Web watch

To suggest topics or sites for Web Watch, please visit http://www.physicstoday.org/suggestwebwatch.html . Compiled and edited by Charles Day

http://www.quantumdiaries.org

In 2005, a diverse group of particle physicists began blogging about their work and life on a website called Quantum Diaries. That first group has disbanded, although some members continue to publish their own blogs. Now, a second group of quantum diarists has formed. Among them is Cao Jun, an experimenter who works on the Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment in southern China. Cao writes in English and Chinese.

http://fas.org/programs/ssp/nukes/fuelcycle/centrifuges

Gas centrifuges are the most efficient tools for separating ²³⁸U, uranium’s most abundant isotope, from ²³⁵U, the isotope that fuels nuclear reactors and powers nuclear bombs. To inform the public about this key technology, the Federation of Atomic Scientists has put together a set of online resources entitled Uranium Enrichment and Gas Centrifuge Technology.

http://www.ckl2.org/

Providing free, high-quality textbooks online is the aim of the CK-12 Foundation. Based in California’s Silicon Valley, the nonprofit organization publishes what it calls FlexBooks—collaborative, user-generated texts akin to the entries in Wikipedia. A recent search for physics yielded 22 FlexBooks.