---
title: "History of physics"
chunk: 16/16
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_physics"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:00:08.451736+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

"This is a big moment for particle physics and a crossroads – will this be the high water mark or will it be the first of many discoveries that point us toward solving the really big questions that we have posed?"
Peter Higgs was one of six physicists, working in three independent groups, who, in 1964, invented the notion of the Higgs field ("cosmic molasses"). The others were Tom Kibble of Imperial College, London; Carl Hagen of the University of Rochester; Gerald Guralnik of Brown University; and François Englert and Robert Brout, both of Université libre de Bruxelles.
Although they have never been seen, Higgslike fields play an important role in theories of the universe and in string theory. Under certain conditions, according to the strange accounting of Einsteinian physics, they can become suffused with energy that exerts an antigravitational force. Such fields have been proposed as the source of an enormous burst of expansion, known as inflation, early in the universe and, possibly, as the secret of the dark energy that now seems to be accelerating the expansion of the universe.

=== Physical sciences ===
With increased accessibility to and elaboration upon advanced analytical techniques in the 19th century, physics was defined as much, if not more, by those techniques than by the search for universal principles of motion and energy, and the fundamental nature of matter. Fields such as acoustics, geophysics, astrophysics, aerodynamics, plasma physics, low-temperature physics, and solid-state physics joined optics, fluid dynamics, electromagnetism, and mechanics as areas of physical research. In the 20th century, physics also became closely allied with such fields as electrical, aerospace and materials engineering, and physicists began to work in government and industrial laboratories as much as in academic settings. Following World War II, the population of physicists increased dramatically, and came to be centered on the United States, while, in more recent decades, physics has become a more international pursuit than at any time in its previous history.

== Articles on the history of physics ==

=== On branches of physics ===
History of astronomy (timeline)
History of condensed matter (timeline)
History of aerodynamics
History of materials science (timeline)
History of fluid mechanics (timeline)
History of metamaterials
History of nanotechnology
History of superconductivity
History of computational physics (timeline)
History of electromagnetic theory (timeline)
History of electrical engineering
History of classical field theory
History of Maxwell's equations
History of optics
History of spectroscopy
History of geophysics
History of gravity, spacetime and cosmology
History of the Big Bang theory
History of cosmology (timeline)
History of gravitational theory (timeline)
History of general relativity
History of special relativity (timeline)
History of Lorentz transformations
History of classical mechanics (timeline)
History of variational principles in physics
History of nuclear physics
Discovery of nuclear fission
History of nuclear fusion
History of nuclear power
History of nuclear weapons
History of quantum mechanics (timeline)
Atomic theory
History of molecular theory
History of quantum field theory
History of quantum information (timeline)
History of subatomic physics (timeline)
History of thermodynamics (timeline)
History of energy
History of entropy
History of perpetual motion machines

=== On specific discoveries ===
Discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation
History of graphene
First observation of gravitational waves
Subatomic particles (timeline)
Search for the Higgs boson
Discovery of the neutron

=== Historical periods ===
Classical physics
Copernican Revolution
Golden age of physics
Golden age of cosmology
Modern physics
Physics in the medieval Islamic world
Astronomy in the medieval Islamic world
Noisy intermediate-scale quantum era

== See also ==

== Notes ==

== References ==

=== Sources ===

== Further reading ==
Buchwald, Jed Z. and Robert Fox, eds. The Oxford Handbook of the History of Physics (2014) 976 pp.; excerpt.
Byers, Nina; Williams, Gary (2006). Out of the Shadows: Contributions of Twentieth-Century Women to Physics. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-82197-5.
Cropper, William H. (2004). Great Physicists: The Life and Times of Leading Physicists from Galileo to Hawking. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-517324-4.
Dear, Peter (2001). Revolutionizing the Sciences: European Knowledge and Its Ambitions, 1500–1700. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-08859-4. OCLC 46622656.
Gamow, George (1988). The Great Physicists from Galileo to Einstein. Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-25767-3.
Heilbron, John L. (2005). The Oxford Guide to the History of Physics and Astronomy. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-517198-5.
Nye, Mary Jo (1996). Before Big Science: The Pursuit of Modern Chemistry and Physics, 1800–1940. New York: Twayne. ISBN 0-8057-9512-X. OCLC 185866968.
Segrè, Emilio (1984). From Falling Bodies to Radio Waves: Classical Physicists and Their Discoveries. New York: W. H. Freeman. ISBN 0-7167-1482-5. OCLC 9943504.
Segrè, Emilio (1980). From X-Rays to Quarks: Modern Physicists and Their Discoveries. San Francisco, California: W. H. Freeman. ISBN 0-7167-1147-8. OCLC 237246197.
Simonyi, Károly (1978). A Cultural History of Physics. Boca Raton, Florida: A K Peters/CRC Press (published 2012). doi:10.1201/9781032697697. ISBN 978-1568813295.
Weaver, Jefferson H., ed. (1987). The World of Physics. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0-671-49931-9. A selection of 56 articles, written by physicists. Commentaries and notes by Lloyd Motz and Dale McAdoo.
de Haas, Paul, "Historic Papers in Physics (20th Century)".

== External links ==
"Selected Works about Isaac Newton and His Thought" from The Newton Project.