British-born physicist Paul Dirac, who predicted the real-world science of what became the fictional antimatter propulsion in Star Trek, was born 100 years ago today. He died in 1984 and never became a household name like Newton or Einstein.
Dirac's lack of popularity might have something to do with the fact that, despite winning the Nobel Prize in 1933, he was a recluse.
In an odd attempt to boost the physicist's profile posthumously, the international Institute of Physics has created a centennial series of educational cartoon posters that are bold and energetic, decidedly unlike the man they attempt to canonize.
Dirac is most famous for predicting the anti-electron, also known as the positron. It is a particle with the same mass but opposite charge to the electron. (Normal matter is made of atoms, which are in turn built from protons, neutrons and electrons.)
The positron was detected shortly after Dirac predicted its existence, from the study of cosmic ray particles arriving from space. Later, other anti-particles were predicted and detected.
Anti-particles are known collectively as antimatter, and the knowledge of physics surrounding them has led to practical science. Among other things, the discovery of antimatter made possible positron emission tomography, or PET scans, which see inside the body and brain.
Each of six new posters is dominated by the same strong female character, who has a nearly shaved head, rebellious clothes and cops some seriously attitudinal poses. Nothing like Dirac. In one poster, she's wrapped by the orbits of two anti-particles. In reality, anti-particles don't hang around -- they collide and annihilate one another in a fraction of a second, which is why they were difficult to detect in the first place. The key to their discovery: The collisions release gamma rays.
Another poster shows yellow balls spinning rapidly and is meant to illustrate so-called "spin technology," another Dirac derivative that scientists say could one day allow computers to become faster and smaller. Already, Dirac's explanations of electron spin explained magnetism and have proved invaluable in leading to mobile phone technologies used today.
"Dirac was a recluse and therefore his genius has mostly gone unnoticed by the public," says Shuk Kwan Liu, public relations officer at the Institute. "The posters aim to make people as familiar with Dirac as with Newton and Faraday. Rather than go for traditional posters with photos of physicists and equipment, we thought a modern cartoon style would attract the kids attention more."
The posters' so-called Manga style of Japanese cartooning "has given Dirac a bold, modern and cool image, which he probably would not have agreed with if he was still alive," Liu said.
Information on obtaining the posters is available
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