APS News

June 2007 (Volume 16, Number 6)

Members in the Media

“The hype is bigger because the physics is richer.”
Carlo Beenakker, Leiden University, on graphene, The New York Times, April 10, 2007

“I guess you could say we’re now living on borrowed time. All we need to keep going is maybe $20,000, but nobody seems that interested in funding this project.”
John Cramer, University of Washington, on a time travel experiment for which he can’t get funding, Seattle Post Intelligencer, April 8, 2007

“What drives me is seeing below the surface, seeing what is happening in there.”
Daniel Rugar, IBM, on a new technique combining magnetic resonance imaging and atomic force microscopy, USA Today, April 29, 2007

“I became the country’s leading tennis technologist, mostly because I was the only one doing it.”
Howard Brody, University of Pennsylvania, on studying the science of tennis, The Jewish Exponent, May 3, 2007

“It’s really the worst. We are half the percentage for chemistry or even astronomy.”
Nora Berrah, Western Michigan University, on the low number of women in physics, Marketplace, May 4, 2007

“It sounded pretty terrible.”
Larry Slifkin, University of North Carolina, on picking up the trumpet again after his days as an Army bugler in WWII, The News & Observer, May 7, 2007

“It is inevitable I bring these issues to court because there is no other way. That is the American way.”
Ruggero Santilli, On lawsuits he has filed alleging that other scientists plagiarized his work, St. Petersburg Times, May 9, 2007

“She asked me do I work here and what I do here. ‘I’m a physicist,’ I told her.”
John Krizmanic, NASA, on meeting Queen Elizabeth, Washington Post,  May 9, 2007

“I’m just a physicist.”
Martha Elizabeth Baylor, University of Colorado, on being the first black woman to get a PhD in physics at Colorado, Denver Post, April 22, 2007

“When I try to help my daughter, she complains, ‘But the teacher doesn’t do it that way.’ ”
William Christie, Brookhaven National Lab, on trying to tutor his daughter in physics, The New York Times, May 6, 2007

“They’re thinking of a world without air ... but air resistance is a big deal for little things. It slows down leaves, it slows down raindrops and it slows down pennies.”
Lou Bloomfield, University of Virginia, on the myth that pennies thrown from the tops of buildings could kill pedestrians below, ABC News, May 3, 2007

“It’s an extremely efficient way to reduce air pollution.”
Thomas Cahill, UC Davis, on studies showing that redwood trees remove tailpipe exhaust particles from the air, Sacramento Bee, May 8, 2007

“The trash compactors have a public outreach value. Something high-profile that’s sustainable makes a statement.”
David Tanenbaum, Pomona College, on new solar-powered trash compactors in Palm Springs, The Press-Enterprise, May 6, 2007

“God is the cosmological singularity. I am not being blasphemous. I’m just following in the ancient tradition in saying that science puts the tenets of religion up to the experimental test, and we find that god exists.”
Frank Tipler, Tulane University, CBS11 TV, May 9, 2007

“There is a sense among many experimentalists that theorists are a bunch of irresponsible little spoiled brats who get to sit around all day, having all these fun ideas, drinking espresso and goofing off, with next to no accountability.”
Nima Arkani-Hamed, Harvard University, The New Yorker, May 14, 2007

“When I asked them to apply their knowledge in a situation they had not seen before, they failed. You have to be able to tackle the new and unfamiliar, not just the familiar, in everything. We have to give the students the skills to solve such problems. That’s the goal of education.”
Eric Mazur, Harvard University, on why he switched from giving lectures to having students work in small groups in introductory physics classes, The New York Times, May 10, 2007



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Editor: Alan Chodos
Contributing Editor: Jennifer Ouellette
Staff Writer: Ernie Tretkoff

June 2007 (Volume 16, Number 6)

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Articles in this Issue
Gender Equity: No Silver Bullet but Lots of Ways to Help
New Data Produce Radio Map of North Galactic Pole
NSF's "Broader Impacts" Criterion Gets Mixed Reviews
Preliminary Results from Gravity Probe B Announced at April Meeting
APS and Yale Honor J. Willard Gibbs
April Meeting Prize and Award Recipients
Efficiency is Key to Resolution of Energy Crisis
JLab Experiment Pins Down Neutral Pion Lifetime
First Morehouse Physics Prize Goes to Byron Freelon
MiniBooNE Results Inconsistent with Existence of "Sterile" Neutrinos
New Fermilab Data Favor Light Higgs
Members in the Media
This Month in Physics History
Washington Dispatch
International News
Profiles In Versatility
Letters
The Back Page