OLLI-SCIE-4015 - Beautiful Experiments

Course Description

In 2002 George Johnson wrote an article that appeared in the New York Times entitled "Here They Are, Science's Ten Most Beautiful Experiments." We shall begin by reading his short article and briefly discuss what might make an experiment beautiful. In the first session several experiments from his list will be described and discussed. Subsequent meetings will include additional experiments. No special prior knowledge is assumed. To understand the significance of each experiment we shall discuss what was known, and more importantly not known, before the experiment. Among the scientists whose experiments and/or explanations we shall consider are Galileo, Newton, Pasteur, Bunsen, Urey, Bohr and Einstein.