June 2008 Volume 17, No. 6 www.aps.org/publications/apsnews APS NEWS April Prize and Award Recipients A PublicAtion of the AmericAn PhysicAl society • www.APs.org/PublicAtions/APsnews Page 7 Chinese Human Rights Advocate Receives APS Sakharov Prize Physicist Liangying Xu has been first inspired by Einstein’s views on writings. Xu did eventually get the awarded the 2008 Andrei Sakharov democracy and human rights when translations back, and they were Prize by the APS for his efforts to he read Einstein’s essays in school. published beginning in 1975, as the promote human rights in China. In- In 1939, Xu enrolled in Zhejiang Cultural Revolution was ending. spired by Albert Einstein, Xu has University to study physics. Trou- Soon after, Xu rejoined the Acad- been a lifetime advocate for democ- bled by the plight of poor peasants emy of Sciences in Beijing. racy, free speech, human rights, and he saw in the countryside, he joined Throughout his life, Xu contin- academic freedom. the communist party. After complet- ued to advocate for human rights. In Xu’s son, Chenggang Xu, ac- ing his studies, Xu joined the Chi- 1981, he cited Einstein on the need cepted the prize on his behalf at the nese Academy of Sciences in Bei- for freedom of speech for scientific April Meeting in St. Louis because jing, where he has been a historian progress. Xu felt the government Xu is in his eighties and not healthy of science. was not adequately supportive of enough to travel. At a session and In 1957, Xu spoke up against basic science, and that more aca- press conference, Chenggang Xu Mao Zedong’s repressive govern- demic freedom was needed both for described his father’s lifelong strug- ment. He was then denounced as scientific progress and for human gles to promote human rights de- an “extreme rightist,” forced to di- progress. spite persecution. vorce his wife, and banished to the In 1989, astrophysicist Fang Li- “Both Sakharov and my father countryside. He later reunited with zhi wrote an open letter calling for followed the steps of Einstein, not his wife. the release of political prisoners. At only in physics but also in promot- While in exile, Xu translated the same time, Xu and friends wrote Photo by william greenblatt ing human rights,” said Chenggang Einstein’s political, philosophical an open letter calling for democra- Xu. The Sakharov prize is named and scientific writings into Chinese. At the ceremonial prize session at the APs April meeting, chenggang Xu (left) cy, protection of human rights, and for the Soviet physicist, dissident During the Cultural Revolu- presents APs President Arthur bienenstock (right) with a copy of the three-vol- free speech. The letter was signed and human rights activist Andrei tion, the Red Guards, considering ume chinese translation of einstein's collected works that was produced by his by prominent dissidents, including Sakharov. Einstein’s work anti-Marxist, con- father, sakharov Prize recipient liangying Xu. looking on is APs Associate ex- many scientists. This and Fang’s let- ecutive officer Alan chodos. Born in 1920, Liangying Xu was fiscated Xu’s translations and other PRIZE continued on page 7 Workshop Attendees Get the Lowdown on Politics Physics of Homeland Security is About eighty scientists and en- Focus of NE Section Meeting gineers picked up some pointers By Ernie Tretkoff larization of gamma rays. “The same on how to run for public office at a problem is encountered in medical recent campaign education work- Ways in which physics can con- applications, biology, materials sci- shop in Washington. Organized by tribute to homeland security were ence and nonproliferation, and se- Scientists and Engineers for Amer- discussed at the joint APS-AAPT curity,” said Curioni. Many current ica, the workshop took place May spring New England section meet- gamma ray detectors for homeland 10 at Georgetown University, and ing, held April 4-5 at the Coast Guard security typically just count gamma was also sponsored by APS and Academy in New London, CT. rays, but don’t measure their energy, several other scientific societies. Alessandro Curioni of Yale said so it can be difficult to distinguish There is increasing need for that some of the same gamma-ray harmless radioactive materials from scientific input into policy issues, detection technology being devel- dangerous ones. and although scientists may be in- oped for astronomy could be used One difficulty in detecting terested in becoming involved in for homeland security. For security gamma rays for any purpose is that politics, they tend to be unfamiliar purposes, one might want to mea- “there is no good focusing optics for Photo by Brian Mosley with the campaign process. Speak- sure energy, direction, time and po- NE SECTION continued on page 3 ers at the workshop covered the Dean levitan makes a point to workshop participants. basics of how to run a campaign, Dean Levitan of MHSC Partners, Levitan. Voters “want to know that as applied to offices ranging from who has managed many success- you’re competent and capable, but Navigating the Universe local school board to Congress. ful campaigns. In fact, nowadays you don’t necessarily need politi- One question on some partici- people are tired of politicians, and cal experience to show that,” he pants’ minds was how much po- are looking for candidates with said. A scientist or engineer can litical experience is needed to run a different background, he said. show that they have expertise on for office. “The American public is starving relevant issues. “None,” answered speaker for a new kind of leadership,” said WORKSHOP continued on page 7 APS Flips for PhysicsQuest By Calla Cofield digit–each heads representing a one too large, and all coins would have and each tails representing a zero. to be flipped again. It only took two It’s been said that physicists To make things even more in- tries to get 00010111100, or, num- never do anything the easy way, teresting, APS recruited some very ber 188: Jan Aschim’s 4th period 8th and the APS Outreach Department special coin flippers–the kids at grade class from Rockford, Illinois. is no exception. To randomly select the American Center for Physics To spare the kids from a whole after- a grand-prize winner for its annual daycare center. The well-behaved noon of coin flipping, the five runner- PhysicsQuest contest for middle youngsters flipped their quarters as up classes were chosen using an on- school classes, APS abandoned the best they could (though most simply line random number generator. Photo by Brian Mosley traditional method of drawing raffle threw them in the air), and were then The students in the winning class In conjunction with the April Meeting, the APS sponsored a public lecture tickets, and randomly generated a told to hold their hands over the coins will all receive iPod Shuffles, along that took place at the Saint Louis Science Center. The speakers were Joel Primack and Nancy Abrams, and they talked about “The View from the binary number by flipping a coin. as the results were recorded. Because with some fun science gadgets from Center of the Universe.” They are the authors of a book of the same name. Each of the 1032 eligible classes was most of the numbers (anything under Educational Innovations. Five run- Although he is standing on solid ground, in the picture Primack seems to assigned an 11-digit binary number 1024) began with a zero, there was a ner-up classes will also receive sci- float through the cosmos as he is captured in silhouette against the back- in the order they submitted their an- good chance that a “heads” flip in the ence gadgets for each student and a drop of a video presentation that took the audience through a speeded-up tour of the nearby universe. swers. A coin was flipped for each first spot would generate a number PHYSICSQUEST cont'd. on page 5 2 • June 2008 APS NEWS Members in the Media This Month in Physics History “This is a Nobel Prize-winning universe is something we know result if it is proved. But it needs to nothing about, we’d better learn June 1798: Cavendish weighs the world be confirmed, and the experiment everything we can about it.” really has to demonstrate a total Daniel McKinsey, Yale Univer- n June 1798 Henry Cavendish reported his fa- chell, who had been interested in doing the experi- mastery of the data. Neither of sity, Argus Leader, May 1, 2008 Imous measurement of Earth’s density. A great ment himself but wasn’t able to carry it out before those criteria have been achieved, chemist and physicist, Henry Cavendish (1731- he died. Realizing that Michell’s equipment was 1810) was obsessive, extremely shy, and eccentric. inadequate to measure the tiny gravitational force and therefore you have to bring a “If you cared about money He was known for wearing clothes that were 50 between two small metal spheres, Cavendish set healthy skepticism to the result as you wouldn’t be a scientist at all, it stands.” years out of style. He avoided company, especially about tinkering until he had a more precise setup. would you.” fearing women. He took walks at night to avoid He built a large dumbbell, with two-inch lead Richard Gaitskell, Brown Uni- John Womersley, Science and versity, on the DAMA collabora- beings seen by neighbors, and even had an extra spheres stuck to the ends of a six-foot long wooden Technology Facilities Council, tion announcement that they have staircase installed in his house to avoid meeting his rod.