Information about scientists who studied man. Famous domestic biologists and their discoveries
Russian scientists have removed the veil of the unknown, contributing to the evolution of scientific thought throughout the world. Many great Russian scientists worked abroad in research institutions of world renown. Our countrymen collaborated with many outstanding scientific minds. The discoveries of Russian scientists became a catalyst for the development of technology and knowledge throughout the world, and many revolutionary ideas and discoveries in the world were created on the basis of the scientific achievements of famous Russian scientists.
The world discoveries of Russian scientists in the field of chemistry glorified our compatriots for centuries. Mendeleev made the most important discovery for the world of chemistry - he described the periodic law of chemical elements. The periodic table has gained recognition throughout the world over time and is now used in all corners of our planet.
Sikorsky can be called a great Russian scientist in aviation. Aircraft designer Sikorsky is known for his developments in the creation of multi-engine aircraft. It was he who created the world's first aircraft with technical characteristics for vertical takeoff and landing - a helicopter.
Not only Russian scientists contributed to the aviation business. For example, the pilot Nesterov is considered the founder of aerobatics, in addition, he was the first to propose the use of runway lighting during night flights.
Famous Russian scientists were also in medicine: Pirogov, Botkin, Mechnikov and others. Mechnikov developed the doctrine of phagocytosis (protective factors of the body). Surgeon Pirogov was the first to use anesthesia in the field to treat a patient and developed classical means of surgical treatment, which are still used today. And the contribution of the Russian scientist Botkin was that he was the first in Russia to conduct research on experimental therapy and pharmacology.
On the example of these three areas of science, we see that the discoveries of Russian scientists are used in all spheres of life. But this is only a small fraction of all that was discovered by Russian scientists. Our compatriots glorified their outstanding homeland in absolutely all scientific disciplines, from medicine and biology to developments in the field of space technology. Russian scientists left for us, their descendants, a huge treasure of scientific knowledge to provide us with colossal material for creating new great discoveries.
Alexander Ivanovich Oparin is a famous Russian biochemist, the author of the materialistic theory of the appearance of life on Earth.
Academician, Hero of Socialist Labor, laureate of the Lenin Prize.
Childhood and youth
Curiosity, inquisitiveness and the desire to understand how, for example, a huge tree can grow from a tiny seed, manifested itself in the boy very early. Already in childhood, he was very interested in biology. He studied plant life not only from books, but also in practice.
The Oparin family moved from Uglich to a country house in the village of Kokaevo. The very first years of childhood passed there.
Yuri Kondratyuk (Alexander Ignatievich Shargei), one of the outstanding theorists of space flights.
In the 60s, he became world famous thanks to the scientific substantiation of the way spacecraft flew to the moon.
The trajectory calculated by him was called the “Kondratyuk route”. It was used by the American Apollo spacecraft to land a man on the lunar surface.
Childhood and youth
This one of the outstanding founders of astronautics was born in Poltava on June 9 (21), 1897. He spent his childhood in his grandmother's house. She was a midwife, and her husband was a zemstvo doctor and government official.
For some time he lived with his father in St. Petersburg, where from 1903 he studied at the gymnasium on Vasilyevsky Island. When his father died in 1910, the boy returned to his grandmother again.
Inventor of the telegraph. The name of the inventor of the telegraph is forever inscribed in history, since Schilling's invention made it possible to transmit information over long distances.
The apparatus made it possible to use radio and electrical signals that traveled through the wires. The need to transmit information has always existed, but in the 18-19 centuries. in the face of growing urbanization and the development of technology, data sharing has become relevant.
This problem was solved by the telegraph, the term from the ancient Greek language was translated as "to write far away."
Emily Khristianovich Lenz is a famous Russian scientist.
From the school bench, we all know the Joule-Lenz law, which establishes that the amount of heat released by the current in the conductor is proportional to the current strength and the resistance of the conductor.
Another well-known law is the "Lenz's rule", according to which the induction current always moves in the opposite direction to the action that generated it.
early years
The original name of the scientist is Heinrich Friedrich Emil Lenz. He was born in Dorpat (Tartu) and was a Baltic German by origin.
His brother Robert Khristianovich became a famous orientalist, and his son, also Robert, followed in his father's footsteps and became a physicist.
Trediakovsky Vasily is a man with a tragic fate. So it was fate that two nuggets lived in Russia at the same time - Lomonosov and Trediakovsky, but one will be treated kindly and remain in the memory of posterity, and the second will die in poverty, forgotten by everyone.
From schoolboy to philologist
In 1703, on March 5, Vasily Trediakovsky was born. He grew up in Astrakhan in a poor family of a clergyman. A 19-year-old boy went to Moscow on foot to continue his studies at the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy.
But he stayed in it for a short time (2 years) and without regret left to replenish his baggage of knowledge in Holland, and then to France - to the Sorbonne, where, suffering need and hunger, he studied for 3 years.
Here he participated in public disputes, comprehended mathematical and philosophical sciences, was a student of theology, studied French and Italian abroad.
"Father of Satan", academician Yangel Mikhail Kuzmich, was born on 10/25/1911 in the village. Zyryanov, Irkutsk region, came from a family of descendants of convict settlers. At the end of the 6th grade (1926), Mikhail leaves for Moscow - to his older brother Konstantin, who studied there. When I was in the 7th grade, I did a part-time job, delivering stacks of newspapers - orders from a printing house. At the end of the FZU, he worked in a factory and at the same time studied at the workers' faculty.
MAI student. The beginning of a professional career
In 1931, he entered the Moscow Aviation Institute with a degree in aircraft engineering, and graduated in 1937. While still a student, Mikhail Yangel settled in the Polikarpov Design Bureau, later, his supervisor to defend his graduation project: “High-altitude fighter with a pressurized cabin ". Having started his work at the Polikarpov Design Bureau as a designer of the 2nd category, ten years later M.K. Yangel was already a leading engineer, engaged in the development of projects for fighters of new modifications.
February 13, 1938, M.K. Yangel, as part of a group of Soviet specialists in the field of aircraft construction of the USSR, visits the United States - for the purpose of a business trip. It is worth noting that the 30s of the twentieth century was a rather active period in the cooperation between the USSR and the USA, and not only in the field of mechanical engineering and aircraft construction, in particular, small arms were purchased (in rather limited quantities) - Thompson submachine guns and Colt pistols.
Scientist, founder of the theory of helicopter engineering, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor Mikhail Leontievich Mil, winner of the Lenin and State Prizes, Hero of Socialist Labor.
Childhood, education, youth
Mikhail Leontiev was born in Irkutsk, on November 22, 1909, in the family of a railway employee and a dentist. Before settling in the city of Irkutsk, his father, Leonty Samuilovich, searched for gold for 20 years, working in the mines. Grandfather, Samuil Mil, settled in Siberia at the end of 25 years of naval service. From childhood, Mikhail showed versatile talents: he loved to draw, was fond of music and easily mastered foreign languages, was engaged in an aircraft modeling circle. At the age of ten, he participated in the Siberian aircraft modeling competition, where, having passed the stage, Mishin's model was sent to the city of Novosibirsk, where she received one of the prizes.
Mikhail graduated from elementary school in Irkutsk, after which, in 1925, he entered the Siberian Institute of Technology.
A.A. Ukhtomsky is an outstanding physiologist, scientist, researcher of the muscular and nervous systems, as well as sensory organs, laureate of the Lenin Prize and a member of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
Childhood. Education
The birth of Alexei Alekseevich Ukhtomsky took place on June 13 (25), 1875 in the small town of Rybinsk. There he spent his childhood and youth. This Volga city forever left in the soul of Alexei Alekseevich the warmest and most tender memories. He proudly called himself Volgar throughout his life. When the boy graduated from the elementary school, his father sent him to Nizhny Novgorod and sent him to the local cadet corps. The son obediently graduated from it, but military service was never the ultimate dream of a young man who was more attracted to such sciences as history and philosophy.
Fascination with philosophy
Ignoring military service, he went to Moscow and entered the theological seminary in two faculties at once - philosophical and historical. Deeply studying philosophy, Ukhtomsky began to think a lot about the eternal questions about the world, about man, about the essence of being. Eventually philosophical mysteries led him to study the natural sciences. As a result, he settled on physiology.
A.P. Borodin is known as an outstanding composer, the author of the opera "Prince Igor", the symphony "Bogatyrskaya" and other musical works.
He is much less known as a scientist who made an invaluable contribution to science in the field of organic chemistry.
Origin. early years
A.P. Borodin was the illegitimate son of the 62-year-old Georgian prince L. S. Genevanishvili and A.K. Antonova. He was born on October 31 (November 12), 1833.
He was recorded as the son of the serf servants of the prince - the spouses Porfiry Ionovich and Tatyana Grigoryevna Borodin. Thus, for eight years the boy was listed in his father's house as a serf. But before his death (1840), the prince gave his son free, bought him and his mother Avdotya Konstantinovna Antonova a four-story house, after marrying her to the military doctor Kleineke.
The boy, in order to avoid unnecessary rumors, was presented as the nephew of Avdotya Konstantinovna. Since Alexander's origin did not allow him to study at the gymnasium, he studied at home all the subjects of the gymnasium, in addition to German and French, receiving an excellent education at home.
The topics in . Get ready to meet a new table tomorrow, come up with topics. And today we listen to a friend luciferushka and his theme: "The biography and scientific achievements of the physicist Landau are interesting, and how true are the myths around this unique person?)))"
Let's find out more about this extraordinary figure in the history of Russian science.
In December 1929, the secretary of the director of the Institute for Theoretical Physics in Copenhagen made a short entry in the registration book for foreign guests: "Doctor Landau from Leningrad." The doctor at that time was not yet 22 years old, but who would be surprised at this in the famous institute, just like boyish thinness, categorical judgments? Copenhagen was then known as the world capital of quantum physics. And if we continue the metaphor, the great Niels Bohr himself was its permanent mayor. Lev Landau came to him.
It became a common joke that the quantum revolution in the natural sciences of the 20th century took place in kindergartens in England, Germany, Denmark, Russia, Switzerland… model of the atom, Werner Heisenberg - 24 at the time of his creation of a version of quantum mechanics ... Therefore, no one was struck by the young age of a doctor from Leningrad. Meanwhile, Landau was already known as the author of a good dozen independent papers on quantum problems. He wrote the first of them at the age of 18 - when he studied at the Leningrad University at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics.
This stage in the development of the science of the microworld was called the "age of storm and stress." At the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, there was a struggle against classical ideas in natural science. Lev Landau was one of those who was simply created for scientific storms and onslaught.
Lev Davidovich Landau was born on January 22, 1908 in Baku in the family of an oil engineer. His mathematical abilities manifested themselves very early: at the age of 12 he learned to differentiate, at 13 - to integrate, and in 1922 he entered the university, where he studied simultaneously at two faculties - physics and mathematics and chemistry. Then Landau transferred to Leningrad University; after graduating from it, in 1927 he entered the graduate school of the Leningrad Institute of Physics and Technology. In October 1929, by decision of the People's Commissariat for Education, Landau was sent for an internship abroad. He visited Germany, Denmark, England.
During a six-month internship, the young physicist spent a total of 110 days with Niels Bohr. How these days passed was captured in a caricature drawing by another Russian scientist, 26-year-old Georgy Gamov, then already famous for his theory of alpha decay of nuclei. Landau is depicted tied to a chair with a gag in his mouth, and Niels Bohr stands over him with a pointing finger and instructively says: “Wait, wait, Landau, let me say at least a word!”. “Such a discussion goes on all the time,” Gamow explained his caricature, adding that in fact it was the most venerable Niels Bohr who did not say a word to anyone.
And yet the true truth was the reckless intransigence of the young and the long-suffering of the teacher. Bora's wife Margaret said: “Niels appreciated and fell in love with Landau from the first day. And I understood his temper... You know, he was unbearable, he wouldn't let Nils talk, he made fun of his elders, he looked like a disheveled boy... It's said about such people: an unbearable child... But how talented he was and how truthful! I also fell in love with him and knew how much he loves Nils ... "
Landau liked to repeat jokingly that he was born several years late. In the 20s of the XX century, the new physics developed so rapidly, as if those who were born a little earlier had really managed to conquer all the "eight-thousanders in the mountain range of the quantum Himalayas." He laughingly told his friend Yuri Rumer, who also trained in Europe: "As all beautiful girls have already been sorted out, so all good tasks have already been solved."
By that time, two equivalent versions of quantum mechanics - Heisenberg and Schrödinger - had been basically completed, three key principles of the new science were discovered and formulated: the principles of complementarity, prohibition, and the uncertainty relation. However, the entire subsequent creative life of Lev Landau demonstrated how much of the unknown was left to his lot by the micro- and macrocosm.
The Landau school was born in the mid-1930s; its founder was by no means always older than his students. That is why in this school with very strict discipline, all the students were on "you" among themselves, and many - with the teacher. Among them is his closest associate, the future academician Yevgeny Mikhailovich Lifshits. He became Landau's co-author on the famous "Course of Theoretical Physics".
For scientists all over the world, volume after volume, this course turned into a kind of sacred scripture, as the most talented Vladimir Naumovich Gribov once seriously put it. The unique advantage of the course was its encyclopedic nature. Independently studying successively published volumes, both young and venerable theoreticians began to feel themselves experts in the modern physical picture of the micro- and macroworld. “After Enrico Fermi, I am the last universalist in physics,” Landau said more than once, and this was recognized by everyone.
The Landau school was probably the most democratic community in Russian science in the 1930s and 1960s, and anyone could join, from a doctor of science to a schoolboy, from a professor to a laboratory assistant. The only thing that was required of the applicant was to successfully pass the so-called Landau theoretical minimum to the teacher himself (or his trusted collaborator). But everyone knew that this “only one” was a severe test of abilities, will, diligence and devotion to science. The theoretical minimum consisted of nine exams - two in mathematics and seven in physics. It covered everything you need to know before starting to work independently in theoretical physics; passed the theoretical minimum no more than three times. Landau did not allow anyone the fourth attempt. Here he was strict and implacable. He could tell a torn applicant: “Physics will not work out of you. We must call a spade a spade. It would be worse if I misled you."
Yevgeny Lifshits said that starting from 1934, Landau himself introduced a list of names of those who passed the test. And by January 1962, this “grandmaster” list included only 43 names, but 10 of them belonged to academicians and 26 to doctors of science.
Theoretical minimum - theoretical course - theoretical seminar ... All over the world, three hypostases of Landau's pedagogical activity were known, thanks to which he became a Teacher with a capital letter for many, despite his uncompromisingness, harshness, directness and other "anti-pedagogical" features of his difficult character.
The Landau school was notable for its severity even in outward manifestations. It was impossible to be late for the beginning of the theoretical seminar at 11 o'clock in the morning, no matter what super-important events prevented the speaker appointed for this Thursday from reaching the institute on Vorobyovy Gory in time. If someone at 10 hours 59 minutes said: “Dow, it’s time to start!”, Landau answered: “No, Migdal has another minute so as not to be late ...”. And the impetuous Arkady Beinusovich Migdal (1911-1991) really ran through the open door. This last minute was called "Migdal". “And you will never be king! - Lev Davidovich inspired a promising doctor of sciences, who was at odds with the clock. Accuracy is the courtesy of kings, and you are not polite. Migdal never became king, but became an academic. At the seminars, Landau mercilessly denied empty theorizing, calling it pathology. And instantly lit up, hearing a fruitful idea.
In 1958, physicists, solemnly celebrating Landau's 50th birthday, could not arrange an exhibition of his experimental setups or devices created by him at the Institute for Physical Problems. On the other hand, academicians and students, inventing and pre-ordering marble tablets from the workshops of the Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy - "Landau's Ten Commandments" - were ordered in advance. In imitation of the ten biblical commandments, Landau's ten basic physical formulas were engraved on two marble boards, about which his student, Academician Yuri Moiseevich Kagan (born in 1928), said: "It was the most common of the most important that Dau discovered."
And four years after the anniversary, Landau's life hung by a thread...
There was bad weather. The strongest ice. The girl ran across the road. A car that braked sharply skidded sharply. The impact of an oncoming truck came from the side. And all his strength was tested by the passenger sitting at the door. An ambulance took Landau to the hospital. The famous Czech neurosurgeon Zdeněk Kunz, who urgently flew to Moscow, delivered a verdict: "The patient's life is incompatible with the injuries received."
And he survived!
This miracle was created together with the doctors of physics. The luminaries of medicine, such as the Canadian neurosurgeon Penfield, and the luminaries of physics, among them Niels Bohr himself, joined forces to save Landau. At their request, medicines were flown to Moscow from America, England, Belgium, Canada, France, and Czechoslovakia. The pilots of international airlines have joined the relay race to transfer urgently needed drugs to Russia.
Academicians Nikolai Nikolaevich Semyonov and Vladimir Alexandrovich Engelhardt already on that very ill-fated Sunday, January 7, synthesized a substance against cerebral edema. And although they were ahead of them - a ready-made medicine was delivered from England, for which the departure of the flight to Russia was delayed for an hour - but what an active breakthrough was the two 70-year-old colleagues of the victim!
On that spring day, when everyone had the feeling of having won the fight against death, Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa said: “... this is a noble film that should be called“ If the guys of the whole world! .. ”- and immediately corrected himself, clarifying: - It would be better "Scientific guys of the whole world!". And he proposed to give such a name to the first newspaper essay about the miracle of the resurrection of Landau.
Niels Bohr immediately decided to psychologically support Landau. A letter signed by the 77-year-old Bohr left Copenhagen with the proposal “... The Nobel Prize in Physics for 1962 should be awarded to Lev Davidovich Landau for the truly decisive influence that his original ideas and outstanding work had on the atomic physics of our time."
The prize, contrary to tradition, was presented by the Swedes to Landau not in Stockholm, but in Moscow, at the hospital of the Academy of Sciences. And he could neither prepare nor read the obligatory Nobel lecture for the laureate. To Landau's greatest regret, the initiator of the award, Niels Bohr, was not present at the award ceremony - he passed away in the late autumn of 1962, without having time to make sure that his last good will towards the great student was realized.
And Lev Davidovich Landau lived for another six years and celebrated his 60th birthday among his students. This was his last anniversary date: Landau died in 1968.
Landau died a few days after the operation to eliminate intestinal obstruction. Diagnosis - thrombosis of mesenteric vessels. Death occurred as a result of blockage of the artery by a detached thrombus. Landau's wife, in her memoirs, expressed doubts about the competence of some of the doctors who treated Landau, especially doctors from special clinics for the treatment of the USSR leadership.
In the history of science, he will remain one of the legendary figures of the 20th century, a century that deserved the tragic honor of being called atomic. According to Landau's direct testimony, he did not feel a shadow of enthusiasm, participating in the undeniably heroic epic of the creation of the Soviet nuclear power industry. He was driven only by civic duty and incorruptible scientific honesty. In the early 1950s, he said: “... every effort must be made not to enter the thick of atomic affairs ... The goal of an intelligent person is to distance himself from the tasks that the state sets for itself, especially the Soviet state, which is built on oppression.”
Scientific legacy of Landau
Landau's scientific heritage is so great and varied that it is even hard to imagine how one person could manage to do this in just some 40 years. He developed the theory of diamagnetism of free electrons - Landau diamagnetism (1930), together with Evgeny Lifshitz created the theory of the domain structure of ferromagnets and obtained the equation of motion of the magnetic moment - the Landau-Lifshitz equation (1935), introduced the concept of antiferromagnetism as a special phase of a magnet (1936), derived the kinetic equation for plasma in the case of Coulomb interaction and established the form of the collision integral for charged particles (1936), created the theory of second-order phase transitions (1935-1937), first obtained the relationship between the density of levels in the nucleus and the excitation energy (1937), which allows us to consider Landau (along with Hans Bethe and Viktor Weiskopf) one of the creators of the statistical theory of the nucleus (1937), created the theory of superfluidity of helium II, thereby laying the foundation for the creation of the physics of quantum liquids (1940-1941), together with Vitaly Lazarevich Ginzburg built a phenomenological theory of superconductivity (1950 ), developed the theory of the Fermi liquid (1956), at the same time jointly with and independently of Abdus Salam, Tzundao Li, and Zhenning Yang, he proposed the law of conservation of combined parity and advanced the theory of the two-component neutrino (1957). For pioneering research in the theory of condensed matter, in particular the theory of liquid helium, Landau was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1962.
Landau's great merit is the creation of a national school of theoretical physicists, which included such scientists as, for example, I. Ya. Pomeranchuk, I. M. Lifshits, E. M. Lifshits, A. A. Abrikosov, A. B. Migdal , L. P. Pitaevsky, I. M. Khalatnikov. The scientific seminar led by Landau, which has already become a legend, entered the history of theoretical physics.
Landau is the creator of the classical course in theoretical physics (together with Evgeny Lifshitz). "Mechanics", "Field Theory", "Quantum Mechanics", "Statistical Physics", "Mechanics of Continuous Media", "Electrodynamics of Continuous Media", and all together - the multi-volume "Course of Theoretical Physics", which has been translated into many languages and to this day day continues to enjoy the well-deserved love of physics students.
Knights of the Spherical Puff
One of the most prominent Soviet physicists, Nobel laureate academician Lev Davidovich Landau (1908-1968) led in the late 1940s and early 1950s a group of theorists who carried out fantastically complex calculations of nuclear and thermonuclear chain reactions in the projected hydrogen bomb. It is known that the main theorist in the Soviet atomic bomb project was Yakov Borisovich Zel'dovich, later Igor Evgenievich Tamm, Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov, Vitaly Lazarevich Ginzburg were involved in the hydrogen bomb project (here I name only those scientists whose participation was decisive, without belittling the enormous contribution of dozens of other outstanding scientists and designers).
Much less is known about the participation of Landau and his group, which included Evgeny Mikhailovich Lifshitz, Naum Natanovich Meiman, and other collaborators. Meanwhile, recently in the leading American popular science magazine Scientific American (1997, # 2), in an article by Gennady Gorelik, it was stated that the Landau group managed to do something that turned out to be beyond the strength of the Americans. Our scientists gave a complete calculation of the basic model of a hydrogen bomb, the so-called spherical puff, in which layers with nuclear and thermonuclear explosives alternated - the explosion of the first shell created a temperature of millions of degrees, necessary to ignite the second. The Americans were unable to calculate such a model and postponed the calculations until the advent of powerful computers. Ours is all calculated manually. And calculated correctly. In 1953, the first Soviet thermonuclear bomb was detonated. Its main creators, including Landau, became Heroes of Socialist Labor. Many others were awarded Stalin Prizes (including Landau's student and closest friend Yevgeny Lifshitz).
Naturally, all participants in the projects for the manufacture of atomic and hydrogen bombs were under the tight control of the special services. Especially leading scientists. It couldn't be otherwise. Now it’s even somehow inconvenient to recall the well-known story about how the Americans literally “blew” their atomic bomb. This refers to the German emigrant, physicist Klaus Fuchs, who worked for Soviet intelligence and handed over to our drawings of the bomb, which dramatically accelerated the work on its manufacture. It is much less known that the Soviet spy Margarita Konenkova (wife of the famous sculptor) worked for our intelligence ... in bed with Albert Einstein, being the lover of a brilliant physicist for a number of years. Since Einstein did not actually participate in the American atomic project, she could not report anything of real value. But, again, it is impossible not to admit that the Soviet state security, in principle, acted quite correctly, surrounding potential sources of important information with their secret agents.
Documentary "Landau's Ten Commandments"
Cherenkov effect
In 1958, the Nobel Prize was awarded to three Soviet scientists - Cherenkov P.A., Frank I.M. and Tamm I.E. "for his discovery and interpretation of the Cherenkov effect." Sometimes in the literature this effect is called the "Cherenkov-Vavilov effect" ("Polytechnic Dictionary", Moscow, 1980).
It consists in the following: it is “radiation of light (other than luminescent), arising from the movement of charged particles in a substance, when their speed exceeds the phase velocity of light in this medium. It is used in counters of charged particles (Cherenkov counters)." In this case, a legitimate question arises: is it not strange that one author and two interpreters of this discovery receive a prize for the discovery of the effect? The answer to this question is contained in the book by Kora Landau-Drobantseva "Academician Landau".
“So I.E. Tamm, through Landau’s “fault”, received the Nobel Prize at the expense of Cherenkov: Dau received a request from the Nobel Committee regarding the “Cherenkov Effect” ...
A little reference - Pavel Alekseevich Cherenkov, Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR since 1970, member of the Bureau of the Department of Nuclear Physics, showed back in 1934 that when a fast charged particle moves in a completely pure liquid or solid dielectric, a special glow arises, fundamentally different from fluorescent glow, and from bremsstrahlung of the X-ray continuous spectrum type. In the 1970s P.A. Cherenkov worked at the Physical Institute. P.I.Lebedev Academy of Sciences of the USSR (FIAN).
“Dau explained to me this way: “It is unfair to give such a noble prize, which should be awarded to the outstanding minds of the planet, to one cudgel Cherenkov, who has not done anything serious in science. He worked in the laboratory of Frank-Kamenetsky in Leningrad. His boss is a legitimate co-author. Their Institute was advised by Muscovite I.E. Tamm. It just needs to be added to the two legitimate candidates (highlighted by me - V.B.).
We add that, according to the testimony of students who listened to Landau's lectures at that time, when asked to him: who is the number one physicist, he answered: "Tamm is the second."
“You see, Korusha, Igor Evgenievich Tamm is a very good person. Everyone loves him, he does a lot of useful things for technology, but, to my great regret, all his works in science exist until I read them. If I were not there, his mistakes would not have been discovered. He always agrees with me, but gets very upset. I brought him too much grief in our short life. He is simply wonderful man. Co-authorship in the Nobel Prize will simply make him happy.”
In introducing the Nobel laureates, Manne Sigban, a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, recalled that although Cherenkov "established the general properties of the newly discovered radiation, there was no mathematical description of this phenomenon." The work of Tamm and Frank, he went on to say, provided "an explanation that, in addition to simplicity and clarity, also satisfied rigorous mathematical requirements."
But as early as 1905, Sommerfeld, in fact, even before Cherenkov's discovery of this phenomenon, gave his theoretical prediction. He wrote about the appearance of radiation when an electron moves in a vacuum with superluminal speed. But due to the established opinion that the speed of light in a vacuum cannot be exceeded by any material particle, this work of Sommerfeld was recognized as erroneous, although the situation when an electron moves faster than the speed of light in a medium, as shown by Chereshkov, is quite possible.
Igor Evgenievich Tamm, apparently, did not feel satisfaction from receiving the Nobel Prize for the Cherenkov effect: “as Igor Evgenievich himself admitted, it would be much more pleasant for him to receive an award for another scientific result - the exchange theory of nuclear forces” (“One Hundred Great Scientists”). Apparently, the courage for such a recognition took its origins from his father, who “during the Jewish pogrom in Elizavetgrad ... alone went to the crowd of Black Hundreds with a cane and dispersed it” (“One Hundred Great Scientists”).
“Subsequently, during Tamm’s lifetime, at one of the general meetings of the Academy of Sciences, one academician publicly accused him of unfairly appropriating someone else’s piece of the Nobel Prize.” (Landau-Drobantsev bark).
The passages quoted above suggest a number of reflections:
If Landau and Cherenkov were to be swapped in this situation, saying about the "club of Landau", this would be perceived as a manifestation of extreme anti-Semitism, here one can speak of Landau as an extreme Russophobe.
Academician Landau behaves like a scientific representative of God on earth, deciding who to reward for personal devotion to himself, who to punish.
Answering his wife’s question: “Would you agree to accept part of this prize, like Tamm?”, the academician said: “... firstly, all my real works have no co-authors, and secondly, many of my works have long deserved the Nobel Prize, thirdly, if I publish my works with co-authors, then this co-authorship is more necessary for my co-authors ... ”.
Saying such words, the academician, as they now say, was somewhat cunning, which will be seen from what follows.
And another interesting episode described by Landau's wife: “Dau, why did you expel Vovka Levich from your students? Have you quarreled with him forever? - Yes, I "anathematized" him. You see, I arranged him for Frumkin, whom I considered an honest scientist, he had good jobs in the past. Vovka did a decent job on his own, I know. And in the press this work appeared with the signatures of Frumkin and Levich, and Frumkin promoted Levich to a member of the correspondent. There has been some bargaining. I also stopped saying hello to Frumkin…”.
If we try to combine the episode with the forced co-authorship of the Cherenkov Effect with the last episode of Frumkin-Levich, then the question arises whether Academician Landau was offended by Vovka because he received the title of Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences from the hands of Frumkin, and not from Landau "himself"? Moreover, as can be seen from the comparison and from the texts cited here, Landau could not be bothered by the problems of false co-authorship.
Landau said: "... When I die, then the Lenin Committee will definitely award the Lenin Prize posthumously ...".
“Dau was awarded the Lenin Prize when he was not yet dead, but lay dying. But not for scientific discoveries. He was given Zhenya as a companion and was awarded the Lenin Prize for a course of books on theoretical physics, although this work was not completed at that time, two volumes were missing ... ".
Here, however, not all is well either. So, if we recall that in the study of Marxism it was said about three sources of it, so in this case three sources of theoretical physics were widely used: the first - Whittaker "Analytical Dynamics", published in Russian in 1937, the second - "Course of Theoretical Physics " A. Sommerfeld, the third - "Atomic spectra and the structure of the atom" by the same author.
Landau and Vlasov
Surname Vlasov A.A. (1908-1975), Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, author of the dispersion equation on plasma theory, is difficult to find in the general educational literature, now a mention of this scientist has appeared in the new encyclopedia, somewhere in four or five lines.
In the article by M. Kovrov “Landau and others” (“Tomorrow” No. 17, 2000), the author writes: “In the reputable scientific journal Plasma Physics, an article was published by leading experts in this field A.F. Aleksandrov and A.A. Rukhadze "On the history of the foundational work on the kinetic theory of plasma". This story is like this.
In the 1930s, Landau derived the plasma kinetic equation, which was to be called the Landau equation in the future. At the same time, Vlasov pointed out its incorrectness: it was derived under the assumption of a gaseous approximation, that is, that the particles are in free flight most of the time and only occasionally collide, but “a system of charged particles is essentially not a gas, but a kind of system pulled together by distant forces »; the interaction of a particle with all plasma particles by means of the electromagnetic fields created by them is the main interaction, while the pair interactions considered by Landau should be taken into account only as small corrections.
I quote the mentioned article: "Vlasov first introduced ... the concept of the dispersion equation and found its solution", "obtained with the help of this equation, including primarily by Vlasov himself, the results formed the basis of the modern kinetic theory of plasma", Vlasov's merits "are recognized by the whole world the scientific community, which approved in the scientific literature the name of the kinetic equation with a self-consistent field as the Vlasov equation. Every year, hundreds and hundreds of papers on plasma theory are published in the world scientific press, and in every second, at least, the name of Vlasov is pronounced.
“Only narrow specialists with a good memory remember the existence of the erroneous Landau equation.
However, Alexandrov and Rukhadze write, even now “the appearance in 1949 (below in the text M. Kovrov notes that this article actually refers to 1946 - V.B.) is puzzling, a work that sharply criticized Vlasov, moreover, essentially unreasonable."
The bewilderment is caused by the fact that in this work (authors V.L. Ginzburg, L.D. Landau, M.A. Leontovich, V.A. Fok) nothing is said about the fundamental monograph by N.N. Bogolyubov in 1946, which by that time had received universal recognition and was often cited in the literature, where the Vlasov equation and its justification already appeared in the form in which it is known now.
“There are no excerpts from Ginzburg et al. in the article by Aleksandrov and Rukhadze, but they are curious: “the application of the self-consistent field method” leads to conclusions that contradict the simple and indisputable consequences of classical statistics”, just below - “the application of the self-consistent field method leads (as we are now show) to results whose physical irregularity is already visible in itself”; “We leave aside here the mathematical errors of A.A. Vlasov, made by him when solving equations and leading him to the conclusion about the existence of a “dispersion equation” (the same one that today is the basis of modern plasma theory). After all, if they brought these texts, it turns out that Landau and Ginzburg do not understand the simple and indisputable consequences of classical physics, not to mention mathematics.
M. Kovrov says that Alexandrov and Rukhadze.! “It was proposed to call the Vlasov equation the Vlasov-Landau equation. On the grounds that Vlasov himself believed that the pair interactions considered by Landau, albeit as small corrections, should be taken into account, completely forgetting about the persecution organized by Landau. “And only an accidental car accident changed the situation: after Landau’s death in 1968, the general public saw in the lists of laureates of the Lenin Prize in 1970 the unknown name of Vlasov ...”.
The author also quotes from Landau: “Consideration of the indicated works of Vlasov led us to the conviction of their complete inconsistency and the absence of any results in them! having scientific value ... no "dispersion equation exists."
M. Kovrov writes: “In 1946, two of the authors of the devastating work directed against Vlasov were elected academicians, the third received the Stalin Prize. Ginzburg's services will not be forgotten: later he will also become an academician and people's deputy of the USSR from the USSR Academy of Sciences.
Here again the question arises: if you were in the place of Vlasov, say, Abramovich, and in the place of Ginzburg, Landau, Leontovich, Fock, say, Ivanov, Petrov, Sidorov, Alekseev, then how would such persecution be perceived by the “progressive public”? The answer is simple - as a manifestation of extreme anti-Semitism and "inciting ethnic hatred."
M. Kovrov concludes: "... In 1946, an attempt was made to completely seize key positions in science by Jews, which led to its degradation and the almost complete destruction of the scientific environment ...".
However, by the 60s and 70s, the situation improved somewhat and it turned out that literate people sat on the committee for awarding the Lenin Prizes: Landau received the prize not for scientific achievements, but for the creation of a series of textbooks, and Vlasov for achievements in science!
But, as M. Kovrov notes, "The Institute for Theoretical Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences bears the name of Landau, not Vlasov." And that, as Jewish scientists like to say, is a medical fact!
A close acquaintance with the attitude of Academician Landau to other people's work reveals an interesting detail - he was very jealous and negative about other people's scientific achievements. So in 1957, for example, speaking at the Faculty of Physics of Moscow State University, Landau stated that Dirac had lost his understanding of theoretical physics, and his critical and ironic attitude to the generally accepted theory of the structure of the atomic nucleus, developed by D.D. Ivanenko, was also widely known among theoretical physicists .
Note that Paul Dirac formulated the laws of quantum statistics, developed the relativistic theory of electron motion, on the basis of which the existence of the positron was predicted. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1933 for the discovery of new productive forms of atomic theory.
LANDAU AND THE ATOMIC BOMB
Kora Landau describes her husband's participation in the creation of the atomic bomb as follows: “It was the time when ... Kurchatov headed these works. He possessed a powerful organizing talent. The first thing he did was to make a list of the physicists he needed. The first in this list was L.D. Landau. In those years, only Landau alone could make a theoretical calculation for an atomic bomb in the Soviet Union. And he did it with great responsibility and with a clear conscience. He said, "America alone must not be allowed to possess the weapons of the devil!" And yet Dow was Dow! He set a condition for Kurchatov, who was powerful in those days: “I will calculate the bomb, I will do everything, but I will come to your meetings in extremely necessary cases. All my materials on the calculation will be brought to you by Dr. Ya.B. Zel'dovich, and Zel'dovich will also sign my calculations. This is technology, and my calling is science.”
As a result, Landau received one star of the Hero of Socialist Labor, and Zeldovich and Sakharov received three each.
And further: “A.D. Sakharov took up military equipment, and he got the first hydrogen bomb for the death of mankind! A paradox arose - the author of the hydrogen bomb was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace! How can mankind combine the hydrogen bomb and peace?
Yes, A.D. Sakharov is very good, honest, kind, talented. All this is so! But why did the talented physicist trade science for politics? When he created the hydrogen bomb, no one interfered in his affairs! Already in the second half of the seventies, I spoke with a talented physicist, academician, student of Landau: “Tell me: if Sakharov is one of the most talented theoretical physicists, why did he never visit Landau?” They answered me: “Sakharov is a student of I.E. Tamm. He, like Tamm, was engaged in technical calculations ... And Sakharov and Landau have nothing to talk about, he is a physicist-technician, mainly worked for military equipment.
What happened to Sakharov when he made this ill-fated bomb? His kind, subtle soul broke down, there was a psychological breakdown. A kind, honest person turned out to be an evil devilish toy. There is something to climb the wall. And his wife, the mother of his children, also died…”
Secret materials of the KGB
Today, many documents of the Soviet period have been declassified. Here is what Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences A. N. Yakovlev writes:
The declassified KGB case against the famous scientist gives an idea of the scale and methods of political investigation and pressure on a person in a very recent era - what was reported, what was imputed, what was imprisoned
sources
http://www.epwr.ru/quotauthor/txt_487.php,
http://ru.science.wikia.com/wiki/%D0%9B%D0%B5%D0%B2_%D0%9B%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B4%D0%B0%D1%83
http://www.peoples.ru/science/physics/landau/history2.html
http://landafshits.narod.ru/Dau_KGB_57.htm
abstract
in the discipline "Anatomy"
The main modern ways of development of anatomy.
Kiev anatomical school.
The value of scientific achievements for the development of human anatomy"
Performed:
1st year student
groups 11 f/l
Lapikova Marina
Yalta, 2012
Scientists who have contributed to the study of anatomy, physiology and medicine ………………………………………………………….2
The main modern ways of development of anatomy……………..7
Kiev Anatomical School……………………………………11
The connection of anatomy and physiology with other sciences that study a person…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
The value for a person of knowledge about the structure and functions of his body…………………………………………………………..14
List of used literature……………………………..16
Scientists who have contributed to the study of anatomy, physiology and medicine
· Hippocrates(about 460 BC, island of Kos - 377 BC)
Ancient Greek physician, naturalist, philosopher, reformer of ancient medicine.
The works of Hippocrates, which became the basis for the further development of clinical medicine, reflect the idea of the integrity of the body; individual approach to the patient and his treatment; the concept of anamnesis; teachings about etiology, prognosis, temperaments.
· Aristotle(384 BC, Stagir - 322 BC)
- ancient Greek philosopher. Introduced the name "aorta". Aristotle noted the common features of the similarity between man and animal, laid the foundations for descriptive and comparative anatomy.
· Claudius Galen(129 or 131 - about 200)
- ancient physician. Described about 300 human muscles. He proved that not the heart, but the brain and spinal cord are "the center of movement, sensitivity and mental activity." He concluded that "without a nerve there is not a single part of the body, not a single movement called arbitrary, not a single feeling." Having cut the spinal cord across, Galen showed the disappearance of the sensitivity of all parts of the body lying below the cut. He proved that blood moves through the arteries, and not "pneuma", as previously thought.
He created about 400 works on philosophy, medicine and pharmacology, of which about a hundred have come down to us. He collected and classified information on medicine, pharmacy, anatomy, physiology and pharmacology, accumulated by ancient science.
Described the quadrigemina of the midbrain, seven pairs of cranial nerves, the vagus nerve; conducting experiments on transection of the spinal cord of pigs, he demonstrated a functional difference between the anterior (motor) and posterior (sensitive) roots of the spinal cord.
· Paracelsus(1499 - 1541)
Famous doctor. Medieval medicine, which was based on the theories of Aristotle, Galen and Avicenna, he opposed the "spagiric" medicine, created on the basis of the teachings of Hippocrates. He taught that living organisms consist of the same mercury, sulfur, salts and a number of other substances that form all other bodies of nature; when a person is healthy, these substances are in balance with each other; disease means the predominance or, conversely, the lack of one of them. He was one of the first to use chemical agents in the treatment.
Paracelsus is considered the forerunner of modern pharmacology, he owns the phrase: “Everything is poison, and nothing is devoid of poisonousness; one dose makes the poison invisible.
· Andreas Vesalius(1514 - 1654)
- Italian naturalist. Convinced that many of the anatomical texts of Galen, the famous Roman physician (c. 130–200 AD), were based on animal dissections and therefore did not reflect the specifics of human anatomy, Vesalius decided to undertake experimental studies of the human body. Studying the works of Galen and his views on the structure of the human body, Vesalius corrected over 200 errors of the canonized ancient author. The result was a treatise on the structure of the human body (De humani corporis fabrica, 1543).
· William Harvey(1578 - 1657)
- English physician, founder of physiology and embryology. Organized a public lecture in London. In this lecture, he first outlined his vision of the circulatory systems in the human body, as well as other warm-blooded animals, conducted a series of experiments and experiments that allowed him to make a number of observations. He calculated that the blood moves in a circle, or rather, in two circles: a small one through the lungs and a large one through the whole body.
· Luigi Galvani(1787 - 1796)
- Italian physician, anatomist, physiologist and physicist, one of the founders of electrophysiology. He was the first to investigate electrical phenomena during muscle contraction ("animal electricity").
· Louis Pasteur(1822 - 1895)
- French microbiologist and chemist. Pasteur, having shown the microbiological essence of fermentation and many human diseases, became one of the founders of microbiology and immunology.
· Pirogov Nikolay Ivanovich(1810 - 1881)
- Russian surgeon and anatomist, naturalist and teacher. The main significance of all Pirogov's activities lies in the fact that with his selfless and often disinterested work he turned surgery into a science, arming doctors with a scientifically based method of surgical intervention.
· Sechenov Ivan Mikhailovich(1829 -1905)
Outstanding Russian physiologist, scientist-encyclopedist, pathologist, histologist, toxicologist, psychologist, culturologist, anthropologist, naturalist, chemist, physical chemist, physicist, biochemist, evolutionist, instrument maker, military engineer, teacher, publicist, humanist, educator, philosopher and thinker - rationalist, founder of the physiological school
· Mechnikov Ilya Ilyich(1845 -1916)
- Russian and French biologist (zoologist, embryologist, immunologist, physiologist and pathologist). One of the founders of evolutionary embryology, the discoverer of phagocytosis and intracellular digestion, the creator of the comparative pathology of inflammation, the phagocytic theory of immunity, the founder of scientific gerontology. Winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1908).
· Palov Ivan Petrovich(1849 - 1936)
- one of the most authoritative Russian scientists, physiologist, psychologist, creator of the science of higher nervous activity and ideas about the processes of digestion regulation; founder of the largest Russian physiological school; recipient of the Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology in 1904 "for his work on the physiology of digestion".
· Botkin Sergey Petrovich(1832 - 1889)
Russian therapist and public figure, created the doctrine of the body as a single whole, subject to the will.
· Ukhtomsky Alexey Alekseevich(1875 - 1942)
- Russian and Soviet physiologist. The main discovery of Ukhtomsky is considered to be the principle of dominant developed by him - a theory capable of explaining some fundamental aspects of human behavior and mental processes. The principle of dominance is described by him in the work "Dominant as a working principle of nerve centers" and in other scientific works. This principle was the development of the ideas of N. E. Vvedensky.
· Burdenko Nikolai Nilovich(1876 - 1946)
- Russian and Soviet surgeon, healthcare organizer, founder of Russian neurosurgery. Nikolai Burdenko created a school of experimental surgeons, developed methods for treating oncology of the central and autonomic nervous system, pathology of liquor circulation, cerebral circulation, etc. He performed operations for the treatment of brain tumors, which before Burdenko were few in the world. He was the first to develop simpler and more original methods for carrying out these operations, making them widespread, developed operations on the hard shell of the spinal cord, and transplanted sections of nerves. He developed a bulbotomy - an operation in the upper spinal cord to cut the nerve pathways overexcited as a result of a brain injury.
Aristotle (384-322 BC)
Aristotle is an outstanding ancient Greek scientist, encyclopedist, philosopher and logician, the founder of classical (formal) logic. Considered one of the greatest geniuses in history and the most influential philosopher of antiquity. He made a huge contribution to the development of logic and natural sciences, especially astronomy, physics and biology. Although many of his scientific theories have been refuted, they have contributed significantly to the search for new hypotheses to explain them.
Archimedes (287-212 BC)
Archimedes is a famous ancient Greek mathematician, inventor, astronomer, physicist and engineer. Generally considered the greatest mathematician of all time and one of the leading scientists of the classical period of antiquity. Among his contributions to the field of physics are the fundamental principles of hydrostatics, statics and an explanation of the principle of action on a lever. He is credited with inventing pioneering mechanisms, including siege engines and the screw pump named after him. Archimedes also invented the spiral that bears his name, formulas for calculating the volumes of surfaces of revolution, and an original system for expressing very large numbers.
Galileo (1564–1642)
In eighth place in the ranking of the greatest scientists in the history of the world is Galileo - an Italian physicist, astronomer, mathematician and philosopher. He has been called "the father of observational astronomy" and "the father of modern physics". Galileo was the first to use a telescope to observe celestial bodies. Thanks to this, he made a number of outstanding astronomical discoveries, such as the discovery of the four largest satellites of Jupiter, sunspots, the rotation of the Sun, and also established that Venus changes phases. He also invented the first thermometer (without a scale) and a proportional compass.
Michael Faraday (1791–1867)
Michael Faraday was an English physicist and chemist, primarily known for the discovery of electromagnetic induction. Faraday also discovered the chemical effect of current, diamagnetism, the effect of a magnetic field on light, and the laws of electrolysis. He also invented the first, albeit primitive, electric motor, and the first transformer. He introduced the terms cathode, anode, ion, electrolyte, diamagnetism, dielectric, paramagnetism, etc. In 1824 he discovered the chemical elements benzene and isobutylene. Some historians consider Michael Faraday the best experimenter in the history of science.
Thomas Alva Edison (1847–1931)
Thomas Alva Edison is an American inventor and businessman, founder of the prestigious scientific journal Science. Considered one of the most prolific inventors of his time, with a record 1,093 patents in his name and 1,239 elsewhere. Among his inventions are the creation in 1879 of an electric incandescent lamp, a system for distributing electricity to consumers, a phonograph, an improvement in the telegraph, telephone, film equipment, etc.
Marie Curie (1867–1934)
Maria Sklodowska-Curie - French physicist and chemist, teacher, public figure, pioneer in the field of radiology. The only woman to win the Nobel Prize in two different fields of science - physics and chemistry. First female professor teaching at the Sorbonne University. Her accomplishments include the development of the theory of radioactivity, methods for separating radioactive isotopes, and the discovery of two new chemical elements, radium and polonium. Marie Curie is one of the inventors who died from their inventions.
Louis Pasteur (1822–1895)
Louis Pasteur - French chemist and biologist, one of the founders of microbiology and immunology. He discovered the microbiological essence of fermentation and many human diseases. Initiated a new department of chemistry - stereochemistry. Pasteur's most important achievement is considered to be his work in bacteriology and virology, which resulted in the creation of the first vaccines against rabies and anthrax. His name is widely known thanks to the pasteurization technology he created and named after him later. All Pasteur's works have become a vivid example of a combination of fundamental and applied research in the field of chemistry, anatomy and physics.
Sir Isaac Newton (1643–1727)
Isaac Newton is an outstanding English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, philosopher, historian, Bible student and alchemist. He is the discoverer of the laws of motion. Sir Isaac Newton discovered the law of universal gravitation, laid the foundations of classical mechanics, formulated the principle of conservation of momentum, laid the foundations of modern physical optics, built the first reflecting telescope and developed the theory of color, formulated the empirical law of heat transfer, built the theory of the speed of sound, proclaimed the theory of the origin of stars and many other mathematical and physical theories. Newton was also the first to mathematically describe the phenomenon of tides.
Albert Einstein (1879–1955)
Second place in the list of the greatest scientists in the history of the world is occupied by Albert Einstein - a German physicist of Jewish origin, one of the greatest theoretical physicists of the twentieth century, the creator of general and special relativity, discovered the law of the relationship between mass and energy, as well as many other significant physical theories. Winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921 for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect. Author of more than 300 scientific papers in physics and 150 books and articles in the field of history, philosophy, journalism, etc.
Nikola Tesla (1856–1943)
The greatest scientist of all time is considered to be Nikola Tesla - a Serbian and American inventor, physicist, electrical engineer, known for his achievements in the field of alternating current, magnetism and electrical engineering. In particular, he owns the invention of alternating current, polyphase system and alternating current electric motor. In total, Tesla is the author of about 800 inventions in the field of electrical and radio engineering, including the first electric clock, solar-powered engine, radio, etc. He was a key figure in the construction of the first hydroelectric power station at Niagara Falls.
For Leonardo, art has always been a science. To engage in art meant for him to make scientific calculations, observations and experiments. The connection of painting with optics and physics, with anatomy and mathematics forced Leonardo to become a scientist. And often the scientist pushed the artist aside.
As a scientist and engineer, L. da Vinci enriched almost all areas of science of that time with insightful observations, considering his notes and drawings as preparatory sketches for a giant encyclopedia of human knowledge. Skeptical of the ideal of the erudite scientist popular in his era, L. da Vinci was the most prominent representative of the new natural science based on experiment.
Mathematics
Leonardo especially appreciated mathematics. He believed that "there is no certainty in the sciences where none of the mathematical disciplines can be applied, and in that which has no connection with mathematics." Mathematical sciences have, in his words, "the highest certainty, impose silence on the language of debaters." Mathematics was an experimental discipline for Leonardo. It is no coincidence that Leonardo da Vinci was the inventor of numerous devices designed to solve mathematical problems (proportional compasses, a device for drawing a parabola, a device for constructing a parabolic mirror, etc.) He was the first in Italy, and perhaps in Europe, to introduce signs + (plus and minus).
Leonardo favored geometry over other branches of mathematics. He recognized the importance of numbers and was very interested in numerical relationships in music. But number meant less to him than geometry, since arithmetic relies on "finite quantities" while geometry deals with "infinite quantities." The number is made up of separate units and is something monotonous, devoid of the magic of geometric proportions that deal with surfaces, shapes, space. Leonardo tried to achieve the squaring of the circle - that is, to create a square that is equal in size to a circle. He worked hard on this problem, as well as on other puzzling problems, including those with curved and straight surfaces, using a number of different methods. Leonardo invented a special tool for drawing ovals and for the first time determined the center of gravity of the pyramid. The highest expression of the greatness of geometry were five regular bodies, revered in classical philosophy and mathematics. These are the only rigid bodies that are composed of equal polygons and are symmetrical with respect to all their vertices. These are the tetrahedron, hexahedron, octahedron, dodecahedron, icosahedron. They can be truncated - that is, with symmetrically cut tops, thus turned into semi-regular bodies. The peak of Leonardo's passion for mathematics came at the time of his collaboration with the mathematician Luca Pacioli, who appeared in 1496 at the court of Sforza. Leonardo created a series of illustrations for Pacioli's treatise On Divine Proportion.
The study of geometry allowed him to create for the first time a scientific theory of perspective, and he was one of the first artists who painted landscapes that corresponded in any way to reality. True, Leonardo's landscape is still not independent, it is a decoration for historical or portrait painting, but what a huge step compared to the previous era and how much correct theory helped him here!
Mechanics
Leonardo da Vinci paid special attention to mechanics, calling it the "paradise of mathematical sciences" and seeing in it the main key to the secrets of the universe. Leonardo's theoretical conclusions in the field of mechanics are striking in their clarity and provide him with an honorable place in the history of this science, in which he is the link connecting Archimedes with Galileo and Pascal.
Leonardo's works in the field of mechanics can be grouped into the following sections: the laws of falling bodies; the laws of motion of a body thrown at an angle to the horizon; laws of motion of a body along an inclined plane; the effect of friction on the motion of bodies; the theory of the simplest machines (lever, inclined plane, block); questions of the addition of forces; determination of the center of gravity of bodies; issues related to the strength of materials. The list of these issues is especially significant, given that many of them were dealt with in general for the first time. The rest, if considered before him, were based mainly on the conclusions of Aristotle, which in most cases are very far from the true state of affairs. According to Aristotle, for example, a body thrown at an angle to the horizon must first fly in a straight line, and at the end of the ascent, having described the arc of a circle, fall vertically downwards. Leonardo da Vinci dispelled this misconception and found that the trajectory of motion in this case would be a parabola.
He expresses many valuable thoughts concerning the conservation of motion, coming close to the law of inertia. “No sensually perceived body,” says Leonardo, “can move by itself. It is set in motion by some external cause, a force. Force is an invisible and incorporeal cause in the sense that it cannot change either in form or in tension. If a body is driven by a force at a given time and passes through a given space, then the same force can move it into half the space. Every body resists in the direction of its motion. (Here, Newton's law of action equal to reaction is almost guessed). A free-falling body at each moment of its motion receives a certain increment of speed. The impact of bodies is a force acting for a very short time. Based on these findings, Leonardo became convinced that the Aristotelian assumption that a body moved by twice as much force would cover twice as much distance, or that a body weighing half as much, moved by the same force, would also cover twice as much distance, in practice unfeasible. Leonardo emphatically denies the possibility of an eternally moving mechanism without extraneous force. It is based on theoretical and experimental data. According to his theory, any reflected movement is weaker than the one that produced it. Experience showed him that a ball thrown on the ground never (due to air resistance and imperfect elasticity) rises to the height from which it was thrown. This simple experience convinced Leonardo of the impossibility of creating force from nothing and expending work without any loss in friction. On the impossibility of perpetual motion, he writes: "The initial impulse must sooner or later be used up, and therefore, in the end, the movement of the mechanism will stop."
Leonardo knew and used in his works the method of decomposition of forces. For the movement of bodies on an inclined plane, he introduced the concept of the friction force, connecting it with the force of pressure of the body on the plane and correctly indicating the direction of these forces.
Leonardo also worked on specific engineering projects for his patrons, both as a consultant and as a creator of simple utilitarian items such as tongs, locks or jacks, which were made in his workshop. Lifting mechanisms were of great importance when lifting heavy loads, such as stone blocks, from the ground - especially when loading onto vehicles. Leonardo was the first to formulate the idea that in these simple machines the gain in force comes at the expense of a loss in time.
Hydraulics
A large place in the works of Leonardo da Vinci was occupied by hydraulics. He began to study hydraulics as a student and returned to it throughout his life. As in other areas of his activity, in hydraulics Leonardo combined the development of theoretical principles with the solution of specific applied problems. The theory of communicating vessels and hydraulic pumps, the relationship between the speed of water flow and the cross-sectional area - all these questions were mainly born from applied engineering problems that he was involved in so much (building locks, canals, land reclamation). Leonardo designed and partially completed the construction of a number of canals (the Pisa-Florence canal, irrigation canals on the Po and Arno rivers). He almost came close to the formulation of Pascal's law, and in the theory of communicating vessels he practically anticipated the ideas of the 17th century.
Leonardo was also interested in the whirlpool theory. Having a fairly clear concept of centrifugal force, he noted that “water moving in a whirlpool moves in such a way that those of the particles that are closer to the center have a greater rotational speed. This is a striking phenomenon, because, for example, the particles of a wheel rotating around an axis have the lower speed the closer they are to the center: in a whirlpool we see just the opposite. Leonardo tried to classify and describe the complex configurations of water in turbulent motion.
Leonardo, who was called "master of the water", advised the rulers of Venice and Florence; Combining theory and practice, he sought to show why tornadoes devour the shores, to prove that in order to achieve the desired results, one should use the inexhaustible power of moving water, and resist it.
Even more distinct and remarkable are Leonardo's views on undulating motion. “A wave,” he says, “is the result of a blow reflected by water.” “Often the waves move faster than the wind. This is because the momentum was received when the wind was stronger than at the current time. The speed of a wave cannot change instantly." To explain the motion of water particles, Leonardo begins with the classical experience of the latest physicists, i.e. throws a stone, making circles on the surface of the water. He gives a drawing of such concentric circles, then throws two stones, gets two systems of circles, and asks the question: "Will the waves be reflected under equal circles?" then he says: “The movement of sound waves can be explained in the same way. The waves of air move in a circle from their place of origin, one circle meets another and passes on, but the center constantly remains in the same place.
These extracts are enough to make sure of the genius of the man who, at the end of the 15th century, laid the foundation for the wave-like theory of motion, which received full recognition only in the 19th century.
Physics
In the field of practical physics, Leonardo also showed remarkable ingenuity. So, long before Saussure, he built a very ingenious hygrometer. On the vertical dial there is a kind of arrow or balance with two balls of equal weight, one of which is wax, the other is cotton. In wet weather, cotton wool attracts water, becomes heavier and draws wax, as a result of which the lever moves, and the degree of air humidity can be judged by the number of divisions passed by it. In addition, Leonardo invented various pumps, glass to enhance the light of lamps, and diving helmets.
Venturi also claimed that Leonardo invented the camera obscura before Cardano and Porta. Now this is fully proven thanks to the research of Grote, who found the corresponding drawings and descriptions in da Vinci.
In the field of applied physics, the steam gun invented by Leonardo is very interesting. Its action consisted in the fact that warm water was introduced into a very heated chamber, which instantly turned into vapor, which displaced the core with its pressure. In addition, he invented a skewer that rotated by currents of warm air.
Warfare
It is impossible to ignore the various military inventions of Leonardo. A remarkable example of how he treated military machinery is his project for a giant crossbow. Disgusted by the war, which he called "disgusting madness", Leonardo was at the same time fascinated by the creation of the most destructive weapons of that time, which he took up not only at the request of his patrons, but also, being himself fascinated by the possibility of creating systems capable of a thousand times increase the power of man. In addition, he thought about the creation of explosive shells, so that the throwing weapon had even greater penetrating power.
The digging machines invented by Leonardo are witty, consisting of a complex system of levers that simultaneously move dozens of shovels. As a curiosity, one can also point to the chariots invented by him with rotating sickles, which, crashing into enemy infantry, were supposed to mow down the soldiers.
Much more important are da Vinci's drawings and explanations regarding the drilling of cannon vents and the casting of various parts of the cannon. He was especially interested in various bronze alloys. Leonardo studied in great detail the circumstances of the flight of shells, being interested in this subject not only as an artilleryman, but also as a physicist. He dealt with such questions as, for example, what shape and size should the grains of gunpowder have for faster combustion or for a stronger effect? What shape should be buckshot for faster flight? The researcher answers quite satisfactorily to many of these questions.
Flight was Leonardo's great dream as an engineer - he attached great importance to the creation of Uccello ("big bird"). The one who could conquer the sky really had the right to claim that he had created a "second nature."
As with all Leonardo's other studies, the foundations were laid in nature. Birds and bats told him how to achieve this. But Leonardo wasn't about to follow the example of the legendary hero Daedalus by tying feathered bird wings to his arms so he could fly and flap them. He saw from the start that the problem was the strength-to-weight ratio. Leonardo knew anatomy well enough to know that the human hand was not designed to swing with the force equivalent to that of a bird's wing. It should be noted that he began to study the flight of birds, because he needed to understand the principles on which he could rely in order to achieve positive results using only human strength. Prior to 1490, he conceived of the skeletal structure of wings, which was modeled on the structure of the wings of flying creatures, but he also took into account the structure of human muscles, especially the muscles of the legs. Perhaps the pedals could complement the muscles of the arms and chest enough to achieve the desired result. The wings use "bones" of wood, "tendons" of ropes, and "ligaments" of leather to mimic the complex movements of a bird's wing. The idea was excellent, but he came to the conclusion that none of the structures dear to his heart were capable of acting as it was required.
When, after returning to Florence, Leonardo turned to this problem for the second time, he took a different path. A small Turin codex on the flight of birds, dated 1505, shows that he again returned to the study of the flight of birds soaring in the updrafts of warm air over the Tuscan hills - especially the huge birds of prey, gliding without flapping their wings, looking for prey below. . He made sketches of air vortices under the concave part of the bird's wing, found out what changes in the center of gravity of a bird lead to and what imperceptible movements of the tail can do. He followed an active gliding strategy, in which any movement of the wings and tail was directed not to controlled lift off, but to control altitude, flight path and turns. Wing design was still based on observations from nature, but these were general principles and trends rather than mere imitation. The aviator, who probably had to control the flight and maintain balance with the help of the tail, had to hang under the wings, adjusting the center of gravity for the most precise control of the flight.
Although Leonardo knew nothing about the aerodynamic surface, and he only intuitively assumed the existence of pressure produced by compressed or rarefied air, the study of nature helped him find a fairly sure way.
Anatomy
He spoke of Leonardo as an artist who performs autopsies and explores, as the legend says, the forbidden secrets of decaying bodies, despite the fact that he himself recognized the repulsive aspects of studying "anatomy". It was probably a forbidden and sacrilegious activity that placed him outside the laws of the church. A fully proven dissection of a whole human corpse - perhaps the only one he performed - was the autopsy of a "centenary" old man, whose "silent death" in the hospital of Santa Maria Nuova Leonardo witnessed in the winter of 1507-08. More often he worked with animals, which, as it was believed, did not differ too much from people, except perhaps in body configuration and size.
Given that Leonardo was engaged in autopsies and never tired of repeating the advantage of "experience" over book knowledge, it may seem surprising that his anatomical studies were based on traditional knowledge. For example, he adhered to the doctrine of a two-chambered heart for a long time. Also, for Leonardo, anatomy was not "descriptive" in the modern sense, but "functional"; in other words, he always considered form in terms of function. Leonardo did not bring any radical changes to the physiology that existed before him, but he created a whole picture of the dynamics of a living body in three dimensions, drawing for him serves both as a means of representation and a form of research.
praise to the eye
Despite the fact that Leonardo's views on the internal structure of the eye changed, Leonardo worked on the principle that it is an instrument built with geometric precision in accordance with the laws of optics. His initial idea of the structure of the eye was that the spherical transparent and vitreous body of the eye (which is a lens) is surrounded by moisture and the membranes of the eye. The pupil regulates the angle of view, thus, a "visual pyramid" is obtained - that is, a beam of rays from an object or surface - with a vertex in the eye. The eye extracts a pyramid from a chaotic mass of rays that spread from the object in all directions. The farther the same object is from the eye, the narrower the angle, and the smaller it seems. If we imagine that light comes from an object in the form of a series of concentric waves, the pyramid will gradually narrow with each successive wave moving away from the object. Dimensions, according to the theory of perspective used by artists, are proportional to the distance from the object to the eye. He explained that the strength of radiation from an object, which he called "images" in accordance with the traditions of medieval optics, decreases in proportion to the distance from the object. This optical theory explains not only the gradual reduction of things in accordance with the rules of linear perspective, but also the decrease in the distinctness and brightness of color at great distances. This loss of clarity and intensity of color, along with the specific properties of moist air that envelops objects like a veil, explains the magical effects of the "aerial perspective" of his landscapes - both in drawing and in painting.
This view of the eye, which Leonardo held in the 1490s, he moved around 1508 to a more complex interpretation of the form and function of the eye. It is also important that he made sure that the pyramid cannot end at one point of the eye, since the point is not measurable - this would mean the inseparability of "images" in the optical field. Leonardo believed that the eye and its pupil act like a camera obscura. He knew that the image taken with the camera is inverted, and theoretically developed a number of ways to flip the image, return it to its normal position.
As he became acquainted with the works of the largest medieval scientists devoted to optics, Leonardo began to understand more and more the phenomenon of “optical deception”. This branch of optics studied phenomena such as our inability to see very fast moving objects and clearly distinguish anything that is too bright or, on the contrary, dark, the “visual inertia” observed when we look at something that is moving fast.
However changeable and complex his later theories of perception may have been, the fact that the eye worked according to the laws of geometry remained unchanged.
perspective theory
Leonardo systematically studied the effects of lighting one and many objects from one and several sources of different sizes, shapes and distances. It was on this basis that he reformed light and color in painting, developing a "tonal" system in which light and shadow took precedence over color in rendering relief. He observed how the intensity of shadows decreased with distance from the opaque object that cast them, in accordance with the laws of proportional reduction, which apply universally to light and other dynamic systems. He calculated the relative intensity of light on surfaces depending on the angle of incidence and drew diagrams of the secondary reflection of light from illuminated surfaces in shaded places. He used the latter phenomenon to explain the gray color of the shadow side of the moon, which he proved to be the result of the reflection of light from the surface of the earth. His studies of light falling on the face from a single point and emphasizing the contours show us that he was trying to model the forms according to some system, reminiscent of the one followed by a ray in computer graphics. The more direct the "percussion" angle, the greater the intensity of the illumination, although in fact, as we now know, the cosine law established in the 18th century by Lambert, and not the simple rule of Leonardo's proportions, works here. For da Vinci, the result is always proportional to the angle of incidence of the beam. Thus, a gliding light will not illuminate the surface as much as one that strikes it perpendicularly.
According to Leonardo, the perfection of God's plan in relation to all forms and forces of nature found expression in proportions. The beauty of proportions was the most important task for Florentine architects, sculptors and painters. Leonardo was the first to inscribe the artist's idea of the beauty of proportions into the overall picture of the proportional structure of nature. The most authoritative work on architectural proportions was a treatise on architecture by the ancient Roman author Vitruvius. As an ideal of beauty in architecture, Vitruvius chose the human body, with legs and arms spread out to the sides, inscribed in a circle and a square - two of the most perfect geometric figures. Within this scheme, body parts can be defined according to a system of relative sizes in which each part, such as the face, is in simple proportion to another part. The Vitruvian scheme of the human body reproduced by Leonardo received its complete visual embodiment and wide distribution as a symbol of the "cosmic" design of the human structure. As Leonardo said, the proportional structure of the human body is an analogue of musical harmonies, which were based on cosmic relationships built by the Greek mathematician Pythagoras. It was the mathematical basis of music that allowed it, more than other arts, to compete with painting, although he did his best to emphasize that musical harmonies must be listened to sequentially, while the picture can be grasped with one glance.
