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- Paul Dirac was a
- pathfinder in the
- inner cosmos of
- the atom. His
- research showed
- that the inner
- world of the atom
- has a richer and
- more complex life
- than was even
- suspected by those
- scientists who
- first unravelled
- its structure
- #
- The new science of quantum mechanics was developed by
- Schroedinger. Dirac, while still a research student, evolved
- a mathematical formula which squared Einstein's theory of
- relativity with Schroedinger's research, and so opened the
- way for the deep structure of the atom to be explored
- #
- Dirac was an
- arch practitioner
- of a scientific
- technique common
- in sub-atomic
- physics: he would
- first have an idea;
- then he would test
- its plausibility
- by mathematical
- means;and lastly
- devise an experi-
- ment to see if his
- calculations had
- been right
- #
- Carl Anderson
- demonstrated the
- existence of anti-
- particles in 1932,
- and so proved that
- Paul Dirac's theory
- had been right. The
- next year Dirac
- shared the Nobel
- Prize for physics
- with his colleague
- Erwin Schrodinger
- #
- The catalog
- of fundamental
- particles and
- anti-particles
- grows longer as
- Dirac's work is
- continued by
- others. This
- computer re-
- construction
- shows tracks
- emerging from
- a clash between
- a proton and
- an antiproton
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