Engineering in Computing and Science

In March 2003, the members of the American Physical Society met in Austin, Texas, to hear and talk about their research. As Physics Today's news editor, I went there too. Covering a big physics meeting is grueling. Unlike real scientists, science reporters have to pay attention to every field and subfield without bias or favor. Not surprisingly, halfway through the meeting, after two days of superconductivity, biological physics, statistical mechanics, and so on, I needed a break.