EDITOR’S COMMENTS

I must apologize to our readers for the unusually short size of this issue – we have received very little appropriate publishable material.  We have always hoped to publish papers presented at our Forum’s sessions at APS meetings (as well as other pertinent material) to enable our many readers who missed the meetings to participate in the intellectual life of our Forum.  I’m told that our recent sessions have been very successful – unfortunately, our session organizers have not been able to secure papers from these recent meeting for the Forum’s journal.  I can only hope for more cooperative Forum presenters in the future as well as many more submissions from other sources.  A forum implies participation – please do so!

A major concern of the Forum on Physics and Society is the history of the human aspects of our science.  It is important in physics teaching, the production of new physics, and developing the interaction between physics and society.  Two pieces in this issue address that history: one by my co-editor on the “credit” for development of integrated circuits, the other a reminiscence of the life of a specific physicist – who happened to be one of my favorite undergraduate teachers several decades ago.  Another of our major concerns is the issue of resources and the environment.  These are addressed in Hobson’s Commentary as well as the first two News items by Leath and by Jones.  And, of course, we are concerned with education – both for future scientists and for the general society  The second item by Leith concerns the role of the Federal government in science education while the article by Doppke (a recent student of mine in a modern physics course for secondary school educators) deals with the constraints on science teaching imposed by students’ religious backgrounds, a subject I have touched on here previously  (Two Brains: A No-Brainer, Physics and Society, January, 2005).  

I hope you find this issue, short as it is, interesting and useful.  Please consider the possibility of your own submissions to your journal.

A.M.S.