Editing Alexander Shlyakhter

'''Alexander Isaakovich Shlyakhter''' ({{langx|ru|Александр Исаакович Шляхтер}}; died June 2000) was a Russian [[Nuclear physics|nuclear physicist]] and [[Risk analysis|risk analyst]].

Shlyakhter is best known for discovering empirical evidence for the [[Time-variation of fundamental constants|constancy of fundamental constants]]. While still a student in Leningrad, he observed that the products of past [[Nuclear reaction|nuclear reactions]] at a [[natural nuclear fission reactor]] at [[Oklo]], [[Gabon]] demonstrate that the [[fine-structure constant]] α has changed less than 10<sup>−17</sup> per year over the last two billion years.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mvz3C4JrNjgC&pg=PA239|title=The Constants of Nature: From Alpha to Omega|last=Barrow|first=John D.|publisher=Vintage Books|year=2003|isbn=9780099286479|location=London|pages=239–245|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{citation|title=The Natural Laws of the Universe: Understanding Fundamental Constants|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ym_soVOBAxAC&pg=PA84|year=2010|last1=Uzan|last2=Leclercq|first1=Jean-Philippe|first2=Bénédicte|page=84|publisher=Springer|bibcode = 2008nlu..book.....U|isbn=9780387740812}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sGk05bF9KJEC&pg=PA168|title=Astrophysics, Clocks and Fundamental Constants|last=Fujii|first=Yasunori|publisher=Springer-Verlag|year=2004|isbn=9783540219675|editor-last=Karshenboim|editor-first=Savely G.|location=Berlin|pages=167–184|language=en|chapter=Oklo Constraint on the Time-Variability of the Fine-Structure Constant|editor-last2=Peik|editor-first2=Ekkehard}}</ref> He published the finding in a letter to ''[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]'' in 1976.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Shlyakhter|first=Alexander|year=1976|title=Direct test of the constancy of fundamental nuclear constants|journal=Nature|language=en|volume=264|issue=5584|pages=340|doi=10.1038/264340a0|bibcode = 1976Natur.264..340S |s2cid=4252035|doi-access=free}}</ref> [[Freeman Dyson]] later wrote that Shlyakhter had "revolutionized the subject" of variation in physical constants.<ref>{{citation|last=Dyson|first=Freeman J.|title=Selected Papers of Freeman Dyson with Commentary|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nnyNUidX1OMC&pg=PA45|year=1996|author-link=Freeman Dyson|series=Collected Works Series|volume=5|page=45|publisher=American Mathematical Society|isbn=9780821805619}}</ref>

In 1987 Shlyakhter became a research fellow in [[Richard Wilson (physicist)|Richard Wilson's]] laboratory at [[Harvard University]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ghWUFfDW3foC&pg=PT413|title=Physics is Fun: Memoirs of a Life in Physics|last=Wilson|first=Richard|year=2011|isbn=9780615421582|language=en}}</ref> His later work was in [[risk assessment]], and included notable analyses of [[global warming]],<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Shlyakhter|first1=Alexander|last2=Kammen|first2=Daniel M.|year=1992|title=Sea-level rise or fall?|journal=Nature|language=en|volume=357|issue=6373|pages=25|doi=10.1038/357025a0|bibcode = 1992Natur.357Q..25S |s2cid=4318279|doi-access=free}}</ref> [[Nuclear safety and security|nuclear security]]<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Shlyakhter|first1=Alexander|last2=Wilson|first2=Richard|year=1991|title=Radiation doses and cancer|journal=Nature|language=en|volume=350|issue=6313|pages=25|doi=10.1038/350025b0|pmid=2002841|bibcode = 1991Natur.350...25S |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name=":1" /> and the [[Chernobyl disaster]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Shlyakhter|first1=Alexander|last2=Wilson|first2=Richard|year=1992|title=Chernobyl: the inevitable results of secrecy|journal=Public Understanding of Science|language=en|volume=1|issue=3|pages=251–259|doi=10.1088/0963-6625/1/3/002|s2cid=17490019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.newyorker.com/news/evan-osnos/faust-china-and-nuclear-power|title=Faust, China, and Nuclear Power|last=Osnos|first=Evan|date=2011-10-12|website=The New Yorker|access-date=2017-01-25}}</ref> He died of cancer in June 2000.<ref name=":0" />

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

==External links==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20160110122216/http://alexonline.info/ Home page archived by the Internet Archive]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shlyakhter, A.I.}}
[[Category:Year of birth missing]]
[[Category:2000 deaths]]
[[Category:Russian physicists]]
[[Category:Harvard University faculty]]


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