Physics Today On The Web - Contents of the Current Issue

June 2000 Contents

Cover: This digitally enhanced photograph shows part of the treatise On Floating Bodies from the oldest surviving Archimedean manuscript, the tenth-century Archimedes Palimpsest. In the 12th century, a prayer book (visible here as the faint vertical writing) was written over the original text; the manuscript remained obscure until auctioned in 1998. For more on the palimpsest and what it tells us about Archimedes, see the article by Reviel Netz on page 32. (Photograph © Christie’s Images New York.)

Articles

The Physics of the Sun and the Gateway to the Stars
The Sun is stranger than you think, displaying mysterious manifestations of the familiar laws of physics and posing new problems with every major advance in exploratory measurement
— Eugene N. Parker

The Origins of Mathematical Physics: New Light on an Old Question
A recently resurfaced tenth-century manuscript, the Archimedes Palimpsest, includes the sole extant copy of Archimedes’s treatise, the Method. As scholars begin study, new insights into Archimedes are emerging
— Reviel Netz

Spin and Isospin: Exotic Order in Quantum Hall Ferromagnets
Spin and a peculiar kind of isospin in two-dimensional electron gases can exhibit novel counterintuitive ordering phenomena
— Steven M. Girvin

Departments

Physics Update

Reference Frame
What is quantum theory? — Frank Wilczek

Letters

Search and Discovery
The heat flow through nanoscale wires faces a fundamental limit . . . Femtosecond comb technique vastly simplifies optical frequency measurements . . . Titanium carbide nanocrystals shed light on late phase of stellar lifestyle . . . Two satellites observe details of ocean-atmosphere coupling

Washington Reports
US and Russia quarrel over an old issue: missile defense, now dubbed ‘Star Wars Lite’ . . . As term nears end, Clinton names Dresselhaus to strengthen support for DOE science research . . . Clinton nominates General Gordon to lead new NNSA

Physics Community
A new generation of gamma-ray telescopes prepares to plumb the nonthermal universe . . . Jordan will likely host Middle East synchrotron light source . . . Physics enrollment leveling off, make-up changing . . .Web Watch

Opinion
Teaching and propaganda — Mano Singham

Books
The New World of Mr. Tompkins, G. Gamow and R. Stannard (reviewed by D. M. Greenberger) . . . Little Book of Streamlines, C. Pozrikidis (reviewed by S. A. Berger) . . . The Unmaking of the Medieval Christian Cosmos, 1500–1760: From Solid Heavens to Boundless Aether, W. G. L. Randles (reviewed by O. Gingerich) . . . Classical Electrodynamics, J. Schwinger, L. L. DeRaad Jr, K. A. Milton, and W. Tsai (reviewed by F. Rohrlich) . . . General Relativity: A Geometric Approach, M. Ludvigsen (reviewed by S. F. Shandarin)

New Products
Focus on photonics

We Hear That

Obituaries
Andrei Tsolakovitch Amatuni . . . Kurt J. Lesker Jr

Information Exchange

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