Jean Baptiste Perrin

thumb|Jean Baptiste Perrin in 1926 Jean Baptiste Perrin (30 September 1870 – 17 April 1942) was a French physicist who, in his studies of the Brownian motion of minute particles suspended in liquids (sedimentation equilibrium), verified Albert Einstein's explanation of this phenomenon and thereby confirmed the atomic nature of matter. For this achievement he was honoured with the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1926. Quotes Lastly, and doubtless always, but particularly at the end of the last century, certain scholars considered that since the appearances on our scale were finally the only important ones for us, there was no point in seeking what might exist in an inaccessible domain. I find it very difficult to understand this point of view since what is inaccessible today may become accessible tomorrow (as has happened by the invention of the microscope), and also because coherent assumptions on what is still invisible may increase our understanding of the visible. Nobel Lecture (11 December 1926) External links Jean Perrin Jean Baptiste Perrin Category:Academics from France Category:Physicists from France Category:Chemists from France Category:Nobel laureates from France Category:Socialists Category:Atheists from France Category:1870 births Category:1942 deaths Category:People from Lille Category:Nobel laureates in Physics