The Top Physics Story for 2004

For us it was the detection of spin at the single-electron level using a cantilever device---a combination of MRI and AFM technologies---known as a magnetic resonance force microscope (http://www.aip.org/pnu/2004/split/692-1.html). Other top physics stories include the following: the detection of large galaxies located at a very early period in the history of the universe (http://www.aip.org/pnu/2004/split/668-1.html); reports of a “supersolid,” a superfluid in solid form (http://www.aip.org/pnu/2004/split/669-1.html; http://www.aip.org/pnu/2004/split/699-2.html); progress in the pursuit of quark-gluon plasma in heavy-ion collisions (http://www.aip.org/pnu/2004/split/669-2.html); progress in getting fermi atoms to form superfluids (http://www.aip.org/pnu/2004/split/671-1.html, http://www.aip.org/pnu/2004/split/681-1.html); evidence, not yet confirmed, for element 115 (http://www.aip.org/pnu/2004/split/672-1.html); new support for an accelerating cosmic expansion (http://www.aip.org/pnu/2004/split/675-1.html); lensing of microwaves using a flat panel of left-handed material (www.aip.org/pnu/2004/split/675-2.html); the discovery of a planet-like object, Sedna, the most distant object observed in the solar system (http://www.aip.org/pnu/2004/split/677-1.html); the first pure-carbon magnet, made from carbon nanofoam (http://www.aip.org/pnu/2004/split/678-1.html); quantum entanglement of an atom and a photon (http://www.aip.org/pnu/2004/split/680-2.html); parity violations in electron-electron scattering (http://www.aip.org/pnu/2004/split/682-2.html); persistent holes appearing in a shaken fluid (http://www.aip.org/pnu/2004/split/684-3.html); amorphous steel (http://www.aip.org/pnu/2004/split/689-2.html); one-dimensional water (http://www.aip.org/pnu/2004/split/689-1.html ); radioactive lifetime for an element is altered by enclosure in a buckyball (http://www.aip.org/pnu/2004/split/700-2.html); (http://www.aip.org/pnu/2004/split/689-1.html); five-photon entanglement (http://www.aip.org/pnu/2004/split/690-2.html); Cassini arrives at Saturn (http://www.aip.org/pnu/2004/split/690-3.html); optical Hall effect (http://www.aip.org/pnu/2004/split/693-1.html); 3D medical imaging with neutrons (http://www.aip.org/pnu/2004/split/694-1.html); acoustic electric generator (http://www.aip.org/pnu/2004/split/695-2.html); smallest atomic clock (http://www.aip.org/pnu/2004/split/698-1.html); CERN’s 50th anniversary (http://www.aip.org/pnu/2004/split/701-3.html; an antenna for visible light (http://www.aip.org/pnu/2004/split/701-1.html); the 2004 Nobel physics prize going to three of the pioneers of the theory of quantum chromodynamics (http://www.aip.org/pnu/2004/split/703-1.html); some of the network physics behind book bestsellers (http://www.aip.org/pnu/2004/split/709-1.html); spintronic Hall effect (Science online, Nov 11); a nuclear experiment producing 1400 different isotopes (http://www.aip.org/pnu/2004/split/710-1.html).