The Edge of Physics (March 2003)
Special Editions

Cover; The Edge of Physics; by Staff Editor; 1 Page(s)

Table of Contents; The Edge of Physics; by Staff Editor; 2 Page(s)

Letter from the Editor; The Edge of Physics; by John Rennie; 1 Page(s)

Postcards from the Edge

A Unified Physics by 2050?; The Edge of Physics; by Steven Weinberg; 8 Page(s)

Experiments at CERN and elsewhere should let us complete the Standard Model of particle physics, but a unified theory of all forces will probably require radically new ideas

The Theory Formerly Known as Strings; The Edge of Physics; by Michael J. Duff; 6 Page(s)

The Theory of Everything is emerging as one in which not only strings but also membranes and black holes play a role

Black Holes and the Information Paradox; The Edge of Physics; by Leonard Susskind; 6 Page(s)

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

Simple Rules for a Complex Quantum World; The Edge of Physics; by Michael A. Nielsen; 10 Page(s)

An exciting new fundamental discipline of research combines information science and quantum mechanics

Quantum Teleportation; The Edge of Physics; by Anton Zeilinger; 10 Page(s)

The science-fiction dream of "beaming" objects from place to place is now a reality - at least for particles of light

Frozen Light; The Edge of Physics; by Lene Vestergaard Hau; 8 Page(s)

Slowing a beam of light to a halt may pave the way for new optical communications technology, tabletop black holes and quantum computers

The Large Hadron Collider; The Edge of Physics; by Chris Llewellyn Smith, sidebar by Graham P. Collins; 8 Page(s)

The Large Hadron Collider will be a particle accelerator of unprecedented energy and complexity, a global collaboration to uncover an exotic new layer of reality

The Asymmetry between Matter and Antimatter; The Edge of Physics; by Helen R. Quinn and Michael S. Witherell; 8 Page(s)

New accelerators are searching for violations in a fundamental symmetry of nature, throwing open a window to physics beyond the known

Detecting Massive Neutrinos; The Edge of Physics; by Edward Kearns, Takaaki Kajita and Yoji Totsuka; 8 Page(s)

A giant detector in the heart of Mount Ikenoyama in Japan has demonstrated that neutrinos metamorphose in flight, strongly suggesting that these ghostly particles have mass

Extreme Light; The Edge of Physics; by G¿rard A. Mourou and Donald Umstadter; 8 Page(s)

Focusing light with the power of 1,000 Hoover Dams onto a point the size of a cell nucleus accelerates electrons to the speed of light in a femtosecond

Negative Energy, Wormholes and Warp Drive; The Edge of Physics; by Lawrence H. Ford and Thomas A. Roman; 8 Page(s)

The construction of wormholes and warp drive would require a very unusual form of energy. But the same laws of physics that allow this "negative energy" also appear to limit its behavior

Plenty of Room, Indeed; The Edge of Physics; by Michael Roukes; 8 Page(s)

There is plenty of room for practical innovation at the nanoscale. But first, scientists have to understand the unique physics that governs matter there