Conveners
Da Poleni a B. Rossi e oltre / From Poleni to B. Rossi, and Beyond: 20th Century
- Chairperson: Enrico Giannetto
Da Poleni a B. Rossi e oltre / From Poleni to B. Rossi, and Beyond: 20th Century
- Chairperson: Adele La Rana
Da Poleni a B. Rossi e oltre / From Poleni to B. Rossi, and Beyond: 20th Century
- Chairperson: Roberto Lalli
This talk intends to retrace the human and scientific affair of Bernardo Dessau, a scientist of German origin and of Jewish tradition, who lived in Italy between the late 1800s and mid-1900s. From the degree in physics with Kundt in Strasbourg in 1986 to the research work on the generation and detection of electromagnetic waves and on wireless telegraphy, as assistant of prof. Augusto Righi,...
The astronomer Maurizio Buscalioni (1856–1914) who comes from a family of renowned political and scientific career, served as the Caracas observatory's first director in 1890 and was also a meteorologist. He outfitted the observatory with cutting-edge equipment, concentrating on meteorological and astrometric instruments. The first comprehensive measurements of atmospheric pressure,...
I compare two resarch programmes from the late years (1916-) of the old quantum theory. In three texts from 1917, Einstein proposes an apparently Hamiltonian micro-mechanics – on a torus designed to ‘Riemannize away’ problematic dynamical multi-valuedness – characterised by surprisingly modern invariances: ‘point’ (diffeomorphic) and homotopic. The rival programme (Schwarzschild, Sommerfeld,...
Free energy is a thermodynamic potential that plays a pivotal role in comprehending the behavior of energy processes and transformations in matter. However, the development of accurate methods to calculate it has been a significant challenge for scientists involved in analytical and computer simulation approaches, spanning several generations. This presentation seeks to provide an analysis of...
The interaction between Physics and Medicine was one of the founding issues that guided the establishment and development of the research laboratories of the Milan Institute of Complementary Physics (then Institute of Physics). In this communication, we shall take into consideration the main teaching and research activities that formed a bridge between Physics and Medicine in Milan in the...
To commemorate its centenary, the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) initiated a historical endeavor to comprehend the evolving roles of the institution in fostering international collaboration in physics from the 1920s until the present day. Drawing upon the findings of this historical project, this presentation offers a critical overview of Italy's involvement in the...
Fermi's approach to quantum mechanics passes through the study of collision processes. He obtains a first important result in 1924, still within the framework of the old quantum theory, but anticipating the method of virtual photons. In 1926, following, within a few months the advent of wave mechanics, and exploiting his knowledge of diffraction gratings, Fermi finds an elegant quantum...
We retrace the first steps towards understanding neutrinos, particles predicted by Pauli in 1930 to avoid a supposed violation of time-translation symmetry. Although there is a tendency to reduce the whole story to his intuition and the skill of Reines and Cowan, according to history great strides were made thanks to precious intellectual tools that combined ideas and mathematics. I refer to...
The concept of exchange interactions was introduced by W. Heisenberg in 1926 in connection with the quantum mechanical description of systems of identical particles, and it was soon fruitfully applied to many problems in atomic, molecular, and condensed matter physics. After the discovery of the neutron in 1932, it found application also in nuclear physics, with the theories of nuclear...
The launch of the first Russian satellite and the advent of the space age did not catch a stellar scientist like Bruno Rossi unprepared. Through a long experience in the study of cosmic rays, and especially during the 1950s, he had acquired a sense of outer space as a space populated by high-energy particles, radiation, and magnetic fields that now could be studied in their primary form,...
A heavy launch vehicle Proton carrying the International Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory INTEGRAL was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome on 17 October 2002. The project had been developed by the European Space Agency (ESA) for more than 10 years. INTEGRAL required an Arian 5 rocket, the cost of which became ever more problematical and which would not be available until the late 1990s....
Identification and characterization of the interacting systems in the analysis of physical phenomena is a teaching strategy that facilitates:
- the examination of the significant variables in the evolution of a phenomenon;
- the distinction between state and interaction variables;
- the recognition of cause and effect relationships.
We present educational activities that we have been...
Smithsonian Institute, Washington DC, 22-25 April 1973. At the commemorative symposium for the 500th anniversary of the birth of Copernicus (1473-1543), John Archibald Wheeler (1911-2008), designated chairman of the event, shakes up the conference with a lecture which has, apparently, a strong "anthropic" flavor: The Universe as Home for Man. Is it just one of the ironies of history? A naïve...
