Virtual study lounge: physics students
study, meet in the Nucleus

College Park, MD (February 23, 2003) – Where
can you access the latest in physics
research and also vote on the best version
of The Matrix?

College students can check out the Nucleus,
a website that offers free interactive
activities to help students share physics
ideas.

"Our site doesn't really have any
competitors," said technical lead Thad
Lurie. "We just thought about the kinds of
things physics students like to do, and made
it happen."

In the Nucleus, physics and astronomy
students will find polls, reviews of college
level textbooks, contests, job postings, the
latest physics news, and even haikus.

"It was fun to see the responses from other
colleges and to see some of the
similarities. U. Louisville has a professor
that was referred to as 'the man,' while we
at Juniata also have a professor who can be
referred to only as 'the man'," said user
Michael Best, a student at Juniata College,
Huntingdon, PA, via email. "Beyond using the
Nucleus as a research tool for summer
employment, I have also used it as research
for classes. The links section has several
pages that are full of figures that I have
included in lab reports and presentations."

"Without the interactions, we're a site
providing useful content," said Lurie. "WITH
the interactions, there is so much more -
sure, we still have the content, but now we
also have other students' opinions about the
content, discussions about the content,
questions about the content, materials that
are related to the content."