Table of contents

Physicists at Cambridge University in the UK have developed a new way to make quantum electronic devices using an atomic force microscope. The technique, known as erasable electrostatic lithography, allows researchers to create and modify quantum devices and circuits during the course of an experiment–a feat that was hitherto impossible. Erasable lithography could be used in experiments to study quantum phenomena and may also provide a route to the fabrication of a solid-state quantum computer.

Researchers from Israel have developed a new way to date archaeological objects based on superconductivity. The technique relies on measuring the magnetic signal from lead – which was widely used in antiquity – in samples that have been cooled to cryogenic temperatures. The method could be used to date objects such as pipes, coins and bottles (S Reich et al. 2003 New J. Phys. 5 99).

It would be a violent end. In just under 22 billion years the Milky Way would be destroyed. Three months later the solar system would be ripped apart, and within 30 minutes the Earth would explode. Just 10-9 seconds afterwards, molecules, atoms and finally nuclei would be torn apart, before the universe ended in a catastrophic "big rip". This cosmic doomsday may sound like the plot for a Hollywood blockbuster, but according to three US cosmologists it could happen if the expansion of the universe is being driven by "phantom energy" (R Cald-well et al. 2003 Phys. Rev. Lett. 91 071301).

Research teams based in Germany and the UK have demonstrated laser-based nuclear transmutation for the first time. The teams showed that iodine-129, which has a half-life of 15.7 million years, can be converted into short-lived iodine-128 using a laser-based source of gamma rays. The lighter isotope has a half-life of just 25 minutes. The work could have applications in the production of medical isotopes and, in the longer term, managing nuclear waste.

A letter written by Werner Heisenberg about his famous meeting with Niels Bohr in September 1941 has been published for the first time. The letter, which Heisenberg wrote to his wife Elisabeth, is the earliest documentary record of his visit to Bohr in Nazi-occupied Copenhagen. It reveals that Heisenberg, who was head of Germany's atomic-bomb project, paid three separate visits to Bohr's home. He was accompanied on the last occasion by his colleague Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker, whose father was Hitler's foreign minister.

Radio astronomers are used to thinking big when it comes to designing their instruments. The world's largest single-dish radio telescope, the Arecibo observatory in Puerto Rico, is 305m across and has a total collecting area of about 73 000m². And the Very Large Array (VLA) of 27 radio dishes in the US is not much smaller, having a surface area of some 13 000m². But these devices will pale into insignificance compared with what astronomers are hoping to build in the future.

The Hubble Space Telescope should be kept in operation until after 2010, according to an expert panel of six astrophysicists appointed by NASA. The space agency wants to decommission Hubble by 2010 so that funds can be diverted to its successor, the $1.6bn James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which is due for launch in 2011. But the panel, which was chaired by John Bahcall of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, unanimously concluded that Hubble could continue to do valuable science well into the next decade.

A proposal by the Bush administration to carry out research on a new type of nuclear weapon has drawn criticism from an unexpected quarter. A Republican-controlled panel in the House of Representatives has voted for a significant reduction in the funds for research on nuclear weapons designed to penetrate underground bunkers.

Last month particle physicists started taking data from a new neutrino detector in the Soudan iron mine in Minnesota, US.

A new radar system that should help scientists work out the effects of the solar cycle on the Earth's climate is due to start operating this month. SPEAR (Space Plasma Explanation by Active Radar)– located on Svalbard in the Scandinavian arctic, some 1000 km north of mainland Norway–will study the interaction of the solar atmosphere with the Earth's upper atmosphere. It will use conventional radar to image the space plasma above the polar cap and will create artificial irregularities in the ionospheric plasma for detection by other ground-based radar systems.

NASA has given the go ahead to the latest in a long line of spacecraft to travel to Mars.

Two theoretical physicists who have made pioneering contributions to our understanding of turbulence have been awarded the 2003 Dirac medal.

What do you do with top-notch materials-characterization equipment that is standing idle for part of the day in a university physics lab? The answer for two physicists from Royal Holloway, University of London, is to offer a measurement service for companies that lack the time or facilities to carry out the work themselves.

A new website that provides news, images and videos of particle physics has been launched by the world's leading high-energy physics labs.

Three physics departments in the UK are set to be awarded the coveted new 6* grade for the quality of their research.

The director general of France's largest agency for basic research was replaced at short notice at the end of July. Geneviève Berger has been succeeded by Bernard Larrouturou, a 45-year-old mathematician, as head of the national centre for scientific research (CNRS). Berger, who was in charge of biophysics and nuclear medicine at a hospital in Paris before she joined the research ministry in 1998, took charge at the CNRS in 2000 and was not due to step down until August 2004.

Learned societies and professional bodies have expressed concern about the fall in the number of pupils studying physics at AS-and A-level in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The number of pupils taking the AS-level exam, which is normally sat at the age of 17, fell by 5% between 2002 and 2003, and by 9% for girls. The numbers studying physics at A-level, which follows the AS-level year, dropped by 3%. The falls come as the overall numbers for all subjects increased by 3.5% at AS-level and 7% at A-level.

It seems fashionable these days for plasma physicists and particle physicists to swap jobs. In December the CERN particle-physics laboratory appointed Robert Aymar, director of the ITER fusion project, as its next director general. Now the UK's national fusion centre at Culham in Oxfordshire has hired the former director general of CERN, Chris Llewellyn Smith, as its director.

Ever since US President George W Bush took office in January 2001, his administration has continually faced the charge that it cares little for environmental issues. Not only did the administration reject the Kyoto protocol and support oil drilling on nationally protected land in northern Alaska, but it also took a highly agnostic view of the impact of human activities on global climate change.

University spin-off firms often need several years to transform laboratory research into marketable products, not least in the field of nanotechnology. But Infinitesima, a firm set up by physicists at Bristol University in 2001, has been quicker off the mark. This month sees the launch of its second commercial product, a new kind of scanning probe microscope (SPM) that can provide real-time video footage of events taking place on the nanometre scale.

Research into organic semiconductors is back on track after the field was rocked last year by one of the worst ever cases of scientific misconduct. Several new papers and a scientific workshop are the most visible signs of the return to normality following last year's sacking of Jan Hendrik Schön from Bell Labs in the US for falsifying and fabricating data. He was fired by Lucent Technologies – the owners of Bell Labs – after a panel was set up to investigate his work (Physics World November 2002 pp6–7).

A powerful new computer chip that has emerged from research into particle physics was unveiled at a conference in the US last month. The mAgic VLIW chip, which can perform 1.5 billion operations a second, consumes just 0.5W – only 2% of the amount required by a PC with the same computing power. It can process audio, video, radio and ultrasound signals, and could lead to high-resolution ultrasound imagers and low-cost hands-free audio-conference systems.

Surveys routinely reveal that Physics World readers enjoy articles about the history of physics and would like more of the same. Such articles are popular, I assume, because they are easier to understand than articles about the cutting edge of research. As Enrico Fermi once said: "Never underestimate the joy people derive from hearing something they already know." Such articles are also enjoyable because many of the personalities appear larger than life. Of course, a paper in a history of science journal would never celebrate the achievements of a physicist in the same way that Physics World would, but that is one of the many differences between journals, which are intended to be learned, and magazines, which should be popular.

Although physics is not known for its comic potential, it occasionally warrants a mention in the world of comedy.

What do we mean by "teaching with the Web"? To answer that question, consider what "real" teachers do. They involve students in situations that are designed to encourage learning. Teaching is not something that one person can do to another; a potential learner can only be encouraged to learn. So when we use the Web to teach, we need to stimulate the mind of the user and offer a visual (and sometimes audible) environment to encourage learning.

Q: Why won't Heisenberg's operators live in the suburbs? A: They don't commute.

The article "Hawking's big night out" (August p6) has offended some readers.

I can identify with Peter Wright's difficulties in finding a publisher for his children's book (July p18). My own efforts to place a children's novel concerning the adventures of a group of youngsters on a space station in the mid-21st century have also come to nought. Although, as Wright says, there is a "body of opinion" that children are turning away from science and technology, I do not believe that it is their wish to do so. The problem, as Wright suggests, is to do with a lack of suitable reading material, both factual and fictional. Indeed, my own experience as a primary-school governor supports the view that young children are fascinated by the world around them, both natural and man-made.

Christopher Bishop (August p15) argues that women appear to enjoy physics but do not select it as a university subject because of its poor image. He says that the girls at the school where he used to teach "opted instead for degrees that they thought would benefit them both practically and financially, and bring them esteem in the world of work". Girls take up physics less often than boys, he suggests, because they are more "market savvy".

Scientists may scoff at the hullabaloo in the media concerning the dangers of nanotechnology. However, they should not forget the real risks posed by other substances that are of similar dimensions to carbon nanotubes, such as asbestos and the carbon black used in photocopiers and laser printers. If nanotubes could pierce cell walls, they could pose as much a risk of cancer as asbestos.

It is a shame that a book like The Physics Companion, which was reviewed in July (pp39–40), has taken so long to appear. For many years now Swedish students have had access to the Physics Handbook for Science and Engineering by Carl Nordling and Jonny Osterman, the existence of which I only learned of through exam revision sessions with my Swedish course mates.

The correct reference for the paper discussed in the article "Novel design for protective tiles" (July p3) is Y Estrin et al. 2003 Phil. Mag. Lett. 83 351–355.

The current furore surrounding nanotechnology makes it difficult to assess progress in this field. A clear breakthrough, however, is the recent creation of 3D binary superlattices of magnetic nanocrystals and semiconductor quantum dots by Chris Murray of IBM Research and co-workers in the US. The properties of these new materials can be tuned by controlling the size, shape and chemical identity of particles on the nanoscale (F Redl et al. 2003 Nature 423 968–971).

Dust, sandstorms and extreme variations in temperature make the desert one of the worst places on Earth to perform a delicate optical experiment. However, if that experiment can help to sniff out oil reserves, then it is well worth trying. Physicists from Shell and Glasgow University in the UK have recently returned from Oman, where they have been testing an ultra-sensitive "optical nose" that can detect trace concentrations of ethane. As well as promising a more efficient method of searching for the Earth's ever-decreasing oil reserves, the new device may also prove effective in diagnosing lung cancer.

Most physicists probably learned about the laws of thermodynamics at high school, but few of us will have been told the whole story. Although these laws are extremely good at describing thermal phenomena, such as how a cup of coffee cools, they are too abstract to explain these processes. This is particularly relevant for temperature – one of the most important, yet conceptually most difficult, variables in thermodynamics. The basis of temperature and thermometry is the zeroth law of thermodynamics, which states that temperature is the quantity that takes the same value in two systems that are in thermal equilibrium. But how does this help us to actually measure it?

Ice is thought to have been responsible for more than 35 serious air accidents world-wide – notably a tragic incident in Canada in 1985 where a passenger jet carrying 248 passengers crashed just after take-off. The formation of ice on the wings and tail-planes of aircraft is more dangerous than icy runways because it can severely affect the aerodynamics of a plane. Now a company in the UK has developed a fibre-optic sensor that can detect the formation of ice films as thin as 100 μm. The new device is an important step towards improving air safety in icy conditions, particularly for light aircraft and helicopters.

LEGEND has it that when word reached Copenhagen of the discovery of the neutron in 1932, Niels Bohr threw a great party at his home. Among his guests was a young Russian named Lev Landau, who is said to have quietly remarked that "stars could be made with this new particle". Astronomers like to think that this was said in earnest – and not under the influence of Danish hospitality – because we now know that neutron stars really do exist.

The Routes to scientific discovery are sometimes strange. We are all familiar sometimes strange. We are all familiar with the story of Newton and the falling apple, or with Friedrich Kekulé's dream of a snake biting its own tail that led to the discovery of benzene's ring-like structure. But such stories – engaging though they might be – are often mythical. They serve a function in science, emphasizing individual psychology and the flash of inspiration from a heroic scientific genius, over the more routine and collective aspects of scientific work.

The Field of ultracold quantum gases is no longer in its infancy. Since the first gaseous Bose–Einstein condensate was formed in 1995, physicists have made an exhaustive study of the many amazing properties of this new state of matter. Similar progress has been made with degenerate Fermigases – the quantum-mechanical cousins of Bose condensates. In addition to being fascinating in their own right, experiments on quantum gases are relevant to many different areas of physics – from atomic clocks and quantum computing to superfluidity and quantum phase transitions.

Here is a classic in new clothing. Some 37 years ago Adrian Melissinos wrote a guide for physics students taking a senior-year lab course. It was an instant success, partly because it was unique. It was not a laboratory manual and it was not a textbook in modern physics. Instead, it provided background material that students would need to know in order to perform a wide variety of experiments in modern physics.

In the late 1960s, when I was a graduate student of theoretical physics at the University of Uppsala, I became interested in the mathematical description of the measurement process in quantum mechanics. Later I managed to sign up for a prestigious summer school entitled "Foundations of quantum mechanics" that was held in 1970 in Varenna. After arriving in Italy, there followed two intensive weeks of lectures by, among many others, John Bell, David Bohm, Bryce De Witt and Eugene Wigner.

Europe's Space Programme is a book of great ambition. It attempts to describe Europe's achievements in space over the past 60 years, starting with the successful launch of the first V2 rocket – or A4 as it was then known – by Werner von Braun and colleagues in 1942. Europe has witnessed such rapid and dramatic political and economic changes since then that Brian Harvey's ambitious venture deserves our admiration, if nothing else.

Planetjemma is a website that is designed to interest girls aged 14–16 in physics. Below, a recent physics graduate and five year – 12 pupils give their verdict on the site

If the Institute were a person it would be male, with either long grey hair or very little hair, and would wear glasses and a tweed jacket with leather patches. Although the person would be old, they would try to be young. And if the Institute held a party, people would sit discussing things and drawing diagrams while sweet white wine and cheese circulated and classical music played. There would be definitely no dancing.

Six years ago Sneyd High School was failing. Its results were dire, the students would not behave, and they had no aspirations. It was not a school where students aspired to reach the national final of a major physics competition, or even cared what physics was. Science was simply a drudge that filled some of the time between starting school in the morning and escaping in the afternoon.