2016 Annual Report Community Resources Physics Today and the History Programs

1 Physics Today in Review

PHYSICSMay 2016 • volume 69, number 5 TODAYA publication of the American Institute of Physics AIP’s flagship magazine,Physics Today, kicked off 2016 with a fresh new look. Readers who opened the January issue found a cleaner, more modern design that places greater emphasis There is something on artwork. The January issue also nice about a print “ marked the start of my tenure as “ the magazine’s seventh editor-in- magazine for reading chief. Building on the work of my about new technology predecessor, Steve Benka, I strove and approaches. to maintain Physics Today’s reputation – Physics Today subscriber for comprehensive news coverage and authoritative feature articles. I also reinvigorated the magazine’s opinion pages. Now a commentary by a member of the physics community appears in almost every issue.

Measured by online views, the most popular item of the year was a Atomic feature article by Nobel laureate Frank Wilczek, who speculated on the future of physics in a hundred years’ time. In his introduction, Wilczek noted that his powers of prediction were limited—an admission that hearts inspired the magazine’s editors to challenge the magazine’s readers to submit their own speculations. The Physics in 2116 essay competition attracted almost 200 entries.

In first place came Robert Austin’s account of the construction of a giant space telescope from laser machined asteroids. It appeared in the December issue alongside three runners-up. Two other milestones took place in 2016. In September the magazine’s Facebook page gained its A region copes with three millionth fan. And in December, the magazine launched its new sea-level rise website, which is both more visually appealing and easier to navigate. A nonreciprocal Charles Day antenna Editor-in-Chief Physics Today The new big science

2 3 The Art of Physics Today

Physics Today began 2016 with a new look for the print magazine and The most viewed article on Physics Today’s website ended the year with a new platform for the website. The redesigns shared this past year was by Nobel physics laureate Frank Wilczek. the goals of emphasizing artwork and making editorial content easier to In “Physics in 100 years,” Wilczek speculated on the discoveries and navigate. breakthroughs that physicists might have made by 2116.

PHYSICSJune 2016 • volume 69, number 6 TODAYA publication of the American Institute of Physics

A century of light

aseball legend Yogi Berra and physics legend In the nearly 200 entries we received, several themes Niels Bohr both observed, “it’s tough to make recurred. Those include new understandings of funda- B predictions, especially about the future.” mental physics, wonders achieved with black holes or True enough, but conjecturing about what is to come is an gravitational waves, and fantastic accomplishments aided exercise that can be hard to resist. In April of this year, by advanced artificial intelligences; indeed, incredibly PHYSICS TODAY published an article by Frank Wilczek sophisticated computers play a starring role in three of the entitled “Physics in 100 years,” in which he ruminated on four following essays. Those themes may sound familiar if what physicists might accomplish in the coming century. By you read Wilczek’s piece. Why so few entries tackled the his own admission, Wilczek was “crazily selective” in what future of condensed-matter physics is a possibly significant Anne Johnson and Nancy Lamontagne of Creative Science Writing (creativesciencewriting.com) in he chose to discuss, so the editorial staff invited our readers mystery. CENTURY OF LIGHT Chapel Hill, North Carolina, are multimedia science CENTURY OF LIGHT communicators who frequently write about optics, to join in the prognostication game: We announced a contest Wilczek’s article concluded that “brilliant prospects lie data and technology, life sciences, and other

Acoustic scientific disciplines. challenging you to submit a news story reporting on an ahead,” and his upbeat tone was echoed in virtually all of

founding the Optical Society of America (OSA) in 1916 with a of Southamptonexciting discovery in the UK or developedtechnical advance erbium-doped that occurred fiber am- in the submissions we received. Our imaginative contestants Tannoudji and Phillips’s article, PHYSICS TODAY, October 1990, tum mechanical theory of optical coherence laid the foundation

focus on advancing applied optics. (The society changed its Our centennial is not only an opportunity to capture the metamaterials invention, based on theoretical work by Townes and Arthur plifiers,2116. which In the exploit ensuing stimulated pages youemission will find by excitedRobert erbiumAustin’s saw the frontiers of knowledge as continuously advanc- page 33.) Their methods opened the door to new, important for the extraordinarily productive disciplineCONTENTS of quantum op- The Optical Society was created in an environment where Schawlow, fired successfully on the first try—an auspicious be- The mid-century discoveries in optics created entirely new

name to The Optical Society in 2008 in recognition of its global legacy of the society and the optics field, but also a chance ions winning to boost entry optical about signals a andtelescope allow thembuilt tofrom travel polished even ing and a few even explicitly described how scientific experiments in quantum physics because they allowed re- tics, which focuses on the interactions between light and matter scope.) Initial member dues were only $5 per year. With its first scientific collaboration was a challenge. Our founders saw the ginning for a technology that would prove a game changer greater distances. fields of discovery and technology applications. Advanced searchersMEGATELESCOPE to slow atoms and observe them atRELEASES temperatures near ITSat submicroscopic FIRST levels. IMAGE P.42

across many fields. (See Donald Nelson, Robert Collins, and asteroids. That essay is followed by three other submissions advances improved the quality of life for all humankind. meeting on 28 December 1916 at Columbia University, the to explore the future of our exciting scientific and techno- Israel’s waterneed to bring together the best scientific minds in industry manufacturing, for example, depl“ oys high-powered lasers to absolute zero. Chu, Cohen-Tannoudji, and Phillips received society kicked off a new era in the science of light. n June 1916, exactly one century ago, Albert EinsteinWolfgang predicted Kaiser, the existence PHYSICS TODAY, January 2010, page 40, and Probingthat particularly matter with impressed spectroscopy us. May it be so. PRIVACY CONCERNS PROMPT PROTESTSMicroscopy IN CALIFORNIA reveals the invisible P 46 logical breakthroughs. There remains tremendous potential “ the 1997 Nobel Prize in Physics for their work; Chu later served . and academia to share ideas inof pursuitripples, known of technological as gravitational waves, in alsothe fabric May of spacetime.2010, page Earlier 8.) Indian physicist and OSA honorary member C. V. Raman found cut and bond materials. The recent discovery of gravitational as the 12th US secretary of energy. All are OSA honorary The 20th century saw tremendous advances in microscopy. In “ “ success story“ this year we celebrated the stunning observation of the phenomenon by A wave of new laser technologies quickly followed. Later “ Optics advances shed new light on the universe to address challenges such as supporting health and medicine breakthroughs. Today, the societya serves worldwide as a collaborationglobal catalyst of more than 1000 scientists using incredibly in 1928 that when a transparent substance scatters a beam STEVEN K. BLAU members. AFRICAN ARROW SEES HINTS OF STRUCTUREthe 1930s, IN OSA THE honorary FABRIC member OF SPACEFrits ZernikeP.49 at Groningen in 1960 the Bell Labs group of Donald Herriott, an OSA fel- waves was made possible with laser technology and has The early 20th century brought significant breakthroughs as well as the continued explosive growth of the internet. We sensitive antennas built of mirrors and lasers. (See PHYSICS TODAY, April of monochromatic light, it causes a shift in the scattered light’s Laser cooling was central to the ability of OSA members Eric University developed the phase-contrast microscope, which in scientists’ understanding of the universe, thanks in large for the science of light. We2016, are pageproud 14.) of As our with scientists many scientific and achievements,low this who recent wouldmilestone laterdraws serve as OSA president, invented the opened up a newSteve realm Blau ofis po assible senior discoveries, editor at P HYSICSforeverTODAY. frequency that is characteristic of the substance. That discovery, Cornell and CarlRUNNERS-UP EMERGENT Wieman at JILA CONSCIOUSNESS and Wolfgang Ketterle DECODED at MIT combines the light scattered by a transparentP .specimen52 and the part to advances in optical technologies used to observe the are only at the beginning of what optics technology can do, Hypervelocitycorporate leaders, includingonI innumerable34 Nobel laureates, theoretical, who observational, are and technologicalfirst continuously innovations operating and laser, an IR helium–neon laser. whichART BYearned SCOTT him RICHARD the 1930 Nobel Prize in Physics and came to create a new state of matter known as a Bose–Einstein con- background, unscattered light in a way that creates high- changing astrophysics. iterations made along the way. It’s worth reflecting Semiconductoron the vast body of knowledge diode lasers soon appeared as well. Despite heavens. and The Optical Society and its members will continue to be inspiring the next generationthe ofscientific scientific community discovery. has generated, the breakthrough technologies that have to be known as the Raman effect, is the basis for Raman densate in 1995. Bose–Einstein condensates, first predicted by contrast images of structures previously visible only when cells George Ellery Hale, a leading astronomer, served as OSA’s stars allowed us to observe our world with ever-greaterbeing depth andviewed precision, as “aand solution the looking for a problem” in its early spectroscopy, a technique used to this day to analyze the chem- Satyendra Bose and Einstein in the 1920s, exhibit macroscopic were killed and stained. The microscope was thus instrumental first vice president. In 1916 he was awarded OSA honorary at the forefront of advancing the science of light. people who have dedicated their lives and careersdays, to expanding the laserknowledge has and since found a central role in numerous ical makeup or “molecular fingerprint” of materials and bio- —Gregory J. Quarles, OSA chief scientist quantum phenomena and pave the way for new experimental in enabling researchers to directly observe living cells and their applications in diverse branches of science. membership, the most distinguished of all OSA member cate- —Elizabeth Rogan, OSA CEO scientific, technological, medical, military, and industrial logical samples. approaches for basic physics and for potential technological in- organelles. Although the importance of the Dutch physicist’s This year marks the 100th anniversary of The OSA Centennialapplications. webpage at www.osa.org/en-us gories, typically conferred on only one member per year. Fas- —Alan Willner, 2016 OSA president Optical Society, a worldwide community for optics /100/osa100. In the 1960s the laser brought immediate gains in spec- still and video cameras and the consumer-oriented camcorder novations. (See Ketterle’s article in HYSICSP TODAY, December invention was not immediately recognized, when the German cinated by the Sun, Hale invented the spectroheliograph while utes underlie lasers’ wide rangeand photonics of applications, professionals and students.from Overgrocery troscopy. Its strong, coherent beam, tunable over a broad wave- were also based on the technology. 1999, page 30, and December 2001, page 14.) The researchers military took stock in 1941 of all inventions that might serve in and the Steven and Kathryn Sample Chair the past century, the research world and consumers A field matures, and a society is born still an undergraduate at MIT and used it to discover solar vor- store scanners and office printersalike enjoyed toa dramatic precision expansion of surgery light-based andThe 50 yearsConnecting leading up to the birth ofthe The Optical world through light length range, opened up new approaches for studying atoms Although the CCD has now largely been eclipsed by CMOS attained their condensates by cooling alkali atoms to just a few World War II, the phase-contrast microscope was at the top of in Engineering, University of Southern California science and applied technology. In many ways, the Society in 1916Of sawall tremendousthe societal progress transformations in our created by the laser, perhaps tices and other phenomena. Later, he spearheaded the con- manufacturing. growth of optics and photonics has mirrored the understanding of light and its uses. In the 1860s and molecules. Schawlow,The who later servedarticle as OSA president, inspiredfocal-plane arrays for mostPhysics consumer electronics, CCDsToday’s con- editorsbillionths of a degreeto above hold absolute zero; a the workcompetition garnered the list. After the war thatmany thousands of phase-contrast mi- struction of record-breaking telescopes, including the 40-inch A century of lightAlthough Einstein describedbirth and theexpansion principle of modern physics of stimulated from the James Clerknone Maxwell is first as established important the nature as its impact on communications. Lasers pioneered sensitive techniques that led to previously un- tinue to be used extensively in specialized applications such as them the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physics. Condensates have since croscopes were manufactured and quickly became standard early 20th century through today. Applied optics of light as an electromagnetic wave. The late 1800s (100 cm) refracting telescope at Yerkes Observatory and the Mees, another luminary, brought numerous advances to scien- emission in 1917 (see the articleand spectroscopy by Daniel have long Kleppner, played a central P roleHYSICSsaw the dawnare ofat practical the heart electric lightingof the and fiber-optic technologies that connect peo- dreamed-of precision in measuring the spectral lines of hydro- biomedical imaging, night-vision devices, and, in particular, been produced for many isotopes and for molecules, quasipar- equipment for biomedical research. Zernike was awarded the in enabling new discoveries in physics; that new even rudimentary precursors of modern fiber op- 60-inch Hale and 100-inch Hooker reflecting telescopes at Mount tific photography, including the development ofSince sensitive its founding pho- in 1916, The Optical Society hasTODAY, February 2005, page physics30), ithas wasn’t fueled advances until in optics 1953 and photon-that a de-tics. In 1905ple Einstein’s all description over the of the photoelec-world. A laser beam traveling down a single gen. OSA fellow Nicolaas Bloembergen at Harvard University astronomy. The Sloan Digital Sky Survey, for example, used ticles, and photons. 1953 Nobel Prize in Physics. ics that, in turn, have created powerful tools for tric effect suggested that light was made of dis- challenged readers to submit their own speculations on physics in 2116. brought together a global community of scientists, Wilson Observatory. tographic emulsionsAnne thatFrances allowed Johnson the capture of faint astro- vice exhibiting the process wasthe studybuilt. of space, That time, was and matter. the yearThe laser, Charles for crete packetsstrand of energy, of later glass known can as photons. encode information for more than half a mil- used four-wave mixing and other nonlinear phenomena to ex- 54 CCDs to produce the largest uniform survey of the sky The advent of the laser and the development of techniques Hale’s lifelong passion for optics was sparked by a small mi- nomical images. andAn Nancy OSA D. award Lamontagne was named in engineers,Mees’s memory business leaders, and students whose workTownes, James Gordon, and instance,Herbert has become Zeiger an indispensable at Columbia tool of sci- Uni-That dual lion understanding telephone of light—as conversations a photon or thousands of internet connec- Frequency combs raise precision to a new level entific inquiry. Solid-state detectors of incredible and a wave—sparked a variety of engineering pand the range of wavelengths available for spectrographic to date. for using fluorescent proteins as tags led to new microscopy in optics and photonics has transformed the world. croscope his parents bought him as a child. He built his first in 1961, after his death. versity constructed what theydensity called and sensitivity a maser, are used an for scientificacronym im- innovations.for tions and TV channels. study—a crucial step for biological applications in particular. OSA honorary member Dennis Gabor invented holography Advances in ultrafast lasers paved the way for OSA fellows methods for watching intricate biological processes such as aging from telescopes on Earth to cameras on As World War I raged in Europe, the demand telescope at age 14; his last project was the 200-inch Hale re- Another groundbreaking moment came at a 1947 OSA meet- “microwave amplification byMars. stimulated Innovations inemission laser cooling haveof radiation.” given us for technologicalNot innovations long grew after increasingly the laser was invented, scientists first began Schawlow and BloembergenThe shared halfcompetition of the 1981 Nobel in the late 1940s, attracted for which he received the 1971 almost Nobel Prize in 200 Theodorentries. Hänsch at the Max The Planck Institute winning for Quantum Op- gene entryexpression, the development and of neurons, and the spread DIM4IK-69/SHUTTERSTOCK.COM unprecedented access to the quantum world, and urgent. Against that backdrop, Perley Nutting, a flecting telescope at Palomar Observatory, completed 10 years ing, when Edwin Land, cofounder of Polaroid, demonstrated The team later discovered theylaser frequencyweren’t comb alone: technology At has the greatly Lebedev ex- scientist at tothe investigateBureau of Standards how in Washing- it could interact with waveguides, including Prize in Physics. Schawlow became an OSA honorary member Physics. Following the invention of the laser, OSA fellow Em- tics and John Hall at JILA to create ultraprecise optical fre- of cancer cells. OSA fellow W. E. Moerner and OSA members after his death in 1938. his new instant-photography system to the public for the first Physical Institute in the Sovietpanded Union, precision measurements Aleksandr for both Prokhorov funda- ton, DC, recognizedglass theoptical need for anfibers. organized Fifty sci- years ago OSA member Charles Kao in 1983; Bloembergen, in 1984. mett Leith and Juris Upatnieks at the University of Michigan quency combs, which earned them half of the Nobel Prize in Stefan Hell and Eric Betzig built on those advances by devel- mental and applied sciences. entific home for optical engineering and technol- time. In its heyday from the 1960s through the 1980s, the Po- and Nicolay Basov independentlyBut that list developedis far from complete. an This ammonia article ogy. After andmoving Georgeto Rochester, HockhamNew York, to take at the UK’s Standard Telecommunica- three runners-upand, independently, appeared Yuri Denisyuk at the Vavilov in State the Optical DecemberPhysics in 2005 2016 (PHYSICS TO D AY, Decemberissue. 2005, page 19). Those oping superresolution microscopy, a family of techniques that permits only a sparse survey of the noteworthy a position at Eastman Kodak, Nutting and other Picturing the future with photography laroid instant camera—which Land said was inspired by his maser at virtually the sameadvances time. and trailblazers Townes, from Prokhorov,the past century of andlocal luminariestion formed Laboratories the Rochester Association in Harlow realized that increasing the purity Photography goes digital Institute in the Soviet Union in 1962 developed modern holo- tools for measuring the frequency of light have found numer- use laser-excited fluorescence to overcome diffraction’s inher- optics and of the innumerable benefits we derive for the Advancement of Applied Optics. Within a Camera technology has been advancing ever since George three-year-old daughter’s question, “Why can’t I see these pic- Basov shared the 1964 Nobelfrom Prize them. inFurther Physics. highlights areTownes available on became the year, the groupof expandedthe glass its ambitions could and allow reach, the transmission of light signals over The 1969 invention of the electronic light sensor known as the graphic techniques that allow images of 3D real-world objects ous applications in areas requiring high precision; they are the ent resolution limit and produce images of single molecules.

Eastman’s Kodak camera hit the mass market in 1888 under the tures right now?”—would34 PHYSICS TODAY | APRIL feature 2016 prominently in life’s special an OSA fellow in 1963, and both he and Prokhorov were a distanceJUNE 2016 of| PHYSICS 100 TODAYkm, about35 five times farther than the best glass charge-coupled device, or CCD, marked the beginning of a to be captured on photographic film. The research quickly cre- basis of optical atomic clocks, high-precision spectroscopy, and They shared the 2014 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their work slogan “You press the button, we do the rest.” moments for millions of families. Land was awarded OSA hon- awarded OSA honorary memberships in later years. Today fibers available at the time. Kao, known today as the “father of new digital era in photography. OSA members Willard Boyle ated a worldwide interest in holography. GPS technology. Their unique attributes have also been a boon (PHYSICS TODAY, December 2014, page 18). In 1928 OSA established its first and most prestigious award orary membership in 1972 for his achievements. masers are used in atomic clocks, radio telescopes, and ground fiber optics,” shared the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics for his and George E. Smith at Bell Labs developed the core concepts for experiments in basic physics, such as highly sensitive tests in honor of Frederic Ives, inventor of modern photoengraving stations communicating with spacecraft. work (PHYSICS TODAY, December 2009, page 12). behind the CCD—work that earned them a share of the 2009 Laser cooling yields a new state of matter focused on measuring fundamental constants, and for tracking LEDs light the way to sustainability and a pioneer in color photography, three-color process print- The laser ushers in a new era In 1960 maser technology was extended from microwaves In 1970 Corning Glass Works scientists Peter Schultz, Robert Nobel Prize in Physics. It did not take long for the CCD to find In 1985 teams led by Steven Chu at Bell Labs, Claude Cohen- how chemical reactions unfold. Hänsch was awarded an OSA The long-lasting, energy-efficient LEDs that today provide ing, and three-dimensional stereoscopic photography. Ives’s Stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation allows light to visible frequencies when Theodore Maiman at Hughes Re- Maurer, and Donald Keck, who was later named an OSA hon- its way into numerous scientific and consumer applications; by Tannoudji at École Normale Supérieure, and William Phillips honorary membership in 2008. light for scientific equipment, consumer electronics, general son Herbert served as OSA president in 1924–25. to be coherently amplified and tightly focused to create a high- search Laboratories developed the ruby laser, an acronym for orary member, created the first telecommunications-grade op- the mid 1970s, CCD imaging devices were being installed on at NIST devised sophisticated methods for using lasers to cool The other half of the 2005 physics Nobel went to OSA fellow solid-state lighting, and many other technologies were many Over a 43-year career at Eastman Kodak, C. E. Kenneth energy beam of exceptionally pure color. Those unique attrib- “light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation.” His tical fiber. In the 1980s OSA fellow David Payne of the University satellites and telescopes. Generations of professional digital atoms to microkelvin or even nanokelvin levels. (See Cohen- Roy Glauber at Harvard, whose work on formulating a quan- decades in the making. Building on discoveries made in the USSUI (WIKIMEDIA GUSSISAURIO OMN/CB-A3.0) BY-SA COMMONS/CC

1916 1931 1947 1960 RESEARCH HUGHES mid 1970s 1993 2005 Perley Nutting Albert Einstein visits Caltech and is joined by Edwin Land, at a meeting Theodore Maiman demonstrates CCDs are quickly adopted for con- The development of The Nobel Prize in Physics recognizes frequency LABORATORIES founds the Optical Albert Michelson (left), who developed the of The Optical Society, the first laser. The device will become sumer and scientific applications, a practical blue LED combs, whose stunningly precise measurements Society of America interferometer design used in modern shows off the film for what a game changer for developing including satellites and telescopes. represents a signifi- yield gains for timekeeping, spatial navigation, and serves as its first astronomical observatories, and Robert will become the Polaroid scientific equipment and will find its This one, designed for UV detection, cant breakthrough basic physics, spectroscopy, and more. president. Millikan (right), who measured the charge of instant camera. way into fields from medicine to enables the observation of very for high-efficiency the electron and verified the photoelectric effect. WILLIAM KELLOGG, COURTESY OF consumer electronics. OSA ARCHIVES OSA ARCHIVES NASA faint objects in the universe. lighting technology. YE GROUP AND STEVE BURROWS, JILA AIP EMILIO SEGRÈ VISUAL ARCHIVES 1910 1915 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015

th NIST/JILA/CU-BOULDER Early 20 century 1950s 1969 1981 1995 2008 2015 Influential astronomer and OSA vice For their work on masers and Elsa Garmire explores ways to Arthur Schawlow shares the Nobel Prize in Eric Cornell, Wolfgang Ketterle, and Carl Wieman In recognition of its 2014 International president George Ellery Hale—shown lasers, Aleksandr Prokhorov, generate art with lasers. She will Physics. Here the 1975 OSA president is use laser cooling to achieve a new state of global scope, OSA Eric Betzig, Stefan Hell, Year of Light here using4 a spectroheliograph, which Charles Townes, and Nicolay later develop and patent devices— shooting at a double balloon with a toy gun matter, the Bose–Einstein condensate; they will 5 renames itself as and W. E. Moerner share and Light-based he invented as an undergraduate— Basov (from left to right) will share including lasers, waveguides, and that includes a real laser. The gun pops the share the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physics. From left The Optical Society. the Nobel Prize in Technologies makes Mount Wilson Observatory the the 1964 Nobel Prize in Physics. detectors—that enhance optical inside blue balloon but not the clear outer one. to right: the density profile of a cloud of cooling Chemistry for developing dominant observatory of its time. communications. She serves as rubidium atoms before the condensate forms, AIP EMILIO SEGRÈ VISUAL ARCHIVES, superresolution © ANDRIY CHMYROV, STEFAN HELL, MAX PLANCK HALE OBSERVATORIES, COURTESY OF AIP EMILIO SEGRÈ VISUAL ARCHIVES, OSA president in 1993. AIP EMILIO SEGRÈ VISUAL ARCHIVES HECHT COLLECTION OSA ARCHIVES PHYSICS TODAY COLLECTION the appearance of the condensate, and the nearly pure condensate microscopy techniques. INSTITUTE FOR BIOPHYSICAL CHEMISTRY after further cooling. 36 PHYSICS TODAY | JUNE 2016 JUNE 2016 | PHYSICS TODAY 37 38 PHYSICS TODAY | JUNE 2016 JUNE 2016 | PHYSICS TODAY 39 Online Design & New Platform Physics Today by the Numbers

Physics Today launched a new web platform in December 2016. The redesign offers big, bold images, a large font size, a reader-friendly Physics Today in 2016... interface and more multimedia, including video and data visualizations. Physics Today’s 120,000 circulation 5% increase in web traffic views for the top 20,000 web story

entries for the “2116” 200 essay competition

milestone passed 3 million by Physics Today’s likes Facebook page

The Physics Today Facebook page has more likes than Scientific American or The Atlantic and boasts more comments, shares and engagement than many other magazines.

20,000 views, our top web-only story of the year examined Brexit’s effect on science the day after the vote • http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/PT.5.1078 6 7 Computing in Science & Engineering Center for History of Physics

Computing in Science & Engineering (CiSE) is copublished by the IEEE As the new year begins, we would like to thank Computer Society and the American Institute of Physics in technical co- our donors for their generous support sponsorship with the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society and the of AIP’s Center for History of Physics IEEE Signal Processing Society. and the Niels Bohr Library & Archives. Their support is vital as we continue to Five of the 10 Most preserve and promote the history of all Downloaded CiSE Articles in 2016 the physical sciences. 2016 saw many new projects. We “The Monte Carlo Method in created Archives Portals for each AIP Science & Engineering” Member Society to showcase archival collections and historical materials that “The Joy of Algorithms” represent the history and interests of each society. We “Cloud-Based Software encoded our biographical resource database, the Physics History Network, Platform for Big Data using a new archival standard which allows easier data exploration. We Analytics in Smart Grids” began a makeover of the web exhibit hall, starting with a new look for the “Sakharov: Soviet Physics, Nuclear Weapons and Human Rights” “Whole-Genome DNA exhibit and with two more in the works (http://history.aip.org/history/ “IPython: A System Sequencing” exhibits/sakharov/). We introduced online teaching plans for educators for Interactive on women and minorities in the physical sciences. We sponsored the COMPUTING IN SCIENCE & ENGINEERING third Early-Career Conference in the History of the Physical Sciences, as p. 4 The Evolution of p. 75 The Power to p. 84 Faraday’s Tablet Scientific Computing” Computing: AlphaGo Create Chaos well as four Trimble Lectures.

18 Vol. 18, No. 4 | July/August 2016 Through the support of AIP and its 4 donors, we will continue to preserve Jul y/August 2016 Discrete Modeling the history of the physical sciences and to showcase this rich heritage to & Simulation scholars and the public at large.

(top) Melanie Mueller Discrete Mo D Director

eling Niels Bohr Library & Archives A n D

s i M ul A tion (bottom) Gregory Good

cise.aip.org Director

www.computer.org/cise/ Center for History of Physics 8 9 Contemporary American Physicists Oral Histories

The Physics History Network The Center for the History is a biographical resource of Physics conducted 15 listing more than 800 new oral history interviews physicists working in the with physical scientists in United States from 1945 to 2016. Currently we offer the present. In 2016, archives more than 1,075 oral staff have implemented a history transcripts online new XML standard that will and in 2016 added 12 new allow researchers to explore audio clips (mainly about relationships between different women in physics, either scientists, their relationships to about or by them). other people, where they worked, and the books and archival resources they created or were covered in.

Digital Collections

In 2016, the Emilio Segrè Visual Archives SPOTLIGHT archived and digitized the Thurgood Collection, a series of 200 WWII-era photographs taken by Sergeant Malcolm Thurgood (pictured NASA provided funding to the Center here on May 2, 1945), who documented the for History of Physics for interviewing Alsos Mission to discover Germany’s scientific researchers in heliophysics, including developments during World War II. These solar-terrestrial relations and space photographs provide a rare glimpse into this weather. This grant allows us to hire mission and post-war Europe. two doctoral students to help with the interviews. Stay informed about new additions to the Emilio AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives, Gift Segrè Visual Archives collection: https://www.aip. of Michaele Thurgood Haynes and org/history-prorgrams/niels-bohr-library/photos/ Terry Thurgood, Thurgood Collection esva-subscribe http://history.aip.org/acap/

10 11 Archives Portals Teaching Guides: Women in Science

Archives Portals were created Fifty-one lessons to help educators in teaching about for each AIP Member Society to the historical and contemporary experiences of women supplement a web presence for and minorities in physics, astronomy, and related history on each Member Society disciplines came online in 2016 thanks to staff efforts website, tailored to engage and with help from Society of Physics Students interns and interest the membership of each graduate research assistants. Member Society. The portals connect to Member Society Co-promoted with AIP Member Society AAPT, the records held by the library, as National Science Teachers Association and others, well as to oral histories, photos the Teaching Guides on Women and Minorities in the and other historical content Physical Sciences are available at https://www.aip.org/ that represents the history or history-programs/physics-history/teaching-guides interests of their respective disciplines.

Einstein and Bohr photographed by Paul Ehrenfest, courtesy AIP Vera Rubin measuring spectra at the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Emilio Segrè Visual Archives, Ehrenfest Collection around 1970. AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives, Rubin Collection

12 13 Young Historians Gather in Annapolis Preserving the History of the Physical Sciences

In April, the third Early-Career Conference on the History of the Physical Sciences attracted 38 young historians from many countries for an exciting four days together. Also in 2016, a special issue of the journal Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences published articles presented originally at a previous Early-Career Popular history web pages and exhibits included Rutherford, Einstein, the Conference. Laser, the Electron, Curie, Heisenberg and Discovery of Climate Change.

Library & Archives in 2016... web hits for history 570,000 pages in 2016 topmost visited pages on 19 of 25 the AIP website pounds of books 2,480 donated to the library

unique page views for 60,000 oral history transcripts

researchers visited the Niels 229 Bohr Library & Archives

14 15 American Institute of Physics 1 Physics Ellipse College Park, MD 20740 IMAGE CREDIT: +1 301.209.3100 Painting of Einstein with violin and Ehrenfest www.aip.org at piano. From original watercolor by Maryke Kamerlingh-Onnes. Courtesy AIP Emilio Seg- AIP Publishing rè Visual Archives 1305 Walt Whitman Road Suite 300 ON THE FRONT: Melville, NY 11747 Construction of the stone piers for the Snow +1 516.576.2200 Telescope at Mount Wilson in 1904. From the Hale Observatories, courtesy AIP Emilio Segrè © 2017 American Institute of Physics Visual Archives 16 Produced by Jason Bardi Designed by Carin Cain