June 2003 NEWS Volume 12, No.6 A Publication of The American Physical Society http://www.aps.org/apsnews Nobel Laureates, Industry Leaders Petition April Meeting Prizes & Awards President to Boost Science and Technology Prizes and Awards were presented to seven- Sixteen Nobel Laureates in that “unless remedied, will affect call for “a Presidential initiative for teen recipients at the Physics and sixteen industry lead- our scientific and technological FY 2005, following on from your April meeting in Philadel- ers have written to President leadership, thereby affecting our budget of FY 2004, and focusing phia. George W. Bush to urge increas- economy and national security.” on the long-term research portfo- After the ceremony, ing funding for physical sciences, The letter, which is dated April lios of DOE, NASA, and the recipients and their environmental sciences, math- 14th, also indicates that “the Department of Commerce, in ad- guests gathered at the ematics, computer science and growth in expert personnel dition to NSF and NIH,” that, Franklin Institute for a engineering. abroad, combined with the di- “would turn around a decade-long special reception. The letter, reinforcing a recent minishing numbers of Americans decline that endangers the future Photo Credit: Stacy Edmonds of Edmonds Photography Council of Advisors on Science and entering the physical sciences, of our nation.” The top photo shows four of the five women recipients in front of a space-suit Technology report, highlights se- mathematics and engineering— The lead signers of the letter exhibit. They are (l to r): Geralyn “Sam” Zeller (Tanaka Award); Chung-Pei rious funding problems in the an unhealthy trend—is leading were Burton Richter, director Michele Ma (Maria-Goeppert Mayer Award); Yvonne Choquet-Bruhat physical sciences and related fields corporations to locate more of emeritus of SLAC, and Craig (Heineman Prize); and Helen Edwards (Wilson Prize). The fifth woman, Melba their R&D activities outside the Barett, CEO of Intel Corporation. Phillips (Burton Award), was unable to be present. United States.” Co-signatories to the letter Nuclear Testing Not In the bottom photo, Dudley Necessary, Says New Noting that NSF funding is coordinated their statement Herschbach (left) converses with Council Statement only a small fraction of support through the APS and the National Ernest Bergmann and John for these fields, the co-signatories Association of Manufacturers. Archibald Wheeler. Herschbach In a strongly worded state- gave a public lecture on “Ben ment passed at its April meeting, Franklin’s Scientific Amuse- the APS Council reaffirmed its Consortia Provide Alternatives To ments” immediately following position that nuclear testing is the reception. Wheeler (right) not necessary to maintain the Standard Journal Subscriptions shared the Einstein Prize, given reliability of the American By Pamela Zerbinos for the first time this year, with nuclear stockpile, and cited pos- the late Peter G. Bergmann, fa- Photo Credit: Stacy Edmonds of Edmonds Photography sible negative international There is a saying in the world of den. Several trends are responsible ther of Ernest Bergmann. consesquences if nuclear test- scientific journals that is something for this phenomenon, including the ing were resumed. of a cliché: “The subscription model elimination of page charges Council also called on the is broken”. (traditionally paid by research in- Multimedia Plenary Lectures Administration to provide What broke it is rather up in the stitutions) brought about by the sufficient advance notice of air. The rise of the Information Age direct competition of commercial Posted on APS Site plans to resume testing, in and the accompanying public per- physics journals; and the cancella- With technical assistance from web lecture capture that will au- order “to allow adequate time ception that information should be tions of multiple subscriptions at the University of Michigan, the tomate the process still further and for informed and thorough readily—and cheaply—available large institutions due to the elec- APS has posted eight of the nine will allow even lectures with trans- analysis and public discussion”. may have had something to do with tronic availability of the APS plenary lectures from the April parencies to be automatically In passing the statement, it. The print journals keep getting journals. meeting on the web. They can be synchronized. Council referred to a 2002 larger and more numerous and The APS has taken several steps accessed at http://www.aps.org/ Chodos also noted that captur- study by a committee of the libraries are simply running out of in an effort to achieve a fair distri- meet/archives/multimedia.html. ing lectures at an APS meeting National Academy of Sciences, space in which to keep them. Mean- bution of costs between major The audio from each lecture is presents some special challenges. which concluded that “the while, publishing costs have been research-active subscribers, small synchronized with the slides that “We are working at a remote loca- United States has the technical rising and numbers of subscrip- undergraduate institutions, and the speaker used. A video image tion,” he said, “so it’s not possible capabilities to maintain confi- tions have been dropping. those in between, including multi- of the speaker completes the to set up much before the lectures dence in the safety and Subscriptions to the APS’s jour- tier pricing and the consortium presentation. begin. We can’t fine-tune the elec- reliability of its existing nuclear- nals have been declining at a steady model of journal subscriptions. “This is the current state of the tronics and the lighting ahead of weapon stockpile” without rate of 3.5% per year for about 30 The consortium model has been art in web lecture capture,” said time.” nuclear testing, “provided that years. The APS, which publishes growing quickly. It was pioneered Alan Chodos, APS associate execu- At the April meeting, a team of adequate resources are made eight journals, has been forced to by commercial publishers such as tive officer. three people, two from APS and available to the Department of raise subscription prices year after Academic Press and Elsevier, and He noted that the audio and one from Michigan, was on hand Energy’s nuclear-weapon com- year, and although there has been now offered by many of the major slides for most of the talks were to capture the lectures. The new plex and are properly focused an effort made to keep the academic publishers. APS along with captured automatically using soft- techniques that are currently on this task.” increases in the single digits, it the American Institute of Physics ware developed at the University being developed should help to The full text of the Council hasn’t always happened that way. have been making consortium of Michigan. Only when the reduce this number. statement follows: For 2004, subscriptions prices will arrangements with government, speaker used transparencies in- With the 2003 April meeting, The American Physical Society be up an average of 8.7%. corporate, and academic institu- stead of Powerpoint did the APS is ending its experimental reaffirms its April 1997 statement Physics journals are not the only tions, both domestically and synchronization have to be done phase of web lecture capture, that “fully informed technical stud- ones experiencing this phenom- internationally, for the past couple by hand. which began with a special session ies have concluded continued testing enon. A recent study by the of years. Plans are underway to develop See Multimedia on page 7 is not required to retain confidence University of Maryland Health and “The consortium model is really more sophisticated techniques for in the safety and reliability of the Human Services Library found that See CONSORTIA on page 6 remaining nuclear weapons in the the average price of biology, chem- United States’ stockpile.” istry, psychology, anthropology and Results from LIGO’S First Run HHighlights Resumption of nuclear testing other journals has increased nearly may have serious negative interna- threefold since 1992. A recent Reported at APS April Meeting tional consequences, particularly on Harper’s Index (March 2003) claims the nonproliferation regime. that the average price for a US sci- Radio, optical, x-ray, infrared and At the APS April meeting in 8 In addition the Society strongly entific, medical or technical journal gamma-ray telescopes look at the Philadelphia, PA, scientists from urges the Congress and the Adminis- has increased 250% since 1988. universe via electromagnetic waves. the collaboration reported on the tration to provide sufficient notification As prices have climbed, the For viewing the universe via gravity first official results from LIGO’s and justification for any proposed burden for paying the publishing waves, the most sensitive telescope initial science run, conducted over nuclear test to allow adequate time costs has shifted away from large to date is the Laser Interferometer 17 days in September 2002. The Back Page for informed and thorough analysis research institutions to smaller Gravitational-Wave Observatory Gravitational waves are intrigu- Roger Highfield explains The Science of Harry Potter and public discussion. schools, less able to carry that bur- (LIGO). See LIGO on page 7 2 June 2003 NEWS This Month in Physics History June 1931: Lawrence and the First Cyclotron “Higher bat speed generally means ‘‘I did not like blood and gore.’’ the ball comes off the bat faster.” —Vina A. Punjabi, Norfolk State —Alan M. Nathan, University of University, on why she chose physics The 1920s marked the tran- impractical for light atomic par- The 27-inch accelerating cham- Illinois, on why baseballs travel over biology, The Virginian-Pilot, April sition of the U.S. to a modern ticles, since it would require a ber of the Rad Lab’s first cyclotron farther when hit with aluminum bats, 6, 2003 technology-based society, and vacuum tube several meters long.