George Gamow, the wisecracking theoretical physicist who helped invent the Big Bang model of the universe, was fond of explaining what he liked best about his line of work: He could lie down on a couch and close his eyes, and no one would be able to tell whether he was working or not.
Figure 1. Feynman diagrams were invented in 1948 to help physicists find their way out of a morass of calculations troubling a field of theory called QED, or quantum electrodynamics. Since then, they have filled blackboards around the world as essential bookkeeping devices in the calculation-rich realm of theoretical physics. Here David Gross (center), in a newspaper photograph taken shortly after he was awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics with H. David Politzer and Frank Wilczek, uses a diagram to discuss recent results in perturbative QCD (quantum chromodynamics) motivated by string theory with 1999 Nobelist Gerardus 't Hooft (facing Gross at far right) and postdoctoral researchers Michael Haack and Marcus Berg at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Gross, Politzer and Wilczek's 1973 discovery paved the way for physicists to use the diagrams successfully in QCD.
To discuss our articles or comment on them, please share them and tag American Scientist on social media platforms. Here are links to our profiles on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
If we re-share your post, we will moderate comments/discussion following our comments policy.
American Scientist Comments and Discussion
To discuss our articles or comment on them, please share them and tag American Scientist on social media platforms. Here are links to our profiles on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
If we re-share your post, we will moderate comments/discussion following our comments policy.