From: Joel Cannon (jcannon@jcannon.washjeff.edu)
Date: Thu Jul 10 2003 - 14:07:02 EDT
I just finished reading an interesting Scientific American article on
Lev Landau, one of the most significant physicists of the 20th
century (August 1997).
Interestingly, when beta decay was discovered in the late 1920's
Landau supported Neils Bohr in his idea that the experiment violated
conservation of energy. He changed his mind fairly quickly (eventually
the neutrino was discovered to be what carried away the `lost' energy).
What is interesting is that Landau, a dedicated socialist at the time,
was persecuted by socialist writers because of this view.
"Unfortunately, the co-founder of Marxism, Friedrich Engels, had
declared in the 19th century that the law of conservation of energy
was to be forever fundamental to science, and Landau was severely
castigated in the local papers for his (temporary) blasphemy."
Apparently others besides Christians are (or were) convinced that
their "scriptures," despite being written for an entirely different
purpose, communicate scientific descriptions which set borders around
what scientists can think and not think.
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Joel W. Cannon | (724)223-6146
Physics Department | jcannon@washjeff.edu
Washington and Jefferson College |
Washington, PA 15301 |
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