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Vacuum and cryogenics

Vacuum and cryogenics

Reasons to be cheerful

05 Jan 2009

The economy may be in a nosedive but there is plenty to look forward to in science this year

Steven Chu

It is always easy to be optimistic at the start of a year, a credit crunch and likely recession notwithstanding. In the US, President Barack Obama has nominated the Nobel-prize-winning physicist Steven Chu as secretary of the US Department of Energy — a move that augurs well in giving science, and physics in particular, a prominent role in the new administration’s thinking. In April, the European Space Agency’s Planck satellite, which will measure the cosmic microwave background in unprecedented detail, is due to take off, while 2009 will also see space missions to study early galaxies (Herschel), exoplanets (Kepler) and the Earth itself (GOCE).

We can also look forward to the Large Hadron Collider at CERN finally colliding its first particles in the summer, although — given the complexity involved in repairing its damaged magnets — that date may well stretch into the autumn or even beyond. Meanwhile, Japanese science will take a giant step forward in June with the opening of the Japan Particle Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC) — a huge facility combining an intense neutron source, a proton synchrotron and neutrino-beam generator all rolled into one.

Another highlight of 2009 is its designation by the United Nations as the International Year of Astronomy (IYA2009) — it being exactly 400 years since Galileo carried out the first-ever studies of the heavens using a telescope. IYA2009 will probably not have quite the impact on physicists that the International Year of Physics did in 2005, but there will still be plenty to get excited about (see “Let the global astronomy celebrations begin“). Keep an eye out for Physics World’s contribution to IYA2009 — an astronomy special issue in March and extra astronomy coverage on physicsworld.com. One cloud on the horizon is that this year physics could be eclipsed in the public’s mind by biology: 2009 marks the 150th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species and 200 years since his birth. Not wishing to miss out, Physics World will be running a special issue on physics and biology in the summer, which underlines the fact that physics remains as vital as ever.

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