A giant, a pioneer in physics died today. John Archibald Wheeler was a genius, an amazing physicist who felt that teaching as well as research was important. His students included Richard Feynman, widely recognized as one of the true geniuses of all time. His contributions to quantum mechanics and relativity were enormous. He invented the term black hole.
Daniel Holz at Cosmic Variance has written one of the finest tributes I have ever read for any person. The field of science is better for having had Wheeler in it. I’m sure his name will be mentioned often and with praise once the Large Hadron Collider is fired up; his work inevitably lead to that fantastic machine and to much of our current understanding of the Universe.
April 13th, 2008 at 10:33 pm
Descanse En Paz
April 13th, 2008 at 10:48 pm
A truly amazing human being. May he never be forgotten.
April 13th, 2008 at 11:08 pm
First Bethe, now Wheeler. I feel so stupid for never having learnt more physics.
I wonder if losing a student hurts in manner akin to losing a child. I imagine there’s a feeling of pride to having supervised a Nobel laureate, so in that sense the two are similar.
April 14th, 2008 at 12:51 am
Thankfully his teaching yielded wonderful results, students who were able to apply critical thinking and the scientific method to many areas of physics. Plus those students themselves, through example, learned the important of teaching, keeping the legacy alive.
April 14th, 2008 at 1:02 am
I’m sure his name will be mentioned often and with praise once the Large Hadron Collider is fired up
They can name one of the Earth destroying black holes or strangelets after him.
Ha ha ha! I tease.
Hey, some cultures say you are supposed to be jovial after a death, not all gloomy and pouty.
I feel so stupid for never having learnt more physics.
So read some books. Learning is one of those things you can do at home, and no government or any other authority can stop you.
Unless, you know, they, like, lobotomize you or something.
Here’s two I recently read:
http://www.amazon.com/Endless-Universe-Beyond-Big-Bang/dp/0385509642/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1208156460&sr=8-1
http://www.amazon.com/Trouble-Physics-String-Theory-Science/dp/061891868X/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1208156502&sr=1-1
April 14th, 2008 at 1:52 am
I remember attending his lecture on black holes at Oklahoma State University, ca. 1978.
April 14th, 2008 at 3:14 am
There is only one electron in the universe.
April 14th, 2008 at 4:26 am
And another great is gone.
April 14th, 2008 at 6:58 am
“I’m sure his name will be mentioned often and with praise once the Large Hadron Collider is fired up”
And he will be blamed when the first to particles smash against each other and create a stable black hole :P.
Nah, just kidding.
On all seriousness, this guy pretty much put a whole new look at quantum physics as we know it today. May he rest in peace.
April 14th, 2008 at 9:18 am
I met him once at an undergraduate physics conference many years ago. Not only smart, but a really nice guy. And the author of the thickest textbook I ever owned.
April 14th, 2008 at 10:04 am
He lived a wondrous life and his contributions were immense. It is we, the survivors, who are made poorer by his loss.
April 14th, 2008 at 11:03 am
No greater gift can be had by a living being than the perpetuation of their thoughts.
-Kol
(P.S. Wonderful words, Daniel.)
April 14th, 2008 at 1:47 pm
Didn’t he invent the term “black hole” as a way of DENIGRATING the concept?* As I recall, he thought the whole idea was a load of dingo’s kidneys originally.
*) Kinda like Renee Descartes did with the term “imaginary numbers”.
April 14th, 2008 at 4:05 pm
tracer: No he didn’t. You’re thinking of Fred Hoyle’s coining of the word ‘Big-Bang’, unless I’m mistaken.
April 14th, 2008 at 5:27 pm
You’re right, of course, QD.
As it turned out I went for Chem and Maths rather than more phsyics - and partly for that reason, I s’pose, I only learn of these giants of the field when it’s too late.
Unfortunately I went down with a nasty depression a while ago now, and I have forgotten most of my maths (didn’t help that I didn’t keep it alive after I went on to try do a Ph.D. in Chem). BUT I’m slowly starting to try relearning some of it. My hope is that once I have some understanding of geometry and analysis again, I might buy Sean Carroll’s book. Here’s hoping.
April 14th, 2008 at 5:49 pm
Another is great is gone at least he passed his love of teaching down to his students and hopefully they passed it along. To quote a song “It’s not what you take with you but what you leave behind.”
April 14th, 2008 at 7:56 pm
Thanks for pointing that out to me, Phil. Certainly one of the best tributes to a worthy person I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading. As I said in the comments at Daniel’s site; to anyone who has even a passing interest in science, John Wheeler’s are among the shoulders we stand upon.
April 14th, 2008 at 10:11 pm
Mr. Wheeler was my one of my biggest inspirations. His books are some of the best out there. I’ve always had a secret desire to meet him one day. May God rest his soul.
April 15th, 2008 at 1:45 am
Here’s hoping.
I’ve been dere done dat with the whole depression thing. Keep looking upward and good luck.
April 16th, 2008 at 11:13 am
From Net I came to know that wheeler passed away. It is really sad that we have lost a person who contributed for the development of Modern Physics in 20th Century. His Liquid drop model of the nucleus with Dr.Bohr to explain nuclear fission gives glimses of What wheeler is.
Let his soul be at peace in singularity of “Bl;ackhole”
Radhakrishna