MEET THE TOP 5 21st CENTURY PHYSICISTS AND THEIR WORKS
As an internet technology blogger, I do more work on the developments on the internet world but physics still remains my best course, hence I write about physics once in a while. Today I have decided to give honor to those whom honor is due as the popular saying have it. Most of the time, the works of these men travel farther than their names. For instance, pulley systems are used in my village extensively for drawing water from wells but I can bet none of them have heard of the name Archimedes. Most of us knew he did marvelous job on the discovery of the theory of flotation but very few knew he was the brain behind simple machines in physics which we use sometimes on daily basics without even knowing the source.
The criteria for this selection was based on their contributions to the next generation physics but compared to the work of the 19th and 20th century physicist, I’d say they still have a long way to go but here you have it, the top five physicist of the 21st century and their works.
1. Professor Thorne Kip:
Prof. Thorne was born in Utah, Logan on the 1st of June 1940. Thorne never had a physics background as his father was into agriculture and his mother, an economists though they both were scholars. Thorne like most physicists views himself as an atheist though he had a strong Christian background. He graduated with a B.Sc. in the California Institute of Technology, Caltech at the age of 21 and within 3 years he obtained his Ph.D with a ground breaking thesis on Geometrodynamics of Cylindrical bodies.
))
His work....
Professor Thorne spent 40 years of his life working on gravitational waves and black holes. Proving the existence of gravitational waves helped in explaining the behavior of objects in space and time, or spacetime as it is fondly called.
Gravitational waves are ripples that exist in the curvature of time and space that travels perpendicular from the source (outwards). Einstein was the first scientist to predict the existence of this wave in 1916 when he was working on the theory of general relativity.))
Thorne was the first physicist to prove Einstein right by building a device that can detect the presence of this wave. This device is called the LIGO -Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory. This wave is so difficult to detect because unlike other waves in existence, their interaction with everything it comes in contact with is so infinitesimal. Some will ask, why are these waves so important to us since their impact are infinitesimal? Well, the shortest answer is that they make it possible for us to view our universe in whole different way, just the same way the discovery of X-ray allows us to view the human body in a whole different way. 
credit:science news for student
Professor Thorne was awarded a Nobel price for the discovery of the LIGO system which was able to detect and prove the existence of these waves. Thorne was also credited for being able to present complex physics ideas so simple that even a layman can grasp the point within.
2. Michio Kaku:
Kaku, the only Asian scientist on this list and also my favorite. He was born in San Jose California on January 24 1947 to a Japanese father and American mother. He had high interest in physics even as teenager that he accepted to build a particle accelerator ,during a National Science Fair in Mexico, that can generate and project a gamma rays strong enough to form an antimatter (an atomic material that has the same mass but opposite charge) to which he constructed a particle accelerator in his fathers garage. Kaku graduated as the best student in physics from Harvard University in 1968 and obtained a Ph.D 4 years later in California University, Berkeley. He also served in the United States Army during Vietnam war where he was trained in the infantry section in Washington, though he was never deployed cause the war came to an end sooner.
))
His work....
His work which proves that the earth was created from nothing inspired the TV show which aired as what happen before the big bang. He is referred to as "the man that completed Einstein's work" because of his works on the STRING THEORY also known as the "theory of everything". According to him, the whole universe is made of strings! let me back it up a bit, right from time physicists have been trying to come up with answer to the question; what is our earth/universe made of? We know that matter is made up of atoms and atoms comprises of protons and neutrons which has the electrons whirl around them. This protons and neutrons also have sub-particles, the quarks and hence we consider the quarks as the fundamental element.
credit:world science festival
But the string theory came along as the successor to the above theory and says that all the fundamental particles stated above are just a different existence of one very basic object called a string. If in our initial view of electron as a point, it can only move and with this movement can not actually achieve anything. But with string theory, we can view electron as a loop of string using a very powerful microscope, hence strings can do more than just movement. If string is viewed as a the fundamental element of a particle, then everything is made of strings and this explains the existence of "everything"; hence it is called the theory of everything. Kaku was also credited for being able to convey complex physics problems in an extremely simple way, hence very good in passing knowledge.
3. Andre Geim Konstantin:
Geim was born in 21st October 1985 to the family of Alekseyevich Geim and Nina Nikolayevna Bayer with both parents being German engineers. Geim failed his entrance exam into Moscow Engineering Physics Institute (MEPI) twice mainly because of his German background. He applied and was admitted into the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. Just like many who were admitted to read courses they initially did not apply for, Geim studied Solid State Physics instead of astrophysics or particle physics which he earlier applied for but he later admitted he love his current choice more. He graduated from the above university and obtained his Ms.C in the year 1982 and later obtained a Ph.D equivalent degree five years later from the Institute of Solid State Physics in Russian academy of science.
))
His work.....
Geim received a Nobel price in 2010 for his work on Graphene. He discovered a method for isolating a single atomic layer of graphite which is referred to as graphene. Though he didn't accomplish this alone, he had help from many researches in the Manchester University.
According to Geim, one of the major application of graphene would be in the smartphone sector where it could be used to manufacture flexible screens. Graphene is an awesome material and could be the solution to an everlasting screen for our smartphone as it is said to be 200 times stronger than the normal steel and has the ability to be incredibly flexible and light. To also prove it is here for our smartphones, it is the thinnest material available and is also transparent!
credit:digital trends
It can also be applied in the radiology as protective shields as even helium can not pass through it. It is also a good conductor of heat and electricity. It also finds application in water purification as it could form a big part of desalination plants.
4. Stephen Hawking:
It is only natural that a distinguished scientist like Hawking made this list. Hawking received the highest civilian award in United States, the Presidential Medal of Freedom award in 2002. He was born on the 8th of January 1942 to the family of Isobel and Frank Hawking. Though the parents were financially constrained, they were still scholars and they both attended the Oxford University. Hawking attended girls secondary school for few months and later moved to a village school in Hertfordshire where he schooled for just a year in 1952.
))
Though Hawking had a rough academic beginning, he was referred to as Einstein for his brilliancy later on. As a teenager he was able to construct computer from old recycled clock parts and telephone board with help of his mathematics teacher. Hawking has a very interesting undergraduate life and also an extremely brilliant student that even the staff that interviewed him during his finals were afraid that he was far clever than them. He graduated with a first class honors and resumed his post graduate studies in the year 1962.
His work...
Hawking's work was based mostly on the field of physics and astronomy and made a ground breaking contribution in the General Relativity. Hawking has also proven many theorems on the laws that governs black holes using the cosmological models. He was recognized by NASA in her 50th anniversary as a guest lecturer and speaker. He also made huge contribution to the design of gravitational wave detectors already discussed above.
))
5. Brian Greene:
Last but definitely not the least on this list is Professor Brian. Brian was born on the 9th of February, 1963 to an American family with a dropout father, Alan Greene. Brian attended the Harvard University in the year 1980 and completed his Ph.D studies in physics in 1987 from the Oxford University. Just like his father, Brian was a good pianist and vocalist. In 1990, he joined the physics faculty of University of Cornell where he was appointed as a full professor five years later. As a public figure, he is known for the New York Times best selling books and many appearances in the media with recent show with Colbert Stephen and Charlie Rose. His work....
))
Brian's work has been mainly of the development of Superstring Theory. Wait a bit, but I talked about string theory being the theory of everything previously? Well, string theory has two major flaws. The first problem is that it proposed that the we experience 26 dimensions in the universe! We only experience four dimension, three spacial dimension and on time dimension. If the spacetime is composed of 26-dimensions, then Tachyon must be part of it.
))
I know guys that have watched star trek must be happy this time but in reality, tachyon have negative mass property and if the universe is composed of negative mass or imaginary mass, then the measurement and many aspect of the universe itself will be imaginary.
Secondly, the original string theory (the Bosonic theory) doesn't permit fermions i.e, protons, electrons, neutrons etc but permits only force carriers, boson, which actually contradict lots of things in the universe. This is where the superstring theory comes in to cut down these large dimension to only ten eliminating the above mentioned problems while still maintaining the gravitational properties.
REFERENCES
- thorne kip -wikipedia
- michio kaku -wikipedia
- geim konstantin -wikipedia
- stephen hawking -wikipedia
- brian greene -wikipedia
- what can graphenes do
- the string theory
Being A SteemStem Member
I read a post awhile back that mentioned Archimedes, and I commented how profound he is based on both the volume of work, and the period he lived. He may have been a time traveler that got stuck in the past offering innovations earlier than otherwise :-) --3D
So awesome! But it's only "so far" it'll be awesome to see what else comes out in the next 60 or so years (my life span :p)
I must say you're really funny but let's watch and see what comes up
The list would have not been complete without number 4