ERNO will be completed early in 1974. tended to provide Europe, by 1980, (GTS) programme, originally intended Award of the development contract is with an independent capability for for telecommunication purposes, was scheduled for mid-1974. Spacelab will putting geostationary satellites into re-oriented to meet requirements for comprise a pressurised laboratory orbit. The three-stage launcher will be aiding maritime navigation, and in providing a shirt-sleeve environment, capable of placing in transfer orbit April 1973 the U.K. proposed that the and an unpressurised pallet for payloads of 1500 kg, enabling the programme should be Europeanised, mounting experiments requiring direct injection of satellites of some 750 kg taking into account the stage reached exposure. The complete unit, weighing into geostationary orbits with the aid at national level. In the meantime, a maximum of about 14000 kg, will be of a suitable apogee motor. The ESRO had been studying the possi­ transported to and from Earth orbit project was put forward by France, bility of adapting the telecommuni­ in the payload bay of NASA’s shuttle following termination of the Europa-III cations OTS vehicle for use in a orbiter, and will remain attached to, programme, and the French national maritime role (the MAROTS proposal). and supported by, the orbiter through­ space agency, CNES, has already At the European Space Conference out each mission. It will be designed started work on certain parts of the meeting on 31 July 1973, the Ministers for an operational lifetime of 10 years definition phase which will be com­ agreed on the MAROTS proposal, and (50 missions, each of seven day’s pleted by the end of 1973. Until the details of the programme ma­ duration, with ground refurbishment). establishment of the European Space nagement, etc., are now being worked Its major advantages are its re­ Agency, ESRO will liaise between its out. usability and the fact that scientists Member States participating in the It is worth noting that each of the and engineers (in average-sized crews L III S programme and CNES. three major contributors has under­ of four) will be able to go along on The third project, MAROTS (Ma­ taken to provide more than half of the flight to control the experiments ritime Orbital Test Satellite), has been the financial backing for one of the and subsystems, and bring their data generated by the considerable growth three new programmes (Germany back with them. of interest in maritime satellites in 52.55% for Spacelab, France 62.50% The second of the newly approved the last two years. In the U.K., a for the L III S, and the U.K. 56% for projects, the L III S launcher, is in­ Geostationary Technology Satellite MAROTS). Nobel Prize in Physics 1973 H. R. Zeller, BBC, Baden This year’s Nobel prize for physics cesses are possible due to the lack could be used more generally as a was awarded to Leo Esaki (IBM, USA), of empty states on the opposite side probe to study all sorts of excitations Ivar Giaever (General Electric, USA) of the junction. This results in a of the solid state. Subsequent work and Brian Josephson (Cambridge, negative resistance region. It is this showed in fact that it was possible England) for their pioneering work in negative resistance region on which to observe molecular vibrations, pho­ the field of electron tunneling. the technical applications of the Esaki nons, plasmons, magnetic excitations, In the early days of quantum me­ diode are based. By slightly oxidizing etc., in a very simple form of spec­ chanics, it was shown that a particle a metal strip and subsequent vapour troscopy by voltmeter. But it also can pass across a potential barrier deposition of a cross strip, Giaever became evident that, with the excep­ even if classically its energy is insuf­ produced a sandwich consisting of tion of superconductivity, tunneling is ficient. This effect became known as two metal films separated by a thin mainly probing surface and not bulk the tunnel-effect and the related (20 - 50 A) oxide barrier. Tunneling properties. theory was developed by Gamov in takes place through the oxide barrier Although the Josephson effect is connection with α-decay where the and results in a small-voltage conduc­ not necessarily related to tunneling, α-particles tunnel across the Coulomb tivity of the order of 1 Ω mm-2 of the it was first experimentally observed barrier of the nucleus. In the late oxide. in tunnel junctions. Josephson show­ fifties, Esaki and Giaever introduced The first scientific success of the ed that if two superconductors are tunneling into solid state physics. new technique was Giaever’s demon­ weakly coupled, for instance by the The tunnel diode invented by Esaki stration of the validity of the Bardeen- consists of a p-n junction in which tunnel effect in a superconductor- both n and p side are heavily doped Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) theory of insulator-superconductor sandwich, to make the material degenerate and superconductivity. Both the existence there will be a phase relation between the transition sharp. For small vol­ of an energy gap and the particular the two superconductors. In other tages the electrons in the conduction density of states predicted by the words, the whole structure may be­ band of the n-material directly tunnel BCS theory were experimentally have as one superconductor with a into the empty states of the valence verified. supercurrent flowing through the band of the p-side. At higher voltages The tremendous success of tunneling oxide. Generally speaking, the Joseph­ no energy conserving tunneling pro­ in superconductivity suggested that it son effect is an example of a macros- 3 Available December 1973: THE PHYSICIST'S CONCEPTION OF NATURE Edited by JAGDISH MEHRA Accounts of the principal concep­ tions of modern physics, in his­ torical perspective, by some of their most distinguished creators and exponents — an international symposium on "The Development of the Physicist's Conception of Nature In the Twentieth Century", held in Miramare, Trieste, Italy, 1 8-25 September 1 972, B.D. Josephson celebrates his Nobel Prize award at the University of Cambridge Contents: Space. Time and Geometry: Contributions by copic quantum effect. At finite vol­ Based on the above relation it was D. W. Sciama, S. Chandrasekhar, tages, V, electromagnetic radiation possible to determine - with high P. A. M. Dirac, P. Jordan, J. will be generated according to the Ehlers, J. Mehra, A, Trautman, accuracy and to create a new voltage J. A. Wheeler. - Quantum Theory: relation hv = 2eV. The proportionality Contributions by L. Rosenfeld, standard by reducing a voltage mea­ W. Heisenberg, B. L. van der factor 2e/hh ~ 500 MHz μV-1 surement to a more simple frequency Waerden, P. Jordan, J. M. Jauch, contains only fundamental constants. measurement. E. P. Wigner, F. Rohrlich, R. E. Pelerls, G. Wentzel, S. Tomonaga, J. Schwinger, A. Salam, C. N. Yang, V. G. Telegdi, H. B. G. Casimir. - Statistical Description of Nature: Contributions by G. E. Uhlenbeck, M. Kac, W. E. Lamb, Jr., E. G. D. Cohen, I. Prigogine, M. Eigen. - Physical Description, The Physics of the Rare Epistemology and Philosophy: Contributions by C. F. von Weiz­ säcker, L. N. Cooper, J. M. Jauch, Earth Metals J. S. Bell, R. Haag, I. Prigogine, G. Ludwig, D. Finkelstein, B. d'Espagnat, C. F. von Weizsäcker. Elsinore, Denmark, 29 August - 1 September 1973 Cloth, approx. 820 pages Price: Dfl. 200,—/US$ 75.00 A Europhysics Study Conference truly international meeting, with par­ (approx.) on the Rare Earth Metals was held at ticipants from 16 different countries. the LO-Hojskole, Elsinore, Denmark, The summary session was held at the in the period 29 August-1 September, Danish AEC Research Establishment 1973, immediately following the Inter­ Risϕ, after which the participants had "This symposium brought back national Magnetism Conference in an opportunity of seeing the establish­ the past and put the great Moscow. The conference was spon­ ment, especially the neutron scatter­ achievements of physics in clearer perspective than any conference sored by the Metals and Magnetism ing facilities. I have ever attended. What a Sections of EPS and by the Danish The philosophy and organization of marvellous collection of speakers Atomic Energy Commission. The Na­ the conference followed broadly that and topics!" tional Science Foundation provided of the Gordon Conferences, with em­ John Archibald Wheeler partial travel support for some parti­ phasis on informal discussions, and (Princeton University) cipants from the U.S.A. no published proceedings. The aim The LO-Hϕjskole is an educational was to review the present experi­ centre belonging to the Danish Trades mental and theoretical understanding Unions, and it is situated by the sea, of the physics of the rare earth me­ D. REIDEL PUBLISHING in very pleasant surroundings, about tals, and this was accomplished prin­ COMPANY 25 miles from Copenhagen. In order cipally by means of invited half-hour Dordrecht-Holland/ Boston-U.S.A. to restrict the number of participants review papers and the resulting dis­ to approximately 100, it was neces­ cussions, led by the session chair­ sary to reject a number of applications man. There was also the opportunity to attend the conference. It was a to present and discuss short contri- Λ.