摘要:

Most physicists probably spend most of their professional effort working at physics in a rather narrow, technical sense. For this alone there are scarcely enough hours in the day. Should a pause occur, there are always papers to be read, those which one really should have got around to a long time ago. Indeed, keeping up with the literature could be a fulltime job in itself.

ISSN:0031-9228    

DOI:10.1063/1.3067473

出版商:AIP    

年代:1952

数据来源: AIP

摘要:

One can always tell which part of physics is advancing most rapidly by consulting a few numbers ofThe Physical Review. Judged by this criterion, the heroic period of the physics of the atom may be taken to be roughly the two decades from 1915 to 1935. (Such dates are never exact.) Prior to 1915 there had been much speculation about the electrical nature of the atom, and Rutherford's work on alpha particle scattering and Bohr's first work on a quantum theory of the atom came a little before 1915. By 1915, however, physicists had really caught the scent of an exciting new forward surge of discovery and were preparing to exploit it fully.

ISSN:0031-9228    

DOI:10.1063/1.3067474

出版商:AIP    

年代:1952

数据来源: AIP

摘要:

The physics of the solid state is nothing new. In 1900 it was as well realized as now that mechanics, heat, electricity, magnetism, optics, all have their solid‐state aspects. In mechanics we have elasticity, plasticity, elastic vibrations or sound. In heat we have specific heat, thermal expansion, heat conductivity. In electricity we have conductivity, dielectric constant. In magnetism we have paramagnetism, diamagnetism, ferromagnetism, the Hall effect. Optics involves the refractive index, optical absorption, double refraction, and so on. There are interrelations between different effects: Magnetostriction, the relation between magnetism and elasticity; pyroelectricity, the relation between heat and dielectric behavior; the Faraday effect, the relation between magnetism and optical double refraction; and a host of others. All these were known in 1900, there were tentative theories of many of them, and very elaborate studies of the interrelations of them with crystal symmetry, leading up to the proper mathematical description of many of the properties in terms of tensors, and such mathematical devices.

ISSN:0031-9228    

DOI:10.1063/1.3067442

出版商:AIP    

年代:1952

数据来源: AIP

摘要:

Whether in the written or the spoken word, I have long chosen to follow the example of Edmund Spenser in his preface to theFaerie Queene, when he elects to “thrust into the middest” of his subject with the first line of the first canto.

ISSN:0031-9228    

DOI:10.1063/1.3067443

出版商:AIP    

年代:1952

数据来源: AIP

摘要:

Finding myself unable to explain, in response to a colleague's query, just exactly how the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and the National Research Council (NRC) are related, I recently conducted a small or garden variety survey among some of my scientific friends. Somewhat to my surprise—even though nourishing to my ego—I discovered their understanding on this point to be of about the same degree of preciseness as my own. They knew considerable, of course, about the work of the NAS and the NRC but, for the most part, were rather vague and uncertain regarding their interrelationships. The composite impression which the poll produced might be expressed mathematically, asNASCivil War = NRCWorld War I = OSRDWorld War IIObviously, however, this greatly over‐simplified description of the situation leaves much to be desired as a sound, well‐rounded description of the relations of NAS and NRC to each other and of the lines of demarcation between their respective responsibilities. Hence, this particular Washington Report.

ISSN:0031-9228    

DOI:10.1063/1.3067444

出版商:AIP    

年代:1952

数据来源: AIP

摘要:

Nuclear science dominated the most recent Nobel awards in physics and chemistry, announced in mid‐November. The 1951 Nobel Prize for Physics was shared by Sir John D. Cockcroft, director of the British Atomic Energy Establishment at Harwell, and E. T. S. Walton, professor of natural and experimental philosophy of Trinity College in Dublin, for “their pioneer work on the transmutation of atomic nuclei by artificially accelerated atomic particles”. The Chemistry Prize was given jointly to Edwin M. McMillan and Glenn T. Seaborg, both of the University of California at Berkeley, for “their discoveries in the chemistry of the trans‐uranium elements”.

ISSN:0031-9228    

DOI:10.1063/1.3067445

出版商:AIP    

年代:1952

数据来源: AIP

摘要:

The first draft of a guide to assist scientific research investigators in the preparation of proposals for National Science Foundation research grants has been issued by the Foundation, and it has been announced that copies will be distributed widely to institutions and organizations in a position to carry on competent scientific research. The Foundation has earmarked approximately $1,500,000 for support of basic research in the mathematical, physical, medical, biological, and engineering sciences, and grants will be made to educational, industrial, governmental, or other institutions, or to individuals. Ordinarily, grants will be awarded to institutions for research by specified individuals.

ISSN:0031-9228    

DOI:10.1063/1.3067447

出版商:AIP    

年代:1952

数据来源: AIP

摘要:

A total of 357 travel grants have been made to visiting scholars from abroad under the Fulbright Program for lecturing or advanced research in the United States, and approximately 45 additional applications are in process of review. These figures represent an increase of approximately 25&percent; over those of 1950–51. It is interesting to note that the number of scholars coming to the United States under the Fulbright Program now exceeds the number of American Fulbright scholars going abroad. It should be pointed out, however, that the usual length of time for which an American scholar is granted an award is nine months. In contrast, approximately 50&percent; of the foreign scholars remain in the United States from three to nine months.

ISSN:0031-9228    

DOI:10.1063/1.3067449

出版商:AIP    

年代:1952

数据来源: AIP

摘要:

A new procedure for analyzing lead and uranium ores which aids in the more precise determination of the age of the uranium ores has been developed in a joint research project at Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Chicago. Greatly increasing the sensitivity of the measurement of the four isotopes of lead in a given sample, the new technique has been successfully used in studying rocks containing as little as one part per million of uranium. Because it reveals more about the nature of the billion‐year‐old ores, the method may eventually contribute to more successful uranium exploration. The new means of analysis was developed by George Tilton and Clair Patterson, graduate students in the University of Chicago's Department of Chemistry. They worked under the guidance and with the assistance of Harrison Brown, associate professor of chemistry in the University's Institute for Nuclear Studies, Mark G. Inghram of the Institute and Argonne National Laboratory, and David C. Hess of the Laboratory's physics division.

ISSN:0031-9228    

DOI:10.1063/1.3067451

出版商:AIP    

年代:1952

数据来源: AIP

摘要:

Standard solutions of phosphorus‐32 and iodine‐131 are now included among the radioactive standards distributed or calibrated by the National Bureau of Standards for the benefit of investigators in physics, chemistry, medicine, and industry. These particular isotopes have been employed extensively for diagnosis and therapy in brain surgery, leukemia and other types of cancer, and in their early use, variations in the results obtained by different laboratories are said to have amounted to as much as 200 percent of the accepted value. The Bureau's new procedure for making the standard samples available to research workers will now permit the duplication of results at different laboratories.

ISSN:0031-9228    

DOI:10.1063/1.3067453

出版商:AIP    

年代:1952

数据来源: AIP