Zewail
Zewail
Alexandria, EGYPT
2005
Bibliotheca Alexandrina Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Zewail, Ahmed H.
Time's mysteries and miracles : consonance with physical and life sciences /
lecture delivered by Ahmed Zewail during BioVision Alexandria, Nobel
Laureates Day, Bibliotheca Alexandrina, 3 April 2004. – Alexandria :
Bibliotheca Alexandrina, c2005.
p. cm. – (Distinguished guest lecture series)
ISBN 977-6163-27-X
530.11--dc21 2005259443
ISBN 977-6163-27-X
Dar El-Kuttub Depository Number 21155/2005
INTRODUCTION v
FOREWORD xiii
BIOGRAPHY 41
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
(since the Nobel Prize) 63
INTRODUCTION
An Amazing Legacy
The very name of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina conjures
up the image of a glorious past, of a shared heritage for
all of humanity. For it was indeed at the Ancient Library
of Alexandria that the greatest adventure of the human
intellect was to unfold. Launched in 288 BCE by
Ptolemy I (Soter) under the guidance of Demetrius of
Phaleron, the temple to the muses, or Mouseion (in
Greek), or Museum (in Latin) was part academy, part
research center, and part library. The great thinkers of
the age, scientists, mathematicians, poets from all
civilizations came to study and exchange ideas.
Ismail Serageldin
Librarian of Alexandria
Director of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina
Secretary of the Academia Bibliotheca Alexandrinae
FOREWORD
Dr. Zewail is also known for his lectures and his lucid
explanations of complex physical and chemical processes.
In this lecture, he begins with an overview of physics in
the first decades of the 20th century, with particular
attention paid to the nature of time. He then discusses
the history of photographing moving objects, from the
first crude attempts by Eadweard Muybridge through
the more refined efforts of Étienne-Jules Marey, and
then into the difficulties involved in making images at
femtosecond intervals.
xviii Ahmed Zewail
Introduction
Ever since the dawn of history, humans have been the
benefactors of time’s miracles, but at the same time they
have been baffled by time’s mysteries. More than six
millennia ago, the philosophy and measurement of time
occupied the minds of scholars in the land of Bibliotheca
Alexandrina, and, even today we struggle with the
meaning of time. In this overview, I present some
concepts and techniques developed in the science and
technology of time, and an exposé of some of the
*Based on the Albert Einstein public lecture delivered in New Delhi, and adapted
for the BioVision Nobel Laureates Day.
2 Ahmed Zewail
Symmetry of Time
Even if we consider the “normal world” when velocities,
masses, lengths, and time are with no
corrections–Newtonian Limits–and spacetime with no
curvature, we still have problems with time, its direction
Time’s Mysteries and Miracles 9
Arrow of Time
Phenomena in our life follow an arrow of time. A cup of
hot water with a piece of ice displays melting of the
ice–the ice does not spontaneously reform again; heat
always flows from a hotter object to a cooler one, and not
Time’s Mysteries and Miracles 11
larger the size (the larger the mass m and also the larger
the scale of precision in position Δxo) the smaller the
uncertainty in velocity (Δv) and the better we are in
predicting the future. Now it is straightforward to
calculate the “time of uncertainty” which tells us how
long it will be before the uncertainty in velocity will
contribute as much to our lack of knowledge of where
the object is as that which came from the original
position uncertainty (Δxo):
t (uncertainty)=Δxo/Δv=2m Δx2o /
Beyond this time scale, the uncertainty, due to our
lack of knowledge of velocity, makes us less certain of the
future and the description of the object becomes
quantum, not a classical one. This simplified equation
can be obtained from a more rigorous treatment of wave
packet motion, and elsewhere we did so.
Complexity–Biology
An especially exciting frontier for femtoscience is in
biology. At Caltech we now have the National Science
Time’s Mysteries and Miracles 33
Technology of Femtoscience
As for technology developments–femtotechnology–
there are exciting new developments in microelectronics
(femtomachining), femtodentistry, and femtoimaging
Time’s Mysteries and Miracles 35
Epilogue
I wish to conclude by conjecturing on some future
mysteries and miracles of time. In the physical sciences,
one advance that surely will allow us to reach the
electron domain involves measurements on the sub-
femtosecond time scale. Now the average energy is
nearing the x-ray region, much above chemical and
biological energies, and the pulse width is larger than
chemical binding energies. Nonetheless, such advances
will make it possible to study electron dynamics in many
domains of physics and related areas.
Bibliography
Albert, David. 2000. Time and Chance. Harvard University
Press, Cambridge.
Barrow, John D. 2002. The Constants of Nature. Pantheon
Books, New York.
Gribbin, John. 1998. In Search of the Big Bang (new
edition), Penguin Books, New York.
Hall, Nina. 2002. Chemistry and Biology in the New Age.
Chem. Commun. (Feature Article, Ahmed Zewail),
October 7 issue, 2185.
Hazen, Robert M., and James Trefil. 1996. The Physical
Sciences. John Wiley & Sons, New York.
Ihee, H., V. Lobastov, U. Gomez, B. Goodson, R. Srinivasan,
C.Y. Ruan, and A.H. Zewail. 2001. Direct Imaging of
Transient Molecular Structures with Ultrafast Diffraction.
Science, 291, 385.
March, Robert. 1978. Physics for Poets, Contemporary
Books, Chicago.
Ruan, C.Y., V. Lobastov, F. Vigliotti, S. Chen, and
A.H. Zewail. 2004. Ultrafast Electron Crystallography of
Interfacial Water. Science, 304, 80.
Time’s Mysteries and Miracles 39
Academic Positions
2005-present Director, Physical Biology Center for
Ultrafast Science & Technology
1996-present Director, NSF Laboratory for Molecular
Sciences (LMS), Caltech
1995-present Linus Pauling Professor of Chemistry and
Professor of Physics, Caltech
1990-1994 Linus Pauling Professor of Chemical Physics,
Caltech
1982-1989 Professor of Chemical Physics, Caltech
1978-1982 Associate Professor of Chemical Physics,
Caltech
1976-1978 Assistant Professor of Chemical Physics,
Caltech
Time’s Mysteries and Miracles 43
Professorships
1979 University of Amsterdam, John van Geuns Stichting
Visiting Professor, Holland
1981 University of Bordeaux, Visiting Professor, France
1983 Ecole Normale Supérieure, Visiting Professor,
France
1987 University of Kuwait, Visiting Professor, Kuwait
1988 University of California, Visiting Scholar, Los
Angeles, U.S.A.
44 Ahmed Zewail
Academic Degrees
1967 Alexandria University, Egypt;
B.S., First Class Honors
1969 Alexandria University, Egypt; M.S.
1974 University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, U.S.A.
Ph.D.
Honorary Degrees
1991 Oxford University, United Kingdom;
M.A., h.c. (Arts)
1993 American University in Cairo, Egypt;
D.Sc., h.c. (Science)
46 Ahmed Zewail
Special Honors
1989 King Faisal International Prize in Science
1990 First Linus Pauling Chair, Caltech
1993 Femtochemistry Conferences; Solvay, Nobel,
and Int’l. series
1993 Wolf Prize in Chemistry
1995 Order of Merit (OM) from President
M. H. Mubarak, Egypt
1997 Robert A. Welch Award in Chemistry
1998 Benjamin Franklin Medal, The Franklin Institute,
U.S.A.
1998 Dr. Ahmed Zewail High School, Disuq City
1999 Egypt Postage Stamps, with Portrait;
“The Fourth Pyramid”
1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
1999 Order of the Grand Collar of the Nile, Highest
Honor of Egypt, conferred by President Mubarak
2000 Order of Zayed, Highest Presidential Honor, State
of United Arab Emirates
52 Ahmed Zewail
Physical Biology
(1) Femtosecond Direct Observation of Charge Transfer
between Bases in DNA. C. Wan, T. Fiebig, O.
Schiemann, J.K. Barton, and A.H. Zewail, Proc. Natl.
Acad. Sci., 97, 14052 (2000)
Time’s Mysteries and Miracles 65
WORLD AFFAIRS
(1) The New World Dis-Order – Can Science Aid the
Have-Nots? A.H. Zewail, Proceedings of the Jubilee
Plenary Session of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences,
Science and the Future of Mankind, 99, 450 (2001)
(2) Science for the Have-Nots. A.H. Zewail, Nature
(London) 410, 741 (2001)
(3) Dialogue of Civilizations: Making History Through
New World Vision. A.H. Zewail, SSQ2/Journal,
Routledge Press, Paris, France, 2002; adapted from a
public address at UNESCO, 20 April 2002; also
Time’s Mysteries and Miracles 67
more to follow...