Research News: Editors’ Choice Gap

June 2016 • Vol. 25, No.6 A PUBLICATION OF THE AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY In Memoriam Peter Adams Page 5 WWW.APS.ORG/PUBLICATIONS/APSNEWS Edward Bouchet Continues to Inspire 2016 APS General Election By Gabriel Popkin honor’s namesake. Johnson also Voting will be open from June 20 to July 29, so watch for an email with information on voting procedures. earned his Ph.D. from Yale, in At a time when hardly anyone Those who are elected will begin their terms on January 1, 2017. Information on voting, and the candidates’ 1965, and went on to do pioneer- made a career in science, Edward statements and biographical information, are available at http://go.aps.org/aps-vote-2016 ing fluid dynamics research in both Alexander Bouchet made history academia and industry, as well as by doing so. In 1876, he became Vice President work to increase the representation the first African-American and the of minorities in the sciences. He is sixth person of any race to earn an APS fellow and the 1995 recipi- David Gross, University of California, Santa Barbara a physics Ph.D. in the Western ent of the APS Bouchet Award, Hemisphere, and went on to have “I have been a member of the APS for over 50 years and have benefited from its which he helped establish. Johnson a four-decade science teaching journals, its meetings and its role as the premier physics society in the advocacy of received his medal at the Annual career. Today, Bouchet is prob- Physics. As Vice-President I would seek to continue and strengthen the role of the Yale Bouchet Conference on society in serving the community of physicists, informing the public and encouraging ably more prominent than ever. Diversity and Graduate Education public support for science.” His name graces a growing num- held at Yale in early April, where ber of honors, including the annual he proposed a “new Bouchet Edward A. Bouchet Award that epoch” combining recent advances APS established in 1994, and the in scientific discovery with prog- David A. Weitz, Harvard University Bouchet Leadership Award Medals ress in diversifying science. given by Yale University, where “My goal in this position will be to work tirelessly for, and with, the members of our The Bouchet revival has Bouchet received his Ph.D. Society … . Research budgets are destined to remain approximately flat for the been gathering momentum for foreseeable future. Nevertheless, we must work to convince our political leaders The selection of Florida almost 30 years. It started with of the value of our work.” Agricultural and Mechanical the 1988 founding of the Edward University emeritus physics pro- A. Bouchet International Center fessor Joseph A. Johnson III for for Theoretical Physics (now the ELECTION continued on page 7 one of Yale’s 2016 Bouchet Medals has special resonance with the BOUCHET continued on page 6 Kavli Session Celebrates Neutrino Physics Careers Report By David Voss of neutrino types (called flavors), nuclear reactor at the Savannah Serving the Next Generation of 2016 APS April Meeting — were joined by astrophysicist Neta River power plant in South This year’s Fred Kavli Keynote Bahcall, who discussed the life and Carolina in 1956, but the neutrino Physicists at APS Meetings Session at the APS April Meeting work of her husband John Bahcall. oscillation story really starts with By Crystal Bailey, APS Careers Program Manager in Salt Lake City featured two After an introduction by 2016 measurements of solar neutrinos Nobel laureates and a retrospec- APS President Homer Neal, Arthur from the sun led by Ray Davis in According to the AIP Statistical problems physicists are working tive on the life of a physicist who McDonald, professor emeritus the late 1960s. The solar neutrino Research Center, less than a quar- on, and what extra preparation they many feel would have shared the at Queen’s College in Kingston, flux measured was three times ter of physics Ph.D. graduates will might need to do well. APS pro- prize had he been alive. The occa- Ontario, took the audience on a lower than what John Bahcall had end up in permanent faculty jobs vides an opportunity for students sion was the 60th anniversary of journey to the Sudbury Neutrino predicted. (1). And even though many well to get answers to these questions the first detection of neutrinos Observatory, where he led one The solar neutrino problem intentioned mentors would like to through informal Q&A panels with by Clyde Cowan and Frederick of the teams that showed neutri- McDonald explained that one of prepare their students for eventual industry physicists at our annual Reines. Speakers Arthur McDonald nos changing from one flavor to the ideas proposed to resolve this careers outside of academia, many and division meetings. and Takaaki Kajita, who shared another. He started by mention- neutrino deficit was to assume that do not have networks or experience For example, the 2016 APS the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics ing the observation by Cowan and to do so, especially for careers in March Meeting included a spe- for the observation of oscillation Reines of antineutrinos from the KAVLI continued on page 4 the private sector. cial panel focused on careers in In bringing together so many industry, “Meet Your Future: An physicists across all subfields and Interactive Session on Industrial sectors, APS meetings present a Careers for Physicists,” at which great opportunity to bridge that several physicists from industry Research News: Editors’ Choice gap. Students often have questions answered questions. At this ses- A Monthly Recap of Papers Selected by the Editors about private-sector careers, such sion Barbara Jones, current chair as how the culture differs from Shine Bright Like a Firefly that in academia, what kinds of GENERATION continued on page 3 Taking inspiration from fireflies, scientists have fabricated an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) with a complex surface Crystal Bailey pattern that improves the output efficiency by 61% compared to a smooth surface. Fireflies signal to potential mates by emitting light Masse et al. Nano Letters 16, 2994 (2016) from a photogenic region on their abdomens, the most efficient biolu- minescent organ known. This organ has a specially patterned outer Fireflies have a patterned light-emitting region (left) that can be copied in shell, or cuticle, with micrometer- light-emitting diodes to improve efficiency. scale tile-like features, as well as al. (Nano Letters 16, 2994) have ture reduced internal reflection. nanosized linear ridges. These sur- investigated the hierarchical com- The team reproduced the firefly face structures help light escape bination of micro- and nanostruc- cuticle pattern in a UV resin that from the cuticle to the air. While tures. They imaged the cuticles of they placed on top of an OLED. previous work focused on a single male fireflies (Pyrocoelia rufa) and APS job fairs help students explore a variety of career options. type of cuticle structure, Jeong et showed that the hierarchical struc- RESEARCH continued on page 5 Revised 06/28/16 2 • June 2016 This Month in Physics History “If this is really true, then it Carl Wieman, Stanford would possibly be the most excit- University, National Public Radio, June 1785: Coulomb Measures the Electric Force ing thing that I have seen in par- April 13, 2016, on the lack of self- By Richard Williams He wrote “The repulsive force of two small globes ticle physics in my career — more evaluation of teaching practices in Around 600 BC, the Greek philosopher Thales with the same nature of electricity is inversely pro- exciting than the discovery of the American higher education. wrote that when he rubbed pieces of amber with portional to the square of the distance between the Higgs itself.” fur, the amber attracted bits of straw and other centers of the two globes” [2]. Csaba Csaki, Cornell “I don’t watch the show with small objects. When scientists began to study the When the two pith balls had charges of opposite University, New York Times, May a pad of paper and calculator,” he phenomenon, they already had a word for it, thanks sign, the experiment described above did not work 2, 2016, on the mysterious 750 GeV said. “If they get the science right, to Thales: “electricity,” derived from “elektron,” well. If the balls came too close to one another, they signal seen at CERN. it’s like an Easter egg hidden in the Greek word for amber. In studying this force, would jump together and stick, ending the experi- the story.” others observed that charged objects sometimes ment. With difficulty, he did measure the relation “It’s taken as an insult if a physi- James Kakalios, University of attract one another and sometimes repel. Twenty- between force and separation in this case, but he cist is considered too philosophical. Minnesota, Tech Insider, April 26, three centuries later, Benjamin Franklin attributed decided to use a completely independent method Most physicists think that philoso- 2016, on the science in the TV show this effect to the existence of two electrical fluids, to confirm the result [3]. He suspended a needle phers just sit in their armchairs and “The Flash.” one positive and the other negative. with a small plate on one end, and the plate was think. Physicists are very down-to- Much of the modern physical description of elec- then charged. The opposite charge was placed on earth, empirical people. They don’t “I remember pleading with my trical forces comes from careful experiments done the surface of a hollow sphere of copper or metal- want to think hard about what it all family ‘Let’s try not to fold … .

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