For almost a century and a half, baseball has played a significant role in defining the United States; in defining the physics of baseball we confront the ill-defined physics of the world in which we live -- Robert K. Adair
The extreme sensitivity that can make systems chaotic and prohibit long-range prediction of their behavior paradoxically allows one to control them with tiny perturbations -- Edward Ott and Mark Spano
(Link to Applied Chaos Lab at the Georgia Institute of Technology.)
After a decades-long wait for the necessary technology to develop, optical interferometers will soon yield improved images of stars and precise measurements of stellar positions, motions and diameters -- J. Thomas Armstrong, Donald J. Hutter, Kenneth J. Johnston and David Mozurkewich
(Links to interferometry pages.)
Where do you go when you've made it to the top? The discovery of the top quark---the first new particle in over a decade and the heaviest yet seen---has experimentalists, theorists and accelerator physicists scrambling for ways to exploit this new window onto the physics of electroweak unification.
"Asteroseismology" offers a new probe of stellar interiors. After a number of frustrated attempts, astronomers may at last be seeing seismic oscillation in nearby stars.
Clouds cast a shadow of doubt on models of Earth's climate. According to three recent experiments, clouds appear to be absorbing more of the incoming solar radiation than they should---at least if our current understanding of cloud physics is correct. Researchers plan additional experiments, capable of measuring the wavelengths at which the absorption occurs, to obtain more clues about the source of the discrepancy.
After a torpid first meeting, PCAST rouses itself to confront issues
Is it true, as 60 Minutes confidently argues, physicists are to blame for derivatives debacle?
Who invented derivatives anyway?
Washington Ins & Outs: Resignations at OSTP, new roles in Congress and a new head at the NRC
First x rays shine in Advanced Photon Source. One of the few major physics projects that can boast of sticking to its first budget and schedule, the Advanced Photon Source will further basic research with its hard-x-ray light source. Not only that, but many companies have already paid to use it for a variety of industrial applications.
CEBAF to begin probing the nucleus with electrons (Link to CEBAF page.)
Report shows directions of 1992--93 physics bachelors
Despite sabotage, LEP expected on schedule at CERN
Dupree will lead AAS in 1996
Physicists and politics: Strategies for the real world -- Bo Hammer
On the Frontier: My Life in Science, F. Seitz (reviewed by H. Ehrenreich)
The Particle Garden, G. Kane (reviewed by M. L. Perl)
Experimentation: An Introduction to Measurement Theory and Experiment Design, D. C. Baird;
Experimental Methods: An Introduction to the Analysis and Presentation of Data, L. Kirkup (reviewed by P. W. Zitzewitz)
Oscillations in Finite Quantum Systems, G. F. Bertsch and R. A. Broglia (reviewed by H. Feshbach)
The Creation of Scientific Effects: Heinrich Hertz and Electric Waves, J. Z. Buchwald (reviewed by A. Franklin)
The Physics of Liquid Crystals, P. G. de Gennes and J. Prost (reviewed by R. Pelcovits)
Electron Paramagnetic Resonance: Elementary Theory and Practical Applications, J. A. Weil, J. R. Bolton and J. E. Wertz (reviewed by H. A. Buckmaster)
Our regular sections: Physics Update, Letters, New Products, We Hear That, and Information Exchange.
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