June 05, 2019 Wednesday
Bedtime Story
Gibbs Post-Doctorate
Gibbs under such circumstances was not only
forced to make his own diagnosis for his ocular condition but grind his own
lenses that would allow him to see well.
The work for which Gibbs was granted his
Doctorate of Philosophy was titled as “On the Form of the Teeth of Wheels in
Spur Gearing” which as you can easily make out was largely a subject of
mechanical engineering.
This is as remote as it can get from the
subject for which he would be known and remembered after his death.
Just so that you know the first university
in the United States to offer the Ph.D. degree was Yale and that too in 1861, a
year that coincides with the first year of the Civil War.
It seems that Gibbs and Yale had a special
bonding that would last a life time as can be postulated from his birthplace of
New Haven, Connecticut, his educational and life time professional association
with Yale and finally his passing away in New Haven in 1903 at the age of 64
when he was still the professor of mathematical physics at Yale.
Sadly he missed the extraordinary year of
1905 – the annus mirabilis – by two years when Einstein would unleash his
extraordinary ideas to the world in the form of four papers through the journal
Annalen der Physik.
Gibbs’ real education that would shape his
mind and make him a true scientist in some sense began after his doctorate when
he decided to travel to Europe (with his sisters), mainly France and Germany.
This was not some trivial idle tour like
most of us would excurse into after attaining a major professional degree
because unlike us average apes while in Paris Gibbs began to attend lectures
given by distinguished mathematical scientists in places of repute such as the
Sorbonne and College de France.
Even while at vacation he was seriously and
strenuously learning so much that he got seriously sick of cold (viral
pneumonia perhaps though I cannot say for sure) and doctors advised him rest at
the French Riviera.
Following his complete recovery at the
French Riviera thanks to the care given by his sisters he moved to Berlin which
in 1860s as you very well know through my bedtime stories was the seat of
learning and center of excellence in mathematics and science.
In Berlin he once again began to attend
lectures delivered by world-renowned mathematicians such as Karl Weierstrass
and Leopold Kronecker (infamous for being a strong critique of Georg Cantor)
and the extraordinary experimental chemist and physicist Gustav Magnus.
From Berlin he moved on to the Heidelberg
University where he came across German scientists who are now legends in the
world of physics and chemistry such as Hermann von Helmholtz, Gustav Kirchhoff
(of the Kirchhoff’s laws fame related to spectroscopy) and Robert Bunsen.
You must remember that in 1860s the United
States was still an uncivilized, raw and young nation at war with itself.
It would shock you to know that more Americans
had died in the hands of Americans in this great American Civil War (1861-65)
than in all the other wars combined fought by the United States with the
foreign enemies.
Stay tuned to the voice of an
average story storytelling chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.com
Good night Mon Ami and my fellow cousin ape.
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Another great educator and a teacher that I am aware of is
Professor Subhashish Chattopadhyay in Bangalore, India.
While I narrate stories, Professor Subhashish an electronic
engineer and a former professor at BARC, does and teaches real mathematics and
physics.
He started the participation of Indian students at the
International Physics Olympiad.
Do visit him here:
All his books can be downloaded for free through this link:
For edutainment and English education of your children, I
recommend this large collection of Halloween Songs for Kids:
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