We have made it to Pluto!!!!!!!!!!!!

What a wonderful day! I have been thinking about all of the things that had to go right to make this happen.

More information will be coming from the spacecraft tonight and in the days to come.

Link from BBC news

Best images of Pluto from before.

Best image from today.

The wait for Pluto is almost over!

I can say that tomorrow is a long-awaited day. I am sure that is true for many as we finally see New Horizons reach its encounter with Pluto.

(Oh, how I wish that New Horizons would settle in an orbit and remain around Pluto for a while).

I have very vivid memories of checking on the countdown clock for New Horizons, when it was at the level of multiple years.  And yet I have maintained my enthusiasm for the mission. Ok, it wasn't that hard to keep my enthusiasm. This has been something that I have wanted to see since I was about 9.  Some ideas don't get old.

Here is a link from Sky and Telescope "Countdown to New Horizons Encounter with Pluto".

And also some excellent views of Pluto and its never-before-seen topography.

Pluto close-up


And a more comprehensive sit for news and images (including the whale and the donut)



I can't wait for tomorrow!

Update from NIST

This may be a short post from today.

I am undertaking a crash course in neutron scattering methods.  Neutrons are excellent tools to use to investigate the atomic nucleus.  Neutrons are neutral and don't interact with electrons, so they go straight to the nucleus and scatter, just like light scatters through a small opening.  So I have been able to use my background knowledge of waves and scattering which has been useful, to a point.

For the past few days I have analyzed data from my mentor's recent experiment. Much of what they analyze deals with intensity and scattering distances.  The raw data looks very much like scattered light from a star, and that 2d data is then mapped and transferred to a 1d graph.  There is something very much like magic going on with a stop called "data reduction" that I have been trying to learn. Very curious stuff.

So I have generated a lot of intensity vs length graphs in a software package called IGOR. The data is also graphed according to the particular model that is being used. A different-shaped molecule will scatter that light differently (much like a pinhole and a thin slit will scatter light differently), so different models are used according to what type of molecule you are investigating. (This group investigates a lot of soft matter; polymers and so forth).

So I have been reading the software manual, journal articles and "how to" papers from NIST to learn how to deal with all of this information. I am on a bit of an overload right now and will get back to it tomorrow.

News bytes

Some new (and not so new) releases from the world of science:

Forbidden atomic transitions: Controlling matter 1,000 times more precisely using high-resolution spectroscopy


A nano-generator from the power of rolling tires


How many meteorite craters are out there?



Aside from my news bites (bytes?) I have begun my internship at NIST (The National Institute of Standards and Technology) in Gaithersburg, Maryland.  If you don't know much about NIST, you should. As a lab, NIST is comparable to Los Alamos and Oak Ridge.  My internship is part of a project called an RET, or Research Experience for Teachers, funded through the University of Maryland.

At NIST, I have joined the NIST Center for Neutron Research (NCNR) and will have the opportunity to use neutron diffraction to explore the nature of various materials.  A lot of their work (at least in this section) falls under what you would call "soft matter" as they experiment on materials such as polymers, metals, ceramics, magnetic materials, fluids and biological molecules.

As it happens when you join a new lab, the first few days are all about getting acquainted to the place and learning what is going on.  My mentors, Boualem and Cedric, (who have been incredibly friendly and accommodating) were finishing an experiment in which they measured the differences in neutron scattering on a biological sample as they changed the pressure on the sample.  One of my first tasks is to analyze the data from that experiment. So I am learning all about a software package known as IGOR to perform the analysis.

It is an exciting time, and I look forward to learning so much more.  I love to get outside of the classroom and the summer is the perfect time to do something like this.  I am not thinking about school or classes at all and just about the science.

I will be back often this summer to write about what is happening at NIST.

Which world is this?

Some fascinating articles have been written about friction at the nano-scale recently.  I know this area has received intense coverage, almost to the point of overkill, but it represents one of the next realms of scientific experimentation. Its not that the laws of physics are different at this level, but the way that atoms respond to laws can appear to be very different, when friction and gravity no longer dominate in the way that they usually do.

News about friction

I am always interested to hear more about quantum physics and how new ideas may lead to better understandings of different interpretations.  I hardly even knew about these interpretations until confronting some of them at CERN last summer.  The Copenhagen interpretation is the most common, but by no means the only one.  The "Many Worlds' interpretation is the most popular among science fiction enthusiasts. (Think of the 90's TV show 'Sliders'). The 'Pilot Wave' interpretation claims that particles are influenced by invisible waves, and the 'Collapse' interpretation claims that the act of observing makes the quantum waves of probability collapse at a certain point, due to the observation itself. Cool stuff.

Quantum weirdness and what is actually real?

Nano friction

Here are some updates on new developments:

Putting friction to the test.

http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/2015/jun/05/ultracold-ions-put-friction-to-the-test

New insight on the double slit experiment.

http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/2015/may/26/do-atoms-going-through-a-double-slit-know-if-they-are-being-observed

Update

I just noticed that it has been over a month since my last post. I have cleared a huge hurdle and completed my latest graduate course (which was applied biomedical engineering). It was very likely the most difficult course I have ever taken. I finished strong and am happy that it is over.

I am working on a program of Materials Science Engineering. I have two courses left; a mathematical methods course and very likely a course in medical imaging. I already teach about medical imaging at some level and have developed a unit on MRIs and CAT scans.  So I already have an interest in that and some background knowledge.

So hopefully, in May of 2016 I will be graduating from the program. From there, we shall see...