Word: physicists
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...disputes the SSC's scientific importance. Physicists' knowledge of the subatomic particles that make up atoms, the bits that constitute the particles and the forces that bind them all together depends on accelerators -- and the bigger the better. The reason: the best way to produce particles for study is to create intense bursts of energy. Einstein's discovery that matter and energy are equivalent guarantees that such bursts will spontaneously transform themselves into particles of matter. The SSC would make these extremely concentrated energy bursts by using its magnets to guide protons, moving at nearly 186,000 miles per second...
...Nobel laureate for his work in solid-state physics, "but we can learn equally fundamental things in other areas of physics and with a lot less money." And while proponents say the SSC would spark a resurgence of national interest in research that would benefit all sciences, M.I.T. physicist Daniel Kleppner fears that smaller projects simply are not glamorous enough to attract congressional attention. "They lack the dramatic quality to make a big splash," he says, "yet the ability to measure a molecular reaction, for example, is absolutely essential for dealing with problems like the greenhouse effect...
...would be good news from Stockholm this year. "This is the year for the geriatric Nobel Prize," he said -- and he was right. Lederman, along with former Columbia University colleagues Melvin Schwartz, 55, now the head of his own computer firm in California, and Jack Steinberger, 67, a research physicist in Geneva, Switzerland, won the award for their groundbreaking contributions to particle physics. In 1962 the three developed techniques to capture neutrinos and use them to discover other particles in the subatomic world, including the muon neutrino, believed to be one of the dozen building blocks of matter...
Until recently, the form of travel available to Soviet dissidents was one way. Now, though, it looks as if the Soviet Union's most prominent dissenter will be granted a visa for a trip to the U.S. that will not result in unwanted exile. Physicist Andrei Sakharov, winner of the 1975 Nobel Peace Prize for his human rights efforts, announced last week that the Soviet government had tentatively agreed to let him visit the U.S. next month. The reason for the trip: a conference of the International Foundation for the Survival and Development of Humanity, an organization devoted to environmental...
...hard to imagine what Glashow intended with such anecdotes. The humor is boorish, and the adventurous tales contribute little if anything to understanding the thought processes of a great physicist...