Francium, Energy Alternatives, Age of the Universe, Gender Gap
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A P S N E W S APSJULY 1996 THE AMERICAN P HYSICALNews SOCIETY VOLUME 5, NO 7 Highlights from Indianapolis: Trapped Francium, Energy Alternatives, Age of the Universe, Gender Gap pproximately 1,400 physicists page 7), gender bias in the GREs (see reception hosted by A assembled in Indianapolis, page 3), and the future of physics. In APS President J. Rob- Indiana, for the 1996 Joint Meeting of addition, the AAPT organized several ses- ert Schrieffer (Florida The American Physical Society (APS) sions devoted to issues in education, State University). and the American Association of some in conjunction with APS commit- Twelve prizes and Physics Teachers (AAPT), 2-5 May. The tees or units. awards were pre- most varied of APS meetings because of sented, and the the number of APS divisions represented Another prominent feature was a spe- recipients gave lec- in the program, the Spring Meeting cial plenary session on Friday afternoon, tures on their explored current topics in particle modeled on the Unity Day symposia respective topics at physics, astrophysics, fluids, particle held in recent years at the annual Joint various sessions beams, physics of beams, nuclear APS/AAPT Meeting. The session featured throughout the physics, applications, and atomic, the retiring presidential address by APS week. Citations and molecular and optical physics. Past President C. Kumar N. Patel, as well brief biographies of as general lectures on black holes and the recipients ap- Topics of technical sessions included the Bose-Einstein condensation, respec- peared in the April first entrapment of a francium atom (see tively, by Kip Thorne (California Institute 1996 issue of APS story below), new data on globular clus- of Technology), recipient of the 1996 News. Ten thousand Francium Atoms trapped in a volume about the size of a pin head. ters (see page 4), the discovery of over Lilienfeld Prize, and Carl Wieman (Uni- 100 new isotopes, (see page 3), and re- versity of Colorado/JILA) (see page 5). Technical Sessions. with muon antineutrinos oscillating cent advances in nuclear-based medical Neutrino Oscillations. Los Alamos into electron antineutrinos, compared imaging (see page 2). General interest The traditional ceremonial banquet for scientists have found additional to the nine events observed last year. sessions included such topics as the fu- the bestowal of prizes and awards was evidence that neutrinos have mass, Last year, an experiment at LANL turned ture of renewable energy sources (see held Saturday evening, preceded by a observing 22 events that are consistent (Continued on page 8) Scientists Trap Rarest Element — Francium esearchers at SUNY-Stony Brook not been a problem, it has been a major cium or a pellet of francium,” said team plans to study the atomic prop- Rhave successfully trapped the challenge to trap francium atoms and Orozco. “You have to be making it all erties of francium atoms, which opens world’s rarest naturally occurring ele- study them. Researchers at Stony Brook, the time in order to work with it.” new horizons for the understanding of ment, francium, setting the stage for Berkeley, and elsewhere have previously the atomic structure of a very heavy high-precision tabletop measurements used magneto-optic traps to collect ra- Because the atoms were created with element. For example, a new energy on how the weak nuclear force mani- dioactive atoms, but a challenge with too much energy to be immediately level has been observed for the first fests itself at the atomic level. The Stony francium has been to figure out how to trapped with lasers, the Stony Brook time, and lifetime measurements are in Brook team developed a technique to tune the trapping lasers, since there are team devised methods to remove en- progress. trap more than 10,000 francium atoms no known stable isotopes of francium ergy from them quickly and efficiently. in a volume about the size of a head to use as a reference. Recent develop- After converting the ions into neutral Studies of trapped francium can also ul- of a pin, using six laser beams and an ments were described by Gene Sprouse atoms and slowing them down con- timately lead to high-precision inhomogeneous magnetic field. in a DNP Mini-symposia on Friday at the siderably, they send the francium into measurements of a phenomenon known Joint APS/AAPT Meeting. a magneto-optical trap, a device em- as parity nonconservation, which would Francium is the heaviest alkali and the ploying six laser beams — which had then provide information on the inter- least stable of the first 103 elements The SUNY team, headed by Luis Orozco, to be tuned to the correct frequency to relationship between the on the periodic table. Less than 30 can now produce a million ions per sec- slow and confine the atoms — and a electromagnetic and weak force. The grams of it exists on the Earth at any ond of francium-210, which has a half-life nonuniform magnetic field. Inside the francium energy transition is forbidden one time, in uranium deposits. It ap- of about three minutes, by bombarding traps, the atoms bounce back and forth by the electromagnetic interaction be- pears, atom by atom, as heavier atoms a gold target very close to melting point between specially coated glass walls, cause it violates parity, but is permitted decay, and it disappears in less than with beams of oxygen from the super- slowing down some atoms enough to by the parity-violating weak interaction. 20 minutes as francium itself decays. conducting linear accelerator at Stony be caught at the center of the trap. The effects of parity violation are at least While creating francium artificially has Brook. “You can’t have a bottle of fran- 18 times more pronounced in francium Now that this rare element can be con- than in cesium, another atom in which centrated and confined, the research parity violation has been studied. IN THIS ISSUE Highlights from Indianapolis ........................................................................... 1 Scientists Trap Rarest Element ...................................................................... 1 APS E-print Server Running APS E-print Server Running ........................................................................... 1 he American Physical Society is version of the service will be available Technological Advances May Revolutionize Medical Imaging ........................ 2 Tdeveloping a World-Wide-Web- from July 1, 1996 through the APS home Two New APS Topical Groups ........................................................................ 2 based system for members and other page [http://www.aps.org] under the Fighting the Gender Gap ................................................................................ 3 physicists to post preprints, and to ‘New Services Available’ listing for the Over 100 New Isotopes Discovered with Novel Fission Method .................... 3 browse those which have been made journals, and during testing will be avail- Particle Beam Processing Industrial Applications ........................................... 4 publicly available. The service is similar to able directly at http://publish.aps.org/ APS Council Approves Three Statements on Energy Issues ......................... 4 the ‘e-print’ archives run by Paul Ginsparg eprint/test/. Science Policy, Black Holes and BEC Featured at Plenary Session ................. 5 at Los Alamos since late 1991, but has some New Cluster Data Puts Universe at 13 Billion Years ...................................... 5 technical differences intended to make it Physicists are invited to try the APS E- Stockpile Stewardship, Non-Proliferation Policies Pose Challenges to more accessible and user-friendly, and Print prototype and send comments to Nuclear Weapons Labs ................................................................................ 5 other features that should help a larger the administrators of the service at the Opinion ........................................................................................................... 6 fraction of the physics community get e-mail address: [email protected]. Energy Alternatives Vital To Meet Future Demands ....................................... 7 involved with this enabling technology. Members can also contribute over the MULTIMEDIA REVIEW .................................................................................. 7 next few months to the setting of pri- 1996 General Election Preview ...................................................................... 9 The APS E-print service will also help in orities for the service (such as what Announcements ........................................................................................... 11 the exploration of new Internet-based word processor formats to support) by The Back Page ............................................................................................. 12 technology for submitting, refereeing, answering the questionnaire available APS Meeting News ................................................................................. Insert editing and publishing papers in the on the web at http://publish.aps.org/ Physical Review journals. A prototype eprint/test/gateway/questions. APS News July 1996 Technological Advances May Revolutionize Medical Imaging ew advances in medical imaging treatment planning of patients suffer- imaging the axillary nodes in patients Weinberg hopes that this higher effi- Ntechnologies could significantly ing from heart disease, cancer, epilepsy with suspected breast cancer, often