Issues
Physics Update
Letters
Physics Community Needs to Press Publishers to Get the Physics Right in Nonscience Texts
Bright Future Seen as Possible for Digitized X‐Ray Image Amplifiers
SEARCH AND DISCOVERY
Research Suggests a Recipe for a Lighter Core for Earth—Just Add Water
The idea that the most common element in the cosmos—hydrogen—could also be one of the most common on Earth has a certain esthetic appeal; it Takuo Okuchi is correct, it may also be plausible.
Search and Discovery
SOHO Observations Implicate ‘Magnetic Carpet' as Source of Coronal Heating in Quiet Sun
The mystery: How is energy transferred from the Sun's 5800 K photosphere to heat the star's 3 million K corona? One likely mechanism, at least for the quiet Sun, involves shortlived loops of magnetic field that sprout on the solar surface—and resemble some kind of energetic celestial shag carpet.
Articles
The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty
An agreement to prohibit all nuclear explosions of any yield, at any location, for any purpose and for all time has been signed by the President and is now in the hands of the US Senate.
Science and Politics in Early Nuclear Test Ban Negotiations
In a technical conference related to nuclear test ban negotiations in the late 1950s, Soviet and US scientists disagreed along national lines about the capabilities of scientific instruments, the validity of theories and the handling and interpretation of data.
Quantum Theory without Observers—Part One
Despite the claims of most of the founding fathers, the appeal at a fundamental level to observers and measurement, so prominent in orthodox quantum theory, is not needed to account for quantum phenomena.
Gamma‐Ray Colliders and Muon Colliders
High‐energy physicists have learned much from colliders with beams of protons, antiprotons, electrons and positrons. Now it seems both feasible and useful to build gamma‐gamma and muon‐muon colliders.