Sonar

The invention:



A device that detects soundwaves transmitted

through water, sonar was originally developed to detect enemy

submarines but is also used in navigation, fish location, and

ocean mapping.



The people behind the invention:



Jacques Curie (1855-1941), a French physicist

Pierre Curie (1859-1906), a French physicist

Paul Langévin (1872-1946), a French physicist







Active Sonar, Submarines, and Piezoelectricity



Sonar, which stands for sound navigation and ranging, is the

American name for a device that the British call “asdic.” There are

two types of sonar. Active sonar, the more widely used of the two

types, detects and locates underwater objects when those objects reflect

sound pulses sent out by the sonar. Passive sonar merely listens

for sounds made by underwater objects. Passive sonar is used

mostly when the loud signals produced by active sonar cannot be

used (for example, in submarines).

The invention of active sonar was the result of American, British,

and French efforts, although it is often credited to Paul Langévin,

who built the first working active sonar system by 1917. Langévin’s

original reason for developing sonar was to locate icebergs, but the

horrors of German submarine warfare inWorldWar I led to the new

goal of submarine detection. Both Langévin’s short-range system

and long-range modern sonar depend on the phenomenon of “piezoelectricity,”

which was discovered by Pierre and Jacques Curie in

1880. (Piezoelectricity is electricity that is produced by certain materials,

such as certain crystals, when they are subjected to pressure.)

Since its invention, active sonar has been improved and its capabilities

have been increased. Active sonar systems are used to detect

submarines, to navigate safely, to locate schools of fish, and to map

the oceans.

Sonar Theory, Development, and Use



Although active sonar had been developed by 1917, it was not

available for military use until World War II. An interesting major

use of sonar before that time was measuring the depth of the ocean.

That use began when the 1922 German Meteor Oceanographic Expedition

was equipped with an active sonar system. The system

was to be used to help pay German WorldWar I debts by aiding in

the recovery of gold from wrecked vessels. It was not used successfully

to recover treasure, but the expedition’s use of sonar to determine

ocean depth led to the discovery of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.

This development revolutionized underwater geology.

Active sonar operates by sending out sound pulses, often called

“pings,” that travel through water and are reflected as echoes when

they strike large objects. Echoes from these targets are received by

the system, amplified, and interpreted. Sound is used instead of

light or radar because its absorption by water is much lower. The

time that passes between ping transmission and the return of an

echo is used to identify the distance of a target from the system by

means of a method called “echo ranging.” The basis for echo ranging

is the normal speed of sound in seawater (5,000 feet per second).

The distance of the target from the radar system is calculated by

means of a simple equation: range = speed of sound × 0.5 elapsed

time. The time is divided in half because it is made up of the time

taken to reach the target and the time taken to return.

The ability of active sonar to show detail increases as the energy

of transmitted sound pulses is raised by decreasing the

sound wavelength. Figuring out active sonar data is complicated

by many factors. These include the roughness of the ocean, which

scatters sound and causes the strength of echoes to vary, making

it hard to estimate the size and identity of a target; the speed of

the sound wave, which changes in accordance with variations in

water temperature, pressure, and saltiness; and noise caused by

waves, sea animals, and ships, which limits the range of active sonar

systems.

Asimple active pulse sonar system produces a piezoelectric signal

of a given frequency and time duration. Then, the signal is amplified

and turned into sound, which enters the water. Any echo that is produced

returns to the system to be amplified and used to determine the identity

and distance of the target.

Most active sonar systems are mounted near surface vessel keels

or on submarine hulls in one of three ways. The first and most popular

mounting method permits vertical rotation and scanning of a

section of the ocean whose center is the system’s location. The second

method, which is most often used in depth sounders, directs

the beam downward in order to measure ocean depth. The third

method, called wide scanning, involves the use of two sonar systems,

one mounted on each side of the vessel, in such a way that the

two beams that are produced scan the whole ocean at right angles to

the direction of the vessel’s movement.

Active single-beam sonar operation applies an alternating voltage

to a piezoelectric crystal, making it part of an underwater loudspeaker

(transducer) that creates a sound beam of a particular frequency.

When an echo returns, the system becomes an underwater

microphone (receiver) that identifies the target and determines its

range. The sound frequency that is used is determined by the sonar’s

purpose and the fact that the absorption of sound by water increases

with frequency. For example, long-range submarine-seeking sonar

systems (whose detection range is about ten miles) operate at 3 to 40

kilohertz. In contrast, short-range systems that work at about 500 feet

(in mine sweepers, for example) use 150 kilohertz to 2 megahertz.



Impact



Modern active sonar has affected military and nonmilitary activities

ranging from submarine location to undersea mapping and

fish location. In all these uses, two very important goals have been

to increase the ability of sonar to identify a target and to increase the

effective range of sonar. Much work related to these two goals has

involved the development of new piezoelectric materials and the replacement

of natural minerals (such as quartz) with synthetic piezoelectric

ceramics.

Efforts have also been made to redesign the organization of sonar

systems. One very useful development has been changing beammaking

transducers from one-beam units to multibeam modules

made of many small piezoelectric elements. Systems that incorporate

these developments have many advantages, particularly the ability

to search simultaneously in many directions. In addition, systems

have been redesigned to be able to scan many echo beams simultaneously

with electronic scanners that feed into a central receiver.

These changes, along with computer-aided tracking and target

classification, have led to the development of greatly improved active

sonar systems. It is expected that sonar systems will become

even more powerful in the future, finding uses that have not yet

been imagined.



Paul Langévin

If he had not published the Special Theory of Relativity in

1905, Albert Einstein once said, Paul Langévin would have

done so not long afterward. Born in Paris in 1872, Langévin was

among the foremost physicists of his generation. He studied in

the best French schools of science—and with such teachers as

Pierre Curie and Jean Perrin—and became a professor of physics

at the College de France in 1904. He moved to the Sorbonne

in 1909.

Langévin’s research was always widely influential. In addition

to his invention of active sonar, he was especially noted for

his studies of the molecular structure of gases, analysis of secondary

X rays from irradiated metals, his theory of magnetism,

and work on piezoelectricity and piezoceramics. His suggestion

that magnetic properties are linked to the valence electrons of atoms

inspired Niels Bohr’s classic model of the atom. In his later

career, a champion of Einstein’s theories of relativity, Langévin

worked on the implications of the space-time continuum.

DuringWorldWar II, Langévin, a pacifist, publicly denounced

the Nazis and their occupation of France. They jailed him for it.

He escaped to Switzerland in 1944, returning as soon as France

was liberated. He died in late 1946.







See also :  Aqualung ; Bathyscaphe ; Bathysphere ; Geiger counter ;

Gyrocompass ; Radar ; Richter scale ;  Paul Langévin .



 Further Reading

Solar thermal engine

The invention:

The first commercially practical plant for generating
electricity from solar energy.


The people behind the invention:


Frank Shuman (1862-1918), an American inventor
John Ericsson (1803-1889), an American engineer
Augustin Mouchout (1825-1911), a French physics professor







Power from the Sun


According to tradition, the Greek scholar Archimedes used
reflective mirrors to concentrate the rays of the Sun and set afire
the ships of an attacking Roman fleet in 212 b.c.e. The story illustrates
the long tradition of using mirrors to concentrate solar energy
from a large area onto a small one, producing very high
temperatures.
With the backing of Napoleon III, the Frenchman Augustin
Mouchout built, between 1864 and 1872, several steam engines
that were powered by the Sun. Mirrors concentrated the sun’s rays
to a point, producing a temperature that would boil water. The
steam drove an engine that operated a water pump. The largest engine
had a cone-shaped collector, or “axicon,” lined with silverplated
metal. The French government operated the engine for six
months but decided it was too expensive to be practical.
John Ericsson, the American famous for designing and building
the CivilWar ironclad ship Monitor, built seven steam-driven
solar engines between 1871 and 1878. In Ericsson’s design,
rays were focused onto a line rather than a point. Long mirrors,
curved into a parabolic shape, tracked the Sun. The rays were focused
onto a water-filled tube mounted above the reflectors to
produce steam. The engineer’s largest engine, which used an 11- ×
16-foot trough-shaped mirror, delivered nearly 2 horsepower. Because
his solar engines were ten times more expensive than conventional
steam engines, Ericsson converted them to run on coal to
avoid financial loss.

 Frank Shuman, a well-known inventor in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
entered the field of solar energy in 1906. The self-taught engineer
believed that curved, movable mirrors were too expensive. His
first large solar engine was a hot-box, or flat-plate, collector. It lay
flat on the ground and had blackened pipes filled with a liquid that
had a low boiling point. The solar-heated vapor ran a 3.5-horsepower
engine.
Shuman’s wealthy investors formed the Sun Power Company to
develop and construct the largest solar plant ever built. The site chosen
was in Egypt, but the plant was built near Shuman’s home for
testing before it was sent to Egypt.
When the inventor added ordinary flat mirrors to reflect more
sunlight into each collector, he doubled the heat production of the
collectors. The 572 trough-type collectors were assembled in twentysix
rows. Water was piped through the troughs and converted to
steam. A condenser converted the steam to water, which reentered
the collectors. The engine pumped 3,000 gallons of water per minute
and produced 14 horsepower per day; performance was expected to
improve 25 percent in the sunny climate of Egypt.
British investors requested that professor C. V. Boys review the
solar plant before it was shipped to Egypt. Boys pointed out that the
bottom of each collector was not receiving any direct solar energy;
in fact, heat was being lost through the bottom. He suggested that
each row of flat mirrors be replaced by a single parabolic reflector,
and Shuman agreed. Shuman thought Boys’s idea was original, but
he later realized it was based on Ericsson’s design.
The company finally constructed the improved plant in Meadi,
Egypt, a farming district on the Nile River. Five solar collectors,
spaced 25 feet apart, were built in a north-south line. Each was
about 200 feet long and 10 feet wide. Trough-shaped reflectors were
made of mirrors held in place by brass springs that expanded
and contracted with changing temperatures. The parabolic mirrors
shifted automatically so that the rays were always focused on the
boiler. Inside the 15-inch boiler that ran down the middle of the collector,
water was heated and converted to steam. The engine produced
more than 55 horsepower, which was enough to pump 6,000
gallons of water per minute.
The purchase price of Shuman’s solar plant was twice as high as

that of a coal-fired plant, but its operating costs were far lower. In
Egypt, where coal was expensive, the entire purchase price would
be recouped in four years. Afterward, the plant would operate for
practically nothing. The first practical solar engine was now in operation,
providing enough energy to drive a large-scale irrigation system
in the floodplain of the Nile River.
By 1914, Shuman’s work was enthusiastically supported, and solar
plants were planned for India and Africa. Shuman hoped to
build 20,000 reflectors in the Sahara Desert and generate energy
equal to all the coal mined in one year, but the outbreak of World

 War I ended his dreams of large-scale solar developments. The
Meadi project was abandoned in 1915, and Shuman died before the
war ended. Powerful nations lost interest in solar power and began
to replace coal with oil. Rich oil reserves were discovered in many
desert zones that were ideal locations for solar power.

Impact
Although World War I ended Frank Shuman’s career, his breakthrough
proved to the world that solar power held great promise for
the future. His ideas were revived in 1957, when the Soviet Union
planned a huge solar project for Siberia. Alarge boiler was fixed on
a platform 140 feet high. Parabolic mirrors, mounted on 1,300 railroad
cars, revolved on circular tracks to focus light on the boiler. The
full-scale model was never built, but the design inspired the solar
power tower.
In the Mojave desert near Barstow, California, an experimental
power tower, Solar One, began operation in 1982. The system collects
solar energy to deliver steam to turbines that produce electric
power. The 30-story tower is surrounded by more than 1,800 mirrors
that adjust continually to track the Sun. Solar One generates
about 10 megawatts per day, enough power for 5,000 people.
Solar One was expensive, but future power towers will generate
electricity as cheaply as fossil fuels can. If the costs of the air and
water pollution caused by coal burning were considered, solar power
plants would already be recognized as cost effective. Meanwhile,
Frank Shuman’s success in establishing and operating a thoroughly
practical large-scale solar engine continues to inspire research and
development.



See also : Compressed-air-accumulating power plant; Fuel cell;
Geothermal power; Nuclear power plant; Photoelectric cell; Photovoltaiccell ; Solar Power

Silicones

The invention:



Synthetic polymers characterized by lubricity, extreme
water repellency, thermal stability, and inertness that are
widely used in lubricants, protective coatings, paints, adhesives,
electrical insulation, and prosthetic replacements for body parts.



The people behind the invention:
Eugene G. Rochow (1909 - 2002 ), an American research chemist
Frederic Stanley Kipping (1863-1949), a Scottish chemist and
professor
James Franklin Hyde (1903- ), an American organic chemist










Synthesizing Silicones


Frederic Stanley Kipping, in the first four decades of the twentieth
century, made an extensive study of the organic (carbon-based)
chemistry of the element silicon. He had a distinguished academic
career and summarized his silicon work in a lecture in 1937 (“Organic
Derivatives of Silicon”). Since Kipping did not have available
any naturally occurring compounds with chemical bonds between
carbon and silicon atoms (organosilicon compounds), it was necessary
for him to find methods of establishing such bonds. The basic
method involved replacing atoms in naturally occurring silicon
compounds with carbon atoms from organic compounds.
While Kipping was probably the first to prepare a silicone and was
certainly the first to use the term silicone, he did not pursue the commercial
possibilities of silicones. Yet his careful experimental work was
a valuable starting point for all subsequent workers in organosilicon
chemistry, including those who later developed the silicone industry.
On May 10, 1940, chemist Eugene G. Rochow of the General
Electric (GE) Company’s corporate research laboratory in
Schenectady, New York, discovered that methyl chloride gas,
passed over a heated mixture of elemental silicon and copper, reacted
to form compounds with silicon-carbon bonds. Kipping
had shown that these silicon compounds react with water to form
silicones.

The importance of Rochow’s discovery was that it opened the
way to a continuous process that did not consume expensive metals,
such as magnesium, or flammable ether solvents, such as those
used by Kipping and other researchers. The copper acts as a catalyst,
and the desired silicon compounds are formed with only minor
quantities of by-products. This “direct synthesis,” as it came to be
called, is now done commercially on a large scale.





Silicone Structure


Silicones are examples of what chemists call polymers. Basically, a
polymer is a large molecule made up of many smaller molecules
that are linked together. At the molecular level, silicones consist of
long, repeating chains of atoms. In this molecular characteristic, silicones
resemble plastics and rubber.
Silicone molecules have a chain composed of alternate silicon and
oxygen atoms. Each silicon atom bears two organic groups as substituents,
while the oxygen atoms serve to link the silicon atoms into a
chain. The silicon-oxygen backbone of the silicones is responsible for
their unique and useful properties, such as the ability of a silicone oil
to remain liquid over an extremely broad temperature range and to
resist oxidative and thermal breakdown at high temperatures.
Afundamental scientific consideration with silicone, as with any
polymer, is to obtain the desired physical and chemical properties in
a product by closely controlling its chemical structure and molecular
weight. Oily silicones with thousands of alternating silicon and
oxygen atoms have been prepared. The average length of the molecular
chain determines the flow characteristics (viscosity) of the oil.
In samples with very long chains, rubber-like elasticity can be
achieved by cross-linking the silicone chains in a controlled manner
and adding a filler such as silica. High degrees of cross-linking
could produce a hard, intractable material instead of rubber.
The action of water on the compounds produced from Rochow’s
direct synthesis is a rapid method of obtaining silicones, but does
not provide much control of the molecular weight. Further development
work at GE and at the Dow-Corning company showed that
the best procedure for controlled formation of silicone polymers involved
treating the crude silicones with acid to produce a mixture

from which high yields of an intermediate called “D4” could be obtained
by distillation. The intermediate D4 could be polymerized in
a controlled manner by use of acidic or basic catalysts. Wilton I.
Patnode of GE and James F. Hyde of Dow-Corning made important
advances in this area. Hyde’s discovery of the use of traces of potassium
hydroxide as a polymerization catalyst for D4 made possible

the manufacture of silicone rubber, which is the most commercially
valuable of all the silicones.





Impact


Although Kipping’s discovery and naming of the silicones occurred
from 1901 to 1904, the practical use and impact of silicones
started in 1940, with Rochow’s discovery of direct synthesis.
Production of silicones in the United States came rapidly enough
to permit them to have some influence on military supplies for
WorldWar II (1939-1945). In aircraft communication equipment, extensive
waterproofing of parts by silicones resulted in greater reliability
of the radios under tropical conditions of humidity, where
condensing water could be destructive. Silicone rubber, because
of its ability to withstand heat, was used in gaskets under hightemperature
conditions, in searchlights, and in the engines on B-29
bombers. Silicone grease applied to aircraft engines also helped to
protect spark plugs from moisture and promote easier starting.
AfterWorldWar II, the uses for silicones multiplied. Silicone rubber
appeared in many products from caulking compounds to wire insulation
to breast implants for cosmetic surgery. Silicone rubber boots were
used on the moon walks where ordinary rubber would have failed.
Silicones in their present form owe much to years of patient developmental
work in industrial laboratories. Basic research, such as
that conducted by Kipping and others, served to point the way and
catalyzed the process of commercialization.







                     



                                                                   Eugene G. Rochow

Eugene George Rochow was born in 1909 and grew up in the
rural New Jersey town of Maplewood. There his father, who
worked in the tanning industry, and his big brother maintained
a small attic laboratory. They experimented with electricity, radio—Eugene put together his own crystal set in an oatmeal
box—and chemistry.
Rochow followed his brother to Cornell University in 1927.
The Great Depression began during his junior year, and although
he had to take jobs as lecture assistant to get by, he managed
to earn his bachelor’s degree in chemistry in 1931 and his
doctorate in 1935. Luck came his way in the extremely tight job
market: General Electric (GE) hired him for his expertise in inorganic chemistry.


In 1938 the automobile industry, among other manufacturers,
had a growing need for a high-temperature-resistant insulators.
Scientists at Corning were convinced that silicone would
have the best properties for the purpose, but they could not find
a way to synthesize it cheaply and in large volume. When word
about their ideas got back to Rochow at GE, he reasoned that a
flexible silicone able to withstand temperatures of 200 to 300 degrees
Celsius could be made by bonding silicone to carbon. His
research succeeded in producing methyl silicone in 1939, and
he devised a way to make it cheaply in 1941. It was the first
commercially practical silicone. His process is still used.
After World War II GE asked him to work on an effort to
make aircraft carriers nuclear powered. However, Rochow was
a Quaker and pacifist, and he refused. Instead, he moved to
Harvard University as a chemistry professor in 1948 and remained
there until his retirement in 1970. As the founder of a
new branch of industrial chemistry, he received most of the discipline’s
awards and medals, including the Perkin Award, and
honorary doctorates.







See also : Buna rubber ; Neoprene ; Nylon ; Plastic ; Polyethylene ; Silicone Wikipedia

Scanning tunneling microscope

The invention:



A major advance on the field ion microscope, the

scanning tunneling microscope has pointed toward new directions

in the visualization and control of matter at the atomic

level.





The people behind the invention:



Gerd Binnig (1947- ), a West German physicist who was a

cowinner of the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physics

Heinrich Rohrer (1933- ), a Swiss physicist who was a

cowinner of the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physics

Ernst Ruska (1906-1988), a West German engineer who was a

cowinner of the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physics

Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723), a Dutch naturalist









The Limit of Light



The field of microscopy began at the end of the seventeenth century,

when Antoni van Leeuwenhoek developed the first optical microscope.

In this type of microscope, a magnified image of a sample

is obtained by directing light onto it and then taking the light

through a lens system. Van Leeuwenhoek’s microscope allowed

him to observe the existence of life on a scale that is invisible to the

naked eye. Since then, developments in the optical microscope have

revealed the existence of single cells, pathogenic agents, and bacteria.

There is a limit, however, to the resolving power of optical microscopes.

Known as “Abbe’s barrier,” after the German physicist and

lens maker Ernst Abbe, this limit means that objects smaller than

about 400 nanometers (about a millionth of a millimeter) cannot be

viewed by conventional microscopes.

In 1925, the physicist Louis de Broglie predicted that electrons

would exhibit wave behavior as well as particle behavior. This prediction

was confirmed by Clinton J. Davisson and Lester H. Germer

of Bell Telephone Laboratories in 1927. It was found that highenergy

electrons have shorter wavelengths than low-energy electrons

and that electrons with sufficient energies exhibit wave-

lengths comparable to the diameter of the atom. In 1927, Hans

Busch showed in a mathematical analysis that current-carrying

coils behave like electron lenses and that they obey the same lens

equation that governs optical lenses. Using these findings, Ernst

Ruska developed the electron microscope in the early 1930’s.

By 1944, the German corporation of Siemens and Halske had

manufactured electron microscopes with a resolution of 7 nanometers;

modern instruments are capable of resolving objects as

small as 0.5 nanometer. This development made it possible to view

structures as small as a few atoms across as well as large atoms and

large molecules.

The electron beam used in this type of microscope limits the usefulness

of the device. First, to avoid the scattering of the electrons,

the samples must be put in a vacuum, which limits the applicability

of the microscope to samples that can sustain such an environment.

Most important, some fragile samples, such as organic molecules,

are inevitably destroyed by the high-energy beams required for

high resolutions.





Viewing Atoms



From 1936 to 1955, ErwinWilhelm Müller developed the field ion

microscope (FIM), which used an extremely sharp needle to hold the

sample. This was the first microscope to make possible the direct

viewing of atomic structures, but it was limited to samples capable of

sustaining the high electric fields necessary for its operation.

In the early 1970’s, Russel D. Young and Clayton Teague of the

National Bureau of Standards (NBS) developed the “topografiner,”

a new kind of FIM. In this microscope, the sample is placed at a large

distance from the tip of the needle. The tip is scanned across the surface

of the sample with a precision of about a nanometer. The precision

in the three-dimensional motion of the tip was obtained by using

three legs made of piezoelectric crystals. These materials change

shape in a reproducible manner when subjected to a voltage. The

extent of expansion or contraction of the crystal depends on the

amount of voltage that is applied. Thus, the operator can control the

motion of the probe by varying the voltage acting on the three legs.

The resolution of the topografiner is limited by the size of the probe.

The idea for the scanning tunneling microscope (STM) arose

when Heinrich Rohrer of the International Business Machines (IBM)

Corporation’s Zurich research laboratory met Gerd Binnig in Frankfurt

in 1978. The STM is very similar to the topografiner. In the STM,

however, the tip is kept at a height of less than a nanometer away

from the surface, and the voltage that is applied between the specimen

and the probe is low. Under these conditions, the electron

cloud of atoms at the end of the tip overlaps with the electron cloud

of atoms at the surface of the specimen. This overlapping results in a

measurable electrical current flowing through the vacuum or insulating

material existing between the tip and the sample. When the

probe is moved across the surface and the voltage between the

probe and sample is kept constant, the change in the distance between

the probe and the surface (caused by surface irregularities)

results in a change of the tunneling current.

Two methods are used to translate these changes into an image of

the surface. The first method involves changing the height of the

probe to keep the tunneling current constant; the voltage used to

change the height is translated by a computer into an image of the

surface. The second method scans the probe at a constant height

away from the sample; the voltage across the probe and sample is

changed to keep the tunneling current constant. These changes in

voltage are translated into the image of the surface. The main limitation

of the technique is that it is applicable only to conducting samples

or to samples with some surface treatment.





Consequences



In October, 1989, the STM was successfully used in the manipulation

of matter at the atomic level. By letting the probe sink into the

surface of a metal-oxide crystal, researchers at Rutgers University

were able to dig a square hole about 250 atoms across and 10 atoms

deep.Amore impressive feat was reported in the April 5, 1990, issue

of Nature; M. Eigler and Erhard K. Schweiser of IBM’s Almaden Research

Center spelled out their employer’s three-letter acronym using

thirty-five atoms of xenon. This ability to move and place individual

atoms precisely raises several possibilities, which include the

creation of custom-made molecules, atomic-scale data storage, and

ultrasmall electrical logic circuits.

The success of the STM has led to the development of several

new microscopes that are designed to study other features of sample

surfaces. Although they all use the scanning probe technique to

make measurements, they use different techniques for the actual detection.

The most popular of these new devices is the atomic force

microscope (AFM). This device measures the tiny electric forces that

exist between the electrons of the probe and the electrons of the

sample without the need for electron flow, which makes the tech-

nique particularly useful in imaging nonconducting surfaces. Other

scanned probe microscopes use physical properties such as temperature

and magnetism to probe the surfaces.







                                                   Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer

Both Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer believe an early and

pleasurable introduction to teamwork led to their later success

in inventing the scanning tunneling microscope, for which they

shared the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physics with Ernst Ruska.

Binnig was born in Frankfurt, Germany, in 1947. He acquired

an early interest in physics but was always deeply influenced

by classical music, introduced to him by his mother, and

the rock music that his younger brother played for him. Binnig

played in rock bands as a teenager and learned to enjoy the creative

interplay of teamwork. At J. W. Goethe University in

Frankfurt he earned a bachelor’s degree (1973) and doctorate

(1978) in physics and then took a position at International Business

Machine’s Zurich Research Laboratory. There he recaptured

the pleasures of working with a talented team after joining

Rohrer in research.

Rohrer had been at the Zurich facility since just after it

opened in 1963. He was born in Buch, Switzerland, in 1933, and

educated at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich,

where he completed his doctorate in 1960. After post-doctoral

work at Rutgers University, he joined the IBM research team, a

time that he describes as among the most enjoyable passages of

his career.

In addition to the Nobel Prize, the pair also received the German

Physics Prize, Otto Klung Prize, Hewlett Packard Prize,

and King Faisal Prize. Rohrer became an IBM Fellow in 1986

and was selected to manage the physical sciences department at

the Zurich Research Laboratory. He retired from IBM in July

1997. Binnig became an IBM Fellow in 1987





See also :  Electron microscope  ; Mass spectrograph ; Neutrino detector ; Wikipedia