July 2007 Volume 16, No. 7 www.aps.org/publications/apsnews APS NEWS Election Preview A PUBLICATION OF THE AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY • WWW.apS.ORG/PUBLICATIONS/apSNEWS Pages 6-7 Executive Board Resolution Thanks US physics team trains for competition in Iran By Katherine McAlpine Legislators for Support of Science Twenty-four high school stu- The APS Executive Board bill authorizes nearly $60 billion dents comprising the US Phys- has passed a resolution thanking for various programs for FY 2008 ics Olympiad team vied for five House and Senate policy makers through FY 2011. The bill would places on the traveling team at for recently-passed legislation double the NSF budget over five the University of Maryland from that strengthens the science, math years and double the DOE Office May 22nd to June 1st. Those and engineering activities of our of Science budget over 10 years. chosen to travel will compete nation. The House of Representatives this month against teams from “Sustaining and improving the passed five separate authorization all over the world at Isfahan standard of living of American bills, which were then combined University of Technology in Is- citizens, achieving energy security into one bill, H.R. 2272, the 21st fahan, Iran. and environmental sustainability, Century Competitiveness Act of Over 3,100 US Physics Team providing the jobs of tomorrow 2007. The bill would put the NSF hopefuls took the preliminary and defending our nation against budget and the NIST Scientific examination in January, and 200 aggressors all require federal in- and Technical Research and Ser- were given a second exam in vestments in science education vices budget on track to double in March to determine the top 24 and research… The Board con- 10 years. The bill also addresses students. Performance, attitude, Photo by Matt Payne gratulates the Senate and House math and science education is- creativity, initiative, and evi- The traveling team members and two of their coaches. Left to right: Paul Stan- leadership and the White House sues. dence of progress are the factors ley, Rui Hu, Jenny Kwan, Haofei Wei, Kenan Diab, Jason Larue, and Robert for elevating science to a place of The President’s budget request that determine who participates Shurtz. prominence on the federal agen- for FY2008, released in February, in the International Physics est factor in deciding which five most high school physics class- da,” the resolution states. also supports increased funding Olympiad, which will take place will form the traveling team. rooms but may appear on the Bills authorizing increasing for the DOE Office of Science, July 13-22. In addition to the evalua- exams they will see in competi- science funding have passed in NSF, and NIST STRS. The ten-day camp mirrors tions, students attend lectures tion. Included topics are waves, both the House and the Senate Following the Senate passage the international competition as by coaches and guest physicists modern physics, special relativ- with bipartisan support. of the America COMPETES act, the students are scored on exam Jim Gates, Jordan Goodman, ity, and thermodynamics. The Senate bill, S. 761, the APS president Leo Kadanoff sent and laboratory performance. and Richard Berg. These crash- The content of these lectures America COMPETES act, passed an email to all APS members re- Scores on the seven exams and courses help to fill them in on is tough, but the tone is informal by a vote of 88-8 on April 25. The BOARD cont’d on page 7 four “mystery labs” are the larg- topics that are not discussed in US PHYSICS cont’d on page 3 NASCAR Fans Find the Physics University of Nebraska physics race one weekend, in which a car quite equilibrium. The key to maintaining professor Diandra Leslie-Pelecky went suddenly veered into the wall. She that precarious balance is maintaining, behind the scenes at top racing shops, couldn’t figure out what had caused as much as possible, the same amount and onto the asphalt at the Daytona In- the crash and set out to solve the co- of force on all four tires. ternational Speedway in her quest to nundrum. And she discovered there’s She found that the best NASCAR uncover the science behind NASCAR a lot more to car racing than driving drivers are “intuitive physicists”: they racing. In her public lecture on April around in circles. D enise 16, she gave Jacksonville residents and Any good NASCAR driver can understand the complex interplay of April Meeting attendees a taste of what recite this basic mantra: go fast, al- the various forces at work on the track she found. ways turn left, and don’t crash. Les- extremely well, from aerodynamics Leslie-Pelecky became interested lie-Pelecky says that the drivers are and acceleration to friction and energy KGJ/APS © 2007 in NASCAR physics while watching a working at a point of constant unstable dispersion upon impact. Creation Museum Draws Scientific Fire Study Yields Insights into Public The May 28 opening of a $27 Adam and Eve are shown in the million Creation Museum in Peters- same scene as dinosaurs. The dino- Perceptions and Attitudes Towards Science burg, Kentucky, drew about 4000 saurs, according to the exhibits, were visitors, dozens of protestors, and vegetarian before the fall. According The data in this chart are attention from national and interna- to the museum, the Grand Canyon taken from a survey conduct- tional media. was created over the course of days, ed last summer and commis- The museum promotes a literal during the biblical flood. The muse- sioned by a consortium of sci- Don’t know interpretation of the Bible’s creation um’s planetarium presents a biblical entific societies. The results 5% story, contradicting accepted scien- version of astronomy. of the survey contain some Survey respondents were asked, tific explanations of the origin of the People who have seen the mu- good news for science: when “Do you favor or oppose the universe, stars, Earth, and life. seum say it resembles a natural his- asked, 53% of the respondents teaching of religion in public school science classes? Scientists from the region have tory museum, with exhibits that are favored teaching evolution in Favor signed petitions expressing their attractive and high-tech. public school science classes, concern that the museum spreads “It’s a very impressive-looking a much higher percentage than Oppose 38% lies about science and could confuse place,” said Lawrence Krauss, a favored either creationism 57% children. physicist at Case Western Reserve (36%) or intelligent design Source: Nationwide survey of (27%). But there was consid- 1,000 likely US voters conducted The 60,000 square foot Creation University and chair of the APS Fo- by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Museum, located near Cincinnati, rum on Physics and Society. erable uncertainty among the Research and Mercury Public Affairs respondents, especially about was built by the Answers in Genesis “The dinosaurs attract the youth; APS Staff ministry, using funds from private the clever exhibits entertain and have intelligent design, many of whom were unsure when asked donations. a polish that seems very scientific. us to believe. In fact, there is al role for the public.” whether it should be taught. Exhibits illustrate the biblical cre- They often look like NOVA spe- more uncertainty than polar- More data from the survey can As the report from the polling ation story, which claims that Earth cials,” said Bob Riehemann, a phys- ization. With this uncertainty be found in an article at the follow- agencies concludes, “the de- is only 6,000 years old and was cre- ics and math professor at Thomas [comes] opportunity; scien- ing site: http://www.aps.org/publi- bate is not nearly as polarizing ated by God in six 24-hour days. tists can play a key education- cations/apsnews/acs.cfm. MUSUEM cont’d on page 7 as previous polling would lead • July 2007 APS NEWS Members in the Media This Month in Physics History “We are now on the endgame.” totic futility well before that.” July 1957: Bardeen, Cooper, and Schrieffer Lyn Evans, CERN, on nearing Jim Peebles, Princeton Univer- completion of the LHC, The New sity, commenting that there are more submit their paper, “Theory of Superconductivity” York Times, May 15, 2007 pressing worries than the fact that the universe will become “asymp- ifty years ago, in 1957, John Bardeen, Leon Coo- lattice, electrons could overcome the Coulomb repul- “Thus, we have more and more per, and Robert Schrieffer presented their com- sion and attract each other. convincing evidence that the dark totically empty” in billions of years, F The New York Times, June 5, 2007 plete theory of superconductivity, finally explaining Another piece of the puzzle was contributed by matter is real material–probably el- a phenomenon that had been a mystery to physicists Leon Cooper, who suggested that interactions with ementary particles. Now we need to “When you put a million grains of since its discovery in 1911. the lattice would allow electrons with opposite spins detect those particles directly with sand together, they exhibit behavior In 1911, Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, in his quest to to combine to form strongly correlated pairs. The laboratory experiments.” that you could not begin to predict.” study materials at ever lower temperatures, happened electrons in these Cooper pairs, as they are called, do Blas Cabrera, Stanford Univer- Douglas Durian, University of to find that the electrical resistance of some metallic not have to be close together, but they can move in sity, on a recently discovered ring of Pennsylvania, NPR, May 19, 2007 materials suddenly vanished at temperatures near ab- a coordinated manner.