Andrea Galvani Italy, b. 1973
Dirac’s original intention was to come up with a proper relativistic quantum equation for electrons. He did, and it earned him the Nobel Prize in 1933, but the consequences were more far-reaching than anyone could have dreamed. His equations yield two possible solutions to the problem: one for an electron with positive energy, one for an electron with negative energy; an unanticipated result. Dirac argued that this anomaly was the electron’s “antiparticle,” and that every particle has one—nearly identical except for an opposite charge. Moreover, Dirac speculated that there may be an entire Universe of this mysterious “antimatter.”