Learning and understanding physics requires more than studying physics texts. It requires doing physics. Doing research is a key opportunity for students to connect physical principles with their everyday experience. A powerful way to introduce students to research and technique is through subjects in which they might find interest. Presented is…

This summer, perhaps while you were lounging around the pool in the blistering heat, the blogosphere was buzzing about data taken at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. The buzz reached a crescendo in the first week of July when both Fermilab and CERN announced the results of their searches for the Higgs boson. Hard data confronted a theory nearly…

Oftentimes physics is portrayed as merely a list of facts that we know about the world around us, when in fact it is a way of knowing about that world. At times physics claims to understand the inner working of objects that cannot be directly observed, such as the core of the planets and Sun, or the structure of an atom. It is important for…

Physics Education Research (PER) focuses on understanding how students learn physics at all levels and developing strategies to help students with diverse prior preparations learn physics more effectively. New physics instructors are encouraged to visit http://PhysPort.org, a website devoted to helping instructors find effective teaching resources…

Though central to any pedagogical development of physics, the concept of mass is still not well understood. Properly defining mass has proven to be far more daunting than contemporary textbooks would have us believe. And yet today the origin of mass is one of the most aggressively pursued areas of research in all of physics. Much of the excitement…

Physics First is offered to ninth graders at high schools in Aurora, CO. A unique new asset of this school system is an embedded research lab called the "Innovation Hyperlab." The goal of the lab is to connect secondary school teaching to ongoing university scientific research, supporting the school district's aim to create opportunities to…

Ask any physicist what the preeminent journal in the field is, and I think the almost unanimous answer will be "Physical Review Letters" ("PRL"). This weekly journal of the American Physical Society publishes high-impact research from all the major subdisciplines of physics. This journal is not the one you would think is the first place a high…

The United States Association for Young Physicists Tournaments (USAYPT) held its annual February Tournaments on Feb. 9-10, 2007, at the North Carolina School for Science and Mathematics, Durham, NC. Young physicists' tournaments are theoretical and experimental research-based team competitions described more fully at the USAYPT website:…

Over the last few years, the helical mirror or "spinner" has become a popular decoration for gardens and elsewhere. Even casual observation reveals intriguing optical properties, so the spinner is a good teaching tool. To facilitate student exploration, we suggest some questions and provide brief explanations.

There are many schools (grades K-12) around the country that offer some sort of science research option for students to pursue. Often this option is a local science fair, where students do smaller projects that are then presented at poster sessions. Many times the top local projects can advance to some type of regional and, possibly, state science…

In his "The Making of the Atomic Bomb," Richard Rhodes remarks of the July 16, 1945, Trinity atomic bomb test in New Mexico that "had astronomers been watching they could have seen it reflected from the moon, literal moonshine," an allusion to Ernest Rutherford's famous dismissal of the prospect of atomic energy. Investigating…

Relates the story of Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen and presents one view of the extent to which the discovery of the x-ray was an accident. Reconstructs the sequence of events that led to the discovery and includes photographs of the lab where he worked and replicas of apparatus used. (GS)

A report on the National Bureau of Standards is presented. It provides national measurement standards for some 40 physical quantities related through the laws of physics to the basic six - length, time, mass, temperature, electric current, and luminous intensity. (DF)

The history of science is replete with instances of disappointed, disgruntled, and frustrated scientists who have felt and complained that their ideas have been stolen or ignored until someone else came up with the same. Conversations have been recorded, correspondence uncovered, and public debates conducted on questions of priority. (Author/TS)

Presents the history of the discovery of pulsars, observations that have been made on pulsar radiation, and theories that have been presented for its presence and origin. Illustrations using pulsar's properties are presented in mechanics, electromagnetic radiation and thermodynamics. (DS)