| |
Physics Today’s Daily Edition offers online readers a variety of news, reviews, commentary, and analysis. Here, in ascending order of popularity, are the 10 most-viewed articles of 2015.
|
#9 Hot physics The Dayside: In another blog entry, Charles Day examined a Thomson Reuters analysis that measured the “hottest" areas of research—but missed emerging hot topics.
|
|
 |
|
|
|
#8 Why did the US abandon a lead in reactor design? Points of View: As the world’s first nuclear power, the US was also the early leader in nuclear reactor technology. However, a policy change in the Atomic Energy Commission in the 1960s led to a shift in goal and strategy in developing new reactors. Cheryl Rofer, who was working on nuclear reactor designs at the time, provides a historical look at that decision and its effects.
|
|
|
|
|
|
#7 Digging into diesels The Dayside: Charles Day struck a chord—and prompted much discussion—with his post inspired by the Volkswagen diesel-emissions scandal. He discussed the history of diesel engines, how they differ from traditional gasoline-powered engines, and what Volkswagen had done that got them into trouble.
|
|
|
|
|
|
#6 Questions and answers with Freeman J. Dyson Bookends: The Q&As that Books editor Jermey Matthews has with the authors of books reviewed in the magazine are always popular, but none so much as his chat with Freeman Dyson. Known for his original ideas and his outspokenness, Dyson discusses his two new books and a variety of other topics ranging from the Pluto flyby to climate change.
|
|
|
|
|
|
#5 The Martian: A science movie review Singularities: One of the biggest movies of the year was the adaptation of Andy Weir’s novel The Martian. It was lauded for its realistic and detailed approach to the scientific possibility of survival on Mars. Physics Today’s website director Paul Guinnessy took a look at the science itself and whether the movie maintained the same level of detail and realism as the book.
|
|
|
|
|
|
#4 Stephen Hawking’s latest physics pronouncements inspire wide attention Science and the Media: Jacob Bekenstein, a peer of Stephen Hawking’s who significantly influenced modern theories about black holes, died in August. Around the same time, Hawking was in the news because of public statements he had made about black holes. Our media analyst Steven Corneliussen took a moment to question the scientists’ different receptions and redirect some of that attention to Bekenstein.
|
|
|
|
|
|
#2 Saturn’s location measured to within 1 mile News Picks: This short item highlighting the work of Dayton Jones of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and his colleagues was our highest-ranked news pick of the year. Using the Very Long Baseline Array, the researchers precisely measured the location of NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. From that, they were able to determine Saturn’s location with 20 times as much precision as the previous best measurement.
|
|
|
|
|
|
#1 Not just for smart dead guys Points of View: High school physics teacher Anthony Rennekamp has found that there are some concepts, such as the force of gravity between small objects, that students don’t easily accept unless they can see them. So with his students he re-created Henry Cavendish’s famous experiment that uses a torsion balance to demonstrate the attractive force of gravity.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Physics Today
American Institute of Physics
1 Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740 USA
+1 301 209 3040 |
|
|
|
|
|
