US physics research and education are in good shape but are having some growing pains, according to the recently‐issued Pake report. There are problems in administration, manpower utilization, advanced degrees, applied research and, most of all, financial support. The current budget squeeze is too tight; expenditures should increase by at least 21% a year until 1970.
National Academy of Sciences Physics Survey Committee
PHYSICS: SURVEY AND OUTLOOK, a report that assesses physics research and teaching in the United States and spells out requirements for future growth of the science, has been released by the National Academy of Sciences. The report is based on studies made during 1964 and 1965 by the Physics Survey Committee, an 18‐member group working under the auspices of NAS’s Committee on Science and Public Policy. The Physics Survey Committee was headed by George E. Pake, provost of Washington University in St. Louis and a member of the President’s Science Advisory Committee.
With strong magnetic fields and intense lasers or pulsed electric currents, physicists can reconstruct the conditions inside astrophysical objects and create nuclear-fusion reactors.
A crude device for quantification shows how diverse aspects of distantly related organisms reflect the interplay of the same underlying physical factors.