Man of science

March 20, 2011

There’s not much more to be said beyond the obituary, but some classic quotes from classic papers by the theoretical physicist Marshall Stoneham.

1. The strange magnetism of oxides and carbons (2010). “These ideas need careful work to be fully credible, but imply that simple oxides are far from simple”.
2. Trapping, self-trapping and the polaron family (2007). “If there are really only two electrons, the ground state will be a singlet... if there are only two interesting electrons, the ground state can be a triplet”.
3. Ionicity in solids (1983). “The optimist may even construct quantitative, if empirical, rules involving an ionicity parameter”.
4. Theory of defects in solids (1975). “In principle, all these difficulties can be overcome by currently available methods. It remains to be seen whether this will be done”.
5. The phonon bottleneck in paramagnetic crystals (1965). “Whilst it is possible to find explanations consistent with the results, it is not yet possible to make reliable predictions”.

A final one that’s quite appropriate given the worldwide hysteria over events in Japan: “In the next half century, it is hard to see how demands for electricity can be met without expansions of nuclear fission power stations” from Nuclear fission: the interplay of science and technology (2010).