Physics in a New Era An Overview (2001) / Chapter Skim
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10. A New Era of Discovery
10. A New Era of Discovery
Pages 149-156
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Part 111 Investing in Our Future: Priorities and Recommendations
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· In Chapter 11, the committee recommencis improvements in the support for cutting-ecige physics research, revisions in physics eclucation, and a strengthening of the role of physics in national security. · In Chapter 12, the committee makes recommendations on issues of importance to the field as a whole, such as the formation of research partnerships among universities, inclustry, and national laboratories; the impact on physics of the management policies of the federal science agencies; and the role of information technology in physics.
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From page 152... ...
We can now control single atoms, observe properties of matter at densities greater than that of the atomic nucleus, design materials with novel properties, study the molecular motors responsible for distributing genetic information during cell division, and probe the earliest moments of the u n iverse. · At the beginning of the 21st century, physics has become more important for the other sciences, enabling progress in materials science, astronomy, chemistry, geology, and the biomedical sciences.
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SCIENTIFIC PRIORITIES AND OPPORTUNITIES The accomplishments of physics, the increasing power of its instruments, and its expanding reach into the other sciences have generated an unprecedented set of scientific opportunities. The committee has described many of them in this volume, and it believes that some are so promising for the decade ahead that their pursuit should be a matter of high national priority.
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From page 154... ...
The rapid advances in massively parallel computing, coupled with equally impressive developments in theoretical analysis, have generated an extraordinary growth in our ability to model and predict complex ancl nonlinear phenomena ancl to visualize the results. Problems that may soon be rendered tractable include the strong nuclear force, turbulence ancl other nonlinear phenomena in fluicis ancl plasmas, the origin of large-scale structure in the universe, ancl a variety of quantum many-bocly challenges in conclensecl-matter, nuclear, atomic, ancl biological systems.
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From page 155... ...
Current challenges include the biophysics of cellular electrical activity underlying the functioning of the nervous system, the circulatory system, and the respiratory system; the biomechanics of the motors responsible for all biological movement; and the mechanical and electrical properties of DNA and the enzymes essential for cell division and all cellular processes. Tools developed in physics, particularly for the understanding of highly complex systems, are vital for progress in all these areas.
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From page 156... ...
Possibilities range from the discovery of new and unique elementary particles to more exotic scenarios involving fundamental changes in our description of space and time. Determining this new physics is an important step toward an historic goal: the discovery of a unified theoretical description of all the fundamental forces of nature the strong nuclear force, the electroweak forces, and gravity.
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