France - $1.4. Million Prize for Physicist - by Denis Overbye
Bernard d’Espagnat, 87, a French physicist and philosopher of science, has won the Euro 1.08($1.4 million) Templeton Prize for his work on the philosophical implications of quantum mechanics, the John Templeton Foundation said Monday in Paris. Noting that the rules governing the behavior of subatomic particles contravene common-sense notions of reality, Dr. d’Espagnat, a professor emeritus at the University of Paris-Sud, coined the term “veiled reality” to describe a world beyond appearances, which science can only glimpse and which he said could be compatible with “higher forms of spirituality.”
Quantum physics is the study of systems at or below the atomic level: atoms, electrons, protons, and subatomic particles. With its sub discipline, quantum mechanics, it exploded the basic tenets of classical physics. For d'Espagnat, quantum physics offered a subtler and perhaps humbler understanding of mankind's place in the universe than did conventional physics.
No comments:
Post a Comment