“The only way for someone to kill string theory will be to come up with a better one.”
Sean Carroll – Caltech, USA Today, September 18, 2006


“An object at rest tends to remain at rest–that does apply to the Redskins.”
James Trefil – George Mason University, on the Washington Redskins’ losing record. The Washington Times, September 19, 2006


“Photonics has been a low-volume cottage industry. Everything will change and laser communications will be everywhere, including fiber to the home.”
John E. Bowers – UCSB, on an announcement of silicon-based chips that can produce laser beams, The New York Times, September 17, 2006


“In proteins, the three-dimensional structure is very important to the function, and this is just one example.”
Peter Virnau – MIT, on discovering the most complicated knot ever seen in a protein, United Press International, September 20, 2006


“Generally, inflation would predict a spherical universe.”
Gary Hinshaw – NASA, on some research suggesting the universe is an ellipsoid, Los Angeles Times, September 30, 2006.


“Everyone knows what an icicle is and what it looks like, so this research is very accessible. I think it is amazing that science and math can explain something like this so well. It really highlights the beauty of nature.”
Martin B. Short, University of Arizona, on the shape of icicles, UPI, September 21, 2006


“You're more likely to study snow when you don't have a shovel in your hand.”
Kenneth Libbrecht – Caltech, on the physics of snowflakes, Associated Press, October 2, 2006


“Musicians say a violin is a‘little opened up.’ That is so vague.”
George Bissinger – East Carolina University, on trying to develop a vocabulary for violins that researchers, violin makers and musicians can share. The Charlotte Observer, October 2, 2006


“The public assumes, ‘Well, maybe it's not true.’ In fact, the spread is between bad and very, very bad.”
Steven Chu – Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, on the public perception of climate change, San Jose Mercury News, September 19, 2006


“These are the equations of our lives.”
Wendy Zhang – University of Chicago, on the equations that govern the physics of fluids, UPI, October 9, 2006


“We felt like if we could perfect that bomb and stop that war, then we were doing a good thing. We were saving lives.”
Daniel Gillespie, on his work on the bomb in 1944, The New York Times, October 6, 2006


“You'd have to be a lot more advanced to get a small yield on purpose than to get a small yield by accident. There's no reason to believe they were that brilliant.”
Anthony Fainberg – on North Korea’s nuclear weapons test, Philadelphia Inquirer, October 11, 2006


“It's vindication for an awful lot of people's faith in us.”
John Mather – NASA, on winning the Nobel Prize, Associated Press, October 3, 2006.


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

November 2006 (Volume 15, Number 10)

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Articles in this Issue
APS Task Force Recommends Ways to Better Serve Industrial Members
New Website Targets a Broader Audience
Fellowship Nominations Go Electronic
April Plenary Speakers Set
APS Interviews Apker Finalists
Mather, Smoot Share 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics
NRC Releases AMO Physics Report
Mass Media Fellows Reflect on Summer Science Writing Experience
NAS Study Finds Barriers Remain for Women Physicists
AIP Survey Finds Increase in Physics Degrees
Ninety Years of Optics Innovation Highlight 2006 Laser Science Meeting
ETS Announces Newly Revised GRE Test
Nine Physicists Honored at November Division Meetings
Letters
Viewpoint: Back to School
Inside the Beltway: Innovation and competitiveness is the people’s business.
The Back Page
Members in the Media
This Month in Physics History
Zero-Gravity: The Lighter Side of Science
Zero Gravity: Puzzle Answers