Viewpoints

A Glance at the Earliest Universe

A Glance at the Earliest Universe

December 17, 2012

Parampreet Singh

A new cosmological theory tackles the description of the earliest era of the Universe, a period inaccessible by current models.

Turbulent Plasma in the Lab

Turbulent Plasma in the Lab

December 17, 2012

Gianluca Gregori and Brian Reville

Confirmation that interacting magnetic plasma waves can generate “daughter” waves of a higher frequency supports the current picture of how turbulence leads to heat in astrophysical plasma.

A Cut Above the Rest

A Cut Above the Rest

December 10, 2012

Manoj K. Chaudhury

A study reveals the optimal balance of forces needed to make the cleanest cuts in soft solids.

Coherent Control of Chemical Reactions on the Attosecond Time Scale

Coherent Control of Chemical Reactions on the Attosecond Time Scale

December 10, 2012

Giulio Cerullo and Caterina Vozzi

Light pulses with few optical cycles and defined carrier-envelope phase can induce selective photofragmentation of molecules on the attosecond timescale.

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Helium Puddles Near Absolute Zero

December 3, 2012

Matter-Wave Self-Interferometry

December 3, 2012

New Temperature Probe for Quark-Gluon Plasma

November 26, 2012

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Synopses

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Looking for Atoms that Pack By the Rules

December 13, 2012

Finding the most energetically favorable crystal structure of closed-shell atoms is a long-standing problem where experiment and theory don’t agree, but a study of argon nanoclusters is providing new insight into the discrepancy.

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A Pulsar’s Inner Secrets

December 13, 2012

Glitches in the rotation of pulsars cannot be explained by the conventional model of superfluid neutrons beneath the star’s crust.

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Distant Bursts Show no Signs of Predicted Light Rotation

December 13, 2012

Cosmic gamma-ray bursts turn out to be polarized, which rules out the breaking of a fundamental symmetry down to the lowest limits ever observed.

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Tuning Casimir Forces

December 6, 2012

Quantum Hall effects can be exploited to tune, reverse, and even eliminate the Casimir force between two graphene sheets.

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Electron Pairing in Iron-Based Superconductors

December 6, 2012

Waste-Free Nanowalkers

December 6, 2012

Cosmological Hat Trick

December 3, 2012

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Focus

Atomic Spins at Human Scale

Atomic Spins at Human Scale

December 17, 2012

An array of bar magnets that rotate on hinges serves as a model of a magnetic material.

Subterranean Sound Waves from Projectile Impact

Subterranean Sound Waves from Projectile Impact

December 7, 2012

A projectile striking granular material generates a series of acoustic pulses that propagate down from the impact site.

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DNA Flexibility at the Atomic Scale

November 30, 2012

Tracking Rearrangements in a 2D Liquid

November 26, 2012

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Notes from the Editors

Trends in Physics session

Trends in Physics session

February 21, 2012

Join the Physics editors for the “Trends in Physics” session at the 2012 APS March meeting in Boston, Wednesday February 29th.

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Broadening Our Reach

October 20, 2011

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