NEWS The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, October 5, 2005 - 5 *Americans * capture Physics Nobel (AP) - Two Americans and a German won the Nobel Prize in physics yesterday for optics research that is improving the accuracy of such precision instruments as GPS locators, atomic clocks and navigation systems. Americans John Hall and Roy Glauber shared the prize with Theodor Haensch of Germany. Glau- ber, 80, of Harvard University, took half of the $1.3 million award for showing how the quantum nature of light can affect its behavior. His insights led to the work of Hall, 71, a professor at the University of Colorado, and Haensch, 63, of the Ludwig-Maxi- milian-Universitaet in Munich. Hall and Haensch will share the other half of the prize. Glauber thought it was a joke when the phone jolted him awake early yesterday and a man with a Swedish accent told he had won the Nobel Prize. He recognized the voice as a scientist he knows and thought it was a prank. "I could scarcely believe him," he said. "But there was something very persuasive about that hour of the morning." Until Glauber published his theories in 1963, scientists dismissed the idea that quantum theory, which was developed to describe the behavior of particles, had any application to light. But Glau- ber showed that certain types of light - includ- ing lasers - could only be fully understood using quantum methods, which treat light as individual packets of energy rather than continuous waves. "His results are fundamental for our modern understanding of the behavior of light," said Sune Svanberg, chairman of the Nobel Committee for Physics. Researchers have used Glauber's insights to cre- ate exotic lasers and devices that hold tiny samples in place with the pressure of photons. More recent- ly, the possibility has arisen of building comput- NASA workers blamed for foam Roy Jay Glauber, a Mallinckrodt professor of physics at Harvard University, shares the 2005 Nobel Prize in Physics with John Hall and German Theodor Haensch for their work in applying modern quantum physics to the study of optics. mishap CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) - Workers may have accidentally cut or crushed the section of foam that broke off Discovery's fuel tank during its launch two months ago - a mishap that threatened the safety of the astronauts and grounded the shuttle fleet. That is the leading theory for the cause behind the disturbing loss of foam insulation that cast a cloud over NASA's return to space, said Wayne Hale, the newly appointed manager of the space shuttle program. In a wide-ranging interview with The Associated Press yesterday, Hale said the shuttle will not fly again until the foam insulation problem is resolved - no soon- er than spring. He also said repair work has been set back because of hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The storms dealt "a severe blow" to resuming shuttle flights and caused NASA to lose three months of work, he said. In a memo soon after Katrina slammed two shuttle facilities on the Gulf Coast, Hale speculated that the space shuttles might be grounded until fall 2006. He has since backed off that pessimistic view and noted that prog- ress has been made in understanding the foam problem and getting the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans - which manufactures the tanks - back into limited operation. "We're working a spring kind of launch date, but we haven't established one," he said. May is the earliest, most likely target. To NASA's horror, a 1-pound, 3-foot chunk of insulating foam peeled away n shuttle from Discovery's external fuel tank dur- ing liftoff in late July. It was the same kind of problem that doomed Columbia in 2003, and occurred despite 2 1/2 years of improvements and assurances that this was the safest tank ever built. What probably happened is that dur- ing modifications to the tank at Michoud, technicians inadvertently damaged the section that ended up coming off, while working on nearby areas, Hale said. "This foam, which normally is not touched after it's applied, clearly was touched," he said. Workers using plastic knives to remove nearby foam may have made small cuts in the section that tore away, allowing air to condense in the crevices against the tank, full of super-cold fuel, Hale said. Another possibility, he said, is that workers leaned against the piece of foam that broke off, and fractured it. Yet another theory is that the foam cracked because of normal ther- mal stresses. A spokesman for Lockheed Martin Corp., which builds the tanks at Michoud, said inadvertent worker damage is one of the potential causes being investigated. "We're committed to supporting NASA and the space shuttle program," spokes- man Harry Wadsworth said. Engineers have more work to do before confirming any of this, the shuttle manag- er said. A fuel tank that finally arrived at Michoud this week from Cape Canaveral - a trip delayed by the hurricanes - will be dissected for evidence of damage. The earliest that a modified tank could be returned to Cape Canaveral is Febru- ary, making a spring launch a possibility, Hale said. ers that use light, rather than electricity, to do their calculations. Hall and Haensch built on Glauber's discovery by developing a means of measuring the frequency of a laser beam to a precision of one part in a thou- sand-trillion. With that ability, scientists can build optical clocks that keep time more accurately than exist- ing atomic devices. They can also improve the precision of distance measurements accordingly. "This in turn will allow better GPS systems, better space navigation and improved control of astronomical telescope arrays," the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences noted in awarding the prize. The research could also be useful in creating better digital animation. "Eventually, we may be able to enjoy three- dimensional holographic movies," Haensch said. Borje Johansson, a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, called the academy's choice "a typical physics prize." "First someone breaks down a barrier, and then things happen," Johansson said. "The common man can have great use of this." Sensitive quantum optics measurement tech- niques also offer opportunities to learn more physics, said Marlan Scully, a professor at Texas A&M University. They can be used to deter- mine whether physical constants are truly fixed, or change ever so slightly over time. Quantum optics can also be used to detect gravitational waves, ripples in space that are predicted by Ein- stein's general theory of relativity but have never been observed. "By making more precise measurements we are able to confront ever more subtle questions," Scully said. None of the three scientists said they expected to win a Nobel. "It's a huge surprise, a great pleasure," Hall said. Redesigned nickel will feature forward-looking Jefferson WASHINGTON (AP) - After nearly 100 years of depicting presidents in somber pro- files on the nation's coins, the Mint is trying something different: The new nickel features Thomas Jefferson, facing forward, with the hint of a smile. "It isn't a silly smile or a smirk, but a sense of optimism that I was trying to con- vey with the expression," says Jamie Franki, an associate professor of art at the Univer- sity of North Carolina-Charlotte. His draw- ing was chosen out of 147 entries. In unveiling the design yesterday, Mint officials said they believed the new image of Jefferson was an appropriate way to com- memorate his support for expanding the country through the Louisiana Purchase and sending Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to explore the territory in 1804-05. "The image of a forward-looking Jefferson is a fitting tribute to that vision," said David Lebryk, the acting director of the Mint. For the past two years, the Mint has changed the design of the nickel every six months to commemorate the 200th anni- versary of the Louisiana Purchase and the Lewis and Clark expedition, both of which occurred during Jefferson's administration. The new five-cent coin, which will go into circulation early next year, is the last sched- uled change in the nickel's appearance. It will feature Jefferson's Monticello home on the reverse side of the coin but in an updated image from the Monticello that first began appearing on the nickel in 1938. The image of Jefferson will be accompanied. by the word "Liberty" in Jefferson's own hand- writing, a detail that was introduced last year in the Westward Journey series of nickels. Since Abraham Lincoln became the first president to be depicted on a circulating coin, in 1909, presidents have always been shown in profile, in part because profile designs remain recognizable even after extensive wear on the coin. The Mint, however, believes it has produced an image of J-efferson for the new nickel that can stand up to heavy use. For next year, between 1.4 billion and 1.8 billion of the new nickels are expected to go into circulation. The coins will be called the Jefferson 1800 because Franki's image of Jefferson is based on a Rembrandt Peale portrait of Jefferson done in 1800, the year Jefferson was first elected president. Jefferson will be the first but perhaps not the last president to go from profile to fron- tal view on U.S. coins. 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