NEP - Electron B-day -

[Matthew Cissell]

Scientific American's June issue has an article about the 'birthday' of the electron, it seemed like a birthday worth putting on the list. 
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=happy-birthday-electron

From the article: "Electrons rule our world, but not sol ong ago they were only an idea... Today physicists are accustomed to the notioin that a complete description of nature  can arise out of simple, beautiful equations, yet prior Lorentz that was a mystic vision." gotta love that "mystic vision".
Oh and this: "To set the context, it is important to admit a blasphemy: Maxwell's own exposition of his equations is a mess." Ok, so nobody's perfect. I feel better.

mc otis