Category Archives: Science

Matter to Anti-Matter 3 Trillion Times a Second

Fermilab’s CDF scientists make it official: They have discovered the quick-change behavior of the B-sub-s meson, which switches between matter and antimatter 3 trillion times a second.
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Determining the astonishing rate of 3 trillion oscillations per second required sophisticated analysis techniques. CDF cospokespersons Konigsberg and Fermilab’s Rob Roser explained that the B_s meson is a very short-lived particle. In order to understand its underlying characteristics, scientists have to observe how each particle decays to determine its true make-up.

2006 Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge

2006 Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge Winners

the contest recognizes outstanding achievement in the use of visual media to promote understanding of research results and scientific phenomena. The judges’ criteria for evaluating the entries included visual impact, innovation and accuracy, among others.

Winning entries communicate information about complex mathematical concepts, the intricacies of the human body, air-flight patterns, the latest scientific imaging technologies to analyze Leonardo da Vinci’s art, and more.

Image:
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China Invests More in Science and Engineering

China to invest 6 bln yuan in scientific infrastructure

The Chinese central government will invest at least 6 billion yuan (750 million U.S. dollars) in major scientific infrastructure projects in the next five years.

China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) announced Thursday that the 12 major projects include an accelerator-based neutron source, a large area space telescope, marine research vessels, a space remote sensing system and other key projects.

The NDRC will invest a further 5 billion yuan (625 million U.S. dollars) in the third phase of the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ (CAS) innovation project, building or upgrading 50 national engineering institutes and 100 national labs, and supporting 300 national authorized enterprise tech centers.

Protein Knots

graphic of human ubiquitin hydrolase

Knotty problem puzzles protein researchers by Anne Trafton:

Knots are rare in proteins–less than 1 percent of all proteins have any knots, and most are fairly simple. The researchers analyzed 32,853 proteins, using a computational technique never before applied to proteins at this scale.

Of those that had knots, all were enzymes. Most had a simple three-crossing, or trefoil knot, a few had four crossings, and the most complicated, a five-crossing knot, was initially found in only one protein–ubiquitin hydrolase.

That complex knot may hold some protective value for ubiquitin hydrolase, whose function is to rescue other proteins from being destroyed–a dangerous job.

Photo: MIT researchers recently found that human ubiquitin hydrolase, shown here, has the most complicated knot ever observed in a protein. The simplified diagram, inset, shows the knot in the protein, which crosses itself five times. Larger image.

Purdue Graduate Fellows Teach Middle School Science

Purdue to break ground on teaching center for improving science and engineering education.

The $10 million Discovery Learning Center, slated for completion in 2008, will focus on teaching techniques and environments conducive to learning. Also a focal point will be the way people learn best. An emphasis will be placed on science, technology, engineering and mathematics education, also known as the STEM disciplines.
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Wilella Burgess, managing director of the Discovery Learning Center, said projects like GK12 help make science seem more reachable for students in the primary grades.

“A lot of these kids don’t know there is such a thing as graduate school and it lets them meet scientists and grad students and learn that they’re not all weird, nerdy people,” she said. “It also lets classroom teachers have the access to cutting edge research.”

The Purdue Discovery Learning Center Gk-12 program brings graduate students to middle schools. Graduate “fellows will develop lesson plans and teach interdisciplinary-focused experiments geared toward science in everyday life.”

Sports Science Open Access Journal

Sport Science is a Peer-Reviewed Site for Sport Research (open access). An interesting recent publication: One Hundred and Fifty Years of Rowing Faster by Stephen Seiler:

Improvements in rowing technique have increased boat speed by reducing boat yaw, pitch and roll, and by improving the pattern of force application. New tools for real-time measurement and feedback of boat kinematics and force patterns are opening new approaches to training of individual rowers and to selection of rowers for team boats.

They also moderate a email list with items of interest including academic positions in areas such as: Mechanical Engineering, focusing on Biomechanics; Sports Physiologist; Exercise and Sport Science.

How Does a Missile Turns in Flight?

An interesting and detailed explanation of the dynamics of missile flight: Missile Control Systems:

In order to turn the missile during flight, at least one set of aerodynamic surfaces is designed to rotate about a center pivot point. In so doing, the angle of attack of the fin is changed so that the lift force acting on it changes. The changes in the direction and magnitude of the forces acting on the missile cause it to move in a different direction and allow the vehicle to maneuver along its path and guide itself towards its intended target.

String Theory

image of book cover: The Trouble With Physics

String theory: Hanging on by a thread? by Dan Vergano:

String theory is on the ropes. After decades of prominence as the key to physics’ elusive “theory of everything,” challengers say the hypothesis is unraveling.

Why? Because there haven’t been experiments to prove it — and there don’t seem to be any on the horizon.

“The interplay with experiments is essential, and string theory just doesn’t have that,” says physicist Lee Smolin, author of The Trouble With Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of Science, and What Comes Next
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Schwartz, one of the fathers of modern string theory, replies by e-mail that experiments will verify string theory in the future. The big question is how much energy an experiment would have to pound into a collision between particles to reveal strings, he adds. Many physicists hope that Europe’s Large Hadron Collider facility will offer some answers, starting in 2007.

Ultimately, Carroll says, “the only way for someone to kill string theory will be to come up with a better one.”

The The Elegant Universe:Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory by Brain Greene is a great read.

340 Years of Royal Society Journals Online

The complete archive (from 1665) of the Royal Society journals, is freely available electronically for two months. You can try using the Journal archive – it sure does have spectacular content, if only you can unearth it:

The archive contains seminal research papers including accounts of Michael Faraday’s groundbreaking series of electrical experiments, Isaac Newton’s invention of the reflecting telescope, and the first research paper published by Stephen Hawking.

Note to anyone with scientific content of high value that decides to allow internet access. Please contact Google and have them help you make it available online. They don’t have any official program to do so, but for collections of enough merit I can’t imagine you would have any trouble getting some Google engineer to take on the project.
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2006 MacArthur Fellows

photo of Edith Widder photo of Kenneth Catania photo of Linda Griffith
25 New MacArthur Fellows Announced. Photos from left to right: Edith Widder, Kenneth Catania and Linda Griffith.

My statement from last year seems worth repeating: “I think the fellowships are a great idea: give money to people who have done excellent work. I am not sure of the motivations of the MacArthur Foundation, but if it were me I would trust by providing funds to those people they would (as a group, not every single person) take advantage of those funds to create great advances for all of humanity.”

Each fellow will receive $500,000 over the next 5 years to do with as they please. Among the winners are scientist and engineers, including:

Edith Widder – biologist and deep-sea explorer, “Working with engineers, she has built a number of unique devices that enable scientists to see the ocean in new ways, including HIDEX, a bathyphotometer that measures how much bioluminescence there is in the oceans, and LoLAR, the most sensitive deep-sea light meter.”

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