English self-taught mathematician and physicist Oliver Heaviside was born #OTD in 1850.
He invented a new technique for solving differential equations, independently developed vector calculus, and rewrote Maxwell's equations in the form commonly used today. He significantly shaped the way Maxwell's equations are understood and applied in the decades following Maxwell's death. His practical experience in telegraphy provided a foundation for his later theoretical work.
British mathematician, logician, philosopher, & public intellectual Bertrand Russell was born #OTD in 1872.
One of Russell's most significant achievements is the co-authorship of "Principia Mathematica" (1910-1913) with Alfred North Whitehead. His works, such as "The Problems of Philosophy" (1912) & "Our Knowledge of the External World" (1914), explored issues related to knowledge, perception, & the scientific method.
"Physics is mathematical not because we know so much about the physical world, but because we know so little: it is only its mathematical properties that we can discover."
An Outline of Philosophy Ch.15 The Nature of our Knowledge of Physics (1927)
"The pursuit of philosophy is founded on the belief that knowledge is good, even if what is known is painful."
My PhD thesis has been published!
If you're interested in how to manipulate atoms into their coldest possible state using lasers, and why it's interesting to drop them in a 10m vacuum tower, this is for you! Also, fun with "painting" arbitrary shapes with laser beams! #physics#AtomInterferometry#Quantum#QuantumSensing https://doi.org/10.15488/17346
This is quite interesting. (no... really!) I recently persuaded a colleague to take my pet Geiger counter from Dunedin to Apia via Auckland. The latitude dependency of the radiation exposure is fascinating! #radiation#NewZealand#physics
A massive cotton candy-like exoplanet stumps astronomers.
@popsci reports on a new study from Nature Astronomy: "Despite being 50 percent bigger than the gas giant Jupiter, exoplanet WASP-193b is seven times less dense."
The “Astrophysical and Cosmological Relativity” department at the @mpi_grav in Potsdam announces the opening of several postdoctoral appointments.
These appointments will be in the area of data analysis and its interface with waveform modeling for the recently adopted space-based gravitational-wave detector LISA.
American physicist Richard Feynman was born #OTD in 1918.
He developed the Feynman diagrams, a pictorial representation of the mathematical expressions governing the behavior of subatomic particles, which provided a powerful tool for calculating complex interactions among particles. He received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965 jointly with Julian Schwinger and Shin'ichirō Tomonaga for their fundamental contributions to the development of quantum electrodynamics (QED).
In addition to his research contributions, Feynman was known for his exceptional teaching ability & engaging lectures. He authored several popular science books, including "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!" & "What Do You Care What Other People Think?" Many of his lectures & miscellaneous talks were turned into other books: The Character of Physical Law, QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter, Statistical Mechanics, Lectures on Gravitation, & the Feynman Lectures on Computation.
Absolutely mind-blown by the incredible #aurora tonight! Phone pictures from my back garden and a nearby field, in Northamptonshire. I have wanted to see this all my life, and never thought I’d manage to catch it. So happy!!! #AuroraBorealis#Physics#NerdAndProud
Mathematician James Harris Simons, known for the classification of holonomy of 3D manifolds and his famous Chern-Simons form, passed away on May 10, 2024, in New York City, at age 86.
Despite his later cooperation with NSA to help US to invade Vietnam and entering financial business (which is notorious for redistributing wealth to enlarge economic inequality), his legacy in #mathematics and #physics still benefits our exploration in secrets of the universe.