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Celebrating
Einstein’s Miraculous Year 1905:
The International Year of Physics 2005
by David Jamieson
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The year 2005 is the 100th anniversary of
Albert Einstein’s “Miraculous Year” of 1905 when Einstein
published revolutionary ideas that forever changed the way we
see the world. To celebrate this anniversary, the year 2005
has been declared the International Year of Physics by the
United Nations. The International Year of Physics 2005
provides Australian physicists with an opportunity to raise
the public awareness of physics and Einstein’s revolutionary
contributions to our society (see
http://www.physics2005.org/).
In 1905 Albert Einstein was 26 years old and working as a
clerk in a Swiss patent office. His first paper for the year
was completed on March 17 [1]. In it he introduced the idea of
alight quantum and used the idea to explain the photoelectric
effect. This idea would win him the Nobel Prize in 1922. In
two papers on Brownian motion he developed his ideas of
molecular motion including the derivation of the diffusion
relation which is discussed further below. The first of these,
based on his doctoral thesis, was completed on April 30 and
the other was received by the journal May 11, with a follow up
paper received December 19. In his fourth paper (received June
30) On the electrodynamics of moving bodies, he laid
the foundations for the special theory of relativity. The
fifth paper was completed September 27 and extended the
earlier special relativity paper. It contained the most famous
formula in Physics, E=mc2. A miraculous year
indeed.
Although E=mc2 is his most famous formula, less
famous, but of significant importance to industry, is the
diffusion relation. This relation, which describes how complex
fluids like milk diffuse into water, was derived from the then
still controversial (to physicists) idea of atoms and the
knowledge that through a microscope tiny pollen particles can
be seen to jiggle about (Brownian motion). Incidentally, the
same Brown was the botanist on Matthew Flinders’
circumnavigation of Australia in 1801.
It is not widely known, but a young Australian physicist,
William Sutherland, who would later serve as the Head of the
Department of Natural Philosophy (now the School of Physics)
at the University of Melbourne, had already obtained the
diffusion relation and presented it a year earlier in 1904 at
an ANZAAS conference in New Zealand. Sutherland published his
diffusion relation in a leading international physics journal
[2] in early 1905— some months before Einstein’s result
appeared. The international year of physics 2005 provides an
opportunity to highlight this contribution of an
underrecognised Australian physicist.
As part of planning for the International Year of Physics,
the Australian Institute of Physics sent a delegate to the
March2004 preparatory meeting in Montreal to link up with the
international community. Australia’s presence at this meeting
ensured our participation and public exposure on a national
and international level.
Celebrations for the year 2005 will begin with the 16th
Biennial Congress of the Australian Institute of Physics. The
theme is “Physics for the Nation” and it will be held at The
Australian National University, Canberra, from 31 January to4
February (see http://aipcongress2005.anu.edu.au/). To
celebrate the International Year of Physics 2005 the Congress
is bringing together, for the first time, all the scientific
societies in Australia with an interest in Physics, from
astronomy to geophysics. Two Nobel Prize winners—Professors
Steven Chu (1997) and Tony Leggett (2003)—will present plenary
talks, along with other distinguished scientists, many of whom
will represent overseas physical societies in 2005. One
example is Australian-born Professor Helen Quinn of the
Stanford Linear Accelerator Centre who is the current
President of the American Physical society. A highlight of the
Congress will be the outreach session which will present the
achievements of Einstein’s miraculous year to delegates,
school students and the general public and will demonstrate
the many contributions that Physics has made to our society.
In addition to the Congress, the Australian Institute of
Physics (AIP) is planning a national series of events around
Australia throughout 2005 and has established a working group
to develop a national program of activities. These activities
will engage school students and the general public
Australia-wide in the international celebration of the year.
Two activities will link up with international projects. The
first is an International Science Talent Search which is aimed
at enthusiasts as well as geniuses. The second is the
Light-around-the-world project which aims to transmit a ray of
light from Princeton’s Institute of Advanced Studies
completely around the world. In addition to these two
activities, the working group is looking at a series of
national activities for 2005. Proposed activities include a
national “Science and Engineering Challenge” tour, a poster
competition for primary schools, The Eratosthenes Project
(Secondary school project to measure the circumference of the
Earth, possibly in collaboration with schools in East Timor
and Papua New Guinea) and a national tour for prominent
international visitors.
The Minister for Science, Peter McGauran, has already agreed
to provide financial assistance in support of these activities
conducted under the auspices of the AIP.
A special AIP web site has been established that provides a
central calendar for activities planned in celebration of
2005.For example, my own institution, the School of Physics at
the University of Melbourne, plans a special series of public
lectures on Einstein’s revolutionary ideas, as well as an
event in 2004 to celebrate William Sutherland (see web site for
details). You can easily register your activities on this web
site.
Please join with us in making 2005 a big year for Physics in
Australia!
More Information
http://www.yearofphysics2005.org.au
References
[1] Chronology from A. Pais, Subtle is the Lord, The
science and life of Albert Einstein (Clarendon Press,
Oxford, 1982).
[2] W. Sutherland, Phil. Mag. 9, 781 (1905).
Acknowledgements
I
am grateful to Prof. Rod Home of the Department of the History and Philosophy of Science,
University of Melbourne, for useful discussions. This article contains extracts from Prof. Home’s essay
on Sutherland (see
http://www.ph.unimelb.edu.au/~dnj/wyp).
More Information
Prof. David N. Jamieson
School of Physics, University of Melbourne, Victoria, 3010
Email: d.jamieson@unimelb.edu.au
/Ph: 03 8344 5376
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A Short Biography of Australia's Willian Sutherland and His Link to 1905
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William Sutherland (1859-1911)
was born in Glasgow, Scotland. When he was still a small child his family
emigrated to Australia, eventually settling in Melbourne. He was a graduate
of Wesley College, the University of Melbourne (MA1883, first class honours
in Natural Science), University College London (BSc 1881,first class honours)
and was a theoretical physicist associated with the Department of Natural
Philosophy at the University of Melbourne. He served as acting professor in
1899 to replace Professor Sir Thomas Lyle who was on leave.
From 1901 he was also a writer for The Age newspaper, especially on
scientific topics.
One of his most significant accomplishments was to derive a
relation linking the |
diffusion coefficient to the viscosity of the solvent and the diameter of
the diffusing molecule. Soon afterwards, in one of the remarkable set of
papers he wrote in 1905, Einstein published
the same equation in his paper on Brownian motion, having arrived at it by
exactly the same line of reasoning. Because of its widespread applicability
to practical problems, it is one of Einstein’s most widely cited results. Sutherland
reported his relation in 1904 in a paper at the Dunedin ANZAAS conference,
and published it the following year. Therefore the diffusion relation should
be more appropriately known as the Sutherland-Einstein relation, as
emphasized by Abraham Pais in his classic biography of Einstein.
Unfortunately the ‘Sutherland-Einstein diffusion equation’ is
usually immortalised only as the ‘Einstein diffusion equation’ and
Sutherland’s work is not widely recognised.
In the three decades until his death in 1911 Sutherland
published more than 78 scientific papers. These appeared in the leading
scientific journals of the day, including the Philosophical Magazine and
Nature, giving him a high reputation internationally. He lectured at Ormond
College for a few years during the 1880s, did some private coaching, and
served from time to time as an examiner at the University but seemed to
value his independence over being tied to an academic position. Sutherland’s
work is commemorated at Melbourne each year when the best University of
Melbourne second year physics student receives the William Sutherland book
prize endowed in Sutherland’s memory by a generous benefactor.
In 1905 Sutherland was arguably already famous, for his ideas
on viscosity, molecular interactions, and the solid-liquid phase
transitions, certainly more so than Einstein who was almost unknown in that
year. In fact the invitation list for the 1905 Ludwig Boltzman festschrift
(special conference in honour of Boltzman’s 60th birthday) included only two
people from outside of Europe. One of these was the American scientist
Josiah Willard Gibbs (of “Gibbs free energy” fame), the other was
Australia’s William Sutherland.
References
[1] Thaddeus J. Trenn, in Charles Coulston Gillispie, Dictionary of
Scientific Biography, Sutherland ,
William (Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1976),
Vol. XIII, pp. 155-156.
[2] W. A. Osborne, William Sutherland: A Biography (Lothian Book
Publishing Co. Melbourne, 1920). |
APPI2005
Dear ACFA LC physicists,
The 10th Accelerator and Particle Physics Institute (APPI2005)
will be held from March 7 to March 11, 2005, at Appi Highland.
The contents will be organized in the same structure as
that of the previous meeting. As usual this APPI meeting aims at calibrating
ourselves by hearing and discussing progress of various physics research fields,
and to get some new hints from there. For this purpose, lectures of various
fields will be arranged in addition to the theoretical and experimental topics on particle physics.
Now, only the cover page is available at
http://acfahep.kek.jp/appi/2005/
and the registration system will be updated soon. We would like to expect your
participation to APPI2005.
Best Wishes,
Takayuki Matsui (KEK)
APPI2005 organizing
committee
Call for
Programs 2005-2006 at APCTP
http://www.apctp.org
The Asia Pacific Center for Theoretical Physics (APCTP) is an
international scientific organization which pursues the
highest quality topical research in all areas of theoretical
physics and promotes cooperation among scientists from its
member countries/regions and beyond.
To promote the research activities and cooperation, APCTP
would like to call for proposals for scientific activities for
the fiscal year 2005-2006. Selected proposals will constitute
the core programs of the Center. The input from the
international scientific community is central to the planning
of the activities of the APCTP and its future growth.
Under a new policy of President, Professor R. B. Laughlin, it
is strongly encouraged to promote science communication with
the public in diverse ways including public lectures and
writings, contribution to the newly launched web journal of
the Center for the public.
Topical research programs/International Workshops may
consist of a set of lectures and/or workshops on specialized
research topics. The program may be broad with its activities
dispersed in time ranging from one month up to six months. It
is strongly advised to attract participation of scientists
from member countries, in particular, graduate students and
postdoctoral fellows.
The Focus program is intended to draw a small group of
active international researchers to the Center in a sharply
focused field of utmost interest in physics and related area.
This program should be more concentrated and residential
during two weeks or one month. The core organizers are
expected to stay at the Center during the whole program
period, while other participants can participate partially. It
may also include a set of lectures and/or mini-workshops on
specialized research topics.
The selection criteria for the programs include scientific
quality, international character, level of participation of
scientists from member countries, residential research
collaboration among participants, and contribution to science
communication with the public. The organizing committee should
be of international character in its composition, with at
least one Korean scientist or program coordinator of the
Center for better local support and coordination. For the
program proposal, please fill out the following application
form and submit it by November 8th, 2004. As for questions
regarding the proposal process, please contact
sec@apctp.org. More
de-tails on running programs and applications can be found at
the Center homepage
http://www.apctp.org.
*Some programs starting in the first half of 2005 may
ask for early notification of selectio.
APPLICATION FORM
Topical Research Program/International Workshop
The application should include the following items and
provide information in as much detail as possible. The
application form can also be downloaded from
http://apctp.org. Please submit
your proposal to :
Asia Pacific Center for Theoretical Physics
San 31, Hyoja-dong, Nam-gu, Pohang 790-784, Republic of Korea
E-mail : sec@apctp.org1.
1.Title of topical research program or international workshop.
2. Name/Address/Contact of the applicant.
3. Organizers (tentative).
4. Duration of the program/Workshop.
5. Program/Workshop synopsis.
* In case of the topical program, describe the
period, location, and contents of any planned
subprograms in as much detail as
possible.
6. List of invited speakers and topics.
7. Number of participants (tentative).
8. Budget: Total (amount, potential sources), center support
(amount, major items).
9. Please state clearly why you think this program should
be selected and funded: scientific quality,
any plans in line with the following guidelines 1-4.
10. Preferred deadline of notification of selection.
General Guidelines
1. It is advised to form an organizing committee of
international character involving scientists from
member countries and beyond.
2. It is encouraged to attract young scientists from the
Asia-Pacific region, in particular, Southeast
Asia.
3. It is encouraged to take advantage of the research
infrastructure at the new headquarters in
Pohang with offices and guest houses for visitors.
4. It is strongly encouraged to promote science communication
with the public in diverse ways
including public lectures and writings, contribution to the
newly launched web journal of the Center
for the public.
APPLICATION FORM
Focus Program
Please provide information in as much detail as
possible and submit this to:
Asia Pacific Center for Theoretical Physics
San 31, Hyoja-dong, Nam-gu, Pohang 790-784,
Republic of Korea
Fax: +82-54-279-8679
Email : sec@apctp.org
1. Title of program.
2. Name/Address/Contact of applicant.
3. Core organizers (Name, Institution, e-mail address).
4. Time period of program (two weeks or four weeks).
5. Program topics covered.
6. List of invited participants (tentative)/Total number
of participants.
7. Budget.
8. Please state clearly why you think this program should
be selected.
9. Preferred deadline of notification of selection.
GENERAL GUIDELINES FOR FOCUS PROGRAMS
1. At least two organizers should stay for the entire
program period and play the role of the core
organizers.
2. Key organizers and invited participants should stay
more than a week during the program period.
3. The program must have an international character with active
participation from member countries
and around the world.
4. The Center covers travel and local expenses for the
key organizers and invited participants during
the entire program period, following the Center guidelines
for long-term visitors.
5. The Center will provide some funding for organizing
small academic activities and short-term
program visitors during the program period.
6. The key participants will be provided with an office,
an access to the computing and library facilities,
and housing during the program period. The total number of
the key organizers and invited
participants (except short-term visitors) is expected to be, for example, about 10-15 for
two-week
programs.
7. The organizers are expected to submit to the Center the
main outcome of the program, in particular,
in the form of
pre-prints and reprints of published papers as they become available.
8. It is encouraged to attract young scientists from the
Asia-Pacific region, in particular, Southeast
Asia.
9. It is strongly encouraged to promote science communication
with the public in diverse ways
including public lectures and
writings, contribution to the newly launched web journal of the
Center
for the public.
CCP 2006
Profile
Name of Conference: Conference on Computational
Physics(CCP2006).
Organising Institution: KPS Committee on Computational
Physics, Pohang University of Science and Tech (Postech).
Conference Location & Venue: Gyeongju Hyundai Hotel
and Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Dates: 5 - 8 Sept. 2006.
Conference Chair: Jai Sam Kim, Ph. D.
Sponsorship (Learned Societies): Postech, Korean
Physical Society (KPS), Association of Asia Pacific Physics
Societies (AAPPS), European Physical Society (EPS);
International Union of Applied and Pure Physics (IUPAP);
(potential sponsors) Asia Pacific Center for Theoretical
Physics (APCTP).
Potential Members of the International Scientific
Advisory Committee (ISAC): ~60% of the list will be drawn
from previous CCP conferences. The ISAC will be official by
June2005.
Conference Structure: Invited and Oral Contributions,
Poster (with life demo), Tutorials, Industrial Exhibit (+
presentations).
Topics: Traditionally, CCP covers the fields of
computer simulation physics. Typical subjects that are
covered are:
• Teaching computational physics—curriculum, labs, etc.
• Numerical algorithms—parallel matrix algorithms, PDE solvers,
FFT, etc.
• Methods in computational condensed matter physics.
• Simulation of nano-scale physics.
• Simulation of bio-molecular physics.
• Simulation of climate physics.
• Monte Carlo simulation of statistical systems.
• Grid computing—CMS, LIGO, etc.
• Numerical astrophysics—stellar evolution, cosmology, etc.
• Special purpose computers—PC clusters, etc.
Program Committee:
Some sessions of CCP 2006 will be synchronized relocations
of some international meetings held in Asia regularly with
emphasis on computational aspects. They will be integrated to
make one big conference CCP2006. Some topics handled in
previous conferences will be included.
The Program Committee relies on experts in the topics
that will be dealt within CCP2006. In order to cover as much
as possible the major regions of the world (America,
Asia, Europe), one Asian expert and another from USA or
Europe are invited to work together on building up a session on
a topic. The Program Committee should be defined by Jan. 2006.
Large Gaseous
Detector Concept Study Umbrella Kick Off at Taipei
Dear colleagues,
The large gaseous detector study has been announced at
Victoria workshop and Durham workshop. This is to serve as an
umbrella for distinct concept studies that use gaseous
tracking device. With the cost estimate document of the linear
collider detector due within about a year, we need to move
quickly.
At Taipei workshop, fortunately we have quite large attendances
from Europe and Americas who are interested in large gaseous
detectors, and we propose to launch real efforts regarding
large gaseous detectors. The topics to be covered would
include organizational structures and means to share common
software tools, and plan for the January meeting which could
be the 2nd meeting to follow this one. We could also cover
physics bench marks (to compare different concepts) which may
also involve people mainly working on SiD.
One lunch time of the workshop is set aside for this purpose.
As stated often, individuals can participate in multiple concept
studies (for example, the gaseous tracking, as well as SiD)
and such is highly encouraged and expected.
Best regards,
David, Jim and Hitoshi
Les Houches Workshop: Physics
at TeV Colliders
May 2-20, 2005
Les Houches Workshop Physics at TeV Colliders will be
the fourth in a series whose aim is to bring together theorists
and experimentalists working on the phenomenology of the
upcoming TeV colliders. The emphasis will be on the physics
of the LHC during its first few years of running with a strong
interplay between, on the one hand what has been learned from
the Tevatron and on the other hand how the next linear collider
could complement what will be learned from the LHC. The impact
of cosmology and astrophysics will be addressed. Themes to
be covered in the Workshop range from Quantum ChromoDynamics
to the mechanism of Electroweak Symmetry Breaking, notably
Higgs physics, Supersymmetry, the phenomenology of
Extra-dimensions and Little Higgs models. The in-terdependence
between the signals from the New Physics and their respective
backgrounds will be stressed. Two Working Groups have been set
up covering these different aspects of the searches at the
colliders. The projects are to start in January 2005 and should
be completed by the end of the year 2005.
The meeting at les Houches, between May 2nd and May 20th, will
be the culminating point of the Workshop where, besides the
Working Group activities, a few lectures and review talks are
planned. Participation to the Workshop is open to all however
due to space limitation in Les Houches, attendance to the
meeting is limited to 70 participants at any given point. Due
to the overwhelming response of the past three sessions, this
session is over a period of almost 3 weeks. Though we expect
some participants to attend the full duration of the meeting,
plans will be made so that a certain number of participants
cover either the first of second half of the meeting, allowing
us to accomodate about 110-120 participants in total this
time.
Les Houches Centre for Physics is located in the French Alps,
about an hour from Geneva and an hour from Annecy. The Centre
has a tradition of organising Schools, Workshops and
Conferences for more than five decades now and boasts an
excellent library. For the purpose of this Workshop a special
computing system will be installed. For further information,
please see
http://wwwlapp.in2p3.fr/
conferences/LesHouches/Houches2005/.
Registration will open in December 2004.
Fawzi BOUDJEMA
LAPTH CNRS
Chemin de Bellevue
F-74941 Annecy-le-Vieux
Tel: 0450091688
Fax: 0450279495
Email:
boudjema@lapp.in2p3.fr
Webpage:
http://lappweb.in2p3.fr/~boudjema/
World
Year of Physics 2005
Dear colleague,
You have been informed previously on the World Year of
Physics 2005 and in particular about the project “Physics
enlightens the world”: On occasion of the 50th anniversary of
Einstein’s death on April 18 a global action has been planned:
Thousands of people should participate in a relay sending a
flash of light around the globe. The International Steering
Committee of WYP2005 regarded this project as the one with the
highest impact on public attention for the physics year.
You may have heard that a number of dark-sky activists have
critizized the project because of alleged light pollution.
Although it had to be accepted even by the opponents that
there will be no real contribution to light pollution (the
total light relay is equivalent to about a dozen of cars
having their lights on for one day), the critics found some
resonance from astromomers. At IUPAP and some national physics
societies there came up some concern that the relationship
between physicists and astronomers could be stressed by this
project. As you may see on our website www.wyp2005.at , we
have done our best to include the interest of astronomers and
environmentalists to a degree that, as EPS president Martin
Huber (an astrophysicist himself) expressed it, the project
“will not provide any reasons for opposition by serious
professional and amateur astronomers as opposed to
fundamentalist.”
To give a counterbalance to the critical messages, I would
like to ask you to approach IUPAP with a positive statement
concerning the project. I would be grateful if you could send
emails to the IUPAP representatives whose email addresses are
as follows:
President Y. PETROFF, petroff@esrf.fr,
Past
President B. RICHTER,
BRichter@SLAC.Stanford.edu,
President Designate A. ASTBURY,
astbury@uvic.ca,
Secretary-General J. FRANZ,
franz@aps.org,
Associate-Secretary General R. BARBER,
barber@physics.umanitoba.ca,
Vice Presidents S. BAGAYEV,
bagayev@laser.nsc.ru,
J. SAHM,
sahm@physik.tu-berlin.de,
S. REZENDE, smr@df.ufpe.br,
H. FUKUYAMA,
fukuyama@issp.u-tokyo.ac.jp,
P. ORMOS,
pali@everx.sybk.u-syeged.hu,
A. SEN,
abhijit@plasma.ernet.in,
M. SKOLNICK,
hiroshi@popsvr.tokai.jaeri.go.jp,
E. C. ZINGU,
zingu@julian.mantec.ac.za.
The meeting of the IUPAP Executive Council will take place
next week, so please act fast!
Apart from this unpleasant situation, the projects progresses
nicely. So far we have indications of participants nearly 30
countries from all continents. There is a registration form
for participants on our website www.wyp2005.at Global Projects
Physics enlightens the world, where you also can find further
information. Please spread the message in your country and
encourage people to register, even if they do not yet know
exactly where they will stand in the great chain. To all
registered participants informations will be sent and
explanations will be given in due course.
Thank you very much
in advance for your help in establishing a successful World
Year of Physics 2005.
Best regards,
Max Lippitsch
Director Austrian Physical Society
Member of the WYP2005 International Steering Committee
Univ. Prof. Dr. Max E. Lippitsch
Institut für Physik, Karl-Franzens-Universität
Universitätsplatz 5, A-8010 Graz, Austria
Tel: +43(316)380 5192; Fax: +43(316)380 9816 |
