What Are the Latest Breakthroughs in Physics and Astronomy?

[wolram]

http://www7.nationalacademies.org/bpa/projects_cpu_plan.html

The Board on Physics and Astronomy proposes an assessment of an area of science at the intersection of physics and astronomy. The study will provide a broad vision that goes beyond traditional categories of space missions, laboratory studies, telescope observations, and accelerator experiments. It will focus on opportunities for breakthroughs in understanding the birth, evolution and destiny of the Universe, the laws that govern it, and even the nature of space and time. The assessment would encompass astrophysical and cosmological phenomena that give insight into fundamental physics and fundamental physics that is relevant to understanding the universe and the diversity objects within it. It will address opportunities to explore new science through (1) new techniques for observing phenomena in extreme environments and new regimes, (2) new applications of fundamental physics to modeling and simulating the origin, evolution, and fate of the universe, and (3) understanding fundamental physics by using space and the cosmos as a laboratory full of experiments that could never be implemented on the Earth.
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The CMBR story does not end with MAP and Planck. The radiation, in addition to being anisotropic in its intensity, must also have variations (as yet unobserved) in its polarization. Encoded in the polarization is information about gravitational waves that were also produced by inflation. If this key prediction can be confirmed, not only will it strengthen the case for inflation, but also it will reveal the energy scale associated with inflation as well as the details underlie inflation. This knowledge, in turn, could prove to be a key to understanding how inflation fits into the bigger picture and perhaps even a link to superstring theory and the unification of gravity with the other forces. Needless to say, the information found in the anisotropy and polarization of the CMBR could surprise us by falsifying inflation or some of the fine details, sending early Universe theoreticians back to their drawing boards.
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so what is the latest news from the board?

 

[marcus]

the board on physics and astronomy
(of the US National Academy of Science)
is very powerful. it is the elite of big science and it has the ear of congress.
it recently published a report called "Connecting Quarks to Cosmos; Eleven Questions for the New Millennium"
http://books.nap.edu/execsumm_pdf/10079.pdf
this says in grammar school language suitable for a busy Senator who wants to know how to vote what are eleven basic questions
and it makes some general funding recommendations.
here are the board members

Membership
Wendy L. Freedman, Co-Chair, Observatories of the Carnegie Institution, Pasadena, CA
Roger D. Blandford, Co-Chair, California Institute of Technology
Charles Alcock, University of Pennsylvania
Lars Bildsten, University of California at Santa Barbara
John E. Carlstrom, Enrico Fermi Institute, and the College at the University of Chicago
Richard S. Ellis, California Institute of Technology
Andrea Ghez, University of California at Los Angeles
David J. Hollenbach, NASA-Ames Research Center
Chryssa Kouveliotou, National Space Science and Technology Center
Eve Ostriker, University of Maryland
Frazer N. Owen, National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Socorro, NM
Mark Reid, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Charles E. Woodward, University of Minnesota

I believe that an "assessment" is a type of committee report which measures the potential in some field of science and judges the effectiveness of current programs of federal support and agency policy and may make recommendations about reorganization, research priorities, dividing the pie and other serious questions of big science.

If the board proposes to have an "assessment" of the field of say astroparticle physics that, in effect, CREATES a new field of science, namely astroparticlephysics. or whatever. It makes it official that the field exists and gets consideration for funding and can have leaders who speak for it and so on.

Wendy Freedman was in charge of the Hubble Space Telescope "Key" project that determined the present value we have of the Hubble constant namely 71 something per something.

Ultimately that committee will influence things even like who gets how much time on what machines. in my opinion.
it would be interesting to be a fly on the wall at NAS headquarters in DC when that board is meeting

 

[R0man]

As of now, the latest news from the Board on Physics and Astronomy is the proposal for an assessment of an area of science at the intersection of physics and astronomy. This assessment will focus on opportunities for breakthroughs in understanding the birth, evolution, and destiny of the Universe and the laws that govern it. It will also address the use of space and the cosmos as a laboratory for experiments that cannot be conducted on Earth. Additionally, the board is also studying the anisotropy and polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMBR) and its potential to reveal information about gravitational waves and inflation. This information could potentially lead to a better understanding of inflation and its role in the bigger picture of the universe. The board is constantly working on new developments and advancements in the field of physics and astronomy, and their findings and assessments will continue to shape our understanding of the universe.