Anthony Leggett

Happy birthday Anthony Leggett! Born in 1938 in London, Leggett went to Oxford University, where he initially studied philosophy. After briefly considering becoming a pure mathematician, he chose to pursue physics, because “in mathematics, almost by the definition of the subject, to be wrong means you are stupid: I wanted the possibility of being wrong without being stupid - of being wrong, if you like, for interesting and nontrivial reasons.” Leggett worked initially on the theory of many-body quantum systems, notably superfluid helium. In the 1970s he explained how atoms of superfluid helium-3, which are fermions, interact with each other in a way analogous to superconducting electrons. Leggett shared the 2003 Nobel physics prize for that work. His research interests later diversified into other branches of condensed-matter and low-temperature physics. The photo, which was taken in 2010, shows Leggett at the Science in the Market tent in Urbana, Illinois. He is answering the little girl’s question, “How was the moon made?”

Date in History: 26 March 1938