A P S N E W S OCTOBER 1999 THE AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY VOLUME 8, NO. 9 [Try the enhanced APS News-online: http://www.aps.org/apsnews] APSCelebrate News APS a Century 100 of years Physics APS and AIP Initiate Inside Science News Service he American Physical Society has lottery than this happening.” We re- Tteamed with the American Institute leased a tongue-in-cheek explanation of Physics to create Inside Science of why he was way off (with all due News Service, a new resource for respect, he had a much better chance • Fun things parents can do with journalists that will make it easier for of pitching a perfect game). children to teach science over them to uncover, understand, and the summer on ABC’s Good • US Physics Olympiad Team’s ex- explain important science that adds Morning America. ABC News.com cellent third-place finish in the depth to news stories. Inside Science linked to the APS webpage Play- worldwide competition was placed in News Service offers resources and ground Physics [www.aps.org/ the following newspapers: USA Today, fingertip access to thousands of playground.html] experts in all fields of science, free-of- Dallas Morning News, The Denver charge. Randy Atkins, the APS Senior Post, Denver Rocky Mountain News, Media Relations Coordinator, asks for and The Record-Journal (Hartford, members help in getting coverage in CT). [See IN BRIEF, page 3] the popular press by alerting him of new and noteworthy scientific • Why power outages occur dur- advances. Randy can be reached at ing heat waves explanation with 301-209-3238 or via email at APS member quotes was used in a [email protected]. Chicago Tribune article. Here are a few examples of recent science stories Inside Science News • Matter and string theory supple- Figure at left: The brain as a whole can be Service helped place in the media – ment to appear with ABCNews.com: scanned non-invasively with magnetic A Nightline in Primetime: A Brave resonance scanning or with detectors sensitive New World. to magnetic fields arising from electro-chemical • Statistics and the Perfect game at signals. At the next organizational level, surface the top of Tony Kornheiser’s nation- and depth electrodes have been used to ally syndicated ESPN radio show. After • Communications-based theory monitor the electrical activity of a group or NY Yankee pitcher David Cone about epilepsy that may lead to population of neurons. Microelectrodes can also be used to monitor the activity of a single neuron. pitched a perfect game this summer, treatments will appear in The Econo- At yet another smaller scale, patch-clamp he off-handedly said: “You probably mist, Reuters Health, the Associated techniques are used to measure the electrical have a better chance of winning the Press and, possibly, USA Today. Photo from http://www.aip.org/physnews/graphics/html/epilepsy.html current of a single ion channel. Inside… Fermilab Grad Students Hold Conference NEWS hysics graduate students at To Advance & Diffuse the Knowledge P Fermilab had the opportunity in of Physics .................................................... 2 July to participate in the 1999 New Growth and diversity present challenges to APS. Perspectives conference held at the FESTIVAL PROFILE .................................... 3 facility, organized by the laboratory’s Brian Holmes blows his own horn: Exploring the physics of brass instruments. Graduate Student Association (GSA) IN BRIEF ....................................................... 3 and endorsed by the APS and the Meserve nominated to NRC; US Olympiad team Division of Particles and Fields (DPF). makes strong showing. Conference topics covered all physics Northwest Section Revisited .................... 3 subjects of interest to the laboratory, Fermilab New Perspectives Conference attendees. Researchers Find New Ways to Model Plate Tectonics, Soil Erosion .................... 5 including QCD, electroweak physics, association among grad students in all Perspectives Conference Series. “The Scientists are developing innovative heavy flavor, CP violation, particle the laboratory’s experiments and New Perspectives conference is an techniques for modeling the surface of the astrophysics, detector developments and divisions. To this end, the GSA opportunity for graduate and Earth. accelerator technology, among others. organizes and conducts activities undergraduate students at Fermilab to Remembering a Friend of Science .......... 5 The late George Brown was a strong advocate Fermilab’s GSA was formed in 1994 deemed beneficial to graduate student present their work to the entire lab for science on the Hill. and is intended to provide a common life, among them the annual New Continued on page 3 DNP Meeting Features Undergrad Program ........................................................ 6 The second conference experience for undergraduates to be held. APS Intern Learns the Ropes on the Hill Shocking Snowbird Meeting Explores Materials at High Pressures ...................... 6 ttending Congressional hearings on scanning SQUID microscope capable of im- graduate work, I Researchers presented the latest advances in A federal funding priorities for science was aging room temperature samples from as should get a better shock compression science. a new experience for physics graduate near as 15 microns. Grossman current project idea of where I was OPINION student Helene Grossman, who spent this involves the study of bacteria tagged with going and learn Letters .......................................................... 4 past summer as an intern in the APS Office magnetic nanoparticles and employing a about some different Readers ponder, “What is science?” and more. of Public Affairs (OPA) in Washington, DC. SQUID detection system. She was an in- career paths that VIEWPOINT .................................................. 4 And, she says, that was the point. In vited speaker at the APS Ohio Section might be available Alan Chodos: “National security concerns addition to simply being “a lot of fun,” meeting in May, which highlighted not after getting my reflect shortage of American physicists.” having the chance to interact with only scanning probe technology, but also PhD,” she says. Helene Grossman DEPARTMENTS Congressional offices and learn the basics of women in physics. It was there that she Her responsibilities at the OPA included ZERO GRAVITY ........................................... 6 public policy has given her a broader met APS Associate Executive Officer, compiling and organizing the multitude of To Catch a Lion in the Sahara Desert. perspective about her future career options. Barrett Ripin, who encouraged her to ap- data related to the APS Congressional Visits Also - another contest for the most amusing Grossman grew up in Waltham, MA, gradu- ply for an internship with the APS. program, but Grossman also had the teaching tools. ating from Yale University in 1996 with a BS To supplement her studies, Grossman has opportunity to attend several Congressional ANNOUNCEMENTS .................................... 7 DAMOP award; Caught in the Web; Now in physics. She is presently pursuing gradu- actively sought out a variety of summer jobs hearings on pending legislation, reporting her Appearing in RMP; Discounted auto ate studies at the University of California, and internships, of which the OPA internship findings to the OPA staff. “It helps us to tailor insurance; Life membership. Berkeley, under the purview of Dr. John is the most recent. “Basically I reached that our lobbying efforts,” she explains. Key issues THE BACK PAGE ......................................... 8 Clarke, having completed her MA in physics middle point of graduate school where you this summer included federal funding for Newly elected New Jersey Congressman Rush Holt explains why in Washington, “facts are in 1998. Clarke, a pioneer of superconduct- do a lot of introspection about what you want science in the proposed FY2000 budget, and negotiable.” ing quantum interference device (SQUID) to do for a career,” she says. “I felt that, be- the restructuring of the nuclear weapons technology, most recently the developed a fore I embarked on three more years of Continued on page 5 APS News October 1999 To Advance & Diffuse the Knowledge of Physics 100 Years of the American Physical Society Excerpts from an exhibit displayed at the APS Centennial Meeting. Curator: Sara Schechner, Gnomon Research Exhibit Director: Barrett Ripin With contributions by Harry Lustig, R. Mark Wilson, and others. Growth The mid-years of the century were a time of rapid growth for APS and its publications. The Society’s membership grew by a factor of 10, in part due to the expansion of physics research during and after World War II. With growth came specialization and the advent of divisional groups and specialized meetings. More physicists meant more research to be published. The Physical Review grew rapidly in size, quality, and prestige. Every Voice Heard In April 1952, APS Council—on a motion of Luis Alvarez—proclaimed that henceforth every member of the Society would have the right to submit abstracts of ten-minute papers which would not be refused. This remarkable act was prompted by the review of eccentric abstracts from a psychopathic member, Bayard Peakes who had submitted a paper denying the existence of the electron. Still frustrated, Peakes stormed into the APS offices and murdered a clerical worker. Diversification and Its Challenges Diversification is a natural outcome of the evolution and growth of knowledge. This was