21
Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / Re: Whats a branch of physics with high potential that has unjustified disinterest
« on: 10/01/2022 22:11:01 »
I may be biased (as a chemist), but I would recommend physical chemistry. It has all the mathematical rigor and knowledge of "standard" physics, but it's also much more easily explored experimentally than high energy physics, astrophysics, cosmology etc.
Physical chemistry (or chemical physics, or materials science, depending on what you're looking at) involves a lot of quantum mechanics (because it largely deals with collections of photons, electrons, atomic nuclei, and how they interact with each other). It also involves relativity, when considering very heavy atoms (like gold or uranium), in which electrons that get close to the nucleus have enough kinetic energy that reletivistic considerations must be taken.
Bridging the gap between physics and chemistry means that it is very useful, and often overlooked by purist physicists and chemists alike. But physical chemistry is critically important for "sexy" topics like (among other things):
• quantum computing (and regular computing)
• LEDs (and OLEDs)
• Photovoltaics
• Drug design
• Protein folding
• Sensing
• Spectroscopy
• Making new dyes (for aesthetics, cellular imaging, light emission, light harvesting)
Physical chemistry (or chemical physics, or materials science, depending on what you're looking at) involves a lot of quantum mechanics (because it largely deals with collections of photons, electrons, atomic nuclei, and how they interact with each other). It also involves relativity, when considering very heavy atoms (like gold or uranium), in which electrons that get close to the nucleus have enough kinetic energy that reletivistic considerations must be taken.
Bridging the gap between physics and chemistry means that it is very useful, and often overlooked by purist physicists and chemists alike. But physical chemistry is critically important for "sexy" topics like (among other things):
• quantum computing (and regular computing)
• LEDs (and OLEDs)
• Photovoltaics
• Drug design
• Protein folding
• Sensing
• Spectroscopy
• Making new dyes (for aesthetics, cellular imaging, light emission, light harvesting)
The following users thanked this post: grillmeister