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Register a new userJohn Couch Adams: mathematical astronomer, college friend of George Gabriel Stokes and promotor of women in astronomy
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Davor Krajnovic
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John Couch Adams predicted the location of Neptune in the sky, calculated the expectation of the change in the mean motion of the Moon due to the Earths pull, and determined the origin and the orbit of the Leonids meteor shower which had puzzled astronomers for almost a thousand years. With his achievements Adams can be compared with his good friend George Stokes. Not only were they born in the same year, but were also both senior wranglers, received the Smiths Prizes and Copley medals, lived, thought and researched at Pembroke College, and shared an appreciation of Newton. On the other hand, Adams prediction of Neptunes location had absolutely no influence on its discovery in Berlin. His lunar theory did not offer a physical explanation for the Moons motion. The origin of the Leonids was explained by others before him. Adams refused a knighthood and an appointment as Astronomer Royal. He was reluctant and slow to publish, but loved to derive the values of logarithms to 263 decimal places. The maths and calculations at which he so excelled mark one of the high points of celestial mechanics, but are rarely taught nowadays in undergraduate courses. The differences and similarities between Adams and Stokes could not be more striking. This volume attests to the lasting legacy of Stokes scientific work. What is then Adams legacy? In this contribution I will outline Adams life, instances when Stokes and Adams lives touched the most, his scientific achievements and a usually overlooked legacy: female higher education and support of a woman astronomer.
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John Adams acquired an unrivalled reputation for his leading part in designing and constructing the Proton Synchrotron (PS) in CERNs early days. In 1968, and after several years heading a fusion laboratory in the UK, he came back to Geneva to pilot the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) project to approval and then to direct its construction. By the time of his early death in 1984 he had built the two flagship proton accelerators at CERN and, during the second of his terms as Director-General, he laid the groundwork for the proton-antiproton collider which led to the discovery of the intermediate vector boson. How did someone without any formal academic qualification achieve this? What was the magic behind his leadership? The speaker, who worked many years alongside him, will discuss these questions and speculate on how Sir John Adams might have viewed todays CERN.
With this note, we remember our friend Maria Krawczyk, who passed away this year, on May 24th. We briefly outline some of her physics interests and main accomplishments, and her great human and moral qualities.
This article looks at philosophical aspects and questions that modern astrophysical research gives rise to. Other than cosmology, astrophysics particularly deals with understanding phenomena and processes operating at intermediate cosmic scales, which has rarely aroused philosophical interest so far. Being confronted with the attribution of antirealism by Ian Hacking because of its observational nature, astrophysics is equipped with a characteristic methodology that can cope with the missing possibility of direct interaction with most objects of research. In its attempt to understand the causal history of singular phenomena it resembles the historical sciences, while the search for general causal relations with respect to classes of processes or objects can rely on the cosmic laboratory: the multitude of different phenomena and environments, naturally provided by the universe. Furthermore, the epistemology of astrophysics is strongly based on the use of models and simulations and a complex treatment of large amounts of data.
Radio astronomy commenced in earnest after World War II, with Australia keenly engaged through the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. At this juncture, Australias Commonwealth Solar Observatory expanded its portfolio from primarily studying solar phenomena to conducting stellar and extragalactic research. Subsequently, in the 1950s and 1960s, astronomy gradually became taught and researched in Australian universities. However, most scientific publications from this era of growth and discovery have no country of affiliation in their header information, making it hard to find the Australian astronomy articles from this period. In 2014, we used the then-new Astrophysics Data System (ADS) tool Bumblebee to overcome this challenge and track down the Australian-led astronomy papers published during the quarter of a century after World War II, from 1945 until the lunar landing in 1969. This required knowledge of the research centres and facilities operating at the time, which are briefly summarised herein. Based on citation counts -- an objective, universally-used measure of scientific impact -- we report on the Australian astronomy articles which had the biggest impact. We have identified the top-ten most-cited papers, and thus also their area of research, from five consecutive time-intervals across that blossoming quarter-century of astronomy. Moreover, we have invested a substantial amount of time researching and providing a small tribute to each of the 62 scientists involved, including several trail-blazing women. Furthermore, we provide an extensive list of references and point out many interesting historical connections and anecdotes.
The Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy (CSWA) is calling on federal science funding agencies, in their role as the largest sources of funding for astronomy in the United States, to take actions that will advance career development and improve workplace conditions for women and minorities in astronomy. Funding agencies can and should lead the charge to produce excellent diversity and inclusion outcomes in our field by the 2030 Astrophysics Decadal Survey. Anecdotal and quantitative evidence, gathered both by the CSWA and other groups, shows that many structural barriers to success remain in our community. We acknowledge the success of programs like NSF-INCLUDES and NSF-ADVANCE and endorse their continued work. We also recommend further action to remove barriers to success for women and minority astronomers. Key recommendations are: - Federal agencies should push academic institutions to reconsider their support systems for scientists by requiring a high standard of pay and benefits. - Federal agencies should fund research and programs that explore and implement strategies for improving the experiences of scientists. - Federal agencies should require Principal Investigators (PIs) to provide plans for creating inclusive work environments and mentoring young scientists.
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