April 1999 Contents

ARTICLES

Science Funding in the Former Soviet Union Needs the Bottom-Up Approach

Western physicists have learned that researchers in the post-cold war East need direct support of research projects that promote healthy East-West collaborations, in place of bureaucratically diffused "top-down" funding — Maurice Jacob

Nonlinear Mesoscopic Elasticity: Evidence for a New Class of Materials

New tools such as nonlinear resonant ultrasound spectroscopy are being used to reveal the complex behavior of rocks and other materials — Robert A. Guyer and Paul A. Johnson

A Different Approach to Cosmology

In this unorthodox assault on mainstream cosmology, three venerable stalwarts argue for a quasi-steady-state universe, with some quasars quite nearby and no Big Bang — Geoffrey Burbidge, Fred Hoyle and Jayant V. Narlikar

Reply to "A Different Approach to Cosmology"

Expanding surveys of galaxy redshifts and fluctuations in the microwave background continue to rein in the cosmologist's freedom to invent — Andreas Albrecht

DEPARTMENTS

Reference Frame

The yin and yang of hydrogen — Daniel Kleppner

Search and Discovery

• New atom lasers eject atoms or run CW

• Plutonium may be hitching a ride on colloids

• Low-energy electron beams modify semiconductor surfaces

• Is the island of stability in sight?

In Profile

• Arms control experts blend idealism and technical know-how

Washington Reports

• DOE's Richardson rescinds his budget decree to shut down MIT's Bates Lab in fiscal 2000

• With the snarling over an impeachment, Congress focuses on fiscal 2000 R&D budget

Physics Community

• As OSTP readies conduct guidelines, physicists begin to think more about research ethics

• Anger grows over sale of rare books

• Witherell is tapped to head Fermilab

• Harris is ASA's president-elect

• ITP holds forum on black holes for high school teachers

• Sargent will lead AAS in 2000

• Web Watch

Books

My Brain is Open: The Mathematical Journeys of Paul Erdös, B. Schechter and The Man Who Loved Only Numbers: The Story of Paul Erdos and the Search for Mathematical Truth, P. Hoffman (reviewed by P. D. Lax)

Fashionable Nonsense: Postmodern Intellectuals' Abuse of Science, A. Sokal and J. Bricmont (reviewed by N. D. Mermin)

Peace and War: Reminiscences of a Life on the Frontiers of Science, R. Serber with R. P. Crease (reviewed by S. Drell)

Comets: Creators and Destroyers, D. H. Levy (reviewed by C. M. Lisse)

Basic Calculus: From Archimedes to Newton to its Role in Science, A. J. Hahn (reviewed by D. Halliday)

Looking for Earths: The Race to Find New Solar Systems, A. Boss (reviewed by S. P. Maran)

Scientific Instruments 1500-1900: An Introduction, G. L'E Turner (reviewed by D. J. Warner)

Plus ...

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