Issues
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Cover Image
Cover Image
Cover: As a transparent sphere, a simple soap bubble can serve as an optical resonator, which means that with a little fluorescent dye, it can be made into a laser. Bubble lasers are soft and squeezable, and their response to ambient pressure can potentially be harnessed for sensing applications. For more on soap-bubble lasers and their liquid-crystal cousins, turn to the story on page 12. (Image by Yuliya Evstratenko/Shutterstock.com.)
Readers' Forum
Reconsidering tenure
Putting a return to the Moon in perspective
Tidal power’s limits
Search and Discovery
Bubble lasers can be sturdy and sensitive
Made of liquid-crystal films, the soft, air-filled lasers have stable spectra that shift when the bubbles are squeezed.
How a mineral that’s always wet gets wetter
Potassium-rich feldspar is a hydrophilic mineral that accelerates ice nucleation in the atmosphere. For the first time, the atomic surface structure has been observed.
Issues and Events
Green ammonia can be a clean energy source
The world’s second-most-produced chemical is poised to grow beyond its use in fertilizers to become an efficient medium to carry green hydrogen across the oceans.
NASA unveils a supersonic plane with a quiet boom
A simple concept, a sophisticated process: Reshape contours to prevent coalescence of shock waves.
Articles
The ethics perspective of physics department chairs
Although a new American Physical Society ethics survey shares some conclusions with a previous one, disparities between the two highlight the need for improved procedures and open communication channels in physics departments.
The connection between Darwin’s finches and bacterial flagellar motors
The evolution of specialized biological tools used by organisms tells a story about the environments that shaped them.
Manhattan Project astrophysics
After World War II, scientists applied the knowledge and experience they gained from nuclear weapons to nuclear astrophysics.
Books
Disillusionment with climate models
Predicting Our Climate Future: What We Know, What We Don’t Know, and What We Can’t Know, David Stainforth
New Products
Quick Study
The roar of a rocket
During a rocket’s liftoff, its extreme sound levels can damage launch structures, payload electronics, and even the rocket itself.