Definition of a Medical Physicist (MP) “Medical Physicist” According to the definition of the International Basic Safety Standards (BSS) , is “a health professional, with specialist education and training in the concepts and techniques of applying physics in medicine, and competent to practise independently in one or more of the subfields (specialties) of medical physics.” Qualifications of a Medical Physicist Medical physicists must have received appropriate undergraduate education in physical or engineering sciences, followed by a professional competency training that includes an additional period of 1–3 years of academic education in medical physics at the postgraduate level. In order to become a clinically qualified medical physicist (CQMP), the academic training at the postgraduate level must be followed by at least two additional years of structured practical training in a clinical environment, in one or more specialties of medical physics. Overall, the academic education and clinical training should extend over a minimum period of, typically, seven years. Medical physicists that have completed an academic programme and work or do research in a non-clinical environment will require additional appropriate training to become CQMPs. The education and training of medical physicists should be recognized by a national or international accreditation body. Scope of Practice for a Medical Physicist (common for all specialisations) Medical physicists contribute to the safe and effective use of radiation in order to achieve the best diagnostic or therapeutic outcome of the prescribed medical procedure. To achieve this, they: • Evaluate practices that involve medical exposure and optimize the physical aspects of diagnostic and therapeutic procedures in terms of benefits and risks. • Calibrate imaging equipment to ensure accurate and safe delivery of radiation to patients. • Implement appropriate quality assurance programmes, including quality control measures. • Assess radiation doses and associated risks to patients (especially for pregnant women and children) and personnel. Most medical physicists work in cancer treatment facilities, hospital diagnostic imaging departments or hospital-based research establishments, and mostly specialize in three areas of activity: clinical service and consultation, research and development, and teaching. The three core areas where medical physicist practice: Clinical service and consultation • The Medical Physicist’s work often involves the use of x-rays, ultrasound, radioisotopes, magnetic and electric fields in diagnosis and therapy. These activities take the form of clinical consultations with health other professionals. In radiotherapy departments, physicists have a central role in planning individual patients’ radiation treatment using either external radiation beams or internally placed radioactive sources. • Medical Physicists also have a role to play in diagnostics. For example, they might analyse nuclear medical image data to determine important physiological variables, such as metabolic rates or blood flow. • Physicists provide an essential radiation protection and radiation safety service, providing scientific and technical consultancy on the design of radiation facilities and the safe handling, storage and disposal of radioactive materials. • Similar consultancy services are provided for the specification, procurement and acceptance testing of complex and expensive medical equipment including radiotherapy linear accelerators and imaging equipment such as X-ray CT scanners and MRI scanners. • Another important clinical duty of the medical physicist is to design and manage quality assurance and preventative maintenance programmes (often in close collaboration with manufacturers) to ensure that equipment remains safe and accurate. • Finally, the specialist clinical scientific and technical knowledge of the physicist is frequently called upon to diagnose faults and problems that arise with such specialized and complex equipment. Research and Development Medical physicists are also involved at the frontiers of research at all levels: • Basic, theoretical studies into new physical concepts that might be used for diagnosis and treatment • Development and testing of equipment • The conduct of clinical trials of new imaging and treatment techniques. • Medical research work is almost always highly collaborative and multi-disciplinary. Collaborations typically involve basic scientists in universities, equipment manufactures and a range of different medical professionals, including radiographers, radiologists and radiation oncologists. • The recent rapid technical developments in equipment used in medical imaging and therapy mean that there is always a need for applied research and development work within hospitals. Finding the optimum way to use new equipment and designing practical and robust methods for implementing technology in a busy clinical workplace are challenges that face most medical physicists are some stage.

From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of particular interest. But for us, it's different. Consider again that dot. That's here, that's home, that's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand. It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known. Carl Sagan, from his book THE PALE BLUE DOT originally published in 1994. The book was inspired by a photo taken by Voyager1 space probe in February, 1990 about 6 billion kilometers from Earth.

O, the complexity of existence! Blind we are when our's begins and blind shall we be when our's ends. We know not by our own selves the hour in which we were conceived, nor the hour in which we were birthed. We took no part in deciding when, where, or how we were to be born. And concerning our end, perhaps we may be playing a role, but its fulfillment remains still quite uncertain. Let the thoughts of life and death abide in the hearts and minds of anyone who wishes to philosophize accordingly. Understanding the scope of one's ignorance is critically vital for any intelligent mind. It is very important to question oneself the fundamental questions about life, about one's existence and one's end. These are not easy questions for the mind and heart, nevertheless, every one of us ought to not necessarily solve them, but at least face them - to stop for a while and think about them. Why am I here? Where did I come from? What is my purpose in this life? What happens to me when I die? One question after the other...Pause. Think. Philosophize. We know so little. We understand so less. We do not question our knowledge because we think we know. Sometimes, we simply fear to think because we are afraid of where our thoughts may lead us. We love certainty. We love our strongly held beliefs. We don't want them challenged. But, I say to you my dear friends, in an honest pursuit of truth and understanding, let ALL ideas be challenged. At the end, when all shaking has been done, the truth will always stand. Various religions provide different answers to questions concerning life and death. It's all a matter of faith. Faith, in all its elegance and all its beauty, provides little or no explanation for its claims. You need only to believe, and so we do, in accordance with our religion. Science, on the other hand, does not have all the answers to these questions but provides some explanation in correspondence with present evidence and understanding. As intelligent beings, we need explanations. As spiritual and emotional beings, we need faith. So both are essential. Whether it be us or the generations to come which will provide explanations to such philosophical questions, let us ensure to build a society and a world which accommodates both religious and scientific concepts when it comes to answering the questions about origins, life, existence, and death. Let us not be too quick to dismiss everything we do not understand and every concept which seems to challenge our long-held views. Let us work together to build a better world where differences don't divide us; be it religion, politics, tribes, race, and so forth. And above all my dear friends, let us keep loving one another! Let us promote a society that will fully embrace science and philosophy in an attempt to raise a generation more informed about themselves and the world in which they live. I believe peace, unity, and development come when there is understanding and when there is cooperation. Not everyone who disagrees with you is your enemy. This is no parable, but plain simple truth.

In the last few years, society has witnessed rapid advances in electronics that have found uses in applications such as computing and photonics, affecting just about every aspect of our lives. Many of these advances have been the result of the continuous downscaling of electronic devices. However, performance enhancement via device scaling approaches a limit. There are several limitations that put a restraint on the size and performance of devices [1]. When natural materials meet their physical limit, metamaterials are utilized for their unusual electromagnetic properties that are not found in naturally occurring materials. A natural material has positive electrical permittivity, magnetic permeability, and an index of refraction. Metamaterials can have some or all these parameters be negative [2]. Thermophotovoltaic devices, for example, can be used to increase the efficiency of solar panels by absorbing the waste heat and emitting light, which can be absorbed by the solar cells. Thermophotovoltaics, a type of photonic device, can absorb electromagnetic radiation from processes producing heat, which would otherwise dissipate and be wasted, into utilizable electricity [3]. With the use of heat resistant hyperbolic materials with broad dispersion spectra, more energy can be converted into usable electricity [4]. Waste heat accounts for 67% of the energy used in energy production in the US alone [4]. Therefore, the application of such technology would have great prospects. Thermal photons are photons emitted from a hot body. As Infrared radiation is a small component of the electromagnetic spectrum, all hot surfaces emit light as thermal radiation. The problem with photonics is that thermal radiation is broadband, while the conversion of light to electricity is efficient only if the emission is in a narrowband [4] [5]. Past photonics attempt to put broadband photons into a narrow band, but HMMspresent an opportunity to absorb mid-infrared photons that would be wasted otherwise. There are HMMs that absorb waste heat and turn it into narrow-bandwidth photons [5]. Electrons in HMMs can only travel in one direction. These anisotropic materials are metallic in one direction while insulating in the perpendicular direction. The high-k waves supported in the hyperbolic mediums give significantly higherPDOS. The smallest cavities, the volume of∼λ3/700, in single walled carbon nanotubes(SWCNT) for example, display a resonance corresponding with at least a 100 times enhancement of PDOS in SWCNT compared to blackbody radiation [4]. REFERENCES [1] Jes ́us A. del Alamo. Nanometre-scale electronics with iii-v compound semiconductors.Nature, 479(7373):317–323, 2011. [2] R. S. Kshetrimayum. A brief intro to metamaterials.IEEE Potentials, 23(5):44–46, 2005. [3] Lorenzo Ferrari, Dylan Lu, Dominic Lepage, and Zhaowei Liu. Enhanced spontaneous emission inside hyperbolic metamaterials. Opt. Express, 22(4):4301–4306, Feb 2014. [4] Weilu Gao, Chloe F. Doiron, Xinwei Li, Junichiro Kono, and Gururaj V. Naik.Macroscopically aligned carbon nanotubes as a refractory platform for hyperbolic thermal emitters.ACS Photonics, 6(7):1602–1609, Jul 2019. [5] J. D. Joannopoulos, Pierre R. Villeneuve, and Shanhui Fan. Photonic crystals: putting a new twist on light. Nature, 386(6621):143–149, 1997 Source: Hyperbolic Metamaterials and Applications, S. Young, T. Kabengele, Solid State Physics course project, Dalhousie University, 2020.

Fast reactors are a class of advanced nuclear reactors that have some key advantages over traditional reactors in safety, sustainability, and waste. While traditional reactors contain moderators, such as water used in the VVER, to slow down neutrons after they’re emitted, fast reactors keep their neutrons moving quickly. Fast neutron reactors exploit the vast energy in the uranium U-238 isotope in addition to that of the uranium U-235 isotope exploited by most modern thermal reactors. Natural uranium consists mostly of three isotopes: U-238, U-235, and trace quantities of U-234, a decay product of U-238. U-238 accounts for roughly 99.3% of natural uranium and undergoes fission only by fast neutrons. It is turned into several isotopes of plutonium, of which Pu-239 and Pu-241 then undergo fission in the same way as U-235 to produce heat. This process is optimized so that uranium is utilized about 60 times more efficiently than conventional thermal reactors. Fast neutron reactors can reduce the total radiotoxicity of nuclear waste by using all or almost all of the waste as fuel. Since disposal of the fission products is dominated by the most radiotoxic fission product, caesium-137, which has a half-life of 30.1 years, the result is to reduce nuclear waste lifetimes from tens of millennia (from transuranic isotopes) to a few centuries. Fast reactors get more neutrons out of their primary fuel than thermal reactors, so many can be used to breed new fuel thus greatly enhancing the sustainability of nuclear power. Fast reactors typically use liquid metal coolants rather than water. These coolants, such as liquid sodium, have superior heat-transfer properties. Another advantage of the reactors is their strong negative temperature coefficient (the reaction slows as the temperature rises unduly) which allows them to remove the heat in even severe accident scenarios, causing a safer and more effective shutdown. There are 12 experimental fast reactors and six commercial size prototypes with outputs from 250 – 1200 Megawatts that have been constructed or are in operation. The Russian Federation currently operates the most powerful commercial fast neutron reactor, the BN-600 in Beloyarsk which has been supplying electricity to the grid since 1980 and is said to have the best operating and production record of all Russia's nuclear power units. The advantages that the implementation of fast neutron reactors comes with are visible. Present research prospects are to make the fast neutron reactor safer, more cost effective and more efficient. There are programmes ongoing to develop and implement innovative fast nuclear energy systems in China, France, India, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation, among other countries. REFERENCES 1. Smarter use of Nuclear Waste – William H. Hannum, Gerald E. Marsh and George S. Stanford, 2005 2. "Fast Neutron Reactors" – World Nuclear Association. 3. Fast Breeder Reactors – Richard L. Garwin 4. Fast Neutron Reactor – www.nuclear-power.net. 5. Fast Reactor – whatisnuclear.com 6. Fast Reactors Provide Sustainable Nuclear Power for "Thousands of Years" – Peter Kaiser, Peter Rickwood, IAEA Division of Public Information

A black hole is a region of space having a gravitational field so intense that no matter or electromagnetic radiation such as light can escape. According to general relativity theory, such a region comes into existence when a sufficiently compact mass causes a disruption in the fabric of space-time. A region near the black hole where objects cannot escape is called an Event Horizon. Unfortunately, this region has no detectable features. A black hole exhibit similar behavior like that of a black body since it does not reflect light. The event horizons emit radiation similar to those of a black body but with a very high brightness temperature of the order of billion Kelvins. Such a high temperature makes event horizons impossible to observe. The idea of the existence of a black hole began as a mathematical concept in the 18$^{th}$ Century. It was first was first characterized as a black hole in 1916. The consideration of a black hole as a region from which no particle can escape was first published in 1958. In the 1960s theoretical physicists showed that black holes were a generic prediction of general relativity. It was later considered to be reality when a neutron star was first discovered as having been the cause of a gravitationally collapsed object. Stellar Black holes form when very massive stars at the end of their life cycle. Once a black hole forms, it grows by continually absorbing matter from the surrounding. If the black hole absorbs other stars or merges with other black holes, it can form what are known as supper massive with millions of solar mases (M$_{\odot}$). Such massive black holes are found at the center of most galaxies. The evidence of the existence of a black hole has only been inferred through its interaction with other matter and with electromagnetic radiation such as light. When matter fall into a black hole, an external accretion disc is formed and it gets heated up due friction and results in some of the brightest objects such as quasars. Orbiting stars around black holes can be used to estimate the mass of the black hole and its location. Observation of such stars makes it possible to exclude other factors such as neutron stars. Such black holes are called stellar black holes and the technique has been vastly used by astronomers to identify stellar black holes. Using candidates in the binary star system astronomer established that Sagittarius A, a radio source is at the core of the milky way galaxy and contains a supper massive black hole of about 4.3 million solar masses. The first direct detection of the gravitational waves in 2016 also represented the first observation of a black hole merger. The most recent report showed the detection of 11 gravitational waves which represented 10 black hole mergers and one binary star merger. In April 2019, the first ever direct image of a black hole and its vicinity of the supper massive black hole in Messier 87's galactic center was published following the event horizon telescope observations which happened in 2017. This ground breaking discovery implies that black holes are not just mathematical formulations but a reality of our universe.

Maser is a short form for microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation. Masers are produced in a similar way as lasers. A laser is a light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation. The only difference between these two emissions is the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that is being amplified. For a maser, the amplification occurs in the microwave region of the electromagnetic spectrum while for a laser it occurs in the light region of the electromagnetic spectrum. Masers that occur naturally are called astrophysical or astronomical maser while those that are made by man are called laboratory masers. In the universe, there are a number of object that that produce different types of masers. Examples of these objects include; Star-forming regions, comets, galaxies, planets, Nebula and many others. Masers from these regions are examples of astrophysical masers and can be intercepted by very sensitive instruments called radio telescopes. Astronomical masers from regions of active star-formation are among the most spectacular natural phenomenon that have been widely used to study deeply embedded young stars in far galaxies. Since, astronomical masers are formed in very dynamic environment, they contain a wide range of information about the physical conditions that surround these regions such as temperature, motion, the magnetic field strength, etc. This information is mostly contained in the spectra of the maser. In order to extra this information, long term observations of maser sources is done and the data collected is processed in several stages to remove the noise, signal interference caused by radio, cell phone signals and those that may originate from microwaves. Masers from star-forming regions are many and differ in intensity, frequency and velocity range. This is because they are produced from a wide range of molecular transition. However, when the maser signal is intercepted using a radio telescope, it appears like a signal from a heartbeat. Each maser signal from different molecular transition is unique and can be used to understand the physics taking place in star-forming regions. Now the question is, why study stars using masers? To answer this question, first and foremost, stars as we know them were earlier used by voyagers as means for directions and also as a means for weather prediction. Nowadays, with the development in technology, we have learned that stars, as much as they are born, they also die. The way stars die is dependent on the size of the star. Small stars of the size of the sun or less end up burning out all its materials and becomes white dwarfs. While very big stars of masses 8 times greater than that of the sun are called massive stars and they explode at the point of their death. The explosion is called a supernova which is followed by a large emission of energy, particles that have an effect on a large scale. They can influence weather and also cause the formation of black-holes, galaxies planetary Nebula and many others. So we see that studying stars is important because it helps us understand the universe we are part of and also provide explanation to events that we may observe. The question still remains, why masers? Masers are highly penetrative and can provide us with vital information about the stars and the regions surrounding them. Masers, in other words enables us to see the most obscured regions of space which are hidden from us due to cloud cover. So regions that cannot be probed using optical telescopes, radio telescopes can be used via maser observations. In Africa, there are only two countries with operational radio telescopes, that is, South Africa and Ghana. There is need for more African countries to build up radio telescopes in order to participate in scientific study of our amazing universe.

Nuclear medicine is the branch of medical imaging that uses small amounts of radioactive materials for diagnosis, staging of disease, therapy and monitoring the response of a disease process [1]. The tracer principle is used in nuclear medicine because of its ability to utilize small amounts of radioactive substance in living organisms without significant pharmacological effect on the body. The practice of nuclear medicine involves administering small amounts of radio-labeled compounds called radiopharmaceuticals (radioactive substance+drug). The radiopharmaceutical administered to the patient orally, intravenously or by inhaling localizes in the target cell for either diagnostic or therapeutic purposes. Diagnostic radiopharmaceuticals yield information about where they are localized which can help imaging of the organ of interest or disease site in patient using special gamma cameras such single photon emission tomography (SPECT) or positron emission tomography (PET) imaging system. On the other hand, therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals target specific tumors, such as thyroid, lymphomas or bone metastases, delivering radiation to tumorous lesions for the purpose of curing, destroying, mitigating or controlling the disease [1] [2]. Accurate measurement of the activity of a radiopharmaceutical is done with the use of a well-type ionization chamber called radionuclide dose calibrator. The accuracy of measurements of this instrument is critical to achieve the desired result for diagnosis or treatment of the patient. Although some manufacturers of the dose calibrators claim high accuracy and reproducibility for the radioactivity measurements, yet few studies have reported variations in these parameters. Errors ranging from 64 to 144% of the expected activity using calibration factors supplied by manufacturers of radionuclide dose calibrators have been observed [1] [3]. A clinically higher than actual dosage of activity implies that, the patient will be given a higher than prescribed dosage activity being unnecessarily burdened with extra radiation. On the other hand, a lower dosage of administered activity will be inadequate, demanding repetition of the process which implies extra dose to the patient and occupationally exposed staff. A nuclear medicine facility should have suitably qualified Medical Physicist therefore to that ensure dose calibrators are regularly checked for any calibration errors to ensure that assay errors of prescribed dosage fall within recommended limits [3] [4]. Medical physicists together with other health care professionals are at the forefront of research in nuclear medicine focused on quality control on dose calibrator which include; daily constancy test, a quarterly linearity test, an annual accuracy check and periodic reassessment of its calibration, traceable to secondary standards [3] [5] [6]. Research is also ongoing on prostate-specific membrane antigen imaging, advances in radionuclide therapy, [F-18] fluorodeoxyglucose positron-emission tomography (PET) for dementia, quantitative PET assessment of myocardial perfusion, and iodine-124 (I-124) and many more others [5] [6] [7]. Author: Elias Mwape (Medical Physicist) References [1] Bailey, D. L., Huum, J. L., Todd-Pokropek, A., & Aswegen, A. V. (2014). Nuclear Medicine physics: a Handbook for Teachers and Students. Vienna: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). [2] Cherry, S. R., Sorenson, J. A., & Phelps, M. E. (2012). Physics in Nuclear Medicine E-Book. Elsevier Health Sciences [3] IAEA (2006) International atomic energy agency, quality assurance for radioactivity measurement in Nuclear Medicine. IAEA technical reports series No.454, IAEA, Vienna. [4] Khan, K., Khan, G., Saleem, S., Hameed, N., Naqvi, M., & uz Zaman, M. (2016). Accuracy and Constancy Tests of Dose Calibrator at AKUH, Karachi: A Clinical Audit: “Safety is Quality”. PJR, 23(4). [5] Vargas, C. S., Pérez, S. R., Baete, K., Pommé, S., Paepen, J., Van Ammel, R., & Struelens, L. (2018). Intercomparison of 99mTc, 18 F and 111 In activity measurements with radionuclide calibrators in Belgian hospitals. Physica Medica, 45, 134-142. [6] American Association of Physicists in Medicine. (2012).The selection, use, calibration, and quality assurance of radionuclide calibrators used in Nuclear Medicine. Maryland, United States: AAPM Report TG 181. [7] Jadvar, H., Jacene, H., & Graham, M. (Eds.). (2017). Molecular Imaging: An Introduction. Cambridge University Press.

Sergey Alexeyevich Chaplygin was a Soviet-Russian physicist, mathematician and academic born on April 5, 1869 in Ranenburg, Novosibirsk. Chaplygin has made significant contributions in mathematics and physics, and notably regarded as one of the pioneers of aerodynamics and aeromechanics. Chaplygin was born from Alexey Timorovich and Anna Petrovna. His father, Alexey, died of cholera at the age 24 when Chaplygin was only two years old. After that Chaplygin’s mother remarried and the family moved to Voronezh, a city about 8 hours drive, south of Moscow. In 1877, at age 8, Chaplygin was enrolled in school. His teachers immediately became aware of his exceptional abilities in learning new languages, in history and other subjects. He demonstrated a unique memory which made learning for him easy. Above all, Chaplygin as a learner was keenly interested in mathematics. By age 14, he was already conducting tuitions and teaching mathematics to children. In the spring of 1886, Chaplygin graduated with a gold medal from High School and began his tertiary education at Moscow University. He graduated from the faculty of Physics and Mathematics in 1890. Chaplygin taught several courses in physics and mathematics at different Institutions including mechanics, theoretical mechanics, higher mathematics, applied mathematics at Moscow School of the Order of St Catherine, Moscow State University, Moscow College of Engineering and many others. During his time as a lecturer, he developed several courses at the Institutions where he worked, for example, from 1905 - 07 he wrote the course in analytical mechanics - Mechanics of systems. Chaplygin served as the Director of the Moscow’s Higher Women’s Courses, which was one of the highest learning facilities for women in Russia from 1900 to 1918. During the same period, Chaplygin also served as Rector (a rank equivalent to Vice Chancellor) at Moscow State University. The first scientific work by Chaplygin was in the area of fluid mechanics under the supervision of the founding father of modern aero- and fluid mechanics, A. N. Zhukovsky. He wrote his dissertation on The motion of a rigid body in a liquid, where he gave the geometrical interpretation of the motion of a rigid body in a liquid medium. He later on went ahead in his career to make further contributions in theoretical mechanics, Aerodynamics and gas mechanics, differential equations and more. He has left a legacy of work today such as The Chaplygin equation in transonic flow, Chaplygin gas in cosmology, Chaplygin’s top in mechanics and Chaplygin’s Sleigh in a nonholonomic system in mechanics. During the war in 1941, Chaplygin, together with a part of his laboratory were evacuated to Novosibirsk. He died on October 8, 1942 from Hemorrhagic stroke during the evacuation period and was buried in the Sibnia territory in Novosibirsk. This year marks the 150th anniversary of this great scientist. We choose to celebrate him. Be inspired to achieve great things for your generation and for humanity because we only live once. The power is in the mind - where all ideas are born. Use it. REFERENCES 1. Academic S. A. Chaplygin/ Bushgens — М.: Science, 2010. — page 286 — ISBN 978-5-02-036972-6. 2. Bogalubov A. N. Mathematicians. Mechanics. Biographical Reference book — Kiev. Scientific thoughts, 1983. — 639 pages.

Cosmology continues to be a major and influential branch of physics today despite being among the very oldest. Research in cosmology has continued to attract many researchers working in various aspects of science mainly due to the fact that Cosmology attempts to answer the most fundamental questions about ourselves, our origins and the origin and fate of the Universe as a whole. So many questions till today still remain unanswered: Why is there such a significant imbalance between matter and anti-matter? What is dark matter? What is dark energy? Why combining gravity with other fundamental interactions has shown to be so difficult? Could it be that maybe, perhaps the laws of physics have not been consistent and unchangeable as thought to be? Such questions and many more, have driven physicists for decades trying to figure out. It is only recently, that the search for new physics has become a serious prospect in physics. With the development of highly sensitive precision devices from atoms and molecules, it has become possible to investigate the variations in fundamental constants in physics which are the underlying principles on which all of modern physics rests. Such tests and investigations include: spatial-temporal variations in the fine structure constant α and the proton-electron ratio μ, atomic parity violation, tests of General Relativity equivalence principle, searches for dark matter, dark energy and extra forces and more. The effects of the results from these tests are of particular interest in Cosmology and Astrophysics, and may possibly open our understanding of the Cosmos in ways that have never been imagined before, and thus, open brand new frontiers in physics. Taking into account the possibility of variations in the fundamental parameters of physics is an exciting line of thought in cosmology, which would have absurd implications on our understanding of physics. This would bring into question many established theories about our Universe such as the origin, age, and fate of our Universe. This is ongoing research in cosmology and theoretical physics. REFERENCES 1. Search for New Physics with Atoms and Molecules, Dmitry Budker, 2017, Review of Modern Physics.