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APS NEWS the Futurama of Physics Page 3 a Publication of the American Physical Society • May 2010 Volume 19, No. 5 TM www.aps.org/publications/apsnews APS NEWS The Futurama of Physics Page 3 A PublicAtion of the AmericAn PhysicAl society • www.aps.org/PublicAtions/apsnews Council Passes Addendum to Climate Change Statement Who Created this Drawing? In a process that began more The subcommittee was chaired ence questions prevailing ideas. than a year ago, APS Council has by Duncan Moore of the Univer- The observational data indicate passed an addendum to the 2007 sity of Rochester. Other members a global surface warming of 0.74 climate change statement. The were John Browne, James Drake, °C (+/- 0.18 °C) since the late 19th vote on the addendum at the April and Frances Houle. Moore had century. (Source: http://www.ncdc. 18 Council meeting was 31 in fa- been Chair of POPA in 2009. noaa.gov/oa/climate/globalwarm- vor, 2 opposed, and one abstention. The reason for the addendum is ing.html).” This document, which runs more stated in its first paragraph: “There The last paragraph of the ad- than 800 words, is now an official is a substantial body of peer re- dendum contains a suggestion for appendage to the 157-word state- viewed scientific research to sup- further involvement by the physics ment, and appears as such in the port the technical aspects of the community: “With regard to the “Policy and Advocacy” section of 2007 APS statement. The purpose last sentence of the APS statement, the APS website. of the following commentary is to the role of physicists is not just ‘... to support policies and actions...’ The addendum was crafted as provide clarification and additional but also to participate actively in a commentary on the 2007 state- details.” the research itself. Physicists can ment by a subcommittee of the Among other things, the Com- contribute in significant ways to Panel on Public Affairs (POPA). mentary addresses the use of the understanding the physical pro- The final wording of the Com- word “incontrovertible” in the cesses underlying climate and to mentary involved input not only original statement: “The evidence developing technological options from the subcommittee, but also for global temperature rise over for addressing and mitigating cli- from POPA itself and from the the last century is compelling. mate change.” The full text of the broad APS membership. Prior However, the word ‘incontrovert- addendum, and of the 2007 state- to consideration by Council, the ible’ in the first sentence of the ment, is available on the APS web- One of the iconic physicists of the 20th century was an enthusiastic artist, Commentary had also been given second paragraph of the 2007 APS often making drawings or paintings of live models. to find out who created site at www.aps.org/policy. the drawing, please turn to page 5. unanimous approval by the APS statement is rarely used in science Last fall, an ad hoc commit- Executive Board. because by its very nature sci- COUNCIL continued on page 5 Council OKs Constitutional Amendment, and Approves Expansion at Ridge In a busy meeting on April 18, APS Council did more than terms; each year, the APS membership would elect one In- is inadequate to house the personnel needed to process the just approve the addendum to the climate change statement ternational councilor and one general councilor, instead manuscripts and manage the editorial process. because the (see story above). Among other highlights of the meeting, of the 2 general councilors that they now elect. the APs facility is located in the Long Island pine barrens, the footprint they approved an amendment to the APS Constitution that Nominating Committee would be responsible for recruiting of the building cannot be arbitrarily extended. consequently, would, if adopted, create 4 international councilors. they candidates for International Councilor, paying due attention the plan is to add 18,000 square feet by building a second also approved an expansion and renovation of the APs edi- to geographic diversity. storey. careful scheduling will allow this construction to take torial office building inr idge, new york, that would add more Urbach said that this arrangement is preferable to simply place while work goes on in the building, without need for than 50% to the current space. instructing the nominating committee to include international temporary relocation to another site. last year, the APs committee on international scientific candidates among those running for general councilor, be- in addition to the expansion, APs President curtis callan Affairs (CISA) recommended the creation of International cause people tend to vote for candidates they are familiar remarked that it is also important to renovate and redesign Councillors, noting that 21% of APS membership resides with, thereby giving the domestic nominees an a priori ad- the entire space. he pointed out that the nature of scholarly outside the US (this rises to about 25% if one looks at the vantage that would preclude the election of an appropriate publishing is changing rapidly, and that APS has to be on the non-student component of membership). APs Director of in- number of international representatives. leading edge of these developments. this requires a staff ternational Affairs Amy Flatten developed this idea in a Back now that council has passed this amendment, the text with an increased level of sophistication, which calls for an Page in the January APS News. the matter was referred to will be printed in a forthcoming issue of APS News, and will improved working environment that is not predicated on the the APS Constitution and Bylaws Committee, chaired by Jeff appear on the ballot for the society election this summer. if old paper-based model of journal publication. urbach of georgetown. they recommended eliminating the approved by two-thirds of those voting, the amendment will A project management firm and an architectural firm have current International Councilor, who serves a 2-year term, become part of the APs constitution. been engaged, and, in the wake of Council approval, bids for and replacing 4 of the 8 general councilors with international the ridge expansion is motivated by the inexorable rise in construction are set to go out in June. if all goes as antici- Councilors, who would be required to come from outside the the number of manuscripts submitted to APS journals, which pated, construction will start in the late summer of 2010 and US. these new international councilors would serve 4-year is now running in excess of 3% per year. the current space will be completed sometime in 2011. Video Contest Reaches Out with Lasers Where’s the Fire? To help celebrate the laser’s fif- fiftieth anniversary of the invention know exactly what I’m expecting, tieth anniversary, APS’s outreach of the laser. Modeled after previous and I kind of like that.” department is holding a video con- years’ successful Nanobowl and Last year’s ToyBox Physics con- test with a $1,000 grand prize for ToyBox Physics contests, the La- test invited participants to create a the winning video. The contest, run serFest video contest invites contes- video that shows some concept of through the APS outreach website tants to create videos that use lasers physics with toys. Demonstrating PhysicsCentral.com, is aimed at a in some way to highlight a physics physics using football was the theme wide variety of people who are inter- concept. The idea is not necessarily in 2008, the first year the contest was ested in physics and science. to demonstrate how a laser works or held. Past winners can still be found “We really want to make sure show off the physics of lasers, but on the Physics Central website and we’re engaging the public and not just to incorporate lasers and physics YouTube. just informing them,” said Becky together into the video. The contest The organizers aim to have Thompson, APS’s head of public organizers have intentionally left each video be about two minutes outreach. “With a video contest we directions about the content of the in length and somehow use lasers can get a whole range of people to videos open-ended to foster as much to demonstrate a physics concept. Photo by Nick Romanenko, Rutgers University participate.” creativity in submissions as possible. The contest is open to anyone who no, this isn't a bizarre new version of roller Derby using fire extinguishers. it's This year’s video contest is laser- “One of the neat things about wants to participate. Previous con- a demonstration by Rutgers professor Mark Croft of Newton's Third Law for a themed in conjunction with Laser- the video contest is that we leave testants have ranged from elemen- large and appreciative audience. for more on physics demos, please see page 6. Fest, the yearlong celebration of the it vague,” Thompson said. “I don’t CONTEST continued on page 2 2 • May 2010 APS NEWS Members This Month in Physics History in the Media “This is a great step they’ve have formed recently and would May 16, 1960: Maiman Builds First Working Laser made… But there are a lot more have to have formed in the primor- Lasers are ubiquitous in 21st century society, with Maiman discovered errors in those calculations, and steps to get to what you and most dial universe.” applications in telecommunications, DVD players, found that artificial rubies (which had fewer impuri- people imagine when you think of Ruth Durrer, University of Ge- checkout scanners, cutting and welding, eye surgery, ties) worked very well. Thanks to the input of his as- cloaking devices.” neva, on galactic magnetic fields, tattoo removal, dentistry, and medicine, to name just a sistant, Charles Asawa, he also used pulses of light to David Schurig, North Carolina U.S.
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