Trần Thanh Vân
Early Life
Trần Thanh Vân was born in 1936 in Quảng Bình, Vietnam. He went to high school in the royal city of Huế. In 1953, he moved to France to study Mathematics and Physics at the Université de Paris. He completed his PhD there in 1963. His research focused on the neutron. A neutron is a small particle inside atoms.
Year born: 1936
Research Areas: High Energy Physics
"Without fundamental science, the world cannot move forward"
Nana Ama Browne Klutse
Early Life
Nana Ama Browne Klutse was born in 1981 in Ghana. Encouraged by her father, she studied physics at the University of Cape Coast in Ghana. Then she decided to learn more about climate science and got her doctorate from the University of Cape Town in South Africa. After that, she returned to Ghana to work on climate change.
Year born: 1981
Research Areas: Atmospheric Physics, Climate Science, Physics
Joyful Mdhluli
Early Life
Joyful Mdhluli grew up in Mpumalanga, South Africa. She is proud to be the first person in her family to attend university. Joyful earned her Bachelor's, Master's and PhD degrees from the University of Witwatersrand.
At first, she wasn't sure if she wanted to become a physicist. But, during her Master's studies, she realised that a career in physics would help her reach her full potential.
Year born: 1992
Research Areas: Astronomy for Mental Health, Experimental Physics, Particle Physics, Material Science
Kepler's Laws: Habitable Zones
In 2017, the Liverpool Telescope was involved in the investigation of an exciting new discovery: the star system TRAPPIST-1.
Waves
We are all familiar with waves; from ripples on the surface of a pond to the swell of the ocean. A wave is just a regular vibration that travels through something, like air or water.
Distance
Measuring distances in astronomy is difficult but crucial. We need to know how far away objects are to look at the differences between them. Two objects can look different but be very similar, with one further away than the other. This can make them challenging to study.
Electromagnetic Spectrum
The light we can see is only a small part of the light made by stars.
We often call this small range of wavelengths optical or visible light.
Wave-Particle Duality
Light is complicated as it can act as both a wave and a particle. Choosing how we want to talk about light - wave or particle - is only a matter of convenience.
Spectra
Even though light often looks white, it is made up of lots of different colours all added together.
Light
When we talk about light, we usually mean the light that we can see with our eyes.
This type of light is called visible or optical light.
