Physics Today, Vol. 34, No. 9, September, 1981

152 p. 27cm. Illustrations (some with color). References From Wikipedia: "The American Institute of Physics (AIP) promotes science, the profession of physics, publishes physics journals, and produces publications for scientific and engineering societies. The AIP is made up of various member societies. Its corporate headquarters are at the American Center for Physics in College Park, Maryland, but the institute also has an office in Melville, New York and Beijing, China.The focus of the AIP appears to be organized around a set of core activities. The first delineated activity is to support member societies regarding essential society functions. This is accomplished by annually convening the various society officers to discuss common areas of concern. A range of topics is discussed which includes scientific publishing, public policy issues, membership-base issues, philanthropic giving, science education, science careers for a diverse population, and a forum for sharing ideas. Another core activity is publishing the science of physics in research journals, magazines, and conference proceedings. Other core activities are tracking employment and education trends with six decades of coverage, being a liaison between research science and industry, historical collections and outreach programs, and supporting science education initiatives and supporting undergraduate physics. One other core activity is as an advocate for science policy to the U.S. Congress and the general public. The AIP was founded in 1931 as a response to lack of funding for the sciences during the Great Depression. It formally incorporated in 1932 consisting of five, original, "member-societies", and a total of 4 thousand members. A new set of "member-societies" was added beginning in the mid-1960s. As soon as the AIP was established it began publishing scientific journals." Also from Wikipedia: "Physics Today is the membership magazine of the American Institute of Physics that was established in 1948. It is provided to the members of twelve physics societies, including the American Physical Society. Although its content is scientifically rigorous and up to date, it is not a true scholarly journal in the sense of being a primary vehicle for communicating new results. Rather, it is more of a hybrid magazine that informs readers about important developments in the form of overview articles written by experts, shorter review articles written internally by staff, and also discusses the latest issues and events of importance to the science community such as science politics. The physics community's main vessel for new results are the Physical Review suite of scientific journals published by the American Physical Society and Applied Physics Letters published by the American Institute of Physics. The magazine provides a historical resource of events associated with physics, including debunking the physics behind the so-called Star Wars program of the 1980s, and the state of physics in China and the Soviet Union during the 1950s and 1970s. According to the Journal Citation Reports, the journal has a 2011 impact factor of 5.648." Good. Cover worn and soiled. Rear cover creased. Presumed first edition/first printing of this issue.…