The week in physics: Attosecond x-ray physics; Magnet-controlled prosthesis

Photoemission of core-level electrons is caught in the act Forward this email View in your browser THE WEEK IN PHYSICS: 23–27 SEPTEMBER Photoemission of core-level electrons is caught in the act Advances in attosecond x-ray physics enable researchers to glimpse complex molecular dynamics not seen before in the study of valence electrons. Alex Lopatka Magnets embedded in muscles help control a prosthetic hand Real-time sensing of arm muscle contractions enables a recent amputee to perform everyday tasks with an artificial limb. Jennifer Sieben FROM THE VAULT: October 1978 The time projection chamber By combining the particle‐identification function in the same detector volume as the tracking and momentum‐measurement functions, this device achieves substantial reduction in overall size. Jay N. Marx and David R. Nygren October issue preview NASA balloons study atmosphere and cosmos Goals include determining the origins of cosmic rays and electron microbursts. Hannah H. Means October issue preview Research space increases at US universities Laboratory and research space at US colleges and universities crept up nearly 17% from 2011 to 2021, to a total of 236.1 million square feet (21.9 million square meters). That's according to a report on infrastructure use by the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics. In total, 584 research-performing institutions provided data about their science, engineering, and medicine departments. Five fields accounted for nearly 84% of total science and engineering research space in fiscal year 2021. Biological and biomedical science labs took up the largest chunk, with roughly 25% of the total. The next three largest fields were engineering and health sciences, each with about 17%, and agricultural sciences, with about 14%. Physical sciences had 23.9 million square feet, roughly 10% of the total. No other field accounted for more than 4% of research space. Universities reported breaking ground on 4 million square feet in new projects in FY 2020 and FY 2021 combined. Planning ahead, institutions anticipated spending $6.1 billion for repairs and renovations of research space through 2023; the actual data from last year are not yet available. The report is available at https://ncses.nsf.gov/pubs/nsf23308. It also includes data on the condition of research infrastructure and a list of the 30 institutions that boast the most research space. Tonya Gary FROM THE SEPTEMBER MAGAZINE Research facilities strive for fair and efficient time allocation Distributed evaluations, machine learning, and lotteries are among the tactics being tested to improve the process and integrity of peer review. Toni Feder Get notified about our webinars and whitepapers Sign up Get Physics Today delivered for just $25 per year Subscribe Accelerating career connections worldwide for over 75 years BROWSE ALL JOBS POST A JOB CREATE JOB ALERTS FEATURED JOBS Tenure-Track Faculty Position in Experimental High Energy Physics (CMS) University of Notre Dame/Department of Physics & Astronomy (Notre Dame, IN) View Job Equipment Reliability Manager Entegris (Bedford, MA) View Job Call for Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Applied Clinical Medical Physics American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) (Remote) View Job Tenure-Track Assistant Professor, Optics and Photonics Boston University—Electrical and Computer Engineering (Boston, MA) View Job Assistant Professor—Experimental High Energy Physics University of Nebraska–Lincoln (Lincoln, NE) View Job Laboratory Director Ames National Laboratory (Ames, IA) View Job Physics Today is published by the American Institute of Physics 1 Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740 USA +1 301 209 3100 © 2024 American Institute of Physics. Unsubscribe  |  Email Preferences  |  Privacy Policy  |  Contact Us