Articles
Technical and Policy Issues of Counterterrorism— A Primer for Physicists 
No longer threatened by a rival superpower, the US now faces the growing danger of clandestine terrorist groups. Effectively countering terrorists requires that physicists actively contribute to the nation's defense — Jay Davis and Don Prosnitz
Quantum Entanglement: A Modern Perspective
It's not your grandfather's quantum mechanics. Today, researchers treat entanglement as a physical resource: Quantum information can now be measured, mixed, distilled, concentrated, and diluted — Barbara M. Terhal, Michael M. Wolf, and Andrew C. Doherty
Supernovae, Dark Energy, and the Accelerating Universe
Using very distant supernovae as standard candles, one can trace the history of cosmic expansion and try to find out what's currently speeding it up — Saul Perlmutter
Web departments
Readings from the Physics Today Archive
Departments
Reference Frame
Dark Energy: Just What Theorists Ordered — Michael S. Turner
Letters
Research, Ownership, Misconduct--Readers Respond
Bayesian Probability and One Bad Apple
Reader Inquires: Who Was Thomas Hakon Gronwall?
Search & Discovery
WMAP Spacecraft Maps the Entire Cosmic Microwave Sky With Unprecedented Precision
A year of full-sky observation by the newly rechristened Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe greatly strengthens the case for inflationary Big Bang cosmology.
Stone Cold: Patterned Ground in Alpine and Arctic Regions
In arctic and alpine regions, repeated freezing and thawing cycles yield a variety of remarkable stone patterns. Now scientists can reproduce those patterns with a simple model.
Microwaves Induce Vanishing Resistance in Two-Dimensional Electron Systems
At modest magnetic fields and microwave excitations, the resistance of a 2D semiconductor can oscillate all the way to zero.
Ultrashort Laser Pulses Beget Even Shorter Bursts in the Extreme Ultraviolet
The attophysics frontier is about to expand, thanks to the newly won ability to control the phase of amplified laser pulses.
Issues & Events
Kick-Starting Developing Economies With Relevant Technologies
Martin Fisher puts his mind to using technology to facilitate microentrepreneurs in East Africa.
US Research Grants Are Critical to Former Soviet Weapons Scientists, but Not a Long-Term Solution
Russia and other former Soviet republics inherited a massive nuclear weapons program they could no longer afford. Thousands of former weapons scientists have been subsidized by US grants, but finding them permanent, civilian jobs has proven to be extremely difficult.
Exact Change Needed, No Boom Boxes, Do Physics
Between the usual advertisements and exhortations, riders on the University of Massachusetts transit system can now find placards inviting them to puzzle over physics.
India Ups R&D Investment
India will almost double science and technology funding from 1.1% to 2% of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2007, according to a policy document released by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in January at the Indian Science Congress in Bangalore.
DESY Laser Gets the Nod, Collider Bid Deferred
The German Electron Synchroton (DESY) in Hamburg recently received good news and not-so-good news in a single breath: On 5 February, Germany's science ministry announced that it will ante up 337 million ($363 million), or half the cost of the lab's proposed x-ray free electron laser (X-FEL), but that, at least for now, it will not commit to the lab's ultimate goal of building a superconducting electron-positron collider, a contender to become the world's next-generation particle accelerator.
European Spallation Source: Dead or Alive?
The aspiring European Spallation Source has no doubt suffered setbacks, but whether it is dead or just delayed is a matter of perspective.
Chief Quits Spain's Research Institutions
Fed up with dwindling autonomy and a seeming lack of government support for science, Rolf Tarrach quit in February as president of the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), a network of about 115 research institutions across Spain.
Bankruptcy Hits Publishers, Libraries
When Sandy Spurlock of the Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute in Albuquerque, New Mexico, tried to confirm details of the institute's 2003 library subscriptions with RoweCom, a Massachusetts based subscription agent that provides magazines and journals to thousands of libraries worldwide, none of her telephone calls or e-mails was returned. A few days later, RoweCom went into bankruptcy.
News Notes
ALMA Green Light, Irish Visitor Awards
Web watch
The Semiconductor Subway; Curtis Roads; Astronomical Applications Department
Books
Flatterland: Like Flatland, Only More So, Ian Stewart (reviewed by Leonard Parker)
The Annotated Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions, Edwin A. Abbott, Introduction and Notes by Ian Stewart (reviewed by Leonard Parker)
Physics and the Art of Dance: Understanding Movement, Kenneth Laws (reviewed by Judy Kupferman)
Envisioning Science: The Design and Craft of the Science Image, Felice Frankel (reviewed by G. I. Barenblatt)
Fundamentals and Applications of Ultrasonic Waves, J. David N. Cheeke (reviewed by Moises Levy)
Wavelet Transforms and Their Applications, Lokenath Debnath (reviewed by Jean-Pierre Antoine)
Many-Body Problems and Quantum Field Theory: An Introduction, Philippe A. Martin and François Rothen (translated from French by Steven Goldfarb) (reviewed by Michel Baranger)
New Books
New Products
Focus on Materials
We Hear That
AAS Honors Wetherill and Others
Franklin Institute Names Award Winners for 2003
Sunyaev to Receive Cosmology Prize
German Physical Society Gives Awards
Kirshner Elected President of AAS
Jurnak Is Elected ACA Vice President
In Brief
Obituaries
Oreste Piccioni
Morton Fischel Kaplon
Larry Kevan
Jacques Pierre Friederich Sellschop |
