Number 757 #1, December 7, 2005 by Phil Schewe and Ben Stein
The Top Physics Stories for 2005
At the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) on Long Island, the four large detector groups agreed, for the first time, on a consensus interpretation of several year’s worth of high-energy ion collisions: the fireball made in these collisions -- a sort of stand-in for the primordial universe only a few microseconds after the big bang -- was not a gas of weakly interacting quarks and gluons as earlier expected, but something more like a liquid of strongly interacting quarks and gluons (PNU 728).
Other top physics stories for 2005 include, in general chronological order of their appearance throughout the year, the following:
the arrival of the Cassini spacecraft at Saturn and the successful landing of the Huygens probe on the moon Titan (PNU 716);
the development of lasing in silicon (Nature 17 February);
the biggest burst of light ever recorded from outside the solar system, from a soft gamma repeater (PNU 721);
further evidence for superfluid behavior in a solid (PNU 724);
detection of infrared radiation directly from an exoplanet (PNU 724);
zeptogram mass sensitivity in a cantilever sensor (PNU 725);
splashless impact of droplets at low pressures (PNU 725);
the demonstration of pyrofusion, fusion reactions created with a pyroelectric crystal (PNU 729);
the best-yet prediction of hadron masses using lattice QCD (PNU 731);
the best measurement yet of the weak nuclear force (PNU 736);
superfluidity directly observed in a sample of ultracold fermi atoms (PNU 734);
extension of the "comb" technique for measuring frequency (a topic pertaining to the 2005 Nobel prize in physics) into the ultraviolet (PNU 735);
geoneutrinos observed (PNU 739);
hybrid atom-molecule dark states (PNU 744);
using statistical mechanics to predict the effectiveness of flu vaccines (PNU 724);
hydrophobic water (PNU 747);
2005 Nobel Prize (PNU 748);
molecules that walk (PNU 751);
phonon Hall effect (PNU 750);
short gamma ray bursts identified as coming from in-spiraling neutron stars (Nature 6 October);
hyperentangled states (PNU 754);
further progress in research concerning left-handed or negative-refraction materials, including perfect lensing (Science 22 April), almost perfect lensing in the mid-infrared (PNU 750), and extension of negative-index behavior into the near-infrared region (PNU 756).
The Physics Frontiers Centers (PFC) program supports university-based centers and institutes where the collective efforts of a larger group of individuals can enable transformational advances in the most promising research areas. The program is designed to foster major breakthroughs at the intellectual frontiers of physics by providing needed resources such as combinations of talents, skills, disciplines, and/or specialized infrastructure, not usually available to individual investigators or small groups, in an environment in which the collective efforts of the larger group can be shown to be seminal to promoting significant progress in the science and the education of students. PFCs also include creative, substantive activities aimed at enhancing education, broadening participation of traditionally underrepresented groups, and outreach to the scientific community and general public.