Issues
Readers’ Forum
Search and Discovery
Discoverers of the Hubble expansion’s acceleration share Nobel physics prize
We’ve learned from the laureates that some mysterious vacuum energy now prevails over all the matter in the cosmos.
Nobel Prize in Chemistry honors the discovery of quasicrystals
The realization that ordered solids needn’t be translationally periodic sent experts scrambling to rewrite the textbooks on condensed matter.
”Faked states” mimic quantum entanglement
Bell’s inequalities are the quintessential test of the quantum nature of a system. But experiments show that the test can be fooled—if one ignores the fine print.
Issues and Events
Changes and challenges: Physics in India
To go from having islands of excellence to being a major world player in science, India must solve such problems as a dearth of teachers and a divide between research and teaching.
Germany’s high-tech success due to (gasp!) government
Could the German model of applied research be emulated as the US struggles to retain what remains of its manufacturing sector?
Texas cuts “low-producing” physics programs
A coalition of affected institutions is preparing a proposal that could allow them to continue recruiting students and teaching advanced courses.
Articles
Insights from the great 2011 Japan earthquake
The diverse set of waves generated in Earth’s interior, oceans, and atmosphere during the devastating Tohoku-oki earthquake reveal some extraordinary geophysics.
The formation and differentiation of Earth
Earth accreted and segregated a metal core by a succession of large impacts before the solar system was 100 million years old.
The curious aftermath of Neptune’s discovery
Controversy following the announcement of the new planet propelled US astronomers to the international limelight.
Books
Exoplanet Atmospheres: Physical Processes; Planetary Atmospheres; Principles of Planetary Climate
The Second Law of Economics: Energy, Entropy, and the Origins of Wealth
New Products
Obituaries
Victor Manuel Blanco
John Sampson Toll
Quick Study
Collaboration and precision in quantum measurement
Suitably engineered interactions between atoms and the lasers that probe them enable experimenters to dramatically improve measurement sensitivity.