INSIDE: February 2002 PHYSICS NEWS NEWS Volume 11, No
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INSIDE: February 2002 PHYSICS NEWS NEWS Volume 11, No. 2 IN 2001 A Publication of The American Physical Society http://www.aps.org/apsnews Electronic Reminders Biophysics Help Boost Membership, Workshop Planned for Voting Rates Fall 2002 APS membership for fiscal year new members coming in stayed The APS, together with its Di- 2002 is up by almost 500 members roughly the same this year,” she vision of Biological Physics, is compared to the same time last says. “We seem to be doing better organizing a topical conference year. An end-of-year count shows at retaining members once they entitled “Opportunities in Biology that the total number of members join,” something she ascribes to for Physicists,” to be held Sep- now stands at 42,007, compared “increased communication with tember 27-29 2002 in Boston, to 41,570 in fiscal year 2001. Trish members and a great membership Massachusetts. The conference Lettieri, APS Director of Member- staff who are eager to respond to is aimed primarily at graduate ship, attributes the increase in part member inquiries.” students and postdocs who are to a series of electronic renewal Electronic reminder notices reported that response was up 24% August shows sharp spikes coincid- considering moving their areas notices that are sent out to current also proved useful in boosting the over last year, with 23.4% of the ing with electronic reminder of research concentration to members during their renewal number of ballots cast in the an- APS membership voting, compared notices sent to the entire member- biological topics, not at those cycle, and followed up by personal nual APS general election. The to 18.9% in 2000. A breakdown of ship, clearly demonstrating the who already work in the field of phone calls to any members who 2001 election marked the first time votes cast from June 15th through effectiveness of the practice. biological physics or biophysics. don’t renew. A special half price the Society offered the option of Attendance will be limited to membership offer, available to new online voting, and APS members about 250 participants. Unlike APS members and valid through showed an overwhelming prefer- the Society’s more traditional this month, also helped boost ence for that option. Only 13.2% Hurricane Physics, Biofluid meetings, this conference is not membership totals. of the total ballots cast last year intended to be a place where sci- Lettieri reports that there was were in the traditional paper for- Mechanics Highlight 2001 entists present their own new also no noticeable downward trend mat, with 86.8% being cast DFD Meeting research. Rather, leading physi- in renewal rates in the aftermath electronically. cists and biologists will be asked of the September 11th terrorist at- More importantly, the 2001 elec- The latest research results in APS Division of Fluid Dynamics, to give broad overviews of their tacks in New York and Washington, tion halted a three-year trend of biofluid mechanics, hurricane held November 18- 20, 2001, in San selected areas of expertise at the DC, and that the increase is mostly declining voter participation. Sur- physics and particle simulation Diego, California. The technical interface between physics and due to higher retention rates for vey and Ballot Systems, Inc., which flows were among the papers fea- program featured eight invited lec- biology. There will also be lec- existing members. “The number of handles the election process, tured at the annual meeting of the tures and four mini-symposia on tures offering practical advice on cutting-edge research topics in fluid how to move from physics into dynamics, as well as more than 950 the physics-biology interface, contributed abstracts and the an- and an afternoon reception for nual Gallery of Fluid Motion. INSIDE THE BELTWAY: those who fund biological phys- Physics of Hurricanes ics research and those who hire A Washington Analysis biological physicists to meet with Understanding the physics of the participants and to display the air/sea interface is a critical posters or set up booths. component of understanding hur- Five topics have been selected European Evolution May Challenge American Science ricanes, which draw their energy for emphasis: genomics and evo- By Michael S. Lubell, APS Director of Public Affairs from the thermodynamic disequi- lution, biological networks, librium that ordinarily exists biomolecular dynamics, high- Whether the Antiballistic Missile that it will be nothing more than an Several weeks ago, I had the between the tropical oceans and resolution imaging of living cells, Defense Treaty is a relic of the Cold artifact of history when the United opportunity to meet Vladimir the atmosphere. The maximum and physical devices for biologi- War, as its critics charge, or a pillar States unilaterally withdraws from Pozner, a Moscow TV news celeb- wind velocity depends on maintain- cal investigation. Each of these of international security, as its de- the pact this spring. rity well known for his live ing a sensitive balance between the topics is an area that offers sig- fenders claim, President Bush, with To date, the debate over the people-to-people talk shows with production of mechanical energy nificant opportunities for the one stroke of his pen, has ensured Bush decision has focused heavily Phil Donahue during the and frictional dissipation in the at- techniques and problem-solving on the consequences for nuclear Gorbachev era. His views on how mospheric boundary layer, which skills of physicists. Carrying the Torch non-proliferation and arms races the September 11 attacks have re- in turn depends on the fluxes of “We hope that this workshop throughout the world. That may be shaped Russian attitudes are worth momentum and enthalpy through will help introduce young physi- appropriate for the near term, but considering. the sea surface. Yet little is know cists to the great opportunities in the long term the greater impact For most of its history, Pozner about such fluxes at extreme wind that exist in modern biology, and could well be on economic and argues, Russia straddled the Euro- speeds. Kerry Emanuel of the Mas- catalyze the enrichment that geopolitical realignment. And that Asian divide, striking a staunchly sachusetts Institute of Technology modern biology can bring to could have a profound effect on independent course, one that was described recent laboratory ex- physics,” said Robert Austin international science. neither European nor Asian in out- periments designed to better (Princeton University), who is Early into the Bush Administra- look. Russian cultural and political quantify flux wind speed relations chairing the program committee tion, White House decisions on unilateralism reached its height and to explore possible control of biological weapons, the Kyoto pro- during the hegemony of the Soviet See DFD MEETING on page 5 See BIOPHYSICS on page 7 tocols, International Monetary Union. Fund policies, and a host of less vis- The collapse of Communism ible foreign affairs and defense and the disintegration of the USSR stances had most of the world con- jolted the Russian psyche and led Highlights Alicia Chang vinced that the US was on an to a reexamination of Russia’s geo- isolationist binge. graphic identity. The 1990’s, Francis Slakey, the APS associate di- The September 11 attacks on Pozner says, produced a strong 4 8 rector of public affairs, wields his Olympic torch with pride on the steps the Twin Towers and the Pentagon Western tilt. But Western, he cau- The Back of the US Capitol in Washington, D.C. temporarily altered both the per- tions, does not mean American. Page: ception and the reality. But Russia, according to Pozner, was Daniel S. The torch reached the DC area on Greenberg on st December 21 before continuing on to suspicion of American policies re- well primed to come to the aid of Zero Gravity Science, Philadelphia on its way to its ultimate mains strong, in Europe and Russia, the US in combatting Islamic Mad Scientist Love Song Money and destination of Salt Lake City. Politics as well as in the Islamic world. See BELTWAY on page 3 2 February 2002 NEWS This Month in Physics History February 1996: Deep Blue vs. Gary Kasparov “ It’s relatively unlikely that bin —Irwin Shapiro, Harvard Smithsonian Laden actually acquired a crude Observatory, on the implications of the nuclear weapon, or even significant Bush Administration’s plan to shift fund- Ever since the introduction of computer problems. The Deep Blue 6, Kasparov made a disastrous amounts of weapons- grade fissile ing of the observatory to the NSF, New the sentient computer HAL in project was born. mistake, allowing Deep Blue to material, but that is not a set of cir- York Times, December 11, 2001 Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space In order to build a chess playing sacrifice a knight and obtain an cumstances that engenders either ✶✶✶ Odyssey, the explosive advances computer capable of testing the overwhelming positional ad- confidence or complacency.” “…a radical and imprudent de- in computing technology have best chess players in the world, vantage, going on to take —Roger Hagengruber, Sandia Na- parture from the current rule . begged the question: Can truly Hsu’s team sought to design a chess Kasparov’s queen in exchange tional Laboratories, National and inconsistent with Congress’s intelligent computers be con- specific processor chip. Deep Blue for a rook and a bishop. Journal, December 15, 2001 mandate.” structed? Can a man-made had 128 processor chips running Kasparov resigned the match ✶✶✶ —Victor Gilinsky, former member machine ultimately out think its in parallel, enabling Deep Blue to after only 19 moves. It was the Two quotes from National Pub- of the Nuclear Regulatory Commis- creators? In February of 1996, calculate one billion positions per first time a current world cham- lic Radio’s Talk of the Nation/ sion, on the Department of Energy’s a computer known as Deep Blue, second.