Features
Geometrical Frustration
When interactions between magnetic degrees of freedom in a lattice are incompatible with the underlying crystal geometry, exotic phenomena such as spin ice and spin liquid phases can emerge — Roderich Moessner and Arthur P. Ramirez
Rethinking the Content of Physics Courses
Physics students, particularly in today's information age, need to understand the unity of physics and the way in which scientific knowledge is generated — Diane J. Grayson
Physics for All? A Million and Counting!
Fully one-third of recent high-school graduates have taken physics. Much of the increase comes from nontraditional courses geared toward students not headed for careers in science or technology — Jack Hehn and Michael Neuschatz
Issues & Events
Materials Institutes Weave Global Networks
Six NSF-funded materials science institutes are working to train a new generation of internationally minded US researchers and to stimulate collaborations around the world.
Stronger Future for Nuclear Power 
Nuclear reactor builders are jostling for business as energy utilities take another look at nuclear power.
NSF Centers to Study Societal Impact of Nanotechnology
To better understand and anticipate what one researcher calls the "risk, hope, hype, and fear" of
nanotechnology, NSF is funding two new centers and two related projects to create a four-university
network that will study the "societal implications" of the rapidly expanding field of science.
Defense R&D Funding Sees Modest Increase
As the rest of the US government's fiscal year 2006 budget was being finalized by Congress in November and December, the Department of Defense budget was mired in congressional fights over a host of provisions that had little or nothing to do with defense—oil drilling in the Arctic, a ban on torture, hurricane relief, and preparations for a bird-flu pandemic.
'Gathering Storm' Gains Momentum
When Norman Augustine, the former chairman of Lockheed Martin Corp, oversaw the 10-week effort to put
together the US National Academy of Sciences' "Gathering Storm" report, he was worried that the broad scope of the report's four recommendations and the high cost of implementing them could doom the study to gather dust like so many reports before it.
Orbach Gets Undersecretary of Science Nod
Physicist Raymond Orbach, the director of the US Department of Energy's Office of Science, was nominated
by President Bush in December to become DOE's first Undersecretary for Science.
News Notes
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