Public policy is collectively the way in which governments the world over seek to address issues, solve problems, or take actions that move society forward. It is a dynamic, complex, and interactive process with many actors. National academies and scientific societies play a crucial role within this space as an independent and trusted voice, collating and representing the evidence base and setting out areas of priority for governments to focus on. They do this not only by marshaling expert advice and thought from within their own disciplines and areas but also by bringing together coalitions, partnerships, and advocacy groups, to amplify their voices and to help them engage with governments in a more focused and coherent way. This helps not only to inform and influence public policy but also to hold governments to account in areas of public interest. Increasingly, societies are taking on greater advocacy roles and campaigning on key issues and this has brought more emphasis to bear on their skillsets, working with new and different partners in the policy space, and the role of open science and greater public engagement going forward.
61-63 of 63 Results
Article
The Role of National Academies and Scientific Societies in Public Policy
Paul Hardaker
Article
The Solar Corona
Richard Morton
The solar corona is the hot, tenuous outer layer of the Sun’s atmosphere. The coronal plasma is roughly around 1 mega-Kelvin (MK) but can reach temperatures of around 10 MK in certain regions. Due to this high temperature, the plasma in the corona emits electromagnetic radiation predominantly at Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) and X-ray wavelengths. The corona’s appearance and dynamic behavior is defined by a complex network of magnetic fields that thread the fully ionized plasma. Due to an excess of magnetic pressure compared to gas pressure, the magnetic field is able to control the flow of plasma in the corona, leading to a wide variety of different structures. The appearance of the corona undergoes small variations over hours, and changes dramatically over the course of the Sun’s magnetic cycle. At the large scales are vast patches of open magnetic fields known as coronal holes, in which the fast, hot solar wind originates. The coronal holes are most prominent at the minimum stage of the Sun’s activity cycle. The other large-scale feature is coronal streamers, which transition from closed to open magnetic field with height and extend out as elongated rays into the heliosphere. The streamers are always present and are a source of transient events in the solar wind. The inner corona is dominated by closed loops of plasma, which are structured on the smallest resolvable scales and are the result of emerging bipolar patches of magnetic field.
The Sun’s corona is also the source of a long-standing question in astrophysics. First raised in the 1940s, scientists are still trying to understand how energy is deposited in the coronal plasma, causing the heating of the plasma to millions of degrees and the acceleration of the solar wind. It is clear that the magnetic field plays a substantial role, but being able to pin down the mechanisms of energy release is challenging. Modern observations have revealed signatures of magnetohydrodynamic waves and magnetic reconnection throughout the corona, both of which are leading explanations. However, there are still many unknowns about their contributions to energy deposition throughout the corona. Revealing the nature of coronal energy deposition is not only important for understanding the Sun but is also key for understanding the evolution of planetary systems around solar-like stars (which get bombarded with EUV/X-ray radiation and stellar winds) and the evolution of solar-like stars themselves (including mass and angular momentum loss).
Article
Ultimate Colliders
Vladimir D. Shiltsev
Understanding the universe critically depends on the fundamental knowledge of particles and fields, which represents a central endeavor of modern high-energy physics. Energy frontier particle colliders—arguably, among the largest, most complex, and advanced scientific instruments of modern times—for many decades have been at the forefront of scientific discoveries in high-energy physics. Because of advances in technology and breakthroughs in beam physics, the colliding beam facilities have progressed immensely and now operate at energies and luminosities many orders of magnitude greater than the pioneering instruments of the early 1960s.
While the Large Hadron Collider and the Super-KEKB factory represent the frontier hadron and lepton colliders of today, respectively, future colliders are an essential component of a strategic vision for particle physics. Conceptual studies and technical developments for several exciting near- and medium-term future collider options are underway internationally. Analysis of numerous proposals and studies for far-future colliders indicate the limits of the collider beam technology due to machine size, cost, and power consumption, and call for a paradigm shift of particle physics research at ultrahigh energy but low luminosity colliders approaching or exceeding 1 PeV center-of-mass energy scale.
