Physics Nobel Prize 2013

As already announced, the Nobel Prize in Physics for 2013 has been awarded to François Englert and Peter W. Higgs “for the theory of how particles acquire mass” (see Press Release). They published the theory independently of each other 1964 in Physical Review Letters (see PRL). In 2012, physicists at the CERN found the particle predicted by Higgs and his colleagues. See a video about The basics of the Higgs boson at YouTube.

Women in physics: A tale of limits

This is the title of an article published in Physics Today (February 2012) by Rachel Ivie and Casey Langer Tesfaye (Statistical Research Center of the American Institute of Physics).

“A newly completed survey of 15 000 physicists worldwide reveals that women physicists still do not have equal access to the career-advancing resources and opportunities enjoyed by their male colleagues.”

The paper is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/PT.3.1439 [only for subscribers].

Information Practices in the Physical Sciences

physicsworld.com reported on a report with the title Collaborative yet independent: Information Practices in the Physical Sciences.
The report shows the variety of ways physicists find, use and disseminate information in seven case studies. Obviously only few researchers use innovative information search and retrieval strategies while they use complex and powerful technology for their research.

“Monica Bulger from the Oxford Internet Institute, who co-authored the report, says that one problem with getting scientists to change how they access information is that they tend to have picked up the “tools” of their field in the lab as graduate students and later only learn new techniques in response to the needs of a particular project.” (http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/48446)