July 1998 Contents

Articles:

The Physics of Ferroelectric Memories

The ability of ferroelectric materials to switch robustly from one polarization state to another forms the basis of a new thin film technology for storing data -- Orlando Auciello, James F. Scott and Ramamoorthy Ramesh

Trends in Electromechanical Transduction

The demand for more sophisticated sensors and actuators in industrial equipment and consumer products is behind today's push for new transducer materials and geometries -- Ilene J. Busch-Vishniac

Entanglement, Decoherence and the Quantum/Classical Boundary

Schrödinger intended his gedanken experiment of a hapless cat mortally entangled with a quantum trigger as a reductio ad absurdum. But nowadays such experiments are being realized in laboratories—without offending the antivivisectionists -- Serge Haroche

Departments:

Search and Discovery

New measurements constrain models of mantle upwelling along a midocean ridge. Magma flowing upward to form fresh crust along the axis of plate spreading does not appear to come exclusively from a narrow zone directly beneath the axis. Rather, molten material is distributed along the ridge in a region more than 100 km wide and over 100 km deep. Moreover, the melt zone is centered to one side of the axis—beneath the faster moving plate.

Strong evidence for flavor oscillation in atmospheric neutrinos.

Microcalorimeters may provide a solution to the big problem of small contaminants. In a drive to help the US semiconductor industry, researchers are developing x-ray spectrometers that will be able not just to identify any element in microscopic contaminants, but also to yield information about the element's chemical state.

Meeting Preview

ACA to convene in Crystal City

Washington Reports

Nuclear devices tested by India and Pakistan perplex scientists and shake prospects of CTBT

With big budget increases unlikely, OMB head scolds scientists as unhelpful

Physicist Rush Holt, a senator's son, seeks New Jersey seat in Congress

Washington dispatches: Political currents in EUV technology; Brookhaven reactor decision delayed; University of Utah drops cold fusion

Washington ins & outs: NASA and DOE each lose two, while Pentagon gains two

Physics Community

Congress chills hopes for polar cap observatory. The gap in NSF's hemispheric chain of atmospheric observatories is not likely to be closed before the millennium.

Nuclear waste shipments halted in Europe

Eastman exits Argonne

Sweden recreates the Solar System

Lucent Technologies honors Karl Jansky

Opinion

Particle physics and our everyday world -- Pablo Jensen

Books

To Boldly Go: A Practical Career Guide for Scientists, P. S. Fiske, Tomorrow's Professor: Preparing for Academic Careers in Science and Engineering, R. M. Reis and Career Renewal: Tools for Scientists and Technical Professionals, S. Rosen and C. Paul (reviewed by B. B. Schwartz)

Tools of Radio Astronomy, K. Rohlfs and T. L. Wilson and An Introduction to Radio Astronomy, B. F. Burke and F. Graham-Smith (reviewed by C. Heiles)

The Theory of Superconductivity in the High-T_c Cuprates, P. W. Anderson (reviewed by K. S. Bedell)

Selected Works of Hans A. Bethe: With Commentary, H. A. Bethe (reviewed by K. Gottfried)

Nonlinear Physics with Maple for Scientists and Engineers and Nonlinear Physics with Maple for Scientists and Engineers: A Laboratory Manual, R. H. Enns and G. C. McGuire (reviewed by R. Tagg)

An Introduction to Active Galactic Nuclei, B. M. Peterson (reviewed by G. Burbidge)

Perfect Form: Variational Principles, Methods, and Applications in Elementary Physics, D. S. Lemons (reviewed by P. E. Barbone)

Fractal River Basins: Chance and Self-Organization, I. Rodriguez-Iturbe and A. Rinaldo (reviewed by O. Levy)

Computational Physics: Problem Solving with Computers, R. H. Landau and M. J. Páez Mejía (reviewed by W. H. Press)

Hunting Down the Universe: The Missing Mass, Primordial Black Holes, and Other Dark Matters, M. Hawkins (reviewed by C. Alcock)

Plus ...

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