Issues
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Cover Image
Cover Image
Cover: Death Valley’s Badwater Basin is the lowest point in North America. Where there was once an ancient lake, water now flows underground in porous soil. As water evaporates, it leaves behind salt and other minerals, which slowly accumulate. Instead of producing a flat crust on the surface, the minerals develop a network of narrow ridges that form polygons a few meters in diameter, as shown in the image. To learn about the convective fluid dynamics that produce the polygons, turn to the Quick Study by Cédric Beaume, Lucas Goehring, and Jana Lasser on page 62. (Photo courtesy of Lucas Goehring and Jana Lasser.)
From the Editor
The march of change
I’ve been at Physics Today for 25 1/2 years. When I joined the staff, the Physics Today website—indeed, the Web as we know it today—was in its infancy. Google was newly incorporated. Webpages were static. “Physics Today” meant Physics Today the magazine, its sole incarnation.
Readers' Forum
More on nuclear treaties
Correction
Little quarks
Search and Discovery
Attosecond analysis illuminates a watery mystery
With powerful x-ray free-electron lasers, researchers are making great strides in ultrafast spectroscopy—with lessons about how molecules arrange themselves at rest.
Highly charged uranium tests the limits of quantum electrodynamics
Technical advances and clever correction schemes separated signals of quantum effects in heavy atoms from the noise.
Updates
Pandemics in Roman Empire correlate with sudden climate changes
A new temperature and precipitation proxy record shows that periods of rapid cooling align with the civilization’s three worst disease outbreaks.
Why insects orbit light at night
Mistaking artificial light for the sky, insects become entrapped while circling it. High-speed camera footage captures the behavior in action.
What makes blueberries blue?
A new study reveals how the berries and some other waxy fruits look blue despite a lack of blue pigment.
Geologic evidence that volcanic lightning promotes life on Earth
Large quantities of fixed nitrogen found in ash and pyroclastic deposits confirm suspicions about a likely source of life’s earliest building blocks.
Issues and Events
State anti-DEI laws sow uncertainty in public colleges and universities
Inclusivity efforts are thwarted as faculty and institutions navigate new laws with unclear penalties.
Scientific progress and preservation clash in demolition of Curie building
A compromise involves relocating the historic structure.
Code changes could drastically reduce bitcoin’s enormous electricity requirements
As the value of bitcoin soars to record levels, the environmental impacts of cryptocurrency mining are attracting scrutiny from governments.
Will AI’s growth create an explosion of energy consumption?
Further improvements in hardware and software efficiencies may counteract an expected surge in demand for electricity needed to power the new large language models.
Articles
Embracing interactive teaching methods
New physics and astronomy faculty are excited about active teaching, but they still need support to implement the ideas in their classes.
Twisted bilayer graphene’s gallery of phases
The simultaneous occurrence of exotic phases, and the ability to easily tune them, has positioned magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene as one of the richest materials platforms in condensed-matter physics.
The Hund-metal path to strong electronic correlations
A new type of metal has taken the scientific community by surprise. Classic concepts from atomic physics—the electrons’ orbitals and spin alignment—are key to understanding it.
Books
The sinister side of weather data
Immeasurable Weather: Meteorological Data and Settler Colonialism from 1820 to Hurricane Sandy, Sara J. Grossman
New Products
Quick Study
Hidden fluid dynamics of dry salt lakes
A new theory reveals how polygons that decorate the surface of dry lakes are linked to phenomena at play below the ground.
Back Scatter
