• Question: What is the most important invention made by atomic researchers?

    Asked by anon-267421 on 5 Nov 2020.
    • Photo: Juan Pereiro Viterbo

      Juan Pereiro Viterbo answered on 5 Nov 2020:

      I am going to say quantum mechanics… just because it explains atomic physics… but there are there are lots of every day objects that originated in atomic physics research and quantum mechanics… for example the electronics in your computer.

    • Photo: Adrien Chauvet

      Adrien Chauvet answered on 5 Nov 2020:

      Particle accelerators!
      Phenomenal instruments that help you discover new particles…
      It is a bit like if you are trying to understand what a car is made of, and to see its parts, you smash two cars against each other at ultra high speed, and you put a bunch of nets around to catch the different flying parts.
      Here, we accelerate and smash particles against each other to see what flies off!

    • Photo: Daisy Shearer

      Daisy Shearer answered on 5 Nov 2020:

      This is a tough one! I think there are loads of great inventions and discoveries made in the field of atomic physics. I would say that one key technique/invention in the field is spectroscopy, which also spans optical physics (we often group the fields of atomic, molecular and optical physics together as they are all very interconnected). Many spectroscopy techniques have been developed by atomic physicists to better understand atoms. These techniques have broad applications from biology to chemistry to astrophysics.

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