Issues

Volume 6, Issue 3

September 14, 2021

Review Essays

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Quanta of the Third Kind

Frank Wilczek

[short_description] Theoretical insights and recent experimental results in anyon physics are leading physicists to revise and expand their ideas about what quantum-mechanical particles are and how they behave.

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Medicine

Outsmarting the Virus

John Hewitt

[short_description] Variants in the SARS-CoV-2 virus control infectivity, severity, and immunity. Against this hydra, the best modes of defense are multipronged. John Hewitt takes stock of currently available therapies.

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Political Science

States of War

Jochen Böhler

[short_description] In the aftermath of the First World War, new nations sprang up in central and eastern Europe. If their creation marked the end of one conflict, it also marked the initiation of many others.

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Zoology

Primate Memory

Tetsuro Matsuzawa

[short_description] Our closest living relatives in the animal world are fascinating creatures. The primatologist Tetsuro Matsuzawa recounts striking aspects of his work on primates, memory, and the evolution of the human mind.

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Physics

Muons and New Physics

Eduardo de Rafael

[short_description] The muon was unexpected when observed in 1936. “Who ordered that?” Isidor Rabi asked. To this day, the muon still surprises physicists. It points to evidence for physics beyond the Standard Model.

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Logic

Löb’s Theorem and Curry’s Paradox

Graham Priest

[short_description] If a sentence says of itself that it is true, or, in any case, provable, then there is a logical inconsistency when proving this statement. Martin Löb and Haskell Curry examined this question.

Book Reviews

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Physics

A Physicist’s Journey

Robert Socolow

[short_description] Physicists skeptical about climate science are an anomaly in the scientific community. In his recent book, Lawrence Krauss seeks to bridge the chasm between physics and climate science.

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Physics

Interstellar Overdrive

Paul Sutter

[short_description] ‘Oumuamua was the first known interstellar object to visit the solar system. Extraterrestrial tries to make the case for ‘Oumuamua as a lightsail spacecraft created by extraterrestrial intelligence.

Letters to the Editors

######### Card Letter *XXX* ######### A Theorem and a Paradox

Zach Weber

[short_description] Löb’s theorem and Curry’s paradox are two very closely related results in logic. Both are surprising, but one—Löb’s—is considered acceptable while the other—Curry’s—is not. In fact, both should fail.

######### Card Letter *XXX* ######### On Skepticism and Ocean Dynamics

Lawrence Krauss

[short_description] Two correspondents urge physicists to get more involved with climate science. The next generation of physicists should be convinced that this is not just good science, but fascinating science.

######### Card Letter *XXX* ######### Needham’s Systematic Curiosity

Yinyin Xue

[short_description] That historians of science view Science and Civilisation in China as an outdated classic and non-expert readers approach it as an exotic encyclopedia would be quite to its founder’s disappointment.

######### Card Letter *XXX* ######### Attention to Anomalies

Avi Loeb

[short_description] According to Avi Loeb, the observed anomalies associated with the object known as ‘Oumuamua serve as a credible reason for considering its artificial origin.

######### Card Letter *XXX* ######### ‘Oumuamua and Interstellar Travel

Simon Portegies Zwart

[short_description] Some see reason to believe ‘Oumuamua was an alien spacecraft. Others contend that even if life is ubiquitous in the galaxy, it is rather ill-equipped for interstellar travel.

######### Card Letter *XXX* ######### The Color Out of Space

Darryl Seligman

[short_description] Since the nineteenth century, astronomers have hypothesized the existence of interstellar comets. In every way that they expected the first interstellar comet to behave, ‘Oumuamua acted the opposite.

######### Card Letter *XXX* ######### A Brief History of the Muon

Sheldon Lee Glashow

[short_description] The theoretical and measured values of the muon magnetic moment anomaly have grown apart. Is this due to experimental error, or computational error, or to physics lying beyond the Standard Model?

######### Card Letter *XXX* ######### Universality in Self-Assembly Processes

Tanja Schilling

[short_description] A theoretical physicist responds to Michael Engel’s essay on a series of experiments on universality in self-assembly processes and the original research under review.

ISSN #2576–4403