How van der Waals first linked liquids and gases

By Philip Ball2023-06-06T14:21:00

A black and white image from an old book of a smooth object that has three flat sides at 90 degrees to each other and a round lumpy fourth side

Source: Photos from "A commentary on the scientific writings of J. Willard Gibbs", 1936

150 years ago, a doctoral thesis changed our understanding of matter

‘The study of molecules [has] opened up new views of nature,’ James Clerk Maxwell said 150 years ago. That was partly thanks to his own kinetic theory of gases, presented in 1867. But the prime reason why this year is indeed the 150th anniversary of a revolution in statistical mechanics and our understanding of the phases of matter is a treatise that Maxwell read that same year and which influenced him deeply, written by Johannes Diderik van der Waals.