The ten top physics news stories of 2008:  links to expanded articles.

You need to read the articles on both side so the page that I gave you. And then look up and read the articles linked below. 

(The deadline to read the first 5 is one week from now. (Wednesday, October 21, 2009)

 

These are the subject of the first test according to the syllabus. One question will be on the first 5; another on the lecturers to date. And, oh yes, the topic of your paper if you are doing one.

 

Let me explain:  In previous years the hand out was the equivalent of 12 pages.  What was in the February APS Newsletter this year was 2 pages. http://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/200902/physicsstories.cfm So I thought that we could not all read the articles and discuss them on an exam as was done in previous years but I have now gone and looked at the “links” to Physics and realize that they flesh out many of the brief articles.  I added other links to NASA and Science News articles as suggested in the February 2009 APS text.

Here are those links in a clickable form.

  1.  Superconductors:    High-temperature superconductivity in the iron pnictides.  http://physics.aps.org/articles/v1/21, The iron age of superconductivity:  http://physics.aps.org/articles/v1/28
  2. LHC:   http://physics.aps.org/articles/v1/14
  3. Planets:
    1. Mars:  http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/news/CO2.html

                                                               i.      PHOENIX: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/phoenix/news/phoenix-20080729.html; http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2008/sep/HQ_08246_Phoenix.html  

    1. Venus   http://www.physics.byu.edu/faculty/allred/191/Sister_Planet.htm
    2. Saturn:  http://www.physics.byu.edu/faculty/allred/191/gassy_geysers.htm
    3. exoplanet: http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/06aug_kepler2.htm; http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/news/CO2.html 
  1. Quarks Searching high and low for bottomonium  http://physics.aps.org/articles/v1/11 ;  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omega_baryon
  2. Farthest Gamma Ray Burst:   http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/swift/bursts/farthest_grb.html
  3. Ultracold Molecules. http://physics.aps.org/articles/v1/24
  4. Diamond Detectors. At the class website with the addition Diamond_detectors.htm (http://www.physics.byu.edu/faculty/allred/191/diamond_detectors.htm) http://www.sciencenews.org/index/generic/activity/view/id/9437/title/Diamond_detectors   
  5. Cosmic Rays: highest energies http://physics.aps.org/articles/v1/9 ; unexpected directions: http://physics.aps.org/articles/v1/37;  http://arxiv.org/abs/0810.4995
  6. Light finds a way through the maze of Opaque Matter. http://physics.aps.org/articles/v1/20
  7. Macroscopic (Feedback) Cooling. http://physics.aps.org/articles/v1/3

NEW Things: 2009

 Protecting quantum superpositions from the outside world http://physics.aps.org/articles/v2/83