Physics World is the membership magazine of the Institute of Physics, one of the largest physical societies in the world. It is an international monthly magazine covering all areas of physics, pure and applied, and is aimed at physicists in research, industry, physics outreach, and education worldwide.
The magazine was launched in 1988 by IOP Publishing Ltd, under the founding editorship of Philip Campbell, and has established itself as one of the world's leading physics magazines. The magazine is sent free to members of the Institute of Physics, who can access a digital edition of the magazine; selected articles can be read by anyone for free online. It was redesigned in September 2005 and has an audited circulation of just under 35000.
The editor is Matin Durrani. Others on the team are Michael Banks (news editor), Louise Mayor (features editor), Margaret Harris (industry editor) and Tushna Commissariat (reviews and careers editor). Hamish Johnston is the editor of the magazine's website physicsworld.com. James Dacey is multimedia projects editor.
The magazine makes two awards each year. These are the Physics World Breakthrough of the Year and the Physics World Book of the Year, which have both been awarded annually since 2009.
Top 10 works and winners of the Breakthrough of the Year2009: "to August Jonathan Home and colleagues at NIST for unveiled the first small-scale device that could be described as a complete "quantum computer"
Top results from TevatronSpins spotted in room-temperature siliconGraphane makes its debutMagnetic monopoles spotted in spin icesWater on the MoonAtoms teleport information over long distanceBlack-hole analogue traps soundDark matter spotted in MinnesotaA 2.36 TeV big bang at the LHC2010: "to ALPHA and the ASACUSA group at CERN for have created new ways of controlling antiatoms of hydrogen"
Exoplanet atmosphere laid bareQuantum effects seen in a visible objectVisible-light cloaking of large objectsHail the first sound lasersA Bose–Einstein condensate from lightRelativity with a human touchTowards a Star Wars telepresenceProton is smaller than we thoughtCERN achieves landmark collisions2011: Aephraim Steinberg and colleagues from the University of Toronto in Canada for using the technique of "weak measurement" to track the average paths of single photons passing through a Young's double-slit experiment.
Measuring the wavefunctionCloaking in space and timeMeasuring the universe using black holesTurning darkness into lightTaking the temperature of the early universeCatching the flavour of a neutrino oscillationLiving laser brought to lifeComplete quantum computer made on a single chipSeeing pure relics from the Big Bang2012: "to the ATLAS and CMS collaborations at CERN for their joint discovery of a Higgs-like particle at the Large Hadron Collider".
Majorana fermionsTime-reversal violationGalaxy-cluster motionPeering through opaque materialsRoom-temperature maserWiping data will cost you energyEntangling twisted beamsNeutrino-based communicationGenerating and storing energy in one step2013: "the IceCube South Pole Neutrino Observatory for making the first observations of high-energy cosmic neutrinos".
Nuclear physics goes pear-shapedCreating 'molecules' of lightPlanck reveals 'almost perfect' universeQuantum microscope' peers into the hydrogen atomQuantum state endures for 39 minutes at room temperatureThe first carbon-nanotube computerB-mode polarization spotted in cosmic microwave backgroundThe first laser-cooled Bose–Einstein condensateHofstadter's butterfly spotted in graphene2014: "to the landing by the European Space Agency of the Philae (spacecraft) on 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko", which was the first time a probe had been landed on a comet
Quasar shines a bright light on cosmic webNeutrinos spotted from Sun's main nuclear reactionLaser fusion passes milestoneElectrons' magnetic interactions isolated at long lastDisorder sharpens optical-fibre imagesData stored in magnetic hologramsLasers ignite 'supernovae' in the labQuantum data are compressed for the first timePhysicists sound-out acoustic tractor beam2015: "for being the first to achieve the simultaneous quantum teleportation of two inherent properties of a fundamental particle – the photon".
Cyclotron radiation from a single electron is measured for the first timeWeyl fermions are spotted at long lastPhysicists claim 'loophole-free' Bell-violation experimentFirst visible light detected directly from an exoplanetLHCb claims discovery of two pentaquarksHydrogen sulphide is warmest ever superconductor at 203 KPortable 'battlefield MRI' comes out of the labFermionic microscope sees first lightSilicon quantum logic gate is a first2016: "to LIGO's gravitational wave discovery ".
Schrödinger's cat lives and dies in two boxes at onceElusive nuclear-clock transition spotted in thorium-229New gravimeter-on-a-chip is tiny yet extremely sensitiveNegative refraction of electrons spotted in grapheneRocky planet found in habitable zone around Sun's nearest neighbourPhysicists take entanglement beyond identical ions'Radical' new microscope lens combines high resolution with large field of viewQuantum computer simulates fundamental particle interactions for the first timeThe single-atom engine that couldTop 10 books and the Book of the Year winnerA blue ribbon () appears against the winner.
2009: The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Quantum Genius by Graham Farmelo
The Physics of Rugby by Trevor Davis (Nottingham University Press).First Principles: The Crazy Business of Doing Serious Science by Howard Burton (Key Porter Books).Oliver Heaviside: Maverick Mastermind of Electricity by Basil Mahon (Institute of Engineering and Technology).Atomic: The First War of Physics and the Secret History of the Atom Bomb by Jim Baggott (Icon Books).Lives in Science by Joseph C Hermanowicz (University of Chicago Press).13 Things That Don't Make Sense by Michael Brooks (Profile Books).Deciphering the Cosmic Number: The Strange Friendship of Wolfgang Pauli and Carl Jung by Arthur I Miller (W W Norton).Perfect Rigor by Masha Gessen (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt).Plastic Fantastic: How the Biggest Fraud in Physics Shook the Scientific World by Eugenie Samuel Reich (Palgrave Macmillan).2010: The Edge of Physics: Dispatches from the Frontiers of Cosmology by Anil Ananthaswamy
The Tunguska Mystery by Vladimir Rubtsov (Springer)Coming Climate Crisis? Consider the Past, Beware the Big Fix by Claire L Parkinson (Rowman & Littlefield)How It Ends by Chris Impey (W W Norton)Lake Views: This World and the Universe by Steven Weinberg (Harvard University Press)The Quants: How a New Breed of Math Whizzes Conquered Wall Street and Nearly Destroyed It by Scott Patterson (Crown Business)Newton and the Counterfeiter by Thomas Levenson (Faber and Faber)Packing for Mars by Mary Roach (One World Publications/ W W Norton)Massive: The Hunt for the God Particle by Ian Sample (Virgin Books/Basic Books)How to Teach Quantum Physics to Your Dog by Chad Orzel2011: Quantum Man: Richard Feynman's Life in Science by Lawrence Krauss from Case Western Reserve University.
Engineering Animals Mark Denny and Alan McFadzeanMeasure of the Earth: the Enlightenment Expedition that Reshaped the World Larrie FerreiroThe Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos Brian GreeneLab Coats in Hollywood: Science, Scientists and Cinema David KirbyQuantum Man: Richard Feynman's Life in Science Lawrence KraussRising Force: the Magic of Magnetic Levitation James LivingstonModernist Cuisine Nathan Myhrvold, Chris Young and Maxime BiletThe 4% Universe: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Race to Discover the Rest of Reality Richard PanekRadioactive: Marie and Pierre Curie, A Tale of Love and Fallout Lauren RednissHindsight and Popular Astronomy Alan Whiting2012: How the Hippies Saved Physics by David Kaiser from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
A Hole at the Bottom of the Sea: The Race to Kill the BP Oil Gusher Joel AchenbachThe Science Magpie: A Hoard of Fascinating Facts Simon FlynnThe Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation Jon GertnerErwin Schrödinger and the Quantum Revolution John GribbinThe Geek Manifesto: Why Science Matters Mark HendersonLife's Ratchet: How Molecular Machines Extract Order from Chaos Peter M HoffmannHow the Hippies Saved Physics: Science, Counterculture and the Quantum Revival David KaiserHow to Teach Relativity to Your Dog Chad OrzelPricing the Future: Finance, Physics and the 300-Year Journey to the Black–Scholes Equation George SzpiroPhysics on the Fringe: Smoke Rings, Circlons, and Alternative Theories of Everything Margaret Wertheim2013: Physics in Mind: a Quantum View of the Brain by the biophysicist Werner Loewenstein.
The Spark of Life: Electricity in the Human Body Frances AshcroftThe Particle at the End of the Universe: How the Hunt for the Higgs Boson Leads us to the Edge of a New World Sean CarrollHans Christian Ørsted: Reading Nature's Mind Dan Charly ChristensenChurchill's Bomb: a Hidden History of Science, War and Politics Graham FarmeloPhysics in Mind: a Quantum View of the Brain Werner LoewensteinJ Robert Oppenheimer: A Life Inside the Center Ray MonkThe Simpsons and their Mathematical Secrets Simon SinghTime Reborn: From the Crisis in Physics to the Future of the Universe Lee SmolinThe Theoretical Minimum: What You Need to Know to Start Doing Physics Leonard Susskind and George HrabovskyWeird Life: the Search for Life That Is Very, Very Different from Our Own David Toomey2014: Stuff Matters: The Strange Stories of the Marvellous Materials that Shape our Man-made World - Mark Miodownik
Wizards, Aliens & Starships: Physics and Math in Fantasy and Science Fiction - Charles AdlerServing the Reich: the Struggle for the Soul of Physics Under Hitler - Philip BallFive Billion Years of Solitude: the Search for Life Among the Stars - Lee BillingsPlutopia: Nuclear Families, Atomic Cities, and the Great Soviet and American Plutonium Disasters - Kate BrownSmashing Physics: Inside the World’s Biggest Experiment - Jon ButterworthSonic Wonderland: a Scientific Odyssey of Sound - Trevor CoxThe Perfect Theory: a Century of Geniuses and the Battle Over General Relativity - Pedro G FerreiraStuff Matters: the Strange Stories of the Marvellous Materials that Shape Our Man-made World - Mark MiodownikEinstein and the Quantum: the Quest of the Valiant Swabian - Douglas StoneIsland on Fire: the Extraordinary Story of Laki, the Volcano that Turned Eighteenth-century Europe - Dark Alexandra Witze and Jeff Kanipe2015: Trespassing on Einstein’s Lawn: a Father, a Daughter, the Meaning of Nothing and the Beginning of Everything - Amanda Gefter
Life on the Edge: the Coming of Age of Quantum Biology - Jim Al-Khalili and Johnjoe McFaddenPhysics on Your Feet: Ninety Minutes of Shame but a PhD for the Rest of Your Life - Dmitry Budker and Alexander SushkovHalf-Life: the Divided Life of Bruno Pontecorvo, Physicist or Spy - Frank CloseBeyond: Our Future in Space - Chris ImpeyThe Water Book: the Extraordinary Story of Our Most Ordinary Substance - Alok JhaMonsters: the Hindenburg Disaster and the Birth of Pathological Technology - Ed RegisTunnel Visions: the Rise and Fall of the Superconducting Super Collider - Michael Riordan, Lillian Hoddeson, Adrienne KolbThe Copernicus Complex: the Quest for our Cosmic (In)Significance - Caleb ScharfAtoms Under the Floorboards: the Surprising Science Hidden in Your Home - Chris Woodford2016: Why String Theory? - Joseph Conlon
The Jazz of Physics: the Secret Link Between Music and the Structure of the Universe - Stephon AlexanderStorm in a Teacup: the Physics of Everyday Life - Helen CzerskiBig Science: Ernest Lawrence and the Invention that Launched the Military-Industrial Complex - Michael HiltzikStrange Glow: the Story of Radiation - Timothy JorgensenCosmos: the Infographic Book of Space - Stuart Lowe and Chris NorthSpooky Action at a Distance: the Phenomenon that Reimagines Space and Time - George MusserGoldilocks and the Water Bears: the Search for Life in the Universe - Louisa PrestonReality Is Not What It Seems: the Journey to Quantum Gravity - Carlo RovelliThe Pope of Physics: Enrico Fermi and the Birth of the Atomic Age - Gino Segrè and Bettina HoerlinTop 10 Favourite Pictures of the Year2015:
New Horizons uncovers Pluto's icy secretsLasers reveal previously unseen fossil detailsClap your eyes on the first 'images' of thunderCould lasers guide and control the path of lightning?Gravitational lensing creates 'Einstein's cross' of distant supernovaRevealing the secret strength of a sea spongeSatellite sensor unexpectedly detects waves in upper atmosphereBalloon bursts approach the speed of soundImaging the polarity of individual chemical bondsOrganic microflowers bloom bright