Bulletin of the American Physical Society
2006 APS April Meeting
Saturday–Tuesday, April 22–25, 2006; Dallas, TX
Session S4: FHP/FPS Award Session |
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Sponsoring Units: FHP FPS Chair: George Lewis, Peace Studies Program, Cornell University Room: Hyatt Regency Dallas Marsalis A |
Monday, April 24, 2006 3:30PM - 4:06PM |
S4.00001: Pais Prize Lecture: History and Physics Invited Speaker: Modern history and experimental physics entered the university together, in the course of the eighteenth century. They shared several practices and projects. Historians began to emphasize physical factors, and so drew on, and occasionally contributed to, meteorology and physical geography; and they developed ancillary disciplines, like numismatics, diplomatics, and paleography, which required the analysis of metals, paper, and inks, and the careful comparison of material objects. In physics, historical reviews of newer subject matters, such as electricity, optics, and pneumatics, guided instruction where neither the facts nor their interpretation compelled consensus. The inherently historical science, geology, was a favorite subject of the age: the earth received a history, and the cosmos, too; evolutionary ideas found applications everywhere. The new physics and the new history became potent weapons of Enlightenment. A product of their collaboration is the lengthiest history of physics ever written, J.G. Fischer's \textit{Geschichte der Physik} (8 vols., 1801-1808). It appeared within a series edited by Johnn Gottfried Eichhorn, Germany's leading exponent of the ``higher criticism,'' the corrosive application of historical and literary considerations to the stories of the Old Testament. The writings of historians like Eichhorn were more subversive than the work reported by Fischer in so far as humans are more concerned with their place in the world than with the details of its behavior. The coincidental matriculation of modern history and experimental physics, and its consequences, will be discussed. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, April 24, 2006 4:06PM - 4:42PM |
S4.00002: Szilard Prize Lecture: Seismic Monitoring of Nuclear Explosions Invited Speaker: Seismic monitoring of the more than 2000 nuclear test explosions since 1945 has been vigorously pursued, both to track the weapons development of potential adversaries, and to support initiatives in nuclear arms control, including various test ban treaties. Major funding from the US Department of Defense built up new global seismographic networks and over several decades established practical capability in monitoring nuclear explosions ``teleseismically'' (i.e. from distances more than about 1500 km), for tests that the testing nation did not attempt to conceal. What then is the capability to monitor compliance with, for example, the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) of 1996, particularly if evasion scenarios are considered? Note that the CTBT, though not ratified by some countries (including the US), is now being monitored by networks that include seismographic stations at ``regional'' distances ($<$ 1500 km) from candidate explosion locations. Years of R and D have shown that regional signals can be used to monitor down to yields significantly lower than can be detected and identified teleseismically. A US National Academy of Sciences study in 2002 concluded that ``an underground nuclear explosion cannot be confidently hidden if its yield is larger than 1 or 2 kt.'' About 1000 earthquakes and chemical explosions are now detected per day, and documented via seismic data, providing plenty of challenges for nuclear explosion monitoring organizations. Explosion monitoring capability will improve in many parts of the world, due to the growth of networks that monitor even small earthquakes to study seismic hazard. But political problems can impede improved international explosion monitoring, due to national restrictions on data access. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, April 24, 2006 4:42PM - 5:18PM |
S4.00003: Burton Award Lecture: A.Q. Khan and Illicit Nuclear Trade Invited Speaker: |
Monday, April 24, 2006 5:18PM - 5:54PM |
S4.00004: Sakharov and the Grey Zone: Difficult Areas of Human Rights Activity Invited Speaker: Drawing on my experience in human rights work and my discussions with A. D. Sakharov, I will explore some difficult areas of human rights activity in which human rights defenders cannot reach a consensus on how to proceed, and even on how to define the problem. [Preview Abstract] |
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