Issues
Readers’ Forum
Search and Discovery
Squeezed light reduces noise at a gravitational-wave observatory
A decades-old idea—tinkering with light’s quantum fluctuations to make a large interferometer even more sensitive—has now been implemented.
Phase-shifting surfaces bend the rules of ray optics
Researchers have outlined a recipe for fashioning subwavelength optical components from plasmonic antennas.
Opaque atoms turn transparent in the vacuum field of an optical cavity
A subtle quantum interference effect may offer a path to engineering all-optical logic gates and switches.
High-frequency electrolysis begets spontaneously combusting nanobubbles
The key is to feed the bubbles a balanced diet of hydrogen and oxygen before they have a chance to grow.
Issues and Events
Science in Japan gets back on its feet
Looking ahead, a central question will be whether to continue relying on nuclear power.
Universities seek culture change for improved STEM teaching
The Association of American Universities is pushing to institute new methodologies, but success will require big changes by academic departments.
Taking the pulse of magnet labs
As fields get stronger and electronics improve, demand for pulsed magnets is growing; the newest lab is in China.
Weather data gap is forecast as satellite is delayed
A new polar-orbiting satellite is only a temporary fix for a more durable spacecraft that has been starved of funding.
Articles
Roaming reactions: The third way
Chemists have long held that there are two ways in which a molecule can break apart. But recent results show a third possibility, and its discovery may have far-reaching implications.
Watery Enceladus
In 1980, telescopes revealed that one of Saturn’s rings is centered at the orbit of Enceladus, a medium-sized Saturnian moon. It was the first hint that Enceladus is a world like no other.
Problems with problem sets
Undergraduate physics problem sets and textbook examples often assume prior knowledge that is more common in men than in women. Could that difference be deterring women from pursuing careers in physics?
Books
New Products
Focus on materials
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Obituaries
Britton Chance
Steven Alan Orszag
Quick Study
Gobbling up light with an antilaser
An unappreciated symmetry of electrodynamics enables experimenters to fabricate coherent perfect absorbers, devices that act like lasers run backward.