DOUGLAS Dean Osheroff stares intently at his computer monitor. This winner of the Nobel prize for Physics in 1996 is taking a close look at an illustration on the theory of the refraction of light through various types of lenses. He slowly moves the mouse, adjusting the shape and thickness of the lens, and noting the changes in direction of the refracted light.

Osheroff is trying out the Amazing Physics computer software program, which illustrates