Table of Contents December 2006

Letters

Women in physics: Why and why not?

Building better schools to harvest better minds

Fixing the record on Descartes' rules for impact

Books

Not Even Wrong: The Failure of String Theory and the Search for Unity in Physical Law,
P. Woit, and
The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science, and What Comes Next,
L. Smolin (reviewed by K. Jagannathan)

Astrobiology: A Multidisciplinary Approach,
J. I. Lunine (reviewed by I. N. Reid)

Introduction to Microfluidics,
P. Tabeling, translated from French by S. Chen (reviewed by S. M. Troian)

Statistical Physics for Cosmic Structures,
A. Gabrielli, F. S. Labini, M. Joyce, and L. Pietronero (reviewed by B. D. Wandelt)

Weak Scale Supersymmetry: From Superfields to Scattering Events,
H. Baer and X. Tata,
Theory and Phenomenology of Sparticles: An Account of Four-Dimensional N=1 Supersymmetry in High Energy Physics,
M. Drees, R. Godbole, and P. Roy, and
Modern Supersymmetry: Dynamics and Duality,
J. Terning (reviewed by G. Kane)

New Books

New Products

Focus on nanoscale science and technology

We Hear That

MacArthur Foundation names fellows

Obituaries

Melvin Schwartz

James Alfred Van Allen

quick study

Reprocessing spent nuclear fuel
— David Bodansky

Back Scatter

Flame fractals

Job Opportunities

Annual Index

medium | large

cover: Spent fuel rods extracted from nuclear reactors are removed to on-site cooling pools such as this one at the Bradwell Reactor Site in the UK. After the short-lived radioisotopes have decayed, Bradwell's spent fuel rods are transferred to a reprocessing plant where plutonium and other selected components are extracted. US nuclear power plants also use cooling pools, but spent fuel is not reprocessed. The Quick Study beginning on page 80 discusses the pros and cons of reprocessing and describes several reprocessing methods. (Photograph by Ric Gemmell, courtesy of British Nuclear Group.)