Is good science possible without emotion?

Ahhhhhh…..I love the smell of

Science in the morning!

Marie Curie (1867 – 1934)

Marie Curie (1867 – 1934)

• was born in Warsaw the daughter of a secondary-school teacher.

• she became involved in a students' revolutionary organization and found it prudent to leave Warsaw in 1891

• she went to Paris to continue her studies• she met Pierre Curie, Professor in the School of

Physics in 1894 and in the following year they were married

Marie Curie (1867 – 1934)• Her early researches were often performed under difficult conditions,

laboratory arrangements were poor and she had to undertake much teaching to earn a livelihood.

• The discovery of radioactivity by Henri Becquerel in 1896 inspired the Curies in their brilliant researches and analyses which led to the isolation Polonium. It then took them 4 years to reduce 10 tonnes of Pitchblende ore, distilling in cold damp conditions in their laboratory, to produce 0.1 grams of a new element Radium.

• She used to delight in holding this Radium up to her closed eye to see flashes in her eyeballs (she later died of luekemia!!!!)

• She was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1903, for her study into the spontaneous radiation discovered by Becquerel. In 1911 she received a second Nobel Prize in Chemistry (the first scientist to get two)

•

Marie Curie (1867 – 1934)The love of science and

scientific discovery drove me on in the difficult times

Emotion in Science?

“To those who do not know mathematics it is difficult to get across a real feeling as to the beauty, the deepest beauty, of nature ... If you want to learn about nature, to appreciate nature, it is necessary to understand the language that she speaks in.”

Richard Feynmann

Einstein always had something good to say…

“Imagination is more important than knowledge...”

“The ideals which have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Kindness, Beauty, and Truth. The trite subjects of human efforts, possessions, outward success, luxury have always seemed to me contemptible.”

• The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity.

Intuition in Science?

Millikan’s Oil Drops

• Robert A. Millikan (22 March 1868 – 19 December 1953) was an American experimental physicist, and Nobel laureate in physics for his measurement of the charge on the electron and for his work on the photoelectric effect.

Millikan’s Oil Drops

He only choose the results that fitted!

• On later examination of his notebook, it was found that he only chose the results that fitted what he felt the answer to be…..luckily he was right! Incidentily, the charge on the electron Millikan measured to be 1.6 x 10-19 Coulombs.

Sorry!