Table of Contents March 2005

Features

A Small Puzzle from 1905
In his first relativity paper, Einstein made one erroneous prediction. Although it should have been withdrawn when he generalized the theory to include gravity, the original error has received surprisingly little attention - Alex Harvey and Engelbert Schucking

Extreme Nonlinear Optics: Coherent X Rays from Lasers
Ultrashort laser pulses can generate even shorter bursts of coherent soft x rays. The technology now makes it possible to manipulate atoms on attosecond time scales to create designer wavefunctions - Henry C. Kapteyn, Margaret M. Murnane, and Ivan P. Christov

Teaching Biological Physics
Biological physics courses can serve a variety of students, among them life-sciences students who need to understand the role of physical principles in the world of biology - Raymond E. Goldstein, Philip C. Nelson, and Thomas R. Powers

Departments

medium | large

Cover: Physicists and their students are becoming increasingly interested in biological phenomena. Biologists, for their part, are ever more aware that physical modeling and analysis can be usefully applied to biological systems. In the article beginning on page 46, Ray Goldstein and colleagues argue that biological physics should be taught in physics departments, and they offer a number of ideas for designing courses from the introductory to the graduate level. (Images courtesy of Ray Goldstein and Robert Reinking, University of Arizona.)