathematics. Feynman, however, always began his work from observations he made in the real world.

The two physicists were also poles apart when it came to informal speaking. While Dirac was a man of extremely few words and legendarily so; Feynman on the other hand was candidly chatty.

Yet, Dirac was Feynman's idol growing up.

Their first meeting in 1946 was very brief and unproductive. Dirac asked: "Do you have an equation?" Feynman being a beginner at the time didn't and so Dirac walked away after a silence.

In 1948, Feynman got a second chance to impress Dirac, thanks to his former boss at the Manhattan Project, Robert Oppenheimer, who also happened to be close friends with Dirac.

Oppenheimer successfully organized the first postwar physics conferences in the United States and brought together the most brilliant minds of his time such as Bohr, Fermi, Dirac and Bethe.

Under Oppenheimer's direction, physicists once again tackled the greatest unsolved problems of the pre-war. Some may consider it rather ironic that the same person who headed nuclear weapons program was also the one who helped revive collaborative work in physics.

During one of the conferences arranged by Oppenheimer, Feynman gave a lecture on quantum electrodynamics and introduced to the world for the very first time, Feynman diagrams.

He drew strange, unfamiliar drawings on the blackboard; lines in different shapes—straight, dotted, and squiggly—in the course of the lecture, as intellectuals, including Dirac, looked at him in bewilderment.

Feynman had succeeded in making a mark.

Their third meeting occurred in 1962 out of which came an iconic picture of the duo. It was taken by Polish photographer Marek Holzman during the relativity conference in Warsaw. The following conversation is said to have transpired.

Feynman: Hello again. I'm Feynman.

Dirac: I'm Dirac.

Feynman (admiringly): It must be wonderful to be the discoverer of that equation (he meant Dirac equation).

Dirac: That was a long time ago. (1928)

A pause.

Dirac: What are you working on now?

Feynman: Mesons.

Dirac: Are you trying to find an equation for them?

Feynman: No; it's very hard!

Dirac: One must try.

This was their last meeting. Feynman shared the 1965 Nobel Prize in physics with Julian Schwinger and Shin'ichirō Tomonaga for work done in quantum electrodynamics, a field of physics pioneered by Paul Dirac in the 1930s.

Feynman would later recall that those conferences organized by Oppenheimer were the best he had ever attended. That they were his first and the most important outings with the big men of physics.

5 Deserving Indians Who Did Not Win Nobel Prize

Yes, lately, there have been many Indian-American Nobel Laureates. But there is, so far, only one, let's say, "wholly Indian" Nobel Prize winner in science. He is C.V. Raman who won it for physics in 1930. In this post, let's take a look at deserving candidates who did not win the most coveted prize.

Satyendra Nath Bose

Bose was a brilliant physicist who collaborated with Albert Einstein to work out what is now called the Bose-Einstein statistics. Several Nobel Prizes were awarded related to the field initiated by him but Bose himself never won the top honors.

He was nominated five times but the Nobel committee did not find his work worthy of the Prize. Paul Dirac, English Physicist, coined (and popularized) the term Boson in Bose's honor (particles that obey Bose Einstein statistics).

So, when asked about his Nobel Prize snub, Bose replied: "I have got all the recognition I deserve." Surely, his name will live on forever in the scientific world, thanks to Dirac.

Meghnad Saha

He was an Indian astrophysicist who made fundamental contributions to astronomy. His work allowed astronomers to accurately relate the spectrum of stars to their actual temperatures. This is helpful in studying the composition of star and predicting its life cycle.

Saha was nominated for the Prize several times especially for the work done in astronomy. But at that time astronomy was not considered a branch of physics. Edwin Hubble tried to change that during his lifetime but to no avail.

Homi Bhabha

He was a nuclear physicist who is regarded as the father of Indian nuclear programme. Bhabha figured out the interaction of cosmic rays with the upper atmosphere to produce particles observed at the ground level.

He later concluded that observation of such particles was a straightforward experimental verification of Albert Einstein's theory of relativity. Bhabha was nominated for the Nobel Prize in 1951 and 1953-1956 but never won.

G.N. Ramachandran

He was an Indian physicist who is known for the creation of Ramachandran plot for understanding the peptide structure. He completed his doctoral thesis under the supervision of Nobel laureate Sir C.V. Raman.

He was nominated for the Nobel Prize for his fundamental contributions in the understanding of protein structure and functioning. Top scientists including Linus Pauling and Francis Crick regarded Ramchandran's work Nobel worthy.

E.C. George Sudarshan

In 2005, a controversy broke out when Roy Glauber won the Nobel Prize for Glauber–Sudarshan representation in quantum optics while Sudarshan was ignored by the committee. In 2007, Sudarshan told the Hindustan Times, "The 2005 Nobel prize for Physics was awarded for my work, but I wasn't the one to get it."

Only Pakistani To Win Nobel Prize For Physics

Doctor Abdus Salam is the first and only Pakistani, so far, to receive a Nobel Prize in physics. He is also well known for the development of science and technology in his country.

For example: Salam was an advisor to the Ministry of Science in Pakistan from 1960 to 1974. He was the founding director of the Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO).

Buy in India

Buy in USA

Salam also played a key role in Pakistan's development of nuclear energy and contributed to the development of their atomic bomb project in 1972. Thus, he was often called the Scientific Father of Pakistan.

However, in 1974, Salam departed from his country, in protest, after the Parliament of Pakistan passed a bill declaring the members of Ahmadiya Muslim community, to which he belonged, non-Muslims.

In 1979, he won the Nobel Prize for physics alongside Sheldon Lee Glashow and Steven Weinberg, for the electroweak unification theory. Thus, after this extraordinary accomplishment, he once again became his nation's hero.

Salam continued to stay in England until his death in 1996. But, his dying wish was to be buried in his beloved nation. It was fulfilled and approximately 30,000 people attended his funeral prayers in Pakistan.

Work

In 1951, he obtained a PhD degree from the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge. His doctoral thesis earned him not only popularity and reputation but also an Adams Prize.

Salam then worked on the unification of electromagnetic and weak forces (from 1959 onwards) with Glashow and Weinberg.

In 1966, he proposed a hypothetical particle, when he showed the possible interaction between magnetic monopole and C-violation. He thus formulated the "magnetic photon".

In 1972, he collaborated with Indian-American physicist Jogesh Pati. They developed a theory of everything (GUT) known as the  Pati–Salam model.

How James Watt And Harry Potter Are Related

James Watt was a Scottish physicist and inventor who was born on Jan 19, 1736 and strangely has a weird connection with Harry Potter films. Well, at least that's the intention of this post.

Buy in India

Buy in USA

Just as Harry frequently has ache in the corner of his head (where he was scarred at birth), James Watt also is said to have had headaches all his life.

Watt developed the concept of horsepower, a unit to measure the rate at which work is done. In his honor, SI unit of power is called Watt and one horsepower is 746 W.

A related meme had once gone viral on the internet.

Just the way actor Daniel Radcliffe said it did the trick.

Watt was also a pioneer in steam engine technology. He improved upon the old version and developed his own machine in 1770, which radically enhanced the efficiency and cost-effectiveness and ushered the Industrial Revolution in Europe.

In Harry Potter films, the steam engine plays a crucial role as it's what drives the Hogwarts Express. It was provided by West Coast Railways, a train operating company in Lancashire.

Plus, James Watt was Scottish and Harry Potter films have been majorly filmed in Scotland. In fact, Scotland is where J.K. Rowling began writing the books.

Watt was perhaps a magician in some sense. For example, he invented the copying machine in 1780, a technology far ahead of its time, similar to modern photocopy, but with ink. He also invented a machine for copying sculptures and medallions (like 3D printing).

His experiments in chemistry yielded chemicals with great industrial applications such as with good bleaching properties.

Lily, Harry's mother, was well versed in magic; a distinguished personality who stood up to bullies like James Potter. Watt's mother, Agnes, was also forceful in character and highly educated. James Watt is said to have inherited his mother's intellect.

Summing up, it almost feels like James Watt is the inspiration for Harry Potter. In a way. Well, for physics lovers, who also happen to be Potterheads, this is just a very good news!

Who are smartest physicists according to Lev Landau?

Lev Landau was a Nobel Prize winning theoretical physicist who is known for his work in quantum mechanics and superfluidity. He was born on 22 January, 1908 to highly educated Jewish parents in Azerbaijan. His father was an engineer while his mother was a doctor.

It is no surprise then that Landau was a child prodigy. He learned to differentiate as well as integrate by the time he was 13 years old. His parents thought he was too young to attend university so he had to wait for another two years.

At age 16, he was allowed to join the Leningrad State University, from where he graduated with flying colors, in 1927. After this, he travelled the entirety of Europe, met and worked alongside renowned physicists of the time such as Bohr, Dirac and Pauli.

Having known and worked with them for some time, Landau devised a genius logarithmic scale. It is a 0-5 ranking of physicists based on the amount of contributions made. He could maintain this ranking system only until his death in 1968 but it still has some of the most notable names.

Since the scale is logarithmic, rank 1 physicist contributions are ten times more (as per Landau) than people ranked 2, and so on. In other words, the higher the rank, the less valuable the physicist is.

Rank 0 Isaac Newton

Rank 0.5 Albert Einstein

Rank 1

This has a list of physicists including Niels Bohr, Satyendra Nath Bose, Paul Dirac, Erwin Schrodinger, Wolfgang Pauli and Werner Heisenberg.

Rank 2.5 Lev Landau

This ranking system was so intriguing that other physicists continued it even after Landau's death. In 1965, Lev Landau was awarded the Nobel Prize. As a result, his ranking was improved to 2. After his death in 1968, he was granted an even higher ranking of 1.5.

In 2004, Russian physicist Vitaly Ginzburg ranked Richard Feynman in the 1 category. Physicist Hans Bethe was inducted alongside Landau in the 1.5 category.

Rank 3 Edward Witten

Rank 4.5 David Mermin

Rank 5 Mundane physicists

10 Discoveries By Newton That Changed The World

Isaac Newton is one of the few names that will forever be enshrined in physics history and that too with a lot of glamour associated. Contributions of none other physicist match his, well, probably Einstein's, or not even his!? The following are Newton's ten most well-known works that changed the world later on.

Laws of motion

1. An object will remain at rest or move in a straight line unless acted upon by an external force.

2. F=ma.

3. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Newton's three laws of motion, along with thermodynamics, stimulated the industrial revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries. Much of the society built today owes to these laws.

Binomial Theorem

Around 1665, Isaac Newton discovered the Binomial Theorem, a method to expand the powers of sum of two terms. He generalized the same in 1676. The binomial theorem is used in probability theory and in the computing sciences.

Inverse square law

By using Kepler's laws of planetary motion, Newton derived the inverse square law of gravity. This means that the force of gravity between two objects is inversely proportional to the square of the distance between their centers. This law is used to launch satellites into space.

Newton's cannon

Newton was a strong supporter of Copernican Heliocentrism. This was a thought experiment by Newton to illustrate orbit or revolution of moon around earth (and hence, earth around the Sun).

He imagined a very tall mountain at the top of Earth on which a cannon is loaded. If too much gunpowder is used, then the cannonball will fly into space. If too little is used, then the ball wouldn't travel far. Just the right amount of powder will make the ball orbit the Earth.

Calculus

Newton invented the differential calculus when he was trying to figure out the problem of accelerating body. Whereas Leibniz is best-known for the creation of integral calculus. The calculus is at the foundation of higher level mathematics. Calculus is used in physics and engineering, such as to improve the architecture of buildings and bridges.

Rainbow

Newton was the first to understand the formation of rainbow. He also figured out that white light was a combination of 7 colors. This he demonstrated by using a disc, which is painted in the colors, fixed on an axis. When rotated, the colors mix, leading to a whitish hue.

Newton's disc

Reflecting Telescope

In 1666, Newton imagined a telescope with mirrors which he finished making two years later in 1668. It has many advantages over refracting telescope such as clearer image, cheap cost, etc.

Law of cooling

His law states that the rate of heat loss in a body is proportional to the difference in the temperatures between the body and its surroundings. The more the difference, the sooner the cup of tea will cool down.

Classification of cubics

Newton found 72 of the 78 "species" of cubic curves and categorized them into four types. In 1717, Scottish mathematician James Stirling proved that every cubic was one of these four types.

some cubic curves (Wiki)

Alchemy

At that time, alchemy was the equivalent of chemistry. Newton was very interested in this field apart from his works in physics. He conducted many experiments in chemistry and made notes on creating a philosopher's stone.

Newton could not succeed in this attempt but he did manage to invent many types of alloys including a purple copper alloy and a fusible alloy (Bi, Pb, Sn). The alloy has medical applications (radiotherapy).

7 Facts About Johannes Kepler You Didn't Know

Johannes Kepler was a German astronomer who discovered the three laws of planetary motion. Apart from his contributions to astronomy, he is also known to have pioneered the field of optics. In this post, let's read some amazing facts about Kepler and his work.

Early Affliction

He suffered from small pox at a very early age. The disease left him with a weak eyesight. Isn't it wonderful then how he went on to invent eyeglasses for near-eye and far-eye sightedness?

Introduction to Astronomy

Kepler's childhood was worsened by his family's financial troubles. At the age of 6, Johannes had to drop out of school so to earn money for the family. He worked as a waiter in an inn.

In the same year, his mother took him out at night to show him the Great Comet of 1577 which aroused his life-long interest in science and astronomy.

Copernican Supporter

At a time when everyone was against the heliocentric model of the universe, Kepler became its outspoken supporter. He was the first person to defend the Copernican theory from both a scientific and a religious perspective.

Contemporary of Galileo

Galileo was not a great supporter of Kepler's work especially when Kepler had proposed that the Moon had an influence over the water (tides). It would take an understanding by Newton many decades later which would prove Kepler correct and Galileo wrong.

Pioneer of Optics

Kepler made ground-breaking contributions to optics including the formulation of inverse-square law governing the intensity of light; inventing an improved refracting telescope; and correctly explaining the functioning of the human eye.

Helped Newton

His planetary laws went on to help Sir Isaac Newton derive the inverse square law of gravity. Newton had famously acknowledged Kepler's role, in a quote: "If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giant(s)."

Kepler's Legacy

There is a mountain range in New Zealand named after the famous astronomer. A crater on the Moon is called Kepler's crater. NASA paid tribute to the scientist by naming their exo-planet finding telescope, Kepler.