Do the New Paper Dance [Uncertain Principles]

(Before It's News)

OK, it’s a paper I mentioned here before, when it went up on the arxiv, but the “Comments on Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics” article I wrote this summer is up on the Physica Scripta web site now, and for the next not-quite-thirty days it’s free to read and download:

Searching for new physics through atomic, molecular and optical precision measurements

We briefly review recent experiments in atomic, molecular and optical physics using precision measurements to search for physics beyond the Standard Model. We consider three main categories of experiments: searches for changes in fundamental constants, measurements of the anomalous magnetic moment of the electron and the fine-structure constant, and searches for an electric dipole moment of the electron.

(“Why do you say ‘We’ when it’s a single-author paper?” you may ask. “Shut up,” I reply, “That’s just How It’s Done.”)

Anyway, I’m pretty happy with this. It was nice to spend some time writing highly technical stuff again, to remind myself that I can do it. And it was fun to read up on all the associated issues and measurements– really, if they hadn’t given me a suggested word limit, this could’ve been much longer. As it is, though, it’s got 89 references, which ought to be more than enough to prove a point of some sort.

• Cloning endangered animals [Life Lines]
• Making an Impact: Scientists and Engineers in Congress! [USA Science and Engineering Festival: The Blog]
• Could camels hold secret to survival? [Life Lines]
• climatedialogue.org [Stoat]
• Is there any particle physics beyond the standard model? [Starts With A Bang]
• The Bottleneck Years by H. E. Taylor – Chapter 14 [A Few Things Ill Considered]
• Getting smarter about antibiotics — in some settings, at least [The Pump Handle]
• President Obama and the Iron Law of Climate Change
• Stone Tools Point to Creative Work by Early Humans in Africa
• Tangasaurus, the great, great diapsid grandfather of birds and crocs