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The breakthroughs that have had the most transformative practical impacts, from thermodynamics to the Internet.
Physics informs our understanding of how the world works – but more than that, key breakthroughs in physics have transformed everyday life. We journey back to ten separate days in history to understand how particular breakthroughs were achieved, meet the individuals responsible and see how each breakthrough has influenced our lives.
It is a unique selection. Focusing on practical impact means there is no room for Stephen Hawking’s work on black holes, or the discovery of the Higgs boson. Instead we have the relatively little-known Rudolf Clausius (thermodynamics) and Heike Kamerlingh Onnes (superconductivity), while Albert Einstein is included not for his theories of relativity but for the short paper that gave us E=mc2 (nuclear fission). Later chapters feature transistors, LEDs and the Internet.
Finally we ask: what could the eleventh day be? – i.e. the greatest development yet to come.
Day 1: Tuesday, 5 July 1687
Isaac Newton – Publication of the Principia
Day 2: Thursday, 24 November 1831
Michael Faraday – Reading of ‘Experimental Researches in Electricity’
Day 3: Monday, 18 February 1850
Rudolf Clausius – Publication of ‘On the Moving Force of Heat’
Day 4: Monday, 11 March 1861
James Clerk Maxwell – Publication of ‘On Physical Lines of Force’
Day 5: Monday, 26 December 1898
Marie Curie – Publication of ‘On a New, Strongly Radio-active Substance’
Day 6: Tuesday, 21 November 1905
Albert Einstein – Publication of ‘Does the Inertia of a Body depend on its Energy Content?’
Day 7: Saturday, 8 April 1911
Heike Kamerlingh Onnes – Discovery of superconductivity
Day 8: Tuesday, 16 December 1947
John Bardeen and Walter Brattain – First demonstration of a working transistor
Day 9: Wednesday, 8 August 1962
James R. Biard and Gary Pittman – Patent filed for light emitting diode
Day 10: Wednesday, 1 October 1969
Steve Crocker and Vint Cerf – First link of the internet initiated
The eleventh day?