Search Content Type

BOOKENDS

Reports, reviews, and interviews about books of interest to the physical sciences community.

The year in reviews: Five books to put on your holiday wish list

Books editor Jermey Matthews picks his five favorite books that were reviewed last year in the pages of Physics Today.

Author Interviews

Each month, Physics Today interviews an author whose book has been reviewed in the magazine's latest issue.

David C. Cassidy

Historian of science, David C. Cassidy, is a professor at Hofstra University in Hempstead, NY, where he primarily teaches physics from a historical perspective for non-science majors. He has written several books and research articles on physics in Germany and the US, with an emphasis on quantum history, physics and society, and biography.

Sönke Johnsen

Originally trained in mathematics and art, Duke University biologist Sönke Johnsen has been studying camouflage, eyes, tissue optics, and nonhuman visual modalities for more than 20 years.

Lisa Randall

Harvard University theoretical physicist Lisa Randall addresses questions about the properties and interaction of matter in the standard model and beyond. She has developed and studied a wide variety of models including the RandallSundrum model, which involves extra dimensions of space.

Francis F. Chen

Plasma physicist Francis (Frank) Chen has spent more than five decades conducting theoretical and experimental research in magnetic fusion, laser fusion, plasma diagnostics, basic plasma physics, and low-temperature plasma physics.

Philip W. Anderson

Condensed-matter physicist Philip Warren Anderson received a share of the 1977 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on the electronic structure of magnetic and disordered systems. His latest book is More and Different: Notes from a Thoughtful Curmudgeon.

Roberto Piazza

Condensed-matter physicist Roberto Piazza recently wrote Soft Matter: The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of. Currently he works at the Polytechnic University of Milan.

George H. Ludwig

Author of Opening Space Research, George Ludwig helped develop the cosmic-ray research program at the University of Iowa. He later became a full-time researcher there and at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

Anton Zeilinger

Austrian-born quantum physicist Zeilinger is at the University of Vienna and scientific director of the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information at the Austrian Academy of Sciences. He recently wrote Dance of the Photons: From Einstein to Quantum Teleportation.