The harvest of a century: discoveries of modern physics in 100 episodes

Roentgen's X rays (1895)

Becquerel discovers radioactivity (1897)

Zeeman and Lorentz : a first glimpse at the electron (1896)

The discovery of the electron (1897)

Marie and Pierre Curie : polonium and radium (1898)

Alpha, beta, and gamma rays (1899)

Max Planck and the quantum of action (1900)

Rutherford finds the law of radioactive decay (1900)

The transmutation of elements (1902)

Einstein's light-quantum hypothesis (1905)

Einstein creates the Special Theory of Relativity (1905)

Nernst and the Third Theorem of Thermodynamics (1905)

Observing a single particle : the Rutherford-Geiger counter and later electronic detectors (1908)

Jean Perrin and molecular reality (1909)

Millikan's oil-drop experiment (1910).

The atomic nucleus (1911)

Tracks of single particles in Wilson's cloud chamber (1911)

Kamerlingh Onnes : liquid helium and superconductivity (1911)

Hess finds cosmic radiation (1912)

Max von Laue : X rays and crystals (1912)

Bragg scattering (1912)

J.J. Thompson identifies isotopes (1912)

Bohr's model of the atom (1913)

Moseley and the Periodic Table of Elements (1913)

The Franck-Hertz experiment (1914)

Einstein completes the General Theory of Relativity (1915)

Sommerfeld : spatial quantization and fine structure (1916)

Nitrogen is turned into oxygen (1919)

Astronomers verify general relativity (1919)

Stern and Gerlach observe spatial quantization (1922)

The Compton Effect : the light quantum gains momentum (1923).

Matter waves proposed by de Broglie (1923)

Bose and Einstein : a new way of counting (1924)

Bothe and Geiger : coincidence experiments (1925)

Pauli's exclusion principle (1925)

Spin (1925)

Heisenberg and the creation of quantum mechanics (1925)

Dirac's mechanics of q numbers (1925)

Schroedinger creates wave mechanics (1926)

Born's probability interpretation of quantum mechanics (1926)

Fermi-Dirac statistics : yet another way of counting (1926)

Heisenberg's uncertainty principle and Bohr's complementarity (1927)

Quantum mechanics and relativity : the Dirac equation (1928)

The Band model of conductors and semiconductors (1928-31)

Hubble finds that the universe is expanding (1929).

Pauli presents his neutrino hypothesis (1930)

Lawrence and the cyclotron (1931)

Chadwick discovers the neutron (1932)

Anderson discovers the positron (1932)

Nuclear reaction brought about by machine (1932)

Heisenberg on nuclear forces : isopin (1932)

The proton displays an "anomalous" magnetic moment (1933)

Fermi's theory of beta rays (1933)

Irene and Frederic Joliot-Curie : artificial radioactivity (1934)

Fermi produces radioactivity with neutrons (1934)

Cherenkov radiation discovered (1934) and explained (1937)

Prediction of the meson (1934) : discovery of the muon (1937).

A new kind of liquid : superfluid helium (1937)

Why the stars shine (1938)

Nuclear fission (1938)

Two transuranium elements finally found : neptunium and plutonium (1940/41)

Landau explains superfluidity (1941)

Fermi builds a nuclear reactor (1942)

The synchrotron : phase stability (1945) and strong focussing (1952)

Magnetic resonance (1945)

The pi meson discovered by the photographic method (1947)

The Lamb shift (1947)

Strange particles (1947)

The transistor (1947)

The Shell Model : a periodic table for nuclei (1949)

Quantum electrodynamics and Feynman diagrams (1949)

Glaser's bubble chamber (1953)

The maser (1954)

Strangeness : a new quantum number (1955)

Antimatter (1955)

The neutrino finally observed (1956).

Parity : a symmetry broken (1957)

Superconductivity explained by Bardeen, Cooper, and Schrieffer (1957)

Weak interaction better understood : the V

A theory (1957)

Keeping ions in a trap (1958)

The Mossbauer effect (1958)

The laser (1960)

Particle-antiparticle colliders (1961)

Nonlinear optics (1961)

There is more than one kind of neutrino (1962)

Semiconductor heterostructures : efficient laser diode proposed (1963) and built (1970)

Three quarks : order in the wealth of new particles (1964)

CP, another symmetry broken : the peculiar system of the neutral K meson and its antiparticle (1964)

Blackbody radiation from the early universe (1965)

The forces of nature are only one : electroweak interaction (1967).

Weak neutral currents : a glimmer of heavy light (1973)

Quantum chromodynamics (QCD) : the new theory of strong interaction (1973)

A fourth quark : charm (1974)

The discovery of the gluon (1974)

The quantum hall effect (1980)

W and Z boson discovered (1983)

Cooling and trapping neutral atoms (1985)

There are just three generations (1989)

Bose-Einstein condensation of atoms (1995)

Neutrinos have mass (1998, 2001)

Epilogue. What have we learned? : What is to come?