Issues
Reference Frame
Letters
Search and Discovery
New result contradicts troubling old evidence of neutrino oscillation at small distances
A decade ago, the findings of an accelerator experiment at Los Alamos seemed to require the existence of sterile neutrinos immune to the weak nuclear force.
Atom interferometer detects the birth and death of single photons without destroying them
Since the 1980s physicists have used photons to track quantum jumps in single atoms. Now they can use atoms to track quantum jumps of light.
Interface between nonmagnetic insulators may be ferromagnetic and conducting
A ferromagnetic metal would be perhaps the first of many novel electronic states that might emerge from the marriage of complex oxides.
Physics Update
Issues and Events
Astronomy outreach used for social good
An astronomy project harnesses existing initiatives to reach out to young children around the world.
Helium shortage hampers research and industry
If new sources of helium aren’t developed, the world’s supply of the gas will dwindle and prices will soar.
Rumor mills spread word on who’s hot and who’s hiring
It’s no coincidence that the online jobs rumor mills were started by postdocs. But many faculty members also use them—to check how job seekers are faring and to gauge the research directions of other institutions.
Articles
Patterned nanomagnets
The behavior of magnets with submicron dimensions depends intimately on the magnets’ shape and size. The rich variety of resulting phenomena brings with it the promise of new technologies.
Eisenhower, scientists, and Sputnik
The Soviet launch of Sputnik shook the confidence of Americans in the country’s defense and in its science. President Eisenhower convened a meeting of scientists in the Oval Office that Hans Bethe called an “unforgettable hour.”
The challenge of nuclear weapons
To address the nuclear threat, argues the author, we will need to confront the reality of today’s nuclear stockpiles and work to create a future without nuclear weapons.
Meetings
Books
Out of the Shadows: Contributions of Twentieth-Century Women to Physics
New Products
We Hear That
Obituaries
Herbert Gursky
Simon Peter Rosen
Herbert Walther
Quick Study
The perceptual basis for audio compression
Because the human ear ignores small amounts of noise that accompany a strong signal, much of the information in audio files can be thrown away with little loss of fidelity.