FEATURED ON THE BACK PAGE: David Goodstein on A P S N E W S Education JUNE 2000 THE AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY VOLUME 9, NO. 6 APS News(Try the enhanced APS News-online: http://www.aps.org/apsnews) Council Statements Focus on Missile Defense, Science Funding t its April meeting, the Council of ploy the NMD is scheduled for the next in the physical sciences. Therefore, the success of important national scientific A the APS approved a statement on few months. The tests that have been con- Council is particularly concerned that the programs. issues relating to the technical feasibility ducted or are planned for the period fall DOE’s science funding remain healthy. The Council urges, therefore, that the DOE and deployment of the proposed National far short of those required to provide confi- The DOE Office of Science is responsible share fully, in FY2001 and in subsequent Missile Defense (NMD) program. dence in the ‘technical feasibility’ called for for the construction and operation of most years, in the funding increases aimed at President Clinton is scheduled to make a in last year’s NMD deployment legislation. major facilities in particle and nuclear maintaining the health of the U.S. scientific decision by this October as to whether to This statement implies no APS position physics, and for many other facilities enterprise. Present concerns regarding man- begin deployment of such a program, with respect to the wisdom of national mis- needed in multidisciplinary research agement and security issues should not although a decision could be made as early sile defense deployment and concerns itself programs relevant to materials sciences, obscure the need for sustaining and enhanc- as August. Some members of Congress, solely with its technical viability.” energy sciences, biology, and medicine. ing the essential DOE-supported science of both parties, have urged the President to Background information relating to the These efforts have been instrumental in the programs.” defer a decision until the next administration. NMD statement can be found on the APS The text of the statement follows. website at http://www.aps.org/ Physics Chairs Meet at APS Headquarters “The United States should not make statements/00.2.html. a deployment decision relative to the Believing that broad-based funding for planned National Missile Defense physics research is critical to preserving (NMD) system unless that system is national competitiveness, the APS Council shown-through analysis and through also approved a statement to that effect intercept tests- to be effective against the at its April meeting, singling out the De- types of offensive countermeasures that partment of Energy (DOE) for particular an attacker could reasonably be ex- support. The statement reads: pected to deploy with its long-range “The Council of the American Physi- missiles. The planned NMD system is cal Society applauds and strongly intended to defend U.S. territory against supports the significant funding in- tens of long-range ballistic missiles car- creases for science contained in the rying biological, chemical or nuclear President’s FY2001 budget. weapons. The ability of the NMD system The nation’s research in physics is to deal with countermeasures is a key broadly supported through several agen- More than 120 physics department chairs spent two days in April at the American Center for factor in determining whether the sys- cies, principally DOE, NSF, NASA, and Physics in College Park. With a conference emphasis on undergraduate physics education, tem will be able to defend against the DOD. The ability of U.S. physics to con- presentations focused on the need for better teaching techniques, curricular issues, careers, threats it is intended to meet. tinue contributing to the nation’s responses to the new engineering accreditation requirements, and ways to improve the A decision on whether or not to de- economic growth and its national secu- physics taught to prospective teachers. Rounding out the program were talks on NSF and DOE funding priorities by Bob Eisenstein, Assistant Director for Mathematical and Physical rity depends critically on adequate Sciences (NSF) and Pat Dehmer, Acting Deputy Director of the Office of Science (DOE), funding for all these agencies. and an overview of the Washington science policy scene by Mike Lubell, APS Director of Inside… The DOE provides the majority of the Public Affairs. In the photo above, Steering Committee co-chair Peter Collings of Swarthmore addresses the gathering. The conference was cosponsored by APS and AAPT. NEWS funding for a wide range of basic research March and April 2000 Prizes and Awards Recipients ..................................... 2 Stunning photos of the winners. Scientific Community Speaks Out on Re- “Creating Copenhagen” at CUNY Symposium Behalf of FY2001 NSF R&D Budget ......... 3 Support grows for the President’s budget. hy did Werner Heisenberg make the American Institute of Physics were co- the meeting ended in acrimony. Nothing Topsy Turvy: Researchers Announce W the risky journey to Copenhagen sponsors of this event. Physicists, historians, is known of why Heisenberg made the First True “Left-Handed” Material ............ 5 Featuring the inverse Doppler effect and in 1941 to visit his former mentor, Niels theater professionals, and members of the visit, or what the two men said to each reverse of Snell’s law. Bohr? What did the two discuss, and why general public alike crowded into the new other, yet it remains a defining moment Satisfaction High for Undergrad did it end their friendship? Was Heisenberg Proshansky Auditorium for the free, day- of the modern nuclear age. Physics Bachelors ...................................... 5 trying to learn about Allied progress on long series of events, which included Frayn’s play extends the concept of Number receiving bachelor’s in physics has reached stability. the atomic bomb? Was he seeking Bohr’s lectures on the science and history of the quantum uncertainty to the realm of hu- Writing Workshops Teach Basics of input on the ethics of applying physics to so-called “Copenhagen Interpretation” of man motivations through a series of cyclic Communicating with Public ..................... 6 construct a weapon of mass destruction? quantum mechanics and the subsequent re-tellings of the same event from differ- Physicists received a crash course in writing for the general interest media at the And should history view Heisenberg as a development of the atomic bomb. ing perspectives, and in Blakemore’s APS March and April meetings. hero for purposely slowing or sabotaging The CUNY symposium was timed to staging the actors move about the stage Career Liaisons Gather for Workshop on the German bomb effort, or an incompe- coincide with the Broadway opening of as if they are particles in a quantum sys- Professional Development ........................ 6 tent engineer who failed to understand the “Copenhagen,” an award-winning drama tem. Michael Cumpsty, the actor who Establishing a nation-wide network of liaisons was one objective. key design principles involved? by British playwright Michael Frayn that plays Heisenberg in the Broadway play, These unsolved mysteries provided the won the prestigious Evening Standard was on hand for the symposium, along OPINION thematic framework for a special Award for Best Play in 1998. The play is with actress Blair Brown, who plays That’s It Folks! For the Last Time: symposium in March, sponsored by the inspired by actual events that have in- Margrethe Bohr. A sold-out evening ses- Even More Top Ten Physicists .................. 2 City University of New York Graduate trigued and baffled historians for more than sion featured a panel discussion with Frayn Final round of readers’ thoughts on top ten physicists. Center, entitled “Creating Copenhagen.” 50 years — a 1941 meeting between Bohr and the play’s Broadway director, Michael Letters .......................................................... 4 Both the American Physical Society and and Heisenberg, both brilliant physicists Blakemore. Viewpoint ..................................................... 4 and longtime friends The first session on science offered a Cultural differences: Alan Chodos yearns whose work together technical exploration presenting the ba- for the way it was. had paved the way for sics of quantum mechanics and of the Editorial Cartoon ........................................ 5 Zero Gravity ................................................. 5 the atom, but who contributions of Bohr, Heisenberg and oth- Fourth annual Pigasus awards. were now on opposite ers. Speakers discussed specifics of the sides of World War II. Copenhagen Interpretation of quantum DEPARTMENTS Heisenberg, then chief mechanics and of present views of how This Month in Physics History ................. 3 scientist on the Ger- the wave function yields definite states. The Shelter Island Conference: June 2 - 4, 1947. man atom-bomb They included former APS president Eugen Inside the Beltway ...................................... 3 Michael Lubell anaylzes the budget battles. project, made a covert Merzbacher, Faye Ajzenberg-Selove of the Announcements ......................................... 7 journey at great per- University of Pennsylvania, Anton Zeilinger Membership news; Apker awards; matching sonal risk to see his (University of Vienna), and Brian Greene, membership program; winner of physics trivia. former Danish mentor a physicist at Columbia University and au- The Back Page ...........................................