Topic: Physics/Biographies

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πŸ”— Bogdanov affair

πŸ”— Biography πŸ”— France πŸ”— Physics πŸ”— Skepticism πŸ”— Physics/Biographies πŸ”— Physics/Publications

The Bogdanov affair was an academic dispute regarding the legitimacy of a series of theoretical physics papers written by French twins Igor and Grichka Bogdanov (alternately spelt Bogdanoff). These papers were published in reputable scientific journals, and were alleged by their authors to culminate in a proposed theory for describing what occurred at and before the Big Bang.

The controversy began in 2002, with an allegation that the twins, celebrities in France for hosting science-themed TV shows, had obtained PhDs with nonsensical work. Rumours spread on Usenet newsgroups that their work was a deliberate hoax intended to target weaknesses in the peer review system that physics journals use to select papers for publication. While the Bogdanov brothers continued to defend the veracity of their work, the debate over whether or not it represented a contribution to physics spread from Usenet to many other Internet forums, eventually receiving coverage in the mainstream media. A Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) internal report later concluded that their theses had no scientific value.

The incident prompted criticism of the Bogdanovs' approach to science popularization, led to multiple lawsuits, and provoked reflection among physicists as to how and why the peer review system can fail.

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πŸ”— The inventor of the SR-71's rules for project management

πŸ”— Biography πŸ”— Espionage πŸ”— Aviation πŸ”— Physics πŸ”— Systems πŸ”— Biography/science and academia πŸ”— Aviation/aerospace biography πŸ”— Physics/Biographies πŸ”— Physics/Fluid Dynamics πŸ”— Systems/Systems engineering πŸ”— Pritzker Military Library

Clarence Leonard "Kelly" Johnson (February 27, 1910 – December 21, 1990) was an American aeronautical and systems engineer. He is recognized for his contributions to a series of important aircraft designs, most notably the Lockheed U-2 and SR-71 Blackbird. Besides the first production aircraft to exceed Mach 3, he also produced the first fighter capable of Mach 2, the United States' first operational jet fighter, as well as the first fighter to exceed 400 mph, and many other contributions to various aircraft. As a member and first team leader of the Lockheed Skunk Works, Johnson worked for more than four decades and is said to have been an "organizing genius". He played a leading role in the design of over forty aircraft, including several honored with the prestigious Collier Trophy, acquiring a reputation as one of the most talented and prolific aircraft design engineers in the history of aviation. In 2003, as part of its commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Wright Brothers' flight, Aviation Week & Space Technology ranked Johnson eighth on its list of the top 100 "most important, most interesting, and most influential people" in the first century of aerospace. Hall Hibbard, Johnson's Lockheed boss, referring to Johnson's Swedish ancestry, once remarked to Ben Rich: "That damned Swede can actually see air."

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πŸ”— Oliver Heaviside

πŸ”— Biography πŸ”— Mathematics πŸ”— Physics πŸ”— Telecommunications πŸ”— Biography/science and academia πŸ”— Energy πŸ”— Electrical engineering πŸ”— Physics/Biographies πŸ”— Devon

Oliver Heaviside FRS (; 18 May 1850 – 3 February 1925) was an English self-taught electrical engineer, mathematician, and physicist who adapted complex numbers to the study of electrical circuits, invented mathematical techniques for the solution of differential equations (equivalent to Laplace transforms), reformulated Maxwell's field equations in terms of electric and magnetic forces and energy flux, and independently co-formulated vector analysis. Although at odds with the scientific establishment for most of his life, Heaviside changed the face of telecommunications, mathematics, and science.

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πŸ”— Emmy Noether

πŸ”— Biography πŸ”— Mathematics πŸ”— Germany πŸ”— Physics πŸ”— Women scientists πŸ”— Biography/science and academia πŸ”— Women's History πŸ”— Women writers πŸ”— Physics/Biographies πŸ”— Toys

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πŸ”— Freeman Dyson Has Died

πŸ”— Biography πŸ”— Mathematics πŸ”— Physics πŸ”— Biography/science and academia πŸ”— Robotics πŸ”— United Kingdom πŸ”— Physics/Biographies πŸ”— Christianity

Freeman John Dyson (15 December 1923 – 28 February 2020) was an English-born American theoretical physicist and mathematician known for his work in quantum electrodynamics, solid-state physics, astronomy and nuclear engineering. He was professor emeritus in the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, a member of the Board of Visitors of Ralston College and a member of the Board of Sponsors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

Dyson originated several concepts that bear his name, such as Dyson's transform, a fundamental technique in additive number theory, which he developed as part of his proof of Mann's theorem; the Dyson tree, a hypothetical genetically-engineered plant capable of growing in a comet; the Dyson series, a perturbative series where each term is represented by Feynman diagrams; the Dyson sphere, a thought experiment that attempts to explain how a space-faring civilization would meet its energy requirements with a hypothetical megastructure that completely encompasses a star and captures a large percentage of its power output; and Dyson's eternal intelligence, a means by which an immortal society of intelligent beings in an open universe could escape the prospect of the heat death of the universe by extending subjective time to infinity while expending only a finite amount of energy.

Dyson believed global warming is caused merely by increased carbon dioxide but that some of the effects of this are favourable and not taken into account by climate scientists, such as increased agricultural yield. He was skeptical about the simulation models used to predict climate change, arguing that political efforts to reduce causes of climate change distract from other global problems that should take priority. He also signed the World Climate Declaration that there "is no Climate Emergency".

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πŸ”— Earth may be constantly producing oil

πŸ”— Biography πŸ”— Physics πŸ”— Biography/science and academia πŸ”— Astronomy πŸ”— Physics/Biographies πŸ”— Biophysics

Thomas Gold (also known as Tommy Gold), (May 22, 1920 – June 22, 2004) was an Austrian-born astrophysicist, a professor of astronomy at Cornell University, a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and a Fellow of the Royal Society (London). Gold was one of three young Cambridge scientists who in 1948 proposed the now mostly abandoned "steady state" hypothesis of the universe. Gold's work crossed academic and scientific boundaries, into biophysics, astronomy, aerospace engineering, and geophysics.

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πŸ”— Donna Strickland won her Nobel prize in Physics before she got a wikipedia page

πŸ”— Biography πŸ”— Canada πŸ”— Physics πŸ”— Women πŸ”— Women scientists πŸ”— Biography/science and academia πŸ”— Physics/Biographies πŸ”— Canada/Ontario

Donna Theo Strickland, (born 27 May 1959) is a Canadian optical physicist and pioneer in the field of pulsed lasers. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2018, together with GΓ©rard Mourou, for the invention of chirped pulse amplification. She is a professor at the University of Waterloo.

She served as fellow, vice president, and president of The Optical Society, and is currently chair of their Presidential Advisory Committee. In 2018, she was listed as one of BBC's 100 Women.

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πŸ”— Chladni Figures

πŸ”— Biography πŸ”— Physics πŸ”— Biography/science and academia πŸ”— Physics/Biographies

Ernst Florens Friedrich Chladni (German: [ΛˆΙ›Κnst ˈfloːʁɛns ˈfʁiːdʁΙͺΓ§ ˈkladnΙͺ]; 30 November 1756 – 3 April 1827) was a German physicist and musician. His most important work, for which he is sometimes labeled the father of acoustics, included research on vibrating plates and the calculation of the speed of sound for different gases. He also undertook pioneering work in the study of meteorites and is regarded by some as the father of meteoritics.

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πŸ”— Chester Carlson – Inventor of Xerography

πŸ”— United States πŸ”— Biography πŸ”— Physics πŸ”— Biography/science and academia πŸ”— Physics/Biographies πŸ”— United States/Washington - Seattle πŸ”— Buddhism πŸ”— Invention

Chester Floyd Carlson (February 8, 1906 – September 19, 1968) was an American physicist, inventor, and patent attorney born in Seattle, Washington.

He is best known for inventing electrophotography, the process performed today by millions of photocopiers worldwide. Carlson's process produced a dry copy, as contrasted with the wet copies then produced by the mimeograph process. Carlson's process was renamed xerography, a term that means "dry writing."

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πŸ”— Erwin SchrΓΆdinger – Sexual Abuse

πŸ”— Biography πŸ”— Physics πŸ”— Philosophy πŸ”— Biography/science and academia πŸ”— Philosophy/Philosophy of science πŸ”— Philosophy/Contemporary philosophy πŸ”— History of Science πŸ”— Philosophy/Philosophers πŸ”— Physics/Biographies πŸ”— Ireland πŸ”— University of Oxford πŸ”— University of Oxford/University of Oxford (colleges)

Erwin Rudolf Josef Alexander SchrΓΆdinger (UK: , US: ; German: [ΛˆΙ›ΙΜ―vΙͺn ΛˆΚƒΚΓΈΛdΙͺŋɐ]; 12 August 1887 – 4 January 1961), sometimes written as Schroedinger or Schrodinger, was a Nobel Prize–winning Austrian and naturalized Irish physicist who developed fundamental results in quantum theory. In particular, he is recognized for postulating the SchrΓΆdinger equation, an equation that provides a way to calculate the wave function of a system and how it changes dynamically in time. He coined the term "quantum entanglement", and was the earliest to discuss it, doing so in 1932.

In addition, he wrote many works on various aspects of physics: statistical mechanics and thermodynamics, physics of dielectrics, colour theory, electrodynamics, general relativity, and cosmology, and he made several attempts to construct a unified field theory. In his book What Is Life? SchrΓΆdinger addressed the problems of genetics, looking at the phenomenon of life from the point of view of physics. He also paid great attention to the philosophical aspects of science, ancient, and oriental philosophical concepts, ethics, and religion. He also wrote on philosophy and theoretical biology. In popular culture, he is best known for his "SchrΓΆdinger's cat" thought experiment.

Spending most of his life as an academic with positions at various universities, SchrΓΆdinger, along with Paul Dirac, won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1933 for his work on quantum mechanics, the same year he left Germany due to his opposition to Nazism. In his personal life, he lived with both his wife and his mistress which may have led to problems causing him to leave his position at Oxford. Subsequently, until 1938, he had a position in Graz, Austria, until the Nazi takeover when he fled, finally finding a long-term arrangement in Dublin where he remained until retirement in 1955. He died in Vienna of tuberculosis when he was 73.

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