Issues

New experiments demonstrate that processing interaural timing differences entails more than just delay lines.

IBM researchers have developed an array of 1024 cantilevers, called Millipede, as a high-density alternative to magnetic recording. Moving across a polymer film, Millipede leaves footprints that encode information.

Geophysicists and oceanographers are scrambling to explain why the slight bulge around Earth’s equator, which had been slowly shrinking since 1979, abruptly reversed that trend four years ago.

To realize a humongous underwater neutrino detector, scientists from the various smaller deep-sea detectors should start laying the groundwork for an international collaboration, says a panel of experts.

According to the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, sophisticated technology will be an important tool in preventing and responding to terrorist attacks, and the new homeland security department must have a strong, centralized science and technology office to meet the challenge.

A comprehensive National Research Council study weaves a decade’s worth of projects together into a tapestry that could reveal the answers to some of the most difficult questions in solar and space physics.

Physicists seek simplicity in universal laws. Ecologists revel in complex interdependencies. A sustainable future for our planet will probably require a look at life from both sides.

Like atoms, quantum dots can be probed and manipulated with light. Unlike atoms, they can be customized.

Wigner led the design of the Hanford nuclear reactors and founded a school to teach reactor physics to people working in industry.