Magazine

November-December 2001

Current Issue

November-December 2001

Volume: 89 Number: 6

The modeling of chaotic phenomena has provided many colorful images, but only rarely has it captured the unusual physical behavior found in the realm of quantum mechanics. The cover image is a Poincaré section, or a stroboscopic snapshot, of a chaotic attractor describing the motion of electrons in a system that couples components from the classical and quantum (here, the superconducting) domains—an example of "semiquantum chaos." This work by the Quantum Circuits Research Group at the University of Sussex in the U.K. is discussed by Mason A. Porter and Richard L. Liboffin in "Chaos on the Quantum Scale." Image by Mark Everitt.

In This Issue

  • Astronomy
  • Biology
  • Chemistry
  • Communications
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  • Engineering
  • Environment
  • Ethics
  • Evolution
  • Mathematics
  • Physics
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  • Psychology
  • Sociology
  • Technology

The Formation and Evolution of the Milky Way

Cristina Chiappini

Chemistry Physics

Health and Human Society

Clyde Hertzman

Sociology

Wealthier nations are not always healthier, and efforts to improve health can be swamped by the effects of inequality and conflict

Spintronics

Sankar DasSarma

Physics Technology

A new class of device based on electron spin, rather than on charge, may yield the next generation of microelectronics

The Challenge of Siphonous Green Algae

Celia Smith, Peter Vroom

Biology

One imagines that an organism composed of one big cell would prove quite fragile. Yet these single-celled marine plants are surprisingly robust

Chaos on the Quantum Scale

Mason Alexander Porter, Richard Liboff

Physics Technology

Simulations of atomic-scale billiards reveal chaotic phenomena that expand theory and applications, especially in nanotechnology

Scientists' Nightstand

Departments