Westward Ho : April Meeting Descends on Denver NEWS

More than 1000 physicists will be on hand for the 2004 APS April meeting, to be held May 1-4 in Denver, Colorado. The April meeting traditionally covers a wide range of physics subfields, including astrophysics, nuclear and particle physics, the physics of beams, plasma physics, computational physics, gravitation, hadronic physics and few-body systems. There will also be numerous sessions on physics education and history. A special public lecture will be offered Saturday evening, May 1, on how the sun shines. The Case of the Missing Neu-The Case of the Missing Neu-The Case of the Missing Neu-The Case of the Missing Neu-The Case of the Missing Neu-trinos trinos trinos trinos trinos. In the mid-19 th century, Charles Darwin and Lord Kelvin found themselves on opposite sides of a controversy regarding the age of the sun and the origin of solar energy. It would be over a century before physics had advanced to the point where scientists could postulate the existence of solar neutrinos, and detectors could be built to measure these elusive particles, which scientists believe are produced when the sun burns hydrogen nuclei to supply the sun' s radiant energy. But far fewer neutrinos were observed than were predicted by theoretical models. The mystery of the missing neutrinos would not be solved for another three decades, when scientists discovered a dramatic solution in January 2001. The history of the neutrino problem, its solution, and subsequent research will be the topic not only of a special public lecture on Saturday evening by John Bahcall of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ, but will also be discussed by Fermilab's Boris Kayser, who will describe how neu-trinos can morph from one " flavor " to another. In addition, a special Town Meeting entitled " Our Neu-trino Future " on Sunday evening at 8 pm will feature talks by Stuart F r e e d m a n , Michael Turner and others, and provide ample time for audience participation. There is also an invited session on neutrinos on Sunday afternoon at 2:30 pm. [Public lecture and sessions H1, L4 and N1] Exploring the Solar Corona Exploring the Solar Corona Exploring the Solar Corona Exploring the Solar Corona Exploring the Solar Corona. Despite being studied by physicists for more than a century, the dynamic microstructure of the sun' s corona The APS held its second topical conference on " Opportunities in co-chaired …