Physics World February 2014

Maxwell’s imaginary vortices: how “fictional models” have shaped science

In this month’s cover feature, Margaret Morrison from the University of Toronto examines the use of “fictional models” in science, including Maxwell’s model of electromagnetism, which included a piece of pure fiction in the form of an invisible, all-pervasive “aether” made up of elastic vortices separated by electric charge. On a more practical note, this month’s issue examines strange discrepancies in experimental measurements of the gravitational constant, G, while our lead news and analysis piece tries to find out more about the US National Security Administration’s leaked initiative on quantum computers.

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