QUESTION #153

I have found a photo of a famous scientist by the last name of Cronin. For what was he famous?

Asked by: Gary Wilson

Answer

As a particle physicist, I presume the picture is of James W. Cronin, who performed an experiment in 1964 with collaborator Val Fitch at the Brookhaven National Lab which demonstrated that the weak interactions violate the symmetry known as CP-symmetry. For this remarkable experiment they were awarded the Nobel Prize in 1980.

A brief explanation of their experiment can be found at the website

http://www.bnl.gov/bnlweb/nobel.html

and you can view a photograph of the two experimentalists (to compare with your photo) at

http://www.nobel.se/laureates/physics-1980.html
Answered by: Brent Nelson, M.A. Physics, Ph.D. Student, UC Berkeley

'If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things.'

René Descartes
(1596-1650)