bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
1959 International Plasma-Physics Institute
Authors: Drummond J. E.
Published: January 2009

From August 31 through September 5, 1959, an international conference on basic plasma physics, microwave plasma physics, and the general many-body problem as related to plasmas was held at the University of Washington in Seattle. The sponsors of this Institute were the Boeing Airplane Company, the National Science Foundation, and the University of Washington. Its purpose, as established by the committees which consisted of H. Dreicer (Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory), J. Drummond (Boeing Airplane Company), W. Elsasser (University of California), R. Geballe (University of Washington), R. Gould (California Institute of Technology), D. Kerst (General Atomic), E. Meeron (Boeing), M. Rosenbluth (General Atomic), and L. Wilets (University of Washington), was to provide reviews of recent developments in these related specialties. For this reason, all except four of the formal talks were one-half hour long with ten minutes additional for discussions. The time was monitored by a clock which started Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture (with cannon) in a gradual crescendo after two warning lights had flashed on the podium. This was effective for most of the speakers, but one, Buneman, proved a match for all of the devices: he arranged his talk so that he could show a series of surrealistic type slides of electron trajectories to the accompaniment of the overture.
Wander J. de Haas
Authors: van den Handel J.
Published: January 2009

Wander J. de Haas, who played a leading role in physics in the Netherlands in the period between the two world wars, died on April 26, 1960.
Astronomers in turmoil
Authors: Struve Otto
Published: January 2009

The great upheaval in science, which began with chemistry and physics a quarter of a century ago, has recently penetrated the field of astronomy and caused a state of turbulence, uncertainty, and chaotic expansion unknown in the history of mankind. On October 4, 1957, the first Russian sputnik was thrust into an orbit around the earth and the words “exploration of space” replaced the ancient word astronomy.
College physics in transition
Authors: Verbrugge Frank
Published: January 2009

Coordinated group efforts, which in the past twenty years have become a major development in scientific research—particularly in physics—have also in recent years made major contributions to developments in science education. Large programs, affecting both course content and teaching techniques, have been undertaken. These have in general been directed at secondary-school courses in mathematics and the several physical and biological sciences.
How to address the APS
Authors: Darrow Karl K.
Published: January 2009

Consider an actor in a hit show on Broadway, and contrast him with a physicist addressing the American Physical Society. The actor has all the advantages. He is speaking lines written for him by a master of the art of commanding the interest of an audience (remember that we are postulating a hit show). He has a gift for acting, and also a long experience in the art; otherwise he would not be in the cast. Even so, he is not allowed to speak his lines in any way that occurs to him. Every phrase, every inflection, every gesture, even the position that he is to take on the stage, has been tested or even prescribed by a professional director, who does not hesitate to give him mandatory instructions, or even to alter the lines if they seem ineffective.
Testing
Authors: Hoffmann Banesh
Published: January 2009

If scholastic aptitude and ability could be objectively determined by measuring people's heights, there would be no need for this article. But aptitude and ability cannot be measured so simply. Their assessment is at best tentative and fallible.
Amplification by stimulated emission of radiation
Authors: Levinstein Henry
Published: January 2009

The Spring Meeting of the New York State Section of the American Physical Society was held at LeMoyne College in Syracuse on April 14 and 15, 1961. More than 250 persons attended, mainly from the New York state area, although a few came from as far as California. This was the fourth in a series of highly successful semiannual meetings, each devoted to a selected current topic in physics. In contrast to Physical Society meetings on a national scale and topical conferences where research workers exchange ideas with others in the same field, each of these meetings is designed to bring to physicists the latest developments in an important and rapidly growing area of physics not generally their speciality. Meetings are held at various locations in the state, frequently upon invitation by a company or university. Previous meetings of the current series have been held at Rochester on fuel cells, at Hamilton on radio astronomy, and at Binghamton on computers.
AAPT programs
Authors:   University of Illinois
Published: January 2009

A volume of reprints of articles dealing with physics apparatus for lecture room and laboratory has been prepared by the American Association of Physics Teachers' Committee on Apparatus for Educational Institutions. The articles were originally published in the American Journal of Physics and its predecessor, the American Physics Teacher. The Committee believes that physics teachers will want to be reminded of the existence of these articles and will find it convenient to have them within the covers of this single 300-page paperback volume. The articles range in publication date from 1933 to 1960, in subject field from mechanics to nuclear physics, and in length from notes of a fraction of a page to review articles several pages long. The eighty articles included were selected carefully, but not exhaustively, as ones that seem to make a continuing contribution to physics teaching.
The dedication of Brookhaven's alternating gradient synchrotron
Authors: Davis Robert B.
Published: January 2009

The above view inside the tunnel of the alternating-gradient synchrotron at the Brookhaven National Laboratory shows some of the equipment required to inject a beam of protons from a linear accelerator into the orbit of the synchrotron magnet ring where they can be accelerated to a peak energy of 33 billion electron volts. The AGS, which was first successfully operated on July 29, 1960, was formally dedicated on September 13, 1961. The dedication ceremonies were preceded by a talk by Maurice Goldhaber, Brookhaven's new director, whose comments on that occasion appear in the next two pages. Atomic Energy Commissioner Leland J. Haworth, the Laboratory's former director, delivered the main dedication address, which also appears in this issue, beginning on page 23. Because the ceremonies took place immediately following the week-long International Conference on High-Energy Accelerators, which held its first sessions in New York City and its last at Brookhaven, the ceremony was marked by an unusually large gathering of physicists specializing in high-energy research and accelerator design. An account of the meeting begins on page 31.
Why high-energy physics?
Authors: Goldhaber Maurice
Published: January 2009

Physics is an experimental science. Experiments are designed to ask questions of Nature, and the better they are designed, the clearer is Nature's answer. As the answers obtained through experiments become systematized, the theory of a subject develops. A theory is based on generalizations or idealizations from experiments and then permits us to make what are loosely called “predictions”. Of course, used in this way, the word means no more than saying: If my assumptions (the generalizations or idealizations) are right, then my predictions follow. A new experiment, if it confirms these predictions, then strengthens our belief in the theory, and if it does not, it disproves it. But note, an experiment cannot by itself prove a theory. The same experimental results might have been obtained on the basis of other assumptions or idealizations. The more often a theoretical prediction is confirmed, the more we trust the assumptions of the theory, and finally we use it with as great confidence as if it were itself a fact of nature. Of course, this confidence is considerably greater if the theory is based on very general principles and if we use it only for interpolation rather than for extrapolation to regions of new experience.
Dedicatory address
Authors: Haworth Leland J.
Published: January 2009

On both general and highly personal grounds it is a privilege for me to dedicate this great new scientific resource and thereby to honor the many individuals whose energy and skill and great devotion have brought it into being.
Quantum chemistry summer institute
Authors: Gold Albert
Published: January 2009

Language differences have long presented a barrier to communication which is as troublesome as it is difficult to surmount. Further, it seems that modern scientific research has developed a second language barrier of its own to compound the difficulties encountered when national boundaries are crossed and to cause confusion and misunderstanding even among those sharing the same native tongue. For example, some readers may find it strange that an institute in quantum chemistry is the subject of a report to physicists, while, on the other hand, these same readers would find nothing inappropriate in the topic if it were alternately called an institute on atomic, molecular, and solid-state physics.
The Fermi surface of metals
Authors: Harrison W. A. , Schmitt R. W.
Published: January 2009

The last two years have seen remarkable progress toward understanding the electronic properties of metals, but the result of this progress illustrates the dictum of Veblen that “the outcome of any serious research can only be to make two questions grow where one question grew before”.
Kirkwood Memorial Symposium
Authors: Dahler John S.
Published: January 2009

John Gamble Kirkwood was one of world's most distinguished and versatile scientists. His eminence in the field of statistical physics and chemistry was evidenced by his ingenious theoretical analyses which have played a major role in clarifying our understanding of such subjects as order-disorder phenomena, polymers, liquids, solutions, irreversible thermodynamics, transport phenomena in fluids, the propagation of shocks and detonations, molecular quantum mechanics, liquid helium, and nuclear structure. His theory of electrolytes has been especially valuable in explaining the properties of proteins. Although he frequently dealt with abstract mathematical concepts, many of his ideas had practical applications. For example, he combined electrophoresis with thermal convection to provide an important means for effecting separations of proteins in solution.
NATO Advanced Study Institute at Corfu
Authors: Paskin A.
Published: January 2009

Having been a lecturer last summer at the NATO Advanced Study Institute at Corfu, I thought that my impressions of the meeting might be of interest to those who might not have heard either of the NATO Advanced Study Institute Program or of Corfu.
Physics and engineering in a free society: A panel discussion
Authors: Suits C. G.
Published: January 2009

In this third annual meeting of the Corporate Associates, we are continuing a general theme of communication among physicists, which was initiated at the first meeting. Physics has become such a versatile and powerful discipline in our modern society, and its practitioners are so widely dispersed in academic institutions, in government, and in industry, that some lack of a complete understanding of the role and impact of physics and physicists is plausible.
Physics and engineering in a free society: 1 Education
Authors: Stratton J. A.
Published: January 2009

I have been uncertain about the position I should take in our discussion this afternoon. The American Institute of Physics has sponsored this gathering. My persuasive friends, Dr. Suits and Dr. Hutchisson, who induced me to take part, have long been articulate spokesmen for the role of physics in modern engineering. In the light of my own interests, they might reasonably anticipate that I would support that cause. However, I have felt increasingly of late that the need to interpret the engineer to the physicist is even more pressing. This meeting today with our Corporate Associates seems an appropriate occasion to begin. The central theme of our conference is, in fact, the question as to how physics and engineering each may contribute best to the advancement of a free society. At one time or another, I have had a serious professional interest in both fields. But I shall speak to you today from the vantage point of one whose deepest concern for a number of years has been with education.
Physics and engineering in a free society: 2. Industry
Authors: Piore E. R.
Published: January 2009

These days there is a strong coupling between science and technology, between physics and engineering, and we tend to forget that this coupling in our free society is relatively recent. Going back to the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth century, one finds that science and technology—and today in this room it is physics and engineering—were two independent activities. The industrial revolution of the eighteenth century occurred without the benefit of science. We had in the eighteenth century a metallurgical industry, we had the steam engine, we had other complex (complex for those days) industrial activities, and they had their own independent intellectual dynamics. Science also had its own independent drive, motivation, and creativity. Science—physics—does enter into the picture as we examine the events of the nineteenth century. Watt invented and produced a workable steam engine, but the whole science of thermodynamics—the first law, the second law, the Carnot cycle—became part of our scientific structure much later in the nineteenth century. These scientific concepts then became the basis of further improvement of the steam engine, the internal combustion engine, the new sources of power in that century. Thus we see an example where, first, an inventor comes up with a useful concept for industry and where its further development and its further utilization then depend on creative work in science. This role of physics, I think, characterizes the nineteenth century.
Statesmanship in science
Authors: Bolt Richard H.
Published: January 2009

When asked to define or discuss something, we tend to start with several examples. When asked to speak about statesmanship in science, I find it difficult to get beyond the first example. To me, statesmanship in science is that quality that was possessed, in abundance, by K. T. Compton. I am tempted to recount those attributes and attitudes that characterized his distinguished career of service to science and to society. But K. T. would want us to take another direction, I am sure. He would want us to look not to the past but to the future.
A sketch for a history of the kinetic theory of gases
Authors: Mendoza E.
Published: January 2009

The ideas that solids are composed of compact arrays of atoms, while gases are composed of atoms or molecules in very rapid translational motion, are so obvious that we accept them nowadays without question; in teaching textbooks they are stated as if they were axioms. In its most elementary form, without any sophisticated calculations about the distribution of velocities, with only the one assumption that the impacts of the molecules on the walls of the containing vessel produce the pressure, a very simple calculation gives the equation pv = 13mNc2 where m and N are the mass of a molecule and the number per unit volume, and c is a velocity; p is the pressure and V the volume of the gas.
Lev Davydovich Landau: Winner of the second Fritz London Award
Authors: Pellam J. R.
Published: January 2009

I have been asked by the Committee for the Second Fritz London Award to give an account of the life and work of this eminent recipient of the Award, Lev Davydovich Landau. I was very honored that I had been asked to undertake this task but felt rather overwhelmed by the responsibility it entailed. Because Landau has contributed to so many fields of physics, an award could have been made to him at any one of several conferences in any one of several fields. The main problem, I found, was to limit myself primarily to Landau's work in the field of low-temperature physics for which this Award is made. My own work in this field has been so strongly influenced by these significant contributions that I, like so many of us similarly influenced, feel that I do know him, although I have never met him personally.
Radio astronomy
Authors: Moore Kenneth H.
Published: January 2009

The 1960 spring meeting of the New York State Section of the American Physical Society was the second to be held under a revised system. Once again, a central theme was chosen, and some 170 members and guests were treated to a spirited and excellent survey of modern radio astronomy presented by several of the outstanding and active radio astronomers of the nation.
Contributions of overseas observatories
Authors: Burke Bernard F.
Published: January 2009

Before sketching the activities in radio astronomy elsewhere in the world, let me start with a brief historical survey. Radio astronomy had its beginnings in the United States, with the pioneer work of Jansky in the early 1930's, followed by Grote Reber in the late thirties and early forties. Jansky, in the course of radio atmospheric studies at the Bell Laboratories, showed that at meter wavelengths the dominating source of noise is not terrestrial but celestial, with the radio intensity at 15-m wavelength varying as a function of position in the sky. The most intense radiation came from the Milky Way in the direction of Sagittarius, which was known to be the direction of the center of our galaxy. Reber, who worked in h:s own back yard at Wheaton. Illinois, produced the first maps of sky brightness, at the somewhat shorter wavelength of 1.5 m and later at 70 cm. Taken together, these pioneer observations of Jansky and Reber raised puzzles which were inexplicable by existing theories and indeed are not yet settled, for the sky brightness was several orders of magnitude greater than expected. American physicists for the most part remained oblivious to this particular large-scale puzzle of nature, and it remained for physicists and astronomers abroad to make most of the advances during the decade which followed World War II. Four groups have been outstanding: the Radiophysics Laboratory of CSIRO in Sydney, Australia; the English radiophysics groups at the Cavendish Laboratory and the University of Manchester; and the astronomers of the Observatory of Leiden, Holland.
Radio emission from the planets
Authors: Drake F. D.
Published: January 2009

The history of radio astronomy has been marked by a long series of surprises, many of which have changed the paths of advancement in the science. This has been especially true with the planets, probably the field in which fewest surprises were expected. Now, what kind of radio emission was expected from the planets? Optical studies of the planets have been made, of course, for centuries, and from these we felt that we understood well the physics of the planets. This knowledge suggested that we should expect to observe only thermal radio emission from planets, the Planck radiation due to the planets' nonzero temperature. At radio wavelengths the Planck law becomes the simple Rayleigh-Jeans approximation in which the brightness b = 2kTλ2 The temperature T refers to the level in the outer layers of the planet we are observing with the telescope. This level may be in the atmosphere or it may be at the very surface of the planet itself. From this formula, we expected the spectra of planetary radio emission to follow a λ2 law. The observable quantity in radio astronomy is the radio flux density which, for the planets, is the brightness multiplied by the solid angle subtended bSSy the planet in the sky. Obviously, we would also expect this flux density to go as λ2.
Project Ozma
Authors: Drake F. D.
Published: January 2009

The question of the existence of intelligent life elsewhere in space has long fascinated people, but, until recently, has been properly left to the science-fiction writers. This is simply because our technology has not been capable of detecting any reasonable manifestation that might be expected from other civilized communities in space. Lately, however, astrophysical knowledge of the universe and our technology have advanced to a stage where these questions can no longer be ignored by scientists. I would like to describe briefly the astronomical picture connected with the development of life, and to follow this with some anthropomorphic arguments which help us in our search for other abodes of life. Finally, there will be given a brief description of some instruments that one might apply to this problem.
AIP annual report: 1960
Authors: Hutchisson Elmer
Published: January 2009

In an annual report of the Institute, one inevitably becomes immersed in statistics: pages published, membership and circulation growths, and dollars received and expended. These are the easy yardsticks by which accomplishments may be measured and recorded. Yet, in a real sense, they miss one of the basic purposes of the Institute, the encouragement of “unity and effectiveness of effort among all those who are devoting themselves to physics”. In its efforts toward this end, the Institute looks to the societies, to its Corporate Associates, and to the physicists themselves to share the responsibility for achieving the goal. For its part, the Institute strives for excellence in every task which it undertakes so that physicists will be proud to have it represent their interests.
The theory and mechanism of diffusion in solids
Authors: Lad Robert A.
Published: January 2009

A symposium on the theory and mechanism of diffusion in solids was held at the NASA Lewis Research Center, Cleveland, Ohio, on October 24 and 25, 1960. Diffusion in solids has been receiving a great deal of widespread attention in the past few years. The purpose of the symposium was to provide an opportunity for active workers in the field to discuss the present state of knowledge. It was attended by 87 scientists from 37 university, industrial, and government laboratories in Canada, England, Italy, and the United States. The formal presentation was limited to eleven invited papers in order to allow ample time for informal discussion. The meeting was opened by E. J. Manganiello, Associate Director of the Lewis Research Center, and an introductory address was made by Ira H. Abbott, director of the NASA Office of Advanced Research Programs, Washington, D.C.
So you're considering teaching in a small town college?
Authors: Hefferlin Ray
Published: January 2009

What should you know of college teaching conditions in order to make an intelligent decision? How, for instance, is one's time allotted? You've probably been spending 80% of your time on brainstorming of one form or another, and 20% on other things: if you have been in graduate school, 80% study and 20% teaching assistantship; if you have been on the staff of a university or of a laboratory, 80% research and 20% teaching duties or staff meetings and attending professional conventions.
Midwest Solid State Conference
Authors: Phelps Fred T.
Published: January 2009

“Around the Fermi surface in twenty-four hours” is an appropriate description of the 1960 Midwest Solid State Physics Conference, which was held on October 21 and 22 at the University of Nebraska, in Lincoln. This, the eighth meeting of the conference, was enjoyed by 75 physicists and engineers from 23 laboratories located in 10 states: California, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, South Dakota, and Nebraska.
Problems of nuclear structure
Authors: Weisskopf Victor F.
Published: January 2009

Only six-and-a-half years ago an international conference on nuclear physics was held in Glasgow in which both the physics of elementary particles and the physics of nuclear structure were discussed. It was the last conference in which these two fields of physics were considered as one and the same. Since then, nuclear physics has split into two definite branches, one dealing with the nature and the properties of elementary particles and the other dealing with the structure and the dynamics of atomic nuclei. Today these two fields are as far apart as solid-state physics and nuclear physics. The specialists in one field know very little about what is going on in the other field. This is a very deplorable state of affairs from the point of view of the specialists, since both fields are full of most exciting developments.
The evolution of the Office of Naval Research
Authors: Old Bruce S.
Published: January 2009

It is not often that the birth of a Navy office, which certainly sounds like like a cold, administrative affair, makes history worth recording. But the birth of the Office of Naval Research was such an interesting one, participated in by so many famous and brilliant personalities, that a record of the events should serve a useful purpose. It might even bring inspiration to those who daily continue the struggle to evolve constructive changes in large government departments.
How much is a physicist's inertia worth?
Authors: Shera J. H.
Published: January 2009

In an article entitled “Individual Departmental Libraries vs. Consolidated Science Libraries” (Physics Today, May 1961, pp. 40–41.), Professor D. A. Wells of the University of Cincinnati reported on a poll of 126 chairmen of physics departments with respect to their opinions of consolidated science libraries. His results indicated that 84 “were strongly in favor of departmental libraries”, 17 “made no positive commitment”, 3 favored consolidation, and 22 did not reply. Professor Wells follows these statistics, which he does not refine to show which of his respondents were and which were not served by a centralized library, with a series of quotations setting forth the arguments favoring individual departmental libraries. But, he fails to present the reasoning for the other side. Without providing the reader with the opportunity to judge for himself, and by carefully suppressing any point of view that differs from his own, he concludes: “The few arguments which may be advanced in favor of the consolidated library can easily be given their proper perspective.” This is scarcely scientific objectivity. In the interest, then, of permitting the reviewer to establish his own perspective, it would seem only proper and fair to enumerate arguments in support of consolidation.
How to attract more girls to high school physics
Authors: Way Katharine , Warga Mary E. , Robbins Mary Louise
Published: January 2009

Many influences in our modern life keep girls away from scientific subjects. Their aunts give them dolls rather than Mechano sets. Their schools prescribe dancing or cooking rather than rock study or shop work. Yet even if they did want physics, they would scarcely be able to get into physics classes in today's high schools. So said fifty teachers, principals, school superintendents, counselors, and scientists who took part in a one-day discussion on “Physics Education for Secondary-School Girls” which was held last May under the auspices of the Washington, D.C. Joint Board on Science Education at Immaculata High School and Junior College.
Space charge effects in dielectrics
Authors: Heilmeier George H. , Warter Peter J.
Published: January 2009

A conference to discuss space-charge effects in dielectrics was held in Westhampton Beach, N.Y., on June 13, 14, and 15, 1962. Such a conference was originally proposed by Marvin Silver of the Office of Army Research (Durham) and Abraham Many of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. A committee consisting of Many, Silver, David Fox, Albert Rose, Fritz Stöckmann, and George Warfield was formed to help in selecting the papers and planning the details of the meeting.
International conference on spectroscopy 1962
Authors: Howerton Hugh
Published: January 2009

The International Conference on Spectroscopy was held at the University of Maryland, College Park, Md., from Monday, June 18, through Friday, June 22, 1962. It was the Xth Colloquium Spectroscopicum Internationale; other colloquia were held previously in Amsterdam, Liége, Lucerne, and Lyons. Sponsors were the Society for Applied Spectroscopy (SAS), the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), and the University of Maryland chemistry department. Nearly 1000 scientists attended. Chemists and physicists were well represented. The Conference provided communication between spectroscopists of various countries throughout the world and made known the most recent advances in research in both fundamental and applied spectroscopy.
Pugwash 1962
Authors: Dyson Freeman J.
Published: January 2009

Two Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs (COSWA for short) were held in England in 1962. The ninth conference was held in Cambridge in August, the tenth conference in London in September. The two meetings were very different in purpose and in character. The ninth conference followed the tradition set by earlier meetings. It was small, informal, and concentrated on a particular subject, in this case “Problems of Disarmament and World Security”. The tenth conference broke with tradition in every respect. It was large, formal, and scattered over a variety of topics. Those people who attended both meetings were unanimous in declaring that the ninth was not only pleasanter but much more useful. However, there was a legitimate reason for making the tenth conference big and formal. It was intended that the tenth conference should guide the policies to be followed by the international continuing committee which organizes the Pugwash meetings. So the continuing committee reported to the tenth conference on the work the committee has done over the last five years, and the conference formally elected a new continuing committee representing a wider group of countries than the old one. A policy statement was adopted, requiring the continuing committee to organize only small specialized meetings for the next four or five years, at the end of which time another big formal meeting may be called to review policy and re-elect the committee. So the tenth conference performed a necessary function in enabling a large group of people to take formal responsibility for the future of the Pugwash movement. Apart from this, the high point of the tenth conference was the personal appearance of Bertrand Russell, who opened the proceedings with a wise and witty speech and received a standing ovation.
Hotel management in Ergodia
Authors: Trimmer John D.
Published: January 2009

During an airport stopover in Europe recently, I had the pleasure of seeing again my two friends, the twin brothers Fritz U. Einwand and Hans W. Einwand. They still looked alike, to the same degree that used to confuse me when I saw them across the net of a tennis court in Ann Arbor—and to the same degree, no doubt, that prompted their parents to give them their humorous middle names. I learned that they had become famous in the field of hotel management by contributing a sound mathematical development, based on studies made in their home country, Ergodia. The twins kindly loaned me a copy of a recent comprehensive report on their work.
Development of plasma physics in the last 10 years
Authors: Allis W. P.
Published: January 2009

This article will review rapidly the development of plasma physics from the beginning. There is not very much to say about the time before 1900. There was essentially no theory of electricity. To be sure, there was a one-fluid theory propounded by Franklin and a two-fluid theory propounded by du Fay, but neither of these “theories” could predict anything quantitative. Therefore, they do not qualify fully as theories. They were merely pictures, and it did not matter which theory was held. The same conclusions were reached either way.
Propagation of waves in plasma
Authors: Marcuvitz N.
Published: January 2009

I would like to discuss briefly some questions relating to waves in plasmas with particular emphasis on plasma media wherein electromagnetic properties are highlighted. In view of the stress on practical applications in this symposium, I will inject, at an appropriate point, an example relating to wave reflection and transmission. Before discussing wave propagation in a plasma system, one should be definitive about the nature of the system. In this instance, it is a composite one, comprising an electromagnetic field and a number of particle fields, the latter describing electron, ion, and neutral particles. To give an analytic indication of the nature of the plasmas to be considered, the overall system is identified by a set of coupled equations: the Maxwell field equations for the electric and magnetic fields within the plasma, and a set of macroscopic transport equations describing the velocity, pressure, and temperature of each of the constituents of the plasma. The set of transport equations is derivable from a Boltzmann equation with a binary collision term under the inviscid assumption that the distribution function for each plasma constituent is locally Maxwellian about the average velocity of the constituent.
Dissipation in high-temperature plasmas
Authors: Petschek H. E.
Published: January 2009

Under high temperature plasma conditions, both in the laboratory and in interplanetary space, there is considerable experimental evidence for the existence of turbulence. In both cases, large-scale fluctuations in the magnetic field have been observed. In the laboratory, fluctuations in other measured quantities are also observed, and, furthermore, the containment times are much shorter than one would expect from considerations based on diffusion across the magnetic field by particle collisions. In order to understand the basic interactions occurring, we must acquire some understanding of plasma turbulence.
Physics degrees during the 1950's
Authors: Lindquist Clarence B.
Published: January 2009

During the decade of the 1950's the number of bachelor's and master's degrees in physics declined sharply during the first half and then increased just as markedly in the last half of the decade, with an especially large increase in the year 1958–59. With the exception of the low year 1949–50, the number of doctorates in physics did not vary significantly during the decade.
Basic research in industry: Status symbol or necessity?
Authors: Herwald S. W.
Published: January 2009

At the Westinghouse Research Laboratories we have recently re-examined four questions which scientists have asked many times: (1) What does a corporation expect of a central research and development activity?; (2) Why carry out basic research in industry?; (3) Are scientific objectives and the profit motive compatible?; (4) What support should management provide the research scientist? The answers to these questions are important to us because they are important to our scientists. We have sought, therefore, to ask ourselves these and similar questions as directly as the scientists themselves would put them and then to seek answers in language just as understandable.
Source Materials for the History of Recent Physics
Authors: King W. James
Published: January 2009

The American Institute of Physics has undertaken a project on source materials for the history of recent physics in the United States. One part of the project will be to locate materials that document significant work by twentieth-century physicists, and to take steps toward the preservation and the cataloging of such material. Another part of the project will be to encourage and initiate historical researches by scholars upon these materials. The project promises to be an important step toward greater efforts by the physics community to document the story of recent developments in physics in the United States for the benefit of contemporary historians of science and—even more—for the benefit of historians of the future.
Quantum electronics: A report on the Second International Conference
Authors: Singer J. R.
Published: January 2009

More than 500 scientists took part in the Second International Conference on Quantum Electronics, which was held at the Claremont Hotel in Berkeley, Calif., under the sponsorship of the Office of Naval Research and the University of California. Within the three-day conference period (March 23–25, 1961), some sixty papers were presented on recent progress in masers of various types (especially those involving the higher-frequency microwave and optical regions), phonon interactions and relaxation processes in solids and gases, narrow-line optical spectra of solids and gases, optical pumping, and a number of new ideas and accomplishments having to do with the interaction of matter and electromagnetic waves. In addition to those from the United States who attended the meeting, there were delegates from England, France, Germany, Israel, Japan, Switzerland, and the USSR.
The physics of electronic and atomic collisions
Authors: Borowitz Sidney , Smith Stephen J.
Published: January 2009

Almost as soon as quantum theory was developed to explain atomic structure, it was applied to problems of the scattering of electrons by atomic systems. Early efforts were devoted largely to determining whether or not the new picture of the atom was consistent with some of the results obtained in scattering experiments. For example, Faxen and Holtzmark developed their method of describing scattering in terms of phase shifts to explain the Ramsauer effect. The crudest approximations indicated that, in a general way, the wave-mechanical picture was a satisfactory one for describing continuous, as well as discrete, spectral phenomena, and there the matter rested.
Luminescence of organic and inorganic systems
Authors: Spruch Grace Marmor , Brown Felix H.
Published: January 2009

Last October the Physics Department of New York University at Washington Square played host to about 300—shall we call them luminaries?—in the field of luminescence at a five-day international conference. It was the first time an attempt was made, on a large scale, to bring together researchers in the luminescence of organic systems and those investigating inorganic systems. As the chairman of the conference, Professor Hartmut P. Kallmann of NYU, one of the rare few who work in both fields, said: “I feel a little like a man who has two very good friends, but these two friends don't speak to one another.”
The Northwest Conference on College Physics
Authors: Geballe Ronald
Published: January 2009

More than 120 college and university physics instructors met at the University of Washington in Seattle on May 5 and 6, 1961, for a discussion of problems in undergraduate physics teaching. They represented 50 institutions in the states of Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington and the province of British Columbia, including virtually all of those which offer college-level physics courses. This conference, sponsored jointly by the National Science Foundation and the University of Washington, was the first of its kind held in the Northwest. From the enthusiasm of the participants it may be judged to have served a strong and recurrent need.
Education and the generation of new ideas
Authors: Harnwell Gaylord P.
Published: January 2009

It is an honor to be invited to participate in this panel discussion and to be entrusted with as provocative a topic as the relationship between education and the nascence of new ideas and points of view. Being very imperfectly educated myself and having had no new ideas that anyone would take seriously, I can at least bring an objective point of view to my discussion. The topic is too vast to undertake without some limitations, for education is, properly speaking, the entire phenomenon of intellectual growth, and I would like to conceive of it in this context as the later stages of the formal educational or schooling processes. New ideas have come to men at all times of life, though the more imaginative ones seem to have been brought by the angel of inspiration between the callowness of extreme youth and the onset of age-encrusted patterns of thought: tangential mental openings that these men and women were informed enough to discern and yet bold and uninhibited enough to pursue.
Electron tunneling in solids
Authors: Price P. J.
Published: January 2009

Quantum tunneling of a particle through a barrier was introduced in the theory of field ionization of atoms (1927), and to account for field emission of electrons from surfaces and for alpha emission by nuclei (1928). Electron tunneling within a solid, though more complicated than tunneling of a free particle, arises in essentially the same way from a mode of wave propagation. It has recently become the basis of a new area of research. The figures below depict these varieties of tunneling process. In Fig. 1, according to classical mechanics, the particle coming from the left would be reflected at the “classical turning point”, A, where the potential energy equals its original kinetic energy. The Schrödinger wave governing its quantum behavior penetrates into the “forbidden” region, however, and in consequence the particle may travel onward from the second turning point, B. The probability of transmission, instead of reflection, decreases exponentially with increasing forbidden path length, AB.
Fundamental problems in statistical mechanics: A summer course
Authors: Baym Gordon
Published: January 2009

Nijenrode Castle in Breukelen, the Netherlands, situated between Utrecht and Amsterdam, was home for seventeen days during August of last year to more than sixty physicists, chemists, and advanced students from sixteen countries. These people gathered to attend an intensive course on Fundamental Problems in Statistical Mechanics, held under the auspices of NUFFIC (the Netherlands Universities Foundation for International Cooperation) with support from NATO. Statistical mechanics seemed most appropriately chosen as the subject of the first summer school in theoretical physics in the Netherlands in view of the long tradition, begun by Van der Waals and continued by Ehrenfest. of Dutch research in this field. The lecturers at Nijenrode representing that tradition as it is active in Holland today included N. G. van Kampen, B. R. A. Nijboer, L. van Hove, N. M. Hugenholtz. E. G. D. Cohen, and P. Mazur. Visiting lecturers from abroad were K. Huang of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. H. Wergeland of the Norwegian Technical High School in Trondheim, and G. E. Uhlenbeck of the Rockefeller Institute in New York.
The AVF cyclotrons
Authors: Yavin Avivi I.
Published: January 2009

Having recently completed an eight-week trip to AVF (Azimuthally Varying Field) cyclotrons, I have found that many people are greatly interested in this field. Many laboratories are either discussing the attractiveness of medium-energy accelerators or are already debating what kind to get and how to go about it. Unfortunately, there is insufficient direct cooperation among the various laboratories, and up-to-date information on accelerator subjects is rarely found even in print. I hope therefore that the present report on my trip may serve as a guide to cyclotron physicists, and bring the subject to the attention of physicists generally, some of whom may, sooner or later, be faced with the issue of obtaining AVF cyclotrons for their laboratories.
Some like'em hot
Authors: Smoluchowski R.
Published: January 2009

The ordeal of attending meetings and conferences four or more days long, packed with the “confetti” of several parallel sessions of contributed or invited papers and other ceremonial or not-so-ceremonial sessions, has prompted the search for other solutions. One of the most welcome developments in this search is the growing number of one-day symposia organized for a limited audience interested in specialized subject matter. While these occasions do not in any way substitute for the more formidable events, they give at least an opportunity for the assembled fraternity to talk shop down to the minutest experimental or theoretical details. Even the excellent Physical Review Letters do not substitute for the attractiveness of a sizzling bit of information fresh from the laboratory, a scratch pad, or a computer.
On uniformity of international usage
Authors: Wolfe Hugh C.
Published: January 2009

International communication and cooperation in science continue to grow in importance. The American Institute of Physics (AIP) is happy to cooperate in the efforts of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) to promote uniformity in the use of symbols for various physical quantities and concepts, in the names and definitions of units in which physical quantities are measured, and in other matters of nomenclature. For this reason, we are presenting in this issue of Physics Today the material in the latest report (Document UIP 9; SUN 61–44) of the Commission on Symbols, Units and Nomenclature of IUPAP (SUN Commission), which was approved by the General Assembly of IUPAP at Ottawa in 1960.
Symbols units and nomenclature in physics
Authors: Fleury P. , de Boer J.
Published: January 2009

The recommendations in this document, composed by the Commission for Symbols, Units and Nomenclature (SUN Commission) of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP), have been approved by the successive General Assemblies of the IUPAP, held in 1948, 1951, 1954, 1957 and 1960.
Radiation hazards in realistic perspective
Authors: Taylor Lauriston S.
Published: January 2009

That radiation in its many forms is of great value to man is not debatable. Similarly, that radiation can be received by man in harmful amounts is not debatable. The question as to whether or not there is some level of radiation exposure below which impairment will not result to man is most decidedly debatable; and, despite the enormous effort that has been directed to this point, there is no essential knowledge today which was not available ten years ago and which will lead to a specific answer to this question. It is therefore assumed with great prudence, but without proof. that any unnecessary exposure of man to radiation must be considered as harmful. Again, the degree of harm is completely undefinable for the levels of radiation to which tens of thousands of radiation workers have been exposed for the past several decades; its deleterious effects on the human system are yet to be proven.
Survey of graduate students in physics
Authors: Barton Henry A. , Lindsay R. Bruce , Olsen Leonard O.
Published: January 2009

The President of the United States referred in his press conference of January 15, 1962, to manpower studies published by the National Science Foundation, and stated: “This has been a matter of some concern to me for some time because one of the most critical problems facing this nation is the inadequacy of scientific and technical manpower to satisfy the expanding requirements of this country's research and development efforts in the near future.”
New knowledge in physics and the economy
Authors: Drucker Peter F.
Published: January 2009

All I plan to do today is to submit to you three rather elementary propositions and draw from them three equally elementary conclusions. I stress the “elementary”. For it is precisely because they are so obvious that they are so rarely noticed, and so rarely acted upon.
A report on the International Conference on Sector-Focused Cyclotrons
Authors: Clark David J.
Published: January 2009

The conventional cyclotron, pioneered by Lawrence in the 1930's, is limited in energy by contradictory requirements for the magnetic field. To provide beam stability in the direction of the magnetic field, the field must decrease with radius. But to keep the beam in phase with a constant-frequency dee voltage, the field must increase with radius as the particle mass increases. In a conventional machine, the first requirement is satisfied and phase loss of the beam has limited the energy of protons from this first-generation cyclotron to about 15 MeV, but it has been pushed as high as 22 MeV by the Oak Ridge group.