The critical situation in which the Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Physics (ITEP) finds itself requires decisive and immediate action. However, before moving on to clarifying the causes of the crisis, it is necessary to say a few words about what ITEP is and why such an institute (and very few others like it) is needed in modern Russia.

History, as we know, teaches that for some it teaches nothing. Therefore, we have to constantly remind ourselves of the inadmissibility of forgetting elementary truths, neglect of which is fraught with grave consequences. The state of our science reflects the state of the entire society, which has already been repeatedly noted in many publications in various publications. To understand some of the realities of today, it is useful to remember how they have been formed over the past decades.

Dear editors! So 2012 has arrived - the year of fateful elections and the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Borodino. People are slowly sobering up, crawling out from under the Christmas trees and going to work. Meanwhile, I continue to think about the fate of Russia and the ways of development of Russian science. And if our people, alas, do not want to change for the better, then in the sphere of governing the country, as usual, I see constant changes for the better.

Lately we have often heard that the protest of people who came out to Bolotnaya Square and Sakharov Avenue is not political in essence, but civil. No, I agree with that, I’m talking about something else. This phrase gives reason once again to think about the mysterious ways of words. The fact is that the words politician and citizen are of similar origin.

Icelandic field spat, photo Arniein, Wikipedia Modern culture is a culture of clips and hit parades. So the consciousness of man of the second half of the XX - early XXI centuries is arranged. And the music here is far from the only example. At the end of the year, everyone sums up and make lists. All “the best, the most iconic, the most shocking” is at the end of the year.

Lately we have often heard that the protest of people who came out to Bolotnaya Square and Sakharov Avenue is not political in essence, but civil. No, I agree with that, I’m talking about something else.

The past year, perhaps, did not bring revolutionary unexpected breakthroughs in astrophysics. Nevertheless, the companions flew, the telescopes observed, theorists thought, and therefore many interesting results were obtained. We highlight the traditional twenty of the most interesting, in our opinion, plots. The study of planets and small bodies of the solar system is excluded from this list. Work was taken only from the archive of preprints arxiv.org.

Announcement of the issue “Phobos-Grunt” – the death of a dream (pp. 1, 4-5) Alexander Ilyin The largest material in the issue and the editorial are dedicated to the Phobos-Grunt project. Unfortunately, as you know, the device was unable to start working. As a result, on January 15, the satellite left orbit. The article describes in detail what happened to the device after launch, as well as the history of the project.

Journalists from print publications and websites have a much easier life than television journalists: they can interview anyone, anywhere. In order to do this, it is not necessary to even meet in person. If something goes wrong, you can always make changes to the interview over the phone or by email. When it comes to a television interview, it is known in advance that there will be no second attempt.

The ordeal of one of the best research centers in the country - the Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Physics - is getting worse. Troitsky Option-Science has repeatedly written about the problems of ITEP (last publication in No. 71, 02/01/2011 http://trv-science.ru/2011/02/01/izvoLte-Lyubit-i-zhaLovat/ ). Recently, the Institute became subordinate to the Kurchatov Center with new salaries, more precisely, a basic salary, which for all types of researchers is 5,790 rubles. per month.

Ten years ago, a book was published in the series “Archive of the Russian Avangard”: A. Sofronov. Notes independent. Diaries. Letters. Memories. (M., "RA", 2001). For some reason, she came across to me only now, although the circulation is two thousand copies. The artist Antonina Sofronova (1892 - 1966) was a quiet person and, moreover, unbending.

We publish a squeeze from the book of Leonid Volkov and Fedor Krasheninnikov “Cloud Democracy”, prepared by the authors themselves. The book is available on the network ( http://cdem.ru ), but we consider it important to introduce the idea of ​​the book of “paper-oriented” readers. To someone expressed ideas may seem fantastic, someone-not applicable to Russian realities (they say that they will still vulgarize, pervert and buy it).

On the night of November 8 to 9, 2011 (at 00:16:02 Moscow time), one of the most anticipated starts of the “space” year took place. From the launcher No. 1 of the site No. 45 of the Baikonur Cosmodrome, the Zenit-2 launch vehicle with the Russian automatic interplanetary station Fobos-Gront was launched and the Inho-1 Chinese micros-1 was integrated into it.

We continue to publish a series of articles of the flavorist, the head of the development of Sergei Belkov’s food additives about popular myths about food and food. Suppose, purely hypothetically, that we need to arrange a sabotage, for example, spray a toxic substance or arrange an explosion on the territory of a closed enterprise. How to do this if it is impossible to technically carry an instrument of crime into the territory?

Read about the results of the elections to the Russian Academy of Sciences and how scientists should react to political events in the country in an interview with Doctor of Physics and Mathematics. Sciences, chief researcher of the St. Petersburg branch of the Mathematical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences Anatoly Vershik. Interviewed by Natalia Demina. — Could you express your opinion regarding the elections to the Academy of Sciences?