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JULY 1998 THE AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY VOLUME 7, NO 7Try the enhanced APS News-online: [http://www.aps.org/apsnews]

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The APS/AAPT Spring Meeting inColumbus, Ohio, featured a special

Educator/Student Day on Monday, April20th. Students and teachers from localhigh schools gathered at the ConventionCenter for a series of physicsdemonstrations and lectures. The eventalso featured a special luncheon addressby Lawrence Krauss, a professor ofphysics at Case Western University andauthor of the bestselling book, The Physicsof Star Trek, featuring selections from theTop Ten Physics Bloopers in the popularTV series (see ZERO GRAVITY, p. 4).

Participants attended a morning ple-nary session featuring talks by 1997 NobelPrize winners Steven Chu and WilliamPhillips, as well as a talk on improvingphysics curriculum by Edward Redish ofthe University of Maryland, College Park.This was followed by a demonstration ofa fascinating soap film apparatus designedby Maarten Rutgers of Ohio State Uni-versity, which enables him to conduct

Educator/Student Day Draws Local High Schoolers

Up to date Centennial event andmeeting information will be

posted on the Centennial webpagefrom now through 1999. TheCentennial webpage can be accessedfrom the APS Homepage[www.aps.org] or directly at URL[www.aps.org/centennial]. Check itoften and make your reservationsearly as possible, as some events willhave limited capacity. Informationcurrently on the Centennialwebpage includes:

EVENTS• Nobel Laureate Exhibit and Lun-

cheon• International Banquet• Physics Festival in Atlanta• Fernbank Museum Gala (see ar-

ticle on page 3)• Reunions of colleges and labora-

tories• Exhibits and Displays

PROGRAMS• Technical Program of Meeting• Special Centennial Symposia• Plenary and Keynote Speakers• Roundtables and Workshops

PROJECTS• A Century of Physics Timeline Wall

chart & Website• Centennial Photo Collection• Multimedia Video• Centennial Speakers Program and

Book• TV Documentary

APS CentennialMarch 20-26, 1999www.aps.org/centennial

two-dimensional studies of fluid dynam-ics in the laboratory. The apparatus alsoshows great promise as an educationaltool, being an easy way to demonstratethe basic concepts of fluid dynamics tostudents without expensive wind and wa-ter tunnels. Using this technique, Rutgershas generated giant soap film sheets, upto 40 square meters in area, which exhibittraveling waves, normal modes, diffrac-tion colors, turbulent flows, giantundulations around air currents, and rup-turing fronts.

After lunch, Beverly Taylor of MiamiUniversity demonstrated how the opera-tion of common toys can be applied tothe study of physics in the classroom. Forexample, cars that one can push forward,pull back, push down, and wind up canbe used to describe the laws of motion.Toys that roll, spin and fly can illustratethe laws of conservation of energy, mo-mentum, and angular momentum. Andtoys that light up, sound off and levitatebring in ideas from light, sound and elec-tricity.

The event concluded with a lecture onclassroom cosmology by Terry Walker ofOhio State University, covering such fun-

Approximately 1,200 physicistsassembled in Columbus, Ohio, for

the 1998 Joint Spring Meeting of the APSand the American Association of PhysicsTeachers (AAPT), 18-21 April. The SpringMeeting explored current topics in particlephysics, astrophysics, fluids, particle beams,physics of beams, nuclear physics,applications, plasmas, and atomic,molecular and optical physics. Topics oftechnical sessions included the discoveryof “cosmic chords” (see page 2), changinghadron masses in the nuclear environment(see page 3), and evidence of the firstobservation of the quark gluon plasma (seepage 2). Nontechnical sessions includedsuch topics as communicating physicsmore effectively, educating physicists fornontraditional careers, and current issuesin science policy, arms control, andtechnology transfer.

In addition, the AAPT organized sev-eral sessions devoted to issues ineducation, some in conjunction with APScommittees or units. The traditional cer-emonial banquet for the bestowal ofprizes and awards was held Saturdayevening, preceded by a reception hostedby APS President Andrew Sessler(Lawrence Berkeley National Labora-tory). Fourteen prizes and awards werepresented, and the recipients gave lectureson their respective topics at various ses-sions throughout the week. Citations andbrief biographies of the recipients ap-peared in the April 1998 issue of APS News.

Technical Sessions

Cosmology TodayAstrophysicists reported the latest

news about events occurring at the edge

Highlights from Columbus, OH Spring Meeting:“Cosmic Chords,” Quark Gluon Plasmas

of the universe at a Friday workshop.Recent observations of distant super-novas suggested that the expansion isnot slowing down at all but ratherspeeding up, according to RobertKirshner of Harvard, one of the leadersof this supernova effort. Wendy Freed-man of the Carnegie Observatoriessummarized her work to measure theHubble Constant in the relativelynearby space, using the Hubble SpaceTelescope. David N. Spergel ofPrinceton University, who is mappingtiny fluctuations in the cosmic micro-wave background with the MicrowaveAnisotropy Probe (MAP) to belaunched in the year 2000, discussedhow to sharpen our estimates of vari-ous cosmological parameters (such asthe expansion rate and the baryon den-sity). Edwin Turner, also of Princeton,described how he uses gravitationallensing to calculate the age of the uni-verse.

In other astrophysics news, the mostdistant gamma ray burst, at a red shiftof 3.4, was discovered in December andobserved at several wavelengths. Opti-cal measurements (yielding a red shift)of the object were announced byCaltech astronomer Shrinivas Kulkarni.Optical astronomers were led to theburst’s spot in the sky by x-ray observa-tions made by the BeppoSax satellite.

The Size and Shape of theDeuteron

Abdellah Ahmidouch, North Caro-lina A&T State University, and BetsyBeise of the University of Maryland de-scribed results from the t20 experimentat the Jefferson Laboratory in Virginia.

A singe vortex stream behind a glass rodwhich punctures the film. The rod is a few mmin diameter.

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Inside�NEWS“Cosmic Chords” Support of Einstein’sTheory .......................................................... 2

The strongest gravitational fields ever measuredhave been recorded by scientists using the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) satellite.

First Observation of Quark-GluonPlasma? ........................................................ 2

Some researchers have suggested that QGPs mayhave already been produced at CERN’s Super Pro-ton Synchrotron.

A Century of Physics ................................. 31935-1945 Physics in World War II

Gala Event of the Century ......................... 3

Isidor Rabi: Scientist and Citizen ............ 3Rabi was one of the most influential leaders whobrought American physics out of the shadows castby the greatness of European physicists.

Recent Experiments on Exotic Atoms .... 4Trapped exotic particles may serve as a probe forthe strong and electromagnetic forces exerted by theatomic nucleus.

Zero Gravity ................................................. 4Top Ten Star Trek Bloopers by Lawrence Krauss

In Brief .......................................................... 4Neal Lane Becomes New OSTP Director; RitaColwell Confirmed as New NSF Director; PhysicsToday Celebrated its Golden Anniversary; OnlineResource for Physical Sciences Established

Session Pays Tribute to Leo Szilard ........ 5Leo Szilard — physicist, inventor, biologist, writerand occasional diplomat — was the subject of aspecial Saturday afternoon session at the APS/AAPT Spring Meeting in Columbus, Ohio.

Physical Review Editorial OfficeExpanding .................................................... 5

Task Force to Review APS Governance ... 5

Physics and Toys: Fun for Everyone ....... 7

Springtime Demos Illustrate BasicPhysics Concepts ....................................... 7

Physicists from Ohio institutions entertained at-tendees of the APS/AAPT Spring Meeting withdemonstrations illustrating physics principles ineveryday objects.

OPINION APS Views .................................................. 6 APS Past President D. Allan Bromley recaps a

year of opportunities for the Society.

Letters to the Editor .................................. 6

1998 General Election Preview ................. 9

Announcements ....................................... 11

The Back Page .......................................... 12Readers respond to Priscilla Auchincloss’ May BackPage on “Physics and Feminism”

damental issues as the age, composition andeventual fate of the universe. “Everyone,from layman, to student, to teacher, to re-searcher is hard-wired to question wherewe came from and where we are going,” hesaid. “The science of cosmology attemptsto provide the answers.”

This experiment has gained new infor-mation on the shape and size of thedeuteron. This new experiment is thefirst to resolve details of the deuteronstructure down to a fifth of the proton’ssize. Surprisingly, and contrary to sometheoretical predictions, the experimentshowed that even at this small scale thedeuteron can still be described per-fectly well by “classical” nuclearphysics as a system of a proton and aneutron loosely held together, withoutconsidering the fundamental buildingblocks of the particles, namely quarksand gluons.

Electromagnetic Probes ofNuclei

Many present-day nuclear physicsaccelerators shoot an electromagneticprobe, such as an electron, at nuclei touncover detailed information abouttheir properties. A Saturday morningsession featured recent results fromnumerous electromagnetic facilities

CheckOut theCentennialWebpage

APS News July 1998

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APS NewsCoden: ANWSEN ISSN: 1058-8132Series II, Vol. 7, No.7 July 1998© 1998 The American Physical Society

Editor: Barrett H. RipinNewswriter: Jennifer OuelletteProduction: Elizabeth Buchan-Higgins

Alicia Y. ChangKim Parsons

Coordinator: Amy Halsted

APS News (ISSN: 1058-8132) is published 11X yearly, monthly,except the August/September issue, by The American Physical Soci-ety, One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740-3844, (301) 209-3200. It contains news of the Society and of its Divisions, TopicalGroups, Sections and Forums; advance information on meetings ofthe Society; and reports to the Society by its committees and taskforces, as well as opinions.

Letters to the editor are welcomed from the membership. Lettersmust be signed and should include an address and daytime telephonenumber. The APS reserves the right to select and to edit for lengthor clarity. All correspondence regarding APS News should be directedto: Editor, APS News, One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20749-3844, E-mail: letters@aps.org.

Subscriptions: APS News is an on-membership publication deliv-ered by Periodical Mail. Members residing abroad may receive air-freight delivery for a fee of $20. Nonmembers: Subscription ratesare: domestic $160; Canada, Mexico, Central and South America,and Caribbean $180; Air Freight Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania$210.

Subscription orders, renewals and address changes shouldbe addressed as follows: For APS Members—Membership De-partment, The American Physical Society, One Physics Ellipse,College Park, MD 20740-3844, membership@aps.org. ForNonmembers—Circulation and Fulfillment Division, Ameri-can Institute of Physics, 500 Sunnyside Blvd., Woodbury, NY11797. Allow at least 6 weeks advance notice. For addresschanges, please send both the old and new addresses, and, ifpossible, include a mailing label from a recent issue. Requestsfrom subscribers for missing issues will be honored withoutcharge only if received within 6 months of the issue’s actualdate of publication.

Periodical Postage Paid at College Park, MD and at additional mailingoffices. Postmaster: Send address changes to APS News, MembershipDepartment, The American Physical Society, One Physics Ellipse,College Park, MD 20740-3844.

APS COUNCIL 1998

PresidentAndrew M. Sessler, Lawrence Berkeley LaboratoryPresident-ElectJerome Friedman, Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyVice-PresidentJames S. Langer, University of California, Santa BarbaraExecutive OfficerJudy R. Franz, University of Alabama, Huntsville (on leave)TreasurerThomas McIlrath, University of Maryland (on leave)Editor-in-ChiefMartin Blume, Brookhaven National LaboratoryPast-PresidentD. Allan Bromley, Yale University

General CouncillorsDaniel Auerbach, Beverly Berger, Virginia Brown, Jennifer Cohen,Charles Duke, S. James Gates, Donald Hamann, William Happer,Cynthia McIntyre, Roberto Peccei, Paul Peercy, Helen Quinn, Susan Seestrom,Virginia Trimble, Ronald Walsworth, Sau Lan Wu

Chair, Nominating CommitteeWick C. Haxton

Chair, Panel on Public AffairsRuth H. Howes

Division and Forum CouncillorsSteven Holt (Astrophysics), Eric Heller, Gordon Dunn (Atomic, Molecu-lar and Optical), Robert Callender (Biological), Stephen Leone (Chemi-cal), Joe D. Thompson, David Aspnes, Arthur Hebard, Zachary Fisk(Condensed Matter), Warren Pickett (Computational), Guenter Ahlers(Fluid Dynamics), James Wynne (Forum on Education), Gloria Lubkin(Forum on History of Physics), Matt Richter (Forum on Industrial &Applied Physics), Myriam Sarachik (Forum on International Physics),Dietrich Schroeer (Forum on Physics and Society), Andrew Lovinger(High Polymer), Daniel Grischkowsky (Laser Science), HowardBirnbaum (Materials), John Schiffer, John D. Walecka (Nuclear), HenryFrisch, George Trilling (Particles and Fields), Robert Siemann (Physicsof Beams), Roy Gould, William Kruer (Plasma)

ADVISORS

Sectional RepresentativesTBA, New England; William Standish, New York; Perry P. Yaney,Ohio; Joseph Hamilton, Southeastern; Stephen Baker, Texas

Representatives from Other SocietiesThomas O’Kuma, AAPT; Marc Brodsky, AIP

Staff RepresentativesBarrett Ripin, Associate Executive Officer; Irving Lerch, Director ofInternational Affairs; Robert L. Park, Director, Public Information;Michael Lubell, Director, Public Affairs; Stanley Brown, Administra-tive Editor; Reid Terwilliger, Director of Editorial Office Services;Michael Stephens, Controller and Assistant Treasurer

In today’s universe, quarks are neverobserved individually but only in

groups of twos or threes held together byparticles known as gluons. Aiming torecreate some of the conditions of thevery early universe, physicists aresmashing together nuclei at high energiesand attempting to produce a quark-gluonplasma (QGP), a hot soup of manyindividual quarks and gluons. Physicistsexpect to see the QGP whenBrookhaven’s Relativistic Heavy IonCollider (RHIC) begins smashingtogether nuclei at unprecedentedly highenergies next year, but some researchers

Evidence Suggests First Observation of Quark-Gluon Plasma in J/psiParticle Production, Changing Hadron Masses

Spencer Klein of Lawrence Berkeley Na-tional Laboratory (LBL), in a QGP,protons and neutrons lose their identity,and the nucleus turns into a soup ofstrongly interacting quarks and gluonswith properties very different from nor-mal nuclear matter.

The matter in the early universe wasalmost certainly QGP until the tempera-ture fell below a few trillion degrees, amillionth of a second after the Big Bang.It is also possible that QGP exists in thecore of neutron stars. Today, scientistsare trying to create a QGP in the labora-tory. Although calculations show that theQGP should exist, the temperature anddensity required to create one are lesswell determined. The best estimates arethat the quark gluon plasma may appearat temperatures around 2 trillion degreescentigrade, which may be produced bysmashing heavy nuclei like lead togetherat high energies.

Many techniques have been proposedto detect a quark gluon plasma once it isproduced. Olivier Drapier of the Institutde Physique Nucleaire in Lyon, France,has collected data regarding one possiblesignature, suppression of J/psi produc-tion, a particle composed of a charmedquark and a charmed antiquark boundtogether. The production rates for J/psiin nuclear reactions can be estimatedbased on rates measured in proton-pro-ton collisions. However, in a QGP, theJ/psi is likely to be quickly destroyed,because of the higher interaction prob-abilities in the plasma. Thus, a deficit ofJ/psi may indicate the presence of aquark gluon plasma.

Drapier presented results on J/psi pro-duction in collisions of lead nuclei fromthe NA-50 experiment, conducted atCERN. He was followed by DmitriKharzaev of Brookhaven National Labo-ratory, who discussed recent theoreticalwork on J/psi production, specifically fo-cusing on whether models which do notinclude the QGP can explain the recentdata. His talk included the idea that abriefly created QGP cracked the J/psisinto single quarks, which became too farseparated to recombine when the QGPquickly cooled.

The remaining two speakers, Johann

who spoke at a Saturday morning sessionat the APS/AAPT Joint Spring Meetingin Columbus, Ohio, have suggested thatQGPs may have already been producedin lower-energy experiments at CERN’sSuper Proton Synchrotron.

Normal nuclear matter is made up ofprotons and neutrons, which are them-selves made up of quarks and gluons.Detailed calculations involving quantumchromodynamics, the theory describingthe forces between quarks and gluons,indicate that when nuclear matter is com-pressed and/or heated, a transformationto a QGP should occur. According to

Peter Wurm from Max Planck Institut inHeidelberg and Volker Koch from LBL,focused on closely related topic: the pro-duction of low mass lepton (electron ormuon) pairs. Lepton pairs are also pro-duced in heavy ion collisions. Like the J/psi, they are a sensitive probe of the reac-tion dynamics. Unlike J/psi, they areproduced by several different mecha-nisms, including the decays of mesons(bound states of a quark and an anti-quark), bremsstrahlung (electromagneticinteractions of the nuclei), and annihila-tions of meson-antimeson pairs.

Theorists typically mix a cocktail ofthese mechanisms, trying to explain theobserved rates and invariant mass spec-tra. These “cocktails” fit the data wellfor collisions of lighter nuclei. However,for collisions of heavier nuclei, the dataand theory differ significantly. This maybe because the properties of known par-ticles change when they are immersed innuclear matter. Wurm discussed experi-mental data from accelerators at LBL andCERN on dilepton production. Kochcomplemented this with a discussion ofrecent calculations of changes in particlemasses and decay modes when they areimmersed in nuclear matter, and their ef-fect on the dilepton mass spectrum.

According to Koch, the strong inter-action QCD vacuum has plenty ofstructure, indicated by the existence ofseveral condensates, particularly thechiral quark condensate. This in turnindicates that chiral symmetry — inwhich the helicity of the quarks is con-

The strongest gravitational fields evermeasured have been recorded by

scientists using the Rossi X-Ray TimingExplorer (RXTE) satellite. At the APS/AAPT Joint Spring Meeting in Columbus,Ohio, Frederick Lamb of the Universityof Illinois described how observed veryrapid oscillations in the brightness ofxrays emanating from certain neutronstars can be used to deduce theirproperties, such as mass and size. The datamay also represent the first evidence for aunique effect of strongly curvedspacetime predicted by Einstein’s theoryof gravity but never before observed.

RXTE was designed to monitor (over

“Cosmic Chords” Support Prediction of Einstein’s Theorymicrosecond time intervals) the x rayscoming from binary star systems in whichmatter from a conventional star is si-phoned off into an accretion disksurrounding a nearby neutron star orblack hole. Neutron In about 16 binary-star systems that contain neutron stars,blobs of gas in the disk are thought to spi-ral in toward the neutron star, picking upspeed and approaching the speed of lightbefore they make a final plunge onto thesurface. When gas from these clumps col-lides with the surface of the star, it reachestemperatures of 100 million degrees. Thex rays produced in this process becomedimmer when the hot gas is on the farside of the star and brighter when theheated gas is on the near side of the star,leading to quasi-periodic oscillations inthe x-ray brightness. In fact, some of theseneutron stars that produce high frequencyx-ray oscillations radiate more energy ina second than the sun radiates in a week,according to Lamb.

The researchers had expected to ob-serve a cacophony of frequencies in thex-ray emission from the stars, similar tothe discord produced when one presses

keys randomly on a piano. In-stead, they discovered that thebrightness variations only oc-cur at certain well-definedrates, “pure tones” that havebeen dubbed “cosmic chords”,which correspond to specialorbital periods for the gas go-ing around the star. “Theclockwork of the universe ismuch more orderly than wehad dreamed,” Lamb said.“The pureness of these tonesmakes it possible to use themto investigate how mattermoves in the strongly curved space-timenear these neutron stars.”

The gravitational fields measured cor-responded to a spacetime warping of 30%.By comparison, the proportional curvatureof space is only about one part in a millionnear the sun’s surface and one part per bil-lion near the Earth’s surface. The spacetimeencountered by the gas is so highly warpedbecause the gas is able to skim within a fewkm of the neutron star, which itself is onlyabout 10 km in diameter.

Lamb and William Zhang of NASA

Goddard focused particularly on the bi-nary-star system 4U1820-30, about 20,000light years from Earth. The neutron starhas a mass of 2.3 solar masses and orbitsits companion star in only 11 minutes.Close observations of this system con-firmed a prediction made by Lamb andhis colleagues Coleman Miller andDimitrios Psaltis that the gas blobs wouldcontinue to spiral inward until theyreached an “innermost stable orbit,”where they would orbit before makingthe dive for the surface. This is a purely

Flow Inside the Sonic Point: This shows a perspectiveview of accreting gas swirling around the neutron star.

Generation of the Sonic-Point KeplerianFrequency QPO: An illustration of how thehigh frequency X-ray brightness oscillationsare thought to be produced.

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July 1998 APS News

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A Century of PhysicsA Century of Physics

1935-1945: Physics in World War IIby Hans Christian von Baeyer

Throughout the nineteen thirties, while America struggled with the GreatDepression and Adolf Hitler�s Nazis rose to absolute power in Germany,

physicists quietly continued to collaborate across national boundaries. Quantummechanics proved to be a reliable framework for the study of solid matter, ofmolecules, and of atoms. The discovery ofthe neutron and the invention of the cyclotronlaunched the new science of nuclear physics.Although the size of the nucleus is 100,000times smaller than that of an atom, and itsinternal energy higher by the same amount,quantum mechanics continued to workperfectly. The future of physics lookedpromising. But by the end of the decade,World War II broke out in Europe and sweptthe whole world, including the physicscommunity, into its wake. Physicists andengineers helped to win the air-borne Battleof Britain by developing Radar, and theirGerman colleagues designed the V-2 rocketsthat terrorized London. Of greater historical significance, though, was theconstruction of the atomic bomb.

As soon as nuclear fission was discovered in Europe, it became apparentthat if a way could be found to release its energy in a bomb, the course of thewar would be altered. In America a number of physicists, many of Europeanorigin, worried that Hitler might acquire such a weapon and persuaded thenormally pacifistic Albert Einstein to warn President Franklin D. Roosevelt. In anurgent letter dated August 2, 1939, he explained the danger by writing: �It isconceivable ... that extremely powerful bombs of a new type may thus beconstructed.� Einstein�s letter did not have an immediate effect, but eventuallyhelped to persuade the United States to begin the monumental task of buildingan atom bomb.

The man chosen to direct the project was the theoretical physicist RobertOppenheimer. Although he had no industrial or even experimental experience,he proved to be a remarkably effective leader. His team on a remote mountain-top in New Mexico, and smaller groups in other secret laboratories, includedmost of the nation�s best physicists. By the force of his towering intellectOppenheimer managed to unite this fractious group in a common effort todesign and build a bomb, and to test it successfully in July 1945. By then,Germany had already surrendered, but its ally Japan was still at war.

In August 1945, two atomic bombs dropped on the Japanese cities ofHiroshima and Nagasaki contributed to a quick end of World War II. Their chieflegacy, however, was to be felt for a long time. For almost half a century theCold War�s nuclear stand-off between the United States and the Soviet Unionheld the world in its grip.

Editor’s Note: A CENTURY OF PHYSICS, a dramatic illustrated timeline wallchart ofover a hundred entries on eleven large posters is intended for high schools and colleges. Eachposter covers about a decade and is introduced by a thumbnail essay to provide a glimpse ofthe historical and scientific context of the time.

In the August/September issue, APS News will feature 1945-1954 The Post-War Boom.

Isidor Issac Rabi was born 100 years ago, nine months before the birth of theAmerican Physical Society. He completed his dissertation and his PhD in July

1926, just days from his 28th birthday. One year later, he left for Europe toexperience physics at the cutting edge.

The new quantum mechanics, created in Europe during the period 1925-1927,fascinated Rabi. While he was especially intrigued by the Stern-Gerlach experi-ment, it was Schrödinger’s wave mechanics, published in early 1926, that providedRabi his first opportunity to use the new theory. With Ralph Kronig, Rabi solvedthe Schrödinger equation for the spherical top molecule and gave a completetreatment for such a molecule. Kronig’s and Rabi’s paper on the spherical topmolecule was rejected by the editor of Physical Review because it was too long.Kronig and Rabi shortened the paper and their results were published in theFebruary, 1927 issue of Physical Review. In spite of this successful foray intoquantum mechanics, Rabi was restive. He recognized that America was reallybackward in physics - really underdeveloped and Rabi felt the need to observeand work with those who had created the new theory.

Many young American physicists were in Europe studying at those centerswhere quantum mechanics was the daily passion. Rabi spent two years in Europeworking with Bohr, Pauli, Stern, and Heisenberg. The experience had a profoundeffect on Rabi. In subtle and not so subtle ways, Rabi and the other Americanvisitors were made to realize that American physics was regarded by their hostsas second rate. Rabi, Ed Condon, Robert Oppenheimer, and others promisedthemselves that they would change this and bring American physics to greatness.“And we did,” said Rabi.

Rabi was one of the most influential leaders who brought American physicsout of the shadows cast by the greatness of European physicists. Rabi did thisthrough his roles as physicist and citizen.

During the decade of the 1930’s, Rabi established his molecular beam labora-tory at Columbia University where, together with his illustrious students, hemeasured nuclear properties with ever increasing precision. A beautiful evolu-tion of experimental techniques culminated with the discovery of the magneticresonance method in 1938. The magnetic resonance method revealed the quadru-pole moment of the deuteron which required the introduction of new nuclearforces. Rabi won the Nobel prize in 1944 for this work and since that time, four ofRabi’s students have also won this high honor.

Rabi’s physics opened doors for him to serve America as a citizen. He wasdeeply concerned about the war in Europe and in December 1940 left his labora-tory just at its peak of productivity. He went to the newly formed MIT RadiationLaboratory where he became Associate Director for Advanced Research. Afterthe war, he continued his physics, but in addition became active in science policyat the national and international levels. He almost single-handedly transformedthe Science Advisory Committee to the President’s Science Advisory Committeewhich reported directly to the President. Through the United Nations, he andDag Hammarskjöld organized the first International Conference on the PeacefulUses of Atomic Energy. In 1984, Bill Moyers featured Rabi on a television pro-gram called, “Rabi: Man of the Twentieth Century. During the final years of hislife, Rabi was regarded as the dean of American physics.

Isidor Rabi: Scientist and Citizenby John S. Rigden, American Institute of Physics

Dust off your tuxedo and shine your dancing shoes for the Centennial Meeting.A black-tie optional gala event and dinner in celebration of the accomplish-ments of the 20th Century physics will take place Saturday evening, March 21,1999 at the Fernbank Museum of Natural History in Atlanta. International,U.S. and Atlanta dignitaries, including Nobel laureates attending the Centen-nial, will be special guests as will the science teachers attending the Nobelevents earlier in the day. The gala event, to be described in more detail in afuture mailing to APS members, will be able to accommodate up to 2000participants. APS members who wish to attend should plan to register early.

At the same time, we expect the gala to be the opening of a physics exhibitentitled �Wonders of the 20th Century� currently in development at the Fernbankmuseum. This exhibit will be designed to travel to other science museumsafter its Atlanta opening. Besides excellent food and drink included in theevening, there will be continuous showings of the IMAX movie, Cosmic Voy-ages, as well as a multi-media presentation celebrating the achievements ofphysics. Physics-related entertainers will be present as will various types ofmusic.

Gala Event of the Century

served — is spontaneously broken, im-plying that the quarks must be mass-lessand thus travel with the speed of light.However, “We know that the constitu-ent quark mass is rather large, about athird of the mass of the nucleon,” saidKoch. “This is because chiral symme-try is spontaneously broken in the

vacuum of QCD.”Similarly, restoring chiral symmetry

by melting the chiral quark condensateat high temperatures should cause thequark masses to become small, andsince the light hadrons are made out ofconstituent quarks, their mass shoulddrop as well. While this prediction is

hotly debated, most researchers doagree that the mass difference betweencertain hdrons is exclusively due to thebreakdown of chiral symmetry andthus should vanish once chiral symme-try is restored.

Because both of these techniquesrely on relatively rare probes, charmed

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quarks and dileptons, progress has beenlimited by the statistical accuracy of thedata. In 1999, RHIC will begin to col-lide gold nuclei at much higher energiesthan current accelerators. The data thuscollected will extend these studies toconsiderably higher energies with im-proved statistics.

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APS News July 1998

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zero gravity

Exotic atoms are unique traps forelementary particles like muons, pions

and antiprotons and allow physicists to testfundamental laws like the CPT theorem,quantum electrodynamics, the theory ofstrong interactions, and the properties ofelementary particles. The trapped particlemay also serve as a probe for the strong andelectromagnetic forces exerted by theatomic nucleus, according to F. JoachimHartmann of the Technical University ofMunich in Germany, who spoke at theAPS/AAPT Spring Meeting in Columbus,Ohio.

In an exotic atom an elementary par-ticle of negative charge and sufficiently longlifetime orbits besides the electrons aroundthe nucleus. The most common particlesto form such atoms are the muon, the pion,and the antiproton. As the masses of theelementary particles forming exotic atomsare large compared to that of the electron,the dimensions of their orbits in these at-oms are much smaller and the energiesrequired to eject them from the atom aremuch larger than for electrons in ordinaryatoms. This makes exotic atoms suitablefor studying the properties of exotic par-ticles such as their mass, charge, spin,magnetic moment and the strength of theirinteraction with nuclear matter, Hartmannreported.

Exotic atoms are formed when particlesare shot into and slowed down in matter.When they reach energies comparable tothe binding energies of the outer atomicelectrons, they are captured by an atom toform highly excited exotic-atom states. Simi-lar to ordinary atoms the system isde-excited by emission of exotic (muonic,pionic, antiprotonic) x rays with energiesup to the gamma-energy region, or by theejection of an electron from the host atom(the Auger effect). The whole de-excitationprocess, called a cascade, is finished withinpico- to nanoseconds. Because it achievesthis lowly excited state so rapidly, the ex-otic particle dumps an energy of up to 1GeV into the nucleus, several times the en-

Recent Experiments onExotic Atoms

ergy released during a nuclear fission reac-tion. And, said Hartmann, “the energy ofthe emitted gamma radiation allows one todraw conclusions on important propertiesof the particle.”

Antiprotonic helium is a very specialexotic atom. In 1991 it was demonstratedthat about 3% of all antiprotonic He atomsexist in long-lived, metastable states with amicrosecond lifetime, orders of magnitudelonger than in the ordinary exotic atom.Irradiation of this atom with laser light ofthe appropriate wavelength brings the ex-otic atom to a short-lived level. The usualfast cascade follows and leads to states fromwhich annihilation occurs. Because thewave length and hence the energy of thelaser light may be determined with a preci-sion of parts per million, this resonantde-excitation provides a means of determin-ing the energy levels in the simplethree-body system with unprecedented ac-curacy.

In another recent experiment, heavyantiprotonic atoms were used to probe thedifference between neutron and protondensities at the nuclear periphery. Antipro-tons are shot into samples which containonly one isotope of an element. After ex-otic-atom formation and cascade, theyannihilate with one nucleon from thenucleus. Because this annihilation occursat some distance from the nucleus, all ofthe annihilation products (mostly pions)might miss the nucleus, producing anucleus which has either one neutron (an-nihilation of the antiproton on a neutron)or one proton (annihilation on a proton)less than the original nucleus. If the nucleithus generated are radioactive, they maybe detected with high sensitivity via theirdecay products. If there are more neutronsat the place where annihilation occurs thanone would expect, this would result in theenhanced generation of nuclei with oneneutron less. According to Hartmann, suchan effect has been observed for a number ofnuclei and used as a rigid test for existingnuclear-structure theories.

Top Ten Star Trek Science Bloopersby Lawrence Krauss

1. In Space, No One Can Hear You Scream. The promo for “Alien” got it right,but Star Trek usually doesn’t. Sound waves DO NOT travel in empty space! Yetwhen a space station orbiting the planet Tanuga IV blows up, from our vantage pointaboard the Enterprise we hear it as well as see it. What’s worse, we hear it _at thesame time_ as we see it. Even if sound waves could travel in space, which they can’t,the speed of a pressure wave such as sound is generally orders of magnitude smallerthan the speed of light.

2. Faster Than a Speeding Phaser. The Voyager episode “The Phage” involves anattempt to beat a phaser beam. Phasers are, we are told, directed energy weapons. Ifphasers are pure energy and not particle beams, as the Star Trek technical manualstates, the beams must move at the speed of light. No matter how fast one moves, onecan never move out of the way of an oncoming phaser beam. Why? Because in orderto know it is coming, you have to first see the gun being fired. But the light that allowsyou to see this travels at the same speed as the beam. It is impossible to know it isgoing to hit you until it hits you.

3. If the Plot Isn’t Cracked, Maybe the Event Horizon Is. In the same episode, a“crack” in the event horizon of a black hole saves the day for the Voyager. The eventhorizon around a black hole is not a physical entity, but rather a location inside ofwhich all trajectories remain inside the hole. It is a property of curved space that thetrajectory of anything, including light, will bend back toward the hole once you areinside a certain radius. Either the event horizon exists, in which a black hole exists, orit doesn’t. There is no middle ground big enough to slip a needle through, much lessthe Voyager.

4. How Solid a Guy is the Doctor? There is a wonderful Voyager scene in whicha patient asks the holographic doctor how he can be solid if he is only a hologram.The doctor answers by turning off a “magnetic confinement beam” to show thatwithout it he is as noncorporeal as a mirage. He then orders the beam turned back on,so that he can slap the poor patient around. Magnetic confinement works wonders forcharged particles, which experience a force in a constant magnetic field that causesthem to move in circular orbits. However, light is not charged. It experiences no forcein a magnetic field. Since a hologram is no more than a light image, neither is thedoctor.

5. To Interphase, or Not To Interphase? In the Next Generation episode “Phan-tasms,” invisible interphase insects invade the Enterprise by clinging to the bodies ofthe crew. However, if they could observe the Enterprise from their “phase,” theycould interact with light, an electromagnetic wave. By Newton’s First Law, theyshould in turn have been visible. In order to see or sense light, you have to absorb it.By absorbing light, you must disturb it. If you disturb light, you must be visible tosomeone else. Similarly, the force that allows them to rest on normal matter withoutgoing through it is nothing other than electromagnetism — the electrostatic repulsionbetween the charged particles making up the atoms in one body with the atoms inanother body. And once you interact electromagnetically, you are part of our world.

6. Sweeping Out the Baby with the Bathwater. In the Next Generation episode“Starship Mine,” the Enterprise docks at the Remmler array to have a “baryon sweep”.It seems that these particles build up on starship superstructures as a result of long-term travel at warp speed, and must be removed. The only stable baryons are protonsand neutrons in atomic nuclei. Since these make up everything we see, ridding theEnterprise of them wouldn’t leave much of it for future episodes.

7. How Cold is Cold? Another gaffe involves an object’s being frozen to a tempera-ture of -295 degrees Celsius. This is a very exciting discovery, because on the Celsiusscale, absolute zero is -273 degrees. Absolute zero is the lowest tempeature anythingcan potentially attain, because it is defined as the temperature at which all molecularand atomic motions, vibbrations and rotations cease. Since temperature is associatedwith molecular and atomic motion, you can never get less than no motion at all;hence, even 400 years from now, absolute zero will still be absolute.

8. I Have Seen the Light! Whenever the Enterprise shoots a phaser beam, we see it.But of course this is impossible unless the phaser itself emits light in all directions.Light is not visible unless it reflects off something. Thus, unless empty space is par-ticularly dusty, we shouldn’t see the laser beam except where it hits.

9. Astronomers Get Picky. A NASA scientist pointed out an error I had missed. Itis generally standard starship procedure to move into geosynchronous orbit aroundplanets. Thus, the ship should remain above the same place on the planet’s surface,jusst as geosynchronous weather satellites do on Earth. Nevertheless, when the Enter-prise is shown orbiting a planet it is usually moving against the background of theplanet’s surface.

10. Those Darned Neutrinos. In an episode of Deep Space Nine, Quark has gottenhold of a machine that alters the laws of probability in its vicinity. One can imaginehow useful this would be at his gambling tables. The ruse is discovered, however, byDax, who happens to analyze the neutrino flux through the space station. To hersurprise, she finds that all the neutrinos are coming through left-handed. The neutri-nos that spin in the opposite direction seem to be missing. Of all the phenomena theStar Trek writers could have chosen to uncover Quark’s shenanigans, they managedto pick one that is actually true. As far as we know, neutrinos are only left-handed.They are the only known particles in nature that apparently can exist in only one spinstate.

Sometimes truth is indeed stranger than fiction.

Adapted from “The Physics of Star Trek”, by Lawrence M. Krauss (New York: HarperCollins/BasicBooks, 1995, pp. 162-172.

IN BRIEFNeal Lane Becomes New OSTP Director

Neal Lane, former Director of the National Science Foundation and Fellow ofthe APS, was named by President Clinton to be the new Science Advisor to thePresident and Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy. JohnGibbons, also a Fellow of the APS, retired from this post in April.

Rita Colwell Confirmed as New NSF DirectorThe Senate confirmed Rita Colwell as director of the National ScienceFoundation. Colwell, who was most recently a Professor at the University ofMaryland, has a Ph.D. in marine microbiology from the University of Washington.

Physics Today Celebrated its Golden AnniversaryPhysics Today magazine celebrated its 50th anniversary in May with a special issueincluding winning entries from a contest which asked for a news report of animagined research breakthrough of the future. The issue also included articles onthe magazine’s early beginnings, as well as selected short summaries of highlightsof each decade.

Online Resource for Physical Sciences EstablishedThe American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) has established an onlinePhysical Sciences Resource Center (PSRC), an easy-to-use and innovative Website providing resources and links for the entire spectrum of physical sciences.“We want the PSRC to be the first place physics educators look for teachingideas,” said AAPT Executive Officer Bernard Khoury. Educators can use the sitefor information and reviews of curriculum materials for all grade levels, ideas fordemonstrations, examples of evaluation instruments, and articles and links aboutthe latest approaches to science education. Topics range from acoustics to statisticsand thermodynamics, to computers and technology. In addition to a searchabledatabase of scientists who have volunteered to serve as resources for specificeducational levels, the site also has a career center with links to career bulletinboards, job search engines, and internship and research opportunities. [www.psrc-online.org]

July 1998 APS News

5

Leo Szilard — physicist, inventor,biologist, writer and occasional diplo-

mat — was thesubject of a specialSaturday afternoonsession at the APS/AAPT Spring Meet-ing in Columbus,Ohio, sponsored bythe Forum on Phys-ics and Society, theForum on Interna-tional Physics, andthe Forum on theHistory of Physics.

The session opened with an official greet-ing from Istvan Szemenyei, counselor forscience and technology of the Empbassy ofthe Republic of Hungary.

In the field of nuclear physics, Szilard’srole as an inventor is well recognized,according to V.L. Telegdi of the Univer-sity of California, San Diego, and CERN.The concept of a sustained nuclear chainreaction is credited to him, and a jointpatent with Enrico Fermi covers all theessential features of the carbon-uraniumreactor. “His proposals concerning accel-

erators, covered in applications for pat-ents which never seem to have been issued,have not yet been publicized,” Telegedisaid. Szilard is also credited with invent-ing the cyclotron, the linear acceleratorand the concept of phase stability, as wellas drafting Albert Einstein’s 1939 letter toPresident Franklin Roosevelt, which ledto the Manhattan Project.

Szilard originated from a polyculturalfamily, according to George Marx of theUniversity of Budapest in Hungary, thisyear’s Beller Lecturer, who discussedSzilard’s roots and interdisciplinity. In theearly 20th century he grew up in Hun-gary, at the crossroads of history, wherepolitical regimes, national borders, ideo-logical doctrines, and “final truths”changed in a dizzying cavalcade. Insteadof conservative dogmatism, this socialenvironment required critical thinking inorder to survive. “World War I was theschool of John von Neumann, Eugene P.Wigner and Leo Szilard, each of whomlearned to trespass political and disciplin-ary boundaries without inhibition,” saidMarx. “And their sensitivity for trends hadbeen utilized by the U.S. when war ef-

forts and high tech required orientationunder new horizons.”

Far from being limited to atomic phys-ics, Szilard’s interests ranged fromstatistical physics through informationtheory to biological evolution, from lifephenomena through hot atoms to nuclearstrategy and deterrance. “His intellectualadventures might look like crazy jumpsfor specialists,” said Marx. “But now, look-ing back to the political and technologicalhistory of the 20th century one can seethan it was a consequent progress of a fu-ture-sensitive mind.”

In addition to being a creative physi-cist and biologist, Szilard’s concern abouthow scientific discoveries might affecthumanity led him to seek political solu-tions to enlarge the benefits and limit thedamage caused by his work, many ofwhich were summarized by WilliamLanouette, a writer and public policy ana-lyst who is the author of Genius in theShadows: A Biography of Leo Szilard, TheMan Behind the Bomb. This dispositionto save the world came to Szilard by theage of 10, when he read The Tragedy ofMan, a Hungarian epic poem in which

humanity faces extinction yet continuesto survive by maintaining a narrow mar-gin of hope. With this hope Szilardbrought about improbable scientific andpolitical feats, such as the nuclear chainreaction and the Moscow-WashingtonHotline, as well as many attempts in 1945to prevent the atomic bombing of Japan.In addition, Szilard published a novel, TheVoice of the Dolphins, a parable of the tech-nical prowess and moral limitations ofour times.

Edward Gerjuoy of the University Pitts-burgh closed the session with a descriptionof how, for essentially his entire adult life,Szilard sought to increase the likelihoodthat the results of basic scientific research— which have so greatly increasedhumanity’s ability to manipulate the natu-ral world, especially since World War II —would be used for humanity’s benefit. Hereviewed and assessed Szilard’s endeavorsin this quest, reflecting on its significancefor those who assembled to honor him 34years after his death.

A short biography of Szilard appearedon page 6 of the February 1998 issue ofAPS News.

Speakers at Centennial Session Pay Tribute to Leo Szilard

general relativistic (GR) effect; inNewton’s mechanics, by contrast, theblob could have gotten arbitrarily closeto the surface, providing it were going fastenough.

Lamb and Miller’s calculations showedhow the x-ray brightness oscillationscould be used to determine the massesand dimensions of neutron stars and tolook for evidence of the innermost stableorbit. They predicted that the frequencyof the x-ray brightness variations should

increase as the gas flows onto the neutronstar and hence its x-ray power rises, untilthe clumps of gas producing the oscilla-tions reach the innermost stable orbit, atwhich point they should become constantas the x-ray power continues to rise. Theobservations by Zhang and his collabora-tors confirmed Lamb’s prediction of thiseffect. They found that as its x-ray powerrises, the frequency of the brightness os-cillations increases until it reachesapproximately 1,050 times per second. As

the x-ray power increases further, the fre-quency remains constant, indicating thatthe innermost stable orbit has beenreached.

According to Zhang, this correlationbetween theory and experiment opensup a new “strong-gravitational field” erain GR studies. “There is a good possi-bility that the Rossi Explorer hasprovided the first evidence supportingthe predictions of Einstein’s theory ofgravity about how matter moves in

strongly curved space-time,” said Lamb.“All previous tests of general relativityhave been made in regions where space-time is curved only very, very weakly.”The measurements of the gas motioneven provide hints as to the nature ofthe strong nuclear force sustaining theneutron star against further gravita-tional collapse. The new evidenceindicates that the nuclear force is stifferand more repulsive than has generallybeen thought.

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Scenes from the Fellow Reception of the APS April Meeting

Ever notice how the ‘Creeping Green,’ aka Physical Review journals, demands ever increasing shelf space?Well, the same is true for the increasing number of editors and production workers who have been shoehorned into its editorial offices. The photo shows progress in the expansion and face lift of the Ridge facilityon Long Island, NY. The project will be completed later this year.

Physical Review Editorial Office Expanding

Cosmic Chords (continued from page 2)

Council Structure to beReviewed by NewlyEstablished Task Force

At its April meeting, the APS Executive Board andCouncil voted to establish a task force on the structure

and responsibilities of the APS Council, an action deemednecessary “in light of new demands upon the Societycaused by its increasing range of activities and the manyadditional units that have been formed,” the resolutionstated. Chaired by Ernest Henley (University ofWashington), the task force is charged with reviewing thestructure of the Council with respect to representationand overall size, and with examining the distribution ofresponsibilities between the Council, Executive Board, andvarious bylaw committees. On the basis of the review, thetask force will make recommendations that might improvethe value and effectiveness of Council meetings and APSgovernance as a whole. A final report is scheduled forpresentation at the May 1999 Council meeting.

APS News July 1998

6

APS VIEWS

OPINION

I wonder if the APS home page couldinclude a geographic “DARK” area, lo-cated on this planet, where nuclear tests

A Year of Opportunities: APS RetiringPresidential Addressby D. Allan Bromley, APS Past President

In my formal statement as a candidate for the APS vice-presidency some four years ago, I included the following

goals, should I be elected: (1) work with our sister scientificsocieties to make a more coherent and persuasive case forcontinued investment in science and technology to both theAdministration and Congress; (2) work with other physicalsocieties worldwide to strengthen our interactions andmutually benefit from shared discussion of problems andsolutions that may evolve from them; and (3) work to providebetter communication with the members of our own society.To these I should have added working to prepare for an APSCentennial celebration worthy of the achievements of physicsand, especially, of American physics over the past century, aswell as our aspirations for the coming century.

Cooperation with Sister Societies. From my years as science advisor to President Bush,I knew firsthand that both the White House and the Congress considered the scientific andtechnological communities to be by far the least effective in making their cases for federalinvestment in their fields. In part, this lack of effectiveness reflected a peculiar character-istic of the science and technology community: when there is trouble on the horizon, wepull the wagons into a circle, but unlike other communities, we shoot in! I spent a remakrableamount of my time in Washington defending physics programs and projects from otherphysicists.

How then do we become a more effective constituency? The AmericanHistorical FactalAssociation for the Advancement of Science’s June 1996 projections of the anticipatedfederal spending on non-defense research and development for FY1995 through FY2000showed, in real terms, a decline of some 30%. This made abundantly clear the need forcoherent action. In early 1997, we in the APS got together with the American ChemicalSociety, the American Mathematical Society, and the American Astronomical Society todiscuss how we could most effectively work together in making a persuasive case forscience and technology. These four societies formed the nucleus of all the activity through-out the tear.

We recognized that one of the most striking changes taking place in science and tech-nology in recent years has been the rapidly increasing interdependence within and betweenthe sciences and technologies. Breakthroughs in a given field frequently have their greatestimpact in other fields that are quite remote and where they have been totally unexpected.In parallel, some of the nation’s leading economists have published studies that showedmore than one-half of the growth in the U.S. Gross Domestic Product since World War IIcan be traced directly to implementation of new science-based technologies. Technologyis the engine of economic growth and competitiveness. The clear message is that if we areto look forward to a strong economic future tomorrow, we must invest in science andtechnology today.

Our discussions resulted in a joint statement calling for an increase in federal R&Dinvestment in the range of 7% for FY1998. “The Seven Percent Solution,” as it becameknown, received a great deal of media and Congressional attention, resulting later in theyear in the introduction of a bipartisan Senate bill (S.1305) calling for a doubling in thebudget amount authorized for basic science and medical research over the next decade.When the smoke of the Congressional budget process cleared away and the final FY1998R&D appropriations became available, the NSF, DOE’s Basic Energy Sciences, and NIHreceived the requested 7% or more increase while, overall, an increase of roughly 4% hadbeen appropriated. By late 1997, 100 societies had become involved in support of a “unifiedstatement” calling for a “doubling of the nation’s research budget during a 10-year period.”

In early February, President Clinton’s FY1999 budget request to Congress included11% increases for the NSF and DOE, 9% for NIH, 8% for basic research overall, 6% foruniversity research overall, and 7% overall for peer reviewed R&D programs. This isgratifying, although there is a long way to go before these increases are actually appropri-ated by the Congress. There is no agreement, as yet, on how the projected surplus in theFY1999 federal budget will be distributed, and there are many competing claims on thediscretionary component of that budget. For the first time in history, however, the profes-sional socieites have played a coherent and effective role in presenting the case for continuedfederal investment in science and technology.

Cooperation with Foreign Physical Societies. Early in 1997 we scheduled a planningmeeting on international collaboration, to be held in October in Washington, DC. Topicsdiscussed included electronic publishing, science policy and funding, physics educationand public education, and physics and capacity building. All participants left the meetingfeeling that the free and open discussions had been extremely valuable.

In the case of electronic publishing, we are in the middle of a very rapid and importanttransition, not only for what it portends in terms of publishing research results, but also forthe fact that some 85% of the Society’s total budget comes from its publishing activities. Itis far from obvious how this will change as we become ever more electronic, althoughunder the leadership of our new editor-in-chief, Marty Blume, we have made dramaticprogress toward electronic publishing in the past year. It was encouraging to find from thediscussion that all of the major national physical societies involved in significant publica-tion activities faced roughly the same problems.

With regard to science policy and funding, the end of the Cold War removed much ofthe rationale for continuing investment in science and technology, and physicists, inparticular, hadbeen monumentally ineffective in making the case for continuing federalinvestment in their field. The question that was emphasized throughout our discussionswas how best to make changes in public policy, and to encourage better investment in

LETTERSNuclear Test Dark Matter

are occuring this very moment?Steven MandellLantana, Florida

physics. As noted above, our experience in the U.S. is that collaboration among theprofessional societies has the potential for major impact.

In the area of education, the recent release of the Third International Mathematics andScience Study underscores the scandalous situation in American pre-college education.While our students were roughly competitive with those of other nations at the end ofgrade 4, by the end of grade 8 they had fallen well below the average and by the end ofgrade 12, in physics they were at the absolute bottom of the list of 21 nations studied. Allof the nations involved in our meeting faced the same problem of having too few studentsinterested in physics as an undergraduate major, but we in the U.S. are in a class byourselves when it comes to inferior quality of the education we are providing to ourchildren and grandchildren.

There are no easy solutions, but it is clear from our discussions that objective stan-dards, trained teachers, more work on the part of students, and greater parentalinvolvement are all critically important. Information technology can be hekpful, but iscertainly not the answer. Nor is more money. Last year we spent on the order of $550billion on pre-college education, which is more per student than any place else in theworld. We certainly cannot claim we’ve been getting our money’s worth.

Convocations of Fellows. In conjunction with the fundraising aspects of the APSCampaign for Phyiscs, a number of meetings specifically for Fellows of the Society havebeen held. Last year, however, we decided it was of particular importance to keep ourFellows more fully informed as to APS programs and activities. To this end, we plannedregional meetings across the nation where such discussion and input could occur. Thefirst was held in September in New York City, in which more than 130 Fellows from theNew York and New England regions participated in a cocktail reception followed by anextended discussion on APS activities. The second such meeting was held in Washingtonlast November, and the third was held in March during the APS March Meeting in LosAngeles. A fourth meeting was held in April during the Joint APS/AAPT Spring Meet-ing in Columbus, Ohio. We have had nothing but positive input concnering these meetingsand I am sure they will continue as a regular feature of APS activities.

Capacity building — in the sens that it implies the development of indigenous careeropportunies in all nations — and a more rapid industrialization and development pro-cess repies critically upon access to modern information technology. Too often we in thedevelopment world have attempted what we call “technology transfer” to other parts ofthe world without recognizing that there are absolutely critical requirements beforesuch transfer can be effective. These include a stable agricultural economy, a stablepolitical structure, and a stable and high quality educational enterprise. As Arthur Clarkeonce pointed out, for some 98% of the world’s inhabitants, high technology remainstotally indistinguishable from magic.

In this connection it is clearly the case that exchanges of scholars and students at everylevel are critical to capacity building. Technology transfer occurs only in the mind ofhumans. If we are to be effectve in applying physics or any science or technology tocapacity building, it is essential that basic science andtechnology are recognized asfundamental components of national foreign policy and development. It hardly needsemphasis that this is important both for the developing and developed countries. As aspecific example, we in the U.S. have never succeeded in making science or technologyan integral part of the activities of our State Department.

Centennial Celebration Planning. The 100th anniversary of the founding of the APSoccurs in 1999, and will be celebrated at a mjor meeting during the week of March 20th inAtlanta, Georgia. Substantial planning has already begun in earnest with the hiring of acentennial director, Franmarie Kennedy, and the engagement of the Edelman PublicRelations Firm to assist in improving our access to the media, and in developing clearlyfocused messages. We are making every effort to involve as many of the citizens ofAtlanta and the surrounding regions during the celebration. For example, we are arrang-ing for children to interact one-on-one with the more than 40 Nobel Laureates in physicswho have confirmed their participation.

Among the projects essentially completed is a Physics Wall Chart, which we plan tomake available to every U.S. secondary school and, if funding permits, to every elemen-tary school. Much of that material, which covers the last century of physics, will alsoappear in a coffee table book for general audiences. A Centennial Speaker’s Bureau hasbeen assembled with more than 200 registrants — persons who have agreed to respond torequests for colloquia and seminars focusing in part on the history of physics over thepast century. A complete photographic gallery of Nobel Laureates in physics will be ondisplay, along with a comprehensive collection of photographs of leading physicists ofthe past century. In addition, many APS divisions are developing displays for thecentenntial. Substantial planning has also been deovted to outdoor exhibits of physicsexperiments in local parks, as well as to theatrical and cultural events.

In conclusion, 1997 was a year of opportunities. We have made an important start inworking with our sister societies to develop a more persuasive constituency for U.S.science and technology. Our collaboration with the international community of physi-cists already promises significant mutual benefits. Both personally and on behalf of mycolleagues in the Presidential line, I would be remiss were I not to express again ourprofound thanks to the Senior Officers and the entire APS staff. They are a dedicated,creative and deeply motivated group, and it has been a great pleasure working with them.

Adapted from a talk given by D. Allan Bromley, Sterling Professor of the Sciences at YaleUniversity, at the Joint APS/AAPT Spring meeting in Columbus, Ohio. For the complete textof Dr. Bromley’s Retiring Presidential Address, contact Amy Halsted, APS, One Physics El-lipse, College Park, MD 20740; FAX: 301-209-0865; email: halsted@aps.org.

D. Allan Bromley

Editor’s note: Reaction letters to May’s Back Page by Priscilla Auchincloss appear on page 12.

July 1998 APS News

7

All too often when the word physics is mentioned, people have a very negativereaction. Fortunately, the basic principles of physics can often be demonstrated,

as well as made fun, by using ordinary children’s toys. By understanding how thesetoys work the observers can better understand the world around them. Toys can alsobe used with students of all ages. I have successfully used toys in physics presentationsto pre-kindergarten classes, and elder hostel groups, as well as all ages in between.The detailed analysis of the toys differs depending on the background of the observers,but in every case the physics is the same, and the toys allow for a nonthreatening andfun presentation.

There are any number of toys which can be used to illustrate various physicsprinciples of mechanics. A Hot Wheels race car and track can be used to demonstratevelocity and acceleration, or be analyzed using energy concepts, while a water rocketcan be used to demonstrate the principle of momentum. For now, let us discussseveral toys that deal with magnetism and light.

For example, a toy periscope can be used to demonstrate reflection of light andimage formation with flat mirrors. A particularly interesting version is the rotatingperiscope. While a periscope is usually used to look at an object in front of you, thetop of this periscope can be rotated about the vertical axis so that you can look behindyou. When you rotate the top mirror in this way, the image is inverted, such that theimage is in the normal upright position when looking straight ahead, but invertedwhen you look behind you. (Now you know why submarine commanders in themovies always turned with their periscopes.) Examination of the toy periscope showsthat it contains two mirrors, one in the top and one in the bottom, each of which is atan angle of 45 degrees to the vertical. You should be able to quickly sketch two lightrays from the object to your eye in order to analyze the upright and inverted images.This is exactly what I have my students do in order to have them begin to understandimage formation using light rays.

A more complex toy that became popular several years ago is called laser tag,consisting of a “laser” gun and a target. The gun emits an invisible beam of radia-tion, and the target is a sensor which emits an audible signal when the wearer is“tagged.” What are the properties of this radiation? There are any number ofspecific questions that can be asked and then answered by investigation. Does thebeam travel in straight lines, or does it bend around corners? Can the beam bereflected, and if so, does it behave like light when it is reflected? Can the beam berefracted? Can it be diffracted with a diffraction grating? Is the beam transmittedthrough a sheet of paper?

If you perform some of these experiments, you find, for example, that the beamcan be reflected from a mirror or sheet of metal, and that it obeys the law ofreflection. The beam is also found to refract when it is sent through plexiglass andis found to obey Snell’s law of refraction. Perhaps surprisingly, it is found thatthe beam will transmit through a sheet of paper. The particular version of this toyI prefer to use is called the infrared blaster, emitting a beam with an infraredwavelength of about 930 nm. This can be used to illustrate how a physicist goes

Physics and Toys: Fun for Everyoneby Raymond C. Turner

about investigating the properties of anunknown, obtaining good experimen-tal results in the process.

Another toy — perhaps better termeda novelty — is a flicker light, commonlyfound in toy stores and gift shops. This isan electric light bulb in which the fila-ment vibrates in an erratic fashion that issupposed to simulate a flickering candle.What makes its filament vibrate? Exami-nation of the bulb shows that the wirefilament is free to move somewhat, andthere is a magnet near the filament. When a current flows in the filament, there is amagnetic force on it, due to the field of the permanent magnet. This magnetic force isin a direction perpendicular to both the field and the current. Since the light is oper-ating on the usual 60 Hz ac line, the direction of the current reverses 60 times persecond. Thus, the direction of the force on the filament changes at the same rate,causing the filament to vibrate back and forth, at a rate too rapid to be followed byour eyes. So why does the light appear to flicker?

While the magnet for most of these lights is mounted inside the bulb, I wasfortunate enough to obtain a magnetic wild flicker bulb which had the magnetmounted on the outside. This allowed me to move the magnet away from thebulb, so that I could see the effect of reducing the magnetic field at the filament.As you would expect, the further the magnet was moved away, the smaller theamplitude of the vibration. But this permits another aspect of the vibration to beobserved.

When the magnetic field is small, the vibration of the filament is regular (60 Hz)and is observed only as an apparent broadening of the filament. As the magnet ismoved closer to the bulb, the amplitude of this smooth vibration increases untilsuddenly, the filament begins to wildly flicker. This flicker is at a much lower fre-quency than 60 Hz and its rate is presumably determined by the mechanical resonantfrequencies of the filament. The onset of this flicker is most likely a demonstration ofchaotic motion that occurs when the amplitude of the motion is large enough to causesignificant nonlinear effects. This simple toy thus demonstrates the magnetic forceon a current carrying wire, as well as serving as a means for introducing the conceptof chaos.

These are just a few of the many toys that can be used to illustrate basic physicsprinciples. Only your imagination and ingenuity limit you in your application of thefundamental laws of physics to ordinary objects, even toys. Physics can be fun notonly for students, but also for the teacher. By using toys, physics can be fun foreveryone.

Raymond Turner is an Alumni Distinguished Professor of Physics at Clemson Univer-sity in South Carolina, and is the recipient of the first AAPT Award for Excellence inUndergraduate Teaching. This article first appeared in the Fall 1997 issue of the APSForum on Education Newsletter and was the basis of an invited paper presented at the APS/AAPT April Meeting in Columbus, Ohio. Other physics toys in action may be observed atthe following Web site: [www.clemson.edu/phys- car].

On Sunday afternoon, physicists from Ohio State Universityentertained attendees of the APS/AAPT Spring Meeting

with demonstrations illustrating physics principles in everydayobjects. Sponsored by the Physics Instructional ResourceAssociation (PIRA) and the AAPT Apparatus Committee, thesession was very well attended. PIRA is an organizationintended to serve the needs of physics educators around thecountry by providing means for sharing ideas aboutdemonstrations, laboratory activities, and instructionalresources in general to advance the quality of physics educationat all levels.

Maarten Rutgers displayed his talents for building some ofthe world’s largest soap films, which can approach heights of20 feet. He has constructed an apparatus to study two-dimen-sional fluid flows, which are typical in planetary atmospheres,for example. The device consists of two vertical nylon wireshanging down from a single point, held taut by a weight to formthe sides of the flow channel. A simple soap solution — typi-cally one or two parts of Dawn dish soap detergent to 100 partstap water — drips onto the wires at the top. As it dribbles down,the wires adhere together with the soap solution. They are thenpulled apart, forming a soap film in between them. Gravitypulls the film down at a rate of approximately 10 miles perhour, and a bucket beneath the weight collects the solution.

Rutgers’ laboratory films are typically about 8 to 10 feet talland 2-6 inches wide, but “nothing stops you from making thesefilms as large as you like,” he said. He has constructed soapfilms 4 stories high and 14 feet wide in the atrium of the CarnegieScience Center in Pittsburgh, PA. A giant soap film reaching 7stories (80 feet) and 4 feet wide was produced at the Universityof Chicago’s James Franck Institute. Such tall films, saysRutgers, are 10,000,000 times taller than they are thick. TheXperiment Museum in Stockholm, Switzerland now has a per-manent installation with a two-story flowing film.

Roderick Grant (a.k.a. “Chef Boy R.G.”), a professor emeri-tus at Denison University and amateur chef, used simplecooking examples to demonstrate basic physics concepts. Forexample, he added a tablespoon of hot cocoa to a cup, filled it

Springtime Demos Illustrate Basic Physics Conceptswith hot water, and then tapped the cup’sbottom with a spoon until the pitch stabi-lized. He then poured water into one tallglass, and club soda into a second, tap-ping the bottoms of each to compare thepitch. The pitch of the class of soda waterchanged after it was stirred gently. “Dis-solved air released from mixing cocoa, orfrom the release of CO

2 in soda, modifies

the velocity of sound and consequentlythe perceived pitch,” Grant explained. Healso demonstrated conduction and convec-tion cooling, using containers of water andsoup, respectively, and supplied attend-ees with a reference list for a wide varietyof articles discussing the culinary aspectsof physics and chemistry.

Leonard Jossem and Richard Noll dis-played unexpected electrical behavior inordinary light bulbs, showing how to con-fine an electron in a Penning trap, as wellas how to trap fluorescent particles. Ed-ward Adelson demonstrated a spectrumof pastel colors obtained without the usu-ally required prism or slit. Alas, ascheduled appearance by unicyclist Har-ris Kagan, intended to demonstrate that aball thrown straight up in the air while ona moving unicycle will always land rightin front of him, was canceled due to in-jury during practice.

Additional information and photos of giant soap films, aswell as directions on how to make your own, links to otherWeb sites, and references to books and articles on the subject,can be found at http://www.physics.ohio-state.edu/~maartenand http://www.exploratorium.edu/ronh/bubbles/bubbles.html. More information about unicycling may be foundat http://www.unicycling.org.

A study of a different kind of isolated object,perhaps to be used in future turbulencegenerating grids. A utility knife tip puncturesthe film. The sharp edges produce smallvortices in a shear layer roll-up. This finestructure is convected into a much larger vonKarman vortex wake.

APS News July 1998

8

and detectors around the world. Forexample, Edward R. Kinney of the Uni-vers i ty of Colorado and DESYpresented new results from theHERMES experiment at DESY in Ger-many which provide deta i ledexperimental information on nuclearspin, a quantum property which de-scribes how a nucleus interacts withmagnet ic f ie lds . F inal ly , PeteMarkowitz of Florida InternationalUniversity discussed the results ofJefferson Lab experiments that probethe formation of omega mesons, short-lived and highly unstable nucleiconsisting of two quarks.

Measuring Planck�s ConstantIn efforts to come up with the most

precise value of Planck’s constant todate, a NIST group led by Edwin Will-iams has performed experiments thatrelate Planck’s constant to mechanicalmeasurements of a kilogram mass at-tached to a coil in a magnetic field. Withthese measurements, they were able todetermine Planck’s constant to an ac-curacy of 0.15 parts per million. Thegroup is working to increase the accu-racy of their measurement tenfold, andtheir experiments overall aim to leadto a definition of the kilogram basedon quantum units, rather than one basedon the stalwart physical artifact cur-rently stored in France.

Looking for Cracks in theStandard Model

The current theory of particle phys-ics, the standard model, has beensuccessful in accounting for most of theviolent phenomena observed at accel-erators. Still, researchers must alwaysbe on the lookout for anomalies thatpoint to new physics. Bruce Strau (Co-lumbia University) from the HERAcollaboration in Hamburg, Germany,reported electron-proton collisions evi-dence for bizarre particles calledleptoquarks. Sarah Eno (University ofMaryland) reported on recent experi-ments at Fermi lab, where theTevatron’s 1.8 TeV of collision energycan hypothetically reincarnate quarksinto various exotica, such as Higgsbosons and supersymmetric particles.Ian Scott (University of Wisconsin)summarized new results from the LEPelectron-positron collider.

Light-Front Field TheoryPhysicists believe that a proton is

made up of three quarks held togetherby particles known as gluons. Each pro-ton is constantly bathed in a sea ofvirtual particles, making it difficult forthe modern theory of particle physics,known as quantum chromodynamics(QCD), to describe the properties of aproton’s constituents in isolation fromits surroundings. In the early 1970s, Ri-chard Feynman suggested that it wouldbe easier to separate the proton fromvirtual particles if the proton was mov-ing near the speed of light, relative to afixed point-of-view. In such a referenceframe, one would know that theproton’s constituent particles were alsomoving at near-light speeds, while itwould be much less likely for the vir-tual particles to be traveling at suchvelocities.

This “light-front” approach has ex-plained some key results in particlephysics experiments, but it has not beenpossible yet to compute the propertiesof high-energy (excited) states of theproton from first principles in this (orany other) framework. The primarybarrier to computation has been thebelief that quarks in a proton arestrongly bound to gluons, which makes

computation difficult. In a new versionof the light-field approach, Nobel Lau-reate Kenneth Wilson and Robert Perryof Ohio State University, Stan Glazek(Warsaw University), and others pro-pose that quark binding is considerablyweaker than expected; the only strongbinding is of gluons to each other, andthat this is enough to prevent the ap-pearance of free quarks. Such anassumption may lead to greater suc-cess in analyzing the excited states ofthe proton and of other objects contain-ing quarks.

Rare Processes in SpontaneousFission

An international collaboration of re-searchers from thirteen institutions inthe U.S., Romania, Germany, Russia,China, and Brazil has discovered thatalong with normal fission, neutronlessfission in some elements like Californiumis also possible. According to VanderbiltUniversity’s A.V. Ramayya, there are sev-eral processes, such as californiumsplitting into molybdenum and barium,which is called cold (neutronless) binaryfission. Usually 1-10 events of this typeoccur per 10,000 total fission events of252Cf. This rare process could not be de-tected until recently because of the lackof sensitivity in detector systems. At acost of $20 million provided by the U.S.Department of Energy, a 110-gamma-de-tector array called Gammasphere wasconstructed in the U.S. These data pro-vide significant new insight into thefission processes and particularly thetheoretically predicted cold fragmenta-tions of nuclei.

Sensing with LuminescentMaterials

Fluorescence characteristics of therare earth elements are particularly fa-vorable for use in optical thermometry.The first commercial fiberoptic tempera-ture sensor become available in the early1980s, with significant improvements inproduct design and performance sincethen. In addition, the development of rareearth doped fibers for communicationspurposes has opened up the possibilitiesof new all-fiber systems capable of mak-ing measurements with compact probes.At a Tuesday morning, John Sullivan ofPurdue University discussed the use ofluminescent molecular probes to obtainsurface pressure distribution measure-ments on wind tunnel models, flightvehicles and other fluid flow rigs. Histechnique imbeds luminescent molecu-lar probes in a binder to form a pressuresensitive paint (PSP). On excitation bylight of the proper wavelength, the lumi-nescence, is detected by a camera orphotodetector.

Accelerator-DrivenTransmutation of Waste

Nuclear waste from commercialpower plants contains large quantitiesof plutonium, other fissionable ac-tinides, and long-lived fission productsthat are potential proliferation concernsand create challenges for long-term stor-age. The current U.S. policy is to storeunprocessed spent reactor fuel in a geo-logic repository. However, long-termuncertainties are hampering the accept-ability of this approach.

Accelerator-driven Transmutationof Waste (ATW) concept offers the U.S.and other countries the possibility togreatly reduce plutoinium, higher ac-tinides and environmentally hazardousfission products destined for perma-nent storage. Spent fuel would beshipped to the ATW site where the haz-ardous waste products would bedestroyed by fission or transmutationin their first and only pass through thefacility, using an accelerator-driven sub-

critical burner cooled by liquid lead/bismuth and limited pyrochemicaltreatment of the spent fuel and residualwaste. “ATW does not eliminate theneed for, but instead enhances the vi-abi l i ty of permanent wasterepositories,” said Venneri, adding thatATW also brings to the table new tech-nologies that could be relevant fornext-generation power producing reac-tors.

Physics LaureatesNobel Prize winners seldom rest on

their laurels. All three of last year’s re-cipients of the Nobel Prize in Physicsdescribed their current research in Mon-day sessions. Steven Chu of StanfordUniversity reported on the physics ofDNA molecules which, because of theirmechanical, self- assembling and molecu-lar-recognitions properties, arepotentially useful building materials fornanotechnology. William Phillips ofNIST described tenuous crystals in whichthe atoms are held in place not by chemi-cal forces, but by laser beams, formingso-called “optical lattices,” a periodicpattern of potential wells that confine theatoms in a regular lattice. Claude Cohen-Tannoudji of the College de France etLaboratoire Rastler Brassel describedprize winning research on manipulatingstars with light.

Nontechnical Sessions

Voodoo ScienceRobert Park of the University of

Maryland, author of APS’s weekly re-port “What’s New,” received the JosephBurton Award of the Forum on Phys-ics and Society for his colorfulcommentary on public issues relatingto science at a Saturday morning. He isnotable for his crusade against pseudo-science or, as he likes to call it (in thosecases where the notoriety of the resultsfar exceeds the experimental support),“voodoo science.” Also honored at thesame session were the 1998 recipientsof the Leo Szilard Award: David B.Goldstein of the National ResourcesDefense Council and Howard Geller ofthe American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, who spoke in favorof enacting new national efficiency stan-dards for equipment for meeting futureclimate goals at a profit.

Science WarsIn 1996 NYU physicist Alan Sokal

sent a hoax article to the journal SocialText, a journal devoted to “Science Stud-ies,” the sociological study of science.The article subtly lampooned many ofthe arguments used by other authors inthe journal. The ensuing acrimony overthe hoax, and the numerous letters tothe editors of various publications hasadded a new sharpness to the debateover the objectivity and cultural role ofscience. At a Saturday morning session,three observers of this ongoing “sciencewar” offered their perspectives on thecontroversy: George Levine, an Englishprofessor at Rutgers University; UllicaSegerstrale, sociologist with the IllinoisInstitute of Technology; and physicistKurt Gottfried of Cornell University.

Current Policy IssuesIn November, the White House is-

sued a report from the President’sCommittee of Advisors on Science andTechnology (PCAST), entitled FederalEnergy Research and Development for theChallenges of the Twenty-First Century.The report addresses why U.S. fundingfor this program is important, and rec-ommends many changes in the currentfederal portfolio. During a Mondaymorning session, John Ahearne (DukeUniversity and Sigma Xi), a member of

1998 SPRING MEETINGPROGRAM COMMITTEE:

Chair: Paul Grannis, State Universityof New York, Stony Brook

Vice-Chair: Bunny Clark, Ohio StateUniversity

AAPT Program Chair: LarryKirkpatrick, Montana State University

APS Program Committee: VirginaBrown, National Science Foundation(Past Program Chair); Stuart Freed-man, University of California, Berkeley(DNP); Ben Gibson, Los Alamos Na-tional Laboratory (DNP); CynthiaKeppel, Hampton University (COM);Peggy Cebe, Tufts University (CSWP);Kate Kirby, Harvard-Smithsonian Cen-ter for Astrophysics (DAMOP); JoshGrindley, Harvard-Smithsonian Cen-ter for Astrophysics (DAP); Frank Moss,University of Missouri (DBP); DavidLandau, University of Georgia(DCOMP); Robin Hochstrasser, Univer-sity of Pennsylvania (DCP); NaomiHalas, Rice University (DLS); BillHermannsfeldt, Stanford University(DPB); Howard Gordon, BrookhavenNational Laboratory (DPF); MiklosPorkolab, MIT (DPP); Colston Chan-dler, University of New Mexico(FBSTG); Paul Zitzewitz, University ofMichigan (FED); Allan Franklin, Uni-versity of Colorado (FHP); GalenFisher, General Motors (FIAP); DavidPines, University of Illinois (FIP); Will-iam Colglazier, National Academy ofSciences (FPS); Abhay Ashtekar, PennState University (GTG); Bruce Brandt,NHMFL (IMSTG); Steve Lundeen,Colorado State University (PMFCTG).

the PCAST panel that issued the report,summarized the recommendationswithin the context of the recent Kyotomeeting on climate change. At the samesession, Jo L. Husbands of the NAS’Committee on International Securityand Arms Control outlined the basicconclusions and recommendations ofthe Committee’s report entitled, TheFuture of U.S. Nuclear Weapons Policy.That recommends deeper reductions innuclear arms and fundamental changesin the policies that govern nuclear op-erations.

Communicating PhysicsEffectively

Several scientists with considerableexpertise in writing or lecturing aboutphysics were featured at a Mondaymorning session on how to communi-cate physics more effectively. BarbaraLevi, a long-time editor of Physics To-day, shared some of the lessons she haslearned over the years about how bestto translate research results from vari-ous physics subfields. Hans Christianvon Baeyer of the College of Williamand Mary, who has written widelyabout physics for general audiences,expressed his belief that no less than5% of the total effort of every physicsdepartment should be devoted to thepopularization of physics, to combatthe threats of anti-science, pseudo-sci-ence and general indifference toscience. “Popularization of physics ischanging from a genteel art to a neces-sity for survival,” said von Baeyer,offering several hints and suggestionsfor effective science writing.

Special thanks to Philip F. Schewe andBenjamin Stein of the American Instituteof Physics’ Public Information Office forcontributing to the coverage of technicalsessions in this issue.

April Meeting (continued from page 2)

July 1998 APS News

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FOR VICE PRESIDENT

HERMANN A. GRUNDERThomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility

Grunder was born and raised in Basel, Switzerland, and re-ceived his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Basel in 1967.He joined the staff at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratoryin 1959, serving as Group Leader of the 88-Inch Cyclotron. Afterreceiving his Ph.D., he returned to LBNL as a staff scientist, laterbecoming deputy director. He also served as a special assistantfor advanced facilities in the Division of High Energy Physics atthe Department of Energy in Washington during the construc-tion of the SLC, ISABEL, and the Tevatron II. In 1985, Dr. Grunder left LBNL toassume directorship of the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility, now theThomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (Jefferson Lab), which was beingbuilt in Newport News, Virginia. Grunder has been very involved in the APS, servingon the Division of Nuclear Physics Executive Committee, chairing the Division ofPhysics of Beams and Executive and serving as DPB Councillor in 1996-1997.

GEORGE H. TRILLINGUniversity of California, Berkeley Lawrence Berkeley National

Laboratory

Born in Poland, Trilling received his Ph.D. in 1955 from theCalifornia Institute of Technology. After postdoctoral appoint-ments at Caltech and the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris, he joinedthe University of Michigan in 1957 as assistant professor of phys-ics. Three years later he moved to the University of Californiaat Berkeley, serving as Department Chair in 1968-72, and as Di-rector of the Physics Division of the Lawrence Berkeley NationalLaboratory in 1984-87. He is presently a professor emeritus of physics at UCB and asenior faculty physicist at LBL. His research is in experimental particle physics, andhas included studies of hadron interactions and resonances, electron-positron annihi-lation at high energy, and colliding beam experiments and detectors. Trilling hasserved on numerous advisory committees including the High Energy Physics Advi-sory Panel. Within the APS, he served on the Physics Planning Commitee and asChair of the Division of Particles and Fields. He is presently a DPF Divisional Coun-cillor.

FOR CHAIR ELECT OF THE NOMINATING COMMITTEE

CHARLES B. DUKEXerox Corporation

Duke’s career has encompassed research, teaching, editing,and industrial management in institutions spanning academia,government and industry. He received his Ph.D. in physics fromPrinceton in 1963. Currently, he serves as Vice President andSenior Research Fellow in the Corporate Research and Tech-nology Group at Xerox Corporation. Other industrial serviceincludes technical and management positions at the Xerox Re-search Laboratories, and six years as a staff member of the GeneralElectric Corporate R&D Center. His academic career began in 1969 when he wasappointed a Professor of Physics at the University of Illinois in Urbana, Illinois, postswhich he held until 1972. He served as Adjunct Professor of Physics at the Universityof Rochester during 1972-88 and Affiliate Professor of Physics at the University ofWashington during 1988-89. His government service consisted of his appointment asDeputy Director and Chief Scientist of the Pacific Northwest Laboratory during 1988-89, during which time he founded the Environmental and Molecular SciencesLaboratory. Duke currently serves on the Council and Executive Board of the APS,and was a co-founder of the Forum on Industrial and Applied Physics in 1995.

MICHAEL S. TURNERThe University of Chicago/Fermilab

Turner is the Bruce V. and Diana M. Rauner DistinguishedService Professor and Chair of the Department of Astronomy &Astrophysics at The University of Chicago. He also holds ap-pointments in the Department of Physics and Enrico FermiInstitute at Chicago and is a member of the scientific staff at theFermi National Accelerator Laboratory. Turner received hisPh.D. in Physics from Stanford University in 1978. His associa-tion with The University of Chicago began in 1978. Turner hasbeen honored with the APS Julius Edgar Lilienfeld Prize. He is a theorist whoseresearch focuses on the application of elementary-particle theory to the origin andevolution of the Universe. His current interests include inflationary cosmology, big-bang nucleosynthesis, dark matter and structure formation, and the cosmic microwavebackground radiation. Within the APS, Turner has served as on the APS Council andExecutive Board, the Publications Oversight Committee, the Committee on the Statusof Women in Physics, and the Committee on Committees.

FOR GENERAL COUNCILLOR

PHILIP H. BUCKSBAUMUniversity of Michigan

Bucksbaum is Professor of Physics at the University of Michi-gan, and Associate Director of the NSF Center for Ultrafast OpticalScience. His research is in experimental atomic physics with par-ticular emphasis on the behavior of atoms and molecules in intenselaser fields, and on measurements of fundamental forces and sym-metries in atoms. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Physicsfrom Harvard College in 1975, and his Ph.D. degree in Physicsfrom the University of California at Berkeley in 1980. Followingpostdoctoral positions at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory and Bell Telephone Laborato-ries, he joined the Technical Staff at Bell Labs in Murray Hill, NJ in 1982, where heremained until joining the faculty of the University of Michigan in 1990. Within the APS,Dr. Bucksbaum is a member of the Division of Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics(DAMOP), the Division of Laser Science (DLS), and the Precision Measurements Topi-cal Group. He has served the Society on numerous committees. He is also a DistinguishedTraveling Lecturer for the DLS. He will assume the Otto Laporte Professorship in Phys-ics at the University of Michigan beginning September 1998.

L. CRAIG DAVISFord Research Laboratory

Davis is the Manager of the Physics Department, Ford ResearchLaboratory. The mission of this department is to conduct longrange research in areas of physics that have potential impact uponthe Ford Motor Company’s business. His personal research hasbeen in electro/magnetorheological fluids, composite materials,applications of superconductivity, magnetic levitation of high-speedground transportation, electron tunneling, atomic spectra, elec-tron spectroscopy, resonant photoemission, and the theory of alloy semiconductors. Hereceived his degrees in Physics from Iowa State University (Ph.D. 1966) and the Califor-

1998 General Election PreviewMembers To Choose New Leadership for 1999

Nomination Ballot�1999 Bylaw Committees

To be Completed Only by Members of The American Physical Society(please complete both sides)

The Committee on Committees has the responsibility for nominating elected members ofthe Publications Oversight Committee and the Lilienfeld Prize Committee, and for advisingon suitable candidates for service on other Bylaw Committees appointed by the President.

The Committee needs input from the membership. Current personnel and last year’sannual reports for many of the committees are on the APS Homepage under the Governancebutton. Please provide the name and affiliation of nominees and attach information oncareer highlights and suitability of the nominee for the committee indicated. Self-nominations are encouraged. Please duplicate this form as necessary, and complete bothsides. Please verify that your nominees are APS members.

The deadline for receipt of nominations is 10 August 1998.

COMMITTEE ON CAREERS AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENTName & Affiliation:

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COMMITTEE ON CONSTITUTION & BYLAWSName & Affiliation:

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COMMITTEE ON EDUCATIONName & Affiliation:

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COMMITTEE ON FELLOWSHIPName & Affiliation:

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COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL FREEDOM OF SCIENTISTSName & Affiliation:

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COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC AFFAIRSName & Affiliation:

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INVESTMENT COMMITTEEName & Affiliation:

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LILIENFELD PRIZE COMMITTEEName & Affiliation:

_______________________________________________________________________________________________Continued on Reverse

The membership of The American Physical Society will elect a Vice-President, aChair-Elect of the Nominating Committee, and four General Councillors in the 1998General Election. Ballots must be received by the 10 August 1998 deadline in order tobe valid. A slate of candidates has been prepared by the Nominating Committee, andbiographical summaries for each are provided below. Full biographical informationand candidates’ statements are printed in the ballot.

Continued on page 10.

APS News July 1998

10

nia Institute of Technology. He was a postdoctoral fellow and an instructor at the Univer-sity of Illinois, before joining the Ford Motor Company in 1969. He has been a GuestScientist at DESY (Hamburg, Germany), the Institute for Theoretical Physics (SantaBarbara) and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, as well as an Academic Affiliate of theCenter for Fundamental Materials Research at Michigan State University. Davis servedAPS as Chair of the Forum on Industrial and Applied Physics in 1997-8.

LARRY GLADNEYUniversity of Pennsylvania

Gladney is an Associate Professor in the Department of Phys-ics and Astronomy at the University of Pennsylvania. His researchcareer has been focussed on the study of weak interactions of heavyquarks. At present, he is part of the Babar collaboration working atthe SLAC B factory. This facility seeks to understand the nature ofCP-violation through intensive study of neutral B meson decaysand thereby provide crucial tests of Standard Model predictions aswell as search for physics beyond the Standard Model. He ob-tained his Ph.D. in Physics at Stanford University in 1985 where he made the firstmeasurements of the lifetimes of the neutral and charged D mesons in the electron-positron collider environment. He came to Penn as a postdoctoral student in 1985 andbecame Assistant Professor in 1988 while working on the CDF experiment. He was oneof the main contributors to the first direct observation of B mesons in the hadron colliderenvironment, the start of a rich era of B meson studies at such machines. Since 1994, he hasbeen associate director and a lead teacher for the Lincoln-Penn Pre-College LASERprogram, an outreach program that provides 4 hours of hands-on instruction in physics,chemistry, biology, mathematics, and computer engineering to 120 students, in grades 7through 12, enrolled in public and parochial schools throughout the Philadelphia area.His awards include the 1997 APS Edward A. Bouchet award.

LEON LEDERMANIllinois Institute of Technology/Fermilab

Lederman served as Fermilab Director from 1979-1989. Be-fore that he taught and did research in particle physics atColumbia University, where he also did his graduate work.

While at Columbia, he did research at the 400 MeV Synchro-cyclotron (NEVIS), at Brookhaven National Laboratory, atCERN’s Intersecting Storage Rings, at the Berkeley Bevatron

and the Rutherford Lab in the UK. He is the recipient of the National Medal of Science(1965) given by President Johnson and the Fermi Prize (1993) given by PresidentClinton. He received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1988 for his work with Mel Schwartzand Jack Steinberger on neutrinos. Lederman made Fermilab a strong center for LatinAmerican physicists and engineers, helping to create user groups in Brazil, Mexico,Colombia and Bolivia. During his Fermilab tour, Lederman led an aggressive out-reach program in science education. He helped to start the Illinois Math and ScienceAcademy (1986), a 3-year public residential school for gifted students, and then theTeachers Academy for Math and Science (1990), to upgrade the math and scienceskills of primary school teachers in the Chicago public schools. He is a foundingmember of the DOE Advisory Group, HEPAP, and has served on NSF AdvisoryGroups for Physics and Science Education. He served as President and as Chairman ofAAAS (1990-1992). He has co-authored Quarks to the Cosmos with David Schramm,and The God Particle with Dick Teresi.

W. CARL LINEBERGERUniversity of Colorado/JILA

Lineberger received his Ph.D. in 1965 from the Georgia Insti-tute of Technology, working with Earl W. McDaniel. After apostdoctoral with Lewis Branscomb at JILA, he joined the facultyof the University of Colorado in 1970. He is presently the E. U.Condon Professor of Chemistry and Fellow of JILA at the Univer-sity of Colorado at Boulder. Lineberger has received the APS H. P.Broida Prize and the Earle K. Plyler Prize, and the Irvin B.Langmuir Prize of the American Chemical Society.

Lineberger’s research interests are in experimental chemical physics, laser spec-troscopy, and the ultrafast dynamics of molecular reactions. His current researchactivities include studies of molecular rearrangements following photoexcitation,photodetachment threshold phenomena, and dynamics of molecular cluster ions. Inthe APS, Lineberger has served as Chair of the Division of Chemical Physics (1982/83)and the Division of Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics(1986/87). He has alsoserved as Chair of the Topical Group on Laser Science (1994/95), and is currently amember of the Physics Policy Committee.

JIM MCGUIRETulane University

McGuire has been Murchison Mallory Professor at TulaneUniversity in New Orleans since 1991. He belongs to divisions ofatomic, condensed matter, chemical, laser, nuclear, plasma andelementary particle physics of APS, and is currently active inatomic, optical, chemical and condensed matter physics. McGuirereceived his Ph.D. in high energy nuclear physics from Northeast-ern University in 1969 and went to Texas A&M as an AssistantProfessor. During 1972-1991 he was at Kansas State University. In1997-98 he was a Alexander von Humboldt senior awardee at the University of Frankfurt,Germany. McGuire’s research has been in understanding the dynamics of electron corre-lation. In 1997, McGuire published “Electron Correlation Dynamics in Atomic Collisions”and was an Editor of the “Encyclopedia of Physics”. He was a site leader for the Introduc-tory University Physics Project in 1992-1993. He is active in science outreach and publiceducation in New Orleans. He has served on APS various committees, including Secre-tary-Treasurer of DAMOP, Executive Committees of DAMOP and FBSMD. He wasone of the organizers of the first APS Congressional Day.

THOMAS O’NEILUniversity of California, San Diego

O’Neil is a professor of physics at the University of Californiaat San Diego. He is a plasma theorist whose early research in-cluded the extension of Landau damping to the nonlinear regimeand the theory of plasma wave echoes. Currently, he studies thephysics of magnetically confined nonneutral plasmas, liquids, andcrystals. He is a fellow of the APS, co-recipient of the 1991 APSAward for Excellence in Plasma Physics, and the recipient of the1996 APS James Clerk Maxwell Prize for Plasma Physics. Hereceived his B.S. degree from California State University at Long Beach in 1962 and hisPh.D. from UCSD in 1965. After a brief period on the research staff of the Plasma PhysicsGroup at General Atomics Corporation, he returned to UCSD as a faculty member in thePhysics Department, where he will be chair starting this summer. He has served the APSDivision of Plasma Physics on many committees including the Executive Committee.This year he serves as a Distinguished Lecturer for Plasma Physics. He has been a Divi-sional Associate Editor for Physical Review Letters, and served on the Advisory Boardfor the Institute for Fusion Studies and the Institute for Theoretical Physics.

JAMES TREFILGeorge Mason University

Trefil received his Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics from StanfordUniversity. After postdocs at CERN and MIT and a junior facultyappointment at Illinois, he joined the faculty at the University ofVirginia, where he eventually became University Professor ofPhysics. He assumed his current position at George Mason in1985. His current research, carried on in collaboration with thepaleontology group at the University of Chicago, involves con-structing mathematical models to interpret the fossil record.

His main interest is in promoting scientific literacy both inside the university andamong the general public. He is the author or co-author of 25 books and numerousmagazine articles on science for the general reader. With Robert Hazen, he has developeda university level scientific literacy course and textbook now being used by over 150universities and colleges. He is on the Science Boards of National Public Radio andAstronomy Magazine, Science Consultant to Smithsonian magazine, and ContributingEditor for Science to USA Today Weekend Magazine. His writing has won numerousawards, including the AAAS Science Journalism Award. He is a Fellow of the WorldEconomic Forum and a member of the AAAS Committee on Public Understanding ofScience.

COMMITTEE ON MEETINGSName & Affiliation:

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COMMITTEE ON MEMBERSHIPName & Affiliation:

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COMMITTEE ON MINORITIESName & Affiliation:

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COMMITTEE ON THE STATUS OF WOMEN IN PHYSICSName & Affiliation:

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PUBLICATIONS OVERSIGHT COMMITTEEName & Affiliation:

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PHYSICS POLICY COMMITTEEName & Affiliation:

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Concise biographical information on your nominees is essential.

Nominator�s Information

Name:_________________________________________________________________

Affiliation, Address:_____________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________

Signature: _____________________________________________________________

Please Address Your Envelope to:The American Physical Society

ATTN: AMY HALSTEDOne Physics Ellipse

College Park, MD 20740-3844Fax: (301) 209-0865

Email: halsted@aps.org

The deadline for receipt of nominations is 10 August 1998.Thank you.

Continued from page 9

July 1998 APS News

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Announcements

NOMINATIONS FORPRIZES AND AWARDS

The following prizes and awards will be bestowed at the Fluid Dynamics DivisionMeeting in 1999. A brief description of each prize and award is given below, alongwith the addresses of the selection committee chairs to whom nominations should besent. Please refer to the new 1998-1999 Centennial APS Membership Directory, pagesA19-A37, for complete information regarding rules and eligibility requirements forindividual prizes and awards.

1999 FLUID DYNAMICS PRIZE

Sponsored by friends of the Division of Fluid Dynamics and the American Institute of Physicsjournal Physics of Fluids.

Purpose: To recognize and encouragAnnouncementse outstanding achievement in fluid dy-namics research.

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Quantum diffusion of muons and muonium atoms in solidsMuons have a mass and mobility intermediate between electrons and atoms insolids. V. Storchak and N. Prokof’ev review the tunneling of muons in solids,covering both the experimental observations and theory.

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Coherent population transfer among quantum states of atoms and moleculesK. Bergmann, H. Theuer, and B. W. Shore describe a new technique for transferbetween quantum states with nearly 100% efficiency, using stimulated Ramanscattering.

Single-photon detection by rod cells of the retinaRieke and Baylor describe experiments that reveal the exquisite sensitivity of bio-logical photoreceptors, able to distinguish one photon from two.

Metal-insulator transitionsM. Imada and collaborators review the theory and experimental phenomena of themetal-insulator transition, in which huge resistivity changes take place under thecontrol of external parameters. The article describes the many outstanding ex-amples among transition-metal materials.

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12

I am privy to these kind of discussionsat my university. There is reason for con-cern, I suppose. I wouldn’t say that womenand other minorities are “under-repre-sented”‘ in physics or engineering, but Iwould admit that there are few women inthese fields. I do not think the answer is aseasy as what Auchincloss espouses.

Physics, more feminist? Physics doesnot need to be more anything — exceptappreciated. It certainly does not need tobe more feminist. Yes, I have encounteredbias from males in physics, as well as theoccasional derogatory remark or tastelesscomment. But one should be careful notto confuse the science with the scientist.Auchinclass tells us that the group pro-vides “criticism or approval, and theparadigm to allow integration of the vari-ous parts of the puzzle.” So nowobjectivity is a paradigm, and not a pri-

Physics Doesn’t Need to Become More “Feminist”mary assumption? Is she trying to expli-cate the scientific method andconcomitant practice of peer-review?

If so, she’s done a poor job. Couching itin the language of feminist rhetoric lessensthe impact of the power of reproducibility.Reproducibility means that when I makean observation, you can make the same ob-servation independently, whether you likeme or not, agree with my lifestyle, philoso-phy, or gender. This is where sciencederives its power and beauty. There is noth-ing exclusionary or oppressive here.

I think Auchincloss’ energies would bebetter spent improving the overall qualityof physics education. This way, when anargument is lost due to lack of knowledge,no one need cry “sex discrimination” orworse, “old boy network.”Crystal BarkerUniversity of Arizona, Tucson

Must We Atone for Sins of the Past?Priscilla Auchincloss’ statement that

“...the idea of getting physics to becomemore feminist strikes most physicists as akind of heresy” is over-wrought. Muchmore likely they would be puzzled. Whatdoes becoming “more feminist” mean?

Auchincloss maintains that we have toincrease progress for women in physicsthrough intervention programs and recruit-ment. Granted. Equity in pay andopportunity is a laudable goal. Yet to theextent that equity was ever an exclusivelyfeminist objective, society has co-opted itcompletely, leaving feminists with verylittle to actually do. Thus, she also proposesthat physics departments embrace femi-nism, sending the faculty to workshops tocultivate gender equity awareness, andmaking regular assessments of the climatefor women in science. This is familiarmulticultural territory.

But what will embrace of feminismaccomplish? According to Auchincloss,it will attract and retain women, creategender equitable environments, and re-form physics education. However,nowhere does she make a cogent argu-ment for how feminism will achieve thesegoals, or what the second goal evenmeans. Instead, she spends the bulk ofher article dissecting objectivity. Appar-ently, physics and science in generalpunishes women by lacking real objec-tivity. The solution for this is twofold.First, atone for past sins. Second, makefuture science practice a more balancedmix of subjectivity.

For what sins must we atone? Simplyput, science colludes against women enter-ing science. She mentions few examples.To draw upon long discredited science todiscredit science in general is to miss the

self-correcting mechanisms which are sci-ences essential features. Although thescientific revolution failed to draw womeninto science in the past, it and its sibling thetechnological revolution, are still on going.Between them they have freed untold bil-lions of people from oppressive socialconstructs and miserable lives.

Apparently our sins are original. We areborn into them, which makes our escapefrom them impossible. Moreover, the word“colludes” suggests conspiracy, yet the onlyco-conspirator mentioned is the church. Itis bizarre that science and religion, whichengaged in open antagonism for at least 150years, and have entirely different goals andprocesses, are colluding.

Does science lack objectivity?Auchincloss quotes several post modernscholars on this point, for example: EvelynFox Keller believes that natural sciencesare subject to political, psychological andsocial forces; Helen Longino maintains thata feminine context would produce scienceand more correct results; Donna Harawayis a postmodern writer of extreme murki-ness whose positions are not at all clear;Finally, Thomas Kuhn’s work concernshow social constructs relate to major up-heavals in scientific theories. This is notstrong evidence.

Even presuming that Auchincloss hasproved science’s results lack objectivity, sheis left with the inconvenient fact that QED,or the eigenfunctions of a particle in a po-tential, or the laws of thermodynamics, ortheories of seismology, or stellar structure,or a million other pieces of the fabric ofphysical science have nothing whatsoeverto do with gender.Kevin T. KiltyLa Center, Washington

Women are Not “Other”Years ago I read my seven-year-old

daughter the story “Ronia the RobberGirl,” by Astrid Lindgren. She laughedwhen she heard the title. “What’s sofunny?” I asked. “Silly,” she giggled, “rob-ber means boy!”

In her Back Page article, PriscillaAuchincloss reminds us that we have madethe very same mistake. By systematicallyclassifying women as “other than us,” wehave unconsciously guaranteed that fe-males will always feel slightlyuncomfortable, in spite of the profession’sbest efforts to “include” them.

Physics and Feminism — Perhaps a Bigger Issue Looms?

Priscilla Auchincloss presented somevaluable points regarding the “leaky pipe-line” existing for women in physics,especially in academia. Although I agreevery much with the historical and philo-sophical contexts she identified relevant togender and scientific thought, I think wecan take this discussion one step furtherand deeper.

Yes, the academic climate needs fore-most examination. British sociologist KimThomas argued all equity issues inevitablycome back to the classroom. Yet not every-one in academia understands what equitymeans. Equity is not necessarily equal num-bers of men and women in physicsclassrooms; equity means equal access toknowledge, opportunity, and empower-ment. By the learning activities we provide,and pedagogical practices we use, we caneither nurture students’ interest in physicsor deny them the very learning and successwe expect of them.

Scientists are notoriously labeled as “in-tellectually arrogant,” an unpleasant yetvery real perception. By institutionalizing aparadigm formulated by men several centu-ries ago, women and other under-representedpeople are denied ultimate access to phys-ics knowledge and the profession. They

participate at the fringe of the culture, butare ultimately shunned from the core. Howelse can we explain the numerical equityof women students at the introductory level,yet numerical disparity beyond that level?Is it any wonder some women feel unwel-come or unworthy of a physics career?

Yes, academia provides tremendous vali-dation for physics possibly having ananti-feminist nature. The slow progress ofwomen, as well as certain ethnic minori-ties, in physics is perhaps a symptom of abroader level of dysfunction, be it philo-sophical or cultural.

I agree with Auchincloss that “Bringingtogether physics and feminism... has the po-tential to bring about positive change in theculture of physics.” However, if we are to“realize a truly diverse physics community,”a cultural and philosophical revolution needsto first take place within the sciences. Un-til we come to terms with how science isviewed and shared within our civilization,we will continue to struggle bringing aboutthe total equity and diversity physics andother sciences lack. Change cannot comeabout easily if we have not completely iden-tified the necessity for change.David PushkinMontclair State University

Reader Responses to Physics and Feminism, May 1998 The Back Page by Priscilla Auchincloss

THE BACK PAGE

older style in profound ways.Let’s look at the problem of women in

physics in a fresh way. The most impor-tant question to ask is, “How is physics as awhole hurt by the extremely low percent-age of women physicists?”

Physics used to be a good option forthose with mathematical ability and a de-sire for a fast-paced intellectual life. Buttoday, physics competes for these toppeople with a whole host of other optionsincluding computer engineering, technicalconsulting, and multimedia/Web design.In fact, the proportion of people in thesefields who were originally trained in phys-ics is stunning.

How does this relate to women?Women cast the same skeptical eye on thecareer market as men do, asking the ques-tion, “Is this field one where I can advanceon my own merits and generally feel likeI’m a valuable (and valued) member of anenergetic, forward-thinking team?” Con-sidering that physics still has onlysingle-digit percentages of women, the an-swer appears from the outside to be “no.”

Anyone who has paid attention to gradschool class sizes recently knows that phys-ics is suffering from these women’snonparticipation. We are losing not onlywarm bodies and intellectual talent (whichwould translate into more funding), but alsorespect because we don’t compare favor-ably to other career options for smart,scientifically-minded women. And it’s notgoing to get better if we ignore it.

The situation is not hopeless; there could

Although I applaud PriscillaAuchincloss’s willingness to tackle the dif-ficult relationship between physics andfeminism, I want to take them in a newdirection. My purpose is twofold: first, toraise awareness that feminism is no longercentered around academic Women’s Stud-ies research, and second, to bring someadditional practical suggestions to the table.

Auchincloss asserts that one problemwith our efforts so far to recruit and retainwomen in physics lies with the fact thatthese efforts require extra work on the partof physicists that is “at best irrelevant tothe practice of science.” But biology hashad phenomenal success attracting and re-taining bright women scientists, as has thepractice of medicine, so it’s unclear whyphysics has performed so poorly in com-parison.

However, if academic physicists haveno time for volunteering at elementaryschools or talking with panels who are as-sessing the climate for women in physics,how can they possibly have time to engagein a “discourse” about the ideological foun-dations of their discipline? I thereforedisagree that a good solution to the prob-lem of women in physics is to createstronger ties to feminist studies of physics.To the young women of today, who grewup in a world where equity with men is nothoped for but expected, these departmentsseem to serve the purpose of isolating femi-nism from the real world. A new feminismis emerging, which just as rightly calls it-self “feminism,” but which breaks from the

A New Feminist Approach

The feminist scholars have outlined aprogram to reverse this trend. AsAuchincloss points out, it starts by recov-ering lost history. Publications such as PhysicsNews and Physics Today have made admi-rable efforts in this area. But even therelatively minor task of debunking invalidstereotypes is a difficult one. Making phys-ics hospitable to all will be monumental.Cultures change very slowly, and our besthope for gender equality is through educa-tion.Edward FinkelFernbank Museum, Atlanta, Georgia

The Back Page is intended as a forum to foster discussion on topics of interest to the scientific community. Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the APS, its elected officers, or staff. APS News welcomes andencourages letters and submissions from its members responding to these and other issues. Responses may be sent to: letters@aps.org.

be more women in physics, and physicscould compete effectively against other ca-reer choices. We must accept that the newcareer options luring away potential physi-cists (and women physicists in particular)are valid rivals, worthy of a serious market-ing effort to outmatch.

I suggest that attracting more women tophysics is a matter of improving the condi-tions in physics in general. That willrequire acknowledging that physics must

sell itself to smart people by highlightingits positive I also suggest some restructur-ing of physics department funds such thatcollegiality rather than competition amongprofessors is encouraged, and institutingrewards (say, teaching or tenure credit) forthose professors who are good mentors.And I’m sure a much longer list than minecould be drawn up!Kim AllenUCSD physics grad student and feminist