Features
Light's Orbital Angular Momentum
The realization that light beams can have quantized orbital angular momentum in addition to spin angular momentum has led, in recent years, to novel experiments in quantum mechanics and new methods for manipulating microparticles—Miles Padgett, Johannes Courtial, and Les Allen
Cryogenics on a Chip
Low-temperature techniques often bring to mind cryogenic liquids, gas
compressors, and massive installations. But researchers are now building
refrigerators and sensors that work by controlling electrons on a silicon
chip—Jukka Pekola, Robert Schoelkopf, and Joel Ullom
Conversations on Nonequilibrium
Physics With an Extraterrestrial
Nonequilibrium systems come in many varieties, and a number of
not-yet-reconciled mathematical approaches can be applied to them—David Ruelle
Departments
Reference Frame
Could Feynman have said this? -- N. David Mermin 
Letters
Resources, Energy, Heartburn for Academic Physics
Readers Weigh Options for Bunker Busting Weapons
A Reader Answers: 'Critical Mass' Origin
Ben Franklin Would Endorse Individual Responsibility
Search & Discovery
Conflicting Results on a Long-Lived Nuclear Isomer of Hafnium Have Wider Implications
The Pentagon is touting prospects, based on hotly disputed experiments, for a novel class of weapons intermediate between chemical high explosives and fission weapons.
Smoke From Burning Vegetation Changes the Coverage and Behavior of Clouds
Aerosols, such as smoke, help clouds to form by acting as nucleation sites for
water droplets. But that's not the only way aerosols influence clouds.
Hot Buckyballs Lose Quantum Coherence
Markus Arndt, Anton Zeilinger, and their colleagues at the University of Vienna explore the quantum−classical boundary by subjecting ever larger molecules to matter interferometry. Their latest experiment is on hot C70 buckyballs.
Issues & Events
US Government Backs Off From Imposing Restrictions on Publishers
In permitting one scholarly publisher's activities, the Treasury Department
seems to have muddied the dispute over freedom of the press and, in addition,
has warned against collaborations between US scientists and their colleagues in
sanctioned countries.
Marburger Refutes Claims That Bush Administration Misuses Science
White House rebuttal fails to persuade many in the science community.
Yucca Mountain Workers Exposed to Dangerous Dust
Digging techniques designed to protect the "scientific integrity" of a test tunnel at the US Department of Energy's Yucca Mountain project exposed more than a thousand workers to dangerous silica dust between 1992 and 1996, according to a DOE safety official.
On the Mend, Gran Sasso Sacrifices Low−Energy Neutrino Observatory
The Gallium Neutrino Observatory (GNO) is the price that Italy's underground lab is paying to get back on its feet after a small chemical spill nearly two years ago.
Successful Entrepreneur Gives Back to Science
More than $100 million has been donated to nine research centers by Fred Kavli, an ex-physicist turned businessman.
Cosmologist Ellis Receives Templeton Religion Prize
"Physics can't explain the existence of as simple a thing as a pair of spectacles," says George Ellis, a cosmologist and the 2004 winner of the Templeton Prize.
News Notes
VERITAS variation; Finland joins ESO; French science coup
WebWatch
Science Education; JaxoDraw; Kid of Speed
Books
The Big Splat, or How Our Moon Came to Be, D. Mackenzie (reviewed by E. Asphaug)
The Gravitational Million-Body Problem: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Star Cluster Dynamics, D. Heggie and P. Hut (reviewed by F. A. Rasio)
Back-of-the-Envelope Physics, C. Swartz (reviewed by R. K. Adair)
Foundations of Nanomechanics: From Solid-State Theory to Device Applications, A. N. Cleland (reviewed by J. Krim)
New Books
New Products
Focus on Lasers and Optics
We Hear That
AIP Gives Tate Medal to Schopper
AAPT Presents Awards at Miami Meeting
RAS Names Award Recipients
NAE Elects 76 New Members
In Brief
Obituaries
Nandor Balazs
George Wells Farwell
Maurice Henry Lecorney Pryce
Brian Garner Wybourne
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