WoPhy11 Program

Last week I was fortunate to be able to attend about half of WoPhy11.  Meeting all the fantastic undergraduate researchers in Physics was a bit intimidating, they’re all so driven and their projects, may of them self-designed, have the potential to impact millions.  A friend suggested I blog a few of the sessions that I was able to attend. I was writing rather quickly so you should assume that I’m paraphrasing liberally unless otherwise indicated.

*Disclaimer – I am a physical chemist not a physicist, any mistakes should be attributed to my note taking and not the presenters.

Practical Quantum Mechanics: Semi-Conductor Materials for Mid-Infrared Laser
Linda Olafsen, Professor of Physics, Baylor University (Creates finite quantum wells.)

Important Points:

Researches lasers to defend ourselves from laser weapons.
Quantum Mechanics is very practical!
We want lasers that are on all the time, not pulsing.
We also want devices that we don’t need to cool with liquid nitrogen tanks, currently they’re not very practical to carry around.

Did you know?

Lasers can be used to test breath as an early Asthma detection system.
Lasers could be use to decoy off heat seeking missiles.

Computational Materials Science: Designing Materials from First Principles
Julia E Medvedeva, Professor of Physics, Missouri University of Science and Technology
(Computational physics).

Materials are all around us.  We want materials to be: safe, lightweight, efficient, strong, durable, small, and eco-friendly.    Using simulations we can study materials and optimize them before we spend thousands of dollars fabricating and testing them.  Much of the wok in this field is being done by corporations not academia.

Before we had to start with the composition and atomic arrangement  and try to create the physical properties we needed.  Now we can start with the physical properties and design materials based on our needs saving time and money on experimentation.  We can also model situations which are impossible to create experimentally.  Because we can control all of the parameters we can determine whether the driving forces are: charge, spin, or orbital degrees of freedom.

While computational physics is a valuable tool it is important to remember that computer modeling is not a “Simulation of Reality”, rather an accurate computation of relevant quantities to prove or disprove a theory.

Computers don’t solve problems, People Do!

Timeline of Ab-Initio Modeling

1960’s    — Bulk Material Calculations
1970’s — Defects and Impuraties calculations allow optimization of materials.
1980’s — Interfaces, Surfaces, & Thin Layers calculations (diff. properties than bulk materials.)
1990’s — Simple Molecules (Fullerenes, clathrates, carbon nanotubes).
2000’s — Polymers

Now  we can study structural, energetic, electronic, optical and magnetic properties of any element, any bonding situtation, periodict structures, and  single molecules.  These calculations have a high accuracy rate allowing greater variations in system size to be addressed than was previously possible.

Illustration based on lecture slide of How Nanotechnology Connects Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Economics, and Engineering

Nanotechnology and Materials Science
Heike Geisler Professor of Nanoscale Science & Engineering  University at Albany- SUNY

Nanotechnology is the fundamental student of materials on the nanoscale measuring 1nm-100nm in one or more dimensions.

Physical and chemical properties are totally different on this scale due to the increased surface to volume ratio.  Possible uses include Roll to Roll production of ultra large scale graphene films could be used to make ultra-light and durable laptops.

The illustration is based off of a slide which demonstrated how nanotechnology crosses many disciplinary boundaries.  Economics is not an obvious match, but the point was made that the cost, or energy, to achieve a goal is an important factor in determining what nanotechnologies are commercially viable.

Link Roundup

Here’s a few items I thought were pretty darn neat most of which went public this year, with one very nifty exception.

The Ada Initiative http://adainitiative.org/

I think this new non-profit is really neat, and am all for “increasing participation of women in open technology and culture, which includes open source software, Wikipedia and other open data, and open social media.”  I am a little curious how things will work out as they go along, traditionally this sphere has been male dominated so it’ll be interesting to see what efforts are most successful in recruiting and retaining women in this field, and if those efforts change the culture of open technology and social media.

“The Ada Initiative is focused on helping women get careers in open technology through recruitment and training programs for women, education for community members who want to help women, and working with corporations and projects to improve their outreach to women.”

Bio Digital Human http://www.biodigitalhuman.com/ 
*Please note this is still in Beta Testing and they are still double checking images and information. Please note last time I checked it was more IE friendly than Firefox, at least the version of Firefox that I was using, no clue how it works with Chrome.

“The BioDigital Human is comprised of over 1900 scientifically accurate 3D anatomy models. View spatial relationships in unprecedented clarity.      Learn medical terms in a visual format.”  This one is just fun to play with, especially for people like me who know very little about human anatomy/biology.

JoVE (Journal of Visualized Experiment) Basic Protocols http://www.jove.com 
*Okay, so this one isn’t as new, but it’s still very nifty and new to a lot of people.  I’d really love to see more publications like this and stop having budget cuts so that I could subscribe to the paid protocols!  Basic Protocols are freely available to all, but subject specific protocols require a subscription to view.

JoVE is a “..peer reviewed, PubMed indexed journal devoted to…biological, medical, chemical & physical research in a video format.”  As  former working chemist I can’t express how much simpler my life would have been if I could have seen a demonstration of a methodology in addition to reading the instructions.  Photos are nice, but actually seeing the motions etc. makes learning a new technique infinitely easier!

“Visualization greatly facilitates the understanding & efficient reproduction of both basic & complex experimental techniques, thereby addressing 2 of the biggest challenges faced by today’s life science research community: i) low transparency & poor reproducibility of biological experiments & ii) time & labor-intensive nature of learning new experimental technique.”

Out of Copyright.EU http://outofcopyright.eu

Copyright Calculators for the European Union, Iceland, Norway, and Switzerland.
Determining copyright for non-USA materials has always presented a challenge for American’s, in  large part because of the sheer number of countries and regulations that had to be translated and understood to determine what is and is not in the public domain.

Check out TED.com for more great content!

*This post is in response to @wawoodworth TEDucation: 5 TED Talks Librarians Should Watch (and Why)

The keys to innovation in science and in librarianship are to relax, look at things with a new perspective and then: solve a problem, create efficiency, find a new way of looking at things that creates order out of chaos.  Conference budgets may be finite but thanks to the Internet there are plenty of ways to seek inspiration from other professionals without traveling hundreds of miles or spending thousands of dollars.

5 TED talks you don’t want to miss!

TED2003 Don Norman on 3 ways good design makes you happy
There’s a tendency to get very process oriented, we all have goals and our focus narrows to achieving those goals as efficiently as possible.  Yet, if we take a moment to think about the goods and services which we use the ones we stick with are those that amuse, inspire, fill a void in our lives or otherwise cause us to connect emotionally.  Join Don Norman for a delightful look at what good design is and how we can apply those principles to what we create.

TEDWomen 2010 – Sheryl Sandberg: Why we have too few women leaders
It’s the irony of libraries and the life sciences, these areas traditionally have a strong female presence, but the majority of the leadership in these areas are still the stereotypical older white male.  This inspiring talk by Sheryl Sandberg shares several of the things which hold women back (some of these things also hold male introverts back).   Even if you don’t think this topic is relevant I challenge you to listen to this talk and think about the example situations she mentions from her own life.  Many of these situations can be changed just by paying attention to others, acknowledging someone’s good work, or raising your hand.  For men and women who choose to take time out to raise a family she provides advice for how to set yourself up to reenter the workforce when your ready at the level you want to.

TEDGlobal 2010 – Sugata Mitra: The child-driven education
Sugata Mitra reminds us that children are very smart and capable of learning anything if they are motivated and receive positive support.  His educational ideas will not solve all of our problems, or even be appropriate in all circumstances.  But, I think they do have a lot of potential for inspiring educators to allow more self-directed learning and to reach people who otherwise would not have access.  (And it provides more ammunition for those of us who want to see more doing and less lecturing in education!)

TED2011 – Deb Roy: The birth of the word
Most people don’t understand what we do, that’s our fault for not expressing ourselves clearly.  Deb Roy had his entire house wired for video to examine how his infant son learned and began using words.  He analyzed how and why we learn new words and concepts.  Reflecting on how we learn to communicate will, I hope, inspire you to think about how you express yourself to others.  Instead of telling people what we do with lots of jargon, try explaining your job as you would to a child, briefly and accurately, and not a recitation of your position description.

TEDxPuget Sound 2009 – Simon Sinek: How great leaders inspire action
You may think you aren’t a leader, maybe you don’t want to be a leader, but libraries and science are both in desperate need of great leaders.  In addition to recognizing and nurturing talent being a great leader requires good communication skills.  Using Apple as an example Simon Sineak identifies what’s necessary for communicating effectively and ties his theories into biology.  He then challenges us to pursue the things that we are passionate about in order to succeed.

What are your TED talks to watch?