> [Original Message] > From: What's New <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: 10/7/2005 11:30:06 AM Subject: [BOBPARKS-WHATSNEW] What's New Friday October 7, 2005
WHAT'S NEW Robert L. Park Friday, 7 Oct 05 Washington, DC 1. NOBEL PRIZE IN PHYSICS: THEORY OF QUANTUM OPTICS RECOGNIZED. Half of the Prize went to Roy Glauber, 80, a Harvard theorist who continues to teach freshman physics. The other half was divided between John Hall, 71, and Theodor Haensch, 63. Hall is a Senior Scientist at NIST and a Fellow at the University of Colorado's JILA. Haensch directs the Max-Planck-Institute for Quantum Optics in Munich, Germany. Optics was regarded as a mature area of physics before the invention of the laser in 1960, which made all sorts of new experiments possible. At Harvard, Roy Glauber, then 35, began recasting optics in terms of quantum theory. His work provided the mathematical basis for Hall and Haensch to develop techniques to measure frequencies with the accuracy needed for atomic clocks and global positioning systems. 2. NOBEL PEACE PRIZE: EFFORT TO HALT PROLIFERATION RECOGNIZED. Today it was announced that Mohammed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, was the co-winner of the 2005 Peace Prize, along with the agency he heads. It was a stunning vindication of ElBaradei, who was reelected to a third term as IAEA director in June only after the U.S. grudgingly withdrew its opposition. Before the U.S. invasion, ElBaradei and the IAEA repeatedly insisted, over American objections, that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction. None have ever been found. 3. HOLY WAR: PRESIDENT DELIVERS A "MAJOR SPEECH" ON TERRORISM. Timing is everything. Yesterday, before the Peace Prize was announced, President Bush delivered what the White House said would be a major speech about progress in the War on Terrorism. To a predictably friendly audience at the National Endowment for Democracy, the President declared that 10 terrorist plots around the world have been thwarted since 9-11. After the speech, the White House began making a list. This is like a boy making a list of the naughty things he hasn't done in hopes of a reward. We can only admire the President's restraint in stopping at ten. 4. JOUR 101: BE CAREFUL WHICH RAFT YOU TAKE DOWN THE CANYON. Balance is a good thing for tour boats, but it makes no sense at all applied to religious explanations of the geology of the Grand Canyon. A story in yesterday's NY Times by Jodi Wilgoren followed two expeditions down the canyon, one led by a Christian fundamentalist minister, the other by Dr. Eugenie Scott, a geologist and the director of the National Center for Science Education. The story could have been educational. It wasn't. All a non-scientist could take from the story is that there are two ways to interpret what you see in the canyon. 5. JOUR 102: HOW WILL AN ANNULAR ECLIPSE AFFECT YOUR HOROSCOPE? On Monday, a relatively rare annular eclipse was seen across Spain and Portugal, which happens if the moon is at its apogee and doesn't quite cover the Sun's disk. "It's quite spectacular," an Associated Press account in the NY Times quoted Dr. Stephen Maran of the American Astrological Society. Yes, it was. THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND. Opinions are the author's and not necessarily shared by the University of Maryland, but they should be. --- Archives of What's New can be found at http://www.bobpark.org What's New is moving to a different listserver and our subscription process has changed. To change your subscription status please visit this link: http://listserv.umd.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=bobparks-whatsnew&A=1
