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Print edition: July 2009
Features
The quantum life
The idea that quantum mechanics can explain many fundamental aspects of life is resurging, as Paul Davies reveals
Do cells care about physics?
Startling new discoveries show that there is more to the cell than just genetics and biochemistry, explains Jochen Guck
Postcards from the brain
Sam Wang describes some of the physics of our most complex organ
Darwin’s legacy
Born 200 years ago, Charles Darwin is rightly celebrated for his work explaining the origin of species. But in setting a new standard for what an explanation of nature should be like, he also had a huge impact on physics and cosmology, as Leonard Susskind explains
Quanta
The handbag has landed
Physics has talent
Calling the space 'tweedia'
Who needs the lunar breakdown services?
Frontiers
Black-hole analogue traps sound
New light on axions
Double helix is an 'electric slide' for proteins
Hot dating for old pots
Diamond targets E. coli
News & Analysis
China opens giant celestial scanner
Cautious ITER chiefs opt for 2026 target
Isotope shortage triggers delays for patients
Sweden picks site for waste repository
'Shockley park' stirs racism row
Canadian neutrino lab branches out
Telescope rises to the Sun
Sweden bags neutron source
Boost for carbon-capture facility
Women beat men to faculty positions
Germany unveils €18bn research plan
Deflecting another Tungunska
Intel turns to photonics to extend Moore's law
Game simulates destruction according to the laws of physics
Editorial
In praise of Darwin
Darwin was no physicist, but his approach to science will be familiar to us
Forum
How physics can inspire biology
Alexei Kornyshev thinks that physicists and biologists are now working more closely together than ever before, but that barriers to closer collaboration still exist
Critical Point
The call of the wild
Robert P Crease talks to a former string theorist who found what he wanted in science when he applied the tools of physics to fundamental questions in biology
Feedback
Reflections on the Schön affair
Snowed under: 50 years of the 'two cultures'
Comments from physicsworld.com
Italian magic
Observing the economy
Twinkle, twinkle
Sprechen Sie Physik?
Unusual units
Reviews
Between chance and necessity
Andrew Steane reviews Stuart Kauffman's Reinventing the Sacred
Beyond Einstein's gravity
Bad golfers of the world, unite
Physics tackles rugby
Avast ye landlubbers
Into the woods
Careers
Tools for learning
Some instruments in teaching laboratories may look old-fashioned, but those wooden boxes can hold surprisingly advanced equipment. George Herold describes his career designing experiments for undergraduate labs
Careers and people
Lateral Thoughts
On the origin of the Darwin unit