IP: What's New for Oct 23, 1998

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

Date: Fri, 23 Oct 1998 21:45:56 GMT
From: whatsnew () aps org (What's New)
To: farber () central cis upenn edu
Subject: What's New for Oct 23, 1998

WHAT'S NEW   Robert L. Park   Friday, 23 Oct 98   Washington, DC


3. DOD RESEARCH: IT GOES DOWN IN SPITE OF ANNUAL INCREASES.  The
basic research (6.1) budget for DOD was increased by 6% in this
year's budget, which puts it about where it was a year ago.  This
annual contradiction works this way: Each year Congress increases
the 6.1 budget based on what was spent the year before. But every
year DOD finds it necessary to tax the program 5% or so after the
appropriation to cover some other shortfall.  So "increases" just
about keep it even, and with inflation it actually erodes.

4. TELEPORTATION: BEAM ME UP SCOTTY, IT'S CRAZY DOWN HERE.  It
began with the IBM "Stand by.  I'll teleport you some goulash"
ads (WN 2 Feb 96). Alas, the media, just like the IBM advertising
department, was incapable of distinguishing an entangled photon
from Captain Kirk.  Then a group at Innsbruck reported in Nature
that they had successfully "teleported" the polarization state of
a photon -- more Star Trek stories (WN 12 Dec 97).  Now Reuters
is reporting that a group at Cal Tech has done the first "full"
teleportation experiment. "We claim this is the first bona fide
teleportation," they quote Jeff Kimble.  The article explains
that teleportation allows information to be transmitted at the
speed of light. Marconi probably thought he did that.  Kimble
says that before teleporting a person, you might want to start
with a bacterium.  Good plan, just in case there are problems. 
 
THE AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY (Note: Opinions are the author's
and are not necessarily shared by the APS, but they should be.)