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Free Sample Issue Welcome to Your Complimentary Copy of the March 2021 Issue of Physics World Magazine WELCOME physicsphysicsworld.com worldVolume 34 No 3 March 2021 Physics World – free sample issue Welcome to your complimentary copy of the March 2021 issue of Physics World magazine. For more than 30 years, Physics World has been helping physicists around the world stay up to date with the latest developments in the subject. Including in-depth Pots of potential features from acclaimed physicists and science writers, comprehensive news and Archaeology sheds light on our magnetic past analysis, and incisive opinion pieces, careers articles and book reviews, each edition has lots for you to enjoy. The cover feature of this free sample issue examines how geophysicists are using archaeological artefacts to piece together how the Earth’s magnetic field has changed in the past – and how it could vary in the future (p37). There’s a great feature about how research at the intersection between physics and biology is leading to new generation of topological soft materials based on DNA (p48). Don’t miss either our look at the rising stars in cosmology who are re-examining what Einstein called his “biggest blunder” (p42). You can also find out about the UAE’s Hope mission to Mars (p12), the Chinese underground detector hinting at dark matter (p5), the importance of teaching children about careers in physics (p23) – and more besides. If you’ve enjoyed this sample issue, why not visit the Physics World website where you can enjoy daily updates covering the latest physics breakthroughs. You can also create a free account to unlock all the content on the site and subscribe to our range of e-mail newsletters. Matin Durrani Editor-in-chief, Physics World Make or break Building topological soft materials with DNA Heavenly challenge New ideas on the cosmological constant Career questions Making children feel positive about science PWMar21cover.indd 1 19/02/2021 12:05 WWW. V OLUME 3 4 N UMBER 3 M ARCH 2 0 2 1 © IOP Publishing Ltd 2021 physicsworld.com Contents: March 2021 SIMULATION CASE STUDY Looking beyond our solar system with ray tracing Open science Comfortable burden? Greener future simulation... Introducing young children to science careers 25 New theories about the cosmological constant 42–46 Troels Schönfeldt’s career path to nuclear 61–62 Astronomers detected an Earth-like planet 11 light-years away Quanta 3 from our solar system. How? Through data from an échelle Features spectrograph called HARPS, which finds exoplanets by detecting Frontiers 5 tiny wobbles in the motion of stars. Engineers looking to Chinese detector supports hints of dark matter ● Properties of Digging up magnetic clues 37 further the search for Earth-mass exoplanets can use ray tracing einsteinium revealed ● “Alpha clusters” seen on neutron-rich We’ve known for centuries that a record of the Earth’s magnetic ● ● past might be stored in objects made from fired clay. Rachel Brazil simulation to improve the sensitivity of échelle spectrographs. nuclei Click beetle’s jump revealed Egg yolk sheds light on brain injury ● “Sextuply” eclipsing star system spotted explains how geophysicists are now using that concept to get clues about the future course of our planetary field learn more comsol.blog/echelle-spectrographs News & Analysis 12 UAE Mars orbiter becomes first craft from Arab country to reach A new generation takes on the another planet ● Planetary probes could study gravitational waves cosmological constant 42 ● China mission releases first Mars image ● “Dismay” at state of Rob Lea reveals how several rising stars in cosmology are tackling geoscience education ● France unveils €1.8bn quantum plan what Albert Einstein once called “his biggest blunder”. But will their ● Support for arrested US scientist with China links revolutionary theories be accepted? ● Concerns over renaming of Oxford chair Make or break: building soft materials Comment 21 with DNA 48 Entangled thoughts DNA molecules are constantly getting broken up and glued back together to adopt new shapes. Davide Michieletto explains how Forum 23 this could lead to new kinds of “topologically active” materials Supporting science in difficult times Caitlin Duffy ● Widening career aspirations Carol Davenport Reviews 55 The superheavy element hunt Hamish Johnston ● Strolling in Transactions 27 the deep Ian Randall Grounds for optimism James McKenzie Careers 61 Critical Point 29 Rethinking nuclear for a greener planet Julianna Photopoulos Beneath the rotunda Robert P Crease Recruitment 63 Feedback 31 Your thoughts on making physics inclusive, school teaching, Lateral Thoughts 68 long-term thinking and free will Fine structure and black holes Sidney Perkowitz On the cover Physics World is published monthly as 12 issues Archaeology sheds light on our per annual volume by IOP Publishing Ltd, Temple Circus, Temple Way, Bristol BS1 6HG, UK Multimedia magnetic past 37–41 (Mat Ward/IOP Publishing) United States Postal Identification Statement Listen to the latest Physics World Building topological soft materials Physics World (ISSN 0953-8585) is published with DNA 48–52 monthly by IOP Publishing Ltd and distributed in NASA/JPL-Caltech Stories podcast to hear about the the USA by UKP Worldwide, 3390 Rand Road, New ideas on the cosmological South Plainfield, NJ 07080. Periodicals postage search for past life on Mars with NASA’s constant 42–46 paid at Rahway, NJ and at additional mailing Perseverance rover (bit.ly/3puCT04) The COMSOL Multiphysics® software is used for simulating designs, devices Making children feel positive about offices. US Postmaster: send address changes science 25 to Physics World, IOP Publishing, C/O 3390 and processes in all fields of engineering, manufacturing and scientific research. Rand Road, South Plainf ield, NJ 07080. Physics World March 2021 1 PWMar21contents.indd 1 19/02/2021 11:59 WWW. V OLUME 3 4 N UMBER 3 M ARCH 2 0 2 1 © IOP Publishing Ltd 2021 physicsworld.com Quanta Lock-in Amplifiers For the record Seen and heard The return on such an investment 37 m isn’t that bad given that Shepard is high wasn’t wearing natty golfing trousers and … and more, from DC to 600 MHz Cherry Murray from the University of Arizona a short-sleeved polo shirt. Instead, he writing for APS Physics London Barrett had to hit his balls wearing a tight-fitting Murray – a former president of the American spacesuit and swinging his club with one Physical Society – says that governments will arm. “I would challenge any club golfer seek to stimulate the economy following to go to their local course and try to COVID-19, which could be a boon for physics hit a six-iron, one-handed, with a one- research. quarter swing out of an unraked bunker,” Saunders told the BBC. Maybe lunar It was actually rather gratifying to see sports fans will have to stick to a round of how many people are interested crazy golf. Physicist Gordon Watts from the University of The case of the cubic poo Washington quoted in Symmetry Lunar living If there’s one mystery that has longed Some 1500 ideas or “letters of interest” have The housing market might be a bit puzzled biologists, it’s why wombat poo been submitted to the US Snowmass exercise, sluggish with lockdown in full swing, but is not round but shaped like a cube? The which helps to plan the future of particle physics. that hasn’t stopped housing developer thinking used to be that cubic faeces are Barratt London teaming up with the formed during the act of defecation, with It’s like the Academy Awards British Interplanetary Society to create a the wombats producing this shape to stop Joseph Lykken, Fermilab’s chief research officer, prototype home for future astronauts on the poo from rolling away, thereby helping quoted in Science the Moon. Consisting of two floors with the animals to communicate (see January a 2 m-thick roof to protect inhabitants 2019 p5). Now, however, physicist David The Muon g-2 experiment at Fermi National from radiation, the lunar module boasts Hu from Georgia Institute of Technology, Accelerator Laboratory is expected to report a three bedrooms that are on the lower along with colleagues in the US and new measurement of the magnetism of the muon floor to further reduce the radiation dose. Australia, has discovered that wombat this month. The open-plan upper floor, meanwhile, poo is cube-shaped thanks to the muscles features a kitchen, dining and living that line the marsupial’s intestines. They She wrote back to him, ‘Write me a space as well as a gallery that offers do not have cylindrical symmetry but paper on quantum physics and I’ll the “perfect place” to view the lunar rather create two stiff and two flexible do it.’ landscape and, “if you’re lucky”, catch regions, which means that as the material Earth in the distance. Barratt says that moves through the intestines, rhythmical Kevin Bright, executive producer of the US hit TV many amenities in the terraced properties muscle contractions sculpt the poo into show Friends, quoted by Hollywood Reporter starting at will be available such as electricity, water, cubes. The team says its discovery could Bright was commenting on how Matthew Perry Internet and – thankfully – air. The house “have applications in manufacturing, Optimized detection for pulsed $6,600 (who played Chandler) once managed to would be built using resources found on clinical pathology and digestive health”. convince Julia Roberts to guest star on the show. the Moon including basalt bricks, but And where was the research published? measurements: Boxcar averager furnishing it will be “one of the trickiest Soft Matter (17 475), of course. The types of stitches, the differences aspects of living on the Moon” as wood Simplified image acquisition for laser scanning and plastic would have to be flown in from Stamp of success in their geometries as well as the USPS microscopy: Image recorder Earth.
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