It’s been a while since we highlighted our physical space, but we’ve done a little refresher of our reading room in College Park, Maryland that we’re feeling quite proud of. We used to have a large wall of shelves covered in journals, but even before COVID-19 changed the way everything worked, very few people were coming into the library to browse our print journals.

As the U.S. capital, Washington, D.C. has been a hub for musicians performing, politicians legislating, and scientists creating the cutting-edge of technology and information since its founding. This Photos of the Month post covers the work and lives of physicists in the District of Columbia, collected in our visual archives, as well as the photographs’ locations on this interactive map. The post can be read either here, as a traditional blog post, or by using the interactive Google MyMap below to pan around and view photos at the locations where they were taken. 

This month marks the theatrical release of the much-anticipated biopic Oppenheimer, which details the life and work of J. Robert Oppenheimer throughout his time working on the Manhattan Project and the following events of his life. The cast of characters included in this movie is a veritable who’s who of atomic physicists from the early 20th century; one of these physicists, portrayed by Kenneth Branagh, is our beloved Niels Bohr. Much to my partner’s embarrassment, I may have attempted to get a “Niels Bohr! Niels Bohr!” chant going in the movie theater before the film began.

A guest post by Ryan Dahn. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of the esteemed general-relativity textbook Gravitation. Authored by Charles Misner and Kip Thorne and their former adviser at Princeton, John Wheeler, Gravitation has proved so influential that it is known in the academic community by the acronym MTW. Despite being somewhat outdated, MTW is still in print today in essentially its original form.

The Scripps Institution of Oceanography came to my attention a few months ago when I learned that they have collected giant sea spider specimens from Antarctica, and my interest was piqued! Though I’m certainly a big fan of visiting the ocean, I've been relatively unfamiliar with oceanography as a field.

When looking for information on underrepresented people in any field, it is oftentimes tricky to find people. This is due to a number of factors; in many cases, marginalized people can be reticent to discuss the topic of identity and personal life outside of work. It can be very useful, and indeed vital, to know of people who belong to underrepresented groups in the history of physics: for studying trends and understanding how a field works and how to make it more attractive and a welcoming environment for everyone, for making connections with people still alive, and for having role models. 

The Niels Bohr Library & Archives (NBLA) has been quite active on Wikipedia, the world’s largest encyclopedia and the 7th most visited website in the world, lately - check out our project page! Due primarily to the success and endeavors of our phenomenal former Wikipedian-in-Residence, Camryn Bell, our Wikipedia contributions have exploded in the last year (check out our other Wikipedia-related blog articles to see more of her work), and we recently hosted an Edit-a-thon, led by our wonderful SPS Intern MJ Keller (blog post on this here!). Continuing this trend, we at NBLA created the category pages LGBT physicists and LGBT astronomers, which did not previously exist on Wikipedia*.

Wikipedia editing can sometimes be intimidating just because of the sheer scale of the site. There is so much to edit, so many pages to create, and so many things to link and cite and copy edit… it can be overwhelming! 

This older couple (or middle-aged, depending on the definition of old age) are Marie Skłodowska-Curie and Albert Einstein. Although they do not have an Instagram account nor Facebook profile and died years ago, luckily they are still remembered. Memory of their achievements prevails and has not yet drowned in the sea of YouTube streams, junk knowledge and fake news.

These inconspicuous photographs are hiding a certain mystery… Well, as strange as it sounds, nobody knows when they were taken. I do not mean the exact day or month… there is no agreement even on the year! This has led to confusion and dissemination of false information.

I decided to take up the challenge and become an amateur Sherlock Holmes. If you are curious how I managed the investigation – read on. Let’s get started.

May 16th is the International Day of Light, celebrating the first fruitful laser trial by physicist Theodore Maiman in 1960. The study of light has led to many advances in technology and improvements to our everyday lives, which is why it is a UNESCO event. From UNESCO's website:

Without light, our planet would be but a cold and barren place. Indeed, where there is light, there is often an abundance of life. Yet light represents even more for humanity. Light goes hand in hand with knowledge; it is a lens through which to see and understand the world.

Scientists are not generally thought of as “laborers” but scientists have been part of the labor movement and there are several current unions representing scientists today, like MOSES, CAPS, and the IFPTE (does anyone love an abbreviation or acronym more than a union?) . Additionally, more and more universities are facing pressure from graduate student unionization movements, so as we recognize the work of long under-recognized groups of both the past and the present, it is important to remember that science is work, and depends on the dedicated labor of people from all walks of life to make its great discoveries. So in celebration of workers everywhere (traditional and nontraditional, paid and unpaid), let’s take a look at some photos!