physicsIn the 16th century Nicholas Copernicus revived the heliocentric model of the solar system devised by Aristarchus (which survives primarily in a passing mention in the Sand Reckoner of Archimedes). When this model was published at the end of his life, it was with a preface by Osiander that piously represented it as only a mathematical convenience for calculating the positions of planets, and not an account of the true nature of the planetary orbits.
Rayleigh-Taylor instability
Lightning is the electric breakdown of air by strong electric fields and is a flow of energy. The electric potential energy in the atmosphere changes into heat, light, and sound which are other forms of energy.
This year the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to "for groundbreaking achievements concerning the transmission of light in fibers for optical communication" and to "for the invention of an imaging semiconductor circuit – the CCD sensor".
Laser in fibre
Optical fibers are used in transmitting information by means of pulses of light. The light forms an electromagnetic carrier wave modulated by information.
Atomic, molecular, and optical physics is the study of matter-matter and light-matter interactions on the scale of single atoms or structures containing a few atoms. The three areas are grouped together because of their interrelationships, the similarity of methods used, and the commonality of the energy scales that are relevant.
Atomic physics is distinct from nuclear physics, despite their association in the public consciousness. Atomic physics is unconcerned with the nuclear processes studied in nuclear physics, although properties of the nucleus can be important in atomic physics (e.g., hyperfine splitting).
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