Document Type

Article

Publication Title

American Journal of Physics

Publisher

American Association of Physics Teachers

Publication Date

12-2010

Volume

78

Issue

12

Disciplines

Biology | Life Sciences | Physics

Abstract

A discussion of Robert Brown’s original observations of particles ejected by pollen of the plant Clarkia pulchella undergoing what is now called Brownian motion is given. We consider the nature of those particles and how he misinterpreted the Airy disk of the smallest particles to be universal organic building blocks. Relevant qualitative and quantitative investigations with a modern microscope and with a “homemade” single lens microscope similar to Brown’s are presented.

Keywords

Pollen, Brownian motion, electron microscopes, viscosity, spherical aberrations, lipids, optical microscopes, organelles, interstellar dust, cell nucleus

DOI

10.1119/1.3475685

Rights

© 2010 American Association of Physics Teachers

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