Changes in the evolution of mankind, are impressive. Just in front of one or two generations, technical and even household landscape of our life has changed dramatically, and these changes are fully based on discoveries in science. It is acknowledged by the President Barack Obama, who in April, speaking to members of the National Academy of Sciences USA, said that "all civilization conquest of mankind owe to science" and "science, we need more than ever before."Any young person or a student can learn from newspapers, TV, but most of all, from their parents (who may be, were born, when there were no flights into outer space, no color, and of course no digital television or mobile communication and there were no many, many other things), as it was and as it is now.And if you compare the development of science, the history of which is no more than 300-400 years, it becomes obvious that it only accelerated.Particularly noticeable the acceleration was in the second half of the last century, and there is no doubt that in the near future, it is, at least, will not stop.Data accumulation and the need to process huge amounts of diverse information is going by the giant strides, which does not allow in one, even a relatively large article, to try at least some answer to the question: what awaits us in the century in which humanity just entered?
Difficult to answere about some one science, but all the same, I would venture to share with young people, reading "Kiev Polytechnic", my ideas about physics.The great faith in the irresistible force of science that long ago, right in the words of Karl Marx, evolved into the most powerful productive force, ispires me.If we compare the role of one or another natural science, is easy enough to make sure that the leading position among them, of course, belongs to physics. This conclusion follows from the fact that between others natural sciences it is the most fundamental, or such that exploring the deep and general laws of nature. Discovered physical principles form the basis of chemical, biological, and geological and cosmological processes.
But let's fragmentary see the way of physics transforwation during the twentieth century. Today's students are more likely to know about it as the century of revolutions, world wars and social upheaval. But at the same time, the countries not only fought each other for territory and natural resources, and the people in them defend their social rights.Continious research works were going in scientific (especially university) laboratories - at least remember the KPI, where, in spite of wars, revolutions and world crises relatively small group of enthusiasts tried to discover the secrets of the matter - from the micro to the macro world.Therefore, I dare say that rightfully last century can and should be called the century of physics.The incredible technical and technological progress of mankind and its most famous scientific, technical and engineering achievements (of which, to be honest, not all with the "plus", if you remember at least a weapon of mass destruction) are due to the science development.And it is important to understand that the unprecedented opportunities of society largely owe the discovery of knowledge, which is developing rapidly and unpredictably, simultaneously and remains one of the oldest, as the geniuses of the ancient natural science, Aristotle, Archimedes, Democritus and others separated from us for more than two millennia.Turning back to the physics of the twentieth century, I am sure that will not be mistaken if I will state that its main achievement was the triumph of the idea of quanta and the construction of the quantum theory.
Guess about the quanta was not the invention of a genius mind, and, like the vast majority of other profound ideas, matured on the background of the experiment and indisputable facts. In particular, it was found that the quanta are the main element of the hypothesis, leading to ultimate success in the sense of a particular issue. I should remind that they (quanta) have been invoked to explain the spectrum of blackbody radiation.
The first ever to make a fundamental step was, as is well known even to schoolchildren, the eminent German physicist Max Planck. In the unrestrained desire to establish the key laws of blackbody radiation, he was forced to accept the hypothesis of "discrete type" of energy radiating elements, the spectrum of which in classical physics has always been regarded as a continuous. The researcher also found academic courage and suggested quite the opposite. By introducing a new fundamental constant - now well-known Planck's constant - he was able to achieve perfect coordination of the developed theory with the experimental pattern. Day Dec. 14, 1900, when Max Planck unveiled to members of the German Physical Society, his theory of radiation, is the birthday of quantum theory.
Pretty soon Einstein picked up and developed the quantum idea to describe the photoelectric effect. Subsequently, the Dane Niels Bohr, German W.Heisenberg, Frenchman Louis de Broglie, Austrian E.Shredinger, Swiss Pauli, an Englishman P.Dirac and others brought it to its logical conclusion by making a quantum theory of holistic and essentially the only working tool for calculation of any measured data of microcosm. The above mentioned clearly demonstrates how the powerful intellectual "international" was joined to the solution of urgent problems of physical science, which is actually already in the nineteenth century no longer feels national borders, nations and peoples. Culture and arts, not to mention the language are national, but the physics is the objective and the worldwide product initially. Therefore, it is no exaggeration to say that globalization, expansion to other continents, in the natural sciences began long before it realized by thinkers, philosophers, and newspapermen.
Talking about the physics of the twentieth century, we can not ignore its mentioned above role in the development of technology and advanced technology. However, it is not important or, frankly, not the whole truth. However, and, in my opinion, even more important is the fact that the laws of physics, including general laws about the structure of space-time, laid the foundation for consistent and predictable understanding of the laws of chemistry, geology, mechanics, materials, etc. .. On the other hand, physics shoul be - even ardent biologists believed it- a crucial link in the penetration in the not well understood and not yet formalized laws of living matter.
Of course, physicists believe that physics will continue to be the main force of scientific and technical progress. And if quantum theory - the foundation of physics - really is the pinnacle of modern knowledge, then, to imagine or predict which way it will develop in the future, it is necessary to determine which events in physics had the greatest influence on the course of the twentieth century. It is clear that different experts have their own opinions, so these lists vary greatly. But I'm of the opinion of eminent physicists of our time - the only double winner of the Nobel Prize for his discoveries in the field of physics American theorist and Nobel laureate J.Bardina and Russian experimenter Alferov. They identified among the many possible three defining events.
The first - the discovery in 1938 of artificial nuclear fission, made by the German chemist O.Gan, who measured features of neutron scattering by uranium. Obtained data of uranium nuclei decay gave possibility researchers quickly understand the fundamental possibility of nuclear explosive processes which, being superstrong, in unmanaged mode, formed the basis of established soon nuclear weapons, and in a controlled form determine the useful work of nuclear technology, the well known nuclear power stations. The presence of nuclear weapons or nuclear energy is now one of the main factors on which to assess the military and industrial potential of a particular state.
I think, we should remember the scientific and historical evidence that the world's first atomic bomb was detonated by the Americans in the summer of 1945, and the first operating nuclear power plant was built in the Soviet Union in 1955. Pretty soon, nuclear weapons were so many that it has become a threat to the world, so different countries with its abundant decided to limit the design and production of new nuclear military devices. As for nuclear power plants, on the contrary, they have been widely used in power generation and here there is a constant increase in their number. Now, there are countries, such as Ukraine, where a nuclear component in the production of electricity is greater than the heat and hydroelectric components, and the more contribution from the so-called alternative electricity (for example, wind or solar).
However, after the Chernobyl disaster (which causes have not been published), the attitude of our society to the method of extraction of nuclear power that threatens to environmental shocks, is rather complicated and unfavorable. Nevertheless, the vast majority (including domestic), nuclear physicists and power engineers have no doubt that in the near future of humanity will not be able to get away from the intense development of the industry, as traditional and widely used energy sources - coal, oil and gas - in generally, although different in time, is limited. Since this makes it clear that nuclear science and technology should be among the priorities of the scientific branch, if people are going to increase the energy consumption. Therefore the role of the KPI, which train specialists in this, I'm sure, will only grow.
As for fusion power production process, or as the popularizers and science fiction writers like to say - to create an artificial sun on Earth, the problem in its entirety has not been solved and even impossible to indicate the period of time when it will be solved by anybody. Despite scientific and applied advances in this direction, in which, I note, Ukraine is one of the first places, experts from different countries, in the belief in the fundamental feasibility of artificial or managed, nuclear fusion on a commercial scale, nevertheless believe that the launch of first serial fusion reactor will be held no earlier than the middle of the XXI century. Therefore, for this reason, it can be assumed that the "conventional" method of producing nuclear energy remains for a long time.
Intensive search of other options is carried out. Thus, it is possible that the materials will be created, to help open the way to low-cost solar energy usage itself, although now no serious expert also would not predict when and how physicists and chemists to cope with the difficult problem of the accumulation of solar energy, which in significant quantities supplied to the Earth, also at economically acceptable level. Given this state of the problem of utilization and conversion of solar energy into electrical energy again it is safe to assume that the fundamental nuclear research in the aspect of further improving and enhancing the security of electricity production remains one of the most pressing for at least the first half of the XXI century, and perhaps more . So physicists, technologists and engineers give priority to these issues. Medical applications of nuclear processes also should be promising for the people, as it represents an effective means of fighting many incurable diseases.
The second of the three most important physical events of the century occurred in December 1947 when American scientists conducting research in one of the laboratories of the company Bell, J.Bardin, U.Bratteyn and U.Shokli discovered the transistor effect. The fact is at that time significant development of radios and radar were led to replacement of the tube amplifiers by crystal, which served as the basis for semiconductors. It worth to be noted that the purpose of researchers who have studied the possibility of using these crystals, was the fundamental testing of the quantum theory performance in solids, in the first place - semiconductors. However, as ordered history, the main result of the work of the group was somewhat different: the invention of germanium amplifier, or a dot transistor. And after it was experimentally proved that the principal in this case is an injection, or injection of carriers in germanium, physics guessed what principle should be a basis for developing semiconductor technology. Actually, what happened, and the phenomenon of injection determines the work of the overwhelming majority of semiconductors, including computing, devices that use pn-transitions. Among other things, all household appliances grew from this invention.
It is also useful to know that the first integrated circuit - two transistors, capacitors and resistance - was assembled manually on a single crystal with a diameter of about 2 cm in 1959. Now, in modern integrated circuits of the same size is up to 100 million transistors and they are much more economical - the power consumption of each reduced by about 100 000 times! These unexpected changes have occurred in just 40-50 years when the main slogans of progress were largely still remain are: smaller, faster, cheaper. Microelectronics and Information Technology, without which it is impossible to imagine our present life and the experts of which are prepared in several faculties and departments KPI, became not only the most outstanding exponents of scientific and technological progress, but also industries , which employs up to 50% of the workforce in technologically advanced countries. However, the well-trodden path to reduce the size and improve the performance of micron transistors themselves have in fact exhausted, and on the way inside the industry of these nano-scale is the question of fundamentally new physical principles, technology and element base. If indeed it will happens, it will actually be a new generation of electronics, and actually - quantum nanoelectronics. Perhaps it will be the prototype of molecular electronics, where the active work items should serve the individual molecules. She is still at the stage of exploratory research, intensive development, already has some achievements, but the story of it requires a special article with the involvement of the KPI.
Finally, third decisive physical event of the twentieth century was, in my opinion, the creation of the laser. I emphasize that it is only the most prominent events is in physics. Because if I will be asked about the three major scientific discoveries of the twentieth century, my choice would have been somewhat different: as above, is the creation of quantum mechanics, but other than that - the disclosure of the genetic code and the invention of computers (especially personal). But the analysis of these findings is beyond the scope of this article. We can be proud that the physics and physicists here, too, were in the leading roles, because quantum mechanics is a branch of physics, the genetic code was solved by the theoretical physicist (incidentally, Odessa by birth and childhood) G.Gamov and computing can not be imagined without physical Materials Science .
As for the history of the laser, it is interesting and instructive. It all began in 1917, when Albert Einstein, who, referring to explain the density distribution of the heated bodies radiation (and, most likely, not imagining the lasers but speaking about Bohr atom), suggested the presence of a number of so-called spontaneous also stimulated optical atomic transitions. It took another few decades to the point where researchers in 1957-58 and future Nobel laureates O.M.Prohorov and his student M. Basov wer able, based on the idea of stimulated (sometimes called - forced) radiation, theoretically formulate the principle of amplification of electromagnetic waves and invented a radio frequency amplifier - the maser.
Later in the United States based on the same principle, the first amplifier in the optical range, or a laser was launched. Since then, masers and lasers are very widely used - the scientific, technological, medical and, to be honest, the military - they are also widely represented and developed by educational and research departments KPI! And one more thing - information - born after major achievement, which was the technology of creation semiconductor heterostructures. They were grown in 1967 by J.I. Alferov with a very specific purpose, the success of which few believed - to have a chemically different layers in the same single crystal, and not in a layered composition, and that it is fundamentally and won the Nobel Prize. After only three years a semiconductor laser lit, where the pump is performed by easy to control electric current. Now these multilayers laser elements of the components become the heart of fiber-optic connection that provides millions of phone calls simultaneously. About 100 million optic cables encircle the globe, and their number is constantly growing, and quality - especially Immunity - improves. In addition, the semiconductor laser devices, constructed in our university, are "needles" that take the picture and sound from laser discs.
In general, despite the undeniable and numerous accomplishments, you can be sure that the quantum theory of solids has and will continue to be the basis of further scientific and technological progress, and appropriate specialists - graduates of the KPI - will not sit without work. The creation of new materials, and then producing the chips and finally, all the necessary devices actually checked daily quantum laws. They are constantly in action, because the technology is constantly improving, developing nanotechnology, and, for example, already exists, although in a few instances, ultra-precise equipment of structural design. With the help of it physicists, engineers, researchers learned to compose atoms of different elements in a predetermined order and literally step by step build artificial composition, which in themselves do not occur in nature. Even the term "lab-on-chip", which reflects just such a simulation of nanostructures. It is clear that their properties can be very unpredictable, which offers the prospect of deep and comprehensive research. It is only important to understand that from the point of view of physics, the size has no separate content -what is only important - physical effects. Despite this observation, it is very important and promising sector of the physical (and actually - quantum) Materials, which start to help people, though still can not boast of production of mass products.
I should add that the quantum dots - very unusual creation. They can be constructed atom-to-atom, and can be grown by molecular beam epitaxy. These points, according to some experts, are the prototypes of a new type of transistor. The fact that the main effect of the latter is based on the transition from one stable state to another. The quantum dots collective has more states, and the energy barriers between them below. This means that the corresponding transitions can be initiated by small amount of electrons. The creation of such transistors, of course, requires a new level of technology, which will determine the development of semiconductor electronics, getting closer to the limit established itself by Mrs. Nature. In this case, the operation of any device, which may be a single molecule, will be determined by the one-electron processes, and therefore - exclusively quantum laws. They make working laser and computer components, power consumption which will also be a miserable, which is identical to extremely economical.
I personally have no doubt that the development of these branches of physics in the XXI century, as it did in the twentieth century, will continue to identify the real progress of humanity. At the same time, much in the choice of research began to dictateby the market and the urgent needs of humanity, and the increasing attention paid to the development of in a large extent applied areas, such as combating the threat of global warming, urban infrastructure, water treatment technology, to prevent emissions coal bed methane, etc., as well as high-yield high-speed information electronics, wireless communications, network technologies and nano-industry. The last becomes interdisciplinary and dominant, and in 3-5 years, covering a greater range of problems, the volume of its global market can, according to various estimates, exceed $ 2.3 trillion. USA today invest in it about $ 10 billion a year, China and Russia for $ 5 billion. All this, of course, can not be ignored by any young person who begins to learn and think about his future (including financial) success. Last, I have no doubt, can be achieved only on the basis of good education, and preparation to research activities.
But again it must be emphasized, modern science is not limited and can not be limited only to research, quickly and repeatedly paid off, and the natural curiosity of man will encourage him to new and new quests, the only self-sufficient consequence of which will be exclusive knowledge. The question of the usefulness of the resulting knowledge can not arise at all. This, of course, talking about science, which differ not only by the content (obviously), but also "exits to the outside world." For each of them the situation is really different, because some science - for example, on Earth or chemistry, biology, medicine - easy to find consumer. But the discovery in astronomy, cosmology, high-energy physics, which are also almost always require extremely expensive equipment, on the first glance have no direct communication with the pressing needs of the person, (in fact, scientists are usually do not care about them at all) . Instruments for these fundamental disciplines are so expensive that it is often unreachable for developed enough countries. So popular - or rather, the inevitable - became joint research by scientists from different countries in international research centers, the money in the work which are both investing several countries. Nevertheless, a reasonable question arises: "Why spend a lot of money on the things that do not provide direct benefits and why not only develop application areas, relatively quick and clear feedback that is easy to explain to taxpayers?"
To this legal "request" I shoul say the following. The whole world experience, each student must be aware of it, teaches tha this way is wrong. Suffice to cite only two arguments. First of all, despite the lack of direct introduction of the so-called side effects, or indirect application of the results is often invaluable. Suffice it to recall supercomputers, superconducting magnets, accelerators and detectors of various types of radiation, scanners, computer networks, satellite communications, the Internet - all of this was conceived due to the extremely fundamental physics research.It is not a surprise for a thinking man - the physics have long been working on the limits of the possible. There are no standard, appropriate to the goals, instruments, and there is a need to create them for "a problem." Fresh vivid example - construction and launch in autumn 2008 the Large Hadron Collider in the international nuclear center (CERN) in Geneva to observe the processes of creation and mutual transformations of new elementary particles. Scope of the data it is expected so commensurate with the all data existing in the world, and analysis of relevant information is not able to do any of the existing supercomputers.Attempts to find a method of treatment led to the creation of a the computing Internet, called the Grid. Collider has not yet reached full capacity, and grid computing are already being used not only by physicists and mathematicians, calculators, but pharmacologists in the synthesis of new substances for drugs by economists to estimate the work of enterprises, meteorologists at weather forecasts, geophysicists in clarifying the risks of earthquakes, ecologists in determining the extent of environmental pollution by greenhouse gases due to the operation of energy companies and the use of transport. Obviously, there will be a new use. Pleases note only that a good grid network is already up and running in Ukraine, uniting computing clusters of NAS of Ukraine, the KNU of Taras Shevchenko, NTUU"KPI" and CERN (Switzerland).
Another argument in favor of the need to support fundamental trends is that to effectively promote applied research of physical laboratory, though not related to the issues involved, are extremely useful for operational assistance in emergency situations, and intentions of the preliminary examination, which is generally forbidden science cuts path, and therefore so much faster and cheaper to develop applications. Finally, international cooperation in the field of fundamental research allows any country to be on the latest technological trends and track the technical know-how, which is also important because to remain competitive in our world is pretty hard.
What are the interesting problems of fundamental research could identify and articulate young man who dreams of a career physics? Of course, a lot of them, and, in my opinion, these are for example:
- Are the laws of physics can be unified?
- Are the fundamental postulates really constant?
- Are we alone in the universe?
- What is its structure and role of dark energy - weakly interacting substance that permeates all of space visible universe and the discovery of which was the number one sensation at the turn of the twenty-first centuries?
- Is theres a deeper physical principles than the uncertainty principle or non-locality?
- Where do ultrahigh-energy rays come from?
- What is the mechanism of high-temperature superconductivity and is there any general restrictions on the temperature of its appearance?
- How depend the properties of water from its structure?
- What is the state of the glass and the glass?
- What manage the solar cycle?
- Why the direction of Earth's magnetic field varies from time to time?
- Why do earthquakes happen and how foresee them?
More questions arise for physics, when she and physicists have turned to the life sciences and one, in my opinion, of wondering how biomolecules recognize each other? In general, there many of such question at the interface between physics and biology, and it seems to me that the age in which we find ourselves to be the century of biology, which is increasingly turning to the physics of living matter. As noted earlier in this article, the development of technology, based on scientific discoveries and achievements of fundamental research, is continuous. And no one, even, say, a well-known futurist, is unable to provide all the perspectives of knowledge in full, and own thoughts are based only on the current achievements known to me and a little bit - on the history of physics. XXI century has just begun, and although we all feel the enormous development of physics in the previous century, really affected the quality of our lives, we are still far from the time - and will it come? - when we will be able to conclude that science in general and physics in particular have exhausted themselves.I personally do not believe that such a thing could happen. Consequently, it is no exaggeration to say that an in-depth explanation of the physical nature of all things - is the central problem of natural science for all future time. Enough work for all those who dedicate their lives to science and to achieve this ambitious goal.