August 1995 Physics Today Contents


Articles:

A Lecture on Bomb Physics: February 1942

A talk delivered to top German research officials demonstrates that Heisenberg understood, several years before the end of World War II, the basics of how to obtain fissile materials for an atomic bomb -- Werner Heisenberg. Introduction by David Cassidy. Translation by William Sweet

Bomb Apologetics: Farm Hall, August 1945

On hearing the news from Hiroshima, the incredulous internees came up with a self-serving story to explain their failures in nuclear research: To keep Hitler from winning, they had deliberately not developed the atomic bomb -- Jeremy Bernstein and David Cassidy

Groves and the Scientists: Compartmentalization and the Building of the Bomb

The general understood that although the contributions of the scientists were crucial, their work was only one of a host of critical components that made up the totality of the Manhattan Project -- Stanley Goldberg


Departments:

Search and Discovery

Gaseous Bose--Einstein condensate finally observed. Researchers using a clever new magnetic trap have cooled a cloud of rubidium-87 atoms to a record-low 20 nanokelvins and achieved the Holy Grail of low-temperature atomic physics: Bose--Einstein condensation in a gas.

Los Alamos accelerator group reports its evidence for neutrino oscillation. A handful of muon neutrinos at the LAMPF accelerator appear to have undergone a metamorphosis. If it's true, it tells us that some neutrinos have mass.

Rochester and Naval Research Lab start running new laser fusion facilities for direct-drive experiments. Direct-drive laser fusion is a decade behind indirect drive, but new laser facilities at Rochester and NRL may reduce the lead. Meanwhile megajoule indirect-drive facilities are planned for Livermore and Bordeaux.

Washington Reports

Relaunching NASA: Budget cuts and management woes impel Goldin to realign field centers

Washington Ins & Outs: Clinton chooses MIT's Moniz to be OSTP associate director

Physics Community

Waxahachie site finds no takers as SSC physicists move on. After the expenditure of billions of dollars, little of value marks the presence of the SSC in Texas.

Tarter takes charge of Livermore in uncertain times

Ionizing radiation group calls for improved standards

IBM opens another research laboratory headed by a physicist

Two physicists become college presidents

Ehrlich is 1995--96 president-elect of ASA

Books

Marie Curie: A Life, S. Quinn (reviewed by E. Garber)

Physics: Concepts and Connections, A. Hobson (reviewed by P. P. Craig)

Elements of Controversy: The Atomic Energy Commission and Radiation Safety in Nuclear Weapons Testing, 1947--1974, B. C. Hacker (reviewed by M. W. Goodman)

The Nuclear Shell Model, K. L. G. Heyde (reviewed by G. F. Bertsch)

Quantum Chaos: A New Paradigm of Nonlinear Dynamics, K. Nakamura (reviewed by M. Gutzwiller)

Random, Non-Random and Periodic Faulting in Crystals, M. T. Sebastian and P. Krishna (reviewed by D. R. Nelson)

Introduction to the Theory of the Integer Quantum Hall Effect, M. Janssen, O. Viehweger, U. Fastenrath and J. Hajdu (reviewed by S. M. Girvin)

Solar Magnetic Fields: Polarized Radiation Diagnostics, J. O. Stenflo (reviewed by D. Rabin)

Plus...

Our regular sections: Physics Update, Letters, New Products, We Hear That, and Information Exchange.


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