Content
The paper this semester will consist of a scientific biography of a
physicist. By a scientific biography, I mean that the main emphasis
should be on the scientific accomplishments of the physicist in the
context of his or her time. Thus, you need to dig into the
``zeitgeist'' of the era as well as learning about the subject of your
paper. Please include a list of the references you consulted, with a
minimum of three being non-web references. Visit the library. A good
place to start is the ``Dictionary of Scientific Biography''. Aim for
about 10 pages. We will again have draft versions which will be
peer-reviewed by your classmates. Please hand in two copies for your
draft version.
Schedule
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Approval of topics by me: 2 February 2008.
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Draft version of paper due: 27 March 2008.
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Reviews due: 6 April 2008.
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Final version of paper due: 4 May 2008.
Suggestions for possible subjects
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Niels Bohr
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Ernest Rutherford
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Enrico Fermi -- Devon Turner
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J. Willard Gibbs
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Ludwig Boltzmann
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James Clerk Maxwell -- Genevieve Vaive
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Joseph Henry -- Dan Rodeheffer
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Lise Meitner -- Kristen Shavlik
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Richard Feynman -- Xavier Quintana
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Erwin Schroedinger -- Naomi Sasso
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Werner Heisenberg
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Louis de Broglie
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Hidekei Yukawa
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Marie and/or Pierre Curie
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Sadi Carnot
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Michael Faraday -- Curtis Galpin
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J. J. Thomson
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S. N. Bose
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Henry Cavendish
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William Thomson
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Paul Dirac
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C. S. Wu
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Steven Weinberg
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Abdus Salam -- Alex Benedict
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James Jeans
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Arthur Eddington
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Albert Michelson
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John von Neumann
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Edwin Hubble -- Eric Peterson
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Carl Fredrich Gauss
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Murray Gell-Mann
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Max Planck -- Kyle Smith
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Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
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Robert Oppenheimer -- Andrea Gallegos
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Leo Szilard -- Kelsey Miller
There will be one person per topic --- first come, first served on
``hot'' topics! Let me know what you want to do before the deadline.