Web Watch

Carl Mungan, United States Naval Academy
mungan@usna.edu

SciTech at https://www.osti.gov/scitech/ is a database of publications (with full text) by Department of Energy researchers.

A visual introduction to probability and statistics is online at http://students.brown.edu/seeing-theory/.

World Science U at http://www.worldscienceu.com/ is a set of videos and courses about complex current topics in physics.

AAAS maintains the webpage https://www.eurekalert.org/ devoted to science news stories. R&D Magazine has another at https://www.rdmag.com/, as does PBS at http://www.pbs.org/newshour/topic/science/.

Did you know you can build any other logic gate (such as an AND or MUX) entirely out of NAND gates alone? The required configurations are listed at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NAND_logic.

Despite modern technology, chalk & talk still hasn’t gone out of style among physicists according to http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/indepth/2017/jun/01/the-power-of-the-blackboard.

As reported at https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/06/170623100433.htm, University of Illinois engineers have designed a signal that can be broadcast in a room. The signal is inaudible to human ears but creates white noise in any surreptious microphones in the room, preventing spies from listening in.

Dartmouth has an audio lecture and related documents by Oppenheimer online at http://www.dartmouth.edu/~library/digital/collections/lectures/oppenheimer/.

Spectral hole burning plus an applied voltage can be used to slow light down in a rare-earth-doped crystal, as briefly highlighted at https://physics.aps.org/synopsis-for/10.1103/PhysRevA.95.032104.

Read about a tiny camera that works without lenses at http://www.caltech.edu/news/ultra-thin-camera-creates-images-without-lenses-78731.

Three lectures by Hans Bethe on quantum theory are online at http://bethe.cornell.edu/.

The webpage http://latinamericanscience.org/ is devoted to science in Central and South America.

Comprehensive universities in the US straddle the range from liberal arts college to research institutions. An essay about working at such an institution can be read at http://www.adfl.org/cgi-shl/docstudio/docs.pl?bulletin_111014.

When in a medium, does the formula for photon momentum have the refractive index in the numerator or in the denominator? The debate is summarized at https://www.osa-opn.org/home/newsroom/2017/july/the_momentum_paradox_revisited/.

Experiments you can do in your kitchen are presented at http://kitchenpantryscientist.com/. Some could make good science fair projects.

We are asked to imagine the future at https://futurism.com/ resulting from science and engineering innovations.

College Factual’s ranking of the best universities in the US at which to study physics is at http://www.collegefactual.com/majors/physical-sciences/physics/rankings/top-ranked/.

Water droplets evaporating off the surface of a computer chip might be an efficient means of local cooling according to http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/2017/apr/05/jumping-droplets-could-cool-computer-chips.

Nature Magazine highlights the recent interest in topological insulators at https://www.nature.com/news/2010/100714/full/466310a.html.

Finally edX has a MOOC titled “Quantum Mechanics for Everyone” that is accessible at https://www.edx.org/course/quantum-mechanics-everyone-georgetownx-phyx-008-01x.

Disclaimer – The articles and opinion pieces found in this issue of the APS Forum on Education Newsletter are not peer refereed and represent solely the views of the authors and not necessarily the views of the APS.