Saturday, October 10, 2009
Undergraduate Physics Education ... Free!
iTunes U has a free downloadable course by Stanford's Leonard Susskind called The Theoretical Minimum. It consists of 57 video lectures covering almost an entire undergraduate physics education - Classical Mechanics, Quantum Mechanics, Statistical Mechanics, Special Relativity & Electromagnetism, General Relativity, even Cosmology.
Tuesday, October 06, 2009
2009 Nobel in Physics
This year's Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded for two scientific achievements that have helped to shape the foundations of today's networked societies. They have created many practical innovations for everyday life and provided new tools for scientific exploration.
In 1966, Charles K. Kao made a discovery that led to a breakthrough in fiber optics. He carefully calculated how to transmit light over long distances via optical glass fibers. With a fiber of purest glass it would be possible to transmit light signals over 100 kilometers, compared to only 20 meters for the fibers available in the 1960s.
In 1969 Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith invented the first successful imaging technology using a digital sensor, a Charge-Coupled Device. Digital photography has become an irreplaceable tool in many fields of research. The CCD has provided new possibilities to visualize the previously unseen. It has given us crystal clear images of distant places in our universe as well as the depths of the oceans.
In 1966, Charles K. Kao made a discovery that led to a breakthrough in fiber optics. He carefully calculated how to transmit light over long distances via optical glass fibers. With a fiber of purest glass it would be possible to transmit light signals over 100 kilometers, compared to only 20 meters for the fibers available in the 1960s.
In 1969 Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith invented the first successful imaging technology using a digital sensor, a Charge-Coupled Device. Digital photography has become an irreplaceable tool in many fields of research. The CCD has provided new possibilities to visualize the previously unseen. It has given us crystal clear images of distant places in our universe as well as the depths of the oceans.
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