Articles
Nuclear Bunker Busters, Mini-Nukes, and the US Nuclear Stockpile 
The Bush administration is contemplating a new crop of nuclear weapons that could reduce the threat to civilian populations. However, they're still unlikely to work without producing massive radioactive fallout, and their development might require a return to underground nuclear testing — Robert W. Nelson
The Growth of Astrophysical Understanding
A stroll through three millennia of astronomical speculation and discovery reminds us that inspired guesses are not enough. Progress comes primarily from the introduction of new observational and theoretical tools — Martin Harwit
The Business of Academic Physics
A physics education is a solid foundation for a diverse range of careers, but physics students do not know it. It is time they found out, and physics alumnae and alumni can help — John S. Rigden and James H. Stith
Web departments
Readings from the Physics Today Archive
Departments
Strict Internal Review May Curb Research Fraud
National Labs and Industry Assist FSU Institutes
Interference in a Double Rainbow
Nobel Work Done at Francis Bitter Lab
Ideas for Improving Peer Review
Moving Through Curved Spacetime
More on Early LEDs
Science vs. Religion: An American Pastime?
Search & Discovery
An Optical Probe Can Map Quantum Dot Wavefunctions
Near-field optical microscopy, with its subwavelength resolution, provides a new look at nanostructures' electronic states.
Neutron Diffraction Overcomes Flux Limits to Resolve a Large Protein Structure
To demonstrate the effectiveness of neutron diffraction in biology, crystallographers bring neutrons to bear on an important industrial enzyme..
Self-Assembled Molecular Grid Hosts Ordered Layers of Buckyballs
In, on, and around cells, myriad molecules execute specific tasks. Enzymes catalyze reactions, ribosomes manufacture proteins, receptors transmit signals, and so on. The molecules owe their impressive specialization to their bulk: The larger and more complex a molecule, the more sophisticated its function.
Issues & Events
Disappointing Collider Performance and Tight Budgets Confront Fermilab With Tough Decisions
The goal remains to get the most physics out of the world's highest-energy accelerator before that title passes to CERN at the end of the decade.
Mercury Telescope Spins Up
Pending solid science from the new Large Zenith Telescope, a group of scientists hopes to build an extremely large--and extremely cheap--array of liquid mercury telescopes.
Europe Wrestles With ITER Site Bid
Before a final site for ITER can be chosen, the European Union must decide whether to put forth Cadarache, France, or Vandellós, Spain, as its candidate.
New Science Forum Aims at Political, Industry Leaders
Citing the "growing importance in the relationship between science and the future of mankind," an international group of scientists is creating an annual forum intended to bring together academics, researchers, legislators, business leaders, and journalists to discuss controversial science and technology issues such as human cloning and global warming.
Atomic History as Art
Art based on criticality experiments of the early 1940s at Los Alamos National Laboratory are on exhibit starting this month at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.
Physics Salaries Rise
Despite the slump in the economy, the salaries of PhD physicists in the US grew significantly faster than inflation from 2000 to 2002, according to the American Institute of Physics.
Retired General to Tighten Sandia Security
Retired US Air Force General Thomas Neary has been appointed to oversee a tightening of security at Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico as part of a wider effort by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to stop the security lapses that have plagued Sandia and the two other nuclear weapons laboratories.
News Notes
Risky missile defense; DHS research director; Moore for giant telescope; Element 110 named; Arecibo director
Web Watch
Moments of Discovery; Glossary of Physical Oceanography and Related Disciplines; The NIST Chemistry WebBook
Books
No Time to Be Brief: A Scientific Biography of Wolfgang Pauli,
Charles P. Enz (reviewed by Valentine Telegdi)
Cohesion: A Scientific History of Intermolecular Forces,
J. S. Rowlinson (reviewed by Dudley Herschbach)
Order and Chaos in Dynamical Astronomy,
George Contopoulos (reviewed by Prasenjit Saha)
Liquid Crystals: Fundamentals,
Shri Singh (reviewed by Peter J. Collings)
New Books
New Products
Focus on Vacuum and Cryogenics
We Hear That
Geophysicists Honored by AGU
AAPT Announces Award Winners
Astronomer Wins a Balzan Prize
Two Physicists Claim Share of Dutch Science Prize
Amols Elected to Lead AAPM
In Brief
Obituaries
Marx Brook
Wilfried Wolfgang Daehnick
André Stephane Hamer
Konrad Bates Krauskopf
William George McMillan Jr
Masahiro Wakatani
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