Issues

A philosophy of modest but well‐defined projects and a strategy of frequent launches have made Japan a major participant in space research—particularly in x‐ray astronomy.

Pioneering measurements of the solar neutrino flux and detailed observations of the neutrino burst from SN1987a and of solar boron‐8 neutrinos have signaled the birth of observational neutrino astrophysics.

Particles smaller than a tenth of a micron have properties different from those of larger particles of the same materials and are finding use as catalysts, filters, light absorbers, medical tools, magnetic media and new materials.

Ongoing support for superconductivity research may have given Japanese physicists an advantage over their colleagues elsewhere in the race for high‐temperature superconductors.

Physicists are producing synthetic metals with made‐to‐order structural, magnetic, electronic and superconducting properties by inserting guest atoms between the planes of carbon atoms that make up graphite.