These references are for outside reading assignments in the freshman seminar "The Physics of Star Trek". Most of these are available in the library, but for those that aren't, I'm more than happy to provide copies upon request. Just drop by my office. The references date back to 1990 (with some exceptions for particularly notable or interesting papers) and are listed in chronological order. To return to the Physics 1433 Home Page, click HERE.

P. Yam - Bringing Schrodinger's Cat to Life

(Jun 97 - Scientific American)

• Recent experiments have begun to demonstrate how the weird world of quantum mechanics gives way to the familiarity of everyday experience.

F. Macchetto et al - Galaxies in the Young Universe

(May 97 - Scientific American)

• By comparing distant primeval galaxies with older ones nearby, astronomers hope to determine how galaxies form and evolve.

L. Susskind - Black Holes and the Information Paradox

(Apr 97 - Scientific American)

• What happens to the information in matter destroyed by a black hole? Searching for that answer, physicists are groping toward a theory of quantum gravity.

G. Bothun - The Ghostliest Galaxies

(Feb 97 - Scientific American)

• Astronomers have found more than 1000 low-surface-brightness galaxies over the past decade, significantly altering our views of how galaxies evolve and how mass is distributed in the universe.

R. Siegel - Creating Nanophase Materials

(Dec 96 - Scientific American)

• The properties of these ultrafine-grained substances now found in a range of commercial products, can be custom-engineered.

D. Fischer - Optical Interferometry: Breaking the Barriers

(Nov 96 - Sky and Telescope

• Astronomers are poised to make visible-light images with unprecedented resolution.

P. Kwiat et al - Quantum Seeing in the Dark

(Nov 96 - Scientific American)

• Quantum optics demonstrates the existence of interaction-free measurements: the detection of objects without light - or anything else - ever hitting them.

Jeffrey S. Kargel et al - Global Climatic Change on Mars

(Nov 96 - Scientific American)

• Today a frozen world, Mars at one time may have had more temperate conditions, with flowing rivers, thawing seas, melting glaciers and, perhaps, abundant life.

J. Frederickson - Microbes Deep Inside the Earth

(Oct 96 - Scientific American)

• Recently discovered microorganisms that dwell within the Earth's crust could reveal clues to the origin of life.

H. Lusted et al - Controlling Computers with Neural Signals

(Oct 96 - Scientific American)

• Electrical impulses from nerves and muscles can command computers directly, a method that aids people with physical disabilities.

D. Black - Other Suns, Other Planets?

(Aug 96 - Sky and Telescope)

• Astronomers stand at the gateway to worlds beyond our own.

J. Kirtley - Probing High-Temperature Superconductivity

(Aug 96 - Scientific American)

• Recent experiments exploiting subtle quantum effects yield important clues about why some ceramics conduct electricity without resistance.

Stephen Hawking and Roger Penrose - The Nature of Space and Time

(Jul 96 - Scientific American)

• Two relativists present their distinctive views on the universe, its evolution and the impact of quantum theory.

T. Beardsley - Science in the Sky

(Jun 96 - Scientific American)

• The International Space Station will be the most expensive object ever built. Although many scientists oppose this grandiose scheme, its political momentum now appears unstoppable.

C. Whipple - Can Nuclear Waste Be Stored Safely at Yucca Mountain?

(Jun 96 - Scientific American)

• Part III of a series on nuclear energy. Studies of the mountain's history and geology can contribute useful insights but not unequivocal conclusions.

J. Bernstein - The Reluctant Father of Black Holes

(Jun 96 - Scientific American)

• Albert Einstein's equations of gravity are the foundation of the modern view of black holes; ironically, he used the equations in trying to prove these objects cannot exist.

H. Ford et al - Massive Black Holes in the Hearts of Galaxies

(Jun 96 - Sky and Telescope)

• Follow the astrophysical footsteps along the trail to black holes beyond our galaxy.

P. Charles et al - Black Holes in Binary Stars: Weighing the Evidence

(May 96 - Sky and Telescope)

• How do we know black holes are out there if we can't, by definition, see them?

G. Zorpette - Hanford's Nuclear Wasteland

(May 96 - Scientific American)

• Part II of a series on nuclear energy. The U. S. is spending billions of dollars to clean up its nuclear weapons compelexes. At one of the most contaminated sites, no one knows how much the proejct will cost, how long it will take or how much good it will do.

T. Henry - Brown Dwarfs Revealed: At Last!

(Apr 96 - Sky and Telescope)

• After eluding astronomers for 20 years, diminutive objects that are too massive to be planets but too small to be stars have been found in our cosmic backyard.

Y. Shcherbak - Ten Years of the Chernobyl Era

(Apr 96 - Scientific American)

• Part I of a series on nuclear energy. The environmental and health effects of nuclear power's greatest calamity will last for generations.

J. Angel et al - Searching for Life on Other Planets

(Apr 96 - Scientific American)

• Life remains a phenomenon we know only on Earth. But an innovative telescope in space could change that by detecting signs of life on distant planets.

A. Pentland - Smart Rooms

(Apr 96 - Scientific American)

• In creating computer systems that can identify people and interpret their actions, researchers have come on step closer to building helpful home and work environments.

G. Stix - Waiting for Breakthroughs

(Apr 96 - Scientific American)

• "Nanoists" envision global abundance emerging from the manipulation of single atoms and molecules. But this prophecy has been challenged by researchers who work at a scale of billionths of a meter.

R. Marsden et al - Ulysses: Solar Sojourner

(Mar 96 - Sky and Telescope)

• A trailblazing interplanetary mission, conceived at the dawn of the Space Age, has given scientists a new understanding of the Sun's dynamic workings.

T. Gehrels - Collisions with Comets and Asteroids

(Mar 96 - Scientific American)

• The chances of a celestial body colliding with the Earth are small, but the consequences would be catastrophic.

S. Kivelson et al - Electrons in Flatland

(Mar 96 - Scientific American)

• Trapped in a two-dimensional plane, electrons can exhibit the quantum Hall effect, a startling phenomenon now thought to be intimately connected to superconductivity.

S. Odenwald - Space-time: The Final Frontier

(Feb 96 - Sky and Telescope)

• Physicists who study the "nothing" of the vacuum may be on to something big.

D. Weingarten - Quarks by Computer

(Feb 96 - Scientific American)

• Yearlong computations have helped to confirm the fundamental theory behind quarks - and, using its principles, even to identify a new particle.

J. Roth et al - Cosmology: All Sewn Up or Coming Apart at the Seams?

(Jan 96 - Sky and Telescope)

• A report from the frontlines of cosmological inquiry highlights both crisis and opportunity.

M. Mukerjee - Explaining Everything

(Jan 96 - Scientific American)

• A new symmetry, duality, is changing the way physicists think about fundamental physics - or strings. It is also leading the way to a Theory of Everything.

Seth Lloyd - Quantum Mechanical Computers

(Oct 95 - Scientific American)

• Quantum mechanical computers, if they can be constructed, will do things no ordinary computer can.

Douglas B. Lenat - Artificial Intelligence

(Sep 95 - Scientific American)

• A crucial storehouse of commonsense knowledge is now taking shape.

Pattie Maes - Intelligent Software

(Sep 95 - Scientific American)

• Programs that can act independently will ease the burdens that computers put on people.

Kaigham J. Gabriel - Engineering Microscopic Machines

(Sep 95 - Scientific American)

• Electronic fabrication processes can produce a data storage device or a chemical factory on a microchip.

David A. Patterson - Microprocessors in 2020

(Sep 95 - Scientific American)

• Every 18 months microprocessors double in speed. Within 25 years, one computer will be as powerful as all those in Silicon Valley today.

Berthold-Georg Englert et al - The Duality in Matter and Light

(Dec 94 - Scientific American)

• In quantum mechanics, objects can behave as particles or as waves. Studies now emphasize that such complementary features are more fundamental than has generally been appreciated.

Marvin Minsky - Will Robots Inherit the Earth?

(Oct 94 - Scientific American)

• Yes, as we engineer replacement bodies and brains using nanotechnology. We will then live longer, possess greater wisdom and enjoy capabilities as yet unimagined.

Michael Nauenberg et al - The Classical Limit of an Atom

(Jun 94 - Scientific American)

• By creating ultralarge atoms, physicists hope to study how the odd physics of the quantum world becomes the classical mechanics of everyday experience.

David Z. Albert - Bohm's Alternative to Quantum Mechanics

(May 94 - Scientific American)

• This theory, ignored for most of the past four decades, challenges the probabilistic, subjectivist picture of reality implicit in the standard formation of quantum mechanics.

David Deutsch et al - The Quantum Physics of Time Travel

(Mar 94 - Scientific American)

• Common sense may rule out such excursions--but the laws of physics do not.

John Horgan - Particle Metaphysics

(Feb 94 - Scientific American)

• In the aftermath of the Superconducting Super Collider's death, physicists are divided over how--or even whether--they should continue their search for a unified theory of nature.

Marvin Minsky - Why People Think Computers Can't

(Fall 82 - AI Magazine)

• Excellent overview of the theoretical limitations of machines and the controversy over the possibility of self-awareness.