USA Souvenir 1989 — Page 41
Hazral Khalifalul Masih IV recieves the genius scientist. His first major research was done at Cambridge Univeristy. In previous theory there was nothing to stop an atom from having an infinite electric charge. Physicists Julian Schwinger, Richard Feyman and Freeman Dyson had indicated how the difficulty could be overcome. But the complete mathematical proof was lacking. Salam supplied that proof. His second achievement concerns with parity theory - a theory of physics conce - rning with the symmetry between an event and its mirror image. When a radioactive atom throws out an electron it also ejects a very elusive particle called the neutrino. Both particles spin as they go. For many years it was assumed that the particles were just as likely to spin to the left as to the right. Salam predicted that for every three electr. ons spinning to the left, one spun to the right. In 1957 Physicist Wu of Columbia University proved this prediction through his celebrated cobalt - 60 experiment. In 1964 Salam alongwith John Ward predicted an eightfold family of new partic - les having twice the spin of the proton. Salam introduced Einstein's "four dimensions" (three dimensions of space plus time" making the most fascinating contributions in particle physics in the realm ofpatternmaking. 41 Dr. Salam with China's Premier Chou En lai. "A broken symmetry breaks your heart," Salam says thinking continously about the patterns of nature and their mathematical repre- sentations. F'amous British author Nigel Calder writing about Salam observes that to a Moslem mystic, Allah is to be sought in eternal beauty and for Salam beauty comes through finding new, subtle, yet simplifying patterns in the natural world. Dr. Salam shared the 1979 Nobel Prize for Physics for his contributions to the theory of the unified weak and electro - magnetic interaction between elementary particles including, among other things, the prediction of the weak neutral current. • "The magnificient irrigation system built in the Indus Valley during the British era had deteriorated. Many years of seepage from the great irrigation canals had waterlogged huge areas of farmland, while evaporation from the soil had caused salts to accumulate. When Salam explained the problem, the US government sent leading scientists, agriculturists and engineers to West Pakistan. After thorough studies, the team , led by Roger Revelle, then director of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at La ,Jo I la, Ca I iforn i a and science ad visor to the Secretary of the Interior, drew up a plan of wells and pump s for draining the land and washing out the salt. Several areas, each