Physics World April 2014

The power of silence: how to give yourself time to think

In our cover feature Felicity Mellor from Imperial College London argues that current research policy – in the UK at least – emphasizes silence’s opposite. “From assessing publications and rewarding collaborations, to requirements for public engagement, policy initiatives urge scientists to speak up,” she writes. There is a danger, Mellor warns, that in the midst of all this enforced interaction, an important precondition for creativity in physics could be lost. “With all these demands to talk, do scientists still have the chance to think?” she wonders. Elsewhere in the April issue, Daniel Clery examines a highly critical report into the management of the ITER fusion experiment. You can find out about recent observations suggesting the Milky Way undulates up and down and then take stock of the latest exoplanet discoveries.

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