"People on the Earth are not moving at the same speed as the atomic clocks on the satellites."
–Brett Taylor, Radford University, on why GPS systems would not work without factoring in relativity, Roanoke Times, December 28, 2005

“The discovery also explains why this black hole is so bright in X-rays. It's because the black hole can pull gas directly off from the outer layers of the giant star."
–Philip Kaaret, University of Iowa, on the discovery of a giant star orbiting a medium sized black hole, Associated Press, January 8, 2006

"It is very unpleasant to have a 5,000-pound instrument crash into your living room."
–Scott Nutter, Northern Kentucky University, on why the cosmic ray detector instruments had to be flown on balloons over an uninhabited area, Cincinnati Enquirer, January 11, 2006

"Once you go down that road it is very difficult to make a U-turn and go back to where you were,"
–Mike Lubell, APS and CUNY, on budget cuts that will cause layoffs and cutbacks at RHIC, Associated Press, January 2, 2006

“Black hole processes are perhaps the most exciting source of gravitational waves. Don’t you think that a region of the universe from which no escape is possible, even in principle, is exciting?”
–Richard Price, University of Texas at Brownsville, on gravitational waves and black holes, The Brownsville Herald, December 14, 2005

"We can now go inside a [cell] structure and see how it feels. We are able to interact with the nanoworld."
–Gustavo Luengo, L’Oréal, on powerful microscopes and probes that allow him to view and poke individual atoms, Business Week, December 12, 2005

"I would argue that intelligent design is not science. When faced with an organism, they say it's too complex to have appeared from evolution. So they invoke divine intervention, and then they stop thinking. That's what intelligent design is. It's lazy thinking."
–Rush Holt, US House of Representatives, Trenton Times, December 22, 2005

"As a scientist, I'd think sometimes it's good to have a little controversy to be sure what's being taught."
–Robert Kaita, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, supporting intelligent design, Trenton Times December 22, 2005

"The world is not as real as we think. My personal opinion is that the world is even weirder than what quantum physics tells us."
–Anton Zeilinger, University of Vienna, on quantum weirdness, The New York Times, December 27, 2005

 “Astronomers wanted a time scale that represented the Earth's movement, and the clock community wanted a smooth scale. The compromise has become increasingly difficult to maintain."
–Judah Levine, NIST/University of Colorado, on leap seconds, The Washington Post, December 26, 2005

"In between 2003 and 2005 there has been a tipping point. All of the buzz is about nanotechnology. The physics of silicon can carry us only so far."
–Philip Kuekes, Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, on the switch from silicon technology to nanotechnology, The New York Times, December 29, 2005

"If this equation were found to be even slightly incorrect, the impact would be enormous - given the degree to which [it] is woven into the theoretical basis of modern physics and everyday applications. This doesn't mean [the relation] has been proven to be completely correct. Future physicists will undoubtedly subject it to even more precise tests because accurate checks imply that our theory of the world is in fact more and more complete."
–David Pritchard, MIT, on precise tests of E=mc2, Christian Science Monitor, December 29, 2005


©1995 - 2024, AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY
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
Staff Writer: Ernie Tretkoff

February 2006 (Volume 15, Number 2)

APS News Home

Issue Table of Contents

APS News Archives

Contact APS News Editor


Articles in this Issue
DOE Picks University of California to Head Los Alamos Management Team
De Gennes, Ben Lakhdar and Wagner to Deliver Endowed Lectures at March and April Meetings
Optical Illusion
Taiwan Symposium Caps World Year of Physics Talent Search program
Scientists, Teachers, Clergy Hail Court Ruling
Undergraduate Awards Promote Student Participation at DNP Meeting
Letters
Viewpoint
The Back Page
Members in the Media
This Month in Physics History:
Inside the Beltway: Don't Give Me No Bad News!
Industrial Profile