Issues
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Cover Image
Cover Image
Cover: The US government's growing concern over potential foreign influence on research and researchers is intended to protect commercial and national interests. But the varying security requirements often leave researchers burdened, confused, and intimidated. Many scientists worry that they will lose collaborations—especially with colleagues in China—and that the clampdown will erode US scientific leadership. For more on the evolving research-security scene, see the story on page 16. (Cover image adapted from iStock.com/lucky sun.)
Readers' Forum
Wu, Shaknov, and the EPR dilemma
Another Fowler
Search and Discovery
A small ancient galaxy started reionizing its surroundings early
As the James Webb Space Telescope looks back at the universe’s first billion years, surprises continue to turn up.
Updates
Putting holes in a sail to reach the stars
Sails made of photonic crystal membranes may one day propel spacecraft to Alpha Centauri.
A rumbling truck enables a clearer view of Yellowstone’s most active magma chamber
Seismic imaging reveals that the chamber is just 3.8 km belowground and capped by a layer of volatile-rich magma.
Issues and Events
US research enterprise seeks to retain leadership while upping security
Uncertainty shrouds research-security measures and how to comply with them.
Q&A: Graduate student Ari Jain strives to better the world through research and leadership
Awarding travel grants, organizing conference sessions, and lobbying the government have afforded him a close-up view of how the science enterprise works.
Physics, astronomy graduate admissions in the US expected to shrink amid funding uncertainty
The predicted decrease is larger than pandemic-era disruptions, according to a survey of university departments.
DOE eases regulation of national laboratories
Lab directors praise the new flexibility, while Democratic appropriators probe the risks of reduced oversight.
Features
Hippies, Bell tests, and a career studying quantum entanglement
Investigating a group of maverick physicists who studied the foundations of quantum mechanics in the 1970s led one physicist-historian to help create a new test of entanglement.
Re-remembering Benjamin Whisoh Lee, promoter of gauge theories
The Korean American physicist made the framework underlying the standard model accessible to a generation of particle physicists.
How stars shape galaxies
The energy and momentum that stars inject into the gas that surrounds them dramatically influence subsequent star formation.
New Products
Quick Study
A new twist on the quantum vacuum
A subtle macroscopic effect in the space between two birefringent plates produces a measurable Casimir torque.
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