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March 2003 (Volume 12, Number 3)

March 2003 (Volume 12, Number 3) Entire Issue

News

Physicists Head to Austin for APS March Meeting
A record 5735 talks will be given at the year's largest physics meeting.

Severe Visa Problems Threaten Research Collaborations
Numerous recent case studies of visa delays cause difficulties for researchers and students alike.

Scientific Societies Join Forces to Urge for Funding Increases
Letter to President Bush finds cause for alarm in presidential budget request.

President Signs NSF Authorization Bill; White House Suppresses the Evidence
Searching for an elusive photo of Bush with former APS President Bill Brinkman.

One Last Look
Notable S&T quotations from 2002

Physics in Films
Teaching basic concepts via Hollywood.

Physics for Commuters
If you're bored in the bus in Boston, try solving some physics problems.

NSBP Calls for Hearings on Discrimination at DOE Labs
Plight of black physicists should be explored.

Opinion

Letters
BNL Proud Of Davis — My B-Field Is Bigger Than Yours — Knee-Jerk Rejection Wrong — First Came The Grasshopper — Specify What Each Author Did — APS Prejudiced And Cowardly — Engineers May Drop Physics Requirement — Diffusion In Biological Membranes Related To DLA — Examples Reflect Ideology

The Back Page
The University and the Laboratory: Can the Marriage Be Saved? UC/Los Alamos Leaders weigh in on the recent controversies.

Departments

This Month in Physics History
March 13, 1781: Herschel discovers the planet Uranus

PRL Top Ten: #6
Giant Magnetoresistance of (001)Fe/(001)Cr Magnetic Superlattices

Inside the Beltway: A Washington Analysis
The costs of war put science under stress.

Zero Gravity: the Lighter Side of Science
Physics songs for the technically inclined

Physics First

Photo Credit: Jessica Clark

Standing in front of the spectacular APS booth at the January meeting of the American Association of Physics Teachers in Austin, Texas, Kim Bess (center), Director of Science and Educational Technology at the San Diego City Schools, explains the virtues of teaching physics first (i.e. before chemistry and biology). Listening raptly are Kevin Aylesworth (left) and Fred Stein of the APS Department of Education and Outreach.

SESAME Project Now Open

The SESAME Project (Synchrotron-light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East) became official in January with the formation of the SESAME Council, composed of representatives of the seven founding member states: Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Palestine, and Turkey. To be constructed in Alaan, Jordan, the facility will house the upgraded BESSY I light source that has been donated by the German government, Shown here are King Abdullah of Jordan (left) and Herwig Schopper, a former Director-General of CERN who is the President of the SESAME Council, at the occasion of the groundbreaking ceremony at the SESAME site.

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APS encourages the redistribution of the materials included in this newspaper provided that attribution to the source is noted and the materials are not truncated or changed.

Editor: Alan Chodos
Associate Editor: Jennifer Ouellette