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Table of Contents May 2006

Features

Initiating and Strengthening Plasma Research in Developing Countries
A grass-roots effort begun 20 years ago has blossomed into today's Asian African Association for Plasma Training. The AAAPT has helped establish vigorous plasma-related programs, including materials processing and fusion studies, around the globe — Sing Lee and Chiow San Wong

The Biological Frontier of Physics
Problems at the interface between biology and physics offer unique opportunities for physicists to make quantitative contributions to biology. Equally important, they enrich the discipline of physics by challenging its practitioners to think in new ways — Rob Phillips and Stephen R. Quake

Pulsed Neutron Scattering for the 21st Century
The large neutron fluxes produced in next-generation spallation facilities are likely to soon find expanded application in fields as diverse as biology, polymers, complex fluids, and geophysics — Thomas E. Mason

Departments

Physics Update

Reference Frame

On absolute units, III: Absolutely not? — Frank Wilczek

Letters

Racial Tracking, Fixing Details, Speaking Out

Da Vinci Could Have Used a Publicist

Search & Discovery

New Cosmic Microwave Background Results Strengthen the Case for Inflationary Big Bang Cosmology
With three years of data, the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe has finally produced the first all-sky polarization maps of the CMB, despite polarization levels of only a few parts per 10⁷ and obscuring galactic foreground.

Genetically Engineered Fluorescent Protein Lights Up the Course of Electrical Signals in Mouse Hearts
Muscle cells contract when the internal concentration of calcium ions shoots up. Thanks to a new molecular probe, those peaks can now be tracked in vivo.

Issues & Events

Industry and Academia Join Hands in Search for Post-CMOS Logic
The end of Moore's law—the halving in size of electronic components every 18 months or so—is approaching. But the law could get a reprieve and lead to a technological and economic gold rush if non-charge-based information manipulation is attained.

Science Board Warns of Flobal S&T Competition as US K–12 Education Lags
China and other East Asian nations are "recasting the international S&T scene" through heavy investments in science, engineering, and mathematics.

Energy Secretary Sends Yucca Legislation to Congress

Debye Stripped of Honors Because of Nazi Past

Nobelist Creates Films on Solar Power

Bodman Disbands DOE Advisory Board

Cosmologist Wins Religion Prize

News Notes

Web Watch

Theory of Fluctuations in Superconductors, A. Larkin and A. Varlamov (reviewed by J. F. Annett)

Mind and Hand: The Birth of MIT, J. A. Stratton and L. H. Mannix (reviewed by R. L. Geiger)

Dark Hero of the Information Age: In Search of Norbert Wiener, the Father of Cybernetics, F. Conway and J. Siegelman (reviewed by A. F. Brown)

Measurement Systems and Sensors, W. Nawrocki (reviewed by L. Rubin)

New Books

New Products

Focus on Lasers and Optics

We Hear That

AGU Names Winners of Medals, Awards

AAAS Honors Achievements

Franklin Institute Bestows Awards

In Brief

Obituaries

Richard Errett Smalley

David Tabor

William Wayne Wood

Job Opportunities

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Cover: The interior of the bacterium Escherichia coli is a crowded place. This illustration, by David Goodsell, shows the cell's key structural features and highlights a difficulty physicists face when they turn their attention to cells: The common simplifying assumptions of a dilute, homogeneous environment don't work. Biological systems present a great number of challenging physics problems, but, say Rob Phillips and Steve Quake in their article beginning on page 38, the time is ripe for physicists to confront those problems. (Courtesy of David Goodsell, Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California.)

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