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GIANTS OF HUMAN CIVILIZATION 12

Dr sci. SIMO JELAČA

MILEVA and ALBERT EINSTEIN: Mileva (1875-1948), Albert (1879-1955), Swiss physicists

Mileva Maric, a Serb, was born in Titel, Vojvodina, and her husband, Albert Einstein, was born in Ulm, Germany. They met at the Zurich Polytechnic, studied together and came to the discovery of the Theory of Relativity and other great scientific discoveries of the twentieth century. Mileva was the first to come up with the idea of ​​the possibility of converting matter into energy, after the discovery of X-rays, Pupin and Marie Curie. She very successfully defined all her ideas mathematically. She was the first to introduce the concept of four-dimensional geometry (space-time) to the world, and then gave the definition of the Photoelectric effect. Mileva and Albert worked together on the electromagnetic theory of light, from 1897, and on the Theory of Relativity from 1901. In all likelihood, Mileva's dissertation was just the Theory of Relativity (later it disappeared from the University, probably because of Albert's fame). In 1905, Albert Einstein published three papers on theoretical physics, including the theory of relativity, but only under his own name. The mass-energy law is expressed by the famous formula E = m x c″ (energy is equal to the product of mass and the square of the speed of light), which will become the basis of the development of atomic energy. They also confirmed the Quantum Theory of Light, which resulted in the creation of the photoelectric cell (and as a result image transmission, television). This gave birth to a new branch of physics, Quantum Physics. All these accomplishments were mathematically defined by Mileva, as a great mathematician, and only Albert signed them. Albert was declared the greatest scientist of the twentieth century, and Mileva remained anonymous. Albert was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for 1921, for which there is information that Albert gave all the money from that prize to Mileva, while there are also claims that he used that money to buy her to hear. And while Marija Kiri radioed with her husband Pjero and shared the Nobel Prize with him, Mileva did not receive any recognition from her husband, not even for the children for whom she sacrificed herself. From 1933 to 1955, Albert lived and worked at Princeton University, in the United States, but during all that time he did not contribute to science. This is one of the proofs that everything he achieved, he achieved only with Milev together.

FREDERICK SODDY (1877-1956), English and Canadian chemist

Born in England, Sodi moved to Canada and worked at McGill University in Montreal with Ernest Redford, with whom he discovered the phenomenon of atomic disintegration (decay) of radioactive elements during 1901-1903. Radioactive elements are transformed into other elements during decay. Sodi worked on finding these new elements. He noticed that the Periodic Table of Elements does not have enough places for all the elements, so in 1913 he came up with a unique solution, noticing that the elements, although they have different atomic weights and half-lives, have the same properties. This meant that it was about different variations of the same elements. Sodi called these variations Isotopes and thereby removed the previous ambiguities. The later discoveries of neutrons by James Chadwick (1891-1974) provided a much more complete explanation of these phenomena.

Sodi also gave an explanation for alpha particles (helium nucleus), that when they are emitted from an element that decays, its atomic number decreases by two, and its atomic weight by four. Similarly, when a beta particle (negative electron) is emitted, the atomic number increases by one. Based on the results of the work on isotopes, Sodio was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 1921.

LISE MEITNER (1878-1968), Austrian physicist

After her doctorate at Beck University, Lisa Mitner works in Berlin with Otto Hahn in the nuclear physics laboratory. Together with his sister Otto Frisch, they worked out the process of nuclear fission (splitting of atoms), which would later become a very valuable discovery in nuclear physics.

MILUTIN MILANKOVIC (1879-1958), Serbian astronomer

Milutin Milankovic is a scientist whose Theory of Ice Ages is accepted in the world and confirmed by the latest cosmic research. He was born in Dalje, and completed his technical studies in Vienna, as one of the best students of his generation. He worked as an engineer in Austria, distinguished himself with his constructions and some innovations, and then came to Belgrade, where he became a university professor and worked until the end of his life. He accomplished works of lasting value and wrote his name among the stars. During the orbit around the moon, Russian scientists gave the name of Milutin Milankovic to a crater on the invisible side of the moon, which was adopted as an international recognition. The accuracy of Milankovicevic's calculations is the biggest confirmation of his theory, which he called the Sunning Canon. He was the vice-president of the Serbian Academy of Sciences, yet not well-known in his country, which he otherwise handled in a gentlemanly, quiet, and dignified manner. He had a brilliant writing style. His most significant works are: The canon of insolation of the earth and its application to the problem of ice ages, Celestial mechanics, History of astronomical science, Through the universe and the ages, Through the realm of science, Writings from the history of science and also Articles, Speeches, Correspondence, Memories, Experiences and Knowledge. He was an engineer by profession, and by works an astronomer and mathematician of extraordinary quality. He was also remembered as a historian of science and a witness to the development of Serbian science in the first half of the twentieth century. Milankovic's work Through the Universe and Centuries was first published in German in a large edition, with which he excelled as a scientist. In that part, he leads the reader in a very interesting way through ancient Babylon, old Athens, to visits to Aristotle and Archimedes, through the Alexandrian library and to Cleopatra, and then through the vastness of the universe. Milankovic's important works are the Mathematical Theory of Climate, the Astronomical Calendar of the Ice Ages, and the Centuries' Shift of the Earth's Poles. If Kepler's and Newton's laws of motion of celestial bodies are the first law of the universe, then Milankovic's Law of insolation is its second law. Milankovic was the first in the world to calculate the insolation of the earth and all the planets of the solar system, which was confirmed as impeccably accurate. Milankovic's mathematical theory of insolation was celebrated in 1995 throughout the world as one of the greatest achievements of human creativity of the twentieth century. Milankovic did not study science to make a living, he lived to study science. Milutin Milankovic combines astronomy, mathematics, physics and geophysics with literature, history and philosophy in his own unique way. He also created the most accurate calendar in the world so far. He explained Aristarchus' teaching about the movement of the planets Nekretnica, reproducing Apollonius' theorem of epicyclic movements of the planets in the solar system. He proved that climate changes are caused by astronomical causes, therefore events on earth take place according to the laws of heaven. He is the first in the world to apply climate theory in his research. It was said about him, "If the value of the planet is really determined by the energy of the sun, then the value of Milankovic's work is given by the light that he passed on to generations. If even for a moment that light illuminates our life path, Milankovic has reached the goal of his journey".

ALEXANDER FLEMING (1881-1955), Scottish bacteriologist

Fleming discovered Penicillin and saved millions of human lives with it. The discovery of penicillin was as accidental as it was scientific. Fleming's discovery of the mold Penicillium dates back to 1928, and the production of penicillin began only in 1940. Aleksadar Fleming is the son of a farmer, who, having received an inheritance, decided to study medicine. During his work, he was most interested in bacteriology, trying to discover a natural remedy against the growth of bacteria, so he looked for the same even in tears, saliva and mucus. In 1922, he experienced his first success, making the natural enzyme Lysozyme, and in 1928 he discovered Staphylococcus bacteria on a plate. He accidentally left them exposed to the air, on which occasion they became infected with penicillium. During Fleming's annual vacation, the molds developed and he took them for examination. He noticed that penicillium destroyed staphylococcus, which led to the discovery of life-saving Penicillin. Together with his collaborators Walter Florey and Ernst Boris Chain, he received the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1945.

HANS GEIGER (1882-1945), German physicist

Hans Geiger gave the world the Geiger counter, the first successful detector of alpha particles or radioactivity. He received his doctorate in Erlangen, Germany, and worked in Manchester, England, where, working with Ernest Radeford, he constructed an instrument for detecting the number of alpha particles emitted during the radioactive decay of elements in 1908. In 1912, Geiger returned to Germany, where he became the head of the laboratory for radioactivity in Berlin. In 1928, he made a more perfect version of the counter together with Walter Miller, so that version was called the Geiger-Miller counter.

NIELS BOHR (1885-1962), Danish physicist

Nils Bohr is considered one of the best theorists of atomic physics. In 1913 he published a paper on the composition of atoms and molecules, and from 1914 to 1916 he worked with Ernest Radeford in Manchester. Upon his return to Denmark, he was appointed head of the newly founded Institute for Theoretical Physics. In 1922 he received the Nobel Prize in Physics, and in 1943 he traveled to America. Since then he worked at Los Alamos on the atomic bomb project. In 1955, he organized the first conference on Atoms for Peace in Geneva. Bohr applied Planck's quantum theory to Radeford's model of the atom and established that electrons exist in fixed orbits, from which they do not emit energy. Energy emission occurs only when electrons change their state, moving from a lower to a higher energy level. Bohr calculated the energy of radiation during the change of energy levels of electrons in an atom, thereby confirming the Quantum Theory.

Nils Bohr expressed the following thought about Nikola Tesla: "Tesla's ingenious invention of the polyphase system and his research into wondrous high-frequency electrical phenomena were the basis on which completely new conditions for industry and radio communications were developed and had a far-reaching impact on our entire civilization."

CLARENCE BIRDSEYE (1886-1956), American inventor

Working in Labrador, Canada, Clarence Birds noticed the advantages of freezing food for its long-term preservation, so he built the first freezing device and then founded the General Sea Foods Company in 1924. This started the production of refrigeration devices for live foods. He also made a device for removing water from foodstuffs, also in order to preserve them better.

ERWIN SCHRODINGER (1887-1961), Austrian physicist

Srödinger, as a mathematician and theoretical physicist, advocated the principles of quantum mechanics, and worked at the university in Berlin with Albert Einstein. According to his opinion, particles behave like waves. He claimed that Louis de Broglie's equation is too simple and does not offer an explanation of the behavior of matter at the subatomic level. That is why he rejected the idea of ​​particles and advocated the idea of ​​waves. Between 1925 and 1926, Srödinger expressed the wave equation, which gave birth to Quantum Mechanics. However, this theory also had certain shortcomings, to which Srödinger was not blind. He proposed the so-called Wave packets that give the impression of particles but in reality behave like waves. A little later, Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac (1902-1984) supported Srödinger's theory and interpreted it mathematically. For their achievements, they shared the Nobel Prize in Physics for 1933.

HENRY MOSELEY (1887-1915), English physicist

Henri Mosley became a professor at the University of Manchester at the age of 23, and died in a plane crash in Turkey at the age of 28. Although he was young, when he was engaged in X-radiation spectra tests on metals, he noted the frequency of spectral lines, which were in agreement with the atomic weights of the elements. On this basis, he concluded that the frequency of radiation is in relation to the roots of certain whole numbers, which indicated the atomic numbers of the elements, which means according to their place in the periodic table. He concluded that the atomic numbers of elements are equal to the positive charge of the nucleus of their atoms, and that means the number of corresponding negatively charged electrons. Mosli thereby determined the vital connection between the structure of atoms and their chemical properties. Accordingly, it was seen that the properties of the elements are more in agreement with the atomic numbers than with the atomic weights. Certain discrepancies in Mendeleev's periodic system were also noticed, which was accepted as "Moseley's Law". Mosley even predicted the existence of some elements with their atomic numbers, weights and basic properties according to their places in the table. A few years later, these elements were discovered and included in the table according to the predicted places.

JOHN LOGIE BAIRD (1888-1946), Scottish engineer

John Beard is considered the father of television, who first demonstrated it in 1926. He had been working on it since 1912, but it was not until 1924 that faces on the screen could be recognized. He also worked on radar and the application of infrared radiation, on the basis of which he innovated the video recorder, the first image recording on a magnetic disk. He demonstrated color television in 1928, and from 1929, with the formation of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), his equipment was also used.

 To be continued...

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