Winston H. Bostick (March 5, 1916 – January 19, 1991) was an American physicist who discovered

plasmoid A plasmoid is a coherent structure of plasma and magnetic fields. Plasmoids have been proposed to explain natural phenomena such as ball lightning, magnetic bubbles in the magnetosphere, and objects in cometary tails, in the solar wind, in th ...

s, plasma focus, and

plasma Plasma or plasm may refer to: Science * Plasma (physics), one of the four fundamental states of matter * Plasma (mineral), a green translucent silica mineral * Quark–gluon plasma, a state of matter in quantum chromodynamics Biology * Blood pla ...

vortex phenomena. He simulated cosmical

astrophysics Astrophysics is a science that employs the methods and principles of physics and chemistry in the study of astronomical objects and phenomena. As one of the founders of the discipline said, Astrophysics "seeks to ascertain the nature of the h ...

with laboratory

experiments, and showed that

Hubble expansion Hubble's law, also known as the Hubble–Lemaître law, is the observation in physical cosmology that galaxies are moving away from Earth at speeds proportional to their distance. In other words, the farther they are, the faster they are moving ...

can be produced with repulsive

mutual induction Inductance is the tendency of an electrical conductor to oppose a change in the electric current flowing through it. The flow of electric current creates a magnetic field around the conductor. The field strength depends on the magnitude of the ...

between neighboring

galaxies A galaxy is a system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar gas, dust, dark matter, bound together by gravity. The word is derived from the Greek ' (), literally 'milky', a reference to the Milky Way galaxy that contains the Solar System. ...

acting as homopolar generators. His work on plasmas was claimed to be evidence for finite-sized elementary particles and the composition of

strings String or strings may refer to: *String (structure), a long flexible structure made from threads twisted together, which is used to tie, bind, or hang other objects Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Strings'' (1991 film), a Canadian anim ...

, but this is not accepted by mainstream science.

Biography

Winston H. Bostick, born in Freeport, Illinois, received both his B.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Chicago. His Ph.D. thesis on cosmic rays was completed under the direction of

Nobel laureate The Nobel Prizes ( sv, Nobelpriset, no, Nobelprisen) are awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Academy, the Karolinska Institutet, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee to individuals and organizations who make out ...

Arthur Compton Arthur Holly Compton (September 10, 1892 – March 15, 1962) was an American physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1927 for his 1923 discovery of the Compton effect, which demonstrated the particle nature of electromagnetic radia ...

. While working at the MIT Radiation Laboratory from 1941 to 1948, he helped build a microwave

linear electron accelerator A linear particle accelerator (often shortened to linac) is a type of particle accelerator that accelerates charged subatomic particles or ions to a high speed by subjecting them to a series of oscillating electric potentials along a linear be ...

. As an associate professor of Tufts University from 1948 to 1954, he researched

magnetic pinch A pinch (or: Bennett pinch (after Willard Harrison Bennett), electromagnetic pinch, magnetic pinch, pinch effect, or plasma pinch.) is the compression of an electrically conducting Electrical filament, filament by magnetic forces, or a device tha ...

effects, which led to his later work on

plasma pinch A pinch (or: Bennett pinch (after Willard Harrison Bennett), electromagnetic pinch, magnetic pinch, pinch effect, or plasma pinch.) is the compression of an electrically conducting Electrical filament, filament by magnetic forces, or a device tha ...

effects. His discoveries of

s and other plasma-related effects began between 1954 and 1956 at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, where he continued to act as consultant. A 1956 '' New York Times'' front page story featured Bostick's " plasma gun". He served as professor of physics at the Stevens Institute of Technology from 1956 until receiving professor emeritus status at his retirement in 1981, and as head of the physics department from 1968. While visiting Tijuana, Mexico, in 1991, he died of lung cancer at age 74.

Scientific contributions

In 1956 Bostick demonstrated the existence of "

s", force-free, charge-carrying "strings". Ten years later he postulated an electron composed of helical plasmoids forming vortex " loops" around a "

ring Ring may refer to: * Ring (jewellery), a round band, usually made of metal, worn as ornamental jewelry * To make a sound with a bell, and the sound made by a bell :(hence) to initiate a telephone connection Arts, entertainment and media Film and ...

", similar to the

Parson A parson is an ordained Christian person responsible for a small area, typically a parish. The term was formerly often used for some Anglican clergy and, more rarely, for ordained ministers in some other churches. It is no longer a formal term d ...

Magneton.Winston H. Bostick, "Pair Production of Plasma Vortices",
Physics of Fluids
', V9, N10, pp. 2078-2080 (Oct 1966). Bostick maintained that this model could account for atomic structure,

strong Strong may refer to: Education * The Strong, an educational institution in Rochester, New York, United States * Strong Hall (Lawrence, Kansas), an administrative hall of the University of Kansas * Strong School, New Haven, Connecticut, United Sta ...

and weak forces within the

nucleus Nucleus ( : nuclei) is a Latin word for the seed inside a fruit. It most often refers to: *Atomic nucleus, the very dense central region of an atom *Cell nucleus, a central organelle of a eukaryotic cell, containing most of the cell's DNA Nucle ...

, and that it was a physical basis for

string theory In physics, string theory is a theoretical framework in which the point-like particles of particle physics are replaced by one-dimensional objects called strings. String theory describes how these strings propagate through space and interac ...

, but this view received no support from the mainstream scientific community and is considered fringe science.

References

External links

Winston H. Bostick - Plasma UniverseWinston H. Bostick - Smithsonian/NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS) Database
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bostick, Winston H. 1916 births 1991 deaths People from Freeport, Illinois University of Chicago alumni 20th-century American physicists Particle physicists Quantum physicists Theoretical physicists Fellows of the American Physical Society Deaths from lung cancer in Mexico