RIP Olivia Newton John

[ClemmonsDevil]

Sad to hear this.

[dudog84]

Oh no! So many indelible images of her from my early years.

R.I.P.

[aimo]

If my dad were alive, he'd be crying right now.

[CrazyNotCrazie]

RIP. Probably my first crush.

[dudog84]

RIP. Probably my first crush.

Like the older women, eh? (I did too when I was that age)

[duke74]

Has been fighting cancer for years, I think.

May she rest in peace and her memory be a blessing.

[CrazyNotCrazie]

Like the older women, eh? (I did too when I was that age)

I was just a little kid at the time but I thought she was great.

I just read her obit - her maternal grandfather was the Nobel Prize winning physicist Max Born - I vaguely recall learning about him and do recall that he was one of the all-time elites in the field.

[CameronBornAndBred]

Has been fighting cancer for years, I think.

May she rest in peace and her memory be a blessing.

Yes, she had been fighting that battle since the early 90s, in various forms. She should be an inspiration to other fighters and survivors.

[Duke79UNLV77]

RIP. Probably my first crush.

You weren’t alone.

[OZZIE4DUKE]

Loved her, loved her voice. Gorgeous and sensuous without flaunting it. RIP.

[DevilHorse]

It is mentioned upthread that Olivia Newton John’s grandfather was the physicist Max Born. Max Born was a theorist, and had his hand in numerous fields. He started out being trained by some of the early scientists in the relativity field. He made major contributions to the early field of Quantum Mechanics; so seminal were his contributions that his principles are used daily and don’t even bare his name (contributing to some level of anonymity to modern day non-physicists); [the most notable physics contribution that does contain his name is the Born-Oppenheimer Approximation he published with J. Robert Oppenheimer (yes, from before he was the Manhattan Project head) in Nuclear Physics].

I read a list of collaborators that were drawn to him while still in Germany which included Erwin Schrodinger (and his cat no doubt) and Fritz London. Fritz London emigrated to the United States when Nazi influences forced many Jews to choose to leave Germany or face increasingly dire consequences. Fritz London was a condensed matter (physical chemistry) physicist and made his most notable contributions giving the theoretical structure to macroscopic quantum states SuperFluidity and SuperConductivity (which touch us all and make MRI imaging machines possible); some of the early MRI research occurred at Duke Hospital (but I digress). Later in life, Fritz London became an esteemed Professor of Physics at Duke! The London Lecture is given every year where an esteemed scientist gives a talk open to the public. Mrs. Fritz London attended these lectures until her death. The condensed matter group started by Fritz London, and eventually headed by Professor Horst Meyer, gave us Duke graduate student and PhD Robert Richardson (Nobel Prize in Physics 1996 for discovering Superfluidity in He3). Many of you may have known Bob as President of the Duke Alumni Association for many years before his untimely passing.
https://physics.duke.edu/news/distin...on-passes-away

We're all connected.

Larry
DevilHorse

[missfinch]

Bill Simmons covers Grease on his Rewatchables podcast this week. Worth a listen for fans. (of the movie, not Bill Simmons)

[ClemmonsDevil]

Bill Simmons covers Grease on his Rewatchables podcast this week. Worth a listen for fans. (of the movie, not Bill Simmons)

Fan of both!

[tommy]

Her father not only took Rudolf Hess into custody, where he remained for the rest of the war before being transferred to Nuremburg. Later in life, her father became Headmaster of King's College in London. Pretty impressive family overall, I'd say.

[rsvman]

Her father not only took Rudolf Hess into custody, where he remained for the rest of the war before being transferred to Nuremburg. Later in life, her father became Headmaster of King's College in London. Pretty impressive family overall, I'd say.

All true, but for me as a teenager, all that mattered was that beautiful face and those sparkling eyes. I had a major crush on her.