摘要:

Physics News in 1988, prepared by the Public Information Division of the American Institute of Physics (AIP), is the 20th in a series of annual reviews of physics news. In past yearsPhysics Newswas published in booklet form and was distributed to reporters, students, librarians, teachers, scientists, and to the general public. More recentlyPhysics Newshas been published as a supplementary report in the January issue ofPhysics Today, beginning with the January 1984 issue.

ISSN:0031-9228    

DOI:10.1063/1.2810869

出版商:AIP    

年代:1989

数据来源: AIP

ISSN:0031-9228    

DOI:10.1063/1.2810870

出版商:AIP    

年代:1989

数据来源: AIP

ISSN:0031-9228    

DOI:10.1063/1.2810872

出版商:AIP    

年代:1989

数据来源: AIP

ISSN:0031-9228    

DOI:10.1063/1.2810873

出版商:AIP    

年代:1989

数据来源: AIP

摘要:

Twenty‐six years after they demonstrated that neutrinos come in more than one flavor, Leon Lederman, Melvin Schwartz and Jack Steinberger have been awarded the 1988 Nobel Prize in Physics for this seminal experiment. Not only did it provide a fundamental piece of information essential to the development of the now “standard” model of the elementary particles; it also introduced the basic technique for the experimental study of the weak interactions at high energies. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded them jointly the $390 000 prize “for the neutrinobeam method and the demonstration of the doublet structure of the leptons through the discovery of the muon neutrino.”

ISSN:0031-9228    

DOI:10.1063/1.2810874

出版商:AIP    

年代:1989

数据来源: AIP

摘要:

Some 20 years after pulsars were discovered in 1967, there has been a new burst of findings on these rapidly rotating neutron stars. The companion of a recently discovered millisecond pulsar may be literally evaporating into interstellar space.

ISSN:0031-9228    

DOI:10.1063/1.2810875

出版商:AIP    

年代:1989

数据来源: AIP

摘要:

Designing an automobile to reduce the risk of injury to its occupants in a collision demands an ability to correlate the forces generated by the crash with the biological effects experienced by the people involved.

ISSN:0031-9228    

DOI:10.1063/1.2810876

出版商:AIP    

年代:1989

数据来源: AIP

摘要:

Ever since Einstein demonstrated that spontaneous emission must occur if matter and radiation are to achieve thermal equilibrium, physicists have generally believed that excited atoms inevitably radiate. Spontaneous emission is so fundamental that it is usually regarded as an inherent property of matter. This view, however, overlooks the fact that spontaneous emission is not a property of an isolated atom but of an atom‐vacuum system. The most distinctive feature of such emission, irreversibility, comes about because an infinity of vacuum states is available to the radiated photon. If these states are modified—for instance, by placing the excited atom between mirrors or in a cavity—spontaneous emission can be greatly inhibited or enhanced.

ISSN:0031-9228    

DOI:10.1063/1.881201

出版商:AIP    

年代:1989

数据来源: AIP

摘要:

The computer has revolutionized the way we do physics, but surprisingly, it has not significantly altered the way we teach physics. Talks and papers on teaching with computers fill the meetings and journals of the American Association of Physics Teachers, and workshops on the topic abound, yet the real impact of computers in the classroom is slight. In physics research, change comes quickly, disseminates rapidly and is widely appreciated. In physics teaching, change evolves gradually, spreads slowly and frequently meets with resistance. On 6 June 1988The Wall Street Journalpublished a story with the headline “Computers Failing as Teaching Aids.” The reasons theJournalcited for this failure at the general pre‐college education level apply equally well to physics teaching at the introductory college level: lack of access to computers, poor software and faculty members who are inadequately prepared to use computers effectively.

ISSN:0031-9228    

DOI:10.1063/1.881202

出版商:AIP    

年代:1989

数据来源: AIP

摘要:

On 10 November the Department of Energy announced that the Superconducting Super Collider will be located on the Blackland Prairie corn and cotton fields around Waxahachie, Texas. The decision ended a competition entered by 25 states more than a year earlier. The contest for the SSC was reminiscent of way the site for Fermilab was chosen in 1966. Indeed, the procedure invented for selecting Fermilab was copied for the SSC, right down to the preliminary run‐off refereed by a panel appointed by the National Academy of Sciences and the visits by a government team to the final few sites in the competition. Even the complaints from local citizens and the rumors of political influence that were rife during the Fermilab competition had their counterparts in the SSC contest.

ISSN:0031-9228    

DOI:10.1063/1.881203

出版商:AIP    

年代:1989

数据来源: AIP