September 1998 Contents

ARTICLES

Rubbing and Scrubbing

Though simply expressed, the laws of friction encapsulate a host of microscopic and nanoscopic phenomena whose elucidation has become one of the most fascinating pursuits in applied physics -- Georg Hähner and Nicholas Spencer

The Sokal Hoax: At Whom Are We Laughing?

The philosophical pronouncements of Bohr, Born, Heisenberg and Pauli deserve some of the blame for the excesses of the postmodernist critique of science -- Mara Beller

Everyone's Magnetism

Though it seems counterintuitive, today's research magnets can easily levitate seemingly nonmagnetic objects, thereby opening an Earthbound door to microgravity conditions -- Andrey Geim

DEPARTMENTS

Search and Discovery

• Small-world networks can provide a new tool to study diverse systems...

• Search at SLAC finds no millicharged particles

Washington Reports

• Experts dispute CIA assessment of missile threat and raise demands in Congress for defense system

• Computer and communications panel urges doubling funds for long-range research and more teaching faculty

• Senate confirms heads of DOE, OSTP and OMB after holding nominations hostage over ducks

• Washington briefings: NSF punished for 'dubious' research; IBM sales to Russian lab lead to new restrictions; Frustrated by Russia's role in the space station

Physics Community

• Physicists question US sanctions on scientific collaborations with India and Pakistan

• British science gets big budget boost

• UK science policy posts are reshuffled

• Physics societies offer free undergrad memberships

• Physics olympiad held in the land of fire and ice

• Physics and the art of the motorcycle

• Web Watch

Physics Today Celebrates Its 50th

Opinion

• The Question of Pure-Fusion Explosions under the CTBT --Suzanne Jones, Ray Kidder and Frank von Hippel

Books

Comets, Popular Culture and the Birth of Modern Cosmology, S. S. Genuth (reviewed by M.J. Crowe)

Bombshell: The Secret Story of America's Unknown Atomic Spy Conspiracy, J. Albright and M. Kunstel (reviewed by L. Badash)

The Einstein Tower: An Intertexture of Dynamic Construction, Relativity Theory and Astronomy, K. Hentschel, translated by A. M. Henstchel (reviewed by J. Renn)

Rock Magnetism: Fundamentals and Frontiers, D. Dunlop and Ö. Özdemir (reviewed by M. D. Fuller)

Visions: How Science Will Revolutionize the 21st Century, M. Kaku (reviewed by J. A. Paradiso)

Group Theory in Physics: An Introduction, J. F. Cornwell (reviewed by W. W. Buck)

Introduction to Scientific Programming: Computational Problem Solving Using Mathematica and C, J. L. Zachary and Introduction to Partial Differential Equations with MATLAB, J. Cooper (reviewed by M. Pierucci)

The Solar Corona, L. Golub and J. M. Pasachoff (reviewed by E. N. Parker)

Nucleosynthesis and Chemical Evolution of Galaxies, B. E. J. Pagel (reviewed by D. Arnett)

Plus ...

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