We Can’t Face Down Putin Alone

By Dennis Ross

Russian President Vladimir Putin provided a wake-up call for the United States and its European allies, reminding us collectively of a number of truths: Hard power matters. Borders can be changed by force. Attempts to erase nations have not been relegated to the past. And conflict and competition will define the international landscape for the foreseeable future. If we are to deter the former, and shape the latter, we need partners.

While Russia’s invasion and its atrocities have repulsed much of the Western world, many nations in the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America sit on the sidelines. Moreover, Putin retains the support of China and countries such as Iran, which has no interest in accepting the norms that the West believes should guide international behavior.

Even as Putin continues his war against Ukraine, the United States must begin thinking about building coalitions for the period after the war ends. When Putin decides to conclude this war, we cannot return to business as usual.

Russia’s Isolation From the West Will Outlast the War

Maria Repnikova

While i was researching Russian investigative journalism a little over a decade ago, several of the people I interviewed used variations of the same metaphor to explain why Vladimir Putin had not stamped out the country’s independent media: They said that critical outlets—and they specifically referred to Russia’s most well-known investigative publication, Novaya Gazeta—were like credentials for Putin, allowing Russia to masquerade as a democracy. “Someone might be imprisoned in Russia for their articles, but Novaya Gazeta will continue to exist and showcase to the outside world that we do have freedom of speech in Russia,” a senior Russian journalist told me.

In a First, an ‘Atomic Fountain’ Has Measured the Curvature of Spacetime

 In 1797, English scientist Henry Cavendish measured the strength of gravity with a contraption made of lead spheres, wooden rods and wire. In the 21st century, scientists are doing something very similar with rather more sophisticated tools: atoms.

Gravity might be an early subject in introductory physics classes, but that doesn’t mean scientists aren’t still trying to measure it with ever-increasing precision. Now, a group of physicists has done it using the effects of time dilation—the slowing of time caused by increased velocity or gravitational force—on atoms. In a paper published online today (Jan. 13) in the journal Science, the researchers announce that they’ve been able to measure the curvature of space-time.

The experiment is part of an area of science called atom interferometry. It takes advantage of a principle of quantum mechanics: just as a light wave can be represented as a particle, a particle (such as an atom) can be represented as a “wave packet.” And just as light waves can overlap and create interference, so too can matter wave packets.