PHYSICS Timeline, 1950-2000
Physics Timeline, 1950-2000
(from the weburbia.com site, thank you!)
1950: Paul Dirac, first suggestion of string theory
1950: Seaborg, Ghiorso, Street, Thompson, element 98, californium
1950: Jan Oort, theory of comet origins
1950: Bjorklund, Crandall, Moyer, York, Neutral pion
1950: Albert Einstein, Einstein's failed unified theory
1951: Smith and Baade, identify a radio galaxy
1951: Petermann, Stueckelberg, renormalisation group
1952: Courant, Livingston, Snyder, Strong focusing principle for particle accelerators
1952: Alvarez, Glaser, bubble chamber
1952: Seaborg et al, elements 99; einsteinium, 100; fermium
1952: Walter Baade, resolves confusion over two different types of Cepheid variable stars
1952: Edward Teller et al, hydrogen bomb
1952: Joseph Weber, described the principle of the maser
1953: Gell-Mann and Nishijima, strangeness
1953: Gerard de Vaucouleurs, galaxy superclusters and large scale inhomogenieties
1953: Charles Townes, maser
1953: Alpher, Herman, Follin, first recognition of the horizon problem in cosmology
1954: Yang and Mills, non-abelian gauge theory
1954: Low and Gell-Mann, renormalisation group revisited
1955: caesium atomic clock
1955: Martin Ryle, radio telescope interferometry
1955: John Wheeler, describes the space-time foam at the Planck scale
1955: Ilya Prigogine, thermodynamics of irreversible processes
1955: Carl von Weizsacker, Multiple Quantisation and ur-theory
1955: Seaborg et al, element 101, mendelevium
1955: Chamberlain, Segre and Wiegand anti-proton
1956: Reines and Cowan, neutrino detection
1956: Cork, Lambertson, Piccioni, Wenzel, evidence for anti-neutron
1956: Block, Lee and Yang, weak interaction could violate parity
1956: Reines and Cowan, anti-neutrino detection
1956: Erwin Muller, field ion microscope and first images of individual atoms
1956: Cook, Lambertson, Piconi, Wentzel, anti-neutron
1968: Abdus Salam, 2-component neutrino
1957: Burbidge, Burbidge, Hoyle, Fowler Formation of light elements in stars
1957: Friedman, Lederman, Telegdi, Wu, parity violation in weak decays
1957: Bardeen, Cooper, Schrieffer, BCS theory of superconductivity
1957: nobelium
1957: Hugh Everett, Many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics
1957: Feynman, Gell-Mann, Marshak, Sudarshan, V-A theory of weak interactions
1957: John Wheeler, pregeometry and space-time foam
1958: Townes and Schawlow, theory of laser
1958: Martin Ryle, evidence for evolution of distant cosmological radio sources
1958: Seaborg et al, element 102, nobelium
1958: Gary Feinberg, predicts that muon neutrino is distinct from electron neutrino
1958: David Finkelstein, resolves the nature of the black hole event horizon
1959: MIT, radar echo from Venus
1959: Ramsey, Kleppner, Goldenberg, hydrogen maser atomic clock
1959: Tulio Regge, theory of Regge poles
1960: Theodore Maiman, ruby laser
1960: Martin Kruskal, new coordinates to study Schwarzschild black hole
1960: Eugene Wigner, the unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics in natural science
1960: Pound and Rebka, measurement of gravitational red-shift
1960: Matthews and Sandage, optical identification of a quasar
1961: Sheldon Glashow, introduces neutral intermediate boson of electro-weak interactions
1961: Jeoffrey Goldstone, Theory of massless particles in spontaneous symmetry breaking (Goldstone boson)
1961: Gell-Mann and Ne'eman, The eightfold way, SU(3) octet symmetry of hadrons
1961: Robert Dicke, Weak anthropic principle
1961: Robert Hofstadter, necleons have an internal structure
1961: Ghiorso, Sikkeland, Larsh, Latimer, element 103, lawrencium
1961: Edward Ohm, prior detection of CMBR, but not identified
1961: Edward Lorenz, chaos theory
1961: Yuri Gagarin, first man in space
1961: Geoffrey Chew, nuclear democracy and the bootstrap model
1961: Tulio Regge, simplicial lattice general relativity
1962: Gell-Mann and Ne'eman, Prediction of Omega minus particle
1962: Leith and Upatnieks, first hologram
1962: Giacconi, Gursky, Paolini, Rossi, detection of cosmic X-rays
1962: Brian Josephson, theory of Jesephson effect
1962: Lederman, Steinberger, Schwartz, evidence for more than one type of neutrino
1962: Hogarth, proposes relation between cosmological and thermodynamic arrows of time
1962: Thomas Gold, time-symmetric universe
1962: Benoit Mandelbrot, fractal images
1963: Samios et al, Baryon Omega minus found
1963: Philip Anderson, Gauge theories can evade Goldstone theorem
1963: Roy Kerr, solution for a rotating black hole
1963: Schmidt, Greensite, Sandage, quasars are distant
1963: Nicola Cabibbo, weak mixing angle
1964: Brout, Englert, Higgs, Higgs mechanism of symmetry breaking
1964: Hoyle, Taylor, Zeldovich, big bang nucleosynthesis of helium
1964: Steven Weinberg, baryon number is probably not conserved
1964: Christenson, Cronin, Fitch, Turlay, CP violation in weak interactions
1964: Gell-Mann, Zweig, quark theory of hadrons
1964: Murray Gell-Mann, current algebra
1964: Bjorken and Glashow, prediciton of SU(4) flavour symmetry and charm
1964: Roger Penrose, black holes must contain singularities
1964: Ginzburg, Doroshkevich, Novikov, Zel'dovich, black holes have no hair
1964: Salpeter and Zel'dovich, black holes power quasars and radio galaxies
1964: John Bell, a quantum inequality which limits the possibilities for local hidden variable theories
1964: John Wheeler, foundations of canonical formulism for gravity
1964: soviets, element 104, rutherfordium
1964: Salam, Ward, SU(2)xU(1) model of electro-weak unification
1965: Thomas Kibble, Higgs mechanism for Yang-Mills theory
1965: Greenberg, Han, Nambu, SU(3) colour symmetry to explain statistics of quark model
1965: Zabusky and Kruskal, Numerical studies of solitons
1965: Penzias and Wilson, detection of the cosmic background radiation
1965: Dicke, Peebles, Roll, Wilkinson, indentification of cosmic background radiation
1965: Rees and Sciama, quasars were more numerable in the past
1966: X-ray source Cygnus X-1 discovered
1967: Steven Weinberg, electro-weak unification
1967: Bell and Hewish, pulsars
1967: Irwin Shapiro, radar measurment of relativistic time delays to Mercury
1967: John Wheeler, introduced the term "black hole"
1967: Andrei Sakharov, three criteria for cosmological abundance of matter over anti-matter
1967: soviets, element 105, dubnium
1968: Joseph Weber, first attempt at a gravitational wave detector
1968: Brandon Carter, Strong anthropic principle
1968: Gabriele Veneziano, Dual resonance model for strong interaction, beginning of string theory
1968: James Bjorken, theory of scaling behavior in deep inelastic scattering
1968: Richard Feynman, scaling and parton model of nucleons
1969: Kendall, Friedman, Taylor Deep inelastic scattering experiments find structure inside protons.
1969: Ellis, Hawking and Penrose, singularity theorems for the big bang
1969: Roger Penrose, conjectures that singularities are hidden by cosmic censorship
1969: Donald Lynden-Bell, black hole at the centre of galactic nuclei
1969: Raymond Davis, solar neutrino detector
1969: Charles Misner, cosmological horizon problem revisited
1969: Robert Dicke, cosmological flatness problem
1969: Neil Armstrong, first man on the moon
1969: first attempts to verify solar deflection of radio waves from quasars
1969: David Finkelstein, Space-time code
1970: Claude Lovelace, Veneziano amplitude has special properties in 26 dimensions
1970: Nambu, Nielsen, Susskind, realisation that the dual resonance model is string theory
1970: Goto, Hara, Nambu, Action for bosonic string as area of world sheet
1970: Simon Van der Meer, stochastic cooling for particle beams
1970: Glashow, Iliopoulos, Maiani, GIM mechanism and prediction of charm quark
1970: Stephen Hawking, the surface area of a black holes event horizon always increases
1971: Kenneth Wilson, the operator product expansion and the renormalisation group for the strong force
1971: Dimopolous, Fayet, Gol'fand, Lichtman Supersymmetry
1971: Ramond, Neveu, Schwarz String theory of bosons and fermions with critical dimension 10
1971: 't Hooft, Veltman, Lee, renormalisation of elctro-weak model
1971: Roger Penrose, spin networks
1971: Bolton, Murdin, Webster Cygnus X-1 identified as black hole candidate
1972: Jacob Bekenstein, black hole entropy
1972: Fritsch, Gell-Mann, Bardeen , Quantum Chromodynamics
1972: Kirzhnits, Linde, Electro-Weak phase transition
1972: Roger Penrose, Twistors
1972: Salam, Pati, SU(4)xSU(4) unification and proton decay
1972: Tom Bolton Cygnus X-1 identified as black hole
1973: Wess and Zumino, space-time supersymmetry
1973: Ostriker and Peebles, dark matter in galaxies
1973: CERN, Evidence of weak neutral currents
1973: 't Hooft, Gross, Politzer, Wilczek, Coleman, theory of asymptotic freedom in non-abelian gauge theories
1973: Klebesadel, Strong, Olson, Gamma Ray Bursts are cosmic
1973: Edward Tyron, the universe as a quantum fluctuation
1974: Yoneya, Scherk, Schwarz interpretation of string theory as a theory of gravity
1974: Ting and Richter, found J/psi, charmed quark
1974: Kenneth Wilson, lattice gauge theory
1974: Taylor and Hulse, binary pulsar and relativistic effects
1974: Kobayashi and Maskawa, CKM mixing matrix; CP violation in weak interaction requires three generations
1974: Georgi and Glashow, SU(5) as Grand Unified Theory and prediction of proton decay
1974: Georgi, Weinberg, Quinn, Convergence of coupling constants at GUT scale
1974: 't Hooft, Okun, Polyakov, heavy magnetic monopoles exist in GUTs.
1974: Stephen Hawking, black hole radiation and thermodynamics
1974: soviets and americans, element 106, seaborgium
1975: Martin Perl Tau lepton
1975: Gail Hanson quark jets
1975: Chincarini and Rood lumpiness in galaxy distributions
1975: Unruh and Davies acceleration radiation effect
1975: Mitchell Feigenbaum, universality in chaotic non-linear systems
1975: Belavin, Polyakov, Schwartz, Tyupkin instantons in Yang-Mills theory
1976: Scherk, Gliozzi, Olive Supersymmetric string theory
1976: Deser, Freedman, Van Nieuwenhuizen, Ferrara, Zumino Supergravity
1976: Levine and Vessot precision test of gravitational time dilation on rocket
1976: Gerard 't Hooft the instantons solution of the U(1) anomaly
1976: soviets element 107, bohrium
1977: James Elliot, rings of Uranus
1977: Olive and Montenen, conjecture of elecro-magnetic duality
1977: Fermilab, bottom quark
1977: Klaus von Klitzing, quantum Hall effect
1977: Tifft, Gregory, Joeveer, Einasto, Thompson, clusters chains and voids in galaxy dustributions
1977: Berkley, dipole anisotropy on cosmic background radiation
1977: Leon Lederman, upsilon, bottom quark
1977: Gunn, Schramm, Steigman, cosmological constraints imply that there are only three light neutrinos
1978: Charon, moon of Pluto
1978: Taylor and Hulse, evidence for gravitational radiation of binary pulsar
1978: Cremmer, Julia, Nahm, Scherk, 11-dimensional supergravity
1978: Prescott, Taylor, elctro-weak effect on electron polarisation
1979: Voyager, rings of Jupiter
1979: John Preskill, cosmological monopole problem
1979: Walsh, Carswell, Weymannquasar doubled by gravitational lensing
1979: DESY, evidence for gluons in hadron Jets
1979: Alexei Starobinsky inflationary universe
1980: Frederick Reines, Evidence of Neutrino oscillations
1980: DESY, measurement of gluon spin
1980: Alan Guth inflationary early universe
1981: Witten, Schoen, Yau positive energy theorem in general relativity
1981: Green and Schwarz, Type I superstring theory
1981: Binnig, Rohrer scanning tunneling electron microscope
1981: Witten and Alvarez-Gaume Difficulty of getting standard model from 11-D supergravity because of chiral modes
1981: Alexander Polyakov Path integral quantisation of strings, conformal symmetry and critical dimension
1981: Linde, Albrecht, Steinhardt new inflationary universe
1982: Green and Schwarz, Type II superstring theory
1982: Alain Aspect an experiment to confirm non-local aspects of quantum theory
1982: Darnstadt element 109, meitnerium
1982: limits on proton lifetime rule out many Grand Unified Theories
1983: Carlo Rubbia et al, W and Z bosons at CERN
1983: Andrei Linde chaotic inflationary universe
1984: Green and Schwarz, anomaly cancellations in superstring theory
1984: Darnstadt element 108, hassium
1985: Gross, Harvey, Martinec, Rohm, heterotic string theory
1985: David Deutsch, theory of quantum computing
1986: Bednorz and Mueller, high temperature superconductivity
1986: Abhay Ashtekar, new variables for canonical quantum gravity
1986: Geller, Huchra, Lapparent, bubble structure of galaxy distributions
1987: , supernova 1987a
1987: Masatoshi Koshibas, detection of neutrinos from a supernova
1988: Atiyah, Witten, topological quantum field theories
1988: Smolin and Rovelli, loop representation of quantum gravity
1989: SLAC, evidence that number of light neutrinos is 3 from Z width
1989: Tim Berners-Lee, The World Wide Web
1989: Bennett and Brassard, first quantum computer
1990: John Mather, black body spectrum of cosmic background radiation from COBE
1991: CERN, confirmation that number of light neutrinos is 3
1991: Connes, Lott, particle models from non-commutative geometry
1991: BATSE, Gamma Ray Burst distribution is isotropic
1992: Mather and Smoot, angular fluctuations in cosmic background radiation with COBE
1993: Aspinwall, Morrison, Greene, Topology change in string theory
1994: Fermilab, Top Quark
1994: 't Hooft, Susskind Holographic principle
1994: Seiberg and Witten, Electro-magnetic duality in supersymmetric gauge theory
1994: Hubble Space Telescope, Evidence for black hole at the centre of galaxy M87
1994: Peter Shor, factorisation algorithm for a quantum computer
1994: Hull, Townsend, Unity of String Dualities
1994: Darnstadt element 110
1995: Witten and Townsend, M-Theory
1995: Joseph Polchinski, D-Branes
1995: Cornell, Wieman, Anderson Bose-Einstein condensate of atomic gas
1995: CERN, Creation of Anti-hydrogen atoms
1995: Mayor and Queloz, first extra-solar planet orbiting an ordinary star
1995: Darnstadt element 111
1996: Strominger, Vafa, D-branes and black-holes
1996: Cumrun Vafa, F-theory
1996: Steven Lamoreaux, measurement of Casimir force
1996: Darnstadt element 112
1996: Banks, Fischler, Shenker, Susskind, M-theory as a matrix model
1997: BepoSAX, location of Gamma Ray Bursts demonstrates that they are extragalactic
1997: Juan Maldacena, AdS/CFT duality
1997: SLAC, photon-photon scattering produces electron-positron pairs
1998: Perlmutter, Garnavich et al, supernovae observations suggest that the expansion of the universe is accelerating
1998: Super-Kamiokande, neutrino oscillation demonstrated
1998: CERN, Fermilab, time reversal assymetry observed for K meson decay
2000: Fermilab, tau neutrino observed
