imperial.ac.uk:
Professor Michael Duff FRS, Abdus Salam Chair of Theoretical Physics:
“I am delighted to hear that Peter Higgs and François Englert have won this year’s Nobel Prize for Physics, which is richly deserved. Their seminal contributions, along with those of Tom Kibble here at Imperial, explaining how elementary particles acquire a mass, form a vital part of the Standard Model of particle physics, pioneered by Imperial Nobel Laureate, Abdus Salam.
“Their ideas in theoretical physics, vindicated in 2012 by the discovery at CERN of the Higgs boson, will persist as part of human understanding of the physical universe for centuries to come, long after today’s stars of politics, business and entertainment have been forgotten.”
Professor Jerome Gauntlett, Head of Theoretical Physics at Imperial College London:
“It is wonderful that the Nobel Committee has recognised the outstanding contributions of Peter Higgs and François Englert to our understanding of fundamental physics.
“Their visionary ideas about how elementary particles acquire mass, from nearly 50 years ago, were dramatically confirmed earlier this year with the discovery of the Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider. This will surely be remembered as one of the great chapters of scientific discovery.
“Imperial is also proud of its involvement, including profound contributions by Tom Kibble, Abdus Salam and the experimental team at the LHC.
“Like all great discoveries, more detailed studies of the Higgs boson are likely to have a huge impact on the future of fundamental scientific enquiry. We may find evidence for a new ‘supersymmetry’ which would mean that there are even more elementary particles waiting to be discovered. We might solve the riddle of the mysterious Dark Matter that pervades the universe. We might learn whether or not there are extra dimensions in the universe, in addition to the three space dimensions that we observe.
“These threads will also provide key clues to the ultimate question in fundamental physics which is: how can we unify the Standard Model of Particle Physics with Einstein’s theory of Gravity?”
Categories: Ahmadiyyat: True Islam, Europe and Australia
Professor Abdus Salaam’s contribution to some of the fundamentals of physics is so substantial, yet so little is mentioned about it by expert physicists. A great deal of praise is piled on Maxwell who combined two of the fundamental forces in the universe, i.e., electricity and magnetism. A student in physics is taught Maxwell’s laws in great detail.
Professor Salaam proved that electromagnetism and another of the three remaining forces, the weak nucleic force combined to make the electroweak force. This is an incredible achievement considering physicists are trying to prove that all the forces must combine to one basic parent force.
Yet, during my entire three year degree in Physics at the prestigious Kings College in London, it was never mentioned in any of my courses. It is also hardly never mentioned by physicists in articles etc. Other incredible achievements of professor Salaam’s are hardly never alluded to either. His mention in above article is very rare.
I wonder why that is the case
Furthermore , the Standard Model is one of the main theories that underpin the majority of physics. Professor Salaam was one of its pioneers. Why does no one ever say ‘Salaam’s Standard Model’? While they say, Einstein’s special relativity, Pauli’s Exclusion Principle, Heizenburg’s Uncertainty Principle, Newton’s Law of Gravitation, Shrodinger’s Wave Function etc. (all these form some of the basics of Physics)
Something’s not kosher!
Regarding the ‘Standard Model’ you wrote ‘Professor Salaam was one of its pioneers’, it then becomes difficult to quantify the contribution of one of the pioneers, hence difficult to call the ‘Standard Model’ after one contributor’s name, could it not cause controversy? Just a personal thought.
It is pathetic : The Pakistani Muslims shun him because they consider him a “non muslim” & the rest of the world shun him because they consider him a Muslim!!
May Allah raise more Abdus Salaams in our Jamaat!
Hibatu Rahman: It seems you too are influenced by what I was talking about. Please read the sister article on Professor sahib in this issue of Muslim times by Zubair Khan in which he quotes a physicist as calling the ‘standard model’ as the ‘glashow-Salaam-Weinburg model’
Hibatu Rahman: I take your point about 3 people being its founders, but Professor Salaam’s name isn’t mentioned with anything he did solely either!