“What we have done is we have put together two materials, neither of which is a superconductor, and we found their interface–where they touch–is superconducting,”
Ivan Bozovic, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Reuters, October 8, 2008

“We’ve got a lot of money on the table (for science spending). The question is how to spend it. That is going to be the question for the next administration. That is going to be tough.”
Presidential Science Advisor Jack Marburger, Associated Press, October 16, 2008

“Scientifically, it is a compelling problem, and the public accepts the notion that it’s a problem. But at the moment most people are feeling affected by other things in a much more urgent fashion.”  
Michael Lubell, APS, on climate change, St. Louis Post-Dispatch,
October 22, 2008

“The core message is we need a comprehensive energy strategy. Nuclear energy can and should be a part of that overall comprehensive energy strategy, but nothing can happen without the human resources.”
Shirley Jackson, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Associated Press, October 6, 2008

“Some kind of microscopic lightning effect.”
Seth Putterman, UCLA, on how scotch tape generates x-rays when unrolled, The New York Times, October 23, 2008

“An electromagnetic cloak could bend light around itself, similar to the flow of water around a stone, making invisible both the cloak and an object hidden inside.”
Vladimir M Shalaev, Purdue University, The Toronto Star, October 25, 2008

“I just felt sick in my heart. They went out with their dredges to San Bruno Shoal and piled up millions and millions of tons. They changed the whole hydraulics of the bay.”
Ralph Nobles, on development of wetlands around the San Francisco Bay, San Jose Mercury News, October 24, 2008

“Some of my favorite days are when I get to see students learning something new. I especially enjoy the opportunities that physics affords me to think deeply about all kinds of things, from the trivial to the profound, and I also enjoy the chance to implement new programs and ideas that benefit young people.”
Gary White, AIP, The Topeka Capital-Journal, October 13, 2008

“Having something that you can hold in your hand is an accomplishment in nanotechnology.”
Wade Adams, Rice University, on “buckypaper,” which researchers at Florida State are beginning to commercialize, Associated Press, October 17, 2008

“On the one hand, a head-first slide gets the fingertips to the bag before the center of mass gets there. On the other hand, sliding reduces your forward velocity. As with many things in physics, it is not so obvious which effect wins out.”
Alan Nathan, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, on whether baseball players should slide or run to the base, HealthDay News, October 21, 2008

 “The snail has to figure out how to apply the right force– you have to tune yourself to exploit this ‘sweet spot’ of surface tension. If you’re doing too much or too little, it won’t work.”
Eric Lauga, UC San Diego, on his study of how water snails move, MSNBC.com, November 3, 2008

“We cannot explain [the effect] 100%, but it gives us a new mechanism, and probably new science, to focus on as we try to raise the efficiency of thermoelectrics,”
Mercouri Kanatzidis, Northwestern University, on a new more efficient thermoelectric material, The Guardian, October 13, 2008

“The people got an opportunity to see who I was.”
Bill Foster, on winning re-election to Congress, Chicago Sun-Times, November 5, 2008

“If you hit something, what’s stopping you from putting your hand through it is electromagnetism. That’s much stronger than the force pulling it down to the ground.”
Glenn Starkman, Case Western Reserve University, on the weakness of gravity compared to other forces, The Cleveland Plain Dealer, November 5, 2008

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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
Staff Writer: Ernie Tretkoff
Contributing Editor: Jennifer Ouellette
Science Writing Intern: Nadia Ramlagan

December 2008 (Volume 17, Number 11)

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Articles in this Issue
Pittsburgh Steels Itself for Physics Invasion
Apker Recipients Study Graphene, Quantum Information Theory
Sigma Pi Sigma Congress Convenes at Fermilab
April Meeting Plenary Speakers Set
SESAME Now Officially Open
Obama Energy Policy on View at Forum
Journals Aim to Improve Access for the Blind
DNP Holds 2008 Annual Meeting in Oakland, California
Fluid Dynamicists Hear About Oil Spills, Wind on Jupiter, and More
Meeting Briefs
Letters
The Back Page
Members in the Media
Profiles In Versatility
Zero Gravity: The Lighter Side of Science
This Month in Physics History
Washington Dispatch
International News