Capitol Hill Quarterly www.aps.org/public_affairs/chq A PUBLICATION FROM THE AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY WWW.APS.ORG • JULY 2006 • V O L U M E 1 , N O . 2 US high energy physics at risk, says NAS study This is an exciting time in several priorities for US particle Harold Shapiro, an economist in place for the future. “When we particle physics, and the physics in the next 15 years. and former President of Princeton looked at the status of high-ener- United States should increase The main recommendations, University, chaired the NRC’s gy physics in the US, we were its investment in the field to in priority order, are: Committee on Elementary sobered,” he said. “We had no maintain leadership, says a • First, support American sci- Particle Physics in the 21st compelling follow-on program.” National Academy of entists working at the Large Century which drafted the report. The report says that the US Sciences report released in Hadron Collider (LHC) in He announced the panel’s recom- should play a leadership role in the April. Geneva, Switzerland. mendations at a press conference worldwide effort to study The report, titled • Second, invest in the neces- April 26 in Washington. Terascale physics, and accelera- Revealing the Hidden sary research and development Not only will, several major tors are an essential component of Nature of Space and Time, in order to make a compelling bid particle physics experiments come this effort. observed that the field of to host the International Linear to an end shortly, the committee The panel recommends spend- particle physics is now at Collider (ILC). noted. Fermilab, the flagship of ing $300 to $500 million over the a crossroads, as several • Third, expand the program in US particle physics, is scheduled next five years on research and major experiments are particle astrophysics and pursue to shut down around 2010. development for the accelerator scheduled to end soon. an internationally coordinated Shapiro said he had been disap- for the proposed International The report identified pointed to learn that no plan was Linear Collider. The panel also program in neutrino physics. See REPORT on page 2 Physicist pulls some strings on the Hill Alan Alda (left) talks with Brian Greene and Rep. Judy Biggert (IIl-13th) after the lecture. n May, Columbia University Congress, Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ) lars to construct a gigantic facility actually works, Newton declared Greene quipped.) string theorist and author of the and Rep. Vern Ehlers (R-MI). Actor to detect exotic things we can't even that he would leave this question to Most importantly, Einstein laid Ibestselling book, The Elegant Alan Alda, a strong proponent of observe directly. He did so via a the consideration of the reader. out a testable prediction that light Universe, Brian Greene appeared science, was also in attendance. story, namely, Einstein's persistence Albert Einstein took up the chal- would follow the curvature of space- at a special reception on Capitol The timing of Greene’s talk in developing general relativity over lenge. According to Greene, time, and this was borne out in 1919 Hill to talk to Congressional repre- couldn’t have been more fortuitous, the course of 10 long years. Einstein kept asking why, pushing by observations made during an sentatives and their staffers about the coming as it did on the heels of the First published in the mid-17th the envelope further, and in the eclipse. Like Einstein 100 years future of physics research. Audience recently released report of the Century, Isaac Newton’s Principia process, he revolutionized physics. ago, Greene hopes the scientific members included former NSF National Academies’ Committee on is among the most significant Newton believed gravity was a community won’t be content to sit director Neal Lane, Michael Turner, Elementary Particle Physics in the physics treatises ever written. He force, one object exerting a pull on back on its laurels, but will keep ask- the former Assistant Director of the 21st Century, which makes the case mapped out the law of universal another by virtue of their respective ing those fundamental questions to NSF for Mathematical and Physical for funding the next generation of gravity so precisely, that we can masses. Einstein figured out how it push the envelope of scientific Sciences, DOE’s Ray Orbach, particle accelerators. still use his fundamental equations worked: an object’s mass warps the knowledge to the next “final fron- Greene s fellow string theorist Greene provided an excellent today to predict where a ball tossed fabric of spacetime, and this makes tier.” Funding the next-generation Edward Witten, and the only two answer to the inevitable question: in the air will land. But when it us feel the effects of gravity. (“Some collider is one way of ensuring con- physicists currently serving in why spend billions of taxpayer dol- came to explaining how gravity of us feel it more than others,” tinued progress. Nuclear power expert testifies on safety and non-proliferation APS helps boy scouts Global electricity demand is for the production of fissionable “The intent of our report is to explore nuclear science expected to increase by more than material for nuclear weapons. That provide an informative, education- 50 percent by 2025 and nuclear combination of facts led the APS al document to help Congress see With the help of the APS Scouts for a long time. He power is a primary carbon-free Panel on Public Affairs (POPA) to the technical details supporting the Division of Nuclear is an Eagle Scout energy source for meeting that mas- issue a report titled Nuclear Power issue, independent of any political Physics (DNP) Education (though he never sive expansion. But, Iran and North and Proliferation Resistance: agendas,” said Hagengruber, Committee, the Boy earned the Atomic Korea clarify the challenge: tech- Securing Benefits, Limiting Risks. emphasizing that the report is “a Scouts of America has Energy merit badge), nologies used in peaceful nuclear Nuclear energy has long been consensus document,” and there revised its Atomic and now has a son who viewed with suspicion by the gen- were some dissenting voices during Energy merit badge pro- is a Boy Scout. power programs could be diverted eral public because of various health discussions. gram. The new merit He and the DNP Edu- and safety concerns, but over the The consensus that emerged badge, now called “Nuclear cation Committee wrote to On the Back Page last decade, there has been a notice- focused on four main points: Science,” updates the program and the Boy Scouts of America, offer- • Senator Pete V. Domenici able shift in public perception, • Safeguards technologies (see increases the emphasis on science. ing to help revise the handbook, discusses… Meeting our according to Roger Hagengruber sidebar on page 3) are the first line Howard Matis, a nuclear physi- long-term energy needs (University of New Mexico), who of defense against proliferation. cist at Lawrence Berkeley Lab and See SCOUTS on page 2 through Federal chaired the APS report. Nuclear The current international safeguards member of the DNP research and energy is a viable option to car- program run by IAEA largely Education Committee, bon-based energy sources, in light installs technologies that are the noticed that the Atomic development of mounting public concern about result of R&D carried out by the Energy merit badge pro- global warming. Other countries United States 10-20 years ago. The gram needed updating recognize the value of nuclear ener- program in safeguards R&D needs when a local scout troop gy and worldwide, more than thir- to be revitalized. visited his lab. ty new nuclear plants are under Matis has been See NUCLEAR EXPERT on page 3 construction. involved with the Boy 2 • July 2006 APS Capitol Hill Quarterly APS Members in the Media This Quarter in Physics History “We were all scientists and therefore “It’s amazing we are so uncertain about July 1977: MRI uses fundamental physics for clinical diagnosis really understood and appreciated the the most abundant substance on Earth. value this would bring to our colleagues I have a feeling that, with water, there in Iraq.” will be more surprises.” n July 3, 1977, the first state to the other. He called his Barrett Ripin (MD-8th), US Anders Nilsson, Stanford University magnetic resonance method molecular beam magnet- Department of State, on the Iraqi Virtual (CA-14th), on the structure of water. Science Library. (May 22, 2006) (March 10, 2006) Oimaging (MRI) exam on ic resonance. a live human patient was per- Rabi and his team modified formed. MRI, which identifies the molecular beam apparatus so the beam was also exposed to a “This is a good example of something “ There are good reasons to think that atoms by how they behave in a which is very counterintuitive that the the [Linear Hadron Collider] will pro- magnetic field, has become an radio frequency signal as it trav- laws of nature permit.” duce major discoveries.” extremely useful non-invasive eled through the magnetic field. -Robert Boyd, University of Rochester Michael Dine, University of California, method for imagining internal Tuning either the external mag- (NY-28th), on a method of making light Santa Cruz (CA-17th). (April 12, 2006) bodily structures and diagnosing netic field or the radio frequen- travel backwards. (May 16, 2006) disease. The life-saving medical cy can produce resonance. They technique has its foundations in observed the first magnetic res- the work of physicist I. I. Rabi, onance absorption in 1938, with “Many students have a fear of science, “They're not just Shiva the Destroyer; who during the 1930s developed beam of lithium chloride mole- but if they come at it from a different they're Brahma the Creator.” a method of measuring magnet- An image of a brain cules.