May 2015 • Vol. 24, No. 5

More on the APS April Meeting A PUBLICATION OF THE AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY See pp. 3 and 4 WWW.APS.ORG/PUBLICATIONS/APSNEWS

Mapmakers Chart Distribution of Dark Matter Nuclear Needles in Cargo Haystacks By Michael Lucibella By Shannon Palus through terrorism or war. APS April Meeting 2015, Bal- APS April Meeting 2015, Bal- It’s been decades since school timore — Scientists working on timore — Every day, some 60,000 children were advised to “duck and the Dark Energy Survey (DES) ship-borne cargo containers pull cover” to shield themselves from Dark Energy Survey released a map of a section of the into United States ports. Each metal Cold War atomic bombs. According southern sky charting the loca- box is about 2.4 m by 2.4 m by to the National Academy of Engi- tion of matter based on its lensing 12 m, which is plenty of space to neering (NAE), preventing nuclear effects on light from distant galax- hide a nuclear bomb, says Areg terror is still an important goal, and ies. The map, presented at the April Danagoulian, a nuclear scientist at the NAE put it on the list of 14 Meeting, is the first preliminary MIT. In fact, there are bombs that Grand Challenges of Engineering analysis of results from the sur- could blow up several city blocks, to be solved in this century. vey, and the first detailed picture and could fit in a backpack. Dana- “Peaceful energy programs of the distribution of matter in the goulian asks: “How do we detect could mutate into weapons pro- universe out to about seven billion something so small?” grams,” says Danagoulian. “You light years. At the April Meeting, Dana- could use a reactor for synthesizing This new information about the goulian presented data from a plutonium, and [make] a weapon distribution of dark matter com- proof-of-concept demonstration out of that.” Also, weapons can be plements the findings of existing that peers into cargo with beams stolen from existing stockpiles; surveys of luminous matter. “It … of gamma rays. Within the decade, there are 17,000 warheads in the [includes] not only the galaxy and he hopes, the method will be used arsenals of Russia and the U.S. stars we know and love, but also the at ports to accurately scan cargo Today, port inspectors use pas- dark matter,” said Chihway Chang at a rate of about two minutes per sive methods to detect nuclear of the Swiss Federal Institute of Map of total (luminous and dark matter) mass distribution produced by container. His is just one of the contraband, like looking for radia- the Dark Energy Survey team based on gravitational lensing of light from Technology. technologies that physicists are tion coming from a container. distant galaxies. Red indicates higher mass densities and blue the lower That is easy to block with lead if mass density regions. Size of moon is shown in upper left for comparison developing to prevent the prolifera- MAPMAKERS continued on page 7 with the area of sky mapped. tion of nuclear materials, whether NEEDLES continued on page 6

PhysTEC Selects Four New Sites to Share $1.2 Million Particle Physicists Gather to Plan Next Accelerator By Bushraa Khatib “We were pleased to have received By Michael Lucibella construction shortly after this pro- accelerators and technology at The Physics Teacher Education such strong proposals that promise As news broke that the restart of gram ended. CERN. Coalition (PhysTEC) project has to develop new models for physics the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) Participants in the meeting, The final design for the FCC is up added four newly-funded compre- teacher education.” The nationwide would be delayed, more than 300 which was organized by IEEE in against a parallel effort to design the hensive PhysTEC sites and also need for physics teachers is acute; physicists, including many of conjunction with the DOE and Compact Linear Collider (CLIC). nine sites that received smaller only one third of physics teachers CERN’s top scientists and admin- CERN, hope to complete the FCC’s The envisioned 42-kilometer long, 3 recruiting grants. Since the project have a degree in the field. istrators, gathered in Washington, technical report by about 2018, in TeV electron-positron linear collider began in 2001, it has funded a total In one of first partnerships of its D.C. in late March 2015 to plan time for the next update to the Euro- would also be located at CERN. of 46 sites (including the newly- kind, the University of Northern for the machine’s successor — the pean Strategy for Particle Physics Once both designs are completed, funded sites) to build model physics Colorado (UNC), one of the top Future Circular Collider (FCC), to (ESPP) in 2019 or 2020. CERN administrators will recom- teacher education programs. Col- producers of science educators in be built at CERN. This meeting was “The LHC is the main machine, mend one of the two options when lectively, these institutions have Colorado, has teamed up with the the second annual design confer- and now we have people looking it is time to update the ESPP. doubled the number of high school Colorado School of Mines (CSM), ence for the FCC, and the first held at what else can be [built],” said Though the FCC planners at the physics teachers graduating from one of the largest physics under- in the United States. Frederick Bordry, the director for ACCELERATOR continued on page 6 their programs. graduate programs in the country. The FCC would surpass the

The four new comprehensive Wendy Adams, director of LHC in both size and energy. CERN sites selected to develop their phys- Science Education Programs at Though early in the design pro- ics teacher education programs into UNC, said the PhysTEC grant has cess, the FCC is envisioned as a national models are Rowan Univer- already helped leverage institu- 100 TeV circular collider between sity, Texas State University, West tional support, including a six-year 80 and 100 km in circumference, Virginia University, and a joint commitment for a full-time Teacher- compared to the LHC’s 27 km ring University of Northern Colorado/ in-Residence (TIR), one of the key and 13 TEV energy (after the cur- Colorado School of Mines project. components of successful PhysTEC rent upgrade is complete). Such a Funding for the new sites, up to sites. gargantuan project faces a variety $300,000 per site over three years, Vincent Kuo, director of the of technical, economic, and politi- will begin in fall 2015. Center for Engineering Educa- cal challenges, some likely easily PhysTEC, the flagship APS edu- tion at CSM, and a champion for surmountable, others less so. cation program, aims to improve the PhysTEC, said that as a science “I think for the next collider, education of future physics teach- and engineering school, CSM has we should go to the Moon,” said ers by creating successful models historically not been involved with Bruce Strauss, a physicist in the for physics teacher education producing educators. With this col- U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), programs and disseminating best laboration, the school is uniquely using an Apollo-era metaphor. practices. The PhysTEC program positioned to fill the licensure pool “There are some challenges ahead, is led by APS, in partnership with with exceptionally qualified under- but I think we should go.” the American Association of Phys- graduates. The current plan is to run the ics Teachers, with support from the Texas State University is the LHC through about 2022. Then National Science Foundation and first PhysTEC site in Texas and a major upgrade, completed by APS donors. an institution serving Hispanic 2025, would turn it into a high- Monica Plisch, Director of Phys- students. The program aims to luminosity machine, the HL-LHC, TEC and APS Associate Director produce five physics teachers per which would support a ten-year of Education and Diversity, said, PHYSTEC continued on page 4 science program. FCC would start LHC and one possible successor (dotted line)

Revised 06/17/2015 2 • May 2015

Members This Month in Physics History in the Media May 5, 1933: The New York Times Covers Discovery of Cosmic Radio Waves “They wanted to eviscerate the the film “Furious 7,”The Chicago book. … My first thought was, Tribune, April 4, 2015. uch of the outdoor footage for the 1997 film hours and 56 minutes — a property of fixed stars and ‘This is so ridiculous I won’t even MContact was shot on-site at the Very Large other celestial objects beyond our solar system. The respond.’” “This is not built upon trust. Array observatory in New Mexico. Far more people most likely source of the radiation, he concluded, Kenneth W. Ford, reacting to … This is built upon hard-nosed have heard of the film than of the man for whom that was the center of the Milky Way, where the signal the Department of Energy’s desire requirements in terms of limita- observatory is named: Karl Guthe Jansky, known was strongest, in the constellation of Sagittarius. to redact portions of his memoirs tions on what they do, at various among astronomers as the father of radio astronomy. As Cyril later recalled, “The scientist’s problem about working on the hydrogen timescales, and on the access and Born in 1905, Jansky was one of six children. His is to recognize basic facts even though they are bomb, The New York Times, March transparency.” father, Cyril, an electrical engineering professor at obscured by a wealth of extraneous material, and then 23, 2015. Ernest Moniz, U.S. Department the University of Wisconsin, instilled a strong love of to apply creative imagination in their interpretation. of Energy, speaking to Congress physics in his three sons. Karl’s older brother, Cyril This Karl Jansky did.” “It’s beyond our imagination about inspection requirements for Jansky Jr., insisted that his younger sibling “was The result was not one, but three published papers, right now.” Iran in the recently-agreed-upon no bookworm,” citing his skill including “Electrical disturbances Xiang Zhang, University of nuclear framework, The New York at tennis and hockey, and later apparently of extraterrestrial ori- California, Berkeley, on the future Times, April 6, 2015. status as a Monmouth County gin,” which he presented at a of new applications for metamateri- table tennis champion in New meeting of the International Sci- als, The New York Times, March “If people are learning and Jersey, as evidence. entific Radio Union in April 1933. 23, 2015. changing their behavior, then there Karl Jansky earned his This, in turn, led to a high-profile must be something that’s changing degree in physics from the news story in The New York Times “You know, we’ve probably got in their brain. … The brain can’t be University of Wisconsin, and on May 5, 1933, trumpeting his a reasonably good idea of what constant. It has to be changing in spent an extra year as a gradu- discovery, and the University of water is like and what ice is like. some way.” ate student, although he never Wisconsin finally awarded him But when it gets near a surface, it Danielle Bassett, University of completed his thesis. Instead, his master’s degree based on the becomes a different beast, and we Pennsylvania, on how the brain he joined the research staff of three papers. don’t really understand it at all. … learns new skills, The Chicago Bell Telephone Laboratories in Jansky was keen to continue It’s quite interesting that even today Tribune, April 6, 2015. 1928. He had been diagnosed investigating these mysterious cos- we’re able to come up with new with chronic kidney disease in mic signals and wanted to build scenarios for water that we haven’t “My life story was published college, so Bell Labs was initially Karl Jansky built an antenna that a 30-meter dish antenna for that could be rotated on the wheels of previously thought of.” recently by Phillip Schewe with the reluctant to hire him, but relented purpose. But Bell Labs was more when big brother Cyril — an elec- a Model T so that he could track interested in applied research at Alan Soper, Rutherford Apple- title Maverick Genius: The Pioneer- down sources of radio static, in- ton Laboratory, on a new structure ing Odyssey of Freeman Dyson. trical engineer, like his father, and venting radio astronomy in the the time — the height of the Great of ice found when sandwiched I disapproved of his project and a former Bell Labs staff member process. Depression. Since Jansky’s work between two layers of graphene, gave him no help. To my surprise, who helped build some of the showed the hissing static should NPR.org, March 25, 2015. when the book appeared, I found earliest radio transmitters in the U.S. — interceded not be problematic for transatlantic communica- out that he had done a good job. I on his behalf. tions, they judged the project complete. Jansky was “We were having beers and apologized, and we remain friends.” Jansky’s first assignment was to study intermittent assigned to other projects. He remained at Bell Labs thinking [about] what could we Freeman Dyson, Institute for static sources that might be interfering with radio for the rest of his career, toiling in relative obscurity do that’s smaller scale, that we Advanced Study, when asked who waves used for transatlantic telephone transmissions. despite pioneering a new field of science, although can handle ourselves. And while he would want to write his life It was a challenging assignment; Jansky had to design he was elected as a fellow of the Institute of Radio we were chatting … we were, of story, The New York Times, April and build special instruments for that purpose, most Engineers in 1948. course, fiddling with our smart 16, 2015. notably a large directional antenna system mounted That new field, radio astronomy, didn’t emerge phones, and that’s when we real- on a motor-driven turntable that rotated through 360° overnight. The dire economy and Jansky’s lack of ized, ‘Hold on a second, these smart “We hope to see many, many about a central vertical axis, riding on a circular track professional standing as an astronomer dissuaded var- phones can actually be used as par- more Higgs we can study in detail.” on the wheels of a Model-T Ford. It was dubbed ious observatories from investing in further research. ticle detectors!’” Ulrich Heintz, Brown Univer- “Jansky’s merry-go-round.” One key early figure was Grote Reber, who heard of Daniel Whiteson, University of sity, on the restart of the LHC, The Once he analyzed all that data — collected over Jansky’s discovery and built a radio telescope in his California, Irvine, on designing an New York Times, April 20, 2015. many tedious months — Jansky identified three own backyard in 1937, using it to conduct the first app to detect cosmic rays, NPR.org, basic types of static: local thunderstorms, distant systematic survey of cosmic radio waves. March 27, 2015. “The ship was partially decon- thunderstorms, and a third he described as being The development of radar during World War II taminated, but some of the fission “composed of very steady hiss static the origin of provided a boost to radio astronomy, such that after “There’s a lot of science in art.” fragments are expected to be still which is not yet known.” His careful wording came the war ended, another astronomer named John Kraus Walter Massey, School of the bound to the ship.” at the advice of his supervisor, who cautioned him was able to start a radio observatory at Ohio State Art Institute of Chicago, on his Kai Vetter, University of Califor- against making over-bold claims, lest his finding not University. Kraus eventually wrote a textbook that efforts to infuse more science into nia, Berkeley, on the discovery of the hold up to further investigation. But Jansky suspected became a bible for radio astronomers. By 1964, it his school’s arts programs, The sunken U.S.S. Independence, which that the signal originated in the center of the Milky was an established field — the year Arno Penzias and Chicago Tribune, March 30, 2015. was used in early atomic bomb tests, Way galaxy, making it the first known detection of Robert Wilson used a giant horn antenna to discover FoxNews.com, April 21, 2015. extraterrestrial radio signals. the cosmic microwave background radiation. “You’d need the best equipment, His reasoning was simple. He studied that third Jansky died in 1950 at the age of 44, the result and you’d need everything to go “Hubble gave us beauty in a way type of static for over a year, and noted that it rose of a massive stroke stemming from his kidney dis- right, like landing in the exact right that no other telescope had ever and fell once a day. At first, Jansky thought this meant ease. When that first 1933 paper was reprinted in spot, but there’s no reason a car done.” it was radiation from the sun. But a few months later Proceedings of the IEEE in 1984, the editors noted couldn’t parachute down and keep John Mather, NASA Goddard, the brightest point of the signal moved away from that Jansky’s work would mostly likely have won right on driving.” on the 25th anniversary of the Hub- the sun’s position. Furthermore, the rise and fall a Nobel prize, had the scientist not died so young. Matthew Kleban, New York Uni- ble’s launch, The Washington Post, did not repeat exactly every 24 hours, but every 23 COSMIC RADIO WAVES continued on page 7 versity, on the driving physics in April 22, 2015.

Series II, Vol. 24, No. 5 APS COUNCIL OF REPRESENTATIVES 2015 International Councilors International Advisor (non-voting) May 2015 Marcia Barbosa, Eliezer Rabinovici, Annick Suzor- Adam J. Sarty, Canadian Association of Physicists President Weiner*, Kiyoshi Ueda © 2015 The American Physical Society Samuel H. Aronson*, Brookhaven National Laboratory Staff Representatives (Retired) Chair, Nominating Committee Mark Doyle, Chief Information Officer (Ridge); Amy Patricia McBride Flatten, Director of International Affairs; Terri Gaier, Editor•...... David Voss President-Elect Director of Meetings; Christine Giaccone, Director, Homer A. Neal*, University of Michigan Chair, Panel on Public Affairs Journal Operations; Barbara Hicks, Associate Staff Science Writer ...... Michael Lucibella William Barletta Publisher; Ted Hodapp, Director of Education and Vice President Division, Forum and Section Councilors Diversity; Dan Kulp, Editorial Director; Trish Lettieri, Art Director and Special Publications Manager...... Kerry G. Johnson Laura H. Greene*, University of Illinois, Champagne- Miriam Forman (Astrophysics), Timothy Gay Director of Membership; Darlene Logan, Director of Urbana Design and Production...... Nancy Bennett-Karasik (Atomic, Molecular & Optical Physics), Jose Onuchic Development; Michael Lubell; Director, Public Affairs; (Biological), Amy Mullin* (Chemical), Frances Michael Stephens, Controller and Assistant Treasurer; Proofreader...... Edward Lee Past-President James W. Taylor, Chief Operating Officer Malcolm R. Beasley*, Stanford University Hellman* (Condensed Matter Physics), Steven Gottlieb APS News (ISSN: 1058-8132) is published 11X yearly, Subscriptions: APS News is an on-membership publica- (Computational), Ann Karagozian (Fluid Dynamics), monthly, except the August/September issue, by the tion delivered by Periodical Mail Postage Paid at Col- Gay Stewart* (Forum on Education), Eric Sorte, Chief Executive Officer * Members of the APS Board of Directors American Physical Society, One Physics Ellipse, Col- lege Park, MD and at additional mailing offices. Kate P. Kirby*, Harvard Smithsonian (retired) (Forum on Graduate Student Affairs), Dan Kleppner* lege Park, MD 20740-3844, (301) 209-3200. It contains (Forum on History of Physics), Gregory Meisner* news of the Society and of its Divisions, Topical Groups, For address changes, please send both the old and new Speaker of the Council (Forum on Industrial and Applied Physics), Young-Kee Sections, and Forums; advance information on meetings addresses, and, if possible, include a mailing label from Nan Phinney*, Stanford University Kim* (Forum on International Physics), Lowell Brown of the Society; and reports to the Society by its commit- a recent issue. Changes can be emailed to membership@ (Forum on Physics and Society), Nicholas Bigelow tees and task forces, as well as opinions. aps.org. Postmaster: Send address changes to APS Treasurer (Laser Science), James Chelikowsky (Materials), Wick News, Membership Department, American Physical Malcolm R. Beasley*, Stanford University (emeritus) Haxton* (Nuclear), Philip Michael Tuts (Particles & Letters to the editor are welcomed from the member- Society, One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740- Fields), John Galayda (Physics of Beams), Cary Forest ship. Letters must be signed and should include an ad- 3844. Corporate Secretary Ken Cole (Plasma), Mark Ediger (Polymer Physics), Nan Phinney dress and daytime telephone number. The APS reserves (California Section), Carlos Wexler (Prairie Section) the right to select and to edit for length or clarity. All cor- Coden: ANWSEN ISSN: 1058-8132 General Councilors respondence regarding APS News should be directed to: Marcelo Gleiser, Nadya Mason, Gail McGlaughlin, Advisors from other Societies (non-voting) Editor, APS News, One Physics Ellipse, College Park, Keivan G. Stassun* H. Frederick Dylla, AIP; Mary Elizabeth Mogge, AAPT MD 20740-3844, Email: [email protected]. May 2015 • 3

Environmental Physics at the April Meeting

By Michael Lucibella above the surface of the sun-baked APS April Meeting 2015, Bal- ground. The layer of air starts to Profiles In Versatility timore — Presenters at the April rise, but small disturbances easily Meeting highlighted the role that produce spinning vortices of warm physicists can play in combating and cool air. climate change. Researchers shared The assembly expends no First responders: Getting the bad guys ways to reduce carbon emissions energy to create the artificial dust in the developing world, innovate devil. Glezer and his team built a and fighting fires … as physicists new techniques to harness the sun’s bladed structure that looks like the energy, and even extract carbon inside of a water turbine, which By Alaina G. Levine dioxide from the air. directs the rising warm air into a The APS Forum on Physics and spinning vortex, artificially induc- As an officer with the Univer- I would have security.” Lincowski also has honed the Society honored Berkeley physi- ing a dust devil. With a fan attached sity of Arizona Police Department He originally thought he’d go skill to focus on facts and ignore cist Ashok Gadgil for his work to a generator at the top, the team (UAPD), Andrew Lincowski spends for engineering, but at the regional preconceptions. “As a police offi- improving global health and the has been able to harvest usable most of his days ensuring campus college, Armstrong State Univer- cer, I can go to a call and have to environment. One of the projects electricity from the rising air. safety by patrolling the streets, sity, the only related offering was weigh my experience with certain he spearheaded was the Darfur “The vortex can be sustained responding to calls, and visiting in applied physics. That was fine people to know how they’ll react,” Stove — a cheap and efficient wood as long as the thermal stratifica- students in their dorms. But in he says. “I have to use that to inform stove first distributed to refugees at tion can be sustained,” Glezer said. between shifts, he pursues another my investigations, but not at the camps in Sudan. “Startup was really not much of a passion — he is an undergraduate in expense of ignoring the current facts He designed the stoves to problem.” physics and astronomy and plans to of the incident.” This extra sense of maximize their energy efficiency, His team built the first Solar go to graduate school and become awareness has helped him as a sci- conserving the wood fuel, a scarce Vortex machine in Atlanta then a theoretical astrophysicist. entist, although he also adds that he resource that is dangerous for shipped it to Mesa, Arizona, last Lincowski traces his love of has learned not to “judge things too people to collect in arid northern summer for the first round of suc- science back only a few years. quickly, because they can change Africa. At Lawrence Berkeley cessful field tests in the dry air. “In high school, I really wanted very quickly.” National Laboratory, Gadgil and They’re planning on testing a five- to do physics, but at the time, in On the other hand, his physics his team designed and tested a meter-diameter version this August. my infinite wisdom as a teenager, I education has also helped him on $20 sheet-metal stove that could The hope is that this kind of couldn’t imagine a concrete career,” the force. For example, he has a be inexpensively shipped all over electricity generation could be he says. And so, “my science path greater appreciation of technology the world. competitive in cost with conven- was initially diverted.” He gradu- used by law enforcement, such as He estimates cooking with the tional wind energy. It’s also not ated in 2006 with a bachelor’s in TASERs, and he has leveraged his stoves saves two tons of carbon affected by changing wind speeds accounting and immediately began physics familiarity to bolster his per stove per year compared to and less impacted by clouds than working in the housing market. But ability to solve cases. Early on in traditional solar energy. the traditional method of heating when the economic crisis hit, he Andrew Lincowski his studies, he was taking a mechan- a pot raised on three stones over a Glezer and his team are also shifted towards law enforcement, ics class where the instructor was small fire. So far, the nonprofit that looking to test whether humid air eventually becoming a cop with the discussing collisions between mov- manufactures and distributes the would work in the Solar Vortex. Tucson Police Department (TPD). ing vehicles. Soon, Lincowski was stoves, Potential Energy, has dis- Both the Department of Energy’s “My goal was to become a detec- called to testify in a lawsuit per- pensed more than 46,000 of them ARPA-E and the Department tive as quickly as possible,” he taining to a car accident. While up throughout the region and plans of Defense have supported his says, with an eye towards a federal in the witness stand, “I used my to send another 5,000 by the end research, and he hopes to commer- agency such as the IRS, where he physics knowledge to show that of the year. cialize his work starting in 2016. could use his accounting skills to the guy had been going over 50 Ari Glezer of the Georgia Insti- ARPA-E is also pursuing other investigate financial crimes. miles per hour in a 25 mph zone,” tute of Technology is developing a avenues to improve conversion Never a gambling man, as he he says. “The lawyer said I had no clean, renewable energy source that of sunlight to electricity. Howard prepared for the detectives exam, knowledge of this, but I was able induces and harnesses the power Branz, the Department of Energy’s Lincowski also applied to UA as a to refute this. … The attorney got of desert whirlwinds, colloquially ARPA-E program director for solar physics student. The move paid off: flustered, because they were ready known as dust devils. “Right now energy, offered some insight into “I didn’t make detective eligibility, to throw that information out. But dust devils form spontaneously,” spectrum splitting, possibly the so I went back to school,” he says, I had proof and showed them the Glezer said. “The idea here is to next big game-changer for solar and he was happier because of it. He math. Most police officers can’t create a prescribed number of power. stayed with TPD for 4 years before articulate that.” In preparation for them.” He highlighted the work of a transferring to UAPD. the next hearing, he worked out the group at Caltech that uses special Now a senior, Lincowski is set equations to demonstrate that the The dusty vortices start swirling Derrick Brown after a layer of warm air forms just ENVIRONMENT continued on page 6 to graduate in May 2015. He’s done defendant had skidded. quite a bit as a physics student, with Brown, who immediately Brown, whose fire department including completing an internship became attracted to the discipline. also handles emergency response

LBL at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight And the more he studied it, the more for vehicular collisions or illness, Center, where he contributed to the he relished the many examples of has developed the knack to calm Haystacks Project, which supports applied physics he saw in action, people down quickly and synthesize the search for habitable exoplanets from understanding the stratifica- multiple streams of information in by simulating telescopic planetary tion of gases in a burning structure, order to make the right decision. system images across a wide range to knowing how far away from a And pursuing such a challenging of wavelengths. Ultimately, his wall you can place a ladder and subject has helped him recognize efforts will improve the develop- not have it slide. “I immediately his own innate tenacity, which he ment of future telescopes in the saw why we did certain things on never realized he possessed. “I’ve search for exoplanets. He also was the job,” he says, and as a result it gotten my feelings hurt. Calculus 2 one of only 16 nationwide recipi- made him a much more perceptive punched me in the nose and chemi- ents of the prestigious John Mather firefighter. cal thermodynamics was difficult Nobel Scholarship, offered by the This insight is especially criti- because I hadn’t taken chemistry for National Space Grant Foundation. cal as a first responder because, as a few years,” he shares. But “what Derrick Brown, a firefighter with Brown explains, “No two fires are I’ve learned from studying physics the city of Savannah, GA, has taken alike.” His education has given him is not to quit.” a different path. Although he went a deep understanding of the physics As first responders, their flexible to college, “It wasn’t for me,” he of fires and the technology used to schedules have definitely made it says. He left without graduating fight them, which “helps me provide easier to pursue physics. Lincowski and eventually found his way to the a better argument for taking certain typically works four 10-hour shifts Army, where he was deployed sev- actions” when called to serve. each week, which leaves him plenty eral times to the Middle East. When The experiences of Lincowski of time to attend courses and pres- he returned stateside for good, and Brown as first responders have ent at conferences. However, when he pondered his next vocational also greatly helped them as physics he’s on duty, his focus is completely move, and got hooked on the idea students. Lincowski reports that he on law enforcement. “I can’t do of becoming a firefighter. But he has improved his time management homework in the car,” he jokes. And knew that if he were ever to move and his ability to deal with stressful although he loves identifying how up the ladder and pursue a position situations and conflict. “I don’t tend physics is part of many aspects of in command, he would need a bach- to be affected as much by stress,” his job, “I try not to be ‘that guy,’ elor’s degree. “I really wanted to he says. “It’s hard to be stressed who has a story for everything from get a degree that’s worthwhile that about deadlines, presentations, or class.” Brown, who works 24-hour Ashok Gadgil at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory designed a stove that im- I could use,” he says. With the right tests when you’ve been on the street shifts and then has 48 hours off, can proves energy efficiency without changing traditional cooking practices. major, “If I break my leg tomorrow, with people who want to kill you.” RESPONDERS continued on page 6 4 • May 2015 Nuclear Pasta and Neutron Waffles

Letters APS April Meeting 2015, Balti- it (see right side of figure). Members may submit letters to [email protected]. APS reserves the more — Neutron stars contain some Caplan and his colleagues right to select letters and edit for length and clarity. of the densest matter in the universe, recently showed that nuclear pasta second only to black holes. Astro- has regions where the noodles are physicists say that these compact, disordered. These are sites of elec- Science or Islamic Science? Manhattan-sized remnants of stars tron scattering in the neutron star have a thin, 100-meter crust whose crust that lower the electrical and I have been following the cov- Islamic science.” counterproductive and against the structure resembles different kinds thermal conductivity of the star, erage of The International Year of What surprises me are the international and non-religious spirit of noodles: strings of protons and causing it to remain hotter longer. Light 2015 in APS News with inter- notions of Islamic optics or Islamic of science to attribute its achieve- neutrons, smashed together like Caplan showed off another food- est. In particular, Joseph Niemela’s science. Does it mean that there ments to any faith. Of course, some flour and eggs in a pasta press. like substance hidden in the neutron article in the February 2015 issue are also Christian optics, or e.g. scientists are religious and their sci- At the April Meeting, gradu- star: waffles (see left side of figure), contains a lot of timely information. Orthodox science, and so on.? Are entific discoveries can be inspired ate student Matt Caplan gave an so named for their similarity to the The following passage both- Einstein’s discoveries Judaic sci- by their faith. But it does not make update on the research conducted grid-like depressions in the familiar ers me however: “… IYP 2015 is ence? Has Abdus Salam, a person a scientific discovery attributable in a group led by Charles Horowitz breakfast food. “The waffles are celebrating 1000 years of Islamic devoted to Islam, to be considered to religion. at Indiana University. This team of significant because they mark one optics, starting with the book of as a part of modern Islamic science? theoretical physicists uses super- of the first identifications of a pasta optics written by Ibn al-Haytham To my mind science is not and Miron Ya. Amusia computer simulations to explore the structure outside of what was pre- during the so-called golden age of never was about any religion. It is Jerusalem, Israel dense nuclear “pasta” — “the region dicted in the original theory papers where things get weird,” as Caplan on pasta,” says Caplan. calls it. Though he can’t make real The new discovery comes thanks Better Physics Colloquia neutron star matter here on Earth, to improved computer power: The Caplan printed out 3-D models of PASTA continued on page 7 Thanks to James Kakalios for In that article, he asked “Does land, 1991) and “What's wrong with in his instructive Back Page essay everyone head for the corridors those talks?” (Mermin, 1992). “The Physics of Physics Collo- when you rise to read your paper? quia” (APS News, February 2015) If so, the Secretary of the Physi- Richard Hake in which he summarized Robert cal Society wishes to have a word Woodland Hills, California Geroch’s 1973 paper “Suggestions with you.” Unfortunately, the qual- References for Giving Talks.” However, Geroch ity of APS talks did not improve K. K. Darrow, “How to address the Ameri- was not the first to try to upgrade and therefore it was reprinted in can Physical Society,” Physics Today 4, 4 physicists’ public speaking skills. Physics Today in 1961 and 1981. (February 1951). Horowitz Group/Indiana University More than two decades earlier, Karl After Darrow and Geroch raised J. C. Garland, “Advice to beginning physics speakers,” Physics Today 44, 42 (July 1991). Darrow published “How to address the issue, there came “Advice to N. D. Mermin, “What's wrong with those the APS” (Darrow, 1951). beginning physics speakers” (Gar- talks?” Physics Today 45, 9 (November 1992).

Neutron waffles and 3D nuclear pasta The Art and Science of Black Holes

By Shannon Palus Panduratoa, named after a species liding particles aren’t too great in PHYSTEC continued from page 1 APS April Meeting 2015, of black orchid — Jeremy Schnit- the first place. “All the previous Baltimore — This year’s April tman showed that in some cases, work had looked for those perfect, year by the end of the funding Rowan as learning assistants and the extra energy can be on the order critical particles that just barely fall Meeting was swirling with black period, and plans to engage a TIR tutors at both the university and of 600%. into the black hole, so they col- hole physics. Physicists can catch to focus on course improvement and high school level. The program In the simulations, he threw lide with the maximum possible only an indirect glimpse of these community-building activities. The aims to make the Rowan phys- billions and billions of weakly energy,” he explains. spacetime singularities, so the main physics department at Texas State ics department a “teacher-rich” interacting massive particles The energies in these so-called tools are computer calculations or University has committed to phys- environment, with strong mentors (WIMPS are one of the dark mat- Penrose collisions “are not quite observations of how black holes ics education as a core activity, and available to help students develop ter candidates) at the hypothetical as impressive,” says Schnittman. affect nearby matter. Among other recently hired two faculty members their passion for teaching. black hole. The black hole acts like But they are greater in terms of findings on offer in Baltimore: who specialize in this area. PhysTEC also selected nine an accelerator for the particles, says efficiency. By way of explana- supercomputer simulations of dark John and Gay Stewart, who sites to receive recruiting grants Schnittman. That’s handy, because tion, Schnittman offers the classic matter collisions with black holes, developed an exemplary Phys- (up to $30,000 over three years) in dark matter particles would not tortoise and the hare moral that TEC site at the University of order to explore new approaches for new additions to the black hole fam- work in a traditional accelerator, as “sometimes second best wins!” Arkansas, plan to use the lessons increasing the number of new high ily tree, and predictions of what they do not interact with an electric The middle child they have learned there to remove school physics teachers and engage mergers between black holes There are black holes that institutional barriers to teaching at bachelor’s-granting physics depart- and neutron stars look like. are a million, or even a billion West Virginia University (WVU). ments, which collectively educate There was even a sound and times more massive than our “Our model at the University of over half of all physics teachers light art installation produced sun. There are the compara- Arkansas was always depart- in the U.S. While comprehensive by filmmakers and physicists tively small black holes, at mental transformation leading to sites deal with all aspects of physics at Montana State University a few solar masses. Univer- the growth of the undergraduate teacher preparation, these smaller showing a projection of mat- sity of Maryland physicist major, with increased graduation sites focus on recruiting more future ter trapped in a black hole’s Dheeraj Pasham showed of well-qualified teachers a natural high school physics teachers. fatal embrace. off data from a rare middle- outcome of that growth,” said John The sites selected for fund- Great escapes sized black hole that officially Stewart, site leader of the WVU ing beginning in September 2014 In 1969, before Stephen clocks in at 400 solar masses PhysTEC project. The project will include Boise State University; Hawking developed his Pasham and his colleagues partner with WVUteach, a brand Bowdoin College; East Tennessee idea that black holes could at NASA Goddard explored new UTeach replication effort that State University; Indiana Univer- radiate energy, Roger Pen- hot spots of gas swirling has already shortened the licensure sity South Bend; Northwestern rose showed that sometimes around M2-X1 using six years path of physics students from six Oklahoma State University (a when a particle decays into of archival data from the now- years to four. multi-institution site involving four two particles near a black defunct RXTE satellite. By Rowan University in New Jersey universities in Oklahoma); Salis- hole, one may fall in and the measuring the ratio at which has a thriving undergraduate phys- bury University; Sonoma State other may escape. And that hot spots at different distances ics program with over 150 majors, University; University of Massa- escaping particle could have Throwing dark matter at a black hole. from the black hole flash, the many of whom are interested in chusetts Dartmouth; and University more energy than the original team can extrapolate its size. becoming high school teachers, but of Wyoming. particle. field. Zooming around and into the The key, says Pasham, was scaling find it difficult to complete both These sites will use PhysTEC “In one fell swoop, he showed black hole, sometimes a couple of up a common technique used to physics and education majors in grants to boost marketing efforts, that you can get something out of the particles collide. The smash-up measure the nearby — and much four years. Karen Magee-Sauer, improve advising, create streamlined a black hole and you can get a free creates gamma rays; some fall in brighter — stellar-mass black holes. PhysTEC site leader at Rowan, pathways to the physics degree/cer- lunch,” says Jeremy Schnittman, a and some escape. Since the par- The small black holes form said, “Becoming a PhysTEC com- tification, provide financial support, physicist at NASA Goddard. But ticles whip around the black hole when a massive star collapses under prehensive site will help us push develop early teaching experiences, at the limit for the extra energy in one direction, they light up just its own gravity. But how a super- for institutional change to eliminate and fund a part-time TIR. at about 30% that of the original one side of the black hole with their massive black hole, like the one at obstacles to certification.” Magee- The author was formerly APS particle, it isn’t very efficient. Or, energy-efficient glow. the center of our galaxy, forms is Sauer is also excited that students Bridge Program Coordinator. She is rather, wasn’t. Using a simulation Why so much more efficient? will have plenty of opportunities now at the Drexel University Autism of a black hole — the code is called The energies of Schnittman’s col- HOLES continued on page 7 to teach throughout their years at Institute. May 2015 • 5

APS March Meeting 2015 Kavli Foundation Diversity Corner Special Symposium: Frontiers of Light

New APS Ad Hoc Committee on LGBT Issues Gain- ing Ground The new APS ad hoc Committee on LGBT Issues (C-LGBT) is charged with making recommendations to the APS on how to make physics more inclusive for LGBT individuals, and the committee will make a report in early 2016. For a Physics Today piece on C-LGBT, go to: scitation.aip.org/content/aip/ magazine/physicstoday/article/68/3/10.1063/PT.3.2716 This year’s March Meeting Kavli Also, profiles of LGBT physicists are available online at the Symposium featured five speakers on following URL: scitation.aip.org/content/aip/magazine/physic- the theme of light, to coincide with the International Year of Light and Light- stoday/news/10.1063/PT.5.9034 based Technologies. Clockwise from top left: Stefan Hell, Howard Hess, William M. Hildred Blewett Fellowship: Applications due June 1 Moerner, Margaret Murnane, and Shuji APS is now accepting applications for the M. Hildred Blewett Nakamura. Hell, Moerner, and Nakamura Fellowship. This award is intended to enable women to resume are all 2014 Nobel Laureates. See aps. org/march/ for more. physics research careers after an interruption. The deadline to apply is June 1, 2015. For more information and/or to apply, please visit: www.aps.org/programs/women/scholarships/ blewett/

Follow Physics Diversity on Twitter INSIDE THE Curious to hear the latest happenings in physics and diversity? Follow @APSDiversity on Twitter. Beltway

Sign up to receive the COM/CSWP Gazette The Gazette is the newsletter of the APS Committee on the The White House Budget Bungle Status of Women in Physics (CSWP) and the Committee on by Michael S. Lubell, APS Director of Public Affairs Minorities (COM). It features updates on CSWP and COM The budget game is far from of $1.4 trillion in 2009. And the tious issues, but removing the BCA activities and programs, book reviews, statistical reports, and over, but the president booted the president argued that it was time caps was one he knew he could not articles on programs designed to increase the participation of ball on opening day, all but assuring to hike spending for both national accomplish unilaterally. Congress women and minorities in science. The Gazette is distributed his adversaries a victory. Barack security and domestic needs that needed to pass new legislation. free of charge. To add your name to the Gazette mailing list, Obama may have the intellectual had been accumulating during the And with Republicans in control email [email protected] and include your postal mailing address. mettle for the highest office in the last four years. of Capitol Hill, he must have known country, but too often his political His budget request contained the odds were against it, at least on Accepting Nominations for the CSWP Woman Physicist of the Month instincts don’t measure up. The con- $74 billion more in expenditures the non-defense side. The APS Committee on the Status of Women in Physics test over the fiscal year 2016 budget than the BCA allowed, split about Defense spending is another (CSWP) Woman Physicist of the Month award recognizes makes that crystal clear. evenly between defense and non- matter. Except for the small band female physicists who have an impact on an APS member’s Three months have passed defense discretionary accounts. of isolationists among them, most life or career, both past and present, and/or who are worthy since the White House released its That split, he said, struck the right members of the GOP were clam- of recognition. Each CSWP Woman Physicist of the Month is spending blueprint, blasting apart balance. Contained in the increase, oring for more military money. featured on the APS Women in Physics website (www.Wom- the spending caps imposed by the incidentally, was a boost of more Fiscal hawks wanted offsets from enInPhysics.org), announced in the Gazette, and recognized 2011 Budget Control Act (BCA). In than 5 percent for science accounts, non-defense accounts, but others at a reception at an APS national meeting. February, the non-partisan Congres- almost all of them on the non- were content simply to find a BCA sional Budget Office was already defense side of the ledger. work-around. Nomination is easy: Email a three-paragraph statement forecasting a decline in the federal The president has shown a pro- As House and Senate Repub- explaining why the physicist you are nominating is worthy to deficit to $468 billion in fiscal year clivity for exercising executive licans began to tackle the Budget [email protected] 2015, dramatically below the high authority over a variety of conten- BUDGET continued on page 7

The 2015 APS Nominating Committee is pleased to present an outstanding slate of candidates for this year's annual election. 2015 Voting will be open from May 15 through June 30. Those who are elected will begin their terms on January 1, 2016. Information APS General Election on voting, and the candidates’ statements and biographical information, are available at go.aps.org/aps-votes-2015 Candidates for Chair-Elect Candidates for Candidates for Vice President Nominating Committee General Councilor

Roger Falcone Lyman Page Deborah Jin Robert McKeown Bonnie Fleming University of California, Princeton University University of Colorado Jefferson Laboratory Yale University Berkeley Candidates for Treasurer Candidates for International Councilor

Thomas Halsey James Hollenhorst Johanna Stachel Joachim Ullrich Brad Marston Exxonmobil Agilent University of Heidelberg, Max Planck Institute Brown University Germany 6 • May 2015

NEEDLES continued from page 1 RESPONDERS continued from page 3 the smuggler has any competence, But his system alone isn’t do homework at the stationhouse you make a difference are few school in the fall. But one thing is says Danagoulian. Inspectors also enough to conclusively determine in between fires, but the climate and far between,” says Lincowski. clear with these men: even though use broadband x-ray beams, ranging what’s inside the container. “If presents a challenge. “It’s like a frat “Most times, people are booked into they are leaving “the job” behind, it in photon energy from 1-6 MeV, to you start mixing materials, you are house,” he admits with a chuckle. jail and then are out before I file my will stay with them always, as will gauge the density of the material going to measure the effective Z,” “I have to hide in the bathtub to do report.” And yet, “it’s nice to make physics. “I’m definitely a differ- inside the container. But when used says Danagoulian. Adding low-Z my homework.” a positive impact,” he adds. ent person, studying physics now to discern the atomic number, the materials to a container with plu- Lincowski is proud of the con- Now as they approach gradua- than if I had done it the first time method is inefficient, and requires tonium could throw off the system. tributions he has made as a police tion, they are both contemplating around,” he says. As a police officer, a high dose to work. One method that might com- officer. He has stymied crime rings leaving their posts as first respond- “I see the bigger picture. I want to In Danagoulian’s cargo inter- plement gamma-ray inspection that included identity theft and ers. Brown is interested in getting tie my work into good for the greater rogation method — 10 times as is neutron radiography. “Neutron fraud and has locked up suspects a job with an engineering firm and society.” efficient as the broadband method radiography is good at analyzing on armed robbery and domestic is currently interviewing and pursu- Alaina G. Levine is president — two monochromatic gamma-ray materials with low Z,” says Dana- violence charges more than once. ing different career options. He was of Quantum Success Solutions, a beams, one at 4.4 MeV and one at Similarly, Brown has aided people recently accepted into Medisend science career and professional goulian. That includes plastics and 15.1 MeV, pass through a container and even animals in need. However, International’s General Richard development consulting enterprise. organic material. “I see it as a way to a detector on the other side. The these victories are uncommon. “One B. Myers Veterans Biomedical She can be contacted through www. of augmenting the range of Z recon- flux of the 4.4 MeV beam through of the reasons I am leaving law Equipment Technology Program. alainalevine.com, or followed on struction,” he explains. the container reveals the density enforcement is that the moments Lincowski will head to graduate twitter @AlainaGLevine. When it comes to capturing a of the material; combined with the 15.1 MeV flux, the method also warhead, or the material for one, yields information on the atomic “There is no silver bullet,” says ACCELERATOR continued from page 1 Danagoulian. Ultimately, he envi- number Z. meeting saw no obvious scientific particle physics community. high-luminosity LHC.” sions a combination of methods Danagoulian has completed a deal-breakers, there would be a “Much detector technology is The LHC Accelerator Research employed at ports, the data from proof-of-concept test of the tech- number of engineering challenges driven by silicon technology and Program (LARP) is the main each utilized in a decision-making nique with several materials, from to overcome. The biggest will be computing power, so we can count U.S. collaboration with CERN to algorithm. And the methods work aluminum to iron to copper to lead, designing magnets sufficiently on significant improvements,” said advance accelerator technologies. but not plutonium, which is hard to for catching more banal contraband, powerful for the giant particle accel- Werner Riegler, chair of the tech- Right now, the program is geared get, even for a scientist studying how too. Coffee importers smuggling erator’s storage ring. nical board of the LHC’s ALICE entirely towards developing mag- to stop it from spreading. The data beans to avoid import taxes may The dipole and quadrupole mag- detector. nets for the HL-LHC. clearly show that as Z increases, the not be as threatening of a scenario, nets that would direct and focus the Making the science case for “In terms of direct studies, [FCC] number of photons that go through but it’s one customs agents are more 100 TeV particle beams will need building the machine is also a top is not something I can directly the container decreases. likely to see on a regular basis. to be significantly more powerful priority, but complicated by the dis- invest in,” said Giorgio Apollinari, than any built so far. Researchers covery of the Higgs boson in 2012. the LARP director at Fermilab. “I estimate that the magnets will have There are no more obvious holes would love to be able to help but to produce 20-tesla magnetic fields left in the standard model to fill in, ENVIRONMENT continued from page 3 the mandate is what it is.” to contain and control the beam. Cur- though mysteries persist about the American scientists have a lot of mirrors to split white light into its Center for Negative Carbon Emis- rently, LHC magnets produce about nature of dark matter and super- experience to draw on. The United constituent wavelength in order to sions at Arizona State University, 8 tesla, while Fermilab has built symmetry. States was almost always pushing hit photovoltaics optimized for spe- where he and his team have been 11-tesla prototypes. Designs for the “The first goal is the complete the cutting edge of accelerator tech- cific wavelengths ranges. He said working on different prototypes HL-LHC call for 16-tesla magnets. exploration of the Higgs boson and that this technique might boost a to efficiently and economically nology until the cancelation of the Another significant techno- its dynamics,” said Michelangelo Superconducting Supercollider in solar cell’s efficiency from around remove carbon dioxide. logical challenge is containing the Mangano, a theoretical physicist 5 percent to 50 percent. His team has been experiment- 1993. Even after accelerator domi- synchrotron radiation emitted by the at CERN. “Dark matter remains a nance was ceded to Europe, U.S. Other teams are taking the idea ing with different device designs particle beam as it circles the outer crucial element in the search.” a step farther. For example, after and anion exchange resins that bond researchers put together a major storage ring. The LHC currently But without a clear next step, theoretical study in 2003 for a the sun’s visible light is absorbed, with carbon dioxide. The resins are produces a relatively negligible persuading funders that this next- the remaining infrared radiation is currently used for water purifica- 240-kilometer “Very Large Hadron seven kilowatts of radiation, while generation machine is necessary Collider” at Fermilab. directed at a thermal collector. tion, but are ideal for carbon capture the FCC would generate about five could be difficult. “There’s lots of advanced optics because the carbon dioxide can be “The U.S. has a lot to con- megawatts of radiation, enough to “I’m not convinced we can tribute,” said Michael Syphers of going on at ARPA-E,” Branz said. washed out in ordinary water for potentially wreak havoc on its sen- actually make it make sense to the “We need the advances for build- sequestration and the resin reused. Michigan State University. “The sitive cryogenics, electronics, and people who actually pay the bills … U.S. has 25 years in running a 2 ings, solar power, dry cleaning, all The prototype he’s been devel- other equipment. unless we have some really com- TeV collider, and 10 years design- kinds of things.” oping uses a truss-like structure Because they make up the major- pelling arguments,” said James ing and partially constructing a 40 For other researchers, generat- resembling chicken wire in order ity of the machine, the magnets and Siegrist, the associate director of TeV collider.” ing electricity without producing to maximize its surface area. He their raw materials would also be the Office of High Energy Physics Throughout the conference, the carbon dioxide isn’t enough. Con- hopes to get a working prototype the project’s biggest cost-driver. at the DOE. ghost of the SSC seemed to loom cerned about the ever-increasing on the roof of their building in the Based on the size of the accelera- The role of the U.S. in the proj- over much of the proceedings. Pre- amount of greenhouse gases in near future. tor, it’s estimated that at least 6,000 ect is uncertain, in part because the senters made frequent references to the atmosphere, Klaus Lackner is “These things are entirely pas- metric tons of superconducting nio- timing of the study is awkward for a variety of lessons learned from the developing new membrane materi- sive, they can be made out of bium-tin would be needed to build the high energy physics commu- aborted project. als to remove carbon dioxide from smaller units and they are entirely the requisite magnets. nity. Two years ago, before the FCC “Had we gone down that route, the air. He is working on a device mass-producible,” Lackner said. “The present cost of niobium-3 project geared up, the leadership of we could have had the Higgs a that can theoretically absorb carbon “The raw material is very, very tin is a … [deal-breaker], ” said Ezio this community came together for a decade ago,” said Rep. Bill Foster dioxide 1,000 times faster than a cheap.” Todesco, a researcher at CERN. He field-wide meeting to help develop tree. However, the challenge of scrub- added that to be practicable, the a broad, ten-year roadmap for future (D-Ill.), who opened the conference. “We want to show that the air bing the atmosphere of excess cost would have to drop to about high energy physics projects. The He was an accelerator physicist capture side can actually scale to a carbon is formidable. Lackner esti- $800 a kilogram, down from the 2013 meeting, known as Snowmass at Fermilab before running for viable size … commensurate with mates that it would take 100 million current $1600 a kilogram price tag. on the Mississippi, played a major Congress, and worked on some what we need to do,” Lackner said. of his full-scale, shipping-container- Though he said that manufacturers role in informing the final report components of the SSC. “[Europe] “We can take CO out of the air and sized scrubbers to fully offset the got the project and we didn’t, so 2 he spoke to are willing to take on of the DOE’s subsequent Particle bury it.” amount of carbon dioxide that has the challenge, “We are still very far Physics Project Prioritization Panel, doing the politics right is important.” Last year Lackner founded the built up over the last 200 years. from this.” which laid out the agency’s official One of the biggest lessons he Surprisingly, computing power ten-year strategic plan. said he drew from the failure was to track the vast numbers of par- “I don’t think at Snowmass [the the need to bring in a broad coali- ticles produced in collisions was FCC] was thoroughly assessed,” tion of regions into the project, also highlighted as a potential Siegrist said. “From an agency either across U.S. states or coun- concern. Microprocessors have perspective, we don’t really know tries around the world. “You need a continuously become smaller and what the U.S. community thinks balance of effort going from region cheaper over the years, but that about this.” to region, and you need a balance trend may not continue. He added that the consensus that of money going from region to APS “Extrapolating computer tech- emerged out of the 2013 meeting region,” Foster said. NEWS nology 20 years into the future is was to put the heft of U.S. research Though the LHC experiments non-obvious,” said Ian Bird, the behind developing technologies for and detectors are international proj- online: computing grid project leader at the proposed International Linear ects, involving collaborations with CERN. “We’re close to the physical Collider and the HL-LHC. dozens of nations around the world, limits for feature size.” “The HL-LHC is the highest the accelerator itself was a Euro- On the flip side, as long as com- priority in the near term,” Siegrist pean-funded and built machine. www.aps.org/publications/ puter power progresses, detector said. “We can’t have everybody “Everyone is convinced that apsnews technology is generally expected run off to work on the FCC while the next machine is a world-wide to keep up with the needs of the we’re still not finished with the machine,” Bordry said. May 2015 • 7

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Convey the excitement of Laser Science to undergraduates by bringing distinguished scientists to colleges and universities ! Distinguished Traveling Lecturer (DTL) Program in Colloquium: Majorana fermions in nuclear, particle, and solid-state physics Steven R. Elliott and Marcel Franz In nature one can associate to each particle an antiparticle with equal The Division of Laser Sciences (DLS) of the American Physical 2015/2016 LECTURERS: mass and opposite charge: to the electron there is the positron, to the Society announces its lecture program in Laser Science, and Laurie Butler proton there is an antiproton, etc. When they meet particles and University of Chicago antiparticles annihilate each other producing light in the process. invites applications from schools to host a lecturer in 2015/2016. Hui Cao Majorana fermions are particles with an identity crisis: they are their Lecturers will Yale University own antiparticles and hence they self-annihilate. Although they have • Visit selected academic institutions for two days, during which Jim Kafka been theoretically predicted to exist, they are recondite and only Spectra Physics recently traces were found of their existence. In this Colloquium the time they will give a public lecture open to the entire academic nature of Majorana particles and their presence in several different community Wayne Knox branches of physics is discussed from nuclear to condensed matter. University of Rochester • Meet informally with students and faculty Christopher Monroe DOI: dx.doi.org/10.1103/RevModPhys.87.137 • They may also give guest lectures in classes related to Laser Science University of Maryland journals.aps.org/rmp The DLS will cover the travel expenses and honorarium of the lecturer. Luis A. Orozco University of Maryland The host institution will be responsible for only the local expenses Carlos Stroud of the lecturer and for advertising the public lecture. Awards to host University of Rochester Corrections: The interview with Alan Alda in the March institutions will be made by the selection committee after consulting Ron Walsworth 2015 issue failed to mention that he was nominated for with the lecturers. Priority will be given to those predominantly Harvard University fellowship by the APS Forum on Outreach and Engag- undergraduate institutions that do not have extensive resources Linda Young for similar programs. Argonne National Lab ing the Public. Also, in the April 2015 issue, the caption in the page 1 article "APS March Meeting: Know When Applications should be sent to : Deadline for application for visits in Fall 2015 is May 30. to Fold 'Em" incorrectly attributed the toggle switches to DTL committee the Wyss Institute. The work was done at Cornell and Chair: Rainer Grobe ([email protected]) and to Detailed information about the program and the application the University of Massachusetts Amherst. the DLS Secretary-Treasurer procedure is available on the DLS-DTL home page: Joseph W. Haus physics.sdsu.edu/~anderson/DTL/ HOLES continued from page 4 ([email protected]). still a bit of a mystery. It may be University of Illinois. that material is falling onto medium But Shapiro's colleague, Princ- BUDGET continued from page 5 black holes. These, in turn, could eton physicist Vasileios Paschalidis, Resolution that would determine spending he sought. The opening are wrong. result from mergers of stars in a found a way. “All the simulations overall spending, it became clear day budget error has left him with Logic and evidence might carry dense star cluster, says Pasham. A have assumed that the magnetic that the work-around would carry precious few bargaining chips. the day in science and law, but in mega star could quickly collapse filed was confined to the inte- the day. The instrument they settled Consider where he might be politics persuasive argument, alone, into a black hole, so further study of rior,” says Shapiro. So Paschalidis on was an account called Overseas today if had he focused his Febru- will not suffice. Compromise, the rare middle-sized object could allowed the magnetic field to extend Contingency Operations (OCO), ary request solely on non-defense horse-trading, and an occasional reveal if that’s the case. to the exterior of the doomed star. which is not subject to BCA caps. spending increases. He could begin threat of retribution are additional Two to tango In his computer rendition, which Using that mechanism, both bargaining with defense hawks essential ingredients for success. Short gamma ray bursts — less he ran with the help of Milton Ruiz chambers added about the same by threatening to veto military The president’s budget bungle is than two seconds— are thought to of the University of Illinois, the star come from a spinning black hole amount of new money for defense increases, unless they agreed to a a fait accompli, and all the kvetch- and black hole fall closer together, in a magnetized gaseous disk, with the president had called for in his deal that would add money to non- ing in the world can’t change it. and the black hole distorts the field February budget request. And with defense discretionary programs. By We’ll just have to live with the twin jets of matter emanating from and the star; the star forms a tail, military needs taken care of, con- so doing, he eventually might be consequences: increased military its sides. In the outer regions of the and eventually a disk of magnetized gressional Republicans refused able to arrive at the spending balance spending and, in all likelihood, a cloud, gamma rays and electromag- matter around the black hole, with to consider legislation that would he asserted was right for the country. series of continuing resolutions netic afterglows — X-rays, visible funnels jetting matter outward. “The rewrite the BCA. Non-defense dis- I respect Barack Obama’s intel- (CR) for almost everything else. light, radio waves — are born. magnetic field lines are wound up cretionary programs would simply lect, integrity, and sincerity, but Of course before we get to the The thinking goes that these jets remain subject to the law’s spend- succeeding in the often-brutal world CRs we’ll have to weather threats are created from the magnetic field tighter and tighter. As time goes ing limit. of today’s Washington requires far of vetoes, actual vetoes, threats of that arises from a neutron star orbit- on, a funnel forms near the poles.” So as the appropriations process more. Politics is the art of recog- government shutdowns, and more ing a black hole, eventually being And then, the gamma-ray-spitting rolls forward, Congress is poised nizing what is possible and then lollygagging than we can stomach. sucked in and swallowed up. But, jet forms. to give the president half a loaf using effective bargaining skills to But, hey, this is Washington. “no computer simulations based Fittingly, the time it takes the without having to lift a negotiating achieve the end you want. Starting By now we should be used to it. A on the laws of general relativity neutron star disk to be eaten by the finger. It’s hard to see how he can at the end and trying to convince decade ago, sausage-making was an and magnetohydrodynamics have black hole is about half a second. reject the very defense spending he people you’re right and they’re apt though distasteful metaphor for been able to form a jet [after] the “This source lives for about as called for. And it’s also hard to see wrong is usually a losing strategy legislating. Today all that remains of neutron star merger with the black long as we see a gamma ray burst,” how he can achieve the non-defense – even when you are right and they the sausage is a rancid odor. hole,” says Stuart Shapiro from the explains Shapiro.

MAPMAKERS continued from page 1 The map covers less than one get bent that much, they only get structure, we need to see the dark PASTA continued from page 4 percent of the total sky, but by the slightly distorted because there is matter, for which we use lensing.” specific structure of the pasta ing to learn if the crust can support end of the five-year survey, the some form of foreground matter in The blue and red spots on the depends on the temperature, den- pasta mountains. On a neutron star, team hopes to have maps cover- front of … [them].” otherwise green map represent areas sity, and the number of protons. a mountain the size of a coffee cup ing about a quarter of the southern Ultimately, the team wants to of greater or less lensing. Using Varying these parameters revealed would have the mass of Mount Ever- sky. “The patch of sky is more than use these maps of dark matter to other optical data, the researchers the waffles. (Add more protons, and est. That means a spinning lumpy 20 times the size of the full moon probe how the universe’s accel- overlaid known galaxies to high- the waffles turn to lasagna.) neutron star could be a very ener- across, which is a pretty substan- erated expansion, driven by dark light areas that appeared to have The Horowitz team is now try- getic source of gravitational waves. tial chunk of the universe,” Chang energy, affected the structure of more or less concentrations of dark explained. galaxies and galaxy clusters as they matter than expected. To create this map, the DES formed. Structures are formed by The team is now in its second team observed about two million gravitational coalescence of mat- year of collecting data from the distant galaxies to find out how ter, so accelerated expansion of 4-meter Victor M. Blanco Telescope COSMIC RADIO WAVES continued from page 2 their shapes are distorted by the the universe slows that process of mass of both nearer galaxies and formation. at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Today the “jansky” is the unit of References dark matter. Then the team ana- “There are very well-defined Observatory in Chile. measurement for radio wave inten- Jansky, Karl. “Electrical disturbances apparently lyzed these distorted shapes to ways that we can use such maps “With this data and other data sity (flux density). A crater on the of extraterrestrial origin,” Proc. IRE 20: 1920. that we have in hand, we’ll be able Jansky, C.M. Jr. “My brother Karl Jansky and assemble the map. to calculate, as a function of time, moon is named after him, and there his discovery of radio waves from beyond the Earth,” “This distortion information to what extent … dark energy has to make a very impressive cata- is now a monument in his honor at Cosmic Search 1(4). http://www.bigear.org/vol1no4/ in fact tells us how the matter is slowed the expansion of structure,” logue … because we’re going out the New Jersey site of his pivotal jansky.htm Sullivan, W.T. (ed) The Early Years of Radio distributed in front of us,” Chang said Bhuvnesh Jain of the Univer- much further than other studies of experiment. And of course there is Astronomy: Reflections Fifty Years After Jansky’s Dis- said. “In most cases, galaxies don’t sity of Pennsylvania. “So to see that superclusters have gone,” Jain said. the Very Large Array. covery. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005. 8 • May 2015

t was my first APS March Meeting and I was on the other hand, has more to do with mechanical Iinvited to join a group of soft matter physicists instabilities — buckling, wrinkling, and snapping from the University of Chicago for dinner. At the — that are widely utilized in biological pattern restaurant, I ended up in the last open seat and while formation. waiting to order, chatted with some friends from the A Big Tent for Soft Matter • Membranes, vesicles, and droplets are previous summer’s soft matter workshop hosted by Jesse L. Silverberg relevant to problems in biophysics where regulated the University of Massachusetts Amherst physics flow of molecules between the external environ- department. Working my way through the conver- ment and internal cellular machinery are critical sations, I eventually turned to my right and saw an for survival. More broadly, understanding both unfamiliar face. He was older, grayer, sporting coke-bottle how confined fluids fluctuate, deform, and pinch, as glasses, and seemed to have an open air about him. Smiling, well as the consequences of these structural changes, I introduced myself with, still holds unsolved questions. Hi. I’m Jesse Silverberg. I’m a second-year gradu- • Packing, geometry, and topology cov- ate student in Itai Cohen’s lab at Cornell.Who are ers not a specific material system, but a broad you? set of organizational principles. Jamming His smile turned to a look of amused sto- in granular systems, arrangement of col- icism as my question sank in. He responded loids on spheres, topological defects in in a voice loud enough to be heard from liquid crystals, and finite deformations across the table and stern enough to of linkage structures are just some of attract attention from those nearby, the problems that benefit from these You don’t KNOW who I am?? deeper mathematical ideas. Either I wasn’t thinking straight, • Polymers, like col- or just felt goaded on by the ques- loids, are at the heart of soft tion. Regardless, I gave an overly matter. Recognized with the honest response: 1991 Nobel Prize in Physics No. SHOULD I? awarded to Pierre-Gilles de The older gentleman grinned Gennes, this topic builds on at my complete failure of diplo- an understanding of statistical macy and through a full-bellied mechanics and chemistry to laugh, managed to get out, explain mechanical properties. Oh boy! YOU’RE in trouble!! Remarkably, even Feynman We were both laughing at this diagrams have been intro- point, and the conversation con- duced to polymer theory to tinued from there. This is how help understand the multitude I met Heinrich Jaeger, long-time of interactions governing these professor at the University of Chi- systems. cago’s James Franck Institute, leader • Self-assembly in the field of granular physics, and, describes the processes by which as it turned out, the person who bought individual units come together to dinner for everyone that night. form organized structures. Whether This story illustrates two points: First, mediated by individual particle interac- the field of soft matter physics is full of fun, tions or globally applied external fields, animated, and quirky personalities, a definite the principles of self-assembly can be found plus for anyone who enjoys such company. Sec- widely across soft matter. ond — and from anecdotal evidence, I think this • Surfaces and interfaces can be found applies broadly to our field — I didn’t know I wanted whenever two phases come into contact. As with to be a soft matter physicist until I was already a soft matter hard condensed matter, the physics of systems under physicist. After all, if I had known anything about the field confinement reveals dimensionally-dependent scaling before joining, I wouldn’t have asked such an ignorant ques- laws and nontrivial modifications to existing theories. tion! Now that APS is home to GSOFT (aps.org/units/gsoft), Self-assembly, colloidal chemistry, diffusion, and bio- the topical group on soft matter physics, I think this second Starting at the top and going clockwise are images represent- physical problems all stand to learn from these studies. ing many diverse areas of research in soft matter: (1) Simulat- point deserves a bit more attention. Why? Well, I noticed over ed colloidal gel consisting of 750,000 attractive hard spheres. *** the course of my Ph.D. and into my postdoc that despite being [Source: R. N. Zia, B. J. Landrum, W. B. Russel, J. Rheol. 58, A useful way to think of soft matter is as an amalgamation an intellectually rich field of research, many physicists don’t 1121 (2014)]; (2) Mechanical properties of polymer fibers are of methods and concepts that, within the standard university actually know what soft matter is, what it isn’t, and how it measured with minimally invasive tetrapod quantum dots. organizational structure, are spread across physics, chemistry, relates to some of the more established branches of physics. [Source: S. N. Raja et al., Nano Lett. 13, 3915 (2013)]; (3) High- engineering, biology, materials, and mathematics departments Though I found my way into the field by a combination of performance computing is used to investigate properties of (see figure). The problems that soft matter then examines are coincidence and luck, a broader awareness has to be raised lipid membranes. [Source: R. W. Pastor, R. M. Venable, S. E. the interdisciplinary offspring that emerge from these other- so future generations of bright and talented physics students Feller, Acc. Chem. Res. 35, 438 (2002)] (4) Low energy electron wise distinct fields. Remarkably, the frontiers of soft matter can find their way too. microscopy image Pb self-assembly on a Pb/Cu surface al- loy. [Source: Sandia National Laboratory]; (5) Air-stable water are flowering at both ends in physics departments across With this idealistic vision in mind, I’ll confess that in droplet networks on a superhydrophobic surface. [Source: J. the world: Fundamental physics has found a fresh avenue preparing this article, I was warned that any attempt to con- B. Boreyko et al. PNAS 111, 7588 (2014)]; (6) Vortex avalanche to look for “new ħ = 0 physics,” in strongly-interacting and cretely define soft matter would likely be met with failure. The in disordered packings. [Source: http://cnls.lanl.gov/~olson/ non-equilibrium systems, while applied physics is forging boundaries are nebulous, topics diverse, and the practitioners images.html]; (7) Simulations of nanoscale mechanisms for new connections to industry and other branches of science. widely distributed across academic departments. All of this is stress corrosion and cracking in a wet environment. [Source: In fact, some of the most exciting work is coming from the true, but nevertheless, there is a clear community with a com- ANL/James Kermode, King's College London] (8) Flock of Auk- most extreme fringes, where research questions struggle to mon language. Because of this reality, I’ve come to view soft lets flying off Kasatochi before 2008 eruption. [Source: Vernon fit into even the diverse range of topics described above. It matter as less of a walled city built around specific questions, Byrd, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service]; (9) Micrograph of nano- iron emulsion with applications in environmental remediation. seems, therefore, that for the foreseeable future the “big tent” and more of a big tent party that encompasses diverse views [Source: NASA]; (10) Mouse fetal heart fibroblast cells used in of soft matter will continue to get bigger. and paths of inquiry. Along these lines, I’ve heard stories of studies of stem cell-based tissue repair. [Source: Jesus Isaac I stated above that I didn’t know I wanted to be a soft young soft matter physicists introducing themselves to col- Luna, Kara McCloskey lab, University of California, Merced] matter physicist until I already was one. Largely, this is leagues in high energy physics, cosmology, and even hard because I didn’t know what soft matter was or what it involved condensed matter, where a typical conversation often goes insights for structured and functional materials. before starting my graduate research. As a young postdoc something like this: • Colloids are a mainstay of the soft matter community. with limited perspective, it’s still premature of me to make Oh, you’re in soft matter? Isn’t that just biophysics? The ability to image and track these micron-sized par- statements about what I’ll be doing 5, 10, or 15 years from Or, ticles in experiments enables direct tests of fundamental Oh, you’re in soft matter? Isn’t that just polymer physics? thermodynamics, phase transitions, self-assembly, and now. However, I do know this: I’m excited. The future looks Soft matter is neither biophysics nor polymer physics, suspension rheology. Moreover, they have numerous bright. And now that GSOFT established a home for soft mat- though these research topics can and do come under “the real-world applications including flexible electronics ter within APS, it’ll be exciting to see how the community tent.” A list describing this scientific coalition based on several and drug delivery. continues to grow. leading conferences identifies some major hubs of activity: • Dynamics of structured and complex fluids is a subject Jesse L. Silverberg is a postdoctoral • Active and driven matter explores systems of particles similarly at the roots of the soft matter. These solid-liquid, research fellow at the Wyss Institute for that interact with each other while consuming energy. solid-gas, liquid-gas, and liquid-liquid suspensions, to Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard This is a valuable test bed for studying collective dynam- name just a few, exhibit unusual flow behavior that can University. He received his Ph.D. in experi- ics in nonequilibrium systems ranging from vibrated be attributed to microscopic internal structure. mental soft matter from the Department grains of sand to motile bacteria and animal flocks. • Fracture and failure have become topics of broader of Physics, Cornell University, where he • Biological soft matter probes the mechanical properties interest for their role in phenomenology beyond linear- studied the connection between geometry, of hierarchically organized biological materials from ized continuum theories. For example, fracture depends mechanics, and microstructure. Jesse has cytoskeletal networks to entire organs. Coarse grain- critically on the concentration of energy in materials, and received significant support for his research as an NSF Gradu- ing across length-scales is extremely useful as it offers hence non-equilibrium microscopic dynamics. Failure, ate Research Fellow, an IGERT Fellow, and a Matthews Fellow.

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