Theoretical physicist — Brian David Josephson (Cardiff 1940) is a Welsh British theoretical physicist. Still a PhD student at Cambridge, in 1962 he predicted theoretically that an electric current can flow between two superconductors separated by an extremely thin insulating layer, via quantum tunnelling, even without a potential difference. This phenomenon, the Josephson effect, was soon confirmed experimentally and earned him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1973. Josephson junctions are today at the heart of SQUID devices, capable of measuring extremely weak magnetic fields, and of the qubits in quantum computers. Josephson later turned his interests to controversial subjects such as the mind and paranormal phenomena.
Fun fact
He is the only Nobel laureate to direct a project on “mind-matter unification”, and his views on telepathy and water memory have drawn strong criticism from the scientific community.
Theories and contributions
- Josephson effect — A supercurrent crosses a junction between two superconductors without any applied voltage: , where is the phase difference.
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1 linked atoms.