~ Early Web Links ~

The official site for NASA's Gravity Probe B mission, a Stanford University experiment designed to test two key predictions of Einstein's general theory of relativity using ultra-precise gyroscopes orbiting Earth. Visitors can explore the mission's history dating back to 1959, the groundbreaking engineering advances required to make it possible, technical papers, image galleries, and video overviews of spacetime concepts.

A lecture page from a University of Houston astronomy course (ASTR 3131) explaining Einstein's theory of general relativity and the concept of curved spacetime. It covers how mass and energy deform the fabric of spacetime, using accessible analogies like a ball on a bedsheet to illustrate four-dimensional curvature.

Richard Fitzpatrick is a Professor of Physics at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in fusion studies, with this page serving as a hub for his research, teaching materials, academic papers, talks, and books. Visitors interested in plasma physics or fusion energy will find a gateway to substantial scholarly resources from an active academic researcher.

The official homepage of Gerard 't Hooft, Nobel Prize-winning theoretical physicist at Utrecht University, covering his research into quantum mechanics, quantum field theory, and black hole physics. Visitors can access his lecture notes, publication list, curriculum vitae, and his ongoing work on deterministic quantum mechanics and the origins of quantum behavior.

Robert G. Brown, a physicist at Duke University, shares an extensive collection of free online textbooks, physics study materials, poetry collections, philosophy essays, and beowulf cluster computing resources. The site is a sprawling intellectual hub covering everything from GPL software tools to metaphysics, all freely licensed under an open public license.

James Ziegler's authoritative site hosts SRIM and TRIM, widely used scientific software packages that calculate the stopping and range of ions in matter for research and engineering applications. The site includes downloadable software, textbooks, tutorials, a historical review spanning 100 years of ion stopping research, and resources covering topics from cosmic ray soft errors to neutron damage.

Created by a University of Toronto physicist, this collection features 99 Flash animations covering topics from Quantum Mechanics and Relativity to Chaos and Fluid Mechanics, making abstract physics concepts visually intuitive. A bonus tutorial teaches how to build your own physics animations in Flash, and the animations are available in multiple languages under a Creative Commons license.

The Chaos Group at the University of Maryland presents their research into chaotic dynamics, covering topics like fractal basin boundaries, chaotic scattering, strange attractors, and controlling chaos. Affiliated with multiple departments including Physics, Mathematics, and Electrical Engineering, this site offers a window into decades of groundbreaking nonlinear dynamics research dating back to the mid-1970s.

Mike Daub is a physics and mathematics educator with a master's from UC Berkeley who spent five seasons at the South Pole researching experimental cosmology on the ACBAR project. His personal site covers his academic background, libertarian politics, photography, and a no-nonsense hand-coded HTML philosophy with no frameworks or tracking.

John G. Cramer's subject index collects his long-running 'Alternate View' column from Analog Science Fiction & Fact Magazine, organizing hundreds of short essays on cutting-edge science into topics like quantum mechanics, cosmology, wormholes, and space drives. Running from 1984 to the present, this archive is a remarkable resource for hard SF readers and writers who want rigorous, accessible science writing from a working physicist.