Strange things happen in the quantum world. It’s not just the events that are strange: the ways in which they happen are also weird. Take the nucleus, for example. Things were bad enough when Ernest Rutherford proposed that the atomic nucleus was very small, very dense and packed with positive charge. But things got even … Continue reading Nobel Prize for Physics 2025
Beta Decay and Energy Conservation
I have just finished reading an excellent book that traces various theories about beta decay in the first third of the Twentieth Century. Controversy and Consensus: Nuclear Beta Decay 1911-1934 is an editted version of the successful PhD thesis written by Carsten Jensen, who clearly had a deep passion for unravelling physics history but died … Continue reading Beta Decay and Energy Conservation
Hideki Yukawa and Meson Theory
How does the nucleus of an atom stay together? Why don’t the positively-charged protons repel each other and cause the nucleus to disintegrate? The early models of the atom imagined solid spheres, perhaps with different sizes, shapes or “colours” distinguishing one type of atom from another. Then came J J Thomson’s discovery of the electron … Continue reading Hideki Yukawa and Meson Theory
Mr Tarrant's physbang 'blog 