December 1998 Contents

ARTICLES

Simple Ordering in Complex Fluids

Colloidal particles suspended in solution provide intriguing models for studying phase transitions. -- Alice P. Gast and William B. Russel

El Nino Dynamics

Bringer of storms and droughts, the El Nino/Southern Oscillation results from the complex, sometimes chaotic interplay of ocean and atmosphere. -- J. David Neelin and Mojib Latif

Fiscal Physicists

Physicists are among the select few individuals to be immortalized on banknotes -- Lloyd Kannenberg

DEPARTMENTS

Search and Discovery

• Physics Nobel Prize goes to Tsui, Stormer and Laughlin for the fractional quantum Hall effect

• Nobel Prize honors Kohn and Pople for methods of quantum chemistry

• Two-dimensional electron gases continue to exhibit intriguing behavior

Washington Reports

• 105th Congress passes massive FY 1999 budget that boosts R&D and purveys lots of pork

• With an exciting election upset, Rush Holt doubles the number of physicists in Congress

• Science policy report prepared by Congressman Ehlers proposes a tune-up, but, say critics, no major repairs

Physics Community

• Germany assembles nanotechnology networks

• Cambridge to get new library, Hawking archive

• Hogstrom is AAPM's president-elect for 1999

• APS elects Trilling vice president

• Powell will lead OSA in 2001

• AVS president-elect for 1999 is Grunthaner

• Web Watch

Books

Endless Frontier: Vannevar Bush, Engineer of the American Century, G. P. Zachary (reviewed by J. Wang)

Master of Modern Physics: The Scientific Contributions of H. A. Kramers, D. ter Haar (reviewed by J. Korringa)

Cats' Paws and Catapults: Mechanical Worlds of Nature and People, S. Vogel (reviewed by H. C. Berg)

Black Holes and Relativistic Stars, edited by R. M. Wald and S. Chandrasekhar: The Man Behind the Legend, edited by K. C. Wali (reviewed by S. L. Shapiro)

The Cambridge Quintet: A Work of Scientific Speculation, J. L. Casti (reviewed by A. M. Saperstein)

Introduction to Geomagnetic Fields, W. H. Campbell (reviewed by S. K. Banerjee)

The Geometry of Physics: An Introduction, T. Frankel (reviewed by M. E. Mayer)

Chaos in Atomic Physics, R. Blomel and W. P. Reinhardt (reviewed by T. Uzer and D. Farrelly)

Adventures in Celestial Mechanics, V. G. Szebehely and H. Mark (reviewed by P. K. Seidelmann)

Plus ...

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