Nature Physics January Issue

TABLE OF CONTENTS January 2014 Volume 10, Issue 1 Editorials Thesis Books and Arts Research Highlights News and Views Letters Articles Futures Subscribe   Facebook   RSS   Recommend to library   Twitter   Advertisement NatureJournals app for iPad The NatureJournals app for iPad now boasts over 25 Nature-branded titles. Subscribe to any journal in the app for $35.99* and gain access to world class research on the move. www.nature.com/content/app/anytitleoffer *Apple exchange rates apply. Limited time offer available on all journals except Scientific Reports. iPad is a trademark of Apple Inc.   Editorials Top Back to the Futures   p1 doi:10.1038/nphys2871 The science-fiction strand 'Futures' returns to Nature Physics in this issue. Getting the priorities right   p1 doi:10.1038/nphys2872 Promises for UK science must be backed up by long-term plans. Thesis Top When cows lie down   p2 Mark Buchanan doi:10.1038/nphys2856 Books and Arts Top Television: Splendid chaps, all of them   pp3 - 4 Roger Jones doi:10.1038/nphys2846 Book prize: Higgs crowned again   pp4 - 5 May Chiao doi:10.1038/nphys2862 Exhibition: When worlds collide   p5 May Chiao doi:10.1038/nphys2861 Research Highlights Top Is it or isn't it? | With strings attached | Unusual suspect | Non-destructive detection | The taus have it News and Views Top Thermodynamics: Not hotter than hot   pp7 - 8 Igor M. Sokolov doi:10.1038/nphys2831 A careful revision of the rudiments of statistical physics shows that negative temperatures are artefacts of Boltzmann's approximate definition of entropy. Gibbs' version, however, forbids negative absolute temperatures and is consistent with thermodynamics. See also: Article by Dunkel & Hilbert Spectroscopy: Combs grow bigger teeth   pp8 - 9 Scott A. Diddams doi:10.1038/nphys2852 A combination of two Nobel ideas circumvents the trade-off between power and accuracy in ultraviolet spectroscopy. See also: Letter by Morgenweg et al. Ferroelectrics: Chaotic memory   pp9 - 11 Alain Pignolet doi:10.1038/nphys2845 Controlled switching of interacting ferroelectric surface domains leads to a variety of regular and chaotic patterns, and could provide a physical platform for performing calculations. See also: Article by Ievlev et al. Quantum physics: Isolate the subject   pp11 - 12 Jean-Daniel Bancal doi:10.1038/nphys2854 Can a photon be separated from its polarization; or an electron from its magnetic moment? Recent work suggests that in certain contexts, this might not be as impossible as it sounds. Crystallization: Colloidal suspense   pp12 - 13 László Gránásy and Gyula I. Tóth doi:10.1038/nphys2849 According to classical nucleation theory, a crystal grows from a small nucleus that already bears the symmetry of its end phase — but experiments with colloids now reveal that, from an amorphous precursor, crystallites with different structures can develop. See also: Article by Tan et al. Planetary science: Subsurface air flow on Mars   pp14 - 15 Norbert Schörghofer doi:10.1038/nphys2841 When the atmospheric surface pressure is just right, a temperature difference can drive a continuous flow of rarefied gas through the soil matrix — a previously unrecognized process on Mars. See also: Letter by de Beule et al. Physics JOBS of the week Postdoctoral researcher in Computational Materials Science Texas A&M University Postdoc in Phosphorous Recycling and Intelligent Riparian Zones University of Southern Denmark 3 Junior Faculty Positions Available in Shanghai Jiao Tong University Shanghai Jiao Tong University Experimental CM / AMO and Experimental Soft Matter / Biophysics (2 tenure-track positions) : Merced, CA, United States University of California, Merced Head of Bioinformatics (m / f) Institute of Molecular Biology (IMB) More Science jobs from Physics EVENT The Physics of Soft and Biological Matter 14th April 2014 Cambridge, UK More science events from Letters Top The martian soil as a planetary gas pump   pp17 - 20 Caroline de Beule, Gerhard Wurm, Thorben Kelling, Markus Küpper, Tim Jankowski et al. doi:10.1038/nphys2821 Microgravity experiments on a dust bed in a 'drop tower' set-up reveal the ability of martian soil to act as an efficient gas pump when heated by the Sun. See also: News and Views by Schorghofer Sensing and atomic-scale structure analysis of single nuclear-spin clusters in diamond   pp21 - 25 Fazhan Shi, Xi Kong, Pengfei Wang, Fei Kong, Nan Zhao et al. doi:10.1038/nphys2814 Being able to sense nuclear spin dimers is an important next step towards single-molecule structural analysis from NMR measurements. Now the sensing of a single 13C–13C nuclear spin dimer near a nitrogen–vacancy centre in diamond is reported, together with a structural characterization at atomic-scale resolution. Magnetic monopole field exposed by electrons   pp26 - 29 Armand Béché, Ruben Van Boxem, Gustaaf Van Tendeloo and Jo Verbeeck doi:10.1038/nphys2816 Magnetic monopoles continue to be elusive. However, an experiment now shows that the interaction of an electron beam with the tip of a nanoscopically thin magnetic needle—a close approximation to a magnetic monopole field—generates an electron vortex state, as expected for a true magnetic monopole field. Ramsey-comb spectroscopy with intense ultrashort laser pulses   pp30 - 33 Jonas Morgenweg, Itan Barmes and Kjeld S. E. Eikema doi:10.1038/nphys2807 Frequency combs provide a broad series of well-calibrated spectral lines for highly precise metrology and spectroscopy, but this usually involves a trade-off between power and accuracy. A comb created by adjusting the time delay between two optical pulses now enables both. This so-called Ramsey comb could probe fundamental problems such as determining the size of the proton. See also: News and Views by Diddams Spontaneous recovery in dynamical networks   pp34 - 38 Antonio Majdandzic, Boris Podobnik, Sergey V. Buldyrev, Dror Y. Kenett, Shlomo Havlin et al. doi:10.1038/nphys2819 Networks that fail can sometimes recover spontaneously—think of traffic jams suddenly easing or people waking from a coma. A model for such recoveries reveals spontaneous 'phase flipping' between high-activity and low-activity modes, in analogy with first-order phase transitions near a critical point. Articles Top Topological boundary modes in isostatic lattices   pp39 - 45 C. L. Kane and T. C. Lubensky doi:10.1038/nphys2835 The mathematical connection between isostatic lattices—which are relevant for granular matter, glasses and other 'soft' systems—and topological quantum matter is as deep as it is unexpected. A light-hole exciton in a quantum dot   pp46 - 51 Y. H. Huo, B. J. Witek, S. Kumar, J. R. Cardenas, J. X. Zhang et al. doi:10.1038/nphys2799 An electron and a hole trapped in the same quantum dot couple together to form an exciton. Conventionally the hole involved is a heavy hole. Light-hole excitons are now observed by applying elastic stress to initially unstrained gallium arsenide-based dots. The quasiparticles are identified by their optical emission signature, and could be used in future quantum technologies. Inelastic X-ray scattering in YBa2Cu3O6.6 reveals giant phonon anomalies and elastic central peak due to charge-density-wave formation   pp52 - 58 M. Le Tacon, A. Bosak, S. M. Souliou, G. Dellea, T. Loew et al. doi:10.1038/nphys2805 Inelastic X-ray scattering studies of YBa2Cu3O6.6 reveal strong electron–phonon coupling and an inhomogeneous state made up of charge-density-wave nanodomains, which may explain some anomalous properties of the pseudogap state. Intermittency, quasiperiodicity and chaos in probe-induced ferroelectric domain switching   pp59 - 66 A. V. Ievlev, S. Jesse, A. N. Morozovska, E. Strelcov, E. A. Eliseev et al. doi:10.1038/nphys2796 Ferroelectric domain switching on the surface of a lithium niobate thin film can be induced by the tip of a scanning probe microscope, and gives rise to both regular and chaotic spatiotemporal patterns. Moreover, the long-range interactions that govern these phenomena can be tuned by varying temperature, humidity, domain spacing and tip bias. See also: News and Views by Pignolet Consistent thermostatistics forbids negative absolute temperatures   pp67 - 72 Jörn Dunkel and Stefan Hilbert doi:10.1038/nphys2815 It is shown that for thermodynamics and statistical physics to be internally consistent, Gibbs' original—rather than Boltzmann's widely used—definition of entropy needs to be adopted. Consequently, negative absolute temperatures are strictly forbidden, and cold-atom gases are unlikely to be laboratory analogues to dark energy. See also: News and Views by Sokolov Visualizing kinetic pathways of homogeneous nucleation in colloidal crystallization   pp73 - 79 Peng Tan, Ning Xu and Lei Xu doi:10.1038/nphys2817 Assemblies of colloidal particles provide a micrometre-scale analogue of atomic and molecular liquids and solids. Now, real-time visualization of the liquid-solid transition in systems of spherical colloids reveals complex pathways involving precursors of hexagonal close-packed, body-centred cubic and face-centred cubic symmetry. See also: News and Views by Granasy & Toth Futures Top Démodé   p80 Steven L. Peck doi:10.1038/nphys2860 Top Advertisement Polymer Journal Invited Reviews Collection  Polymer Journal is proud to present the Invited Reviews Collection, which gathers the key invited reviews published in 2012 and 2013. Commissioned by invitation from the editorial board of Polymer Journal these reviews are written by prominent scientists and cover cutting-edge areas of macromolecular research.  Take advantage of free access to the Invited Reviews Collection today!    Natureevents is a fully searchable, multi-disciplinary database designed to maximise exposure for events organisers. The contents of the Natureevents Directory are now live. The digital version is available here. 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