Category Archives: Education

Mystery of High-Temperature Superconductivity

photo of magnet levitating above a superconductor

Pseudogaps Are Not The Answer: The Continuing Mystery of High-Temperature Superconductivity. Photo: Because superconductivity repels a magnetic field, this permanent magnet levitates above a cuprate high-temperature superconductor. Scientists were surprised to find the same pseudogap energy signature in both high-Tc cuprates and ferromagnetic manganites.

A phenomenon of solid state physics known as “pseudogaps,” suspected by some scientists of playing a key role in the mystery of high-temperature superconductors, has now been found to occur in materials of a completely different nature. This discovery casts new doubts on any direct link between pseudogaps and high-temperature superconductivity.
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Stanford University physicist Zhi-Xun Shen, a leader in the study of high-Tc superconductivity, says, “I think our findings will add fire to the debate over one of the great scientific mysteries of our time: what is behind the phenomenon of high-Tc superconductivity? Are many of the anomalous properties we see in the cuprates manifestations of high-Tc superconductivity and CMR? What is the underlying physics ingredient that gives rise to these two competing sibling states? These are important questions that future experiments will try to answer.”

This is one of several great articles in the latest issue of Science @ Berkeley Labs

Engineering Graduates Get Top Salary Offers

table of highest paid degrees

Most lucrative college degrees by David Ellis, CNNMoney.com:

The data reflects, college seniors in most majors are experiencing an increase in starting-salary offers, according to a quarterly survey published by the National Association of Colleges & Employers’ (NACE). 83 private and public schools were included in this survey.

Topping the list of highest-paid majors were chemical engineers who fetched $55,900 on average, followed by electrical engineering degrees at $52,899. Despite taking a 0.3 percent dip compared to the 2004-2005 academic year, mechanical engineers took third place with an average salary of $50,672.

Last year 6 of the to 7 highest paid degrees were in engineering (computer science was in 4th place). The graphic to the left leaves off: computer engineering, aerospace engineering and industrial engineering.

NACE press release on salary data

$10 Million for Science Solutions

$10m. To win, just solve these science problems by Ian Sample. Building off the success of the X-prize for a space transport:

Now the foundation is looking to repeat its success in other areas of science. Dr Diamandis is cagey about the finer details of future prizes, but one will offer $10m for the first company to sequence the genetic code of 100 people in a matter of weeks.
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A second prize is aimed at kicking America’s self-proclaimed addiction to oil, by spurring research into greener vehicles. “This is a hot button that can effect our reliance on energy from around the world and our production of pollution
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The foundation is also planning prizes in nanotechnology and education and is considering a second space prize, which could see the first commercial team to put a person into orbital spaceflight win $50m to $100m.

X-prize foundation

Attaching Biological Cells to Non-Biological Surfaces

images of cell adhesion system

Berkeley Researchers Lay Groundwork for Cell Version of DNA Chip

A new technique in which single strands of synthetic DNA are used to firmly fasten biological cells to non-biological surfaces has been developed by researchers with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California at Berkeley. This technique holds promise for a wide variety of applications, including biosensors, drug-screening technologies, the growing of artificial tissues and the design of neural networks.

Figure A: To test their cell adhesion system, researchers anchored single-stranded DNA to gold pads inside microfluidic chips. When the pads were washed with a mixture of DNA-coated cells, only those cells with complementary DNA adhered to the pads. Figure B: With a cell adhesion system based on matching DNA sequences, different cell types can be selectively attached to a chip surface in precise patterns.

Once it was established that cell surfaces could be coated with single-stranded DNA, Chandra worked with Douglas to demonstrate that this adhesion system could be used to attach cells to a non-biological surface. Douglas is a student under Mathies, director of UCB’s Center for Analytical Biotechnology. Chandra and Douglas used a commercial chemical handle, the sulfur-based thiolate ion, to anchor single-stranded DNA onto gold pads, which were incorporated into microfluidic chips through standard photolithography. After the DNA-coated Jurkat cells were rinsed over the chips, fluorescence microscopy revealed that only those cells coated with single-stranded DNA complementary to the anchored DNA adhered to the gold pads. Cells that were otherwise identical but bearing mismatched DNA sequences were washed away.

2004 National Medal of Science and Technology

Dr. Borlaug receives National Medal of Science

The United States National Medals of Science and Technology were presented today at the White House. The photo shows Dr. Norman E. Borlaug, Texas A&M, receiving the National Medal of Science from President Bush. Eight National Medals of Science were presented (Dr. Dennis P. Sullivan, City Univ. of NY; Dr. Phillip A. Sharp, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Dr. Robert N. Clayton, The University of Chicago; Dr. Stephen J. Lippard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Dr. Kenneth J. Arrow, Stanford University; Dr. Norman E. Borlaug, Texas A&M University; Dr. Edwin N. Lightfoot, University of Wisconsin – Madison; Dr. Thomas E. Starzl, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine). George Lucas, of Star Wars fame, received a National Medal of Technology awarded to his company: Industrial Light & Magic.

UW’s Lightfoot to get major science award:

Developers of heart-lung machines, kidney dialysis equipment and pressure chambers to simulate the deepest oceans have used Edwin N. Lightfoot’s research.

The 80-year-old UW-Madison chemical and biological engineering professor is to receive the National Medal of Science today from President Bush at the White House.

“Ed’s work formed the foundation for a great deal of the work in chemical and biomedical engineering,” said Tom Kuech, 51, chairman of the UW Chemical and Biological Engineering Department.

“What’s even more remarkable is that he can run circles around most people. He’s a very sought-after speaker for his views on changes in engineering education.”

National Technology Medals were awarded to: Roger L. Easton, Ralph H. Baer, Motorola, IBM, Gen-Probe Inc., Industrial Light and Magic and PACCAR Inc.

Concentrating Solar Collector wins UW-Madison Engineering Innovation Award

Solar Collector

An inexpensive, modular solar-energy technology that could be used to heat water and generate electricity (see photo) won $12,500 and took first place in both the Schoofs Prize for Creativity and Tong Prototype Prize competitions, held Feb. 9 and 10 during Innovation Days on the UW-Madison College of Engineering campus.

In a package about the size of a small computer desk, the winning system uses a flat Fresnel lens to collect the sun’s energy and focus it onto a copper block. Then a unique spray system removes the energy from the copper block and converts it into steam, says inventor Angie Franzke, an engineering mechanics and astronautics senior from Omro, Wisconsin. The steam either heats water for household use or powers a turbine to generate electricity.

Other 2006 Schoofs Prize for Creativity winners include:

* Second place and $7,000 — William Gregory Knowles, for the OmniPresent Community-Based Response Network, a personal, business or industrial security system that draws on networked users and devices to more efficiently verify burglar alarms, fire alarms or medical emergencies.
* Third place and $4,000 — Garret Fitzpatrick, Jon Oiler, Angie Franzke, Peter Kohlhepp and Greg Hoell for the Self-Leveling Wheelchair Tray, a stowable working surface for wheelchairs that self-levels, even when the wheelchair is tilted or reclined up to a 45-degree angle.

MIT Energy Storage Using Carbon Nanotubes

Images of different types of carbon nanotubes

MIT Researchers Fired up Over New Battery

Image / Michael StrÃ¶ck, Images of different types of carbon nanotubes. Carbon nanotubes are key to MIT researchers’ efforts to improve on an energy storage device called an ultracapacitor. Larger image

Work at MIT’s Laboratory for Electromagnetic and Electronic Systems (LEES) holds out the promise of the first technologically significant and economically viable alternative to conventional batteries in more than 200 years.
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The LEES ultracapacitor has the capacity to overcome this energy limitation by using vertically aligned, single-wall carbon nanotubes — one thirty-thousandth the diameter of a human hair and 100,000 times as long as they are wide. How does it work? Storage capacity in an ultracapacitor is proportional to the surface area of the electrodes. Today’s ultracapacitors use electrodes made of activated carbon, which is extremely porous and therefore has a very large surface area. However, the pores in the carbon are irregular in size and shape, which reduces efficiency. The vertically aligned nanotubes in the LEES ultracapacitor have a regular shape, and a size that is only several atomic diameters in width. The result is a significantly more effective surface area, which equates to significantly increased storage capacity.

Neutrino Detector Searching for String Theory Evidence

Excellent 10 minute podcast presents details on search for evidence of string theory via Project IceCube.

Main IceCube web site – “IceCube is a one-cubic-kilometer international high-energy neutrino observatory being built and installed in the clear deep ice below the South Pole Station.”

South Pole Neutrino Detector Could Yield Evidences of String Theory:

Researchers at Northeastern University and the University of California, Irvine say that scientists might soon have evidence for extra dimensions and other exotic predictions of string theory. Early results from a neutrino detector at the South Pole, called AMANDA, show that ghostlike particles from space could serve as probes to a world beyond our familiar three dimensions, the research team says.

Toyota k-12 Science Grants

Sponsored by Toyota and administered by National Science Teachers Association, Toyota TAPESTRY is the largest K-12 science teacher grant program in the nation, providing 50 grants of up to $10,000 each to K-12 science teachers, as well as a minimum of 20 mini-grants of up to $2,500 each for projects smaller in scope. These grants are awarded for creative, innovative classroom projects in the fields of environmental education, physical science, and literacy and science education.

Over the past 14 years, TAPESTRY has awarded more than $6 million in grants to 673 teams of teachers from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Saipan who have created innovative science projects that can be implemented in their school or school districts.

2005 Grants include:

Our 5th and 6th graders will be teaming with biologists from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game to study water quality and salmon health throughout the Kenai River. Over the past few years the young salmon have shown an alarming decrease in size, and the students will be involved in an actual research project to determine if this trend is happening throughout the entire watershed, and what might be some of the contributing variables. Grant funds will be used to purchase dissecting microscopes for macroinvertebrate identification, equipment for the collection of specimens, and probeware for the field analysis of water samples using handheld computers. Several field trips are planned throughout the year, each designed to explore a different of segment of the river ecosystem from its source in Kenai Lake, to the spawning grounds in Skilak Lake, to its outlet into Cook Inlet.
Our project will give 10th grade students a hands-on opportunity for an inquiry-based investigative experience similar to the scientific research conducted at the prestigious Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. The students will develop a critical understanding of cancer cells by investigating and performing state-of-the-art techniques and translate their comprehension of the academic language of molecular biology.

Their web site includes abstracts and contact details for present and past grant winners.

Magnetic Misfit Bacteria

Magnetic Misfits: South Seeking Bacteria in the Northern Hemisphere

Magnetotactic bacteria contain chains of magnetic iron minerals that allow them to orient in the earth’s magnetic field much like living compass needles. These bacteria have long been observed to respond to high oxygen levels in the lab by swimming towards geomagnetic north in the Northern Hemisphere and geomagnetic south in the Southern Hemisphere. In either hemisphere, this behavior would also lead them downward in the water column into areas with their preferred oxygen level. But an unusual bacterium in New England has been found doing just the opposite, a magnetic misfit of sorts.
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Simmons, a graduate student in the MIT/WHOI Joint Program in Oceanography and Applied Ocean Science and Engineering, received some additional support for her study from a National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship. Edwards is her advisor.