The Beauty Of Physics

THE BEAUTY OF This page intentionally left blank THE BEAUTY OF WEIMIN WU Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory World Scientific N E W J E R S E Y • L O N D O N • S I N G A P O R E • B E I J I N G • S H A N G H A I • H O N G K O N G • TA I P E I • C H E N N A I Published by World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd. 5 Toh Tuck Link, Singapore 596224 USA office: 27 Warren Street, Suite 401-402, Hackensack, NJ 07601 UK office: 57 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9HE British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. THE BEAUTY OF PHYSICS Copyright © 2007 by World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without written permission from the Publisher. For photocopying of material in this volume, please pay a copying fee through the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. In this case permission to photocopy is not required from the publisher. ISBN-13 978-981-270-560-0 ISBN-10 981-270-560-0 Printed in Singapore. Kim - The Beauty of Phys.pmd 1 4/17/2007, 3:55 PM “I first met Weimin when he stopped me in the street to ask the way. He had just arrived in Geneva from Beijing to spend some time working at CERN and I remember thinking it was like meeting a man from Mars. Everything about the West was new and strange to him and he never stopped asking questions. What were credit cards and how did they work? Why was individualism considered a virtue in the West when in China it was equated with selfishness? As I got to know him better I realized this consuming curiosity was the mark of a true scientist. Another mark of a scientist is meticulous observation and this book illustrates the combination of these two characteristics. But curiosity and observation need something more to produce such photographs: an appreciation of beauty and the ability to seize a rare moment. In today’s world of specializations, it is a joy to celebrate the work of a real Renaissance man.” — Sally Alderson, British journalist y “I met Weimin at CERN in the eighties — he must have been very young at the time — and I was impressed by his dedication and enthusiasm. Then again in 1986, at the IHEP in Beijing where he received us in his small apartment. After a few years he had crossed over to the west in his search for physics and a different life, as a true cosmopolitan in the tradition of the wandering scholars. This collection is about his search, for physics, for beauty, for beauty in physics, and also a voyage through memories. Weimin documents his personal search for beauty in nature, both where it is shouting for attention as in the flowers and birds, and where it is more subtly present as in the latticework of