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Women and Minority Students Now More Likely to Take Physics

Female and underrepresented minority students have come a long way in bridging the historical gap in enlistment in a high school physics course, the American Institute of Physics reports in a recently-published survey. High school physics classes, which have historically had a higher percentage of male students, are now likely to contain equal numbers of males and females.

Good Physics Books For a Math PhD Student?

An anonymous reader writes "As a third-year PhD math student, I am currently taking Partial Differential Equations. I'm working hard to understand all the math being thrown at us in that class, and that is okay. The problem is, I have never taken any physics anywhere. Most of the problems in PDEs model some sort of physical situation. It would be nice to be able to have in the back of my mind where this is all coming from. We constantly hear about the heat equation, wave equation, gravitational potential, etc. I'm told I should not worry about what the equations describe and just learn how to work with them, but I would rather not follow that advice. Can anyone recommend physics books for someone in my position? I don't want to just pick up a book for undergrads.

"The Physics of Impossible Things" at Perimeter Institute

Newswise - Some things can happen in our Universe, and others cannot. The laws of physics establish the boundary between possibility and impossibility. Scientists naturally spend most of their time thinking about the possible. In this presentation, however, Prof. Ben Schumacher of Kenyon College will take you on a brief reconnaissance across frontiers in physics to study impossible things and discover the surprising connections between them. You will encounter standard science-fiction ideas and devices like time machines and faster-than-light spaceships - as well as other, less-familiar prodigies including quantum cloners and bounded electromagnetic miracles. A safe return to the real world is unconditionally guaranteed.

High School Physics Lessons Updated

There is a problem that does not only address Physics, but most of the courses taught in educational institutions, more pregnantly in high school. It involves the fact that the knowledge found in average school textbooks is old news. Physics, for example, spans over the discoveries of 2 millennia, covering the buoyancy principle of Archimedes or the motion laws of Isaac Newton, a bit of optics, but suddenly stops at the beginning of the 20

New computer model gives particle physics another thumbs-up

The Standard Model of particle physics, that old workhorse of a theory, has dodged another bullet. The model lays out the properties of all known elementary particles and describes three of the four fundamental forces that govern nature (gravity is left out—finding a home for it is one of the most pressing problems in physics). But it also raises some questions—for instance, why should protons and neutrons, which make up atomic nuclei, be so heavy when their constituent parts, quarks and gluons, are so light? (In fact, the Standard Model holds that gluons are massless.)

This Week in Physics History: Oct. 27 - Nov. 2

Nov. 2, 1929 - Canadian-American physicist Richard E. Taylor is born. Taylor shared the 1990 Nobel Prize in physics for work in particle scattering that helped lead to the quark model of particle physics.

More high-energy physics journals opt for OA model

The journal Europhysics Letters (EPL) has announced that it will offer the open-access publishing model, free of charge, to all authors submitting experimental and theoretical letters in the fields of 'Physics of Elementary Particles and Fields' and 'Nuclear Physics'.

Perimeter Institute Launches Modern Physics Resource

An anonymous reader writes "You can find six new online sources of info about hot topics in modern physics at the 'What We Research' outreach page of Perimeter Institute. The info includes text, graphics and online presentations dealing with Cosmology, Superstring Theory, Quantum Gravity, Quantum Foundations, Quantum Information and Particle Physics. The resource section at the bottom of each page recommends a wealth of interesting online lectures by some famous scientists. PI is an independent, nonprofit scientific research and outreach organization."

Physics of Star-forming Clouds, Spider Webs: Brief Highlights of Fluid Dynamics Conference in San An

Physics of Star-forming Clouds, Spider Webs: Brief Highlights of Fluid Dynamics Conference in San Antonio

Physics the Next President Needs to Know

Physics may be the furthest thing from the minds of the presidential candidates right now, but a solid grasp of the science behind some of the latest headlines will be critical for the winner.

Physics for Presidents

Surely, the field of physics is far from being the first thing that presidents concern themselves with when it comes to the skills they require for the job. However, having a more solid knowledge of the way things happen around the world and in nature in general, as well as in space, might make the difference at some point, perhaps more often than not. High technology, space race, nuclear and terrorist threats, global warming or pollution are just a few examples of what a good president should always be able to comprehend, and address if case be.

The Physics of Golf Balls: New Research Aims to Help Golfers by Producing Better Balls That Fly Fart

The Physics of Golf Balls: New Research Aims to Help Golfers by Producing Better Balls That Fly Farther

The Physics of Teardrops

it is swept over the surface to leave a new, thin coating, and the excess is drained. Though the system may sound simple, the physics gets quite complicated. Scientists now are using

"The Physics of Impossible Things" at Perimeter Institute

Prof. Ben Schumacher of Kenyon College will speak on "The Physics of Impossible Things" December 3rd at Perimeter Institute.

Preorder Crayon Physics Deluxe and Get $5 Off

At this year's Independent Games Festival (IGF), Petri Purho's Crayon Physics Deluxe took home the Seumas McNally Grand Prize, the festival's top honor, effectively placing it among past winners such as Aquaria, Darwinia, and Gish. Since then, we've been bursting with anticipation for the release of the zen-like puzzler.

K-State physics lab becoming a frontrunner in ultrafast laser research

For decades, the J.R. Macdonald Laboratory at Kansas State University has been known worldwide as a center for atomic collision physics using particle accelerators. Now, researchers at the lab are working toward making it known for ultrafast laser science.

K-State physics lab becoming a frontrunner in ultrafast laser research

For decades, the J.R. Macdonald Laboratory at Kansas State University has been known worldwide as a center for atomic collision physics using particle accelerators. Now, researchers at the lab are working toward making it known for ultrafast laser science.

K-State physics lab becoming a frontrunner in ultrafast laser research

MANHATTAN, KAN. -- For decades, the J.R. Macdonald Laboratory at Kansas State University has been known worldwide as a center for atomic collision physics using particle accelerators. Now, researchers at the lab are working toward making it known for ultrafast laser science.

Particle Physics, Pattern Perception, Science Communication

Elsewhere in science news last week, physicists reported last week that one of the largest computational efforts to calculate the masses of protons and neutrons has confirmed the standard model of particle physics. The study was published in Science.

Wyatt CEO wins physics award

Dr Philip J Wyatt, the chief executive officer and founder of Wyatt Technology, has been awarded the 2009 prize for Industrial Application of Physics by the American Physical Society (APS).

Unraveling the mysteries of physics on the nanoscale

(Nanowerk News) Quantum dots (QD)—nanoscale particles that confine electrons and can emit and absorb light—have been studied in lasers, solar paneling, and biomedical therapeutics. Nina Markovic, affiliated faculty member of the Johns Hopkins Institute for NanoBioTechnology (INBT) and assistant professor of physics in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, believes this emerging technology will prove important in cancer therapies, energy transmission, and drug delivery.

NuPNET looks to future nuclear physics in Europe

Representatives from NuPECC, the EU Commission and national funding agencies have launched a network to allow for more transnational activities in nuclear physics.

NSA and Army On Quest For Quantum Physics Jackpot

coondoggie sends this excerpt from NetworkWorld: "The US Army Research Office and the National Security Agency (NSA) are together looking for some answers to their quantum physics questions. ... The Army said quantum algorithms that are developed should focus on constructive solutions [PDF] for specific tasks, and on general methodologies for expressing and analyzing algorithms tailored to specific problems — though they didn't say what those specific tasks were ... 'Investigators should presuppose the existence of a fully functional quantum computer and consider what algorithmic tasks are particularly well suited to such a machine. A necessary component of this research will be to compare the efficiency of the quantum algorithm to the best existing classical algorithm for the same problem.

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