4 ms·
Not to take away anything from Mr Penzias but here’s how I remember his name :-) “Although Penzias and Wilson had not been looking for cosmic background radiat
by vmurthy 3y ago
Not to take away anything from Mr Penzias but here’s how I remember his name :-)
“Although Penzias and Wilson had not been looking for cosmic background radiation, didn’t know what it was when they had found it, and hadn’t described or interpreted its character in any paper, they received the 1978 Nobel Prize in physics. The Princeton researchers got only sympathy. According to Dennis Overbye in Lonely Hearts of the Cosmos, neither Penzias nor Wilson altogether understood the significance of what they had found until they read about it in the New York Times”
- Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything
RIP Mr Penzias
- OldGuyInTheClub 3y agoWithout aspersion on Penzias and Wilson, Robert Dicke should have been recognized in due time. He was a supremely gifted experimentalist on top of everything else. Credited with inventing the lock-in amplifier, he graciously deferred to others. His radiometer and switch also had great impact. Stockholm should hang its head for this oversight.
- blawson 3y agoOT but this book is so incredible. The breadth of information covered is amazing, even for being ~20 years old at this point. The audiobook at .7 speed is my sleep aid.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- sizzzzlerz 3y agoHave any other Nobel Prizes been awarded to someone who only discovered some phenomena but didn’t do any further research to advance our understanding of it? It seems to me that that falls in the category of blind luck rather than research and shouldn’t qualify for the Prize.
- evanb 3y agoMany. Just to give an example, the very first Nobel in physics was awarded to Röntgen, who discovered 'A new kind of Ray' (which only later named x-rays and were shown to be photons with a different wavelength). He noticed a detector going off even though his device was in a sealed box.
- neuromanser 3y agoBtw X-rays are called "rentgenové záření" ("Roentgen radiation") in Czech.
- thrdbndndn 3y agoIn lots of languages, both are used (thought X-rays becomes more and more common).
- bbojan 3y agoI believe in German-speaking countries the X-ray machine is called Röntgen? E.g. in a hospital you will have directions for "Röntgen".
- mr_mitm 3y agoWe call it "Röntgenstrahlung" (X-rays), "Röntgengerät" (X-ray machine), "Röntgenaufnahme" (X-ray picture). We even made a verb out of it, even though that's probably colloquial: "Wir müssen Ihr Bein röntgen" (we need to X-ray your leg).
- neuromanser 3y ago