Issues

Measurements on an ultracold gas of fermionic atoms indicate that its lowest energy levels are filling up as the temperature is lowered.

Surface reactions, such as corrosion and catalysis, not only underlie the rusting and antipollution processes in cars, they also provide a useful arena for investigating the intricacies of atomic and molecular physics.

When RHIC experimenters collide gold ions to produce energy densities ten times higher than in ordinary nuclear matter, they hope to observe the formation of a quark‐gluon plasma.

Individual atoms passing through a microwave cavity can sense whether it contains zero photons or one—and leave the photon number unchanged.

Pascual Jordan was one of the great theoretical physicists of the century. But his attempt to modify general relativity with a variable gravitational constant did nothing to enhance his reputation. Nor did his conspicuous membership in the Nazi Party.

After 20 years of pondering the results of the first wave of Mars exploration, researchers are using some of the latest remote sensing techniques to bring the Red Planet into sharper focus.

Observing the speed, polarization, and back influence of gravitational waves would subject Einstein's theory to new tests.

Large detectors on opposite sides of the country are about to start monitoring the cosmos for the gravitational waves that general relativity tells us should be emanating from catastrophic astrophysical events.