Issues

The electret, an electrical counterpart to a permanent magnet, theoretically isn't supposed to exist. Yet the author made one which is still “alive” after twelve years. He discusses how electrets may be used and some of the problems in understanding them.

The patterns of secrecy are more difficult to shed than they are to assume and Professor Cushman analyzes them in relation to freedom and security which, he holds, need not become mutually exclusive. This is the text of a speech given before the American Physical Society at its winter meeting banquet in New York City, January 27, 1949, at the Hotel New Yorker.

Too little and too late is the reaction of most scientists to the short summaries intended to keep them informed of what is going on in their field now and to tag things nicely for investigators in the years to come. The American Institute of Physics and the American Physical Society are conducting a study of abstracting physics literature. The Director of this project reports on the points of view beginning to emerge in the first four months of the project's existence.