July 2011 Volume 20, No.7 TM www.aps.org/publications/apsnews

APS NEWS Science In Iran Faces Hurdles A Publication of the American Physical Society • www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/index.cfm See Page 3

APS Report Spurs Congressional Action on Critical Elements SESAME Progresses Despite Mideast Turmoil By Michael Lucibella Despite political upheaval in chrotron light source in Jordan. the Middle East and earlier fi- Currently there are about 60 Rare and exotic elements have nancial concerns, efforts to bring synchrotrons around the world; sparked a flurry of activity on a particle accelerator to the re- however, none is located in the Capitol Hill. A bevy of bills have gion are continuing forward as Middle East. The multinational been brought forward by mem- planned. The report from the SESAME collaboration, orga- bers of both the House and Sen- May 30-31 council meeting of nized by UNESCO and modeled ate to secure continued supplies the Synchrotron-light for Experi- after CERN, aims in part to revi- of rare elements important to cut- mental Science and Applications talize science in the region. At the ting edge technology and research. in the Middle East, better known same time, SESAME is seen as a This comes in part as the result of as SESAME, is that the project major diplomatic effort, bringing a recent joint APS and Materials is on schedule and close to being nine nations together on the proj- Research Society (MRS) report fully funded. ect, including historical rivals looking at the future of uncommon “I think the main thing was such as Israel, Iran, Pakistan and elements critical to the nation’s fu- we really feel pretty secure about the Palestinian Authority. ture energy technologies. funding now,” said Sir Chris Much of the construction of The report, “Energy Critical Photo by Michael Lucibella/APS Llewellyn-Smith, president of the facilities is already complet- Elements: Securing Materials for Chair of the APS-MRS study Robert Jaffe (left) shakes hands with Rep. Doug the SESAME council. “We’re in ed, and workers are preparing Emerging Technologies” high- Lamborn (R-CO) after testifying about energy critical elements before Congress a position to really go full steam to install the accelerators them- lighted the need to secure sup- “energy critical elements,” their and in modern electronics. Often- ahead.” selves soon. The tunnels and ra- plies of exotic elements ranging unique properties have made them times these elements are rare and SESAME is the multinational diation shielding walls have all from cerium to yttrium. Dubbed critical both for energy research ELEMENTS continued on page 7 project to build a 2.5 GeV syn- SESAME continued on page 3

2006 Blewett Recipient Now on Tenure Track Home Schooling Co-op Takes PhysicsQuest Top Prize By Gabriel Popkin where few other physics positions APS has announced the win- teaching supply company Educa- Started by APS during the Seven years ago, APS estab- existed. Around that time, the cou- ners of this year’s PhysicsQuest tional Innovations who produced World Year of Physics in 2005, lished a fellowship with a bequest ple decided to start a family. competition for middle-schoolers. the APS-designed kits. PhysicsQuest has brought inter- from M. Hildred Blewett, an ac- A few years later, Freeland’s Taking the grand prize this year This year’s second place win- active physics experiments to celerator physicist who died in husband took a position at Argonne are the students at a home school- ners are Susan Phillips’ sixth hundreds of thousands of middle 2004. The fellowship was created National Lab near Chicago, an ing cooperative in Wexford, Penn- grade class at St. Vincent Elemen- school students every year. The for women physicists returning to area with more job opportunities in sylvania. tary in Perryville, Missouri, who free kits include the materials for research after having taken a break physics, and Freeland began look- The eight students, ranging will receive a $300 gift certificate four physics experiments centered from their careers, for family or ing to re-enter physics research. in ages from nine to fourteen, to Educational Innovations. Third on a field of physics. This year’s other reasons. To date, nine women She found a supportive research conducted the experiments in place went to Jannae Monnet’s version ties the experiments to- have been awarded the fellowship, group at Fermilab, but became the PhysicsQuest kit and solved class at Friedell Middle School gether with a comic book narra- and one of them now has a tenure- stymied when she went to look for the puzzles correctly. Their en- in Rochester, Minnesota who will tive “Spectra’s Force”, starring track position, a key measure of funding. Freeland found that most try was selected at random from receive a $100 gift certificate. APS’s original laser superhero success for the pro- early-career grants all the correct answers to receive All the winning classes will also Spectra. The kit focuses on force gram. required the appli- the grand prize. Each student on receive physics toys from Educa- and motion, and features the titu- Elizabeth Free- cant to have insti- the winning team will receive an tional Innovations, a classroom lar hero squaring off against the land, who became tutional affiliation, apple iPad and APS memorabilia, set of autographed Spectra comic brilliant but misguided General the second recipient and be no more than and the team as a whole will re- books and APS “Future Physicist” Relativity. of the Blewett Fel- five years removed ceive a $500 gift certificate to the buttons. CO-OP continued on page 6 lowship in 2006, will from a PhD. “The start teaching this grants were writ- fall at Benedictine ten with a certain Five from High School Physics Elite to Represent University, a small, idea of what a sci- US at Bangkok Physics Olympic Competition primarily undergrad- entific career looks uate institution in like, and when you By Mary Catherine Adams Lisle, Illinois, a sub- Elizabeth Freeland deviate from that, In a quiet laboratory down a urb of Chicago. Free- people don’t know short corridor in the University land, a high-energy physicist, says what to do with it.” of Maryland’s physics building, the position is exactly what she Finally Freeland found a grant about a dozen students are tin- was looking for. “I’m very excited she was eligible for from the Amer- kering with weights and ropes, to have this position. I’ve known ican Association of University scribbling notes on formula-filled for a long time that I wanted to Women (AAUW), and applied and papers, as they scramble to fin- teach at a primarily undergraduate received it. The next year she ap- ish that afternoon’s experiment. institution.” And just as important plied for and received the Blewett When time is up, they’ll pack for Freeland, who has been a post- Fellowship. “The Blewett Fellow- up their calipers and calculators doc at both Washington University ship was a critical piece,” in re- and move on to their next brain- in Saint Louis and the University starting her career, Freeland says; squeezing exam. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, “It filled the gap for my younger These aren’t physics under- “My entire life will now be in one child to get day care.” Freeland graduates–these are high school geographical location.” also notes, “There are other aspects superstars, some of them just Receiving a tenure-track posi- of the Fellowship that are power- finishing their sophomore years. tion represents the culmination ful. One is the autonomy–I was These twenty members of the US Photo by Mary Catherine Adams/APS of a journey back to physics re- in control of the money and what International Physics Olympiad The twenty members of the Olympiad team enjoy a rare moment of relaxation. search that began after the birth of I did with it, as opposed to work- team are undergoing the final se- labs and lectures all week, they in fluids and thermo, waves and Freeland’s second child. She left ing for someone else. It puts you lection process to see which five still have the weekend to go be- relativity, all before lunchtime. research after receiving a PhD in on a different footing in work with will represent the United States at fore the traveling team is chosen. Afternoons are filled with more physics from The Johns Hopkins other people when you have your this year’s physics Olympiad held Breakfasted at 7 a.m. and out the lectures, labs and exams, and University in 1995, when her hus- own money.” in Bangkok, Thailand. door by 7:30, the students’ rigor- study time follows a late dinner band took a position at Brookhav- Thanks to her years of grappling It’s Friday afternoon and ous schedule has them cramming en National Lab on Long Island, BLEWETT continued on page 2 though the students have been in OLYMPIAD continued on page 6 2 • July 2011 APS NEWS

Members This Month in Physics History in the Media July 21, 2000: Fermilab announces first direct evidence for tau neutrino “He had an idea a minute,” Longer confinement times also “Neutrinos, they are very small/ They have no plates alternating with layers of a special emulsion Martin Blume, APS, on fellow translate to more precise measure- charge and have no mass/ And do not interact at sandwiched between them. physicist Maurice Goldhaber, who ments of antiatom properties.” all,” John Updike wrote in his 1960 poem, “Cosmic Those emulsions captured the tracks of any elec- passed away in May, The Los An- Clifford Surko, University of Gall.” Neutrinos were a fairly recent discovery then, trically charged particles produced by the extremely geles Times, May 25, 2011. California at San Diego, USA To- and within two years physicists would discover that rare (about one in one million million) tau neu- day, June 6, 2011. they were only just beginning to understand this trino interactions, which were then electronically “We and a few other experi- mysterious “ghost particle.” For instance, there was recorded by scintillators. The emulsions were then ments are projecting that we might “We have never talked about more than one kind of neutrino, and it would take photographically developed so that scientists could be able to get sensitivities that’s a holding on to these things for so physicists another 40 years to find them all. analyze the data, looking for the telltale distinctive factor of a hundred, a thousand, long… If you want to study these Wolfgang Pauli first proposed the existence of short track with a kink that indicates a tau lepton, the maybe even in the long-term, antiatoms, you need to use electro- neutrinos in 1930 while investigating the conun- result of a tau neutrino interacting with an atomic 10,000 times better.” magnetic radiation, microwaves, drum of radioactive beta decay, in which some of nucleus. They were literally connecting the dots: Dave DeMille, Yale, on a re- lasers and other tools.” the original energy appeared to be missing after an small black dots left by particles passing through, cent experiment that measured the Jeffrey Hangst, Aarhus Uni- electron was emitted from an atomic nucleus. He which could then be connected to retrace the par- shape of an electron to unprece- versity, on trapping antimatter at hypothesized that in order to abide by the laws of ticles’ paths. dented levels, NPR, May 25, 2011. CERN for more than 15 minutes, energy conservation, another, as-yet- After the experimental run in The Los Angeles Times, June 6, undetected neutral particle might also 1997, it took three years of pains- “We take a proton beam and 2011. be emitted, accounting for the miss- taking analysis to sift through all the slam it into a target… Off comes ing energy. data, winnowing some six million a series of particles and antipar- “Right now, we have real gaps Pauli was reluctant to publish a pa- signatures down to 1000 candidate ticles, some of which are antipro- in our energy research portfolio. per on this unusual hypothesis, but he tons that can be captured electri- We cannot fill those gaps without events. On July 21, 2000, scientists penned a letter to a group of promi- from the DONUT collaboration an- cally and magnetically.” large-scale, long-term, well-fund- nent nuclear physicists gathering for Keith Gollwitzer, Fermilab on ed and well-coordinated research nounced they had identified four tau a conference in Tuebingen, Germany neutrino signatures demonstrating an how antimatter is created in a lab, programs that bring together the in December asking for input regard- The Washington Post, May 30, 2011. best and most innovative scien- interaction with an atomic nucleus. ing means of detecting such a particle The experiment also validated a num- tists and engineers in academia, experimentally. “I have done some- “These recent results are sig- industry and the national labora- ber of new techniques for neutrino thing very bad today by proposing Wolfgang Pauli, who first detection, most notably the emulsion nificant in showing that some an- tories.” a particle that cannot be detected; it hypothesized the neutrino cloud chamber, which significantly tihydrogen atoms can indeed be Eric Isaacs, Argonne National is something no theorist should ever increased the number of observed trapped long enough to reach the Lab, CNN.com, June 6, 2011. do,” he wrote, describing his idea as neutrino interactions. ground atomic state by radiation “a desperate remedy.” Leon Lederman, who had shared of photons–just the state needed Among the physicists who took MEMBERS continued on page 7 the 1988 Nobel Prize in Physics for precision measurements… Pauli’s idea seriously was Enrico with Jack Steinberger and Melvin Fermi, who developed the theory of Schwartz for the discovery of the BLEWETT continued from page 1 beta decay further in 1934, coining the muon neutrino, called the achieve- with a system that expects uni- And, she says, “Really plan out name “neutrino” (“little neutral one”) A tau neutrino event as ment “an important and long-await- formly linear career paths, Free- and brainstorm all of the options in the process. It became clear that if recorded by DONUT ed result. Important because there is land has become an expert on sci- you have, before you take a break. such a particle existed, it must be both a huge effort underway to study the entific career breaks. A few years The plan itself will change, but very light–less than 1% the mass of a proton–and ago she started a website for oth- you’ll know what options you interact very weakly with matter, making it very dif- connections among neutrinos, and long-awaited be- ers considering or taking breaks. have.” ficult to detect. But in 1956, Clyde Cowan and Fred- cause the tau lepton was discovered 25 years ago “I had to do so much work when Freeland also has advice for erick Reines succeeded in doing just that, sending a and it is high time the other shoe was dropped.” I was first trying to get a grant funding agencies. “I encourage telegram to Pauli informing him of their discovery. Among the questions physicists were still pursu- that I thought this really needs to institutions to write applications “Thanks for message,” Pauli telegrammed back. ing was whether neutrinos might have a tiny bit of be written down,” she says. The in such a way that people without “Everything comes to him who knows how to wait.” mass, and whether they could oscillate and change website features grants available institutional affiliation aren’t ex- Pauli died two and a half years later, and thus flavors over time as they traveled through space. For to scientists who have taken ca- cluded,” she says. “More flexibil- missed the discovery in 1962 of a second type of instance, would it be possible for a muon neutrino to change into a tau neutrino via oscillation? reer breaks, stories of women who ity in terms of career paths would, neutrino, dubbed the muon neutrino, corresponding have successfully returned from That question was answered with a resounding I suspect, help diversify science in to the charged muon lepton. (The latter caused I.I. such breaks, and articles and re- yes in 2010. Scientists with the OPERA experiment the United States. In many cases Rabi to famously exclaim, “Who ordered that?”) In ports on this and related issues, at Gran Sasso National Laboratory in Italy reported it’s just a phrase” in the applica- 1975, a third charged lepton, tau, was discovered, including the infamous two-body that they had found four instances of the telltale sig- tion that needs to be changed. and subsequent experiments hinted strongly that problem faced by many scientist nature of the tau neutrino among a stream of billions Freeland plans to continue do- there should also be a third kind of neutrino. While couples. It can be found at http:// of muon neutrinos generated at nearby CERN–the ing research at Fermilab, where scientists at CERN uncovered further proof in 1989 home.earthlink.net/~papagena . first direct observation of a neutrino transforming she began her high-energy phys- of the tau neutrino’s existence, it would be 25 years Now that she has her tenure- from one type into another. Experiments are ongo- ics research and where she still from the discovery of the tau before the technology track position lined up, Freeland was available to actually detect its neutrino directly. ing to further explore this phenomenon and possibly has many collaborators, and she can reflect on the journey that got In the 1990s, Fermilab designed the DONUT determine specific masses for neutrinos. will now be able to offer summer her there. “One piece of advice (Direct Observation of the NU Tau) experiment to With the discovery of the tau neutrino, only one research opportunities to her stu- [for scientists considering a career search specifically for tau neutrino interactions. The more particle remains to be found to complete the dents. She is also looking forward break] would be to do a postdoc scientists used the Tevatron to produce an intense Standard Model of Particle Physics: the elusive to teaching and designing new for at least one year. Once you neutrino beam, predicting it would contain at least Higgs boson. Fermilab’s soon-to-be-retired Teva- have some postdoc experience, courses. She says, “I have a lot of some tau neutrinos. After deploying an elaborate tron is racing against the clock, competing with the you’re seen by the community as experience teaching non-scientists system of magnets and iron and concrete to elimi- Large Hadron Collider at CERN, to make one more an official, independent scientist. and creating new courses; and I nate as many background particles as possible, the significant discovery that will herald the dawn of a That will put you in a better posi- have a lot of new ideas I’m ex- beam was fired at a three-foot-long fixed target: iron new era in particle physics. tion to come back after the break.” cited to try.”

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Iranian Scientists Battle Numerous Restrictions By Michael Lucibella that academics once enjoyed. madi, a theoretical physicist at Education C orner Scientists in Iran are facing “Gradually at the end of Khata- Tehran University, killing him A column on educational programs and publications difficult times, as political and mi’s first term, the conservative as he left for work. Though the academic freedoms in the coun- part of the government tried to Iranian government blamed the try have eroded in the last few start tightening the screws. And United States and Israel for the Committee On Education Departmental Award The APS Committee on Education has established a new award to years. Universities have been during Khatami’s second term it’s attack, many believe he was tar- recognize departments and programs that support best practices in coming under stricter scrutiny gotten worse. Since Ahmadine- geted by the Iranian government education at the undergraduate level. Programs will be recognized for a from the government, especially jad, things have gotten worse and because of his open support for three-year term, acknowledged on the APS website, awarded a plaque, since the student-led protests two worse and worse,” said Hemmati. Ahmadinejad’s opposition. announced in APS News, and recognized at an annual meeting. These years ago. The political situation, The conservative Ahmadine- Such an overt attack is rare, awards are intended to acknowledge commitment to inclusive, high combined with limited available jad replaced the reformist Khat- and most of the pressure felt by quality physics education for undergraduate students, and to catalyze resources, has left science in Iran ami as president in 2005 after a academics is more subtle. departments and programs to make significant improvements. APS will barely able to limp along. controversial election in which “The political situation is very recognize one to three programs and departments each year. Iran has had a complicated his- Iran’s Guardian Council banned different. If you participate in tory of academic freedom. Before thousands of reformist candidates politics of any sort you would be A full description of the award and the application are available at www. the revolution of 1979, the old from participating. Under the cur- facing a very different situation aps.org/programs/education in the “Undergraduate Physics” section. The deadline to submit nominations is July 15. regime under Shah Mohammad rent president, the student organi- than you would in America,” said Reza Pahlavi kept careful tabs on zations were harassed and where Farhad Ardalan, a string theorist Physics Research Mentor Training the activities of students and pro- organizations once were allowed at Sharif University of Technol- The Physics Research Mentor Training Seminar is a facilitation guide to fessors at academic institutions. office space to operate, nearly all ogy in Tehran. “If you are on the a training seminar for physics faculty, postdocs, and graduate students Academic institutions suffered as have been quietly closed down. wrong side of politics, you might who are in mentorship roles. The guide is intended to help physics a result. Ahmadinejad signed a law re- not be able to get employed.” researchers improve their mentoring skills, and to improve the research “During the Shah’s time, the quiring guards to be stationed in It is a problem that Ardalan experiences of the next generation of physicists. environment, the atmosphere was the universities, and instituted a has personally faced. Though extremely repressive,” said Mo- “three strikes” policy for students he is one of the most prominent For more information on mentor training workshops and to download stafa Hemmati of Arkansas Tech who were seen as challenging the physicists in Iran and responsible the training guide, visit www.aps.org/programs/education/undergrad/ University, who is the president status quo. for establishing the first doctoral faculty/mentor-training.cfm of the Iranian-American Physi- In June of 2009 the disputed program in the country, his pro- Joint NSBP and NSHP Annual Conference cists Network. He added that fol- reelection of president Ahma- democracy stance has garnered The National Society of Black Physicists (NSBP) and the National lowing the revolution in 1979, dinejad sparked massive protests the ire of the conservative govern- Society of Hispanic Physicists (NSHP) will be having their Joint that changed for a while under the across the country. For over a ment. Two years ago the univer- Annual Conference in Austin, Texas from September 21 to 24, new regime. Surprisingly, aca- month, the country was rocked sity hastened his retirement, and 2011. The meeting is the largest gathering of African-American and demic freedom at universities and with unrest, with protestors call- the Iranian Academy of Sciences Hispanic physicists in the world and is an excellent opportunity for colleges started to burgeon, and ing the election fraudulent and refused to recognize him. “I was students to present posters or oral presentations, attend professional the quality of the universities im- demanding that Ahmadinejad not not welcome in the political pic- development sessions and scientific sessions, and network with faculty proved tremendously as well. For be sworn in as president. The un- ture here now,” said Ardalan. and fellow students. The theme of this year’s meeting will be “Global several years, a certain amount of rest sparked a government crack- The curricula at universities Competitiveness Through Diversity.” academic freedom, and student down, especially against universi- have also come under the close organizations on school-related ties and university students whom scrutiny of the Islamist govern- Task Force on Teacher Education in Physics The full report of the Task Force on Teacher Education in Physics is subjects, were tolerated at univer- the government saw as leading ment. Over the last two years Su- expected to be available this summer. It is currently in the process of sities. the unrest. preme Leader Ayatollah Khame- being edited. A printed copy of the report will be sent to all physics Cultural and scientific col- “Almost everything is being nei has called for a review of the departments and schools of education, and a PDF version will be laborations with the United States done with an intention to control material taught at universities in made freely available on the PhysTEC website. See www.PTEC.org/ reached a peak in the mid 1990s. the environment in the university. order to bring it more in line with taskforce for more information and a copy of the report synopsis. “Especially in the last 14 years, This is all due to a very vibrant Islamic doctrine. The minister of when Khatami [Iran’s former re- opposition movement,” Hemmati education has set up a committee Speakers Program formist president] was elected said. tasked with reviewing university The APS Speakers Lists contain names, contact information, and talk as president, the atmosphere in Professors and faculty have curricula. During that time, the titles of physicists who are willing to give talks on a variety of subjects. universities became a lot more also been the targets of gov- heads of most major universities A general search can be done at www.aps.org/programs/speakers/. open,” said Hemmati, “It was ernment harassment. The most in the countries have been re- Advanced searches allow one to search specifically for women and easy to speak your mind.” dramatic example happened in placed with religious leaders, re- minority physicists and Physics Education researchers. However at the end of the January of 2010 when a bomb sulting in religious requirements 1990s, the tide started to turn detonated outside the house of for unrelated degrees. away from the open atmosphere professor Masoud Ali Moham- IRANIAN continued on page 7

SESAME continued from page 1 South Africa Hosts Conference on been finished. Germany donated lion needed to start experiments to come through. Women in Physics the booster ring from its decom- on schedule. Iran, Israel and Jor- “Any of the disruptions or The International Union of Pure tablishing a better system of pro- missioned BESSY1 light source, dan each confirmed their match- changes due to the Arab spring and Applied Physics (IUPAP) held fessional development for women while the United States and Euro- ing contributions to the project of do not seem to be affecting SES- its fourth International Confer- physicists. pean countries have donated other $1 million each year for the next AME,” said Amy Flatten, APS’s ence on Women in Physics in early “We found a real need for that extra parts including wigglers, four years. Turkey’s delegation director of international affairs, April. Hundreds of participants professional development starting undulators and five beam lines. also promised to contribute fund- who attended the council meeting from around the world travelled to in undergrad school and extending Construction on the main storage ing; approval is needed first in in Jordan. Stellenbosch, South Africa to share throughout her entire career,” said ring is about to begin. The proj- its parliament, but is expected to Llewellyn-Smith thinks that observations and discuss issues Beth Cunningham, Executive Offi- ect is on schedule to have experi- pass. Pakistan likewise promised the remaining funds needed facing women physicists. cer of the American Association of ments begin in 2015 with three $5 million, and the Palestinian “One of the main aims is to Physics Teachers (AAPT). should be raised fairly easily. He beam lines. More will be added authority pledged $2 million. highlight the situation of women Other recommendations in- has been in touch with members over time. Egypt pledged funding as in physics around the world and to cluded developing ways to create “We’re on track to get experi- well. Prior to the meeting there of Congress in the United Sates compare and contrast,” said Meg a more inclusive academic envi- ments going,” said Llewellyn- was some concern about Egypt’s and the Office of Science and Urry, an astrophysicist at Yale and ronment for both boys and girls Smith. “I think the problem is continued involvement in the Technology Policy to try to get head of the US delegation. “An- to study physics in school, in part going to be building up staff project because of the recent po- a contribution from the United other is to learn from one another by using more findings from social rather rapidly, and building up litical upheaval in the country. States. In a 2009 speech in Cairo, practices and policies that have scientists who have studied the is- the community.” He added that a Egypt has long been a supporter President Obama emphasized the been effective.” sues. Mentorship programs and new grant from the Washington, of the project, and it was feared need for science and technology The experiences and issues finding ways to have more women DC-based Lounsbery Founda- that after the overthrow of the investment in the Middle East and faced are as varied as the home na- apply for prizes and awards were tion is sponsoring travel grants Mubarak regime, the new govern- the OSTP has recommended con- tions of the participants. In some also included in the list of recom- for students to travel to existing ment might not back the project. tributing to SESAME, but so far of the developing nations, women mendations. synchrotrons to build up skills for However, the new Minister of face issues of outright discrimi- In addition to developing these no money has been appropriated. operators and users of SESAME Higher Education, Scientific Re- nation and failing infrastructure, recommendations, the confer- “Now’s the time to be getting once it comes on line. search and Technology held the while in industrialized countries, ence was also an opportunity for Until recently, the collabora- post prior to the recently deposed back in contact with people in career balancing and creating in- participants to engage in some of tion had been looking at a $35 minister. He is in the process of Washington,” Llewellyn-Smith clusive academic environments are their own professional develop- million deficit. However, at the reapplying for SESAME funds to said, adding that he hoped that it more at the forefront. ment and network with physicists May meeting, members were able the new minister of finance who would be easier to coax the Unit- One of the main recommen- from around the world. Sessions to pull together about $25 million is also seen as a supporter of the ed States into contributing with dations developed by the United included talks about particle phys- in funding, leaving only $10 mil- project. The funding is expected the program close to completion. States delegation focused on es- SOUTH AFRICA continued on page 7 4 • July 2011 APS NEWS Letters Blowout Cause Challenged; Murray Responds Readers interested in submitting a letter to APS News should Some time after the Deepwater April 22, the rig sank[.]” the production casing and through Horizon sank, when the scale of the This is a serious omission. If the the shoe track in the well (center of email [email protected]. disaster had become evident, I read fire had been left to burn and the the well, not the annulus) because an item in the news in which a Ca- Deepwater Horizon had not sunk, of a failed cement job, with a force Column Pins Unwelcome Label on Obama nadian petroleum engineer claimed no oil whatever would have been strong enough to severely erode Noting the use of the label, ship in the hoped-for elimination that the catastrophe had been ex- released. This is especially ironic the annular preventer and the blind “African American President”, in of unwarranted ethnic labeling of acerbated by the firefighters who in view of the considerable effort shear ram in the blowout preventer the otherwise timely and infor- any one American. For an educat- sprayed large quantities of water made to dispose of the spilled oil, (BOP). mative May Inside the Beltway ed readership as that of APS News, onto the rig, flooding it and causing in part by collecting and burning it. Several more studies includ- column, is a disappointment. The one would ask its articles continue it to sink. That effectively put out (According to the pie chart on page ing an interim National Academy label is unwelcome particularly to manifest the objectivity that un- the fire, but it caused the riser (the 162, ultimately 5% of the oil was of Engineering report appear to as President Barack Obama could pipe that carried oil up from the sea disposed of by burning.) corroborate this evidence, and to derpins the community of scien- equally be referred to as the White floor to the platform) to buckle and I am disappointed that the inter- suggest that the blowout was suf- tists by forgoing such references American president. Indeed, the rupture in two or more places. As a view of Cherry Murray on the Back ficiently severe that it rendered the in the future. President’s substantive exposure result oil was released into the Gulf Page of the May issue of APS News, BOP on the sea floor incapable of by birth to two ethnic value sys- well below the surface, making it like the Final Report, glossed over shutting the well (either through tems during his formative years J. V. Martinez hard to determine how much was this question, and in fact (again like the severe erosion, or by buckling is a strong attribute to his leader- Silver Spring MD escaping and harder still to shut off the Final Report) focused more on the drill string up into the BOP, the flow. human-interest angles and the soci- thus preventing the shear ram from Women Face Slim Odds for Academic Careers This sounded plausible to me, etal implications of the spill than on working–or both.) See pp 196 and but no more than that. I never saw technical issues. 221 of the Chief Counsel’s Report. Regarding the Back Page in suing the one-in-a-million shot of any follow-up to this report or any Unfortunately the mixture of oil the June APS News, “Can We De- becoming a tenured professor. It’s official pronouncement that would David L. Book and gas was heavily gas, and by the clare Victory in the Participation not that we don’t want to be pro- have confirmed or refuted it. When Monterey, CA time anyone noticed on the rig, gas of Women in Science? Not yet.”: I fessors–it’s the dream for most all the Final Report of the National was already in the riser expanding was disappointed to read some of of us grad students, myself includ- Ed. Note: Cherry Murray, Commission on the BP Deepwa- into a jet-engine-like roar and it the purported reasons that women ed–it’s that we’re smart enough to whose interview appeared in the ter Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore was too late to contain–see Chap- don’t pursue advanced physics know that the odds aren’t in our May APS News, is Dean of Engi- Drilling (http://www.oilspillcom- ters 4.1-4.9–the explosions on the careers, especially professor- favor. neering and Applied Sciences at mission.gov/final-report) came out, rig were inevitable if the BOP could ships. It’s as if the authors never In addition, many of us are Harvard, and served on the Com- I scanned it to see what it had to say not be shut. Therefore, although the bothered to actually interview us married to other PhDs who re- mission. Here is her response: about the sinking. The only men- pouring of water onto the rig may young women to get our take on fuse to leave academia. Perhaps tion I found is on page 132: “As In the Chief Counsel’s Report, have helped to sink it, the sinking the matter. because of the male tendency Coast Guard vessels continued the http://www.oilspillcommission. of the rig was considerably AFTER I have no special desire to towards overconfidence in their search and rescue operation, private gov/chief-counsels-report, there is the blowout and did not cause the “work with people,” as was sug- abilities, these men seem to think offshore supply vessels sprayed wa- a detailed description of the events blowout, and the oil and gas would gested by Dr. Tilghman. I do, they’re better than the competition ter on the fire. [...] By the morning that led to the blowout of the Ma- still have been released even if the however, have the desire to earn (à la the Lake Wobegon Effect) of April 21, the rig was listing. At condo well. It appears from foren- rig had not sunk as quickly. There a decent paycheck and have a and that they will be the one lucky 11:53 that evening, it shifted and sic evidence and available records was no other means of containing modicum of job security. Given soul who will win the big Tenure leaned even more. At 10:22 a.m. on that the blowout occurred through the blowout but the damaged BOP. that a physics PhD’s chances of Track Professor Lotto. Know- landing a tenure-track professor- ing that the odds of finding TWO ship are nearly nonexistent, and such positions within a close geo- Nietzsche, Robinson Crusoe, and Women in Physics that a woman needs to be twice as graphical area is pretty much im- productive as her male colleagues possible, many of us women make When Zahra Hazari and Marie- authors’ article is the possibility, means society. just to be regarded as equally com- the rational decision to leave aca- Claire Shanahan assert that it is raised by President Shirley Tilgh- The individualistic aspect of petent, many of us women make demia so that there can be at least not yet time to “declare victory man of Princeton University, that feminism is why the authors cite the pragmatic decision to leave one steady income in the family. in the participation of women in only 21% of physics BS degrees “social influences” as a significant academia to seek gainful employ- science” (“The Back Page” June were obtained by women in 2007 harmful influence on women who ment elsewhere rather than lose a Physics PhD Student 2011), their rhetoric implies both because that represents a free and might otherwise choose to pursue decade or more of our lives pur- (name withheld by request) a specific stance in moral philoso- unbiased choice on the part of physics in larger numbers. In a phy, and a specific philosophical women, and it is simply the case radical individualist philosophy, Girls Must be Reached at an Early Age anthropology, neither of which that relatively few women choose no one has a right to tell or even are addressed explicitly in their to enter physics as opposed to, say, advise anyone else what to do. In their Back Page in the June sciences over the physical scienc- article. But these unstated matters the life sciences. When President But no one except Robinson APS News, Shanahan and Haz- es. I believe that emphasis must form a critical part of their argu- Tilghman says “As scientists we Crusoe can live a consistent radi- ari point out that there has been be addressed to the physics and ment. have to be open to that possibil- cal individualist philosophy. We a large increase in the number of mathematics education at a much First, the moral philosophy. The ity,” she means that no interpre- are social creatures, dependent women going into the biological earlier stage in their lives–middle term “victory” implies a conflict. tation of data should be ruled out for our very lives on the unseen sciences, but not a comparable school or even elementary school. The conflict under examination by without a good reason for ruling thoughts and actions of others. increase going into the physical Although we have no formal fol- the authors is presumably between it out. The authors try to provide When the authors say that society sciences. They suggest that the low-up, my experience in a NSF women who wish to have careers reasons to rule out President Til- adversely influences women with physical science interest of women funded physics and mathematics in physics, and the social, insti- ghman’s interpretation, but in my its “stereotypical views of inter- can be increased by having high summer program for “rising 7th tutional, and other factors which opinion, fail to do so. est and ability in science,” they school physics teachers discuss the grade girls” some years ago cer- prevent them from doing so. The No number of surveys or sta- imply that society should change, discrepancy. I suggest that they are tainly showed an increased interest primary means by which the au- tistical facts can resolve a dispute and keep changing, until it reaches looking at the matter in the girls’ in the physical sciences. thors judge whether this conflict about philosophical anthropology, the feminist ideal of perfect 50.7% educational careers at too late a If we look at other countries, is continuing is statistical: they by which I mean one’s fundamen- representation of women in phys- stage. Peer pressure is very impor- where science and mathematics compare the percentage of those tal beliefs about the nature of hu- ics, and everything else. If this is tant to high school girls, and peer are emphasized for girls as well as earning bachelor’s degrees in man beings. The authors seem to what they want, they should sim- pressure often suggests that “real boys at a much earlier age, you see physics who are women (21% in believe that underrepresentation ply say so. girls” do not excel in mathematics. significantly better statistics. 2007), to the percentage of wom- is a moral wrong. This position I would respectfully request Lack of confidence in their math- en in the general population from is historically associated with the that the authors do some intro- ematical ability will easily explain Alvin M. Saperstein which their samples are drawn. philosophy of feminism, which at- specting in order to discover what the preference for the biological Detroit, MI As of 2010, an estimated 50.7% tempts to treat one’s gender as an they truly believe about their mor- of the US population was female. arbitrary and fairly unimportant al philosophy and about the nature Ethics Authors Don’t Follow Guidelines Presumably, if the percentage of feature. Like hair color, it should of the human person. The one The ethics training described in the APS tried to stop my surveys women earning physics undergrad play little or no role in whether a useful fact that they seem to have the May APS News is apparently but I went ahead anyway. And I degrees is less than 50.7%, there person can pursue a given career. found is that you can motivate based on an APS survey of junior put the manuscripts on the inter- is prima facie evidence of “under- In feminism, as in many other women to pursue physics by tell- physicists. The authors of the sur- net since the journal I published representation.” No one disputes modern philosophies, Nietzschean ing them there are few women in vey failed to do a literature search. them in (Science and Engineering these statistical facts. radical individualism prevails, and physics. I will remember that, but They would then have found Ethics) has little or no readership. The dispute is whether this sta- entails the right to define one’s as for the rest, I am still waiting for my own 1999 article “The author- In any case ethics training at tistical anomaly provides direct own meaning of life and the uni- a philosophically cogent argument ship list in physics–postdocs’ per- least in medical publication ethics evidence that a moral wrong is verse. According to this philoso- against President Tilghman’s idea ceptions of who appears and why” seems to lead to worse behavior. being committed. Without raising phy, women (and men) are auton- that perhaps all the women who or my 2002 article “Coauthorship Young researchers find out just the question directly or providing omous agents, free to create their want to enter physics and have the in physics” (you can find them on how they are expected to behave, philosophical arguments for their own meaningful lives in any way ability and persistence needed can the internet under coauthorship. which turns out to be...unethically. position, the authors simply as- they choose. They should not be currently do so. com). I guess authors of ethics do sume that underrepresentation is restricted in these choices by any- not have to follow ethical guide- Eugen Tarnow morally wrong. thing: their sex, their hair color, Karl D. Stephan lines. In a sense I did not either– Fair Lawn, NJ The ostensible focus of the or the opinions of others, which San Marcos, TX APS NEWS July 2011 • 5

Texas Hosts Lively Teacher Preparation Conference

By Gabriel Popkin During two warm, workshop- packed spring days in Austin, Texas, 120 physicists and educa- tors came together to discuss top- ics as disparate as undergraduate course reforms, student teacher Caught in a Vise mentoring, poverty’s effect on by Michael S. Lubell, APS Director of Public Affairs student achievement, and nego- tiating with university adminis- When I read Gus Tyler’s obitu- physicist, who clearly matched trators for funding. The occasion ary in The New York Times on the Pew profile, was sitting in my was the seventh annual Phys- June 12, it reminded me how eas- Washington office, gleeful over ics Teacher Education Coalition ily political passions can poison the recent upset Democrat Kathy (PhysTEC) Conference, which the well of sensible dialog. Gus, a Hochul had scored in a special took place on the campus of the socialist, had devoted much of his election in New York’s 26th con- University of Texas at Austin. 99 years to labor issues and was gressional district, a conservative The PhysTEC Conference, or- as uncompromising in his com- bastion. “We only need to win 24 ganized by APS and the American mitment to the cause as he was more seats in 2012 to reclaim con- Association of Physics Teachers pugnacious. trol of the House,” he observed. and formerly known as the PTEC Photo by Ted Hodapp/APS I met him more than four de- He paused and then quickly Conference, is the nation’s largest Stefan Zollner of New Mexico State University (left) chats with PhysTEC consul- cades ago, when he was vice pres- added, “That election will really event focusing on physics teacher tant Jon Anderson. ident of the International Ladies help science.” preparation, and brings together Garment Workers Union, and I “Not so fast,” I said. “Demo- experts in this field from around Sharing Wieman’s passion for conference is “the right size and was in my fifth year of graduate crats believe they won that elec- the country. This year’s confer- data is Michael Marder, a Uni- scale, friendly, and personable.” work at Yale. We were at an el- tion because Hochul’s Republican ence was back-to-back with the versity of Texas physics profes- Kathy McCloud, a program offi- egant dinner party in Kings Point, opponent, Jane Corwin, endorsed annual meeting of the UTeach sor and UTeach co-director. In cer at the National Science Foun- a posh suburb of New York City, Paul Ryan’s House budget plan, Institute, a project based at the a session on teacher quality and dation, which funds the PhysTEC and during cocktails I found my- including the Medicare cuts it University of Texas, Austin that poverty, Marder argued that stu- project, said, “It’s encouraging to self standing next to Gus and his contains. What Democrats are prepares science and math teach- dent poverty is a dominant–and see people who care about teacher wife, Marie. carrying away from Hochul’s win ers at sites around the country. often ignored–factor in determin- education exchanging ideas.” We got on famously until I ca- in the 26th is a 2012 road to elec- The theme of this year’s con- ing achievement. Drawing on The sessions on the afternoon sually mentioned that I had done toral success based on fencing off ference was sustainability, and the history of the now-defunct of the second day of the confer- fieldwork for New York Republi- Medicare in any deficit reduction workshops developed this concept British airplane maker de Havil- ence were open to both PhysTEC can Governor Nelson Rockefeller plans.” in a number of contexts. Panels land, Marder drew an analogy and UTeach conference attendees. in his 1966 campaign and was My new young acquaintance explored ways to sustain various between poverty in schools and One panel discussion, entitled then working as a policy advisor was a quick study. “So what components of teacher education faulty airplane design, stating that “Educating Physics Teachers at to New York Senator Jacob Javits. you’re saying is Democrats will projects, including physics-spe- “Attempting to improve student UTeach Replication Sites”, in- Gus’s eyes narrowed, his face oppose cuts to Medicare and, cific pedagogy courses, the- hir achievement by training teachers cluded representatives of univer- turning crimson as he spat out the of course, Social Security, and ing of master teachers to work in better is analogous to attempting sities that are both PhysTEC and words, “The only good Republi- Republicans will oppose tax in- physics departments, and teach- to train pilots better to solve the UTeach sites. Several participants can is a dead one.” And with that creases and serious reductions in ing reforms in introductory phys- problem of planes falling out of he grabbed Marie’s elbow, and defense spending.” noted that PhysTEC was in a ics courses. In a popular session the air.” swiftly guided her away as they “That about sums it up,” I said. good position to provide an extra entitled “It takes a University for Erik Brewe, a Florida Interna- sought out more politically ac- “It leaves science caught in the push in physics for UTeach sites, Science Teacher Preparation,” an tional University education pro- ceptable guests. vise of a reduced domestic dis- many of which have not seen the education chair, and science dean, fessor, gave another data-rich pre- Scientists may not be union cretionary budget and having to same increases in physics teach- and a university provost provided sentation. He provided evidence rabble-rousers in the mold of Gus compete with all of the other pop- ers as they have in other math and insight into the issues that admin- that a technique called Modeling Tyler, but many of them harbor ular programs it contains, many istrators grapple with when decid- Instruction had greatly improved science fields. the same instinctive distaste for of them holding much higher pri- ing how to allocate resources. learning and attitudes toward Monica Plisch, Assistant Di- Republicans, based upon my an- orities for Democrats and Repub- Numerous speakers presented science among FIU undergradu- rector of Education at APS and the ecdotal experience. And a Pew licans alike.” data supporting teacher prepara- ates. Delving into the new field main organizer of the PhysTEC Foundation poll carried out two As my visitor left, I could only tion efforts. Among these was Carl of social network analysis, Brewe Conference, was pleased with years ago backs that up. It found hope he would recalibrate his po- Wieman, Physics Nobel laureate also presented data showing that this year’s event. “This year’s that only six percent of scientists litical thinking. Polling has shown and OSTP Associate Director for students taking courses that use conference really showcased the identified themselves as Repub- the public loves science, but the Science, who spoke about the im- Modeling collaborate with far community and energy that the licans, while fifty-five percent public also wants the federal gov- portance of high-quality data for more of their peers than those project has built around phys- called themselves Democrats. ernment to begin to balance its policy makers hoping to justify who receive traditional physics ics teacher education,” she said. Nine percent said they were con- books. the costs of education programs. lectures. “The UTeach connection brought servative, while sixty-six percent For Democrats, Social Se- Wieman also described his work Many conference attendees together people with common in- said they were liberal or very lib- curity, Medicare and Medicaid in promoting a more scientific remarked on the community the terests, and provided a lot of in- eral. Among the general public, represent the legacy of the era of approach to teaching and learn- PhysTEC Conference has helped teresting new perspectives.” I should note, conservatives out- enlightened public policy. For Re- ing. “We need to have all students build. Noah Finkelstein, a sev- Information about the confer- number liberals by a three to two publicans, reducing taxes, cutting think about and use science more en-time conference veteran and ence is available at www.ptec.org/ margin. spending and downsizing govern- like scientists,” he said. frequent presenter, said that the conferences/2011 Less than a month ago, a young VISE continued on page 7 Public and High-School Libraries Provide Access to APS Journals A year after the announcement January. While the number of pa- libraries occurred shortly after the public’s interest in the phys- munity has been in the lead in by APS that public libraries can pers downloaded is still relative- the beginning of the public library ics literature.” pushing for open access. The access its journals free of cost, the ly small, the program has been program. Several high schools In recent years, APS has been National Institutes of Health, number of libraries participating gaining in popularity. By the end approached the Society and re- working to increase its open ac- under its former director Harold and the number of journals down- of May, 1,611 papers had been quested if they could have access cess portfolio. Physical Review X Varmus, made open access a pri- loaded have both been growing downloaded from public librar- to the journals as well. Shortly is APS’s newest journal, an on- ority by requiring that published incrementally but steadily. ies, the most popular journal be- afterwards, APS announced the line-only open access journal that NIH-sponsored research has to The policy allows anyone to ing Reviews of Modern Physics. start of a new program specifi- publishes research across all dis- be freely available after a year. access any article from the APS The total number of libraries cally targeted at high schools. ciplines of physics. The online- Other organizations and publish- journals, as far back as their participating has been steadily The schools that have signed only journals Physical Review ers have similarly been exploring founding in 1893, from any li- increasing as well. At press time, up for the program are a mixed Special Topics: Accelerators and new open access or hybrid access brary enrolled in the program. 573 public libraries and 161 high bunch. Many are private acade- Beams and Physical Review Spe- models. Perhaps understandably, People can freely download arti- school libraries from across the mies and magnet science and en- cial Topics: Physics Education cles from library computers with country had signed up. gineering schools. However, sev- Research were the first open ac- physics journals have not been in approved IP addresses, whether “I think it’s great that we were eral regular public high schools cess journals published by APS. as high demand from the public they are members of APS or not. able to find a way to make our are participating as well. Though many publishers are as have biomedical journals. Any public or high-school library journals accessible and do it in “We’re trying things and see- understandably cautious, as an “There is no question that can participate for free. a way that doesn’t hurt our busi- ing what people like,” Serene industry science publishing has there is going to be more open ac- APS has been keeping track of ness model,” said APS treasurer said about allowing open access been trending towards the in- cess publishing. How much more the number of downloads since and publisher Joseph Serene. to journals in libraries, “It’s a troduction of more open access and in what form nobody knows,” the public library program since The inclusion of high-school great thermometer for gauging journals. The biomedical com- Serene said. 6 • July 2011 APS NEWS

CO-OP continued from page 1 Swedish Accelerator Will Be Carbon-Neutral “This was PhysicsQuest’s sixth By Calla Cofield facility “that makes neutrons out year. It’s a program that comes of wind.” with everything you need to do In 2019 the European Spall- ation Source (ESS), a pulsed neu- Even after incorporating the four physics experiments,” said cost of building and maintaining a Rebecca Thompson, APS’s head tron beam research facility, will begin operations in Lund, Swe- wind farm, ESS will save roughly of public outreach, “It’s done with eight million Euros a year from things they can find in their kitch- den. It will also be the world’s first carbon-neutral accelerator facility. not relying on traditional electric- en. It’s done to teach them that ESS’s energy plan will raise its ity sources. The facility can expect physics is everywhere, not just in initial costs, but should eventually an additional four million Euros in a lab.” save the facility millions of Euros direct income from their plan to Past kits featured puzzles and a year. In the interest of fostering recycle their heat waste. Rather experiments themed around fa- discussion about making science than dissipate the waste via cool- mous scientists, including Nicola more energy efficient, ESS an- ing towers, as is common at most Tesla teaching about electricity nounced that they will host their large facilities in the US, ESS will and magnetism, Marie Curie de- first Green Energy for Sustainable feed the heat into Lund’s district scribing heat and energy transfer, Science conference in October of heating system. The energy sav- and Benjamin Franklin teaching this year. ings from not using cooling tow- static electricity. The superhero ers, combined with efficiency Photo by Amy Wilks Talks at the 2011 APS April Spectra made her debut in the Meeting in Anaheim, California gains in the accelerator design, 2009 laser and optics kit, to coin- All eight members of the home schooling cooperative get together to do the "Watch it Fly" activity from the 2011 PhysicsQuest kit. and at the 2011 Particle Accelera- will give ESS another 3 million cide with LaserFest, 2010’s cel- tor Conference in New York City Euros in energy savings a year, or ebration of the 50th anniversary of of years. And the kids think it’s whole packaged program,” Wilks were both well attended, and met a total savings of about 15 million the first working laser. great,” said Amy Wilks, one of said. ‘’Its something we can do with questions from the audience Euros a year. Next year’s kit will return to the parents and teachers of the with our kids, and they enjoy it, about the specifics and the feasi- “So it is a useful revenue heat and thermodynamics as Spec- winning cooperative. “We make and all the materials are all there.” bility of the ESS energy plans. stream for us, but not something to tra faces off against the mean new lunch and we make it a whole day Thompson added also that “We get phone calls from peo- boast about on Wall Street,” said girl in school Taylor Maxwell and event.” PhysicsQuest has been popular ple who say they want to come Parker. But more than income, the her pet demon. She added also that she felt with home school students and work for ESS specifically because renewable energy source will sta- The kits are sent out to 13,000 bilize the cost of energy over the the flexibility of homeschooling teachers since its inception. we are doing this, they think it’s classes each year. More than 500 so cool,” said ESS Energy Man- facility’s lifetime. If the price of teachers participated in the con- works well with an exploration- “Traditionally we have a lot of ager Thomas Parker. “Most of the non-renewable electricity goes up, test this year by submitting their based kit like PhysicsQuest, giv- home schoolers participate, which scientists I’ve met are very con- the facility doesn’t have to worry answers online at PhysicsCentral. ing kids the opportunity to in- is great,” Thompson said. “We’ve cerned about the environment… that their operating budget will in- com. vestigate more subjects they’re had such a strong home school and are really enthusiastic about crease. “The program is wonderful. interested in. following. It’s neat that they’ve this project.” Parker and Ekdahl say the new We’ve done it for the past couple “It is really beneficial to have a finally won.” The ESS will be an acceler- plan has stirred up conversation ator-based spallation source, so in the physics community and OLYMPIAD continued from page 1 it will generate neutrons by first gathered attention from other fa- almost every evening. went to Iceland and Italy. Mari- the semi-final exam. From there, accelerating pulses of protons, cilities. Parker even puts forth the “Every year, we ramp up the anna Mao traveled with the team 20 students are selected to be on and then colliding those protons prediction that, “this is how big training. Every year, we give them to Mexico where she won a gold the US Physics Team and spend a with neutron-rich sources, such as science facilities will be designed harder questions. Every year, we medal in 2009. long week training at the Univer- mercury. The collision gives the in the future.” push them harder, and every year The Olympiad, an internation- sity of Maryland in late May. At neutrons enough energy to escape But much of ESS’s energy plan we find maybe we didn’t push al physics competition for high the end of the training course, five the nucleus and then interact with is made possible by its location. them hard enough. They are ex- school students, started in Eastern students are chosen to be on the sample materials. By observing Only a few cities in the United ceptional,” said Paul Stanley, the Europe in 1967, before growing traveling team and represent the the interaction between neutrons States utilize a district heating team’s academic director, during into a worldwide competition. The US at the international competi- and other materials, scientists can system like Lund, not to mention a welcome reception early in the US joined the competition in 1986 tion. study the atomic and molecular that in the United States, large sci- week. when three team members won Since first competing in 1986, structure of those materials. Re- ence facilities tend to be located “Congratulations for getting to bronze medals, the best debut of US team members have won 41 search done with neutron sources far away from large cities. Not all this point,” he said to the students. any participating team. locations are ideal for renewable gold medals, 28 silver medals, 29 includes in-depth chemical analy- Twenty high school students This year, five outstanding sources like wind or solar, and bronze medals and 11 honorable sis of materials, identifying ele- out of about 400 nationwide were physics and math students from even ESS will have to take into mentions. Last year’s team earned ments in archeological findings, chosen to participate in a 10-day each of 86 national teams will vie developing new materials, puri- account the inconsistency of some intensive training course at the for gold, silver and bronze med- one gold, two silver and two fication of materials, the study of renewable sources, like wind University of Maryland. The stu- als. The medals are awarded to bronze medals. More importantly, biological structures such as pro- farms. America also doesn’t have dents represent some of the best individual students based on their perhaps, the participating students teins or the development of new the kind of voucher system used and brightest in the US, the se- scores. Those that score 90 per- got a jump-start on their first-year medicines, and fundamental neu- in Europe, or quite as large an in- niors in the group bound for Har- cent or better on the exams will university physics curriculum. tron physics, to name a few. frastructure for renewable energy vard, Princeton, MIT, and Caltech take home gold medals. Competi- Back in Maryland, the 10-day In 2009, the OECD declared sources. Kevin Jones, director of in the fall. As smart and physics- tion lasts three days, with one day training course has come to a Lund the winning city in a bid- Oak Ridge’s Accelerator Research obsessed as they are, though, devoted to theoretical problems, close and the traveling team has ding war to host the European Division, says it is limitations like they’re just regular kids too. another day devoted to experi- been announced. Representing the Spallation Source, ESS. The city’s these, not a lack of desire, that has Ante Qu, sporting a pair of mental problems and a day of rest US this year in Thailand will be proximity to top science research limited United States facilities in neon yellow cardboard diffraction in between. high school seniors Lucy Chen, of institutes and relatively easy ac- energy-saving approaches similar glasses he was given before lunch, The students face exams on a Ames High School in Ames, Iowa; cessibility to other parts of Eu- to Lund. is having a debate with some of his range of physics subjects. They Andrew Das Sarma, of Montgom- rope contributed most greatly to “If any accelerator facility in lunch mates about whether Lego, will spend the weeks leading up to ery Blair High School in Silver the win, but the “cream on top,” the United States could find the his building blocks of choice, are the competition preparing and will Spring, Md.; Ante Qu, of West as ESS Communications Officer right balance between its geo- better than K’NEX. have an idea of what topics might Windsor-Plainsboro High School Marianne Ekdahl describes it, was graphical location and its ability “You can do so much more appear on the exams. The exact South in Princeton Junction, N.J.; the goal to make the facility car- to draw on renewable, predictable with K’NEX,” Adam Jermyn said. subject matter, however, is kept and Brian Zhang, of Henry M. bon neutral, and to save money sources of energy,” said Jones, “If you have enough Lego secret until the exams are passed Gunn High School in Palo Alto, doing so. “I think the management teams pieces, you can do anything,” Qu out. After all the labs and exams Calif. Eric Spieglan, a junior from “Saving money is what pol- would jump at that opportunity.” responded. are completed, all the teams’ Naperville North High School, in icy makers are most concerned Most of the ESS’s energy plans With Lego, though, “You can’t coaches review the answers and Naperville, Ill., is the fifth travel- about,” said Ekdahl. “But the concern policy and management make things that are isotropic,” calculate the winners. decisions, but improvements to ing team member. Spieglan repre- scientists too…because the more Jermyn said. Okay, maybe they’re The American Association of the efficiency of these large ma- sented the US last year in Zagreb, money we save the more money not exactly like regular kids. Jer- Physics Teachers (AAPT) and chines and facilities is something Croatia, where he earned a silver we have to do science.” myn tells time using his binary the University of Maryland have accelerator physicists have been medal as part of the 2010 travel- Perhaps the most ambitious part watch, effortlessly counting the 0 organized and trained each US working on for decades. One of ing team. of ESS’s carbon neutral plan will and 1 indicators to tell the hour. team from its inception. APS and be to build enough new renewable the techniques ESS used to reduce The students are the latest ad- the American Institute of Phys- For the five travelers and the its annual energy bill was adopting rest of the team as well, the days energy sources, most likely wind ditions to an elite group of high- ics (AIP), along with more than turbines, to meet 100 percent of superconductivity in some areas. school students who have par- a dozen other organizations, also of saturated training are over and Superconductivity trades the cost it’s time to head back home, just its electricity needs. The site of ticipated in the Olympiad for the sponsor the team. the future facility, where construc- of heat lost through resistance in in time for final exams at school. past 24 years. Two of this year’s The selection process for the tion is set to begin in 2013, is a traditional magnets for the much The five travelers will continue to coaches are former members of team starts in January when high stretch of grassy farmland, spotted lower cost of cooling the liquid study during the summer before traveling teams: Andrew Lin is a schools register for their students nearby with wind turbines. Parker helium needed to keep supercon- heading to Bangkok where the former silver and gold medalist to take the “F=ma exam.” The top says scientists have called it the ducting magnets at 2 Kelvin. for the 1998 and 1999 teams that 400 or so scorers move on to take competition starts July 11. SWEDISH continued on page 7 APS NEWS July 2011 • 7

ELEMENTS continued from page 1 ANNOUNCEMENTS difficult to acquire, leading the re- this is important, clearly signifi- of the United States’ future supply port to recommend that the federal cantly important for energy and issues on its own. Elements such Reviews of Modern Physics government do more to collect and our future in energy, but also in as terbium simply aren’t found Recently Posted Reviews and Colloquia disseminate information on their research,” Hultgren said in a press in any minable quantities in the various supply chains, and support conference after the introduction United States, while other coun- Colloquium: Physics of optical lattice clocks more research into their produc- of his legislation. tries like China can produce them Andrei Derevianko and Hidetoshi Katori tion and reprocessing. Robert Jaffe of MIT and chair cheaply. So far six bills in the House of the report committee said that “It’s a much more complex is- The accurate measurement of time is fundamental in many different “[Hultgren’s] bill really includes areas in physics and engineering. In this Colloquium, a way to mea- and three in the Senate have been sue. Mining is an important com- proposed to address securing the most important features of our sure time with high accuracy is discussed which is based on clocks ponent to a wise mineral policy, continued supplies of these rare report in a very compelling way.” made out of cold atoms trapped in optical lattices. Within this method but it is only a component,” Jaffe elements. The strategies include In the Senate, two bills similarly a clock "would neither lose or gain a fraction of a second over an said. “We have a diverse network more mining efforts, further re- contain many of the same research estimated age of the Universe." search and development and an recommendations. The bills are of international suppliers, and it http://rmp.aps.org increase in emphasis on recycling “Critical Minerals and Materials would be foolish to limit ourselves and reprocessing. Promotion Act of 2011” (S. 383) to U.S. sources.” Correction Francis Slakey, APS associate The bill that most closely proposed by Sen. Mark Udall (D- In the story in the June APS News about using Cherenkov radia- matches the recommendations in CO) and “Critical Minerals Policy director of public affairs, says that tion for medical imaging, the element involved was mis-identified as the APS-MRS study is that spon- Act” (S. 1113) sponsored by Sen. likely none of the bills proposed Actinium 235. It should have been Actinium 225. APS News regrets sored by Representative Randy Lisa Murkowski (R-AK). thus far will be signed into law in the error and apologizes to the extra neutrons that were inadver- Hultgren (R-IL), “The Energy At a recent House Science their current form. “The only way tently implicated. Critical Elements Advancement Committee meeting, John Hold- for a bill to get to the President is Act of 2011” (H.R. 2090). It calls ren, head of the Office of Science if there is some merging,” Slakey for the Department of Energy, and Technology Policy, said that said. He said that right now the Correction working with the Department of while the administration has not various representatives and sena- We inadvertently failed to acknowledge the source of the Back the Interior, to put together a re- formally taken a position on any tors are negotiating to work out a Page in the June APS News. We should have noted that a version port investigating the lifecycle of of the proposed legislation, it sup- more expansive bill that will cover of the article by Marie-Claire Shanahan and Zahra Hazari first ap- energy critical elements from dis- ports much of what is in Hultgren’s the gamut of issues. peared as a guest blog by the former author on the website of Sci- bill and the APS-MRS report. entific American. See http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post. covery and mining through pro- Though no final bill has yet duction and uses on to disposal “[Hultgren’s] bill calls particu- cfm?id=can-we-declare-victory-in-the-parti-2011-03-29. emerged, critical materials have and potential for recycling. The larly for three focuses; one is on been quickly gaining a lot of inter- bill focuses especially on research better information, one is on recy- SOUTH AFRICA continued from page 3 est in Congress. “We’re really on into better ways to collect and re- cling and one is on research. We ics and an update on a global sur- ence programs and building its the fast track,” Slakey said, adding cycle these elements. agree with all of that, and we are vey of women in physics. After academic credentials. It already that typically it can take between “Right now no one element is already pursuing those avenues,” the conference, attendees had the is home to the Southern African three and four years from when an in immediate jeopardy of not be- Holdren said. opportunity to travel to a nearby Large Telescope (SALT), the larg- issue emerges and congress passes ing available, but we are seeing Other bills have focused more elementary school and talk about est optical telescope in the South- less and less availability here, es- on mining assistance, and stream- final legislation. The APS-MRS science to the students. ern Hemisphere, and is vying to pecially domestically, so we need lining the permitting process for study however was released in “It was a jam-packed few days. host the Square Kilometer Array of to do all that we can in a market- new mines. Jaffe said that while February of this year, as reported I met some really interesting peo- radio telescopes. friendly way to recognize that important, mining won’t solve all in the March APS News. ple,” Cunningham said. “They’re really entering the The event drew men and wom- big time in that field. They see the en from a wide range of physics IRANIAN continued from page 3 strategic investments in science as disciplines who were at various important,” Urry said. “If you look at the transcripts versity wants to emphasize has buy in Europe and get it after six stages of their careers. Attendees of any Iranian student who ap- shifted. The government is less months, you have to spend five The conference featured a included undergraduates, graduate number of prominent speakers. plies to a university abroad, likely to financially support fun- years and redo all research that students, faculty, society members you’ll see that in areas such as damental research than research people have done before,” the Wednesday’s plenary speaker was and industrial physicists. Jocelyn Bell-Burnell, who discov- hard science, physics or English, with military or social applica- source said. “You do a lot of work The conference brought to- ered pulsars. Earlier in the day, a large fraction of the classes tions. Though this is true in many but you end up with not really the gether nearly 300 participants from Mae Jemison, the first African- that are forced on these students countries it is more acute in Iran, standard frontier of results.” over 70 countries from across the American woman astronaut, deliv- are based on Islamic items,” said one source who has worked The difficulty in setting up world, including Burkina Faso, ered a talk about experiential sci- said Hossein Sadeghpour of the in both Iran and England. He a lab has had two effects on the Japan, Russia and Nigeria. Egypt ence education. Harvard-Smithsonian Center for requested anonymity to protect physics community in Iran; a also sent a delegation despite the Many of the talks were video- Astrophysics and a member of family members still living in disproportionate number of theo- recent political upheaval in the recorded and can be accessed APS’s Committee on Interna- Iran. rists because it is cheaper to host country. online. Emma Ideal, a graduate tional Freedom of Scientists. He “Either you are one of the them, and a general brain drain IUPAP picked South Africa for estimated that between 15 and people that government is in fa- student at Yale, was in charge of from the country. its fourth conference on women 20 percent of a physics student’s vor of, or you have a hard time,” putting together the video archive However traveling abroad in physics for a combination of transcript would be comprised of the source said. from the meeting. She said that presents its own difficulties. reasons. A major factor was to try classes on Islamic ideology and Acquiring the needed equip- they hoped that attendees would be In 2010, when Ardalan tried to to get more people from develop- philosophy. ment to carry out research is an- able to keep a record of the talks. come to the APS March Meeting, ing nations in Africa to participate. This new state of affairs has other thorny problem, even when “Others who weren’t able to visa complications prevented him Hosting the conference in South meant that more resources are de- funding resources are available. make it for whatever reason… this from entering the country. Other Africa cut travel costs for those voted towards religious study. A weak currency exchange rate broadcast would allow them to physicists have also said that on the continent, dramatically in- “You just imagine the aya- combined with international have a greater participation role by long visa delays have prevented creasing the participation of people tollah, with a very conservative sanctions means that much of the from African nations. Past confer- means of the post-conference dis- them from traveling to the United point of view, serving as your cutting edge equipment needed ences were held in Paris, Brazil semination,” Ideal said. States. university president. What is go- for research is priced out of the and South Korea. The videos can be accessed at “As soon as someone is tagged ing to be receiving the most em- range of most Iranian science in- In addition, South Africa has http://physics.yale.edu/4th-interna- as a physicist from Iran, they im- phasis?” Hemmati said. stitutions. Cheap alternatives are been aggressively pushing its sci- tional-conference-women-physics. Though it seems that the ac- sometimes available from China, mediately identify them as part tual science content of the classes but the quality is often not com- of the nuclear program,” Ardalan SWEDISH continued from page 6 themselves has remained largely parable to Western products. said. “I’m one of the usual sus- At ESS’s Green Energy for conscious. The conference will intact, which subjects the uni- “For something that you could pects.” Sustainable Science conference, also discuss goals to lower en- which Parker says is open to all ergy consumption by big science VISE continued from page 5 areas of science, attendees will facilities, new techniques to im- ment represent an overdue return publican conference in the House stunning to me that so many scien- have a chance to discuss the prove efficiency, and how labo- to Reaganism. two decades ago, have all but van- tists still remain disengaged from changing demands on large sci- ratories can implement the tech- It’s hard to see either party ced- ished. As Joe Scarborough, the the public discourse. Both parties ence facilities to conserve more nologies and approaches already ing ground. Both have lost sub- conservative co-host of MSNBC’s need to hear from the community energy and be environmentally available. stantial numbers who comprised “Morning Joe,” recently observed, and pronto. MEMBERS continued from page 2 the center of the political spec- there are two blocs of Republicans This is what former House “We do not see the signal… “But all that’s really important trum. in the House of Representatives speaker, and now minority leader, If it existed, we would see it. But to know is that all the putts nearby The Blue Dogs, a coalition of today: those who are followers of Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)–a big sci- when we look at our data, we basi- are related to each other… A few conservative House Democrats, presidential candidate and House ence booster–told me a few weeks cally see nothing.” steps to the left, a few steps to the who counted 54 members before Tea Party Caucus leader, Michele ago in Washington: “I’m con- Dmitri Denisov, Fermilab, on right, they all have a target point the 2010 election, total only 26 Bachmann (R-MN), and those cerned the science community is the DZero detector’s null result which you can align yourself.” today. who are scared she will work to resting on its laurels. It needs to when looking for the “bump” seen Robert David Grober, Yale, on And moderates, who repre- defeat them. get active now. Otherwise, I’m at CDF, FoxNews.com, June 10, how to line up a putt in golf, MS- sented at least a quarter of the Re- In this polarized climate it is afraid great damage will be done.” 2011. NBC.com, June 13, 2011. 8 • July 2011 APS NEWS The Back Page

he Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of of supernova neutrinos. TScience has the opportunity to enhance the The Sanford Underground Research Facility at To update the science the NSF and DOE requested a prospects for major scientific discoveries in the Homestake–an Opportunity for the United States National Research Council assessment. This assessment US in the coming decade by supporting under- and the Office of Science Report are anticipated by the ground physics experiments that will profoundly to Lead Profound Physics Experiments end of June (shortly after APS News goes to press). advance our understanding of the physical uni- By Kevin T. Lesko Facility Preliminary Design verse. The DUSEL Project completed its Preliminary De- Last December, the National Science Board sign in March. The design proposes the former Home- (NSB), in its role as the oversight body for the National Sci- stake Mine as the site. The Berkeley team is a collaborative ence Foundation (NSF), unexpectedly decided to deny further effort working with South Dakota government and university NSF funding for the Deep Underground Science and Engi- entities. South Dakota established its Science and Technology neering Laboratory (DUSEL) [1] As it did so, the NSB never- Authority (SDSTA) to facilitate the development of DUSEL theless expressed its interest in the scientific programs moving and to advance higher education and technology activities. forward. [2,3] The SDSTA received title to the site in 2006. The property These programs have been thoroughly vetted by the High includes 186 surface and >7,000 subsurface acres with 600 Energy Physics (HEP) and Nuclear Physics (NP) communities km of existing shafts and tunnels. The SDSTA, using a HUD and are essential elements to advance these disciplines. The grant, state funding, and $70M of philanthropic funding, sta- US and international communities have been actively engaged bilized and re-established access to the underground, and re- with the DUSEL Project team. With NSF and DOE sponsor- Figure 1. The reduced-scope option at the 4850 ft level (feet under- established pumping of the accumulated underground water. ship, about 25 collaborations with over 700 researchers are ground), showing a 100kt cavity and a 100m-long lab. The impacts of flooding the 4850 ft. level have been mitigated. developing experiments. The DUSEL Project, including NSF DM programs on a competitive time scale. The rock is an or- Significant infrastructure and safety enhancements have been and DOE, have spent ten years forging the path for creating der of magnitude lower in U and Th than found at other pro- installed. The Davis Laboratory, which housed Davis’ Nobel these experiments and providing the facilities necessary to lead posed sites. A DM experiment is currently being deployed at Prize-winning solar neutrino experiment, has been expanded the worldwide effort. Homestake and Generation-2 (~ 1 tonne) experiments can be and a new hall excavated. Both are being outfitted to support The DUSEL Project and the entire US underground-science installed in advance of new construction to support the Gen- physics experiments. community are hopeful for a successful evolution in the DOE eration-3 (~ 10 tonne) experiments. These experiments are Geotechnical investigations affirm that the 100 ktonne cav- and NSF stewardship of these efforts. DOE leadership will necessary to complement the LHC experiments in seeking to ity design poses few problems. Recent analyses indicate that empower the HEP and NP communities to not just participate identify DM and capitalize on the current US leadership. 200 kt class excavations are well within existing excavation in, but lead world-class experiments. We applaud the Office of Neutrinoless Double-Beta Decay Searches: Much of and ground support technologies. Science for their leadership in seeking solutions in the midst of underground physics focuses on completing our understand- The Facility Design was critically reviewed by a 23-mem- such uncertain funding times. ing of neutrino properties. While oscillation experiments have ber committee, who report: The costs are mature, well support- Following the NSB’s decision, three significant events oc- presented compelling evidence that neutrinos oscillate be- ed and well documented. Many sections of the report are well curred: 1) DOE established a committee to assess options for tween massive families, there remain significant challenges beyond the Preliminary Design Report (PDR) stage. There is underground physics experiments–efforts that were underway: to completing our understanding: the absolute neutrino mass, a strong core team that understands the issues and knows how the Long Baseline Neutrino program (LBNE), searches for the ordering of the neutrino families (mass hierarchy), the full to address them. The project continued to do very high quality Dark Matter (DM), and for Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay mixing matrix describing the oscillations among the three work on the PDR, despite the very chaotic environment and (0νββ); 2) The DUSEL Preliminary Design was completed; families, and possible charge and parity (CP) symmetry violat- reductions in staff. The PDR is of very high quality and is at the and 3) the National Research Council’s report assessing DU- ing phases and/or Majorana phases. The 0νββ experiments will level expected for a CD-2 review in the DOE system. SEL’s science opportunities is anticipated shortly [4]. address the determination of the absolute neutrino mass, mass Advancing Underground Research with DOE Leadership Fortunately there is a path forward that preserves US lead- hierarchy, and Majorana phases which would indicate that the The Project team, working from the PDR, created reduced- ership roles, leverages the existing efforts designing the facil- neutrino is its own antiparticle. When coupled with other ex- scope options for consideration by the Office of Science Com- ity, capitalizes on South Dakota’s inspirational investments, periments, even null 0νββ results are extremely valuable. The mittee. One option for the newly named Sanford Underground and maintains the existing momentum. deployment of tonne-scale experiments would: capitalize on Research Facility at Homestake (SURF) is shown in Figure In February, William Brinkman, Director of DOE’s Office the US investment while developing this essential component 1. The designs are tailored to the DOE’s science goals, while of Science, announced the formation of the Independent Re- of the US program; exploit the unique opportunity for a low- maintaining flexibility to develop new areas. The options ac- view of Options for Underground Science Committee to assess background experiment; and launch a world-leading effort commodate LBNE’s Water Cherenkov and/or Liquid Argon the costs, as well as siting and staging alternatives to achieve with high discovery potential. (LAr) detectors at the 4850 ft. level, and/or shallower depths for cost-effective options for implementing a world-class program Long Baseline Neutrino Experiment and Proton Decay the LAr. In addition to LBNE’s detectors we propose a labora- of underground science [5]. Searches: There is an abundance of evidence that neutrinos tory module capable of supporting two to three experiments.

The Compelling Science has been Identified and Pri- oscillate among the three known flavors eν , νμ, ντ, indicating The 4850 ft. level option proposes experiments share a 100m oritized that they have masses and mix with one another. Indeed, mod- long module, while at the 7400 ft. level we propose a 75 m In 2008 the Particle Physics Project Prioritization Panel ulo an anomaly in the LSND and MiniBooNE experiments, long module. An independent construction management firm Roadmap of the HEP Advisory Panel (HEPAP) and in 2007 which report excess candidates, all observed neutrino oscilla- validated cost and schedule estimates. These options support the Nuclear Science Advisory Committee Long Range Plan tion phenomena are well described by 3-generation mixing, all of DOE’s world-leading science programs in a single facil- 2 assessed these high priority research topics as the DOE and which is described by two mass squared differences Δm 12, ity, while maintaining on-going efforts in DM and 0νββ: LUX 2 NSF jointly pursued concepts for an underground facility. The Δm 23 three mixing angles (θ12, θ23, θ13) and a phase (δCP). As and MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR in the Davis Campus. 2 full suite of scientific experiments has been critically assessed yet, the sign of Δm 23 is undetermined. Resolving the sign of The aggressive schedule is supported by the state’s efforts. The 2 by APS reports, including The Neutrino Matrix (2004); Na- the mass hierarchy is an extremely important issue. Δm 12 is design benefits from the substantial synergisms of a single site 2 tional Academy Reports–Connecting Quarks to the Cosmos large enough, compared, to Δm 23, to make long baseline neu- with coordinated design, construction, and operations. (2002), Neutrinos and Beyond (2003); NSF reports–Deep Sci- trino oscillation searches for CP violation feasible and likely The transition to DOE leadership introduces the opportuni- ence (2007); and Joint DOE and NSF scientific assessments– to yield positive results. Currently, we know nothing about the ty for additional funding paths for the variety of project scales 2 Discovering the Quantum Universe (2004), the Dark Matter value of δCP and only have an upper bound on θ13: sin 2θ13< 0.2. which may benefit the science. Experiments can develop and

Scientific Assessment Group (2007), and the Particle Astro- Knowledge of θ13 and δ would complete our determination of be integrated as their plans sufficiently mature, rather than be- physics Scientific Assessment Group (2009). Internationally, the lepton-mixing matrix and provide a measure of leptonic CP ing funded “all at once” as required by an NSF Major Research underground physics is the focus of the OECD Global Science violation. LBNE provides the clear path to obtaining the best Equipment and Facility Construction account Project. Forum in its Report of the Working Group on Astroparticle sensitivity to all these parameters. NB: on 15 June the T2K col- While some efforts more clearly align with one agency, all Physics (2011). In 2010 the DUSEL Program Advisory Com- laboration reported the observation of six electron-like events. involve both DOE- and NSF-supported scientists. It is among mittee summarized: [6] At 90% C.L., the data are consistent with 0.03(0.04)< sin2 our highest priorities to maintain NSF’s engagement. Through

We are impressed by the breadth and depth of the DUSEL 2θ13 < 0.28(0.34) for δCP = 0 and normal (inverted) hierarchy. the involvement of both agencies we foresee the greatest bene- science. The envisioned program in physics and astrophysics While requiring additional confirmation, T2K’s measurements fits to the physics program, the maximum realization of syner- will address fundamental questions about the Universe and its of a relatively large θ13 indicate that the LBNE goals are well gistic benefits, and greatest reduction of overall costs through fundamental laws, such as the question of why the universe within the capability of the experiment design parameters. [7] the increased sharing of facilities. contains matter but no antimatter, the nature of dark matter, CP violation has only been observed in the quark sector. We strongly encourage the DOE to assume leadership of the origin of neutrino mass, and the genesis of the chemical Discovery in leptons should shed light on the role of CP vio- SURF, to work with the scientific collaborations to maintain elements. … In addition, the Committee felt that the interdisci- lation in nature. Most important, unveiling leptonic CP vio- NSF’s engagement in the science, and to take advantage of the plinary laboratory, with sustained support, will provide unique lation is compelling because of its potential connection with existing Project Team to produce a facility that will propel the scientific opportunities that engage and educate the next gen- the observed matter-antimatter asymmetry of our universe, a US into world-leadership with efforts in neutrino studies and eration of scientists and engineers. fundamental problem at the heart of our existence. These stud- dark matter searches. All the essential elements for success ex- Direct Detection of Dark Matter: There is compelling ev- ies will provide additional, sensitive probes for “New Physics” ist now. idence that most of the matter in the universe consists of non- deviations from 3-generation oscillations. Kevin T. Lesko of UC Berkeley is the DUSEL Principal In- Standard Model particles subject to gravitational forces. This LBNE’s large detector offers a rich field of physics discov- vestigator. material directly influences large-scale cosmology, galactic ery by pushing the limits on proton decay into modes suggest- (1) http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2011/05/chu-calls- formation, and evolution, and provides convincing evidence ed by supersymmetric GUTS. Establishing baryon-number nsfs-decision-to-aband.html?ref=ra (2) http://www.aps.org/publications/ apsnews/201101/nsffunding.cfm (3) http://sites.nationalacademies.org/BPA/ for new physics beyond the Standard Model. DM experiments conservation violation would have profound implications for BPA_060036 (4)http://lbne2-docdb.fnal.gov/0035/003501/001/DUSEL_ have made impressive advances in sensitivity, pursuing mul- cosmology and particle physics. The same detector can pursue Charge_Letter.pdf (5)http://sites.nationalacademies.org/BPA/BPA_058955 tiple technologies and techniques. The Sanford Underground astrophysical neutrino observations including measurements (6) http://www.dusel.org/html/pac.html (7) arXiv:1106.2822v1 [hep-ex] Research Facility is poised to provide excellent facilities for APS News welcomes and encourages letters and submissions from its members responding to these and other issues. Responses may be sent to: [email protected]