Issues

Two groups exploit the Raman effect in silicon to shift the wavelength of incident light and amplify the scattered light in an optical cavity.

A simple tabletop experiment could have profound implications for the origin of life.

Supersonic jets generated by shock waves are common, on vastly different scales, to high-energy astrophysics, inertial-confinement-fusion targets, and nuclear weapons.

Magnets and modeling may help reveal secrets of brain development and disease.

With the administration attempting to hold non-security domestic spending flat across the board, R&D increases are limited primarily to homeland security and the president’s Moon/Mars initiative.

It is not true that developments in physics go ignored by professional humanists or by the common man. The basic facts get to us all and frame the way we think and even, in this instance of the fictional Martin Fairweather, feel. The picture physics paints of the material universe is arresting enough to make the newspapers but far from flattering to our individual identities. Astronomy is what we have now instead of theology. The terrors are less, but the comforts are nil. John Updike