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November 2000 Volume 53, Number 11
November 2000 cover
Cover: Inclined sputter sources mounted inside a vacuum deposition chamber. These sources are used to deposit nickel-magnesium thin films onto a glass substrate mounted in the overhead carriage. Such Ni­Mg films, currently under development as a dynamic window coating, would make it possible for a window to switch between reflective metallic and transparent metal-hydride states. The authors of the article on page 29 argue that a range of such advances in energy conservation technologies can bring US emissions of CO2 back to 1990 levels. (Photo courtesy of Jonathan Slack, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.)

  Articles

From Quantum Cheating to Quantum Security
For thousands of years, code-makers and code-breakers have been competing for supremacy. Their arsenals may soon include a powerful new weapon: quantum mechanics -- Daniel Gottesman and Hoi-Kwong Lo

Technologies to Reduce Carbon Dioxide Emissions in the Next Decade
The prospects for meeting the Kyoto Protocol for greenhouse-gas reductions will be brighter if the US can develop technologies to lower its energy use -- Arthur H. Rosenfeld, Tina Kaarsberg, and Joseph Romm

Diffusion-Limited Aggregation: A Model for Pattern Formation
Recent insights from this well-studied model have led to many new applications-- from river networks to oil recovery, and from electrodeposition to string theory -- Thomas C. Halsey


  Departments

Physics Update

Reference Frame
The unreasonable effectiveness of . . . -- Leo P. Kadanoff

Letters
Teaching, Propaganda, and the Middle Ground (part 1)
Singhan replies (part 2)
Background Highlights in X-Ray Imaging
Quark 'Color' Clarified
Learning to Control Quantum Systems
Correction

Search and Discovery
New measurements of hydroxyl in the middle atmosphere confound chemical models
Chandra X-Ray Observatory examines a new kind of black hole

Physics Community
Nations argue over climate treaty
US State Department gets a science adviser
Pluto mission falls victim to climbing costs
Study calls for better conditions for postdocs
Saying "no" to top government jobs
Soleil rises: French synchrotron gets go-ahead
Grunder picks up Argonne reins
Physics grid grapples with growing datasets
Pittsburgh auctions off vintage supercomputer
Sarachik is elected APS vice president
Dickinson will lead AGU in 2002
Hartmann is ASA president-elect
Who's hiring physics bachelors?
In Brief
Web Watch

Books
Heavy Water and the Wartime Race for Nuclear Energy, P. F. Dahl (reviewed by D. C. Cassidy)
Dynamic Earth: Plates, Plumes and Mantle Convection, G. F. Davies (reviewed by N. H. Sleep)
Small Worlds: The Dynamics of Networks between Order and Randomness, D. J. Watts (reviewed by P. Bak)
Principles of Seismology, A. Udías, and Introduction to Seismology, P. M. Shearer (reviewed by T. Tanimoto)
Radiative Transfer in the Atmosphere and Ocean, G. E. Thomas and K. Stamnes (reviewed by L. Oreopoulos and S. Platnick)
The Diamond Makers, R. M. Hazen (reviewed by F. P. Bundy)
Nonclassical Physics: Beyond Newton's View, R. Harris (reviewed by C. H. Holbrow)
New books

New Products
Focus on Spectroscopy

We Hear That
Contributions to Medical Physics Honored
AAPT Prize Winners Announced
In Brief

Obituaries
Norman Austern
Simon Larach
Nimai Chad Mukhopadhyay
Karl Strauch
Peter Swerling
George Michael Volkoff

Job Opportunities Untitled

© 2001 American Institute of Physics