APS News

June 2016 (Volume 25, Number 6)

Members in the Media

"If this is really true, then it would possibly be the most exciting thing that I have seen in particle physics in my career — more exciting than the discovery of the Higgs itself."
Csaba Csaki, Cornell University, New York Times, May 2, 2016, on the mysterious 750 GeV signal seen at CERN.

“It’s taken as an insult if a physicist is considered too philosophical. Most physicists think that philosophers just sit in their armchairs and think. Physicists are very down-to-earth, empirical people. They don’t want to think hard about what it all means or where it all comes from.”
Sean Carroll, Caltech, Boston Globe, May 6, 2016, in discussing his new book “The Big Picture.”

"Next Gen … is the first [set of] science standards that I'm aware of where scientists actually had an input in designing the standards,"
S. James Gates, University of Maryland, U.S. News and World Report, May 2, 2016.

"Physics isn't what I do; it is what I am,"
Walter Kohn, Harvard University, Los Angeles Times, May 10, 2016. Kohn, who died on April 19, 2016, shared the 1998 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developing density functional theory.

He "was not just looking for a convenient way to do these calculations," Langer said. He sought "the truth of the situation."
James Langer, U.C. Santa Barbara, Los Angeles Times, May 10, 2016, in comments about Walter Kohn.

“You know, the facts speak for themselves. It's like you've got a hospital and you're not bothering to check if your doctors are using antibiotics or bloodletting,”
Carl Wieman, Stanford University, National Public Radio, April 13, 2016, on the lack of self-evaluation of teaching practices in American higher education.

"I don't watch the show with a pad of paper and calculator," he said. "If they get the science right, it's like an Easter egg hidden in the story."
James Kakalios, University of Minnesota, Tech Insider, April 26, 2016, on the science in the TV show “The Flash.”

“I remember pleading with my family ‘Let's try not to fold … . If we fold, we don’t have anything’,”
Xiaoxing Xi, Temple University, 60 Minutes, May 13, 2016, on the pressures of the now-dropped espionage case against him.

“I think Harry was happiest when he was doing one of his workshops and getting on the ground with the kids building models of buckyballs,”
Mark Riley, Florida State University, New York Times, May 4, 2016, on the death of Harold Kroto, co-discoverer of buckminsterfullerene.

“I am lucky enough to have a successful private company where I don't have to answer to anyone else for what I do, so I can do crazy projects like that,"
Stephen Wolfram, Wolfram Research, cnbc.com, April 7, 2016, on his Wolfram|Alpha search engine.

“Scientists of the past were not just like scientists of today who didn’t know as much as we know. They had completely different ideas of what there was to know, or how you go about learning it,”
Steven Weinberg, University of Texas at Austin, Science News, March 18, 2016.

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Editor: David Voss
Contributing Correspondent: Alaina G. Levine
Art Director and Special Publications Manager: Kerry G. Johnson
Publication Designer and Production: Nancy Bennett-Karasik

June 2016 (Volume 25, Number 6)

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Articles in this Issue
Edward Bouchet Continues to Inspire
Kavli Session Celebrates Neutrino Physics
Peter Adams 1937-2016
Letters
Inside the Beltway
The Back Page
Careers Report
Research News: Editors’ Choice
Members in the Media
This Month in Physics History
Profiles in Versatility
Education & Diversity Update