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AIP and the National Society of Black Physicists congratulate Charles D. Brown II as the winner of the 2023 Joseph A. Johnson Award for Excellence. Dante O’Hara and Danielle Speller are also being recognized with Honorable Mentions. The Johnson Award recognizes early-career scientists who demonstrate scientific ingenuity and impactful mentorship and service – the core values of NSBP founder Joseph A. Johnson. The award and honorable mentions will be presented at the 2023 National Society of Black Physicists Annual Conference on Nov. 12, in Knoxville, Tennessee.

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An examination of the impact of image size on measurements from magnetic force microscopy has won the Advances in Magnetism Award, sponsored by AIP Advances. The paper was selected as the winner from nearly 200 papers submitted and Michael Vaka, now a data engineer at Zontal, was awarded a cash prize and a travel stipend to next year’s conference for his work, performed at BYU under the supervision of Karine Chesnel.

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In Physics of Fluids, researchers examine how ventilation can affect transmission of airborne viruses in a typical cruise ship cabin based on guidelines developed before and after the pandemic. They conducted simulations for virus droplets from a cough in a typical cabin that accommodates two or more people, with different ventilation rates and different positions of the person emitting the cough. Computational fluid dynamics testing ranged from 1.5 to 15 air changes per hour to capture all possible scenarios, from minimal ventilation to rates exceeding the most recent recommendations.

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By detecting cardiovascular ailments and helping assess overall cardiac health, wearable electrocardiograms save lives, not to mention exorbitant hospital care costs. In Applied Physics Reviews, researchers present a novel wearable electrocardiogram patch for enhanced point-of-care diagnostics. The study focused on the advantages of using active dry electrodes for ECG signaling, and they created a compact, lightweight, gel-free hexagonal-shaped ECG patch. The configuration was then integrated with wireless Bluetooth communication for remote sensing capabilities.

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Physics of Plasmas has bestowed the 2023 Davidson Award to Debra Callahan for her paper “Exploring the limits of case-to-capsule ratio, pulse length, and picket energy for symmetric hohlraum drive on the National Ignition Facility Laser.” The annual award of $5,000 is presented in collaboration with the APS Division of Plasma Physics to recognize outstanding plasma physics research by a Physics of Plasmas author.

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In APL Materials, researchers tested a molecular energy harvesting device that captures the energy from the natural motion of molecules in a liquid. Their work showed molecular motion can be used to generate a stable electric current. To create the device, they submerged nanoarrays of piezoelectric material in liquid, allowing the movement of the liquid to move the strands like seaweed waving in the ocean, except in this case the movement is on the molecular scale, and the strands are made of zinc oxide. When the zinc oxide material waves, bends, or deforms under motion, it generates electric potential.

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Climate change and the rapid increase in frequency of extreme weather events around the globe reinforces the reality that these events are interconnected. In Chaos, researchers describe a climate network analysis method to explore the intensity, distribution, and evolution of this interlinked climate behavior, or teleconnections. The analysis combines the directions and distribution patterns of teleconnections to evaluate their intensity and to identify sensitive regions using global daily surface air temperature data. The method relies on advanced data processing and mathematical algorithms to find meaningful insights.

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AIP is pleased to announce Sidney Perkowitz as the winner of the 2023 Andrew Gemant Award, presented to those who have made significant contributions to the cultural, artistic, or humanistic dimension of physics. Perkowitz was chosen by the award selection committee for his enduring commitment to bridge the physics community with the arts and humanities by using a variety of media, including books, essays, public lectures, and theatrical productions.

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In Journal of Applied Physics, researchers describe an acoustic metasurface that uses pingpong balls, with small holes punctured in each, as Helmholtz resonators to create inexpensive but effective low-frequency sound insulation. The coupling between two resonators led to two resonance frequencies, and more resonant frequencies meant the device was able to absorb more sound. At the success of two coupled resonators, the researchers added more, until their device resembled a square sheet of punctured pingpong balls, multiplying the number of resonant frequencies that could be absorbed.

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In Review of Scientific Instruments, scientists developed a microwave microstrip line planar resonator sensor tool to detect water adulteration in honey. The tool is compact, cost-effective, and easily fabricated. The microstrip line resonator sensor is fabricated on a dielectric substrate, which is an insulator that can efficiently support electrostatic fields, such as ceramic or glass. The team tested honey samples with varying water content and found that the sensor's resonance frequency consistently decreases with increased added water content.

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To help journalists and the public understand the context of this year’s Nobel Prize, AIP is compiling a resources page featuring relevant scientific papers and articles, quotes from experts, photos, multimedia, and other resources.

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To help journalists and the public understand the context of this year’s Nobel Prize, AIP is compiling a resources page featuring relevant scientific papers and articles, quotes from experts, photos, multimedia, and other resources.

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TEAM-UP Together is pleased to announce its second cohort of scholars: 62 students who will each receive $10,000 for the 2023-24 academic year. Among these high-achieving students, 15 are second-time award recipients. By offering financial support to promising undergraduates, TEAM-UP Together encourages more young Black and African American students to follow their passion for science. Scholarship awardees become members of the Society of Physics Students and will also gain access to professional development opportunities, mentoring, training, conference travel funding, and more through the TEAM-UP Together community.

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Saltwater taffy, a product that contains no actual saltwater, is neither fully solid nor fully liquid. Researchers from Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology put the sticky, sweet confection to the test to understand the physics behind this unique candy.

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Though a cornerstone of thermodynamics, entropy remains one of the most vexing concepts to teach budding physicists in the classroom. In The Physics Teacher, co-published by AIP Publishing and the American Association of Physics Teachers, T. Ryan Rogers designed a hand-held model to demonstrate the concept of entropy for students.

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Traveling to faraway places is often accompanied by jet lag. Fatigue, difficulty sleeping, and a host of other problems can turn an otherwise exciting adventure into a miserable trip. In Chaos, from AIP Publishing, Huang et al. developed a theoretical model to study the interactions between multiple internal clocks under the effects of aging and disruptions like jet lag. Based on their results, they suggest techniques that could improve internal clock recovery.

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In Journal of Applied Physics, Markus Buehler combines attention neural networks with graph neural networks to better understand and design proteins. The approach couples the strengths of geometric deep learning with those of language models to predict existing protein properties and envision new proteins that nature has not yet devised. Buehler’s model turns numbers, descriptions, tasks, and other elements into symbols for his neural networks to use.

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In JASA, researchers from the University of Oldenburg study the impact of hearing loss on subjects’ enjoyment of different music mixes.

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AIP Publishing is thrilled to announce the appointment of Ortwin Hess as the founding editor-in-chief of APL Quantum, its newest open-access journal, which seeks to cultivate groundbreaking research in both fundamental and applied quantum science. Hess brings a lifetime of scientific experience and insight in nearly all aspects of quantum science and as editor-in-chief, he will lead the journal as it begins accepting submissions later in 2023 and prepares to publish in 2024.

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Gems' unique elemental composition and atomic orientation act as a fingerprint, enabling researchers to uncover the stones’ past, and with it, historical trade routes. In AIP Advances, Khedr et al. employ three modern spectroscopic techniques to rapidly analyze gems found in the Arabian-Nubian Shield and compare them with similar gems from around the world. The authors identified elements that influence gems’ color, differentiated stones found within and outside the region, and distinguished natural from synthetic.