Issues
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Cover Image
Cover Image
Cover: Afficionados of hot-air ballooning flock to Albuquerque, New Mexico, for an experience that's not possible in most other parts of the world. From a launch site to the north of the city, balloon pilots fly south across the metropolitan area. Then, astonishingly, they turn around and return to the starting point. To learn about the geographic and atmospheric conditions that enable such a feat, turn to the Quick Study on page 54. (Image by Mark Newman/Rainbow/RGB Ventures/SuperStock/Alamy Stock Photo.)
From the Editor
A new Physics Today is coming
As so many current events are showing, the scientific world can evolve quickly, much faster than a monthly publication can keep up with. That is certainly a significant motivator, but not the only one, for major changes that Physics Today will be making later this year.
Readers' Forum
Comments on early space controversies
Search and Discovery
Eight million years of Arabian climate were not all dry
The Arabian Desert is a barrier to animal and plant migration between Africa and Eurasia, but that hasn’t always been the case.
Kinematic measurements are closing in on the neutrino mass
The lightest massive particles are clear evidence of physics beyond the standard model. But the masses and their implications remain to be understood.
Updates
A drone helps make a challenging Greenland glacier measurement
A rare investigation of a marine-terminating glacier in the Greenland winter yields evidence of melting at the base of the glacier.
A hovering resonator enhances the quantum Hall effect
Electromagnetic vacuum-field fluctuations are capable of reshaping the electronic correlations of solid-state systems.
The story of Mars’s early atmosphere is told in carbonate rocks
Newly found iron-rich minerals suggest that carbon dioxide cycled in and out of the planet’s ancient atmosphere.
Issues and Events
Funding uncertainties muddle graduate admissions
Aiming to bring on PhD students who they can keep commitments to, universities are adjusting their admissions processes and offers.
Scientists scramble to save threatened federal research databases
Amid funding and workforce cuts, US physical sciences databases are in jeopardy.
Q&A: Tam O’Shaughnessy honors Sally Ride’s courage and character
In a new documentary, Ride’s life partner of 27 years chronicles the astronaut’s leadership, resilience, and dedication to science.
Features
Noninvertible symmetries: What’s done cannot be undone
Recent research has shown that the traditional notion of symmetry is too limited. A new class of symmetries is bringing surprising insights to quantum systems.
Highlighting women in quantum history
The authors of a new book tell the stories of 16 women who made crucial contributions to quantum physics yet whose names don’t usually appear in textbooks.
Battling Decoherence: The Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computer
Quantum computers have the potential to do certain calculations faster than any foreseeable classical computers, but their success will depend on preserving complex coherent quantum states. Recent discoveries have shown us how to do that.
New Products
Quick Study
Ballooning in Albuquerque: What’s so special?
A unique valley and mountain circulation forms a natural route for balloonists to navigate the atmosphere.
Back Scatter
