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July 2011

Volume 64, Issue 7

cover: Concentrated solar power holds the most promise for collecting, storing, and transporting solar energy on a large scale. Here, parabolic troughs focus sunlight onto a fluid-containing tube. The hot fluid can be stored and the heat converted to electricity via a steam power plant. An effort is under way to use this method to collect solar energy in the deserts of the Middle East and North Africa and send some of it to Europe. See the stories on pages 21 and 22. (Photo by Markus Steur, courtesy of the German Aerospace Center.)

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Articles

Select this Article FREE		Adventures in scientific nuclear diplomacy Siegfried S. Hecker


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	+ -	Show Topic A former director of Los Alamos National Laboratory offers a first-person perspective on the important contributions scientists can make toward improving the safety and security of nuclear materials and reducing the global nuclear dangers in an evolving world.

Select this Article		Magnetic dynamos in the lab Daniel P. Lathrop and Cary B. Forest


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	+ -	Show Topic There is as yet no predictive theory of planetary or astrophysical dynamos. But theorists, numerical modelers, and experimenters are on the case.

Select this Article		From near-field optics to optical antennas Lukas Novotny


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	+ -	Show Topic Nanoscale probes that convert light into localized energy or vice versa form the basis for diffraction-unlimited imaging and intriguing light–matter interactions.

Letters

Placing Chandra’s work in historical context

Select this Article FREE		Placing Chandra’s work in historical context Michael Nauenberg

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Select this Article FREE		Placing Chandra’s work in historical context Eric G. Blackman

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Select this Article FREE		Placing Chandra’s work in historical context Kameshwar Wali

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Select this Article FREE		Placing Chandra’s work in historical context (Unabridged) Kameshwar Wali

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On measurement and quantum nondemolition

Select this Article FREE		On measurement and quantum nondemolition H. Dieter Zeh

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Select this Article FREE		On measurement and quantum nondemolition Terry Goldman

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Green function correlations across physics subfields

Select this Article FREE		Green function correlations across physics subfields Boris Shapiro

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Some fine points on radiative forcing

Select this Article FREE		Some fine points on radiative forcing Hardy B. Granberg

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Select this Article FREE		Some fine points on radiative forcing Raymond T. Pierrehumbert

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Clarifying Dirac and Majorana distinctions

Select this Article FREE		Clarifying Dirac and Majorana distinctions Alfred Scharff Goldhaber and Maurice Goldhaber

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Correction

Select this Article FREE		Correction

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Search and Discovery

Select this Article		Gravity Probe B concludes its 50-year quest Steven K. Blau


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	+ -	Show Topic A conceptually simple experiment confirmed two predictions of general relativity, but not with the hoped-for precision.

Select this Article		Ultracold Bose gases deviate from the textbook picture Johanna L. Miller


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	+ -	Show Topic Interactions among identical bosons remove the upper bound on the number of particles in excited states.

Select this Article		Current-driven magnetic domain walls gather speed Ashley G. Smart


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	+ -	Show Topic The key, according to new experiments, is to house the walls in a sandwich of platinum, cobalt,and aluminum oxide.

Physics Update

Select this Article		High-spin early stars Bertram Schwarzschild

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Select this Article		Optical pump-probe diagnosis for melanoma? Stephen Benka


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Select this Article		New sensor for detecting trace gases Stephen Benka


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Select this Article		Observing antimatter helium-4 Mark Wilson

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Issues and Events

Select this Article FREE		Scientists help make deserts into solar-energy hubs Toni Feder


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	+ -	Show Topic Enthusiasm is high for collecting solar energy in the Middle East and North Africa, with some to be exported to Europe. But doing so requires overcoming political, social, legal, technical, and financial obstacles.

Select this Article		High-energy physicist turns solar-energy activist Toni Feder


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Select this Article FREE		Shale-gas extraction faces growing public and regulatory challenges David Kramer


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	+ -	Show Topic Two federal agencies are scrutinizing the shale-gas industry and its use of “fracking,” but gas producers insist that state regulators provide sufficient environmental oversight.

Select this Article FREE		Europe to invest billions in multinational science initiatives Toni Feder


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	+ -	Show Topic Coordinating fragmented efforts in selected research areas is expected to provide a strong basis for future technological innovation, economic growth, and other benefits for society.

Select this Article FREE		Developing-world academy of sciences has new leader Jermey N. A. Matthews


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	+ -	Show Topic The mathematical physicist looks to increase the number of PhD scientists in economically challenged countries.

Select this Article		Supercomputing has a future in clean energy David Kramer


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	+ -	Show Topic As national laboratories tout their high-performance computing for energy applications, the path to more powerful computers may be blocked by prohibitive electricity requirements.

Select this Article		Convincing US states to require physics Toni Feder


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News notes

Select this Article		Degrees and employment Toni Feder


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Books

Select this Article		BCS: 50 Years Malcolm Beasley, Reviewer

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Select this Article		Galaxy Formation and Evolution; How Did the First Stars and Galaxies Form? Joseph Silk, Reviewer

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Select this Article		Observational Cosmology Kevin M. Huffenberger, Reviewer

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Select this Article		Aberration-Corrected Imaging in Transmission Electron Microscopy: An Introduction Lew Rabenberg, Reviewer

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Select this Article FREE		New books

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New Products

Select this Article FREE		Focus on software Andreas Mandelis


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	+ -	Show Topic The descriptions of the new products listed in this section are based on information supplied to us by the manufacturers. PHYSICS TODAY can assume no responsibility for their accuracy. For more information about a particular product, vis the website at the end of the product description.

Obituaries

Select this Article FREE		Donald Charles Backer James Moran

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Select this Article FREE		Georges Charpak Ioannis Giomataris and Michel Spiro

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Select this Article FREE		Albert Ghiorso Robert W. Schmieder

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Select this Article FREE		Jan Tauc Manuel Cardona, Sidney Nagel, Richard Zallen, and Karel Závěta

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Quick Study

Select this Article		Probability, physics, and the coin toss L. Mahadevan and Ee Hou Yong

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	+ -	Show Topic When you flip a coin to decide an issue, you assume that the coin will not land on its side and, perhaps less consciously, that the coin is flipped end over end. What happens if those assumptions are relaxed?