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Luis Alvarez was a Nobel Prize winning physicist, who is probably most famous for the discovery of
the iridium layer and his theory that the mass extinction of dinosaurs was caused by an asteroid or
comet colliding with Earth. Besides doing the normal work you might expect of a physics professor,
Alvarez took on more unusual projects, like making use of cosmic rays to search for hidden
chambers in an Egyptian pyramid.
Even at the beginning of his time as a graduate student, Alvarez was at the cutting-edge of physics.
His doctoral advisor was Arthur Compton, winner of the 1927 Nobel Prize in Physics for his
discovery that electromagnetic radiation, such as visible light, has particle-like properties.
In 1932, Alvarez built an array of Geiger counters that he put to use studying cosmic rays. In 1933,
using the data he had gathered, he and Compton published a paper in the Physical
Review establishing that cosmic rays are positively charged particles. Compton gave much of the
credit for the work to his young graduate student.
After completing his Ph.D. in 1936, Alvarez returned to his home state, beginning work as an
experimental physicist at the University of Californias Radiation Laboratory in Berkeley.
If carbon-10 could undergo K-electron capture, the result would be as shown above. A proton in the nucleus
would capture an electron and be converted to a neutron; the nucleus would become boron-10. Luis Alvarez
proved that K-electron capture was not just another theory it actually happens.
The Cyclotron
Alvarez spent a lot of time at Berkeley working with the cyclotron (particle accelerator/atom
smasher). He was able to prove that helium-3 is stable, although it had been predicted to be
unstable.
Alvarezs ground-controlled approach radar allowed airplanes to be talked down by air traffic controllers
when visibility was poor.
Luis Alvarez devised the first method for discovering if a country is carrying out nuclear weapons research.
He also devised the first method of measuring how powerful a nuclear explosion has been.
possible through his development of the technique of using hydrogen bubble chamber and data
analysis.
Fermilab image of tracks left by subatomic particles passing through a bubble chamber. Physicists can
figure out the properties of particles by studying the trails they leave.
The Pyramid of Chephren, with the Sphinx in the foreground. Image: Hamish2k.
In 1967, Alvarez had the ingenious idea that hidden chambers in Egypts pyramids could be revealed
by making use of cosmic rays to take a X-ray type photo.
He placed a cosmic ray detector in an existing chamber below in the Pyramid of Chephren the
second largest of the Pyramids of Giza. The rate that cosmic rays arrived at the detector would
reveal any spaces within the pyramids structure. Alvarez was able to study about one-fifth of the
pyramids volume, but found no new chambers.
Luis and Walter Alvarez at the boundary layer marking a mass extinction of life on Earth.
After discussing the problem, father and son started off with a rather modest goal.
They wanted to measure how long it took for the 1 centimeter deep layer Walter had been
investigating in Italy to form.
Luis decided the best way to do this would be to measure how much of the chemical element iridium
was present from the top through to the bottom of the layer.
Iridium in the earths crust comes mainly from meteorite impacts, and Luis had calculated the
average amount of iridium that arrives on Earth each year from meteorites. Comparing iridium levels
in the layer with typical iridium arrival rates would tell him how long it took for the layer to form.
Luis asked Frank Asaro, a nuclear chemist at the Lawrence Berkeley laboratory, to determine the
iridium content of samples of gray clay from the K-T boundary layer. Asaro and his nuclear chemist
colleague Helen Michel found much higher concentrations of iridium in the samples than anyone
could have imagined, much more than could be explained by the normal number of meteorite
impacts.
In 1980 the team published their evidence and stated their belief that the K-T boundary layer and the
mass extinction event had been caused by a massive meteorite impact.
Luis Alvarez calculated a 10-kilometer-diameter meteorite traveling at 25 kilometers per second had
hit Earth 65 million years ago. The impact had sent a huge volume of rock dust into the atmosphere
which had eventually settled to form a thin gray layer all over the world.
While the dust was in the atmosphere it blocked the suns rays, putting a stop to photosynthesis, and
cooling the planet. Without food and heat, the dinosaurs died out.
Very high levels of iridium in the K-T boundary lay suggested an extra-terrestrial origin for the event that
wiped out the dinosaurs.
by Luis Alvarez himself. Alvarez was generally cantankerous and dismissive of anyone with a view
different to his own.
Idontliketosaybadthingsaboutpaleontologists,buttheyre
notverygoodscientists.Theyremorelikestampcollectors.
LUISALVAREZ,19111988
In 1990, two years after Luis Alvarezs death, the Chicxulub crater in the sea off Mexicos Yucatan
Peninsula came to the attention of geologists, who agreed that the profile and age of the crater
matched the Alvarez predictions.
The meteorite impact itself is no longer a topic of debate. It is completely accepted that Alvarezs
team was right about this.
Whether the mass extinction was caused mainly or exclusively by the impact is, however, still
debated.
There is an alternative theory that the extinction might have been assisted or even wholly caused by
another catastrophic event, namely the enormously violent volcanic eruptions that took place in the
Deccan Traps in India in the same geologic time frame as the meteorite impact.
Someday, no doubt, the debate over the cause(s) of the mass extinction will be settled, but it hasnt
been yet!
The End
Luis Alvarez died of cancer of the esophagus at the age of 77 on September 1, 1988. He was
survived by his first wife Geraldine Smithwick, and their children Walter and Jean; and his second
wife Janet Landis, and their children Donald and Helen.