Abstract
WITH Johannes Diderik van der Waals, who died on March 8 at Amsterdam, at eighty-five years of age, one of the great figures in the history of modern physics and physical chemistry has passed away. His thesis on the continuity of the liquid and gaseous state was a revelation in the study of fluids, the remembrance of which was to glorify the golden jubilee of his doctorate next June, and after establishing it he continued for some forty years to apply his efforts to the same subject, marking the steps of his success by further brilliant discoveries. When the Nobel Institute honoured this lifework, van der Waals was still occupied rounding off the comprehensive views science owed to him. For about half a century he was in the front of the workers in the domain he had opened. In the ten years which separate us now from then his forces began to give way, and later bodily and mental sufferings, borne with modest resignation, set in. At last, only short visits allowed us to show to the venerated and beloved friend, whose heart we felt remained unchanged, what he had done for us.
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ONNES, H. Prof. J. D. van der Waals. Nature 111, 609–610 (1923). https://doi.org/10.1038/111609a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/111609a0