Research News: Editors' Choice Physics.Aps.Org

November 2016 • Vol. 25, No. 10

Nobel Chemistry Committee Cites A PUBLICATION OF THE AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY Feynman’s 1959 APS Talk APS.ORG/APSNEWS Page 4

From Quarks to Cosmos in the Nation’s 2016 Nobel Prize in Physics Capital: 2017 APS April Meeting By Rachel Gaal electronics and superconductors. By Rachel Gaal session. John Holdren, Director This year’s Nobel Prize for phys- The collaboration of Kosterlitz and Calling all physicists — it’s of the U.S. Office of Science and ics was awarded on October 4, with Thouless in the 1970s sought to chal- time to get ready to travel to Technology Policy, and Cherry one half to David J. Thouless of the lenge the theory that ordered phases Washington Univ.of Washington, D.C! The 2017 APS Murray, Director of the Office University of Washington, Seattle, and phase transitions could not occur April Meeting will be held January of Science, U.S. Department of and the other half to both F. Duncan in thin layers. With topology as a tool, 28 - 31, 2017, at the Marriott Energy, will discuss the changing they demonstrated that superfluidity role of science within policymak- M. Haldane of Princeton University David J. Thouless Wardman Park Hotel. The April and J. Michael Kosterlitz of Brown can indeed exist in a thin layer as a Meeting (held next year in January ing and their roles as physicists University. The committee’s official result of a transition between topologi- to avoid the exploding cost of hotel in the government. Rush Holt Jr., citation reads, “For theoretical discov- cally distinct phases of matter. Now rooms during the spring cherry CEO of the American Association eries of topological phase transitions recognized as a fundamental mecha- blossom viewing season) will host for the Advancement of Science and topological phases of matter.” nism in condensed matter physics, exciting talks about quirky quarks, (AAAS) will discuss the impor- Princeton University In the early 1970s and 1980s, these topological phases have been identified the vast cosmos, and much in tance of promoting science among three physicists explained phenomena in 1D materials, like chains of atoms, between. policymakers. Congressman Bill thin layers of matter (2D), and some Foster, representing the 11th in quantum states of matter, such as F. Duncan M. Haldane Expecting over 1,500 attend- the quantum Hall effect and superfluid 3D materials. ees, the organizers will welcome District of Illinois, will also join phase transitions, using the mathemati- The applications of topology 130 invited speakers and offer in the session to discuss his experi- cal concepts of topology. They cor- extended into Thouless’s and Haldane’s three plenary sessions that cover ence as a “physicist on the hill” and rectly predicted transitions in these work in the 1980s, when they employed topics of particle physics, astro- as a U.S. representative. these concepts to unravel the magnetic The Kavli Foundation spe- unusual phases of matter. Moreover, Brown University physics, nuclear physics, and their success has sparked an array of properties of low-dimensional materi- gravitational physics. cial plenary session, scheduled research with topological materials, als. Haldane studied magnetic atomic Government and political for Monday, will feature talks which could be used in future quantum chains, and discovered that their topo- figures will speak on the theme from Barbara Jacak of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory computers or in new generations of NOBEL continued on page 3 J. Michael Kosterlitz of “Science Policy in the 21st Century” at Saturday’s plenary MEETING continued on page 3

Q&A with Sabine Hossenfelder: Consultant for Armchair Physicists Research News: Editors’ Choice physics.aps.org By Sophia Chen A Monthly Recap of Papers Selected by the Editors When funding for her quantum gravity research started to look Atomic Force Microscopy Backreaction spotty, Sabine Hossenfelder came Maps Vector Field in 2D up with an unusual solution to Two independent groups have developed atomic force micros-

pay the bills. First, Hossenfelder, Nature Nanotech. a research fellow at the Frankfurt copy (AFM) schemes that can Institute for Advanced Studies in measure vectorial force fields in Germany and well-known physics two dimensions. AFM can image blogger, wondered, “What is all the surface of a sample with this knowledge in quantum gravity atomic resolution by recording good for?” the force exerted by a sample on And then she thought about all the tip of an oscillating cantilever. those armchair physicists out there, Conventional setups, in which the the ones who cook up their own cantilever motion is limited to one theories of everything and pro- Sabine Hossenfelder dimension, probe only the projec- tion of the force along a specific Researchers have successfully mapped the vector force from a surface in claim in Internet comments that I can sort of relate to your two dimensions by using a nanowire as the probe in an atomic force micro- they can prove Einstein wrong. She experience. When I was study- direction. Mercier de Lépinay et scope. posted an offer to act as a phys- ing physics in grad school, we’d al. and Rossi et al. replaced the the measurement of the directional the Fermi-Hubbard model within a ics consultant on Facebook and get emails from random people cantilever tip with a nanowire, nature of Casimir forces. controllable platform. Three sepa- on her blog: for 50 U.S. Dollars, which follows the surface forces pushing their pet theories on us. Atoms Mimic Antiferromagnetism rate groups—Parsons et al., Boll et she would spend 20 minutes on But we’d delete them and laugh it like the needle of a record player. New experiments with cold al., and Cheuk et al.—have placed Skype answering your questions off. Why’d you decide to engage Both setups, which are described atoms demonstrate magnetic cor- cold atoms in optical lattices and and setting you straight on your with them? in Nature Nanotechnology relations that could help explain utilized site-resolved imaging to pet theory. If you were open to it, I admire their drive a lot. These (doi:10.1038/nnano.2016.193, high-temperature superconduc- measure the number of atoms, as she’d also suggest concepts to learn people have spent a lot of time on 10.1038/nnano.2016.189), use tivity. The observed correlations well as their spin, at each site in and papers to read. The clients have their theories, and they really want optomechanical readout tech- support a condensed-matter model the lattice. The results, reported in rolled in: Since starting the ser- to understand [the physics] and niques, in which laser light moni- that assumes electrons in a crys- the journal Science (doi: 10.1126/ vice a year ago, Hossenfelder has contribute. They love the science. tors displacements of the nanowire. science.aag1430, 10.1126/sci- tal hop between lattice sites, while expanded the operation to include They’re not people I like to ignore. The two-dimensional force field ence.aag1635, 10.1126/science. also avoiding each other because five more physicists. Has anyone come up with any- of the sample surface can then be aag3349), showed that neighboring of repulsive interactions. When In addition to quantum grav- thing publishable? extracted by measuring the effect of atoms typically had opposite spins, the electron density is at a certain ity research and this consult- Not yet. I’ve only offered this the field on two orthogonal oscil- as expected for antiferromagnetic level, this so-called Fermi-Hubbard ing service, Hossenfelder writes service for a little over a year, and lation modes of the wire. Mercier ordering. The experiments also model predicts the material will prolifically about physics in her you know, nobody can immediately de Lépinay et al. used the setup to showed evidence of longer-range exhibit antiferromagnetic ordering, blog for non-technical audiences, publish when they first start study- map the force field produced by a correlations (between more distant in which magnetic moments — or Backreaction, and in publications ing physics. But before this service sharp tip, while Rossi et al. imaged neighbors), which could play a role spins — of the electrons align in like Forbes and Aeon. She spoke existed, people were already asking a patterned semiconductor surface. in generating high-temperature an alternating (up/down) pattern. with APS News last month about me about their theories, and one A vectorial AFM will be useful in a superconductivity in antiferromag- her experiences counseling phys- Testing this prediction is difficult in person actually did publish a paper. wide range of applications, includ- netic materials. ics enthusiasts. This interview has ing the characterization of the solids, but cold atoms offer a way been edited for length and clarity. Q&A continued on page 5 anisotropy of chemical bonds and to simulate the basic elements of RESEARCH continued on page 5 2 • November 2016

Inside the Beltway This Month in Physics History An Election to Remember: Sex, Lies, and Videotape By Michael S. Lubell, APS Director of Public Affairs November 7, 1940: Collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge If you’re sick of seeing and based arguments have become a hearing the presidential candidates vanishing expectation. hen the Tacoma Narrows Bridge over Puget duke it out over their indiscretions The post-debate TV analysis WSound in the state of Washington famously and worse, you’ve got plenty of used to revolve around spin room collapsed on November 7, 1940, it was captured on company. But as a physicist, I am dissection. But this year, it has film for posterity. The footage became the basis for even more disturbed by the way become a gotcha forum for under- a textbook example of resonance, which is a stan- evidence has taken a back seat to scoring how the candidates — par- dard topic in high school physics. But that classic the diatribe — or in the case of ticularly Trump — have been able explanation is incorrect. Donald Trump, the Tweet — of the to twist factual threads into whole Initial designs for the bridge by engineer Clark moment. The presidential debates, cloth lies and get away with it. Eldridge were for a typical suspension bridge with 25-foot-high trusses under the road to stiffen the which have drawn record TV audi- The visceral response of an ill- Department of Transportation Washington ences, make a compelling case that informed public has been to paint bridge and keep it from swaying too much. But the $11 million proposed design was costly. Engineer facts no longer play the vital role both candidates with a broad brush The collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge was they once did. of untrustworthiness. Dishonesty Leon Moisseiff — who consulted on the Golden driven by wind-generated vortices that reinforced In years past, the debates were might have been the big story of the Gate Bridge in San Francisco — countered with the twisting motion of the bridge deck until it failed. informed, albeit sometimes heated, 2016 election, but in early October, a novel and aesthetically pleasing design that reporter Leonard Coatsworth had made it onto the discussions of the weighty issues the Washington Post posted a lewd replaced the trusses with 8-foot-high plate gird- bridge just before then; but when he was halfway facing the country. They were videotape of Donald Trump from ers, lowering the construction costs to $8 million across, an especially big bounce toppled his car forums in which competing visions 2005. An Access Hollywood hot but providing much less resistance to bending and onto its side. He jumped out and managed to crawl, and political philosophies were on mic caught him bragging about his twisting. bruised and bleeding, on his hands and knees to the display. And if a candidate strayed sexually aggressive exploits with Moisseiff and his New York City colleague, safety of the towers, as six lamp posts snapped off too far from a question, it was the language so crude it would make Frederick Lienhard, argued that the main cables and the steel coverings on the cables produced a job of the moderator to intervene Kim Kardashian blush. would be sufficiently stiff to absorb enough static metallic wail. The big steel cables snapped around and get the dialogue back on track. Trump’s excuse: “This was wind pressure to stabilize the structure, because 11 a.m., followed by a rumbling roar as 600 feet of Should a candidate utter some- locker-room banter, a private con- the aerodynamic forces acting on the bridge would the roadway crumbled into the water below. Finally, thing patently false, the mod- versation that took place many push it only sideways, rather than up and down. the entire center span cracked, leaving just the two erator was expected to challenge years ago.” There’s nothing like Their argument was based upon deflection theory, towers standing. the speaker. That happened most sex and videotape to get the which was developed by Austrian civil engineers. The days that followed revealed a struggle to famously in 1976 when President fact-checking juices really flow- That cheaper, slimmer, and more elegant design explain why the bridge collapsed. A New York Gerald Ford said, “There is no ing. Within days almost a dozen won out, and construction began on September 27, Times article attributed it to the phenomenon of Soviet domination of Eastern women surfaced, going on the 1938. There were problems even while the bridge resonance: “Time successive taps correctly and Europe, and there never will be record saying that Trump’s locker was still being constructed, with the deck moving soon the pendulum swings with its maximum under a Ford administration.” Max room banter was far more than up and down vertically significantly in even mod- amplitude. So with this bridge.” And when educa- Frankel of the New York Times was banter. None of that dislodged erately windy conditions. It prompted construc- tor Franklin Miller distributed the footage of the moderating the debate and inter- Trump’s core supporters, who, tion workers to dub the bridge “Galloping Gertie,” collapse for classroom use in 1962, one of the rupted, “Did I understand you to polls showed, remained fixated on inspired by a popular saloon song. When the bridge captions erroneously mentioned “resonance vibra- say, sir, the Russians are not using Hillary Clinton’s 33,000 emails opened on July 1, 1940, the public experienced the tion” as the cause. (The footage itself also proved Eastern Europe as their own sphere that disappeared from the private vibrations firsthand. to be misleading, thanks to errors converting the of influence and occupying most server she had used when she was Several attempts were made to reduce the bounc- early film reels into other formats with different of the countries there and making Secretary of State. ing: tie-down cables anchoring the plate girders to frames-per-second rates.) sure with their troops that it is a Which finally leads me to the 50-ton concrete blocks (the cables soon snapped); That explanation stuck for decades, even though Communist zone?” issue of polling and some of the the addition of inclined cable stays connecting the the Federal Works Administration concluded that Ford tried to recover from his bizarre results that illustrate lack main cables to the middle of the deck; and hydraulic resonance was an “improbable” explanation. factual error but only succeeded of scientific rigor. Let’s start with buffers to dampen the main span’s longitudinal Farquharson confirmed as much in his own report in digging himself an even deeper the easiest one: open online vot- motion. None had much of a dampening effect. So a decade later. The true culprit was the twisting hole. His miscue, which Frankel ing that showed Trump thrashing the Washington Toll Bridge Authority brought in motion he had observed both in his early models highlighted, might well have cost Clinton in the second debate. In a University of Washington engineering professor and on bridge itself the day of the collapse. Ford the election. that instance, the sample was self- named Frederick Farquharson to conduct wind tun- For more detail, below is a section from the Scroll forward 40 years, and selected. It wasn’t really a poll, nel studies in hopes of finding a solution. State of Washington Department of Transportation ponder what we have witnessed even though Trump and Fox News’ Galloping Gertie had been surprisingly well- (DOT) undated online report [1] on the cause of the in this year’s high-stakes verbal Sean Hannity claimed it was. behaved throughout October, despite being blasted Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapse: by 50 mph winds. But Farquharson noticed that jousting. Donald Trump wins the But what about the Los Angeles Why Did Galloping Gertie Collapse? fairytale contest hands down, but Times / University of Southern occasionally his models would show a twisting … The primary explanation of Galloping motion, and later told reporters, “We watched it Hillary Clinton has also suffered California tracking poll that consis- Gertie’s failure is described as “torsional flut- and said that if that sort of motion ever occurred on from the Pinocchio syndrome, tently showed Trump significantly ter.” It will help to break this complicated series the real bridge, it would be the end of the bridge.” although on a far smaller scale. over-performing relative to other of events into several stages. Farquharson was standing on the Tacoma More troubling, moderators surveys? Trump and his supporters Here is a summary of the key points in the ex- Narrows Bridge on the morning of November — and journalists more generally cited it repeatedly. planation. 7, and noted that problematic twisting motion of — have largely failed to hold the I did a little digging and found 1. In general, the 1940 Narrows Bridge had the bridge — rather than the typical bouncing — candidates’ feet to the fire. The that Nate Cohn of the New York relatively little resistance to torsional (twisting) truth-stretching or, less decorously, Times had beaten me to it. His with growing alarm. Half an hour earlier, officials lying has become so common that October 16, 2016 “Upshot” analy- had closed it to traffic, but Tacoma News Tribune BRIDGE continued on page 4 it has birthed a new cottage indus- sis is a gem and worth a read for try — fact-checking. Evidenced- ELECTION continued on page 6

Series II, Vol. 25, No. 10 APS COUNCIL OF REPRESENTATIVES 2016 Bonnie Flemming Section) November 2016 International Councilors Staff Representatives © 2016 The American Physical Society President Marcia Barbosa, Eliezer Rabinovici, Johanna Stachel, Mark Doyle, Chief Information Officer; Amy Flatten Homer A. Neal*, University of Michigan Kiyoshi Ueda Director of International Affairs; Ted Hodapp, Director of Project Development and Senior Advisor to the Editor...... David Voss President-Elect Chair, Nominating Committee Department of Education and Diversity; Trish Lettieri, Science Writer ...... Rachel Gaal Laura H. Greene*, Florida State University Paul Chaikin Director of Membership; Irene Lukoff, Director of Development; Michael Lubell, Director, Public Affairs; Contributing Correspondent ...... Alaina G. Levine Vice President Chair, Panel on Public Affairs Daniel T. Kulp, Editorial Director; Christine Giaccone, Art Director and Special Publications Manager...... Kerry G. Johnson Roger W. Falcone*, University of California, Berkeley/ Julia Phillips Director, Journal Operations; Terri Olsen, Director LLBL of Meetings; Monica Plisch, Director of Education Design and Production...... Nancy Bennett-Karasik Editor in Chief and Diversity; Jane Hopkins Gould, Interim Chief Proofreader...... Edward Lee Past-President Pierre Meystre* Financial Officer; Matthew Salter, Publisher; Michael Samuel H. Aronson*, Brookhaven National Laboratory Stephens, Controller and Assistant Treasurer; James APS News (ISSN: 1058-8132) is published 11X yearly, Subscriptions: APS News is an on-membership publica- (Retired) Division, Forum and Section Councilors W. Taylor, Deputy Executive Officerand Chief Operat- monthly, except the August/September issue, by the tion delivered by Periodical Mail Postage Paid at Col- Miriam Forman (Astrophysics); Timothy Gay* ing Officer American Physical Society, One Physics Ellipse, Col- lege Park, MD and at additional mailing offices. Chief Executive Officer (Atomic, Molecular & Optical Physics); Jose Onuchic lege Park, MD 20740-3844, (301) 209-3200. It contains Kate P. Kirby*, Harvard Smithsonian (retired) (Biological); Amy Mullin* (Chemical); John Bradley * Members of the APS Board of Directors news of the Society and of its Divisions, Topical Groups, For address changes, please send both the old and new Marston (Condensed Matter Physics); Giulia Galli Sections, and Forums; advance information on meetings addresses, and, if possible, include a mailing label from Speaker of the Council (Computational); Ann Karagozian (Fluid Dynamics); of the Society; and reports to the Society by its commit- a recent issue. Changes can be emailed to membership@ Nan Phinney*, Stanford University Gay Stewart* (Forum on Education); Julia Gonski tees and task forces, as well as opinions. aps.org. Postmaster: Send address changes to APS (Forum on Graduate Student Affairs); Dan Kleppner* News, Membership Department, American Physical Treasurer (Forum on History of Physics); John Rumble, (Forum Letters to the editor are welcomed from the member- Society, One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740- James Hollenhorst*, Agilent Technologies on Industrial and Applied Physics); Young-Kee Kim* ship. Letters must be signed and should include an ad- 3844. (Forum on International Physics); Pushpa Bhat dress and daytime telephone number. APS reserves the Corporate Secretary (Forum on Physics and Society); Nicholas Bigelow* right to select and to edit for length and clarity. All cor- Ken Cole (Laser Science); James Chelikowsky (Materials); respondence regarding APS News should be directed to: Coden: ANWSEN ISSN: 1058-8132 Wick Haxton* (Nuclear); P. Michael Tuts (Particles Editor, APS News, One Physics Ellipse, College Park, General Councilors & Fields); Thomas Roser (Physics of Beams); Cary MD 20740-3844, Email: [email protected]. Marcelo Gleiser, Nadya Mason, Gail McLaughlin*, Forest (Plasma); Mark Ediger (Polymer Physics); Nan Phinney* (California Section); Carlos Wexler (Prairie November 2016 • 3

Ig Nobels 2016: The comical science that makes you think Education & Diversity Update By Rachel Gaal Dressed in old wedding gowns, October Woman Physicist of the lab coats, or more likely their daily Month work attire, a crowd showed up Dr. Jedidah Isler studies the physics of particle with ridiculous amounts of paper, jets emanating from supermassive black holes and it wasn’t for note-taking. Brian Snyder/REUTERS at the centers of massive galaxies called blazars. Scores of scientists were anticipat- Dr. Isler’s current research uses simultaneous ing the countdown to launch paper infrared, optical, and gamma-ray observations airplanes at various human targets to better understand the physics of these blazar and keen to kick off the 26th First jets by constraining the time-resolved spectral Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony variability. She received her B.S. in physics from Jedidah Isler in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Norfolk State University, her M.A. in physics from Fisk University, M.S. in Each prizewinner was celebrated physics and Ph.D. in astronomy from Yale University. She is also the for producing research that “makes founder of #VanguardSTEM and host of the monthly web series “Vanguard: people laugh, then think.” Conversations with Women of Color in STEM.” This year, an astounding 10 Ig Nominate the next Woman Physicist of the Month at aps.org/programs/ Nobel Prize winners traveled to Above: Nobel Laureate Dudley Hersch- bach presents the 2016 Ig Nobel Prize in women/scholarships/month/ the ceremony at their own expense Physics to Susanne Akesson of Sweden to shake the hands of a group of for work “discovering why white-haired Phys21: Preparing Physics Students for 21st Century genuine, genuinely bemused horses are the most horsefly-proof Careers Nobel Laureates who presented Brian Snyder/REUTERS horses, and for discovering why dragon- A new report provides information about the skills and knowledge that the prizes. Among the distin- flies are fatally attracted to black tomb- stones.” employers of physicists are seeking, and describes ways in which phys- guished guests was 2005 phys- ics departments can help students acquire those skills and that knowledge. ics Nobel Laureate Roy Glauber. At left: Audience members throw paper For almost two decades, Glauber airplanes at the stage during the 26th Learn more at compadre.org/JTUPP First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony at has humbly swept paper airplanes Harvard University in Cambridge, Mas- Join the Conversation in the Women in Physics and from Harvard’s historic Sander’s sachusetts, September 22, 2016. Minorities in Physics LinkedIn Groups Theater stage. Get updates about career development opportunities, jobs, conferences, The physics Ig Nobel went to a opera singers in grandfather clocks light’s angle of incidence. And and articles related to women and minorities in physics. Post your own team of eight physicists (and one (this year’s theme was “time”), she tombstones that were black in color opportunities, "like" the work of others, or start a discussion about what biologist) for their work on how was left to treasure her new time- reflected highly and horizontally else you'd like to see in the women and minority physics community! polarized light affects random farm keeping trophy: a giant clock with polarized light. This is bad news animals. Gábor Horváth, Miklós plastic hourglasses for hands, and for any dragonflies that decide Join Women in Physics at linkedin.com/groups/313547 Blahó, György Kriska, Ramón Join Minorities in Physics at linkedin.com/groups/3959050/ its numbers replaced with the let- to lay their eggs on these attrac- Hegedüs, Balázs Gerics, Róbert ters, “I-G-N-O-B-E-L-P-R-I-Z-E”. tive tombstones — the group saw Farkas, Susanne Åkesson, Péter MEETING continued on page 1 Each winner was bestowed this that the bugs were fatally dragged Malik, and Hansruedi Wildermuth same priceless trophy. away from their water-filled habi- (LBL), Cora Dvorkin of Harvard as they pursue an advanced degree. won for “discovering why white- The winning team’s bizarre tats, unable to relocate back to University, and S. James Gates of They can also attend Sunday’s haired horses are the most horsefly- experiments, carried out in the their homes. the University of Maryland, dis- undergraduate breakfast, which proof horses, and for discovering vast farm valleys and graveyards in Also awarded were a psychol- cussing their work in “Quarks to will include a career workshop and why dragonflies are fatally attracted Hungary, looked at polarized light ogy prize to Japanese scientists, the Cosmos.” Jacak will discuss award ceremony. to black tombstones.” caused by reflection, whether off of “for investigating whether things her role as director of the Nuclear APS authors and referees can “I feel very honored to repre- an animal’s fur, or the surfaces of look different when you bend over Science Division at LBL, and as attend a tutorial by editorial office sent my team of nine people, and black polished tombstones. They and view them between your legs,” a leading member of the collabo- staff on Sunday to get a step-by- it’s been really exciting because found the darker the surface, the and a chemistry prize presented ration that built and operates the step walk-through on how to appro- I’m the biologist,” said Åkesson more polarized the light. And little to Volkswagen, “for solving the PHENIX detector at Brookhaven priately submit their research and in her 30-second explanation. bugs (in particular horseflies and problem of excessive automobile National Laboratory. Dvorkin what to expect during peer review. “The rest are mainly in physics. dragonflies) take a keen liking to pollution emissions by automati- will also discuss her experi- They can also stop by the “APS We found you would rather be a surfaces that reflect horizontally cally, electromechanically pro- ence as a Hubble Fellow at the Meet the Journal Editors” preced- white horse than a black one, if polarized light, similarly to the ducing fewer emissions whenever Harvard-Smithsonian Center for ing the tutorial to speak with the you like to avoid being bitten by way they are attracted to reflec- the cars are being tested.” No one Astrophysics at Harvard, prior to editors of the journals. The prize horseflies … but in fact you can tive surfaces of water. It was noted showed up to claim that prize. her current position as assistant and awards ceremonial session dress in either stripes like a zebra that the dark-coated horses were To learn more about the Ig professor in Harvard’s Department will be held after the editorial meet or, like myself, in a dotted coat … targeted around the neck, backside, Nobels and to watch the timely fes- of Physics. Gates’s work in super- and greet. which will also help you”. and hindquarters in their standing tivities of this year’s ceremony, go symmetry, supergravity, and super- Attendees will be able to Ushered toward stage left by posture, usually due to the sun- to: improbable.com/ig/2016/ string theory will also expand on sharpen their communication chops the meeting’s main theme of “from at a career-skills workshop focused quarks to the cosmos.” on “Achieving Your Goals Through Black holes will be discussed Effective Communications.” They NOBEL continued from page 1 in Tuesday’s plenary session, fea- also can try setting U.S. research turing Laura Cadonati of Georgia funding priorities at a special event logical properties revealed them- Their predictions proved to have explaining electronic and mag- Tech, Chung-Pei Ma of University on Monday titled “How Would selves at their ends, considerably an unexpected impact; the major- netic highly correlated states in two of California, Berkeley, and YOU Decide the Federal Budget?” simplifying investigation of these ity of these laureates’ work went dimensions,” said APS President- Andrew Strominger of Harvard Many society meetups will be chains. Thouless and colleagues beyond considering a material’s Elect Laura Greene. “These solu- University. The session will fea- held during and before this year’s described theoretically what is symmetry properties, in a way that tions are clever and inspiring, and ture recent results on gravitational meeting: the annual pre-meeting now known as the quantum Hall was unheard of at the time of their have laid the foundation to today’s waves from LIGO and particle APS April “Tweetup” will be held effect — when the electrical con- initial research. exploding field of topological mat- astrophysics. on Friday, where Twitter fanatics ductance in thin layers changes in “It started out as a toy model ter — as indicated by the growing A number of APS units will can connect and coordinate their step values that are exact integer demonstration, and then I real- number of papers in this area tak- participate in this year’s April social media appearances dur- multiples of e2/h. These precise ized it was a very good model,” ing up an ever larger fraction of Meeting. Scientific sessions and ing the meeting. A roundtable on steps are related to the concepts explained Haldane at the Nobel the condensed matter community.” presentations will be hosted by the Sunday will focus on improving in topology in which objects are Committee’s press conference. Thouless, Haldane, and APS Divisions of Astrophysics; the climate in physics for LGBT+ categorized by integer values. “We stumbled upon this, playing Kosterlitz are all members Computational Physics; Nuclear physicists, preceding the National “These theoretical discover- with the mathematics of the model and fellows of APS. Thouless Physics; Gravitational Physics; Society of Black Physicists and ies illustrate in a very nice way … and like most discoveries, you and Kosterlitz both received the Particles and Fields; and Physics National Society of Hispanic the interplay between physics and stumble onto them. You don’t real- 2000 Lars Onsager Prize for their of Beams. Physicists meetup. mathematics, [where] theoretical ize the full implication until other work with topological phase tran- APS Topical Groups involved Only one poster session will physics is at the crossroad,” com- people start thinking it’s true and sitions. Haldane was the recipient include Few-Body Systems; be held at the 2017 APS April mented Thors Hans Hannson, a they realize the big picture.” of the 1993 Oliver E. Buckley Hadronic Physics; Instrument and Meeting, on Saturday evening member of the Nobel Committee Almost half of physics Nobel Condensed Matter Physics Prize Measurement Science; Physics preceding the welcome reception. for Physics, in an interview to the prizes in the past decade were for his own contributions to low Education Research; and Precision Since the meeting itself is hosted press after the announcement. “The awarded for research in condensed dimensional quantum systems. Measurement and Fundamental earlier than previous years, the Quantum Hall Effect became the matter physics, and the field itself Both Haldane and Kosterlitz are Constants. post-deadline abstract submis- starting point for David Thouless’s is rapidly growing — in part due to scheduled to speak at the 2017 APS Among other events and exhib- sion is open until 5:00 p.m. on [achievement], and he explained the theories set forth by the three March Meeting in New Orleans. its, undergraduates can get a leg November 11, 2016 for those who the experiments with these topo- new laureates. Related Information up on their graduate school aspi- wish to present at a poster session logical invariances. In Duncan “The 2016 Nobel Prize in See the Focus article rations by attending “Lunch with on a space available basis. Don’t Haldane’s case ... he predicted Physics this year honors three “Topological Phases of Matter” in the Grads,” which will feature a wait to submit, and we hope to see effects of experiments performed researchers who have cracked Physics: physics.aps.org/articles/ panel discussion on what to expect you there! 25 years later.” a crucial part of this problem, v9/116 4 • November 2016

BRIDGE continued from page 2

forces. That was because it had twisting. This increased beyond such a large depth-to-width ratio, the bridge structure strength to re- 1 to 72. Gertie’s long, narrow, and sist. Failure resulted. String Theorist Turns to Science Policy shallow stiffening girder made the 19th century bridge designers By Katherine Kornei structure extremely flexible. had learned painful lessons from The Cold War loomed large option [for disposing of the pluto- 2. On the morning of No- numerous bridge collapses, but in Edwin Lyman’s experience nium] that was being pushed very vember 7, 1940 shortly after 10 20th-century designers did not as a physics graduate student in hard by the Department of Energy a.m., a critical event occurred. heed them. Again, quoting the the 1980s. “[Ronald] Reagan’s (DOE) and other countries was The cable band at mid-span on Washington State DOT report [2]: Strategic Defense Initiative to use that material as a fuel for the north cable slipped [and slid First Investigations-Partial Program was getting into full nuclear power plants,” he says. along the bridge]. This allowed Answers to “Why” swing then,” Lyman remembers, However, Lyman and his colleagues the cable to separate into two un- Early suspension-bridge fail- “and there was a lot of attention at Princeton recognized several of equal segments. That contributed ures resulted from light spans with focused on the responsibility of sci- the issues with using plutonium in to the change from vertical (up- very flexible decks that were vulner- entists, particularly physicists, who nuclear power plants — it’s more and-down) to torsional (twisting) able to wind (aerodynamic) forces. engage in programs that might have expensive than a conventional fuel movement of the bridge deck. In the late 19th century engineers moral implications.” When the time like enriched uranium, and it has 3. Also contributing to the tor- moved toward very stiff and heavy came for Lyman to select a thesis to be safeguarded and protected to sional motion of the bridge deck suspension bridges. John Roebling topic, he chose string theory and stringent standards. was “vortex shedding.” In brief, consciously designed the 1883 high energy particle theory, a deci- The researchers decided to Edwin Lyman vortex shedding occurred in the Brooklyn Bridge so that it would sion partly intended to minimize instead focus on turning the plu- to discouraging the commercial Narrows Bridge as follows: be stable against the stresses of any potential military applications tonium into a stable waste form production and use of nuclear [a] Wind separated as it struck wind. In the early 20th century, of his work. that could be safely buried under- weapons-grade materials. “We the side of Galloping Gertie’s however, says David P. Billington, As Lyman neared the end of his ground. “We were looking at promoted the conversion of highly deck, the 8-foot solid plate girder. Roebling's “historical perspective Ph.D. studies at Cornell, he became essentially vitrifying the plutonium enriched uranium-fueled research A small amount twisting occurred seemed to have been replaced by increasingly involved in discussions — that is, mixing it with radioac- and test reactors so that they could in the bridge deck, because even a visual preference unrelated to with other physics students and fac- tive waste and glass-forming mate- use low-enriched uranium, which steel is elastic and changes form structural engineering. ulty about the social repercussions rials,” Lyman says. “Some Russian is not directly weapon-usable,” under high stress. Just four months after Galloping of defense work. When the native scientists were claiming that plu- Lyman says. “We [also] worked [b] The twisting bridge deck Gertie failed, a professor of New Yorker graduated in 1992, he tonium had very low solubility in to prevent the Nuclear Regulatory caused the wind flow separation civil engineering at Columbia accepted a postdoctoral position such glasses. However, I concluded Commission from weakening to increase. This formed a vortex, University, J. K. Finch, published focused on science and security that the plutonium solubility was requirements for protecting nuclear or swirling wind force, which fur- an article in Engineering News- policy at the Center for Energy strongly dependent on the glass plants from terrorist attacks, which ther lifted and twisted the deck. Record that summarized over a and Environmental Studies (now composition and that the Russian took on greater urgency after 9/11.” [c] The deck structure resisted century of suspension bridge fail- the Science and Global Security results were probably outliers.” After the NCI lost its pri- this lifting and twisting. It had a ures. Finch declared, ‘These long- Program) at Princeton University. DOE later came to a similar conclu- mary funder, the W. Alton Jones natural tendency to return to its forgotten difficulties with early “I had become convinced that sion and briefly considered pluto- Foundation, in 2001, Lyman previous position. As it returned, suspension bridges clearly show engaging in policy might be a bet- nium vitrification before canceling accepted the position of president its speed and direction matched that while to modern engineers, ter use of my resources,” he says. the program because of the cost. and attempted to secure enough the lifting force. In other words, it the gyrations of the Tacoma bridge Lyman’s postdoctoral work In 1995, at the conclusion of his funding to keep the organization moved “in phase” with the vortex. constituted something entirely new involved determining what to do postdoctoral work, Lyman moved going. He was unable to obtain suf- Then, the wind reinforced that mo- and strange, they were not new — with the significant stockpiles to Washington, D.C. and accepted a ficient funding, but he learned that tion. This produced a “lock-on” they had simply been forgotten.’ … of plutonium left over from the job at the Nuclear Control Institute a job opportunity had opened up at event. An entire generation of suspension- recently ended Cold War. “One (NCI), an organization devoted POLICY continued on page 5 4. But the external force of the bridge designer-engineers forgot wind alone was not sufficient to the lessons of the 19th century. cause the severe twisting that led The last major suspension-bridge The Beginning of Nanotechnology at the 1959 APS Meeting the Narrows Bridge to fail. failure had happened five decades 5. Now the deck movement By Katherine Kornei been married, bought a house and, earlier, when the Niagara-Clifton went into “torsional flutter.” what with one thing and other, Bridge fell in 1889. And, in the “It was the best of times, it was “Torsional flutter” is a complex hasn’t got another spare $1,000.” 1930s, aerodynamic forces were the worst of times ...” The classic mechanism. “Flutter” is a self-in- Tom Newman Tom In 1985, Tom Newman was not well understood at all. lines that open A Tale of Two Cities duced harmonic vibration pattern. a graduate student at Stanford Aftermath by Charles Dickens, rendered in This instability can grow to very University in the electrical engi- The remains of the original a minuscule type size, netted large vibrations. neering department. His Ph.D. the- Tacoma Narrows Bridge deck Tom Newman $1,000 and a letter When the bridge movement sis work — which involved making are still on the bottom of Puget from Richard Feynman. changed from vertical to torsional very small lattices to observe quan- Sound, forming an artificial reef, In the last few days of 1959, oscillation, the structure absorbed tum effects — was nearly com- and its side spans were melted several hundred physicists gath- more wind energy. The bridge plete. “My advisor encouraged me down for steel during World War ered for “Winter Meeting in the deck’s twisting motion began to to finish up and not get too dis- II. Eventually state authorities West” of the American Physical control the wind vortex so the two Tom Newman used an electron tracted by side projects,” Newman approved a replacement bridge, Society. Feynman, then a professor were synchronized. The struc- beam to etch the opening of Dick- remembered. completed in 1950 and dubbed of theoretical physics at Caltech, ture’s twisting movements became ens' Tale of Two Cities onto a 200 At the same time, another stu- ‘Sturdy Gertie.’ This time the was among the attendees, and he x 200 micron square of plastic and self-generating. In other words, dent in Newman’s research group design used 33-foot trusses to delivered an after-dinner lecture at won the Feynman challenge. the forces acting on the bridge read a transcript of “There’s Plenty stiffen the bridge, as well as wind the nearby Huntington-Sheraton Feynman concluded his lecture were no longer caused by wind. of Room at the Bottom.” Ken grates and hydraulic shock absorb- Hotel entitled “There’s Plenty of by presenting two challenges to his The bridge deck’s own motion Polasko suggested to Newman that ers. A second bridge was added Room at the Bottom.” audience. The first challenge, asso- produced the forces. Engineers he attempt Feynman’s remaining in 2007. The banquet speech would ciated with a cash prize of $1000, call this “self-excited” motion. challenge. “The lab I was working 1. Washington State Department of prove prescient. Feynman’s lecture was to miniaturize a page of text It was critical that the two types in … had all of the optics neces- Transportation, Tacoma Narrows is widely accepted as spurring the by 1/25,000 in linear scale so that of instability, vortex shedding and Bridge: Lessons from the Failure sary for making a high-resolution field of nanotechnology, and the it was readable with an electron torsional flutter, both occurred at of a Great Machine, Why Did Gal- [printer],” Newman acknowledged. Nobel Prize Committee lauded it microscope. The second challenge, relatively low wind speeds. Usu- loping Gertie Collapse? Available “[And my advisor, R. Fabian Pease] at wsdot.wa.gov/TNBhistory/Ma- as “visionary” when they awarded also worth $1,000, was to build a ally, vortex shedding occurs at had a real passion for lithography.” chine/machine3.htm#6 the 2016 Nobel Prize in Chemistry functioning electric motor within relatively low wind speeds, like When Pease was away at a 2. ibid., First Investigations-Partial to researchers who assembled tiny a 1/64-inch cube. “I do not expect 25 to 35 mph, and torsional flut- conference on the east coast, Answers to “Why.” motors made of molecules. that such prizes will have to wait ter at high wind speeds, like 100 Newman seized his opportunity Further Reading: “I want to talk about … the very long for claimants,” Feynman mph. Because of Gertie’s design, to investigate Feynman’s chal- Billah, K. and Scanlan, R. “Resonance, problem of manipulating and con- prophesied. and relatively weak resistance to lenge. “I decided to give it a big Tacoma Narrows Bridge Failure, and trolling things on a small scale,” Indeed, one of Feynman’s torsional forces, from the vortex Undergraduate Physics Textbooks,” push for two days while he was Feynman said early in his lecture. prizes was claimed within a year shedding instability the bridge American Journal of Physics 59 gone. During that time, I was able (1991): 118–124. He went on to discuss informa- by William McLellan. The Caltech went right into “torsional flutter.” to come up with the basis for how Green, D. and Unruh, W. G. “The Fail- tion storage, suggesting that the graduate presented Feynman with Now the bridge was beyond its to do it,” Newman said. He made ure of the Tacoma Bridge: A physical 120,000 volumes in the Caltech a working motor far smaller than natural ability to “damp out” the rough calculations of the necessary model,” American Journal of Physics library might, within 10 years, a pinhead. However, Feynman’s motion. Once the twisting move- 74 (2006): 706. resolution and the size of the letters “be kept on just one library card.” other challenge of miniaturizing ments began, they controlled the Olson, Donald W.; Wolf, Steven F.; required, and he looked over his Feynman also talked about min- text remained unsolved for decades. vortex forces. The torsional mo- Hook, Joseph M. (2015) “The Tacoma bookshelf. “I had [A Tale of Two iaturizing computers and creating When Engineering & Science, tion began small and built upon Narrows Bridge collapse on film and Cities]; it was a nicely bound copy. video,” Physics Today 68 (11): 64–65. perfect copies of miniscule devices Caltech’s quarterly magazine, its own self-induced energy. When I pulled it out, it seemed like Pasternak, Alex. “The Strangest, Most based on spins. “It is a stagger- covered McLellan’s achievement In other words, Galloping a nice text,” Newman said. Spectacular Bridge Collapse (And ingly small world that is below,” it humorously noted that “[since Gertie’s twisting induced more How We Got It Wrong),” Motherboard, he emphasized. offering the prizes] Feynman has FEYNMAN continued on page 7 twisting, then greater and greater December 2015. November 2016 • 5

RESEARCH continued from page 1 Neutrons Spiral into a of warm inflation from first prin- covered that some light nuclei can Hologram ciples. Warm inflation, which exist near a quantum phase transi- Questions for 2016 U.S. Presidential Candidates Holography isn’t just for pho- involves warm, rather than cold, tion between a liquid-like collec- APS works on behalf tons anymore. Researchers now cosmic temperatures, is a simpler tion of neutrons and protons and of its members, and report their success in using variant of the widely accepted view a clumpier state involving clusters the physics commu- neutrons to make holograms, of the explosive growth of the early of alpha particles. Everyday phase nity at large, to inform which record patterns of inter- Universe. Bastero-Gil et al. report transitions like boiling water are policy leaders about ference between two coherent in Physical Review Letters (doi: thermally provoked, but quantum beams. Sarenac et al. describe 10.1103/PhysRevLett.117.151301) phase transitions are driven by the importance of in Optics Express (doi: 10.1364/ their derivation of a compelling quantum fluctuations even at zero physics and research OE.24.022528) a neutron hologra- model of warm inflation by borrow- temperature. Such transitions may funding. In September 2016, APS reached out to both the phy experiment employing a neu- ing a trick from Higgs boson theo- play an important role in determin- Democratic and Republican presidential campaigns. Both tron interferometer that is based on ries. The Higgs, which gives other ing how subatomic particles are candidates were sent five questions on topics of interest to the same principles used in optical particles their mass, is a Nambu- arranged in a nucleus. In a paper the physics community. As APS News went to press, APS Goldstone boson — a particle that holography. Here, a neutron enters in Physical Review Letters (doi: has received a response from the Clinton Campaign. Read the interferometer and is separated arises from a broken symmetry. The 10.1103/PhysRevLett.117.132501), the answers at aps.org/policy/analysis/prescandidates.cfm into two paths by a beam splitter, key particle in inflation is, naturally Elhatisari et al. report their results generating reference and object enough, the inflaton, and when the of using a lattice Monte Carlo beams. The object beam is altered authors assume it to be a Nambu- method to tackle effective-field- with a spatially varying phase after Goldstone boson, they conclude theory calculations of oxygen-16 passing through a test object called that inflatons can exist in a warm and other light nuclei. By exploring a spiral-phase plate (a device that thermal bath despite the rapid cool- Q&A continued from page 1 a wider range of nucleon interac- imparts helicity), while the refer- ing effects of inflationary expan- It was a minor thing, a new way of through ten years of education. I ence beam, as in optical hologra- sion. Previous models of warm tions than previous studies, they phy, is unaltered. The two beams inflation have required an absurdly found that, indeed, the nuclei are looking at a known phenomenon in don’t think you can shortcut those combine at another beam splitter, high number of coupled fields, close to a transition between a so- special relativity. But he worked it ten years, but I’m trying to bridge and the output beams from this are but the new theory only requires called Fermi-liquid configuration through and got it published, and that gap a little. sent to an imaging detector and an four additional fields. Moreover, and a state with alpha clustering. that was really encouraging. You’ve written that journal- integrating counter. Built up from the authors present observational The results are encouraging for What’s a typical email ists make science seem too easy many single-neutron events, the predictions about cosmic micro- looking at quantum phase transi- exchange like? and can mislead readers to inter- resulting hologram was then recon- wave background radiation result- tions in carbon nuclei, which har- They’ll say, “Hello, my name is pret their analogies too literally. structed into a simulated image to ing from warm inflation and show bor Hoyle states — excited states so-and-so, and I’ve been working How can science communicators generate different intensity profiles that these are in agreement with of carbon characterized by clus- for ten years on this theory of, insert improve on that? of the phase plate. This unique neu- recent results from the Planck sat- ters of alpha particles. Such states something, and I have a problem It’s difficult. Popular science tron holography setup may offer a ellite. (For more, see the Synopsis are thought to be essential to life, with something. Can I talk to you?” articles have to cater to a diverse new method for characterizing the “Little Higgs Gives Warm Inflaton as they directly influence stellar Sometimes they’ll send me twenty, audience. They often end up target- coherence of neutron beams. a Hand” in Physics.) production of carbon in the uni- thirty pages about their theories. ing the least common denominator I’ll write back yes or no, and if it’s and become wishy-washy nuggets Borrowing Higgs Physics to Oxygen Nuclei Lie Near a verse. (For more, see the Viewpoint outside of my expertise, I might that don’t tell you much. I see noth- Heat Up Inflation Quantum Phase Transition “Uncovering a Quantum Phase refer them to someone on my team. ing wrong with this, though. Many New theoretical work shows Using state-of-the-art computer Transition in Nuclei” in Physics, Then, we’ll talk over Skype. readers just want to be inspired or how to arrive at a proper theory simulations, researchers have dis- physics.aps.org/articles/v9/106) They’ll have images in mind and to have something to talk about. use concepts they’ve heard of but But some readers want more, POLICY continued from page 4 don’t exactly understand. If they and they’re the ones who get it the Union of Concerned Scientists use equations, they use very few, badly wrong. One big misunder- (UCS). The independent scientists and they are typically the wrong standing is about the importance of and policy leaders at UCS focus TEPCO ones. They might use the equations mathematics in theoretical physics. on combating global warming, you learn in high school, which I find this very badly communi- ensuring stringent regulations of you can’t use to construct a fun- cated in popular science. Because nuclear power, and stopping the damental theory. I have to explain they don’t have the experience, spread of nuclear weapons, many that if you want to deal with these they seem to think mathematics is of the same issues that Lyman had topics, you need to know what a optional and is something physi- supported at NCI. Hamiltonian is, what a quasipar- cists do to offend other people. Lyman joined UCS in 2003 as ticle is, et cetera, and you need to One way you can improve on a senior scientist, a role he still learn how to compute them. And I this without scaring people away holds. His work involves a mix often have to tell them that they’re is to provide layers of explana- of research, writing, and public not offering anything new. tion. You can have a fluffy article speaking, and he has described his Are you straightforward with that also includes options for the role as “a nuclear safety watch- them about that? reader to choose different levels dog. … to ensure that U.S. nuclear Yeah. Some of them get pretty of detail. For example, you can reactors are adequately safe from offended, I think. A lot of people, imagine clicking a button for addi- accidents and secure from terror- A team from the International Atomic Energy Agency surveys the damaged strangely enough, also find it out- tional information. It’s not impos- ist attacks.” Lyman often testifies nuclear reactor in Fukushima, Japan. rageous that I ask for payment, sible, but someone has to do it, and before Congress on matters related Washington, D.C. to provide expert leagues at UCS published a book because certainly I must be inter- there’s no money and no interface to nuclear energy, and he served analysis about potential radiation entitled Fukushima: The Story of a ested in their great theory, and I’m for it right now. as an expert analyst after the 2011 leaks and the structural integrity Nuclear Disaster. The book high- just like, no, I’m not that interested. What do you think is the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami of the reactor buildings. “We put lights the events that preceded the Do you enjoy reading the responsibility of garden-vari- in Japan crippled the Fukushima out some early analysis … at that meltdowns at Fukushima Daiichi theories? ety physicists to communicate Daiichi nuclear power plant. time, I think I was one of the only and argues that the regulations and To tell you the truth, I don’t read their work? On March 11, 2011, a magnitude commentators to predict that there safety protocols governing nuclear them because I don’t have the time. They definitely need to com- 9.0 earthquake triggered tsunami would be meltdowns and hydrogen power plants in both Japan and the It’s not the point of the service. I’m municate their work within the waves that swamped Fukushima explosions,” he says. “The media United States are not stringent there to answer questions to help community. But when it comes to Daiichi, an aging power plant built interest was astronomical, like enough. “Nuclear energy is hard. them meet a high scientific stan- communicating with the public, on the coast in Fukushima prefec- nothing we’d seen before.” It’s hard to engineer, and it’s hard dard. So I tell them, if you want my I don’t think scientists generally ture. The plant suffered a complete When Lyman provided testi- to go from a paper study to a func- opinion, you’ll have to talk to me. have an obligation to do this. Not loss of primary and backup power mony to the Senate Committee on tioning, reliable, operating plant,” Some of the people on my team every scientist is skilled at it, and I — a worst-case scenario known as Environment and Public Works on Lyman cautions. will read the theories, though, and don’t see the point of forcing them a “station blackout” — and work- March 16, 2011 about the situation Lyman’s role as a communicator they charge a rate per word. to do it. ers were unable to pump sufficient in Japan, he was asked whether a and spokesman of science continues Do you think the large demand But a current problem facing cooling water over the plant’s meltdown could also occur in the to be a challenge. “[There has been for these services means that scientists who are good at science nuclear fuel rods to keep them United States. His comments were a] shift away from fact-based rea- the academic system is failing communication is that they don’t safely below 1500°F, the approxi- sobering: “We have plants that soning and the substitute of social somewhere? get any benefits from it. You get mate temperature at which they are just as old, and we have had a media volume for actual facts,” he It’s not the academic system; it’s points for teaching, for research, start to disintegrate. In three reac- station blackout. We have a regu- says. “In physics, there are plenty of a problem with science communi- and for leadership positions, but tors, the fuel rods boiled away their latory system that is not clearly controversies, but things do get set- cation. These people are interested public outreach isn’t really good protective water baths and began superior to that of the Japanese. tled with information. That doesn’t in topics like quantum gravity and for anything. Well, actually — to melt through their confinement We have had extreme weather always happen in public policy,” he foundations of quantum mechanics. you’ll get emails from people who vessels, releasing harmful radioac- events that exceeded our expecta- says. “[But] I do believe that persis- But all they have is popular science want to share their theories with tive materials into the environment. tions and defeated our emergency tence will pay off and facts and good writing on one side and textbooks you. That’s what it’s good for. As the disaster in Japan planning measure[s], [such as] analysis will ultimately prevail.” on the other. If you start with popu- Sophia Chen is a freelance unfolded, Lyman and his col- Hurricane Katrina.” Katherine Kornei is a freelance lar science, it’s very difficult to get science writer based in Tucson, leagues worked around the clock in In 2014, Lyman and his col- science writer in Portland, Oregon. to the other side. Physicists do it Arizona. 6 • November 2016 In Recognition of the 2016 APS Fellows Each year, no more than one half of one percent of American Physical Society members are elected Fellow. APS Fellows have been recognized by their peers for their outstanding con- tributions to physics, including original research and publication, innovative applications to science and technology, exceptional teaching and outreach, or esteemed leadership and service to the Society. Here are the newly elected 2016 Fellows, listed by the unit who recommended their nomination for election to the APS Council of Representatives. For more information, visit https://www.aps.org/programs/honors/fellowships/ APS General Category Angelos Michaelides Richard W. Ziolkowski Hui Chen Kalman Varga Brian W. O'Shea Cameron Guy Geddes Paul Johnson Division of Materials Physics Topical Group on Humberto Terrones Punit Gohil Yong P. Chen Hadronic Physics Division of Astrophysics Maria-Roser Valentí Gianluca Gregori Kyeongjae Cho Peter Bosted Rachel Bean Matthieu Verstraete Omar A. Hurricane Hongyou Fan Maarten F. Golterman Nicole Bell John L. Kline Division of Anderson Janotti Daniel Chung Yueqiang Liu Topical Group on Instrument Condensed Matter Physics Ezekiel Johnston-Halperin Stéphane Coutu Anthony Murphy and Measurement Science Alexander G. Abanov Mercouri Kanatzidis Megan Donahue Donald A. Spong L. Douglas Bell Ian Appelbaum Ho Nyung Lee Hume A. Feldman John Wygant Vladimir Glebov Richard D. Averitt Jianwei "John" Miao Paolo Gondolo Hiroshi Yamada James H. Werner Antonio Bianconi Ganpati Ramanath Ann Hornschemeier Hartmut Zohm Brian Keating Donglai Feng Athena S. Sefat Topical Group on Magnetism Richard L. Kelley Gregory A. Fiete Jonathan E. Spanier Division of Polymer Physics Laura Heyderman Adrian Lee Ilya Gruzberg Haiyan Wang James M. Caruthers Laura H. Lewis Miguel Mostafá Vitalyi Gusev James A. Warren Junhan Cho Maria Varela Hiranya Peiris Krzysztof Kempa Qikun Xue Marcus Cicerone Xixiang Zhang Clement Pryke Young-June Kim Judith C. Yang Yossef Elabd Igor Zutic Kimitoshi Kono Sinan Keten Division of Nuclear Physics Topical Group on Division of Atomic, Andreas Kreyssig Guruswamy Kumaraswamy Molecular & Optical Physics Timothy C. Beers Physics Education Research Nina Markovic Ricardo Ruiz Charles Henderson Nigel Badnell Satoshi Okamoto Adam Bernstein Christopher T. Chantler Natalia Perkins Gabor David Forum on Education Topical Group on Matthew Davis Marek Potemski Axel Drees Stephen Padalino Plasma Astrophysics Nirit Dudovich Sven Rogge Dieter Frekers Monica Plisch Fausto Cattaneo Peter Engels Leonid Rokhinson Robert Grzywacz Timothy J. Stelzer Herbert O. Funsten George N. Gibson Emanuel Tutuc Jamal Jalilian-Marian John Stewart Amiram Leviatan Topical Group on Jack Harris Xingjiang Zhou Forum on History of Physics J. Timothy Londergan Precision Measurement & Hui Hu Jian-Xin Zhu Kathryn M. Olesko Peter Petreczky Fundamental Constants John Kitching Makoto C. Fujiwara Division of Fluid Dynamics Andreas Piepke Forum on Robert Lucchese John D. Prestage Thomas Pfeifer Andrea L. Bertozzi George H. Rawitscher Industrial & Applied Physics Jean-Michel Raimond Ahmed Ghoniem Rebecca A. Surman Edward Adler Topical Group on Cindy Regal Sascha Hilgenfeldt Alan Wuosmaa Robert G.W. Brown Quantum Information Marc Simon Eric Lauga Steven W. Yates Michael S. Gordon Todd A. Brun Laurent Limat Muhammad M. Hussain Amir O. Caldeira Wim Ubachs Division of Beverley J. McKeon Subramanian Iyer Andrew J. Landahl Martin Zwierlein Particles and Fields Martin Oberlack Steven Lambert Andrea Morello Mina Aganagic Division of Demetrios T. Papageorgiou François Léonard William D. Oliver Philip Argyres Biological Physics Sergio Pirozzoli Mathias B. Steiner Xiao Tang Ken Bloom Aaron Dinner Mike Reeks Handong Sun Csaba Csáki Topical Group on Robert Endres Jason Reese Peide "Peter" Ye Christine Davies Shock Compression of Kalina Hristova Zvi Rusak Aaron Dominguez Forum on Condensed Matter Ilya Nemenman Spencer Sherwin Patrick Fox International Physics Richard L. Gustavsen Keir C. Neuman Bruce R. Sutherland Christopher Hill Giorgio Apollinari Suhithi M. Peiris Sean Sun John Tsamopoulos Andreas Karch Sergio Bertolucci Jay X. Tang Alexander L. Yarin Topical Group on Soft Matter Karol Lang Christine Darve Massimo Vergassola Roberto Zenit Nicholas Abbott Scott M. Oser Günther Dissertori Mingming Wu Matteo Pasquali Division of J. Michael Roney Sandro Scandolo Edward Yu Sriram Ramaswamy Gravitational Physics Pierre Savard Noboru Takeuchi Ivan Smalyukh Division of Thomas W. Baumgarte Peter N. Shanahan Chemical Physics Forum on Outreach and John Texter Jiri Bicak Sunil V. Somalwar Engaging the Public Eric R. Bittner Valery V. Frolov Daniel Whiteson Steven Goldfarb Topical Group on Statistical Vladimir Chernyak Michael Landry Stéphane Willocq Ágnes Mócsy & Nonlinear Physics Frédéric Merkt Eva Silverstein Kathryn Zurek Rebecca Thompson Raissa M. D'Souza David H. Parker Ulrich Sperhake Felix M. Izrailev Mary T. Rodgers Division of Physics of Beams Forum on Physics Robin T. Stebbins Mason Porter Charles A. Schmuttenmaer John Galambos and Society Michele Vallisneri Wouter-Jan Rappel Xue-Bin Wang Andrew Hutton Hugh Kendrick Robin Selinger Division of Laser Science Michiko G. Minty Micah Lowenthal Jianzhong Wu Jeffrey Urbach Harry Atwater Pietro Musumeci Keivan Stassun Division of Igal Brener Evgenya Smirnova-Simakov James E. Trebes Computational Physics Tobias Kippenberg Christoph Steier Simon Catterall Greg Salamo Topical Group on Laura Gagliardi Feng Wang Division of Plasma Physics Few-Body Systems Joel D. Kress Gary Wiederrecht Jose A. Boedo William Detmold

ELECTION continued from page 2 On September 17, 2016, the APS Board of Directors anyone who worries about statistics weighted respondent. Alone, he approved the following two statements: and biased data. has been enough to put Mr. Trump In brief, according to Cohn, the in double digits of support among HEU Reactor Conversion LA Times/USC poll used the same black voters.” The Board of the American Physical Society supports the crucial need to reduce, with the goal of ultimately panel of 3,000 voters repeatedly in Nate Cohn is a fact-checker. So, eliminating, the use of highly enriched uranium (HEU) to fuel civilian research reactors as called for by the National its frequent surveys. That’s OK for too are Nate Silver of fivethirtyeight. Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in its 2016 report Reducing the Use of Highly Enriched tracking purposes. But the pollsters com and the dozen or so women who Uranium in Civilian Research Reactors. Since HEU can be readily used to construct nuclear weapons, minimiz- segmented the panel with granular- disputed Trump’s lame locker room ing it as a fuel in civilian reactors is an important step toward reducing proliferation risks in the United States and ity so fine that weighted results were excuse for lecherous conceit. This throughout the world. vulnerable to significant errors. year, it’s clear all of us, especially The Lincoln Project: Excellence and Access in Public Higher Education One particularly egregious scientists, need to be fact-checkers. The American Physical Society Board of Directors commends the American Academy of Sciences for its report example led Trump not only to Donald Trump’s response to on public research universities, Recommitting to Lincoln’s Vision: An Educational Compact for the 21st Century. claim he was leading in national a question from moderator Chris The report, co-chaired by Robert Birgeneau and Mary Sue Coleman, provides a sobering account of the decline polls but also to claim he was cap- Wallace in the final debate under- in public research university support — a drop of 34 percent nationwide in just the last decade — and its implica- turing a sizable fraction of African scores that necessity. Trump twice tions for America’s future. The report contains a set of thoughtful recommendations for (1) public research American voters. said he would not accept the elec- universities, (2) state government, (3) the federal government and (4) the private sector that are worthy of serious Here’s what Cohn uncovered: tion results because he believed consideration. The American Physical Society Board recognizes that public research universities represent only “There is a 19-year-old black man they were rigged. But the deluge one segment of the public higher education establishment and urges concerted study by scholarly and educational in Illinois who … is sure he is of polls this year — virtually all organizations of the broader problems of public higher education support. going to vote for Donald J. Trump predicting a Clinton victory — … . In some polls, he’s weighted can conclusively negate Trump’s For more information on these and other Board Statements, please visit aps.org/policy/statements/executive.cfm as much as 30 times more than the treacherous allegation of massive average respondent and as much voter fraud, provided they are sci- as 300 times more than the least- entifically accurate. November 2016 • 7 ANNOUNCEMENTS

Call for Proposals The Kavli Microbiome Ideas Challenge invites the broad scientific community to submit their ideas for groundbreak- ing experimental tools and methods microbiome for understanding microbial function. The Kavli Foundation has committed $1 million to this challenge. Grant proposals are due December 2, 2016 at 11:59 p.m. CST.

The Kavli Ideas Challenge is led by the American Society of Microbiology, and carried out in partnership with the American Chemical Society and American Physical Society. Learn more at kavlichallenge.org

FEYNMAN continued from page 4 Fortunately, Pease was enthu- On October 12, 1985, Newman But Feynman was satisfied and siastic about Newman’s pursuits, and Pease sent a telegram to considered his challenge solved, and the two men begin to repurpose Feynman at Caltech. The short 26 years after it was first pro- their lab’s existing equipment. “The message read: “Please advise if posed. Within a couple of weeks, pattern generator that we had pro- prize has been collected for reduc- Newman received a congratula- duced a square dot matrix of 512 x ing a page of text 25 thousand- tory letter from the physicist and 512 pixels,” Newman explained. fold to be readable in an electron a check for $1000. “It was a wel- He determined how to convert a microscope.” come amount of money,” Newman typed-in string of letters readable “We had decided not to even recalled. “I was thinking of getting by humans into a string of bits bother him until we were certain a Macintosh computer. They had readable by the pattern generator. that we could meet the spirit of the just come out and I was really fas- Pease and Newman then used the challenge,” Newman explained. cinated by them.” pattern generator to scan a beam Just a few weeks later, Newman Newman defended his thesis of electrons over a thin layer was in the lab when a telephone call in December, 1985, and his work of poly(methyl methacrylate). came through. “Someone said they would stand as a proof of concept When the electrons impacted the were transferring a call to me from that text could be substantially poly(methyl methacrylate), they Professor Feynman. I was a little ner- compressed. “Maybe I didn’t plan broke bonds within the material’s vous taking the call,” said Newman. it this way, but there is some value organic molecules and rendered “The first thing Feynman in having people recognize this that area more soluble to a devel- said was something like ‘Hey text,” said Newman. “The fact that oper solution. “The developer solu- Newman, what are you guys doing they knew that first line — or at tion eats away the area that’s been up there?’,” Newman recounted. least the first part of the first line exposed,” explained Newman. Feynman went on to say that the — probably helped a bit in terms Newman and Pease printed the prize had not been claimed and that of interpreting what I had done.” first page of A Tale of Two Cities he was interested in seeing what Since graduating from Stanford, on a 200 × 200 micron square of Newman and Pease had produced. Newman has worked in the field of poly(methyl methacrylate). The On November 5, Newman lithography. His job responsibilities text occupied an area just under mailed an envelope to Pasadena have spanned engineering, project six microns on a side, which made containing photos of his printing management, and marketing. it challenging to find on the square. taken using a transmission electron He never kept in touch with “I learned after the first time [of microscope. “I didn’t have high Feynman, however. “Maybe I was going to the microscope] to bring hopes at that point that Feynman a bit reticent to contact the great a map on a piece of paper,” said would agree that we met [the chal- man,” he said. Newman. At this scale, the entire lenge],” said Newman. “The image Katherine Kornei is a freelance Encyclopedia Britannica could be is kind of rough, and you’re seeing science writer based in Portland, printed on the head of a pin. the resolution limit of this process.” Oregon. 8 • November 2016

New terrorism reveals new physics By Neil Johnson

t is ten years since I wrote a Back Page article “The Mother We also identified new evolutionary adaptations that I(Nature) of All Wars?” which pointed to a connection these pro-ISIS aggregates have managed to find. Some may between the physics of complex systems and human conflict go invisible for a while, and also occasionally reincarnate, including terrorism (APS News, November 2006). A lot of Neil Johnson appearing at a later date with a different identity and yet things have changed in the world since then, one of which managing to retain most of their members. So just as Darwin is the expansion of the Internet to 3.5 billion users — that’s predicted what happens in biological evolution, pro-ISIS nearly 1 out of 2 of the world’s population. An immediate support has adapted to exploit features afforded by its new impact of this Internet expansion has been an increase in online environment (i.e., social media website) in order to availability of information about individual violent events survive longer. related to conflicts and terrorism at the daily level. The practical consequences are many-fold. Identification This has enabled a thorough testing of the conjecture of the coalescence-fragmentation mechanism suggests that reported in that 2006 article, that modern conflicts including anti-ISIS agencies can step in and break up small aggregates terrorism follow an approximate power-law distribution for before they develop into larger, potentially powerful ones. If the severity of events, with a universal exponent near 2.5. anti-ISIS agencies aren’t active enough in their countermea- That approximate “2.5 law of war” has now been confirmed Online pro-ISIS aggregates are made up of interacting indi- sures, pro-ISIS support will quickly grow from a number of using new databases from multiple recent and pre-existing viduals. smaller aggregates into one super-aggregate. Also, if aggregate conflicts including insurgencies, as well as updated terrorism shutdown rates drop below a certain critical value [5], any databases [1]. Also thanks to Internet reporting, a power-law piece of pro-ISIS material will then be able to spread glob- trend has been identified in the timing of attacks in con- ally across the Internet — ultimately leading to an Internet flicts that is interpreted as a non-Markovian stochastic walk arms race. Finally, the birthrate of these aggregates escalates between a Red Queen (i.e., small but agile state opponent) Neil Johnson in a particular way ahead of real-world mass onslaught, just and a Blue King (i.e., large but more sluggish state). This as clusters of correlations begin to proliferate ahead of a mechanism represents a dynamical generalization of the phase transition in a physical system — except this is now Red Queen hypothesis [2] from evolution. Also, the avail- a dynamical phase transition in time. The important role of ability of Google maps has led to better understanding of these aggregates also ties in nicely with earlier work on guilds how casualty data should be collected — in particular, it led in the massively parallel online game World of Warcraft [6]. to the unraveling of “main street bias” in casualty data col- Furthermore, it means that instead of having to sift lected from epidemiological surveys during the most recent through millions of Internet users and track specific individu- Iraq war. In that study [3], a network model from physics als through controversial profiling techniques, an anti-ISIS was used to identify the likely source of bias as being due to agency can usefully shift its focus toward open-source infor- clustering along major thoroughfares owing to surveys being The graph shows an example of the aggregate size (i.e., num- mation to follow the relatively small number of aggregates concentrated there. ber of members of an online group or community) as time in- in order to gauge what is happening in terms of hard-core But the impact of the Internet on human conflict goes creases, for three example aggregates. Below the graph is the global ISIS support. But perhaps most importantly in light much further than a convenient reporting outlet for daily equation that correctly describes these aggregate dynamics of the massacre in Orlando and bombings in New York, this within a mean-field approximation. events. As shown by the world’s ongoing experience with coalescence-fragmentation mechanism of online support ISIS (the so-called Islamic State), it can serve an extremist among these is VKontakte (www.vk.com) which has more means that any online lone-wolf actor will truly be alone entity as a primary tool for recruiting, organizing, and inspir- than 350 million users spread across the world, but which is for only short periods of time. Since individuals with serious ing attacks across the globe. Yet this also means that there are physically based in the politically sensitive area of Central interest in ISIS online tend to coalesce into these aggregate likely digital footprints available to researchers for develop- Europe near ISIS’ major area of operations. groups, any such lone wolf was likely either recently in an ing a dynamical model of such collective human extremism. Our study of VKontakte between January 1 and August aggregate or will soon be in one. By knowing the groups and As a result, much work has focused on data from Twitter to 31, 2015 uncovered an ultrafast ecology of 196 pro-ISIS hence narratives to which such individuals have been exposed identify influential online individuals. However, such “single aggregates [4] (i.e., online groups and communities) that in the past, it might ultimately be possible to predict the type particle” approaches have met with only limited success, share operational information and propaganda, involving of event that they become capable of perpetrating. in part because removing #1 from any extremist network 108,086 individual followers. Although these aggregates are As for the future, even if pro-ISIS support moves onto the automatically leads to #2 becoming #1, #3 becoming #2 etc. typically shut down by online moderators within a few weeks dark net where open access is not possible, or if a new entity The limited success of individual-based approaches makes of being created, their members would simply go on to form beyond ISIS emerges, these many-body findings should still sense from a physics perspective, since it is akin to attempt- another aggregate or join an existing aggregate that was still apply, since they appear to capture a basic process of human ing a single-particle approach to understand many-body evading shutdown. The high-resolution aspect of our data also collective behavior. Independent of cause, we can assume phenomena such as the fractional quantum Hall effect and meant that this study moved beyond the current focus of the that the same types of many-body coalescence-fragmentation superconductivity. Instead, we know from physics that the network science field on identifying community structure in phenomena will arise. power behind such collective phenomena lies in the corre- time-aggregated networks. Instead, we can see followers’ Neil Johnson leads the Complexity lations between aggregates of particles, not single-particle behavior in real time down to a timescale on the order of Initiative in the College of Arts and behavior. And it turns out that the same is true for online seconds. It also moves the understanding of human dynam- Sciences at the University of Miami, extremism, with social media groups playing the role of ics beyond the current focus on quasi-static links related to where he is Professor of Physics. He collective quasiparticles. family or long-term friends, toward operationally-relevant is funded by the National Science Social media groups are now a big feature of networking dynamical interactions. Foundation and by the Air Force websites, since they allow individuals — including any of The evolution of this aggregate ecosystem follows a Office for Scientific Research. us — to get together virtually and share information, opin- rather precise mathematical form similar to fragmentation- Personal website: http://www.phys- ions, etc. Supporters of ISIS around the world do the same. coalescence processes in physics (e.g., polymers). But unlike ics.miami.edu/~njohnson/ But instead of, for example, sharing more mundane news or physical or chemical systems where individual units might References: ideas concerning a social event or sports team, they exchange break off or the aggregate might break into a few pieces, the 1. J. C. Bohorquez et al., “Common ecology quantifies human operational information concerning ISIS. Their discussions fragmentation is now like a shattering process reflecting the insurgency,” Nature 462, 911 (2009); N. F. Johnson et al., frequently included details of fundraising for potential fight- sudden moderator shutdown of an aggregate. Most impor- “Simple mathematical law benchmarks human confrontations,” ers who wanted to travel to Syria or transferring funds for tantly, this is exactly the same coalescence-fragmentation Scientific Reports 3, 3463 (2013). fighters already there. They also share details about survival process that had been conjectured for real-world conflicts in 2. N. F. Johnson et al., “Pattern in Escalations in Insurgent and skills, such as how to use cellphones and the Internet without the original Back Page article of 2006 but had never been Terrorist Activity,” Science 333, 81 (2011). being detected by security services, and how to prevent or observed directly. Solving the mean-field equation yields 3. J. P. Onnela et al., “Sampling bias due to structural heterogene- repel a drone attack or evade certain types of drones. The an approximate power-law with exponent 2.5, exactly as ity and limited internal diffusion,” Europhysics Letters 85, 28001 information and narratives shared by these online groups may observed from the empirical data for the online aggregate (2009); N. F. Johnson et al., “Bias in Epidemiological Studies of Conflict Mortality,” Journal of Peace Research 45, 653 (2008). ultimately inspire some of its followers to carry out terrorist average sizes and also for the distribution of casualties from acts — including lone wolf actors, who may have no prior previous conflicts and terrorism. So taking the size of an 4. N. F. Johnson et al., “New online ecology of adversarial ag- gregates,” Science 352, 1459 (2016). history of extremism, no formal cell membership, and no aggregate in the real world as indicating its potential impact direct links to leadership. in an event, and hence the number of casualties that it would 5. Z. Zhao et al., “Effect of social group dynamics on contagion,” Physical Review E 81, 056107 (2010); “Anomalously slow at- Setting out to study the many-body dynamics of pro-ISIS generate, then this same process of collective human aggrega- trition times for asymmetric populations with internal group dy- online support, we found that Facebook rapidly shuts down tion describes quantitatively both online and offline extremist namics”, Physical Review Letters 103, 148701 (2009). such pro-ISIS groups. However, its overseas competitors can behavior — it is just that online it becomes turbocharged 6. N. F. Johnson et al., “Human group formation in online guilds be slower to act, probably because doing so would require sig- thanks to the Internet making it faster and with now poten- and offline gangs driven by a common team,”Physical Review nificant amounts of resources and time. The most important tially global reach. E 79, 066117 (2009).

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