February 1999 Contents

ARTICLES

Trapped Plasmas with a Single Sign of Charge

Plasma crystal is not a fanciful oxymoron, but something you can actually make with an easy-to-confine, long-lived nonneutral plasma — Thomas M. O'Neil

Block Copolymers—Designer Soft Materials

Advances in synthetic chemistry and statistical theory provide unparalleled control over molecular-scale morphology in this class of macromolecules — Frank S. Bates and Glenn H. Fredrickson

New Views of Neutron Stars

Satellites launched in the last ten years have proved to be powerful new tools for studying these compact stellar remnants. With them, astronomers have found remarkable new phenomena and solved several old mysteries — Lars Bildsten and Tod Strohmayer

DEPARTMENTS

Search and Discovery

• Experiments and simulations track crack propagation in silicon wafers

• Two experiments observe explicit violation of time-reversal symmetry

• Nobelium-254 forms high-spin rotational states

As APS Turns 100, the Society Plans to Throw a Big Birthday Bash in Atlanta

Washington Reports

• DOE decides TVA is cheapest, most flexible option to produce tritium for nuclear weapons

• Washington Ins & Outs: New leaders at RPI and AUI; Changes at NASA and NSF

• Washington Briefings: House speaker may be physics asset; Moving chairs in the House; IBM tops patent list

Physics Community

• Europe wants a 100-tesla magnet of its own

• Dutch magnet lab to get DC upgrade, pulsed magnets

• Dorfan will lead SLAC into next century

• Isolation hampers physics teaching at two-year colleges

• New physics fellowship honors free speech activist Mario Savio

• Chidester is vice president of ACA

• Web Watch

Books

Insisting on the Impossible: The Life of Edwin Land, V. K. McElheny (reviewed by R. L. Garwin)

Ecological Numeracy: Quantitative Analysis of Environmental Issues, R. A. Herendeen (reviewed by T. E. Graedel)

Explorations in Quantum Computing, C. P. Williams and S. H. Clearwater (reviewed by C. Bennett)

Introduction to Ionomers, A. Eisenberg and J.-S. Kim (reviewed by M. Ratner)

The Invisible Sky: ROSAT and the Age of X-Ray Astronomy, B. Aschenbach, H.-M. Hahn and J. Trumper, translated by H. Jenkner (reviewed by E. Boldt)

Plus ...

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