Erwin Schrodinger (1887-1961) was an Austrian-Irish physicist.  He contributed what is now called Schrodinger equations in quantum mechanics and for which he won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1933. He is also known for his thought experiment called the Schrodinger cat thought experiment. Like his Friend, Albert Einstein, Schrodinger’s fame rests on four papers he published in quick succession. In the first paper, in 1926, he showed that there is energy eigenvalues for the hydrogen-like atom, proving a derivation of the wave equation for time independent systems. The second paper solved the quantum harmonic oscillator problem. The third paper…

Wolfgang Pauli (1900-1958) was an Austrian theoretical physicist. He is noted for his discovery of the exclusion principle, a principle that underpins the structure of matter. In 1945, Pauli received the Nobel Price in physics for his work on Exclusion Principle (also called the Pauli Principle). The Exclusion Principle states that no two electrons could exist in the same quantum state, identified by four quantum numbers including his two-valued degree of freedom. Pauli identified the electron’s spin degree of freedom. His research played a key role in validating Heisenberg’s matrix theory of quantum mechanics. Pauli used Heisenberg’s metric theory to…

Neils Henrik Bohr (1885-1962) was a Danish physicist. He made fundamental contributions to the understanding of the structure of the atom and to quantum mechanics. For his work in quantum mechanics he received the Nobel Prize in 1922. He later worked on the Manhattan Project that produced the first atomic weapon. Bohr improved Ernest Rutherford’s hypothesis on the structure of the atom; in 1913 he published a paper showing that the electron circled the nucleus of the atom; he further showed the chemical properties of each element is largely determined by the number of electrons circling its nucleus; he also…

Max Born (1882-1970) was a German, Jewish physicist and mathematician. He played a crucial role in the development of quantum mechanics, solid state physics and optics. Born was awarded the 1954 Nobel Prize in physics for his Statistical interpretation of quantum mechanics. Born was more a mathematician than anything else. His contribution is rendering the various discoveries on quantum mechanics in mathematical language. Born was a professor of physics at Berlin University and many of his students proceeded to win the Nobel Prize in physics. As a Jew, the Nazis made life difficult for Born and he emigrated to the…

Steve Jobs (1955- ) and Bill Gates (1955- ) are two America university drop outs whose computer and internet wizardry has come to represent the face of computers and the Internet. Whereas they were not the actual inventors of computer or the Internet but they represent the computer as we now know it. Steve Job and his friend Steve Wozniak, were the first to translate big computers into small computers, what is now called personal computers. They built the first table top computers (Apple) and marketed them. Other people got into the game and now there are tons of computer…

Albert Einstein (1879-1955) was a German, Jewish mathematician and physicist. He is best known for his theory of special relativity, his mass energy equation (E=MC2) and his translation of Planck’s notion that light is emitted in quanta to photons. Einstein’s special relativity theory reconciled mechanics to electromagnetism and his general relativity theory improved on Newton’s gravitation theory. Einstein made other contributions to physics but his special and general relativity and studies on light are considered his seminal contributions to science. Upon leaving college, Einstein worked at a Zurich Patents’ office. While there he had time to study what was dear…

Fred Hoyle (1915-2001) was an English astronomer. He is best remembered for his work on stellar nucleosynthesis and his contrarian nature, his taking opposing perspectives on what atheistic scientists would like the public to believe, that there is no God; Hoyle believed in God. Hoyle’s primary scientific work was on stellar nucleosynthesis, how the atoms in stars decay and transmuted to other atoms (different elements). He observed that one particular nuclear reaction, the triple-alpha process, generated carbon. There is a large amount of carbon in the universe making it possible for our carbon based life forms. He speculated on the…

George Gamow (1904-1968) was a Russian theoretical physicist and cosmologist. He contributed to the idea of the Big Bang origin of the universe by demonstrating alpha decay via quantum tunneling, radioactive decay of atoms, star formation and stellar nucleosynthesis. Essentially, Gamow showed how atoms in the sun are formed and how their nucleus eventually decays to release the radiation (light and heath) that we pick up on earth. This understanding of the formation and decay of stars and by generalization the galaxies and the universe contributed to our understanding of the origin of the universe and how it would eventually…

Georges Lamaitre (1894-1966) was a Belgian physicist and astronomer.  In 1931 Lamaitre proposed what is now called the Big Bang hypothesis of the origin of the universe. Einstein had postulated a steady state universe and Friedman and Lamaitre proved other wise that the universe is expanding. Lamaitre posited that the universe began from a primeval atom that exploded and created space, time and matter. Friedman merely talked about an expanding universe but it was Lamaitre who hypothesized that the universe had an origin in one atom that exploded and gave rise to it. At first Lemaitre’s hypothesis met with opposition,…