Nobel winner is getting an education

WASHINGTON: As a physicist, Steven Chu has observed atoms suspended in a powerful laser beam and DNA stretched out in a vacuum chamber. But in his new job as U.S. energy secretary, Dr. Chu is observing phenomena he never saw in the science laboratory.

At a recent Senate hearing, for example, he witnessed a junior cabinet member (himself) being systematically dissected by a senior senator (John McCain).


Mr. McCain, unhappy when Dr. Chu affirmed the Obama administration