This summer, perhaps while you were lounging around the pool in the blistering heat, the blogosphere was buzzing about data taken at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. The buzz reached a crescendo in the first week of July when both Fermilab and CERN announced the results of their searches for the Higgs boson. Hard data confronted a theory nearly…

This article analyzes the concept of idealization in chemistry and the role played by pure substance and laboratory product. This topic has evident repercussions in the educational contexts that are applied to the science classroom, which are highlighted throughout the text. A common structure for knowledge construction is proposed for both…

Though central to any pedagogical development of physics, the concept of mass is still not well understood. Properly defining mass has proven to be far more daunting than contemporary textbooks would have us believe. And yet today the origin of mass is one of the most aggressively pursued areas of research in all of physics. Much of the excitement…

James Clerk Maxwell "translated" Michael Faraday's experimentally-based field theory into the mathematical representation now known as "Maxwell's Equations." Working with a variety of mathematical representations and physical models Maxwell extended the reach of Faraday's theory and brought it into consistency with other…

The association between the observable physical world and the mathematical models used in theoretical physics to describe this world is examined. Such models will frequently exhibit solutions that are "unexpected," in the sense that they describe physical situations which are different from that which the physicist may initially have had in mind…

Design-based research, and particularly its theoretical status, is a subject of debate in the science education community. In the first part of this paper, a theoretical framework drawn up to develop design-based research will be presented. This framework is mainly based on epistemological analysis of physics modelling, learning and teaching…

Defines the role of charge conjugation (C), parity (P), and time reversal (T) symmetries in elementary-particle physics. (RR)

The theory of canonical transformations and its development are discussed with regard to its application to Hutton's principle. Included are the derivation of the equations of motion and a lack of symmetry in the formulaion with respect to Lagrangian and the fundamental commutator relations of quantum mechanics. (Author/SA)

This short biography of Fresnel traces his early education, his work as an engineer and his theories and discoveries in optics. The importance of Fresnel's ideas on diffraction, interference and double refraction are discussed. Bibliography. (LC)

Reports recent findings related to the particle Higgs boson and examines its possible contribution to the standard mode of elementary processes. Critically explores the strengths and uncertainties of the Higgs boson and proposed Higgs field. (ML)

Shows that, as a consequence of two feasible assumptions and when due attention is given to the definition of charge and the fields E and B, the lowest-order equations that these two fields must satisfy are Maxwell's equations. (Author/GA)