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An Overview: Physics Through the 1990's is part of an eight-volume research assessment of the major fields of physics that reviews the developments that have taken place and highlights research opportunities. An Overview summarizes the findings of the panels discussed in the other seven volumes and addresses issues that broadly concern physics.

Materials science and engineering (MSE) contributes to our everyday lives by making possible technologies ranging from the automobiles we drive to the lasers our physicians use. Materials Science and Engineering for the 1990s charts the impact of MSE on the private and public sectors and identifies the research that must be conducted to help America remain competitive in the world arena. The authors discuss what current and future resources would be needed to conduct this research, as well as the role that industry, the federal government, and universities should play in this endeavor.

Astronomers and astrophysicists are making revolutionary advances in our understanding of planets, stars, galaxies, and even the structure of the universe itself. The Decade of Discovery presents a survey of this exciting field of science and offers a prioritized agenda for space- and ground-based research into the twenty-first century. The book presents specific recommendations, programs, and expenditure levels to meet the needs of the astronomy and astrophysics communities. Accessible to the interested lay reader, the book explores: * The technological investments needed for instruments that will be built in the next century. * The importance of the computer revolution to all aspects of astronomical research. * The potential usefulness of the moon as an observatory site. * Policy issues relevant to the funding of astronomy and the execution of astronomical projects. The Decade of Discovery will prove valuable to science policymakers, research administrators, scientists, and students in the physical sciences, and interested lay readers. Alternate Selection, Astronomy Book Club

This volume contains working papers on astronomy and astrophysics prepared by 15 non-National Research Council panels in areas ranging from radio astronomy to the status of the profession.

Plasma processing of materials is a critical technology to several of the largest manufacturing industries in the world--electronics, aerospace, automotive, steel, biomedical, and toxic waste management. This book describes the relationship between plasma processes and the many industrial applications, examines in detail plasma processing in the electronics industry, highlights the scientific foundation underlying this technology, and discusses education issues in this multidisciplinary field. The committee recommends a coordinated, focused, and well-funded research program in this area that involves the university, federal laboratory, and industrial sectors of the community. It also points out that because plasma processing is an integral part of the infrastructure of so many American industries, it is important for both the economy and the national security that America maintain a strong leadership role in this technology.

Plasma science is the study of ionized states of matter. This book discusses the field's potential contributions to society and recommends actions that would optimize those contributions. It includes an assessment of the field's scientific and technological status as well as a discussion of broad themes such as fundamental plasma experiments, theoretical and computational plasma research, and plasma science education.

Part of the Physics in a New Era series of assessments of the various branches of the field, Elementary-Particle Physics reviews progress in the field over the past 10 years and recommends actions needed to address the key questions that remain unanswered. It explains in simple terms the present picture of how matter is constructed. As physicists have probed ever deeper into the structure of matter, they have begun to explore one of the most fundamental questions that one can ask about the universe: What gives matter its mass? A new international accelerator to be built at the European laboratory CERN will begin to explore some of the mechanisms proposed to give matter its heft. The committee recommends full U.S. participation in this project as well as various other experiments and studies to be carried out now and in the longer term.

Dramatic progress has been made in all branches of physics since the National Research Council's 1986 decadal survey of the field. The Physics in a New Era series explores these advances and looks ahead to future goals. The series includes assessments of the major subfields and reports on several smaller subfields, and preparation has begun on an overview volume on the unity of physics, its relationships to other fields, and its contributions to national needs. Nuclear Physics is the latest volume of the series. The book describes current activity in understanding nuclear structure and symmetries, the behavior of matter at extreme densities, the role of nuclear physics in astrophysics and cosmology, and the instrumentation and facilities used by the field. It makes recommendations on the resources needed for experimental and theoretical advances in the coming decade.

This book identifies opportunities, priorities, and challenges for the field of condensed-matter and materials physics. It highlights exciting recent scientific and technological developments and their societal impact and identifies outstanding questions for future research. Topics range from the science of modern technology to new materials and structures, novel quantum phenomena, nonequilibrium physics, soft condensed matter, and new experimental and computational tools. The book also addresses structural challenges for the field, including nurturing its intellectual vitality, maintaining a healthy mixture of large and small research facilities, improving the field's integration with other disciplines, and developing new ways for scientists in academia, government laboratories, and industry to work together. It will be of interest to scientists, educators, students, and policymakers.

Gravitational Physics assesses the achievements of the field over the past decade in both theory and experiment, identifies the most promising opportunities for research in the next decade, and describes the resources necessary to realize those opportunities. A major theme running through the opportunities is the exploration of strong gravitational fields, such as those associated with black holes. The book, part of the ongoing decadal survey Physics in a New Era, examines topics such as gravitational waves and their detection, classical and quantum theory of strong gravitational fields, precision measurements, and astronomical observations relevant to the predictions of Einstein's theory of general relativity.

In this new book, a distinguished panel makes recommendations for the nation's programs in astronomy and astrophysics, including a number of new initiatives for observing the universe. With the goal of optimum value, the recommendations address the role of federal research agencies, allocation of funding, training for scientists, competition and collaboration among space facilities, and much more. The book identifies the most pressing science questions and explains how specific efforts, from the Next Generation Space Telescope to theoretical studies, will help reveal the answers. Discussions of how emerging information technologies can help scientists make sense of the wealth of data available are also included. Astronomy has significant impact on science in general as well as on public imagination. The committee discusses how to integrate astronomical discoveries into our education system and our national life. In preparing the New Millennium report, the AASC made use of a series of panel reports that address various aspects of ground- and space-based astronomy and astrophysics. These reports provide in-depth technical detail.Astronomy and Astrophysics in the New Millenium: An Overview summarizes the science goals and recommended initiatives in a short, richly illustrated, non-technical booklet.

In preparing the report, Astronomy and Astrophysics in the New Millenium , the AASC made use of a series of panel reports that address various aspects of ground- and space-based astronomy and astrophysics. These reports provide in-depth technical detail. Astronomy and Astrophysics in the New Millenium: An Overview summarizes the science goals and recommended initiatives in a short, richly illustrated, non-technical booklet.

The Helium Privatization Act of 1996 (P.L. 104-273) directs the Department of the Interior to begin liquidating the U.S. Federal Helium Reserve by 2005 in a manner consistent with A-A'A1/2minimum market disruptionA-A'A1/2 and at a price given by a formula specified in the act. It also mandates that the Department of the Interior A-A'A1/2enter into appropriate arrangements with the National Academy of Sciences to study and report on whether such disposal of helium reserves will have a substantial adverse effect on U.S. scientific, technical, biomedical, or national security interests.A-A'A1/2 This report is the product of that mandate. To provide context, the committee has examined the helium market and the helium industry as a whole to determine how helium users would be affected under various scenarios for selling the reserve within the actA-A'A1/2s constraints. The Federal Helium Reserve, the Bush Dome reservoir, and the Cliffside facility are mentioned throughout this report. It is important to recognize that they are distinct entities. The Federal Helium Reserve is federally owned crude helium gas that currently resides in the Bush Dome reservoir.The Cliffside facility includes the storage facility on the Bush Dome reservoir and the associated buildings pipeline.

The Committee on Astronomy and Astrophysics (CAA), at its meeting on September 8, 1997, was briefed on the legislative report accompanying the bill to authorize appropriations for fiscal years 1998 and 1999 for the National Science Foundation (NSF). The report raised a number of questions about trends in support for research in astronomy and the overall robustness of the programs providing that support. At its meeting, the CAA heard the views of NSF and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on these issues. In consultation with the Board on Physics and Astronomy, the Space Studies Board, and representatives of NASA and NSF, the committee accepted the task of studying three of the questions raised by the House Science Committee (HSC). It was intended that the results of the study would help guide federal support of basic research for the next decade and serve as analytical input to the new 2000 decadal survey of the Astronomy and Astrophysics Survey Committee (AASC).The study would not offer specific funding recommendations, but rather would provide a background analysis of the alignment between available resources, agency priorities, and the vitality of the basic research program.

In this new book, a distinguished panel makes recommendations for the nation's programs in astronomy and astrophysics, including a number of new initiatives for observing the universe. With the goal of optimum value, the recommendations address the role of federal research agencies, allocation of funding, training for scientists, competition and collaboration among space facilities, and much more. The book identifies the most pressing science questions and explains how specific efforts, from the Next Generation Space Telescope to theoretical studies, will help reveal the answers. Discussions of how emerging information technologies can help scientists make sense of the wealth of data available are also included. Astronomy has significant impact on science in general as well as on public imagination. The committee discusses how to integrate astronomical discoveries into our education system and our national life. In preparing the New Millennium report, the AASC made use of a series of panel reports that address various aspects of ground- and space-based astronomy and astrophysics. These reports provide in-depth technical detail.Astronomy and Astrophysics in the New Millenium: An Overview summarizes the science goals and recommended initiatives in a short, richly illustrated, non-technical booklet.

Physics at the beginning of the twenty-first century has reached new levels of accomplishment and impact in a society and nation that are changing rapidly. Accomplishments have led us into the information age and fueled broad technological and economic development. The pace of discovery is quickening and stronger links with other fields such as the biological sciences are being developed. The intellectual reach has never been greater, and the questions being asked are more ambitious than ever before. Physics in a New Era is the final report of the NRCa (TM)s six-volume decadal physics survey. The book reviews the frontiers of physics research, examines the role of physics in our society, and makes recommendations designed to strengthen physics and its ability to serve important needs such as national security, the economy, information technology, and education.

The purpose of this assessment of the fusion energy sciences program of the Department of Energy's (DOE's) Office of Science is to evaluate the quality of the research program and to provide guidance for the future program strategy aimed at strengthening the research component of the program. The committee focused its review of the fusion program on magnetic confinement, or magnetic fusion energy (MFE), and touched only briefly on inertial fusion energy (IFE), because MFE-relevant research accounts for roughly 95 percent of the funding in the Office of Science's fusion program. Unless otherwise noted, all references to fusion in this report should be assumed to refer to magnetic fusion. Fusion research carried out in the United States under the sponsorship of the Office of Fusion Energy Sciences (OFES) has made remarkable strides over the years and recently passed several important milestones. For example, weakly burning plasmas with temperatures greatly exceeding those on the surface of the Sun have been created and diagnosed.Significant progress has been made in understanding and controlling instabilities and turbulence in plasma fusion experiments, thereby facilitating improved plasma confinement-remotely controlling turbulence in a 100-million-degree medium is a premier scientific achievement by any measure. Theory and modeling are now able to provide useful insights into instabilities and to guide experiments. Experiments and associated diagnostics are now able to extract enough information about the processes occurring in high-temperature plasmas to guide further developments in theory and modeling. Many of the major experimental and theoretical tools that have been developed are now converging to produce a qualitative change in the program's approach to scientific discovery. The U.S. program has traditionally been an important source of innovation and discovery for the international fusion energy effort. The goal of understanding at a fundamental level the physical processes governing observed plasma behavior has been a distinguishing feature of the program.

Advances made by physicists in understanding matter, space, and time and by astronomers in understanding the universe as a whole have closely intertwined the question being asked about the universe at its two extremesa "the very large and the very small. This report identifies 11 key questions that have a good chance to be answered in the next decade. It urges that a new research strategy be created that brings to bear the techniques of both astronomy and sub-atomic physics in a cross-disciplinary way to address these questions. The report presents seven recommendations to facilitate the necessary research and development coordination. These recommendations identify key priorities for future scientific projects critical for realizing these scientific opportunities.

In its fiscal year 2002 budget summary document the Bush administration expressed concern-based in part on the findings and conclusions of two National Research Council studies-about recent trends in the federal funding of astronomy and astrophysics research. The President's budget blueprint suggested that now is the time to address these concerns and directed the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to establish a blue ribbon panel to (1) assess the organizational effectiveness of the federal research enterprise in astronomy and astrophysics, (2) consider the pros and cons of transferring NSF's astronomy responsibilities to NASA, and (3) suggest alternative options for addressing issues in the management and organization of astronomical and astrophysical research. NASA and NSF asked the National Research Council to carry out the rapid assessment requested by the President. This report, focusing on the roles of NSF and NASA, provides the results of that assessment.