Bulletin of the American Physical Society
2007 Joint Fall Meeting of the Texas Sections of the APS and AAPT; Zone 13 of SPS
Volume 52, Number 16
Thursday–Saturday, October 18–20, 2007; College Station, Texas
Session A1: Invited Session: Two Nobel Laureates |
Hide Abstracts |
Chair: Edward Fry and Glenn Agnolet, Texas A&M University Room: Rudder Tower 601 |
Friday, October 19, 2007 9:00AM - 9:45AM |
A1.00001: Einstein's Theory of Specific Heats: The Third Coming of Planck's Constant Invited Speaker: Today, Einstein's explanation in 1907 of the marked drop in the specific heat of diamond with decreasing temperature is overshadowed by admiration for his Annus Mirabilis of 1905, introducing his light-quantum (the ``second coming of h''), Brownian motion, and special relativity. Back then, however, his specific heat theory had far greater impact on the thinking of contemporary physicists and his reputation. This talk will explore instructive aspects of the historical context, particularly the symbiotic relationship between the development of quantum theory and the Third Law of thermodynamics. Also, recent tantalizing work will be mentioned that resembles the approach young Einstein took a century ago. [Preview Abstract] |
Friday, October 19, 2007 9:45AM - 10:30AM |
A1.00002: How Advances in Science Are Made Invited Speaker: It is seldom the case that one can anticipate where great breakthroughs in science will occur, and even harder to anticipate where these breakthroughs will find applications to benefit mankind. In this talk the speaker will trace the development of NMR as an example of a development for which the applications were not at all obvious. He will then address the question of how discoveries in science occur, and will present a set of research strategies that can substantially increase the chances that one will make such a discovery. Finally, he will use his own discovery of superfluidity in liquid 3He to show how most discoveries depend essentially on contributions, often many, made by the progress of the scientific community at large. [Preview Abstract] |
Follow Us |
Engage
Become an APS Member |
My APS
Renew Membership |
Information for |
About APSThe American Physical Society (APS) is a non-profit membership organization working to advance the knowledge of physics. |
© 2025 American Physical Society
| All rights reserved | Terms of Use
| Contact Us
Headquarters
1 Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740-3844
(301) 209-3200
Editorial Office
100 Motor Pkwy, Suite 110, Hauppauge, NY 11788
(631) 591-4000
Office of Public Affairs
529 14th St NW, Suite 1050, Washington, D.C. 20045-2001
(202) 662-8700