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NEWS AND ANALYSIS Pregnant female PhD students face significant challenges

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This content was downloaded from IP address 132.76.61.52 on 10/11/2020 at 08:31 physicsworld.com News & Analysis Critical research hit by COVID-19 Major labs have shut their doors in response to the worldwide lockdown, but a few remain open and in some cases are carrying out critical work related to the COVID-19 pandemic, as Peter Gwynne and Michael Banks report

Physicists continue to be affected of production of the Space Launch by the global lockdown arising from ITER System and Orion Hardware” – key COVID-19 – the disease caused by components of the agency’s plan to the SARS-CoV-2 virus that is sweep- land astronauts on the Moon in 2024. ing the planet. Government labora- Analysts had already questioned tories around the world have either the viability of that schedule under shut down or required employees to normal conditions, but it now seems work from home while closing to visi- even more doubtful. tors. The schedules of forthcoming A more immediate mission – space missions have been put at risk. Mars 2020 – remains on schedule, Administrators of major telescopes however. The $2.5bn project, which have restricted or postponed critical includes the newly named Perse- observations. Postgrads and post- verance rover, has a 20-day launch docs, meanwhile, have seen their window that starts on 17 July. Fail- career paths put on hold as universi- ure to meet that window would delay ties shut their doors. the flight by two years. The mission In the US, national laboratories Keep calm and sey the Princeton Plasma Physics has “the very highest priority”, Lori overseen by the Department of carry on Laboratory shut down on 13 March, Glazer, head of NASA’s planetary Energy (DOE) have suffered sig- Despite the impact requiring all its employees to work science division, told a virtual meet- nificant disruption. That occurred of COVID-19 on at home. A week later, Brookhaven ing. “We’re going to ensure that we initially as a result of geography, with physics around the National Laboratory responded to meet that launch window in July.” the virus having made its first deadly world, construction New York governor Andrew Cuo- The project’s engineers are doing impact in the state of Washington. at the ITER mo’s order that employees in “non- “heroes’ work” in maintaining that Most staff at the DOE’s Pacific experimental fusion essential” jobs should stay at home. schedule, added NASA’s science Northwest National Laboratory in reactor in France is A subsequent order by Illinois gov- head Thomas Zurbuchen. Richland, for example, have been still ongoing, albeit ernor J B Pritzker also forced the The schedule of another pres- working at home since early March. with limited Argonne and Fermilab facilities to tige project, the James Webb Space California’s Bay Area also emerged personnel. restrict their operations. The Oak Tele ­scope (JWST), is less certain. as an early hotspot. Ridge National Laboratory in Ten- California’s state-wide lockdown A directive from California gover- nessee and the Idaho National Labo- has affected Northrop Grumman nor Gavin Newsome, which prohib- ratory closed to visitors, researchers Aerospace Systems in Redondo ited inessential travel and meetings, and the general public too. Beach, which had been carrying out led to the effective shutdown of shaking tests on the $8.8bn obser- the SLAC, Berkeley and Lawrence ‘Heroes’ work’ vatory. A successor of the Hubble Livermore national laboratories, NASA has been similarly affected, Space Tele­scope, JWST has already as well as of the local branch of with greater impact on specific mis- suffered numerous delays and is Sandia National Laboratory, with sions. On 19 March NASA admin- unlikely to meet its current launch most of their employees now work- istrator Jim Bridenstine announced date of March 2021. ing remotely at home. There have plans to put all the agency’s cen- Several observatories belonging to been exceptions, however. As Phys- tres under “stage 3 status”, which the Event Horizon Telescope have ics World went to press, the Berke- requires all but “mission essential” also closed down owing to the coro- ley Lab was in a “safe and stable staff to work remotely. “We are going navirus, with the organization hav- standby” status, with some critical to take care of our people,” Briden- ing cancelled its observing campaign work occurring on-site. The lab’s stine said. “That’s our first priority.” planned to take place in March and Advanced Light Source operating An immediate result of NASA’s April. “We will have to wait for a limited number of beamlines for announcement was the temporary March 2021 to try again,” the organi- three days a week for users develop- closures of the Michoud Assembly zation said in a statement. Elsewhere ing therapeutics to help combat the Facility in New Orleans and the in the world of astronomy, the Ata- SARS-CoV-2 virus. nearby Stennis Space Center in Mis- cama Large Millimetre/submilli- Other DOE labs have also sissippi when the number of COVID- metre Array in Chile has suspended restricted visitors, operated largely 19 cases rose in the area. A result operations, as has the Association of off-site or closed down as the virus of the closures, Bridenstine noted, Universities for Research in Astron- created fresh hotspots. In New Jer- would be “temporary suspension omy, which has stopped observations

Physics World May 2020 9 News & Analysis physicsworld.com at several of the telescopes it over- Space Agency’s European Space sees and halted construction of the A few major projects are still Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Vera C Rubin Observatory in Chile. continuing to some degree – albeit Germany, tested instruments on Meanwhile, the Laser Interfer- the agency’s Bepicolombo mission ometer and Gravitational-wave with limited personnel to Mercury as it completed a fly-by Observatory sites in Hanford, of Earth on 10 April – albeit with Washington and Livingston, Loui- limited personnel. The ITER fusion siana, suspended observations on US institutions. It grants $100m to experiment being built in Cadarache 27 March as did the Virgo detec- DOE labs, $75m for National Sci- has cancelled all on-site visitors and tor in Italy. However, operations at ence Foundation grants, $66m for onsite meetings, but is continuing the Kamioka Gravitational Wave programmes of the National Insti- with “critical responsibilities and Detector in northern Japan are tute of Standards and Technology functions”. Indeed, the project is still ongoing. as well as a fund worth $14bn for still managing to undertake some universities. Observers suggest that construction tasks and has taken Moving online those amounts, while welcome, are delivery of magnet components that The need for social distancing has too small. But the likelihood that have arrived from member states. It impacted events organized by sci- Congress will pass another rescue does look likely, however, that the entific societies too. The American package gives the US scientific com- SARS-CoV-2 virus will put back the Physical Society, which called off munity some hope of extra support. start of operations that are currently its March meeting at short notice planned for 2025. (see April pp10–11), also cancelled European impact The European Spallation Source, its April meeting, although some COVID-19 has also forced most currently under construction in sessions were held online. The labs in Europe to close their doors. Lund, Sweden, has also put in place American Astronomical Society has The CERN particle-physics lab measures for staff to work remotely converted its early June meeting to a near Geneva has reduced all activi- as well as cancelling visits to the site. fully virtual event. ties on-site to those that are essential Yet work is still continuing, with Academic institutions face their for the safety and security of the lab. workers having recently installed the own coronavirus issues. Many CERN had been moving to the latter water tanks that are used for the pro- research universities have moved to parts of a long shutdown in prepara- ton target. Other, existing neutron virtual operation. Those decisions tion for a major upgrade to the lab’s and X-ray synchrotrons facilities in have put particular pressure on Large Hadron Collider. That work Europe have closed though, includ- postgraduate students who need to has now been reduced, with offi- ing the Institut Laue–Langevin and be on-site to perform their research. cials at CERN working out how the the European Synchrotron Radia- Some institutions, such as Brown impact will affect the timeline of the tion Facility, both in Grenoble, University and the University of Ala- upgrade project, which was due to France, as well as the ISIS neutron bama at Birmingham, have frozen be complete in the mid-2020s. The source in Oxfordshire, UK. hiring. In late March, a group of four CERN Council also announced in Some facilities remain open for organizations representing US uni- late March that it had postponed scientists to carry out research on the versities and medical colleges called the release of the European strategy SARS-CoV-2 virus. These include on Congress to increase spending on update that was due to be released the Paul Scherrer Institute in Swit- research by government agencies. this month. zerland, the UK’s Diamond Light The $2 trillion rescue package that However, a few major projects Source and the MAX IV synchro- President Donald Trump signed on are still continuing to some degree. tron in Sweden, which are all fast- 27 March included some relief to Mission controllers at the European tracking relevant proposals.

Physics in the pandemic How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected the personal and professional collaborators, who I assume have been requisitioned or have volunteered to lives of physicists around the world? Here are six stories -- you can find help. I am trying to finish the papers and software I was working on, hoping longer versions of each (and many others) online on the Physics World blog that they can add their parts and insights later. I also communicate with my engineering supervisor and am watching out for ways to help. Sam Vennin is a biomechanical engineering research fellow at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Biomedical Research Ana Rakonjac is an experimental physicist at a Centre and King’s College London, UK quantum technology start-up in Singapore

2 April 23 March I have been working from home while trying to stay away The quarantine is taken very seriously in Singapore. The from the news as much as possible. As for the hospital authorities will check in with you every day, and you can I work in, where Florence Nightingale established the first professional be fined, jailed and/or deported if you don’t comply. This nursing school in the world, it probably looks more like a war zone now than has severely limited community spread of the virus. The government quickly a workplace. My work is highly interdisciplinary, ranging from designing new implemented measures to support people who are quarantined, such as technologies to help clinicians assessing cardiovascular status, to gaining ensuring that they get extra sick leave and don’t lose their jobs if they can’t more fundamental understandings of hypertension, and a lot of it depends work from home, plus there are some big stimulus packages planned. on collaborations with clinicians and doctors. Additionally, COVID-19 tests and hospitalization are free for residents. Since the beginning of the outbreak, all cardiovascular MRI scans in my We’ve had major supply chain problems. First, with China, where several hospital have been cancelled, putting on hold most of the clinical studies I orders got stuck in limbo – they were ready to ship, but there was no-one to am involved in. Similarly, I haven’t heard from some clinical supervisors and send packages and no-one to deliver them.

10 Physics World May 2020 physicsworld.com News & Analysis

Many local suppliers also heavily rely on China, so we were unable to a community, almost an extended family. In the face of COVID-19, the life use them. We turned to manufacturers in India, and things were going well of a teacher has become pretty surreal. Though it has made teaching and until the second week of March, when they also started shutting down. learning more difficult, I think we are happy that schools are shut for all We’ve been hurriedly trying to procure all we need for the next few months except the children of key workers – if only so that it reduces the risk to our because although we expected more global shutdowns, I personally didn’t families and slows the spread of the virus more generally. expect it to happen so fast. Over just a few days, some European suppliers have gone from saying they expect no delays to suddenly shutting down their facilities. I think things will continue to be unreliable for months, since

there is no way that two-week shutdowns will be enough to stem the spread Tsim Bonnie of the pandemic. We will have to find some creative solutions. Joanne O’Meara Joanne

Bonnie Tsim is a PhD student in theoretical physics at the Graphene NOWNANO Centre for Doctoral Training at the University of Manchester, UK

27 March The two days after my university closed its doors felt like a whirlwind. In-between packing up my life at university to work from home, I also Joanne O’Meara is a physicist at the University of Guelph in Canada attended and spoke at the Graphene Flagship’s first ever virtual conference, Women in Graphene 2020, on 18–19 March. The conference was originally 28 March planned to be in Bologna, Italy, but shifted in early March to an online Brrrring! There goes the bell at the school across the street from our home, platform hosted by Virtway Events. Around 70 people from around the but it’s unusually quiet. No line of big yellow school buses dropping off little world attended the event and being virtual brought several advantages. It ones; no stressed parents parking across the bottom of our driveway as meant that those who may have otherwise struggled to make it to Italy were their charges dash in the front door. Normally, I would be sitting at my desk now able to attend. It allowed more people to ask in-depth questions or, at the University of Guelph by now, scrolling through the morning’s e-mails perhaps, more personal questions that would be more difficult to ask at an and prioritizing my “to do” list for the day. Instead, I’m making sure that my actual event. It also allowed individuals in the Women in Graphene network nine-year-old is starting on her journal-writing assignment and my 14-year- to connect in a way never done before, such as continuing conversations old is finding reliable sources for her project on the forestry industry. and discussions after the event. Welcome to my new role as university professor, housekeeper, cafeteria I have not yet quite found my new “normal”. I am using the lockdown as lady, elementary- and high-school teacher, principal, secretary and school- downtime to prioritize and plan the remainder of my PhD. I am particularly yard supervisor. I wasn’t teaching this semester, so my main pivot to online thankful to those who are supporting me during these unpredictable times has been to find creative ways to support my fourth-year physics students and I am making an extra effort to stay connected with friends, family and trying to finish their honours thesis projects. This semester is research loved ones. It is more important than ever to keep connected to the physics leave for me, which means finalizing the second edition of our textbook and community and to show each other kindness, support and care. exploring new ways to connect with the community and support science education at all levels. The writing part – that’s relatively easy to do at Tao Wang is an experimental physicist in the School of home, although I’m now in slightly more chaotic settings than I’m used to in Materials Science and Engineering at Wuhan University my quiet little campus office. of Technology in Wuhan, China

Mike Follows is a physics teacher at King Edward’s 8 April School, Birmingham, UK After 11 weeks of lockdown, people in Wuhan were allowed to leave the city from midnight on 8 April. The 6 April authorities are evaluating how to ensure public health and safety in these During quieter moments in those last days at school new circumstances, and when that is settled our students will be allowed before the shutdown, colleagues shared their anxiety to return to campus. I actually tidied up my office on that first day out, and about what was to come. It was like waiting for a tsunami I am waiting for our students to be back, which I am sure won’t take long. that is sure to strike but without knowing how big the wave will be and how With great efforts from people in every country, this extraordinary crisis much damage it will wreak. Quite naturally, there was also some anxiety will surely be overcome, and we will be back to “normal” life. But this new about being in such close proximity with other people, mainly students, normality won’t be the same as the one that existed before. It is going to who might be asymptomatic super-spreaders. Media reports suggest that change our society in ways we haven’t fully anticipated. people in the lowest age groups are as good as immune to the virus, which I hope the changes are positive rather than negative. We should live in is perhaps why among our boys, the novelty of using hand sanitisers wore more healthy ways so that we can share this planet with other beings, and off within a day and they were fairly blasé about social distancing. that will require everyone to think things over after the disruption is finished. That final week at King Edward’s also brought home to me just why I do see positive things in all nations across the globe: responsibility, the school is so successful. While it has more than its fair share of bright selflessness, self-discipline, unity and resolve. I hope the rest of the world students and lots of talented teachers, it’s more than just a school. It is can see hope from my experience in Wuhan.

Physics World May 2020 11 News & Analysis physicsworld.com Physicists tackle ventilator shortage Physicists in Europe have been working on designs to supply oxygen to COVID-19 patients, as Edwin Cartlidge reports

Members of the DarkSide experi- gamo using some of the components ment at the Gran Sasso National of the MVM and a standardized test Laboratory in Italy have temporar- lung made from a silicone bag. They ily put their hunt for dark matter on published a paper outlining their

hold in an attempt to stem the deadly iStock/Juanmonino design and asked scientists and med- tide of COVID-19. The 26 physicists ics for feedback in order to “speed from Europe and North America the process of review, improve- have designed a new, stripped-down ment and possible implementation” mechanical ventilator that they hope (arXiv:2003.10405). can be mass-produced quickly and Galbiati says that developing the cheaply using off-the-shelf compo- machine itself is not that difficult nents. Liaising with medical profes- – a big technical challenge, he says, sionals and calling on the expertise is producing the software that runs of fellow physicists, the group has the device. “We have shifted the produced a prototype and now hopes complexity to the controller and to see the technology employed design software,” he explains. “This in hospitals. Clinical need design from Roger Manley of West- is something that particle physi- Many of the most seriously ill Patients infected minster Hospital in London, which cists excel at. But if we want to do it patients infected with COVID- with COVID-19 was “basic but very reliable” – one of quickly, we need the collaboration 19 develop pneumonia and need develop pneumonia the main differences being that the of the best programmers from the help breathing. That is done using and need assistance new machine will use electrically strongest particle-physics labs.” mechanical ventilators, which breathing, which is driven pneumatic valves rather than Heading up the effort on the other pump oxygen into the lungs and done using mechanical switches. side of the Atlantic is Art McDonald then remove the carbon dioxide mechanical According to Galbiati, the MVM of Queen’s University in Canada, that is breathed out. This is a deli- ventilators that is compact and requires fewer parts who shared the 2015 Nobel Prize for cate process that involves regulating pump oxygen into than most ventilators on the market Physics for the discovery of neutrino the pressure and/or volume of oxy- the lungs and then today. Its simplicity, he says, derives oscillations. McDonald says that he gen provided. It can be done either remove the carbon from the fact that it controls the has been “mobilizing resources” fully automatically on a sedated dioxide pressure of oxygen in a patient’s from several Canadian particle patient, or to support a patient’s breathed out. lungs using two fail-safe valves in and nuclear laboratories, including natural breathing. the form of vent traps – nothing electronics expertise at TRIUMF, The new ventilator design has more than columns of water or oil and mechanical engineering skills been spearheaded by Cristiano Gal- with a specific depth. One trap posi- from Chalk River Laboratories and biati, a physicist at Princeton Univer- tioned upstream from the patient SNOLAB. Together with Galbiati he sity in the US and the Gran Sasso lab, ensures a certain maximum pres- has also been drumming up support which is run by Italy’s National Insti- sure during inhalation and another, from Fermilab in the US and CERN tute for Nuclear Physics (INFN). downstream, dictates the minimum in Switzerland. Galbiati says that he started work- pressure following exhalation. McDonald says that he has had ing on the design after speaking to a Unlike more sophisticated ventila- “excellent feedback” on the MVM friend on 19 March whose family had tors, the MVM would not be able to from medical experts, including made a big donation to an intensive- regulate the volume of oxygen into those in a group at McGill Univer- care hospital that was being set up on someone’s lungs (as opposed to the sity in Quebec who are overseeing the site of Milan’s 2015 Expo to treat pressure). Galbiati says he does not ventilators in Canada. Although, some of Italy’s growing number of know how strictly necessary it is to as Physics World went to press, Italy coronavirus patients. The friend told be able to control both quantities had not yet given formal regulatory him that a consignment of ventilators The biggest but is nevertheless convinced that approval for the design, he says that that were supposed to be arriving remaining the new design would be a life-saver informally authorities have sent from Germany had been cancelled. in Italy’s heavily infected Lombardy encouraging signals. Indeed, Gal- “That is when I realized we need to question region and beyond. “I can’t say what biati says that they have granted spe- do something different,” he says. is whether is needed in most cases,” he adds. cial permits to re-open factories for Galbiati quickly brought together industry can “But what I can say is that there are the production of necessary items. colleagues from DarkSide, and using produce the patients who get no treatment. A McDonald also hopes that approval criteria published by the Medicines mechanical ventilator that only has will be soon be given in Canada, and Healthcare Products Regula- machine only pressure control will still be having spoken to “authorities at the tory Agency in the UK, which stipu- quickly enough very valuable.” highest level” there. late the essential features for any to really limit The biggest remaining question, new design of ventilator, came up the damage Laboratory tests McDonald says, is whether industry with a blueprint entitled Mechani- On 20 March Galbiati and colleagues can produce the machine quickly cal Ventilator Milano (MVM). done by the carried out a first set of tests in a lab- enough to really limit the damage This, he says, is inspired by a 1961 virus oratory near the hard-hit city of Ber- done by the virus in Italy and else-

12 Physics World May 2020 physicsworld.com News & Analysis where. “I don’t know the answer to went to press. The group was plan- tors. CERN has also been using its that yet,” he says. “But we have a lot ning to then work with clinicians workshop and 3D-printing capabili- of very highly motivated individuals and international organizations ties to produce protective equipment working on this.” to test the prototype in hospitals. such as masks and Perspex barriers. Even if it comes too late to be used “We want to deploy our resources From particles to ventilators in Europe, HEV might prove handy and competences to contribute to Physicists at the CERN particle- in developing countries given that it the fight against the COVID-19 pan- physics lab near Geneva have also can be operated with batteries, solar demic,” says CERN director-general been using their skills to design ven- panels or emergency power genera- Fabiola Gianotti. tilators. Led by researchers from the LHCb collaboration they have Analysis: Can physicists help solve the ventilator shortage? designed a streamlined ventilator dubbed HEV (arXiv:2004.00534). As the novel coronavirus makes its relentless way to be approved for use. Also, will it be possible to The team realized that the sys- across the globe, hospitals are still facing shortages train already busy intensive-care staff to use the tems used to regulate gas flows for of ventilators and other key equipment and supplies. devices and would they have confidence in the particle-physics detectors could It is only natural that physicists want to apply their new technologies? be employed in a novel ventilator. technical skills to creating new ventilator designs Regardless of whether these new ventilators The HEV design could be used for that can be quickly manufactured. And it is not just are used on COVID-19 patients, scientists and patients with milder symptoms, so physicists; engineers at companies that supply a engineers should be lauded for their efforts. And as freeing up high-end machines for the wide range of products from vacuum cleaners to often happens in science, there could be spin-off most intensive cases. nuclear technologies have joined the effort. applications of the new ventilators such as use in CERN researchers built proto- However, these projects face huge challenges. developing countries where simple and accessible type in late March, with the pressure In some places ventilators are needed right now, medical equipment is needed. regulators, valves and pressure sen- yet new devices must go through stringent testing Hamish Johnston sors being refined as Physics World

Careers Women’s scientific impact hit by shorter careers

A large study of historic publishing data Impact agenda into the scientists’ careers, they has found that men and women publish A study has found discovered that gender differences in scientific papers at comparable annual that men and women annual productivity were negligible. rates and attract equivalent career-wise iStock/mocoo publish scientific Female authors published an average citations. Although male scientists tend papers at of 1.33 papers per year, while men to have more productive and impactful comparable annual produced 1.32. The gender gap in career careers than their female colleagues, rates, but male impact also disappeared when they the bibliometric analysis has found that scientists seem to matched males and females from the much of the gender variation is due to be more productive same disciplines with the same number different career lengths and dropout as they usually have of total publications, with women rates (Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. 117 4609). longer careers. accruing 0.8% more citations. Using data from the Web of Science Barabási says their work shows database, the researchers – led by that the main reason there are gender physicist Albert-László Barabási differences in career productivity and from Northeastern University in the impact is that women’s careers end US – analysed the publication history earlier. “A shorter career leads to lower of more than 1.5 million academics that the proportion of female authors career productivity – fewer papers whose gender they could identify and increased from 12% in 1955 to 35% published throughout their career – who published their last paper between by 2005. The researchers also found and also leads to lower career impact 1955 and 2010. The authors covered 83 considerable gender differences because the person is not around to countries and 13 scientific disciplines between disciplines – in maths, physics support his or her work,” he explains. and the sample included a third of all and computer science just 15–16% of On average, male scientists had a papers published between 1955 and active authors were female, rising to publishing career of 11.0 years, while 2010. Barabási told Physics World that around a third in psychology. Overall, female scientists published for only this dataset allowed the team “to look male scientists were found to be 9.3 years. Each year, 10.8% of women at virtually the full career of everyone more productive during their careers, stopped publishing, compared with 9% that we profiled, across all the fields, publishing an average of 13.2 papers of men. without geographic boundaries”. per year, while women published 9.6 According to the researchers, women The gender gap in productivity in the – a productivity gap of 27%. And they are 19.5% more likely to leave academia 1950s was around 10% and papers also had more impact, receiving 30% than their male colleagues in a given written by women had slightly more more citations than women. But this year. This dropout gap persisted at impact – based on the number of gender gap was not always there. “The a similar level throughout academic citations papers received 10 years after striking and the surprising news is that careers. To increase parity in career publication. But by the 2000s men were as [female representation increased] impact and productivity, Barabási told 35% more productive than women and so did the gender imbalance in terms of Physics World it is necessary to “focus received around 34% more citations. impact and productivity,” says Barabási. very hard on keeping women in science”. Barabási and colleagues found When the researchers delved further Michael Allen

Physics World May 2020 13 News & Analysis physicsworld.com Philip Anderson: a legend is lost The Nobel laureate Philip Anderson was a giant of condensed-matter physics, who was unafraid to speak out against what he saw as the excesses of particle physics. Michael Banks looks back

The US condensed-matter physicist Forward thinker bond theory. The idea encountered Philip Warren Anderson, who died Physicist Philip some resistance within the commu- on 29 March aged 96, was one of the Anderson, who has nity and the mechanism of high-tem- most celebrated condensed-matter died aged 96, made perature superconductivity remains physicists of the 20th century. His a vital contribution to be resolved today. theoretical research into the elec- to our understanding In an interview with Physics World tronic structure of magnetic and dis- of how electrons in 2006, Anderson said that he ordered systems led to an improved move in solids. mostly enjoyed his 35 years at Bell understanding of metals and insula- Labs (see November 2006 pp10–11). tors, for which he was awarded the Commons Wikimedia via Anderson W P “For the first three decades it was Nobel Prize for Physics in 1977. He the most wonderful laboratory in the shared the prize with the British world,” he said. “We had freedom, physicist Sir Nevill Mott and the US an enlightened management and a physicist John Hasbrouck van Vleck. personnel department that never Born on 12 December 1923 in had any say in the direction of the Indianapolis, Indiana, Anderson research department. We had a very was raised in Illinois, where his high opinion of ourselves, but it was father taught plant pathology at the justified. Those were the years when University of Illinois in Urbana. interference between different scat- we invented modern technology.” In 1940 Anderson went to study tering paths. Instead, they become physics at Harvard University but localized and unable to propagate The ‘arrogance’ of particle physics during the Second World War was in space. Anderson also made crucial contri- drafted to work at the US Naval It was for this prediction of what butions to other fields in physics. In Research Laboratory, spending the became known as “Anderson locali- particular, in 1962 he published a period from 1943 to 1945 research- zation” that he was awarded the now-famous paper on how the pho- ing antenna design. He returned to 1977 Nobel Prize for Physics, which ton acquires mass (Phys. Rev. 130 Harvard, working on a PhD under he shared with van Vleck and Mott 439). It was cited two years later by the supervision of van Vleck, gradu- for their “fundamental theoretical Peter Higgs in his own paper (Phys. ating in 1949. Anderson then joined investigations of the electronic struc- Rev. Lett. 13 508) on the discovery of Bell Telephone Laboratories in New ture of magnetic and disordered a mechanism for understanding the Jersey, which was part of the tel- systems”. Anderson localization origin of mass – a theory for which ecoms firm AT&T. It was there that has since been seen in several sys- Higgs and François Englert won the he developed his theory of the elec- tems including those based on light, 2013 Nobel Prize for Physics. The tronic structure of solids. microwaves and in atoms held in a mechanism was later confirmed by Much of what we know about the Bose–Einstein condensate. the discovery of the Higgs boson electronic properties of metals and at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider semiconductors is based on the idea A ‘wonderful’ lab in 2012. that electrons with certain momenta The 1960s was a particularly pro- While Anderson had noted that can travel freely through a crystal- ductive time for Anderson. He also the Higgs boson could have been line lattice, while others cannot. worked on the theory of supercon- called the “Anderson–Higgs boson” This is embodied in Felix Bloch’s ductivity, in which the electrons in in recognition of his work, in 2013 he 1928 quantum theory of conduc- a material can flow without resist- told Physics World that the Swedish tion, which describes the lattice as ance, and explored the properties Academy made “a perfectly reason- a periodic electric potential through of helium-3. From 1967 Anderson able decision” to award the prize to which some electrons (behaving as spent eight years on a part-time basis Higgs and Englert (November 2013 “matter waves”) diffract with ease. at the University of Cambridge, UK, pp6–7). “I also think the fuss over In the 1960s, Anderson worked out before returning to the US to work the theoretical part of the work a what would happen in such a system at Princeton in 1975, while still being bit excessive relative to the gigantic if the potential lost its periodicity. affiliated to Bell Labs. experimental effort,” he added. This could happen, for example, if Anderson retired from Bell Labs In the late 1980s, Anderson was the lattice remained periodic, but in 1984 when the US government dis- a vocal critic of the $4.4bn Super- the potential has a different value at banded AT&T, and he began working conducting Super Collider (SSC), each lattice site. full-time at Princeton. There he con- which the US was planning to build Anderson found that electrons tinued his research on spin glasses – in Waxahachie, Texas, as the next big would be unable to move through non-magnetic metals embedded with machine in particle physics. In 1987 such a “disordered” lattice, and randomly spaced magnetic elements he famously gave testimony to the instead become trapped by specific – as well as high-temperature super- US Senate, in which he worried that atoms. If the disorder is sufficiently conductors, for which Anderson the huge costs of the 87.1 km circum- strong, the electrons cannot form an came up with his own theory for the ference circular collider would force electric current due to destructive effect called the resonating valence cuts to other science budgets. He

14 Physics World May 2020 physicsworld.com News & Analysis was far from the only physicist who Anderson held for having developed the concept of Anderson received the US had such concerns and, despite some a sceptical “broken symmetry” in the 1950s. National Medal of Science in 1982 $2bn eventually being spent on dig- and was involved with the forma- ging parts of the SSC’s underground view of particle Emergent views tion of the interdisciplinary Santa tunnel and constructing various physics and During his career, Anderson wrote Fe Institute, which explores the sci- buildings, the collider was cancelled the belief held several scientific books, includ- ence of complexity. He joined as an in 1993, by which time the project’s ing Concepts of Solids (1963), Basic emeritus professor in 1985 and in estimated final price tag had almost by some in Notions of Condensed Matter Phys- 1996 Anderson became an emeritus trebled to $12bn. the field that it ics (1997) and More and Different professor at Princeton. Indeed, Anderson held a scepti- deserved more (2011). He also contributed to the Outside physics, Anderson was a cal view of particle physics and the funding than philosophy of science, writing a now keen hiker and gardener as well as belief held by some in the field that famous article “More is different” in an enthusiast of the Chinese board it deserved more funding than other other areas 1972 (Science 177 393). This set out game Go, in which he was a certified areas. “There is a great arrogance the limitations of “reductionism”, “first-degree master”. But science and immodesty about that whole according to which all of science can, was his true passion and Anderson field, which gets on my nerves,” he in theory, be derived from just a few remained active as a physicist well told Physics World in 2006. “Particle fundamental principles. Anderson into his 80s and 90s, even being theorists say [they’re] discovering instead believed in “emergence”, named as the “world’s most creative ‘the mind of God’. It’s not the mind of which states that everything we physicist” by one statistical analysis God at all. In the first place, there’s observe at one level obeys the laws in 2006 (September 2006 p9). He no God, and in the second place, par- at a more primitive level, but that continued to review books, including ticle physics cannot explain things those observations cannot necessar- a review for Physics World in 2013 of like superconductivity, life and con- ily be deduced from that level. He a biography of his near-contempo- sciousness. It makes no contribution even dubbed it the “God principle” rary Freeman Dyson, who died this to explaining how the world actually but told Physics World that it did not February. His last letter to Physics works.” He also held the view that reflect any religious beliefs. “I’m not World was published in 2017. He particle theorists owe more than quite as atheistic as [Oxford biolo- was also an honorary fellow of the they realize to condensed-matter gist] Richard Dawkins, but I’m very Institute of Physics, which publishes theorists like himself, particularly close,” he said. Physics World.

Careers Pregnant female PhD students face significant challenges

Female physics PhD students in Israel asked who does most of the childcare who are pregnant or give birth during in their household, 57% of mothers their studies face significant challenges responded that they do, compared that could lead to substantial delays with just 5% of fathers. No women said in progress. That is according to a that their spouse is the main caregiver iStock/Yuri_Arcurs comprehensive survey of students in the for their children – or responsible for country, which uncovered high levels of most household chores. “The most discrimination and sexual harassment. significant difficulties that are far Yosef Nir, a theoretical physicist at from being gender-neutral are the the Weizmann Institute of Science, challenges related to pregnancy and and his colleague Meytal Eran-Jona motherhood, the fact that the female conducted a nationwide survey of PhD students either share or take the all physics PhD students at Israel’s main responsibility not only on childcare six research universities. Of the 404 but also on household tasks,” Nir says. doctoral students in the academic year There are also significant differences 2018/19, some 267 (66%) replied, in discrimination, with 67% of women including 60 women who made up 94% having experienced it, compared with of female PhD students. Around 40% more than month off and more than half Bump in the road only 19% of men. Half of those women of survey respondents were parents. (58%) had none at all. “The academic A study of students said it was linked to their gender and According to the researchers, Israeli community [in Israel] strongly believes in Israel found that 19% to pregnancy or parenthood, while society differs from other Western that all academic decisions and two-thirds of women men rarely mentioned these factors. societies as people marry younger procedures are based on meritocracy, suffered from About a fifth of women experienced and have more children, on average. and that the academic institutes discrimination. sexual harassment during their studies, Doctoral students also tend to be older are gender-neutral,” Nir told Physics compared with 2% of men. as graduate studies are delayed due to World. “What is lacking is, first, the To tackle these issues and support compulsory military service. acknowledgement that due to social women pursuing physics careers in According to the survey, 95% of circumstances the playing field is not Israel, Nir says the academic community mothers and 86% of fathers stated level and, second, that the phenomena needs to address sexual harassment, that becoming a parent affected their of sexual harassment and gender- promote a discrimination-free studies. Mothers took much more related discrimination exist.” environment and adopt institutional parental leave, with 69% having four Female PhD students with children policies that consider “the special months’ leave – the standard by law. also took on more of the family load hurdles for women”. In contrast, only 16% of fathers took than their male counterparts. When Michael Allen

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