European Physics in Its Heyday
This paper reports on the heyday of physics in the early part of the 20th century. Two of the cornerstones of physics were of European creations. Many of the laws, principles, rules of physics were derived from the European physicists. They also won most of the coveted Nobels for their respective countries. Since 1950, there is a perceptible decline in the prowess of European physics in terms of the Nobel tally. We offer no reasons for this development. The whole changing scene of physics however is of great interest to us because it can tell a lesson or two about staying afloat in the competitive physics world. Introduction Denis Jerome and Jean-Michel Raimond [1] in their letter to the May 2004 issue of Physics World, have chronicled that of the 90,000 articles published in physics journals in 2000, some 39% came from Europe, whereas only 29% originated in the US. However, European physics journals only have a 27% share of the "market" because more and more European physicists are publishing their papers in American journals. For instance, 35% of the papers published by the American Physical Society (APS) are by European authors, compared with only 25% by American physicists. The authors go on to narrate that a century ago the publication scenario was a totally different picture altogether. Nearly all of the papers laying the foundations of modern physics ~ including Einstein's seminal papers on special relativity, general relativity and photoelectric effect were published in the journals administered by European physical societies. Two of physics' cornerstones in the 20th century namely x-rays and quantum mechanics were the creations of the European physicists. In her latest book The Quantum Ten [2] Sheilla Jones enumerated all the ten European physicists who had made their singular contributions to the field which includes the famous Albert Einstein (see Table 1).This signifies the zenith of European physics. Other Aspects of European Triumphs Not only in quantum mechanics, the foundation stones of classical mechanics, optics, thermodynamics, electricity, magnetism and electromagnetism were laid by the Europeans [3]. Natalie Angier [4] in her latest book The Canon has reported the achievement of these scientists. Pages 102 and 103 of her book say there was Count Alessandro Volta, an Italian physicist who invented the chemical battery; James Prescott Joule, a British physicist who showed that heat is a form of energy; Charles Augustin de Coulomb, a French physicist and pioneer in the study of magnets and electrical repulsion; James Watt, a British engineer and inventor who designed and patented a very good steam engine .... Andre Marie Ampere, a French mathematician and physicist who discovered the relationship between magnetic force and electric current and whom we honor in the ampere, or amp.... and Georg Simon Ohm, a German physicist who determined the relationship between voltage, current, and resistance in an electrical current, and who is rumored to have practiced yogic meditation when he thought nobody was around. These scientists together with others have their names immortalized in the physics annals with their names used as units. See Table 2. The list in Table 2 is by no means exhaustive. Besides the scientific units, there are many physical laws, principles, rules, effects which are derived from the European physicists and thus aptly named after them. We have the famous Newton's laws of motion, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, Stefan's law, Bragg's law, Hund's rule, Mossbauer effect to name but a few. The Europeans also won the lion's share of the Nobel prizes in physics prior to 1945. The first Nobel prize in physics went to Wilhelm Rontgent, the discoverer of x-rays. Many of the milestones in the history of modern physics are of European creation. A listing of which can be found in the book by Kenneth Krane [3]. Many of the elements found naturally or otherwise are named after the European countries or scientists. …