Author archive
Storing fuel in nanotubes
Carbon nanotubes are rolled up sheets of graphite that can have lengths of about 30-100 nanometers and diameters of about a nanometer. Two years ago it was discovered that carbon nanofibres – which consist of bundles of nanotubes – could absorb hydrogen. The Chinese/US team has now synthesised extra-wide nanotubes that can store 4.2% of […]
Reflections on the life of a laser pioneer
Charles Townes has written a biography – but it is not clear if it is his own or that of the laser. The laser is now such a feature of our everyday life that the remarkable story of its birth needs to be told, and Townes does so in a clear and personal way – […]
Three cheers for 100 triumphant years
In mid-December 1900 Max Planck presented a series of papers to the Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin that were, eventually, to revolutionize not only physics as a discipline, but our entire conceptions of the constitution of matter and energy. It would be fair to say that the century that followed was the century of […]
Visionary glimpse into the 21st century
A more detailed review by Phil Anderson of Princeton University, US is in the November issue of Physics World magazine. This delightfully written little book is full of typically Dysonian intellectual sparkle. It is based on three public lectures given at the New York Public Library in 1997, in which the physicist Freeman Dyson looked […]
Read article: Ethics enters the 21st century
Ethics enters the 21st century
When the great and the good met at the World Conference on Science in Budapest in June, one question was on many people’s lips. How much has science changed since the previous World Conference held in Vienna 20 years before? One major development has been, of course, the collapse of science in eastern Europe and […]
Read article: Isidor Isaac Rabi: walking the path of God
Isidor Isaac Rabi: walking the path of God
I I Rabi's work on the magnetic properties of nuclei, including the development of nuclear magnetic resonance, and his role as a peace campaigner during the Cold War have had profound and far-reaching effects throughout physics
Read article: Superconductor stripes move on
Superconductor stripes move on
There is an old joke about a farmer who has a hen that will not lay eggs. After consulting unsuccessfully with a biologist, and then a chemist, he finally turns to a theoretical physicist. Several days later, the physicist announces that he has solved the problem: “First we assume a spherical chicken…” This story is […]
History and ethics
One clear result from the reader survey distributed with the July issue of Physics World was the large number of you who want more articles on the history and philosophy of physics. This came as a big surprise to us. We thought that we had responded to a similar message in our 1996 survey by […]
IT holds the key to growth
Investment in “knowledge”, which is defined as research and development, software and public spending on education, now accounts for 8% of the OECD’s total gross domestic product (GDP). Expenditure on knowledge is highest in Scandinavia and France (9-10% of GDP), and lowest in Italy and Japan (6-7%). OECD countries also invested an average of 7% […]
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