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Physics World Digest: September 2002 edition

August 27, 2002

The most beautiful experiment in physics
An experiment that the Nobel laureate Richard Feynman once described as containing "the heart of quantum mechanics" has been voted the most beautiful physics experiment of all time by Physics World readers. The experiment involves sending electrons through two tiny slits and watching how they "interfere" with each other to produce regions of high and low intensity. As Robert P Crease explains, one reason why the so-called "electron double-slit experiment" is so beautiful is that it "can convince even the most die-hard skeptics of the truth of quantum mechanics". Other experiments in the top 10 include Galileo`s studies of falling bodies and Newton`s splitting of sunlight using a glass prism. But the electron double-slit experiment ? an adaptation of an experiment first carried out with light by Thomas Young in 1801 ? is the only one in the top 10 that does not have anyone`s name associated with it. Physics World finds out who performed it first. (p. 15 & 19)
Contact: Robert P Crease, Department of Philosophy, State University of New York at Stony Brook, US (tel +1 631 632 7570; fax +1 631 632 7522; e-mail rcrease@notes.cc.sunysb.edu)

Blind physicist with a grand vision for science
A US physicist has developed a new version of Braille that can help blind people to read scientific papers. John Gardiner from Oregon State University, who lost his sight following an operation in 1998, realised that while conventional Braille code is fine for ordinary text, it is less suitable for scientific notation. His new version of Braille, known as Dots Plus, represents complex mathematical symbols ? such as integral signs ? simply by raising them in relief on the page, rather than using ordinary Braille dots. He has even developed a special printer that lets blind people print out embossed text and graphics. His firm ? View Plus Technologies ? has already sold 100 of the devices. (p. 12)
Contact: John Gardner, Director, Science Access Project, Oregon State University, US (tel +1 541 737 3278; fax +1541 737 1683; e-mail john.gardner@orst.edu; Web http://dots.physics.orst.edu)

Antigravity propulsion still up in the air
When newspapers reported last month that Boeing ? the world`s largest aircraft manufacturer ? is carrying out experiments into "antigravity", it raised the prospect of a breakthrough in physics and a revolution in air travel. The stories claimed that Boeing is trying to reproduce the work of Evgeny Podkletnov ? a Russian scientist who says that a rotating superconductor exposed to magnetic fields can shield objects from the effects of gravity. Although Boeing now denies that it is carrying out research in this field, both NASA and BAeSystems have active
anti-gravity programmes, as Physics World finds out. Podkletnov even says that he has built a machine, which creates pulses of gravity that can pass through materials and knock over objects at great distances. (p. 8)
Contact: Dave Phillips, Boeing, Seattle, US (tel + 1 312 544 2125)

Don?t give yourself a bad name
When Victor Ninov was fired by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in July for allegedly faking data concerning the "discovery" of element 118, many physicists will have wondered why the co-authors on Ninov`s paper did not spot the fabrication sooner. The episode brought to light the fact that scientific papers often contain inappropriate co-authors who do not contribute to the work but are included out of deference or politeness. Eugen Tarnow, who has carried out a survey of over 3,500 physicists about co-authorship, proposes that all scientific papers should either include a description of what each author did or that authorship should be assigned by a lawyer based on formal guidelines. (p. 17)
Contact: Eugen Tarnow, Avalon Business Systems (tel +44 (0)20 7594 7606; fax +44 (0)20 7594 7604; e-mail etarnow@avabiz.com)

The Casimir effect: a force from nothing
Place two mirrors opposite each other in a vacuum and you`ll find that they are attracted towards each other by a strange force that is due entirely to the simple presence of the vacuum. This startling phenomenon, first predicted over 50 years ago by the Dutch theoretical physicist Hendrik Casimir, was for many years little more than a theoretical curiosity. Interest in the "Casimir force", as it is known, has blossomed in recent years. Advances in instrumentation have enabled the force to be measured with unprecedented accuracy, while experimental physicists now realize that it can affect the workings of tiny micromechanical devices, as Astrid Lambrecht explains. These studies could even let physicists test theoretical predictions that nature contains bizarre forces that only show up over distances of less than a thousandth of a millimetre. (p. 29)
Contact: Astrid Lambrecht, Laboratoire Kastler Brossel, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France (tel +33 1 44 27 37 50; fax +33 1 44 27 38 45; e-mail lambrecht@spectro.jussieu.fr)

Helping teachers to teach physics
It is a shocking fact, but more than one-third of physics lessons for 11-14 year olds in the UK are taught by teachers who do not even have a physics A-level. Catherine Wilson explains how the Institute of Physics is planning to help such teachers through a new £750,000 scheme called "Supporting Physics Teaching". The scheme will show, through a set of six multi-media CD-ROMS, how different topics in the physics syllabus are important to physicists and how they relate to one another. It will also tell teachers what pupils are likely to find easy or difficult and will make clear the misconceptions of physics that pupils often have. (p. 51)
Contact: Catherine Wilson, Institute of Physics, London (tel +44 (0)20 7470 4800; fax +44 (0)20 7470 4848; e-mail catherine.wilson@iop.org)

Also in this issue:
Neutrino astronomy plunges the depths (p. 6)
Paul Davies: the life and times of a popular scientist (p. 10)
Is the end in sight for ultrahigh energy cosmic rays? (p. 23)
Polymer devices live longer (p. 25)
Electron bunches are cut down to size (p. 26)
The most amazing 2.5 hours of my life (p. 68)

Institute of Physics