Ask any physicist today about who they rate as next best British scientist to Newton and the answer might easily be Paul Dirac. Dirac was a theoretical physicist and in 1928 he derived the 'Dirac Equation'. His genius was to construct a single equation that described electron behaviour in all conditions - from the weird world of quantum mechanics to the light speeds of Einstein's special theory of relativity. Put simply the behaviour of every electron that had ever existed in the universe! The power of the equation went further and predicted the existence of a new unsuspected type of matter called antimatter. At the age of 31 Dirac shared the 1933 Nobel Prize for physics. The first anti-matter to be discovered was the anti-electron, or positron, in 1934. Our modern world of electronic wonders would not exist without reference to this one glorious piece of mathematical genius. Knowledge of the positron has enabled the invention of latest non-invasive medical scanners. The Dirac Equation is described in his ground breaking book The Principles of Quantum Mechanics.
Dirac was born in Bristol in 1902 and died in Florida in 1984. As a formidable contributor to quantum theory and one of the world's most respected scientists he held a glittering array of awards and professorships in Britain and the USA. Although happily married he was cripplingly quiet and shy, possibly suffering from autism. This may explain why he is not well known outside the world of physics.
His memorial can be found in a corner of Westminster Abbey - the Dirac Equation carved in stone.
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