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The lustre of pearls1
by Tony Klein
About 15 years ago, I learned from a gemologist friend that the value of pearls is appraised by evaluating the following factors: Size; shape; colour and lustre (a term used for the quality of shinyness). The first three are easily quantified, but what about lustre? I decided to look into the problem as an intriguing piece of applied optics.
First result from the AMS experiment: the beginning of a rich cosmic ray program2
by Martin Pohl
More than 100 years after the discovery of cosmic rays by Victor Hess, our knowledge of their sources and transport is still rather rudimentary. This does not only concern the astrophysical phenomena, which create and accelerate charged particles, but also the potential role of particle physics and cosmological mechanisms.
Does water foam exist in microgravity?3
by H. Caps, G. Delon, N. Vandewalle, R.M. Guillermic, O. Pitois, A.L. Biance, L. Saulnier, P. Yazhgur, E. Rio, A. Salonen and D. Langevin
Liquid foams are omnipresent in everyday life, but little is understood about their properties. On Earth, the liquid rapidly drains out of the foam because of gravity, leading to rupture of the thin liquid films between bubbles. Several questions arise: are liquid foams more stable in microgravity environments? Can pure liquids, such as water, form stable foams in microgravity whereas they do not on Earth? In order to answer these questions, we performed experiments both in parabolic flights and in the International Space Station.
Pride and prejudice4
by H.C.W. Beijerinck
Science and religion are two separate fields, as Dawkins clearly states in his book “The God delusion”. His crystal-clear and critical analysis shows that religion hinders the development of an independent mind in young people. More specific, it is the church with its clerics that is most guilty of this negative role. In a recent paper by Polkinghorne, the interplay of physics and religion is considered on a more philosophical basis, emphasizing the role of searching for a wider context for understanding the intelligibility of the structure of physics.
Symmetry of quasi one-dimensional systems: line groups and applications 5
by Milan Damnjanović
Many of the interesting properties of stereoregular polymers, nanotubes and other nanowires exhibit quasi one-dimensionality and regularity. These specific configurations are determined by their symmetry described by line groups. Deep physical consequences of this type of symmetry are illustrated by using modified group projector technique.
- Tony Klein. 2014. The lustre of pearls. EPN, Vol. 45, No. 3. DOI: 10.1051/epn/2014301 [↩]
- Martin Pohl. 2014. First result from the AMS experiment: the beginning of a rich cosmic ray program. EPN, Vol. 45, No. 3. DOI: 10.1051/epn/2014302 [↩]
- H. Caps, G. Delon, N. Vandewalle, R.M. Guillermic, O. Pitois, A.L. Biance, L. Saulnier, P. Yazhgur, E. Rio, A. Salonen and D. Langevin. 2014. Does water foam exist in microgravity?. EPN, Vol. 45, No. 3. DOI: 10.1051/epn/2014303 [↩]
- H.C.W. Beijerinck. 2014. Pride and prejudice. EPN, Vol. 45, No. 3. DOI: 10.1051/epn/2014304 [↩]
- Milan Damnjanović. 2014. Symmetry of quasi one-dimensional systems: line groups and applications . EPN, Vol. 45, No. 3. DOI: 10.1051/epn/2014305 [↩]
