Newswise — WASHINGTON D.C., December 1, 2014 -- The following articles are freely available online from Physics Today (www.physicstoday.org), the most influential and closely followed magazine in the world devoted to physics and the physical science community.
You are invited to read, share, blog about, link to, or otherwise enjoy:
1) SIGNIFICANT BUDGET CUTS PLAGUE AUSTRALIAN SCIENTISTSPhysics Today’s Toni Feder reports on the current effects and troubling forecasts of significant budget cuts to Australia’s national science agency. "There is no area of science that is untouched,” says Sam Popovski, secretary of the CSIRO staff association. Cuts are being applied to solar research, climate change adaptation, astronomy, marine biodiversity, nanoscience, high-performance metal industries, liquid fuels and more. “It’s hard to give exact figures,” Popovski says. “It’s evolving. The implications of cuts come through every day.”MORE: http://tinyurl.com/k98padh
2) THE LONG SHADOW AND MURKY FUTURE OF NUCLEAR NONPROLIFERATIONPhysics Today's David Kramer weighs in on the unsuccessful state of nuclear disarmament, in light of the forthcoming convention of the 155 signatories of the Treaty on the Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) in Vienna this April.“Progress is ‘so painfully slow that it too often feels as if we are moving backwards,’” complained Desmond Browne, former UK minister of defense, at the annual meeting of the Arms Control Association (ACA) on 20 October. “It’s difficult to see a path forward when the nuclear weapons states can’t agree on how to proceed and the nonnuclear weapons states are angry about the pace of progress towards disarmament.”MORE: http://tinyurl.com/noq7puv
3) THE DEEP SPACE NETWORK - 50 YEARS AS THE NERVE HUB OF CELESTIAL EXPLORATIONJoseph Lazio and Les Deutsch, chief scientist and deputy director of the Interplanetary Network Directorate at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, reflect on the creation, history, and future of the Deep Space Network."The Deep Space Network (DSN) is the communications lifeline to spacecraft exploring the solar system and the universe beyond. From its three ground complexes—Canberra, Australia; Goldstone, Calif.; and Madrid, Spain—the DSN transmits commands to spacecraft, tracks them on their journeys through the solar system, receives their data, and conducts its own scientific investigations. In addition, several of the technologies developed at the DSN have been incorporated into everyday life. It is the largest and most sensitive scientific telecommunications system in the world; it makes deep-space exploration possible.”MORE: http://tinyurl.com/o2porkc
4) EARTH LOOSENING UP ITS TROPICAL BELTIn this feature, researchers Thomas Birner, Sean Davis and Dian Seidel describe how the tropical belt emerges from various balances in Earth’s climate system, and discuss its recent expansion towards the poles."The belt emerges as a fundamental climatic feature of atmospheric circulation patterns on a rotating and differentially heated planet. But locating its edges and discerning anthropogenic influences remain difficult research problems....“Simple theories exist only for parts of how it emerges, and a unique and cogent notion of what constitutes the width of the tropical belt remains elusive.”MORE: http://tinyurl.com/ktdmm5n
5) CHILD’S PLAY AND WARFARE – SKIPPING STONES AND BOMBS ACROSS WATERIn this quick study, Tadd Truscott and Jesse Belden, of Brigham Young University, and Randy Hurd, of the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, describe the physics behind the water-skipping behavior in stones and spheres, toys and cannonballs."Naval gunners as far back as the 18th century skipped cannonballs as a military tactic.... Water skipping has returned to more docile roots of late, with toy balls such as the Waboba and WaterRipper that make it much easier to achieve multiple hops. Those spheres are made of an elastic material whose high compliance, or ability to readily deform, introduces some interesting changes to the skipping phenomenon."MORE: http://tinyurl.com/lo5n8z3
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