Stamps dedicated to the creators of nuclear physics

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STAMPS DEDICATED TO THE CREATORS OF NUCLEAR PHYSICS

In this issue we celebrate the centenary of the birth of the outstanding English physicist Ernest Rutherford, one of the founders of the physics of atomic nuclei. In 1908, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for his study of radioactivity. A 1988 Swedish stamp commemorating the 1908 Nobel Prize winners shows Rutherford first from the right. In the second and third plans are the famous German doctor Paul Ehrlich and the outstanding Russian biologist Ilya Ilchikh Mechnikov.

Albert Einstein made a great contribution to nuclear physics. His famous formula $E=mc^2$, connecting energy and mass, underlies nuclear energy. We see Einstein’s portrait on a Paraguayan stamp issued in 1965.

Another great physicist who significantly advanced our understanding of the nature of atomic nuclei was the Danish scientist Niels Bohr, whose portrait was featured on a 1963 Danish stamp. The stamp contains a planetary model of the atom and the formula $hv=E_2-E_1$, which determines the radiation energy of the atom.

French physicist Frédéric Joluccior, together with his wife Irene, discovered the artificial radioactivity of atomic nuclei in 1934. He is featured on a Soviet stamp issued in 1958.

The first atomic reactor was built in the USA in 1942 under the leadership of Italian physicist Enrico Fermi. An Italian stamp from 1967 depicts Fermi in the laboratory where the reactor was installed.

In the Soviet Union, academician Igor Vasilyevich Kurchatov began work on studying the nature of atomic nuclei for a long time. For the 60th anniversary of the birth of I.V. Kurchatov, we issued a stamp with his portrait.

In 1956, the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research began operating in the city of Dubna. Scientists from socialist countries work successfully there. A stamp dedicated to the tenth anniversary of the work of this institute was issued in 1966 in Hungary. It shows where one of the largest charged particle accelerators is located - a synchrophasotron with an energy of 10 billion electrons.

A. V. Aimyks