Features
Ferroelectrets: Soft Electroactive Foams for Transducers
After certain cellular polymers are internally charged, they behave like soft and sensitive piezoelectrics that can be used to interconvert acoustical or mechanical signals and electrical signals — Siegfried Bauer, Reimund Gerhard-Multhaupt, and Gerhard M. Sessler
Lattice Quantum Chromodynamics Comes of Age 
Quantum chromodynamics is the elegant but notoriously intractable theory of the strong interactions. Recent advances in numerical computer simulation are beginning to reveal, in impressive detail, what the theory predicts — Carleton DeTar and Steven Gottlieb
Family Lines Sketched in the Portrait of Lev Landau
Arguably the greatest Soviet theoretical physicist of the 20th century, Landau is intimately seen through the eyes of his loving niece in these excerpts from her memoir — Ella Ryndina (Translated from Russian by Arthur Gill)
From the Archives
Nobel Prizes, 1962
Lev Davidovich Landau, Soviet physicist and Nobel laureate
A tribute by Vitaly Ginzburg
Landau, An interview
Web Departments
Readings from the Physics Today Archive
Departments
Reference Frame
What's wrong with this quantum world? — N. David Mermin
Letters
Hooke and Newton: Divining Planetary Motions
Science Miseducation in A Private Universe
SQUIDS Remain Best Tools for Measuring Brain's Magnetic Field
US Research and Engineering Jobs Are Moving Overseas
Corrections
Search & Discovery
CERN Experiment Finds Evidence for More Pentaquark States
The new spectroscopy of exotic hadrons, promised by last year's discovery of the first baryon that defies description by three quarks, appears to be thriving.
New Experiments Set the Scale for the Onset of Turbulence in Pipe Flow
Measurements of the stability of laminar flow bring us closer to answering one of the biggest outstanding questions in fluid mechanics.
Sea-Level Rise Exacerbates Coastal Erosion
A recent analysis of more than a century's worth of data forebodes severe losses of coastal land.
Issues & Events
Civilian R&D Sees Only Modest Increases as FY 2004 Funding Flows to Defense, Homeland Security
Doubling the NSF budget in five years remains just a hope. Efforts by the science community to boost funding for the US Department of Energy's Office of Science generated enthusiasm, but little money.
Muons May Unlock Secrets of Teotihuacan
If tombs are discovered in the Pyramid of the Sun, they could shed light on the governing style in the ancient city of Teotihuacan, Mexico.
South Dakota Vies for Underground Lab, Scientists Seek Backup Sites
Keen to bolster the economic and science bases in his state, South Dakota Governor Mike Rounds has a new strategy for brokering the conversion of the Homestake gold mine near the Black Hills town of Lead into an underground lab.
Pass It On: Spread Physics Awareness in 2005
Stage a trivia contest. Screen a film. Open your lab to tours. Post science facts in shop windows. Whatever it is, do something to show the public how physics is relevant in everyday life. That's what physics organizations everywhere are exhorting their members to do in 2005, the World Year of Physics.
Proposed Tuition Sparks Marathon Physics Lecture
Across Europe, student strikes over the past few months have disrupted university classes. In Berlin, Germany, they also led to a new world record for the longest-ever physics lecture.
NSF Launches Large-Scale Network for Small-Scale Science
Thirteen universities are participating in NSF's National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network, which aims to link user facilities for a broad spectrum of nanoscience research, including biology, chemistry, geoscience, materials, engineering, and physics.
News Notes
Antiterrorism research center; High-Tc Update folds
Web Watch
InsideOut; Survey of Earned Doctorates; NIST Reference on Constants, Units, and Uncertainty
Books
History of the Soviet Atomic Industry, A. Kruglov, translated from Russian by A. Lokhov (reviewed by D. Holloway)
Einstein in Berlin, T. Levenson (reviewed by R. Schulmann)
Quantum Theory of Tunneling, M. Razavy (reviewed by J. G. Muga)
Compact Blue-Green Lasers, W. P. Risk, T. R. Gosnell, and A. V. Nurmikko (reviewed by N. Djeu)
New Books
New Products
Focus on Test and Measurement
We Hear That
Keyser Takes Helm as AAPM Director
AAPT's Vice President for 2004 Is Heller
Delbaere Is Elected Vice President of ACA
In Brief
Obituaries
Bertram Neville Brockhouse
Harold Paul Furth
Vernon Willard Hughes
Henri Arthur Levy
Dirk ter Haar
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