“Everything flows, nothing stands still.” So goes the classical Greek proverb of Heraclitus, who also pointed out that one never steps into the same river twice. The notion of something with a fixed identity nevertheless experiencing continual change rings true in the physical world, where quantum fluctuations are always with us, where Earth’s plates constantly shift, and where the universe is ever-expanding. It rings just as true in the human world of nations and institutions and magazines and people, each evolving within its unique identity.
I discussed our changing community in my last editorial (Physics Today, October 2005, page 10) and hinted at changes to come for this magazine. This June issue of Physics Today takes a significant step along the road of evolution. We undertook much research, including several reader surveys over the past years in which we asked many detailed questions and received...
