Issues

It was long thought that almost all intragalactic cosmic rays originate in supernova remnants.

Laboratory measurements of the spin states are indirect and prone to ambiguities.

By mimicking certain electromagnetic effects, researchers can use ultracold atomic gases to simulate a wide range of many-body behavior.

Ultrafast charge-carrier dynamics and broadband tunability make carbon nanotubes and graphene appealing materials for phase-locking cavity modes.

The US, China, and France each have a considerable stake in the growth of nuclear power. But public opinion may have greater sway.

R&D efforts are beginning to pay off in reduced demand for the scarce neutron-detection isotope. But there is little relief for those requiring it outside the US.

Heeding community advice, NASA’s planetary science division seeks to scale back its flagship missions while retaining strong international partnerships.

A researcher in Australia seeks ways to use alternative resources.

With molecular gases so cold that collisions must be described quantum mechanically, researchers are studying chemical reactions as they’ve never been seen before.

In 1912 Thomas Jaggar left MIT to start an observatory on the remote Kilauea volcano. The move was the culmination of a tortuous chain of events.

Neutrinos have tiny but nonzero masses. So their helicities can, in principle, be reversed. Detecting that reversal by chasing a neutrino seems impossible in the foreseeable future. But if neutrinos are their own antiparticles, indirect detection may be possible.

Your morning java or tea is a rotating, cooling laboratory that reflects the physics of such large-scale phenomena as stellar dynamics and energy transport in Earth’s atmosphere and oceans.

Supplemental material for the Quick study "The universe in a cup of coffee" PHYSICS TODAY, May 2011, page 66.