Since March 2004, the NSF-funded National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network has served as a national toolbox for nanoscience. By booking a visit to any of the 13 labs in the network, researchers can use state-of-the-art equipment that their home institutions might lack. NNIN also provides training, outreach, and software.
Caltech’s Michael Cross studies systems far from thermo-dynamic equilibrium. To illustrate some of the equations that describe such systems, Cross has developed a set of Java applets. You can run the applets from his Pattern Formation in Nonequilibrium Systems website.
Teachers, students, and departments are creating online materials for teaching physics. To collect and disseminate those products, five US physics societies have joined forces to form comPADRE: Communities for Physics and Astronomy Digital Resources in Education.
To suggest topics or sites for Web Watch, please visit http://www.physicstoday.org/suggestwebwatch.html.
Compiled and edited by Charles Day
