Physics in the 21st Century: The Taylor Lecture
The president of the American Physical Society came to Penn State September 16 to deliver the 2005 Nelson W. Taylor Lecture, sponsored by the Materials Science and Engineering Department in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences. Marvin L. Cohen, University Professor in the Department of Physics at the University of California, Berkeley, entertained and enlightened a crowded Hub-Robeson Center auditorium with his reflections on Einstein, quantum physics, and nanoscience.
As Gary Messing, Distinguished Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, noted in his introduction, Prof. Cohen serves as president of the American Physical Society at a particularly important period, as this is the WYP 2005, the World Year of Physics, a worldwide yearlong celebration of the role of physics in our daily lives.
Commemorating the 100 anniversary of Einstein's Annus Mirabilis, the miraculous year when the 26-year-old Einstein published four ground breaking papers, including works on Brownian motion and the Special Theory of Relativity, the World Year of Physics through lecture programs and special projects makes the public aware of the continuing importance of Einstein's contributions and the central role of physics in the 21st century.
"Physicists should never admit their mistakes," Prof. Cohen joked. With the discovery that the universe is expanding more rapidly than predicted, Einstein's gravitational constant, which he himself admitted was his biggest error, has had to be added back into the equations. If he hadn't admitted he was wrong, says Prof Cohen, "Einstein could have been famous."
Prof. Cohen commended the important work being done on the Penn State campus, naming a number of researchers by name, and especially singling out the three speakers who preceded him on the program: Long-Qing Chen, professor of Materials Science and Engineering, who spoke on computational materials science at the mesoscale; Kristen Fichthorn, professor of chemical engineering and professor of physics, who described unexpected structures that self assemble on thin film layered on various substrates; and Vincent Crespi, professor of physics and materials science and engineering, who, in honor of the kinds of crucial and innovative questions that Prof. Cohen likes to posit, discussed the possibility of making electrons behave in the same bound manner as biological particles. All three distinguished speakers are part of Penn State's Materials Research Institute.
Recalling an anecdote of the late Nobel laureate Richard Feynman, Prof. Cohen told the audience that if all the physicists and all the great discoveries of physics were to disappear except for one idea, it should be that "matter is made up of atoms." Everything else follows from that.
By Walt Mills, Validate to view address - Send Email via form, 814-865-0285
