Tuesday September 20, 2006 news@micbigandaily.com a* fiCitbigttn Dttilv SCIENCE 5 news@michigandaily. corn SCIEN CE A CENTURY BEYON D EINSTEIN Physics theme semester commemorates three ground-breaking papers by the legendary scientist By Brandon H. McNaughton Daily Science Reporter century ago in a German physics journal, "Annal- en der Physikt" was a series of papers from the is then young - and unknown to the scientific cor- I(~/~I T e~. . . . . . ~ munity - Albert Einstein.,' .'i'a. & Efns tefI, TvMd 3Z . In that one ear, Einstein uncovered the nature of light, created the framework for experiments that would prove rse,> 'Ft,3o ~~ Y, {.%.t' matter is composed of atoms, and also developed a theory of relativity, which forced us to radically change our view OJJvj SS < > of mass, energy and time. The year 1905 has since become . a year of legend, making Einstein an international icon.-Ab tE si$eRman4 "In 1905, Einstein had this miraculous year. He was°G"rm3n incidentally a 26-year-old unknown with a day job," Phys- recive h ics Prof. Dan Amidei said. r ,.com These papers paved the way for the next century of py ..n.. ks wh h physics and has given rise to our current scientific under- ;- n :S . Ks. ,pYe h4 standing of the world. 1896 to rvet- To celebrate Einstein's 1905 papers and the subse- '... from gatfroh quent accomplishments in the field of physics, the United r^b.i . .............................. h Sch z nt ri,' Nations and the American Institute of Physics declared or ;d>h 4ds wbrI> 2005 as the World th Fed.ral., ..... Year of Physics. Pvytechr< 1898: Ftk# The University h in -in kv with The significance is celebrating the Germany re-wife . . year by having a .V of his papers intheme semester . , 1 905 were that a "100 Years I9I rt r*0 Beyobs aehnd Einstei F e I 1 thybasically which wilinclude ,. r : ., 3 "F r; h; fi made the modern world." -Leonard Sander Physics Professor on physics topics. "It is an interna- tional year of phys- ics ... and here at Michigan, since we have these theme semesters, it seemed like a great idea to get on the bandwagon and join in the festivities" Amidei said. The theme semester will not only reflect on Einstein's discoveries and the discoveries in physics that have occurred since 1905, but also the future direction and unsolved problems of the field. The chair of the physics department, Myron Campbell said, "Einstein himself was a larger-than-life character." Of the four papers, the first was on the photoelectric effect. During Einstein's time, light was mainly thought to be made of waves, similar to sound propagating through air in a wave-like manner. Through his paper, Einstein was able to explain discrepancies between photoelectric experiments and the wave-like concept of light. This cul- minated in his argument that in addition to light having a wave-like property, it is also comprised of particles called photons. This work led to a 1921 Nobel Prize in physics and contributed to the development of quantum mechanics, which is the field of physics that addresses the behavior, of microscopic objects like molecules, atoms and even smaller particles. His second paper was on Brownian motion. On a microscopic level, all objects randomly move in a vibrat- ing motion. This is due to surrounding atoms and mol- ecules striking the sides of an object. The phenomenon was named after botanist Robert Brown when in 1827 he observed the random jiggling pollen suspended in water. But, until Einstein, no scientist had given a convincing explanation of the random motion. With his 1905 paper on Brownian motion, Einstein suggested that the erratic motion of objects could be explained by the idea that invisible objects, later identified as atoms and molecules, were continuously bombarding the object. At the time Einstein published his Brownian COURTESY OF THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS motion paper scientists were still unsure if atoms and mol- ecules even existed. But Einstein attempted to put the debate to rest by arguing that Brownian motion resulted from the existence of atoms. Physics Prof. Leonard Sander, who will be giving a talk on Nov. 2 called "Brownian Motion and Beyond," said it was not until physicist Jean Perrin's work was published did the scientific community finally accept the existence of atoms. "The outgrowth of Einstein's work ... ultimately con- vinced the last holdouts, and they were influential holdouts, that the molecular theory of matter was correct - that there were atoms and molecules, that you had to believe in them and that they had macroscopic consequences" Sander said. After these two remarkable papers, Einstein had two more in 1905 - one was on special relativity, which showed that time, mass and space change at relative speeds and that noth- ing could move faster than the speed of light. Einstein's other paper was on the consequence of the spe- cial theory of relativity, his famous E = mc2 equation. "The most important contribution that Einstein made ... relates to defining and making clear the intimate connection between space and time - the fact that we don't live in a universe which has a spatial extent and an independent clock ticking along, but that those two things, space and time, are really inextricable coupled," Physics Prof. Timothy McKay said. Sander said, "The significance of his papers in 1905 were that they basically made the modern world. It's not too big of an exaggeration to say that they made the modern world." Einstein's subsequent work in the field of physics would also elaborate on the theory of relativity while also attempt- ing to create a grand unified theory of physics. But Einstein asked many questions that he could not solve before his death in 1955. "I hope that some of the speakers at least will carry for- ward the clear impression that this is not finished ... There remains deep and fundament questions which are unsettled," McKay said. For a schedule of events, go to www.Isa.umich.edu/lsath- eme/einstein100. Astronomers contradict planet formation theory with discovery Gaps in disk sof gas F.. surrounding stars suggest .*!(F*' existence of planets By Ryan Anderson Daily Science Reporter Search for life on Mars hits snag with malfunction What does a baby solar system look like? A team of astronomers using the Spitzer Space Telescope, may have found out. In the Sept. 10 issue of Astrophysical Jour- nal Letters, astronomers from the University and various other universities announced the detection of what could be planets around two very young stars.' The discovery defies some assumptions of the timeline of planet forma- tion. Stars form when giant clouds of interstellar gas, composed mostly of hydrogen, collapse under their own gravity. As the cloud collaps- es, the center heats up drastically and forms a star while the rest of the rotating cloud picks up speed and flattens into a disk. The astronomers used the Spitzer Space Telescope's InfraRed Spectrograph, essential- ly a prism for separating out the wavelengths of infrared light, to study the light coming from two stars: GM Aurigae and DM Tauri. Both of these stars were emitting less energy Scientists continue to analyze cause of device failure on spacecraft By Ankit Sur Daily Science Reporter Mars Express, the spacecraft launched by the European Space Agen- cy to survey Mars, has encountered an instrumentation problem that could potentially curb the spacecraft's ability to gather data. Launched on June 2, 2003 with the objective to survey the planet's atmo- sphere, geology, surface environment, history of water and its potential for har- boring life, the spacecraft has gathered data that has helped scientists to better understand the planet. For the past few weeks the space- craft has experienced problems with its Planetary Fourier Spectrometer, or PFS, which is "used to detect anything from water vapor to aerosols" according to Sushil Atreya, professor and director of the Planetary Science Laboratory at the University. One of seven instruments onboard the spacecraft, it has the capability to detect biological markers that are produced by living organisms. One such marker is methane. On Earth, methane is produced mainly from biologi- cal sources. With the tantalizing possibility of find- ing microbes on Mars that produce meth- ane, instruments such as the PFS are key to the spacecraft's mission of deducing if life currently or once existed on the planet. Atreya said the problem with the PFS onboard Mars Express has yet to be diag- nosed. However, some believe that the vibra- tions caused by the spacecraft's orbit might be the cause of the malfunction- ing PFS. The ESA has set up an panel which is attempting to investigate the exact cause of the problem. NASA/JPL/CALTECH This artist's conception illustrates one interpretation of the data from the Spitzer Space Tele- scope, which attributes a gap in a dust disk to planet formation. urn, where small moons within the rings cause gaps to form. Calvet said for the star DM Tauri, it appears that the entire center of the disk has been swept years from early instabilities in the disk. Just as a star forms when part of a massive nebula becomes slightly more dense and collapses under its own gravity, a similar process acts to a: >;:<:<.: