Words from Professor Eshel Ben-Jacob, the Founder of PhysicaPlus OnlineWhen I was elected as President of the Israeli Physical Society, the High-Tech Boom was at its infinitely optimistic height. I then started thinking of establishing a new magazine of the IPS that would provide a communication channel between academic and government researchers and the High-Tech industry. I also hoped to get high school teachers involved, and have an exchange of ideas of how to develop teaching programs for high school and university, that will cater for the needs of the academia and industry in the ever changing scene of science and technology. At the time, with plenty of interest and investments in science, it seemed an easy task to raise the money and get people involved.
Physics education and physics research in Israel are now facing a hard reality. Dangerous processes might cause irreversible damage to our scientific foundations and tradition. These new circumstances make the need for a communication channel between the creators, the consumers and the educators of science, here and abroad, more crucial than ever, but its realization harder. Recognizing the importance of communication, especially in hard times (a simple principle "invented" by bacteria 3.5 billions years ago), for collective "survival", our new IPS team set out to establish the PhysicaPlus magazine. Thanks to much voluntary effort by many, after an extended period of swimming against the currents of "rational skepticism", the on-line magazine of PhysicaPlus was born about five years ago. It is still far from being perfect. We welcome constructive criticisms, and even more so if accompanied by willingness to help make the required improvements.
In the editorial team, you can find many very busy people that are willing to invest their time. We can succeed, but success depends on the readiness of many more from our physics community in Israel and abroad to join the effort - from constructive criticism, through short articles and contributions to the various sections, to full length articles. The idea is to maintain an interactive magazine to intensify links between "users".
Let us all join the effort, so we can also all benefit from the advantage of having this new tool.
Many thanks to all who did and will help,
Eshel Ben Jacob
Editorial BoardProf. Uri Ganiel, WIS, Chairman
Dr. Alex Manes, Science Editor
Prof. Eshel Ben Jacob, TAU
Prof. Raoul Weil, Technion
Dr. Gabby Sarusi, Elop Chief Scientist
Dr. Guy Tel-Zur
Dr. Tehila Ben-Gai, Hemda Center for Science Education Scientific Advisory Board Prof. Eshel Ben-Jacob, TAU, Chairman
Prof. Danny Shechtman, Technion
Dr. Gabby Sarusi, Elop Chief Scientist
Prof. Reshef Tene, WIS
Prof. Hagai Nezer, TAU
Prof. Yaron Silberberg, WIS
Prof. Moti Segev, Technion Executive Editorial TeamDr. Alex Manes, Science Editor
Neora (neora.com), Production Editor
Corresponding Editors - Subjects and Departments:Dr. Meir Meidav - Astronomy and Astrophysics
Dr. Yoash Shapira - News in Science and Technology
Dr. Esther Bagno - Science Education
Dr. Judy Kupferman - Science & Culture
Prof. Avraham Tamir - Science & Art
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You may use the "feedback" button, at the bottom of each article, or email directly to the editor.
Request for ContributionDear Friends and Colleagues, We are pleased to invite you to visit our Online Journal PhysicaPlus of the Israel Physical Society (IPS). We are not sparing any effort to improve the contents and format of our web magazine. Hopefully the present issue is an improvement with respect to the previous issues. These objectives, however, can't be achieved without your close cooperation and contribution. We need your contribution of articles, reviews, news items and short notes, as well as your critical remarks with regard to the contents and format of our online journal. Your contributions and feedback are vital and indispensable for the existence and further improvement of this journal. The IPS online journal seeks a wide range of readers among the physical scientific community in Israel, and all those interested in the advances in physics and adjacent disciplines, i.e. academic staff of the universities, research institutes, students, high-school physics teachers and students. The scientific level of the published material will be kept within the "popular plus" limits, similar to such online magazines elsewhere (i.e. "Physicsweb" in UK, "Physics Today" of the American Physical Society, "Physics in Canada"). It will contain, in addition to articles, columns and departments, also news and announcements. With respect to languages, both Hebrew and English will be accepted. With regard to potential contributors to PhysicaPlus, we would like to outline our policy which we will pursue. Publication in our online journal will not be considered as an exclusive, peer-reviewed one, but rather a DIGEST of such publication. In other words, we will accept digests and extended abstracts of articles to be published, or published recently, in peer reviewed scientific journals, and/or presented at scientific conferences, seminars and workshops. Such approach will enable your contribution without interfering with publication policies pursued by various scientific journals. Moreover, since the time elapsing between submission of a paper to a peer-reviewed journal and its publication, may take several months, PhysicaPlus provides you the opportunity to "be in the air" much sooner. We will count on your cooperation, not only as personal contributors, but also by encouraging your colleagues to make a contribution to our journal. Alex Manes, Science Editor Neora, Online Editor (neora.com)
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