X-Message-Number: 19778
From: 
Date: Mon, 12 Aug 2002 06:16:35 EDT
Subject: Ted Williams Had Nobel Laureate Buddies

CryoNet:

A friend of mine, a retired NC State University professor, got a book review 
to me that was recently published in "The New Yorker."  I ordered from 
Amazon, and am currently reading: "HYDROGEN The Essential Element," by John 
S. Rigden, copyright 2002 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College 
(Harvard University Press).  Good book on the history of world physics 
advancements with particularly attention given to contributions enabled by 
hydrogen, the smallest and "simplest" element. John S. Rigden is the Director 
of Special Projects at the American Institute of Physics. Getting to page 178 
last night, I found some supporting documentation for the contention that Ted 
Williams was indeed a man of science.

"The faith that many people place in God, we place in science
and other human endeavors." -- John Henry & Claudia Williams

From "HYDROGEN":

Such was the character of Edward M. Purcell.  How
many scientists, one might ask, would delay publication
of results so that others could share in the glory? 
Purcell was an unusual physicists, displaying none of the
ruthlessness often found in men and women of ambition.
Instead, kindness and consideration for others emanated
from him.  "Doc" Ewen also had to have been part of the
decision to share the honor with the Dutch and the
Australians.  Ewen was a little more senior than the
typical graduate student since he had served in the
Navy during World War II.  In the Navy, "Doc" was an
instructor of celestial navigation.  One of is students was
Ted Williams, the great Boston Red Sox baseball player,
who was a Navy pilot.  During the Purcell-Ewen experiment,
Ted Williams visited the Harvard physics laboratory to see
"Doc" and to see the experiment first hand.  As Purcell
later reported, the famous physicists at Harvard "were all
aflutter" with the great Ted Williams in their midst.
Whether it was his maturity, his service in the Navy, or the
influence of Purcell, Ewen also deserves credit for sharing
the honor of the discovery.

Both Purcell and Ewen knew their discovery was very
important.  One indication of its importance is that Purcell
and Ewen have been incorrectly credited with winning the
Nobel Prize for this work.  (Purcell won the prize for his
discovery of NMR.) No one can say, but it is possible their
unselfish act of sharing the discovery with the other two
laboratories deprived them of added honor.  It is interesting
to note that a year before he died, Purcell confided to one
of his most illustrious students, Nicolaas Bloembergen, that
he regarded his contributions to radio astronomy to be at
least as significant as his discovery of nuclear magnetic
resonance.*  The discovery of the hydrogen 21-cm line
opened possibilities for gaining new knowledge about our
galactic neighborhood as well as the universe far from us --
detailed and surprising knowledge.

* Nicolaas Bloembergen, "Edward M. Purcell (1912-1997)," Nature 386, 662 
(1997).

Regards,

DC Johnson, Raleigh

PS.  It's my guess that an added significance to the name 21st Century 
Medicine (21CM) is likely not lost on physicist Brian Wowk (i.e., the 
notorious 21-cm wavelength of the hydrogen spectrum created via photons 
emitted due to the atom's sole electron making a particular energy state / 
orbit transition).  It sure would have been lost on me without the book!

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