Extreme Physics II (May 2006)
Exclusive Online Issues

Cover; Extreme Physics II; by Staff Editor; 1 Page(s)

Table of Contents; Extreme Physics II; by Staff Editor; 1 Page(s)

The First Few Microseconds; Extreme Physics II; by Michael Riordan and William A. Zajc; 8 Page(s)

In recent experiments, physicists have replicated conditions of the infant universe--with startling results (originally published May 2006)

An Echo of Black Holes; Extreme Physics II; by Theodore A. Jacobson and Renaud Parentani; 8 Page(s)

Sound waves in a fluid behave uncannily like light waves in space. Black holes even have acoustic counterparts. Could spacetime literally be a kind of fluid, like the ether of pre-Einsteinian physics? (originally published December 2005)

The Illusion of Gravity; Extreme Physics II; by Juan Maldacena; 6 Page(s)

The force of gravity and one of the dimensions of space might be generated out of the peculiar interactions of particles and fields existing in a lower-dimensional realm (originally published November 2005)

The Mysteries of Mass; Extreme Physics II; by Gordon Kane; 8 Page(s)

Physicists are hunting for an elusive particle that would reveal the presence of a new kind of field that permeates all of reality. Finding that Higgs field will give us a more complete understanding about how the universe works (originally published July 2005)

Quantum Black Holes; Extreme Physics II; by Bernard J. Carr and Steven B. Giddings; 8 Page(s)

Physicists could soon be creating black holes in the laboratory (originally published May 2005)

Inconstant Constants; Extreme Physics II; by John D. Barrow and John K. Webb; 8 Page(s)

Do the inner workings of nature change with time? (originally published June 2005)

The String Theory Landscape; Extreme Physics II; by Raphael Bousso and Joseph Polchinski; 10 Page(s)

The theory of strings predicts that the universe might occupy one random "valley" out of a virtually infinite selection of valleys in a vast landscape of possibilities (originally published September 2004)