Significant Events in Physics

Galileo observes the regularity of a swinging cathedral lamp, an episode later associated with his investigations of pendulum motion.

States that the volume of a gas varies inversely with pressure when temperature is constant.

Uses a torsion balance to measure forces between electric charges.

Observes an electric current deflecting a nearby compass needle.

Helps discover the 2nd law of Thermodynamics

Discovers Ohms Law, volts = Impdendence x resitance

Presents the principle that observed frequency changes with relative motion.

Presents experiments supporting conservation of energy in physical processes.

Demonstrates a long pendulum beneath the dome of the Pantheon.

Publishes equations showing electromagnetic waves can propagate through space.

Shows uranium radiation can fog photographic plates without sunlight.

Argues that cathode rays consist of universal negatively charged corpuscles, later called electrons.

Explains photoelectric emission by proposing that light transfers energy in discrete quanta to electrons.

Submits On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies, establishing the special theory of relativity.

Reports a precise value for the elementary electric charge from oil-drop measurements, strengthening the case for quantized charge.

Concludes that penetrating radiation reaches Earth from outer space.

Publishes an atomic model with electrons occupying discrete energy states.

Establishes atomic number, placing uranium at 92.

Presents the final generally covariant gravitational field equations to the Prussian Academy.

Formulates stimulated emission in his quantum theory of radiation, a principle later fundamental to lasers.

Shows that X-rays scattered by electrons lose energy and momentum as expected from photon-electron collisions.

Proposes that material particles possess wave properties.

Formulates the rule preventing identical electrons from sharing one quantum state.

With George Uhlenbeck, proposes that the electron possesses intrinsic angular momentum called spin.

Formulates wave mechanics in which electron states in atoms are represented by wavefunctions obeying the Schrodinger equation.

With Lester Germer, observes diffraction of electrons from a nickel crystal and directly confirms the wave character of matter.

Publishes a fuller experimental account establishing the neutron as a distinct nuclear particle.

Conceives a neutron-driven nuclear chain reaction after reading about Rutherford comments on atomic energy.

Organizes a systematic programme of neutron irradiation experiments that produces artificial radioactivity in many different elements.

Interprets uranium splitting as nuclear fission.

Oppenheimer analyzes continued gravitational collapse as an implication of general relativity

A uranium and graphite pile achieves the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction.

Predicts waves travelling through magnetized electrically conducting fluids.

Explains how electronic surface states affect semiconductor behaviour, helping guide the Bell Labs transistor experiments.

With Leon Cooper and Robert Schrieffer, explains superconductivity through correlated pairs of electrons coupled to the crystal lattice.

Measures electron tunnelling through an insulating barrier into a superconductor and reveals the superconducting energy gap.

Predicts that paired electrons can tunnel coherently between superconductors, producing the Josephson effects.

Finds the rotating black hole solution to Einstein's field equations.

Develops the consequence that the symmetry-breaking mechanism should leave a massive scalar particle that could in principle be detected experimentally.

Proves a major uniqueness result showing that static vacuum black holes are described by the Schwarzschild solution under suitable assumptions.

Leads the SPEAR electron-positron collider team that discovers the J-psi particle, demonstrating the power of lepton colliders for particle physics.

Calculates emission rates for massless particles from an uncharged, nonrotating black hole using Hawking radiation and black hole perturbation theory.

Performs experiments testing Bell inequalities with entangled photons.

Taylor reports precise orbital decay measurements matching general relativitys gravitational wave prediction

Co-demonstrates experimental quantum teleportation using entangled photons.

With Konstantin Novoselov, isolates graphene and studies its unusual two-dimensional electronic behaviour.

Announces that ATLAS and CMS have observed a new particle consistent with the long-sought Higgs boson.

Reitze announces the first direct detection of gravitational waves by the LIGO collaboration