Physics news and readings

Titles
SNF brochure highlights research in the 20 NCCR
EMPA features in journal 'Energy and buildings'
MaNEP-sponsored Einstein exhibition in the 'Tribune de Genève'
How-to book on laserbeam-shaping applications
Pennsylvania researchers create hybrid sensor
Einstein's remarks on superconductivity now in English

SNF brochure highlights research in the 20 NCCR
The SNF has just edited a free brochure called 'Cutting Edge Research Made in Switzerland' presenting the 20 NCCR with a selection of some key research projects, interviews of Pascal Couchepin and others, etc. The 35 pages brochure contains 5 chapters (Health, Risks, Coexistence, Life and Matter, New Technologies).
If you have not yet received it, you can download it from the SNF website :

[click here] for the English version.
[click here] for the French version.
[click here] for the German version.

EMPA features in journal 'Energy and buildings'
«Energy and Buildings» - a professional journal from the Elsevier stable - is devoting its November issue exclusively to subjects of core interest to three EMPA laboratories, to celebrate the institution’s 125 years of existence.

[more infos on EMPA website]
[link to the Energy and Buildings issue on sciencedirect.com]

MaNEP-sponsored Einstein exhibition in the 'Tribune de Genève'
Launched on October 27, the photo exhibtion on Einstein's life that is sponsored by MaNEP [also read on MaNEP's home page] was covered by a large article in the main Geneva daily newspaper La Tribune de Genève. The exhibition will end on November 28.

You can read it online here (in French).
[PDF of exhibition's brochure containing all texts, courtesy of Mr Isaac Benguigui - author]

How-to book on laserbeam-shaping applications
A 357-page volume that offers readers the thoughts of 19 prominent practitioners who share their in-depth knowledge of how to shape laser beams to optimize their utility and improve their future development.

Contributors hail from sites as diverse as Moscow, Pretoria, Rochester, and Albuquerque.

In nine illustrated chapters, the authors — leaders in their respective specialties — discuss how to improve illuminators for microlithography, array-type laser printing systems, and excimer laser image systems, as well as optical data storage, isotope separation, shaping via flexible mirrors, and spectral control of spatially dispersive lasers. There is also a review of the modern field of beam-shaping.

Pennsylvania researchers create hybrid sensor
Nano-sized carbon tubes coated with strands of DNA can create tiny sensors with abilities to detect odors and tastes, according to researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and Monell Chemical Sciences Center. Their findings are published in the current issue of the journal Nano Letters, a publication of the American Chemical Society.
[full story]

MaNEP comment (by Dr O. Kuffer) : Electronic "nose" detectors aim at imitating olfactory systems in biological organisms. The challenges are consequent: sensitivity, selectivity, rapid response, small recovery time and even molecular identification. The sensors shown in the paper seem very promising in this field and also illustrate how small the frontier between physics and biology can be! Original ref : C. Staii et al., NANO LETTERS 5 (9), 1774 (2005).

Einstein's remarks on superconductivity now in English
Albert Einstein has published his first paper on the arxiv.org preprint server. The paper, "Theoretical remark on the superconductivity of metals", was first published in German in 1922 and has now been translated into English by Bjoern Schmekel of the University of California at Berkeley (physics/0510251). It is believed to be Einstein's only publication on superconductivity.

[full story on physicsweb.org]
[link to the paper on arxiv.org]