Physics Gallery

Portrait of Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher

andlt;strongandgt;R.A. Fisher.andlt;/strongandgt; Portrait of the Englishstatistician and geneticist, Sir Ronald AylmerFisher (1890- 1962). Fisher graduated inmathematics and physics at Cambridge University in1912. He was appointed statistician at RothamstedExperimental Station, in charge of 66 years ofdata on agricultural field trials. Fisher'scontributions to statistics include methods ofexperimental design, work on human inheritance, and the genetics of the rhesus blood factor. Inandlt;emandgt;The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection, andlt;/emandgt;he showed that Mendel's genetic laws and Darwin'stheory of natural selection are in full accord.Fisher became professor of genetics at Cambridgein 1943, and was knighted in 1952

© A.BARRINGTON BROWN/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

Higgs Boson particle, artwork

Higgs Boson particle. Computer artwork of a yellow sphere in a circular chamber with light emanating from behind it. This could represent the Higgs Boson particle being discovered in a particle accelerator. The Higgs Boson is an elementary particle predicted by the Standard Model of particle physics. It is the only particle of the Standard Model which is yet to be detected (as of 2009). Particle accelerators are enormous circular tunnels built underground. They are used to accelerate particles towards each other at massive speeds. When the particles collide they break up into smaller particles, revealing their component parts. It is hoped that this process will enable the detection of the Higgs Boson

© LAGUNA DESIGN/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

The OPAL detector at CERN

A technician works on one of two end caps of theOPAL detector at CERN, the European centre forparticle physics near Geneva. OPAL is one of 4giant particle detectors at the LEP collider. LEPcollides electrons & positrons accelerated to anenergy of 50 GeV in a circular tunnel 100munderground & 27km in circumference. OPAL is acylindrical assembly of many types of apparatuswhich fit together like layers of an onion aroundthe point where the particles collide. The OPALend caps consist of pre-shower counters (the"spokes" of the wheel) & electro-magnetic & hadroncalorimeters. The technician is Martin Sproston ofthe Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Britain.Photo taken April 1989

© David Parker/Science Photo Library