She was a renowned scientist in the late 19th to early 20th century, an era when it was difficult for women to pursue these fields. Yet, not only was she the first woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize, but also awarded it in two different scientific fields, Physics and Chemistry. To date, no one else has accomplished that.
What was the secret to her genius?
Here are some tips any of us can follow to pursue excellence in our chosen field of study:
continued effort to do or achieve something despite difficulties, failure, or opposition : the action or condition or an instance of persevering : STEADFASTNESS
These qualities capture the essence of the latest NASA mission to Mars. Thomas Zurbuchen, the associate administrator of the agency's Science Mission Directorate, explained:
"Yes, it's curiosity that pulls us out there, but it's perseverancethat does not let us give up."
After World War I, Eddington had secured an expedition to West Africa to observe the total solar eclipse. The results showed starlight was displaced along the sight line near the sun. Just as Einstein had predicted.
Curiosity killed the cat But satisfaction brought her back
Curiosity and Perseverance
In the world of science, these attributes can lead to breakthroughs. Rewrite text books. Create paradigm shifts in our thinking.
Let's spotlight two prominent physicists of the late 20th century, who exemplified those qualities.
* Dr. Stephen Hawking * Dr. Richard Feynman
Stephen Hawking is considered one of the greatest physicist of recent times. And he passed away this year (2018) on March 14th, the same day as Einstein's birthday. [reference: Stephen Hawking ]
Yet perseverance helped him overcome the physical challenges of ALS. With perseverance and curiosity, he pursued a distinguishing career in cosmology and theoretical physics, as shown below:
Likewise, Nobel laureate Richard Feynman was driven by curiosity. Which drove him to learn new things. Get out of his comfort zone. Search for answers. Solve nature's puzzles. Connect the dots.
While a graduate student days at Princeton, Feynman developed a method that served him well. He started with an empty notebook titled -
NOTEBOOK OF THINGS I DON’T KNOW ABOUT.
He filled the pages as he reorganized his thoughts in the concrete form of pen and paper. Trying to find the essential kernel of each branch of physics. This discipline may have paved the way to his Nobel Prize.
The first atomic bomb exploded at the Trinity Site.
It was the culmination of The Manhattan Projectwhich birthed the weapon designed to bring an end to World War II.
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Today There is a brass plaque on an obelisk that reads – “TRINITY SITE WHERE THE WORLD’S FIRST NUCLEAR DEVICE WAS EXPLODED ON JULY 16, 1945.” But back then Here is the story of what happened that day in the words of Elsie McMillan, wife of physicist Edwin McMillan, who worked on the Manhattan Project:
(published
in TravelThruHistory.com.
November
18, 2009)
The same Trinity site is mentioned in Counting Coup: Book 2 of The Commander and the Chief series:
Dr. Nova Orlovic, "The Chief," rendezvouses with Premier Yasser Nasser--Dictator of the Desert--in his massively complex bunker. She is escorted by her nephew, freelance journalist Nick Orlovic III. Nova comes bearing Native American gifts and Yasser tells her what he wants from her:
“What’s that in your other hand?”
“A present from my people.” Nova held up Kaya’s dream catcher.
The Premier invited Nick to his other side. An aide snapped a picture of Nova presenting the Dictator of the Desert with her Native American artwork. After the camera flashed, Yasser bowed. “I’m most honored by this precious gift, Chief Orlovic. Made this yourself?”
“I’m afraid I’m not that crafty, Premier.” Nova returned a self-deprecating smile. “It was made by a dear friend, a Cheyenne Indian lady.”
Then Yasser gushed forth praise for his guest of honor. As Nova was a Native American Indian, he considered her a victim of the white male oppressors of the West. Yet Yasser overlooked that her father was a white man. And Nova didn’t think it prudent to remind him of that right now.
Following the Premier’s lead, Nova and Nick settled into a couch and partook of tea and hummus appetizers, set before them on a coffee table. From a drawer, Yasser pulled out the Ms. Indian Summer issue of Gentleman’s Delight. He wanted the Chief to autograph it, and Nova did so, using the moniker, Dr. No.
After a good belly laugh, Yasser explained that from Ms. Indian Summer, he had learned many things about her. He flipped to a picture of Nova in a white leather bikini holding a Geiger counter, asking, “When August Adolf chose you for his Gentleman’s Lady, you were nuclear physicist, no?”
“I guess seeing me squat in front of that Ground Zero obelisk at Trinity, New Mexico—which just so happens to be the place where the world’s first atomic bomb exploded,” Nova let out a chuckle, “that gave me away.”
from Part 6: In the Belly of the Beast, Chapter 2: Tiger Lily
More?
The book is available in paperback or eBook (kindle, Nook) form. Likewise, the first book, His Tribe of One, and its sequel, Peacemaker.
This coming August 13-14, 2016 will be a peak of the Perseid Meteor Showers. And they can be quite awesome if you live in the neck of the woods with a dark sky.
When I turned 7 years-old, I picked a scrumptious birthday cake with a ton of delicious looking icing on it. It was so sugary sweet that it made me sick. Ever since, I preferred pie over cake for my birthday. Or you could say, in my world, pie takes the cake.
Here's another story about birthdays and pie. Or should I say...
Pi, the Greek letter (shown to the left), denotes the irrational number resulting from the ratio of the circumference of a circle divided by its diameter. [reference: Pi ]
And it appears in more complex mathematical equations, such as:
But let's be practical. You only need 39 digits of Pi to measure the circumference of the known universe within the width of a single hydrogen atom: How Many Digits of Pi Do You Really Need?
Pi on earth
For accuracy good enough for macro purposes, Pi is rounded to 3.14 or 3.1416.
Now, this last number, 3.1416, correlates to our 2016 calendar: 3/14/16. Otherwise,
March 14, 2016
And Pi Day (March 14th) has become a big tradition as well as many teachable moments.
November, 2015 marks the centennial of Einstein papers that rocked the world and withstood the test of many experiments. Let me tell of story of a couple of these.
Gravity Probe B and Me ...
Briefly, I worked on the Gravity Probe B (GP-B) project. I say briefly because budget cuts curtailed my tenure, though I moved on to other projects. And that is another story.
Yet the decades old GP-B soldiered on and its satellite was launched in 2004. The experiment tested two elements of Einstein's Theory of General Relativity.
(1) The Geodetic Effect, a precession (like that of a spinning top) in curved space-time.
November, 1915, was a watershed month for physics. Einstein submitted four papers, one per week, to the Prussian Academy in Berlin. They launched the gravitational revolution of general relativity, overthrowing Newton's theory of the universe. [reference: Einstein's genius changed science's perception of gravity ]
Meanwhile, during this time, astronomers were on a serious
Search for the planet Vulcan ... no kidding
Newton's classic view of gravity led scientists to believe there was a hidden planet, which they called Vulcan, that caused Mercury's perturbations. But it took Einstein to crack this mystery, as explained below:
As Gravity Probe B in the 21st century would provide more evidence to vindicate general relativity, explaining the anomalies in Mercury's orbit gave convincing validation at the birth of this theory in the early 20th century.
Also, I wrote about this search for this planet that wasn't there and posted it on my website in the article: Mr. Spock and Dr. Einstein
As Einstein's General Relativity turns 100, it seems the theory will ...
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