Tom Killian

AT&T Laboratories

24 August 2001

Marc Brodsky (via e-mail)

CEO and Executive Director

American Institute of Physics

One Physics Ellipse

College Park, Maryland 20740

"Perhaps even more incredibly, Physics Today also banned private conversations in the workplace, announcing that all conversations between staff members must be open to monitoring by managers. In light of this history, Physics Today's response to Disciplined Minds is less surprising."

If not a complete fabrication, this story is very disturbing. What is the management of Physics Today trying to accomplish? Improve staff morale? Prevent security leaks to Springer? Dissuade physics grad students from going into social science? As a long-time member of the APS, I am appalled that we seem to have paranoid fascists running our magazine.

Tom Killian

Member, American Physical Society