Spin Archive - Physicus Minimus

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) — The harmless X-ray vision

27/12/202427/12/2024Sabrina1 Comment

Physics and medicine have a close but changing relationship. Many discoveries in physics are regarded as major breakthroughs precisely when they bring medical benefits. Stethoscopes use membranes to amplify acoustic waves, thermometers utilize the thermal expansion of mercury to measure temperature, and sonography uses ultrasound to take a first look at the unborn baby. However, some discoveries in physics turn out to be a double-edged sword. X-rays, for example, allow us to look inside the body to recognize and correctly treat bone fractures. There is only one small disadvantage: X-rays destroy our bodies and can kill us.

Quantum world

The Stern-Gerlach Experiment – A history of stubbornness

22/02/202222/02/2022Sabrina1 Comment

Even scientists are only human. That’s why success stories often read like a comic book: great heroes fighting for the good of humanity. From another perspective, however, it sometimes seems more like the nagging of old white men arguing over who is right. We have already seen a few examples of this: Boltzmann and Planck fighting over entropy, Thomson and Rutherford decoding the atom, Newton and the rest of the world racking their brains over the nature of light. And the Stern-Gerlach experiment, which celebrated its hundredth anniversary this month and which is a milestone of quantum physics, was ultimately the invention of a scientist who desperately wanted to be right.