Undergraduate science education probed
Do today's colleges and universities place too much emphasis on research performed by their faculty and not enough on the quality of undergraduate teaching? That was the question addressed at a March 31 hearing of the House Subcommittee on Science. Former University of Arkansas president Rep. Ray Thornton (D-Ark.), who chaired the hearing, remarked that “there is a nationwide perception that the balance is skewed toward research.” Many students and their parents, he said, have voiced dissatisfaction over undergraduate education.
A study is made of scattering and absorption of ultrashort coherent radiation pulses when they pass through an electron gas, such as occurs in the ionised upper layers of the atmosphere.