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Physics & Astronomy as a Career

One sure way for a physicist to spark a lively debate at almost any gathering is to quote Sir Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937, a nuclear physicist and a Nobel Prize Laureate, photo at left), who once said that "All of science is either physics or stamp collecting." On the one hand, it is clear this quote is mostly humorous caricature, particularly in view of the fact that Rutherford won his Nobel Prize in Chemistry, not in Physics!  On the other hand, the humor of the quip does depend upon its sly reference to a genuinely distinguishing facet of physics:  Physics is the broadest of the sciences, and more than any other seeks to explain the natural world in the most universal manner possible. The sheer scale of what physicists study is dazzling:  astrophysicists study galaxies so far from Earth that their distance (in miles) needs 22 zeros after the last digit, whereas particle physicists study subatomic particles so light that their weight (in ounces) needs 35 zeros before the first digit!  Optical physicists use ultrafast laser spectroscopy to directly observe atoms taking part in chemical reactions that last only a million billionth of a second, while just down the hall their colleagues may be studying data on other solar systems in our galaxy, to better understand how the Earth itself was formed 4.2 billion years ago.  There is no other science which spans such a vast range of time, space, and matter as physics. The other distinguishing hallmark of physics is its emphasis on basic knowledge.  It has been said that the periodic table of the elements is chemistry, but understanding why the elements form a periodic table in the first place is physics.  Physicists look for the hidden symmetries that underlie the natural world, and try to express them in the most universal terms possible.  For example, research in the area of nonlinear dynamics has revealed that the chaotic pattern of the heartbeats in a heart-attack patient undergoing severe arrhythmia has exactly the same mathematical properties as a leaky faucet, caught halfway between on and off, which is spluttering erratically (not dripping steadily).  This emphasis on looking past the surface is terrific training for any student, regardless of whether they make physics or astronomy their profession.