The following article is based on Prof. Beams’ Retiring Presidential Address before the American Physical Society, presented at its annual meeting in New York City on January 29, 1959.
Upon this occasion the speaker usually reviews some scientific or technical subject with which he is or has been associated or he discusses current problems involving the role of physics in human affairs. Although the latter subject certainly is most timely and important, I shall address myself to the former. I will attempt to discuss some applications of high‐speed rotation to science with special emphasis upon problems of centrifuging. No effort will be made to review adequately the subject or to emphasize the most important work done in the field. Instead I will discuss some of the work that has interested me personally. Unfortunately time is not available to mention properly all of my collaborators and students to whom should go most of the credit for the work.
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References
1. E. O. Lawrence, J. W. Beams, and W. D. German, Phys. Rev. 31, 1112 (1928).https://doi.org/PHRVAO
5. T. Svedberg, Colloid Chemistry (Chem. Cat. Co., 1928) second edition; T. Svedberg and K. O. Pederson, The Ultracentrifuge (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1940).
23. F. C. Armstead, F. C. Bader, B. C. Belden, H. Carr, A. K. Cocke, C. Hutchison, F. L. Hereford, F. T. Holmes, L. G. Hoxton, M. Irby, W. C. Johnson, A. R. Kuhlthau, A. C. Lapsley, J. H. McQueen, F. W. Linke, A. K. Mann, J. W. Moore, E. P. Ney, M. L. Randolph, C. S. Simons, P. Sommer, and J. L. Young, III. In addition, A. O. Nier of the University of Minnesota, L. J. Briggs of the National Bureau of Standards, a group working at Columbia directed by H. C. Urey, a group at Westinghouse directed by F. C. Rushing, and a group at the Standard Oil Development Co. directed by E. V. Murphree gave us most valuable help.
24. J. W. Beams, L. B. Snoddy, and A. R. Kuhlthau, Second UN Int. Conf. on Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy, Sept. 1958.
25. K. Cohen, Theory of Isotope Separation (McGraw‐Hill Book Co., New York, 1951).
With strong magnetic fields and intense lasers or pulsed electric currents, physicists can reconstruct the conditions inside astrophysical objects and create nuclear-fusion reactors.
A crude device for quantification shows how diverse aspects of distantly related organisms reflect the interplay of the same underlying physical factors.