New Issues in Physics – The Environment, Humans, and the Brain
Three examples of new interdisciplinary research areas that emerged from the traditional disciplines are environmental physics, medical physics, and the research of neural networks.
In 2007, climate change became one of the most discussed issues worldwide. Climate researchers have been warning about the consequences of rising CO2 levels and the destruction of the ozone layer since the 1970s.
Environmental physicists play an important role in the research community and they have been investigating environmental issues using physical methods while theoretical physicists use physical models to solve problems in meteorology, soil science, oceanography, and glaciology. Environmental physicists, once looked down on by their colleagues researching quarks and black holes, have now become an established part of the scientific community.
Medical physics
At first sight, topics such as the human metabolism, immune system, or even emotions do not seem to apply to physics but more and more physicists are involved in medical research. Not only do they bring in their knowledge in all technical aspects of development and maintenance of medical instruments, but more importantly, their expertise applies to the areas of radiology and medical imaging.
A physicist’s knowledge about the use of (and protection from) radioactive substances is valued in radiology. The scope for physicists in medical imaging extends from the x-ray machine to the ultra- sound, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to positron emission tomography (PET), and many more methods for viewing a patient’s body literally inside out, and even inside the brain.
Neural networks
In computer sciences and physics, a neural network is a simulation of artificial nerve cells or neurons connected in a way that resembles the circuits of the brain as closely as possible in order to study the mechanisms of thought. A distant goal is the creation of an artificial intelligence (Al) construct within a computer.
So far, re- search has concentrated on the myriad differences between microprocessors and the brain: microprocessors with their super fast connections between millions of transistors each and, on the other hand, the brain with its slow networks of billions of interconnected nerve cells. When it comes to performing raw calculations, humans cannot keep up with modern computers.
How-ever, simple tasks such as the recognition of patterns or the identification of faces and voices can only be accomplished by highly complex artificial neural networks. Outside the realms of science fiction, we are still far away from developing true artificial intelligence; however, the many popular machine translation services on the Internet use cutting-edge artificial intelligence research in a very real and tangible manner.
CAREERS IN PHYSICS
If you dream about finding the fundamental formula of the universe and receiving the Nobel Prize then you probably should consider a career in physics.
This diverse field includes academic professors and particle, theoretical, and quantum physicists, all dedicated to the challenging task of unraveling the mysteries of the world and the universe around us.