Issues
Physics Update
Reference Frame
Letters
Search and Discovery
Radioisotope Tracers Reveal Extensive Melting in Earth’s Distant Past
New isotope-ratio measurements from primitive meteorites provide evidence that Earth’s mantle divided into separate, chemically distinct reservoirs.
Novel Medical Imaging Method Shows Promise
When subjected to a varying magnetic field, ferromagnetic nanoparticles produce harmonics that can reveal their location.
Tiny mirror asymmetry in electron scattering confirms the inconstancy of the weak coupling constant
The standard model of particle theory predicts that all three fundamental coupling “constants” vary with distance. But demonstrating the variation for the weak interactions required an experimental tour de force.
Issues and Events
Doctor Atomic to Premier in San Francisco
John Adams’s opera about J. Robert Oppenheimer explores the moral crisis that gripped scientists in the days preceding the Trinity Test in July 1945.
Small Programs Survive by Pooling Students
Physics classes via interactive television can be successful, but both teaching and learning require more work than in a traditional setting.
Math and Science Partnership Program Struggling at NSF
Congressional supporters are fighting to maintain funding for NSF’s portion of the Math and Science Partnership while the administration pushes to shift the money to the Department of Education.
Articles
Is Economics the Next Physical Science?
An emerging body of work by physicists addressing questions of economic organization and function suggests new approaches to economics and a broadening of the scope of physics.
Einstein Versus the Physical Review
A great scientist can benefit from peer review, even while refusing to have anything to do with it.
Obliterating Myths About Minority Institutions
A multiyear NASA initiative for developing research partnerships in space science demonstrates that such programs can have great success in attracting minorities to science.