"STEM Sell" - April 7, 2010

Another airing of STEM Sell, the radio program devoted to issues in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, has come and gone. Our guest was Kristen St. John from JMU's Department of Geology and Environmental Science. From our perspective, the interview went by very rapidly and we found ourselves at the end with a lot of questions we still wanted to ask. Nevertheless, we were able to discuss her work in extracting and analyzing cores taken from deep sea beds. She's able to use those cores to study the Earth's climate for as far back as 100 million years! Too bad she gets seasick during those ocean voyages. We also discussed her ongoing efforts to improve curricular materials by incorporating inquiry-based learning techniques as well as up-to-date results from her research.

In addition to the interview with Kristen, Brian Utter and I discussed the following topics, often interspersed with stream-of-consciousness thoughts that had little bearing on the subject at hand:
- A report on how the United States government is considering establishing a free online database accessible by anyone for science publications that were partly or entirely funded by taxpayer dollars
- The synthesis of the nucleus of element 117, an element within an "island" of relative nuclear stability that exists around element 118
- Animals--small on our scale of life but visible to the naked eye, making them decidedly larger than microbial life--existing without oxygen in deep sea deposits at the bottom of the Mediterranean
- The surprisingly large costs of doing an internet search, thanks to the maintenance necessary for the huge numbers of dedicated servers
- A study published in the prestigious journal Nature that shows how pigeons in a flock follow the leader (I personally think this study is a candidate for the Ig Nobel Prize, thanks to the backpacks that researchers placed on the pigeons)
- The discovery on the Phillipine island of Luzon of a new species of lizard, heretofore unknown to science, that is about 2 meters long and, according to natives, is rather tasty
- The susceptibility of thousands of different protein molecules towards the development of fibrils along the "sticky" parts of the molecule and how that can lead to such conditions as Alzheimer's Disease
- The editor of the last of the non-peer reviewed journals in mainstream science literature, Medical Hypotheses, has been told that it's time to go to a peer reviewed system, which will disrupt the journal's reputation as being a resource for some more controversial ideas
- The search for what gave rise to the seeds of the weak but gigantic magnetic fields generated by galaxies

The next airing of STEM Sell is Wednesday, April 14th at 8:00 p.m. on WXJM 88.7. And please remember that you have a brain, don't be afraid to use it!

2010 Spring Symposium Winners

This year three students distinguished themselves by presenting excellent papers on their research work. The faculty select the top three papers and small monetary prizes are awarded.

This year the first prize goes to Christopher Willis for his paper "Direct Observation of the Sigma- hyperon in electroproduction using the CLAS Detector at Jefferson Lab". This work was done with Drs. Ioana and Gabriel Niculescu.

Second place goes to Collin Wilson for the work he did with Dr. Sean Scully on "Testing the Influence of Stochastic Processes on the Ultrahigh Energy Cosmic Ray Spectrum"

And third place goes to Patrick McCauley for "Formaldehyde... In Space! Determining the densities of protostellar cores" done with Dr. Harold Butner.

Congratulations to these outstanding students! We are proud of them.

"STEM Sell" - March 31, 2010

STEM Sell, the radio program hosted by Brian Utter and me and dedicated to STEM issues, had its most recent airing on March 31st. Our guest was the Physics Department's own Kevin Giovanetti. A recording of the show will soon be posted on the STEM Sell website, http://www.jmu.edu/stem/outreach/stemsell.html. Kevin discussed some of the physics that will be explored by the Large Hadron Collider. We also discussed with him some of the things he and JMU students are doing at Jefferson Lab in Newport News.

Some of the other things we talked about were:

• Astronomy Night at JMU on April 2nd
• Replacing bar codes using radio frequency identification technology and the possible replacement of cashiers
• Genetically enchanced muscle-trout and the troubles they might cause the ecosystem
• A mini-Ice Age that followed the last Ice Age that ended 13,000 years ago due to the melting of a glacier
• A small satellite using a solar sail not only for gaining momentum, as you'd normally expect, but also for a relatively gentle slowing down due to collisions within the extremely rarefied atmosphere
• Computer simulations of comets delivering glancing blows to planetary surfaces and, in turn, the possible generation of biochemical molecular precursors within the comets
• The discovery that identical twins don't have identical sets of bacteria within their intestines, a finding that resulted from the in-depth study of their fec. . . well, perhaps I've said too much.

If you want to follow up on any of these, send Brian and me an e-mail at JMUScienceRadio@gmail.com. And let me remind that you have a brain--don't be afraid to use it!

Angular behavior of optical phonons

Phonons are important for energy harvesting and conversion. How do they behave when radiation illuminates then at changing angle? Researcher have started to investigate this problem. Results have been recently published:

G. Scarel, J.-S. Na, and G.N. Parsons, “Angular behavior of the Berreman effect investigated in uniform Al2O3 layers formed by atomic layer deposition”. J. Phys. Condens. Matter vol. 22, 155401 1-9 (2010).

Spring Symposium

Once again time for the Spring Symposium in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. There are 12 presentations to be given by out students. the keynote speaker is James B. Roberto, Director of Strategic Capabilities at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He will speak on The Search for Superheavy Elements: Expanding the periodic Table and Exploring the "Island of Stability".

Each year the student presentations that are judged by the faculty and the top three students are awarded small cash prizes and are recognized at the department honors banquet on April 7. An update will be forthcoming on the winners and their presentations.

ALD at JMU: great thickness uniformity

Aluminum oxide films fabricated on silicon surface using the new ALD reactor at JMU exhibit an uniformity with less than 1% variations over a 2 square cm area. Silicon surface preparation, growth temperature, heat treatment, and other factors (e.g. growth parameters) are under examination to improve the result.

Thickness response of the Berreman effect

A team of researcher including JMU faculty has unveiled the response of the berreman effect to the thickness of oxide layers. The results are published in:
G. Scarel, J.-S. Na, B. Gong, and G.N. Parsons, “Phonon response in the infrared region to thickness of oxide films formed by atomic layer deposition”. Appl. Spectrosc. vol. 64, p. 120-126 (2010).

New atomic layer deposition reactor at JMU-Physics

A new atomic layer deposition reactor is working at the Physics Department - JMU! The reactor is "home-made" and can easily fabricate thin and uniform oxide layers at low and high temperatures!

In these hard times, we all want a good value

Well, look no further. JMU is the place to be. According to Yahoo! Finance, we are at the top of the list.

The value of undergraduate research

A new study published by the Research Corporation for Science Advancement, documents the many benefits of undergraduate research for both faculty and students. A summary by James M. Gentile, President of Research Corporation.

The summary is very interesting and there is a link to the book, free on-line.

Undergraduate research is central to the mission of the JMU Department of Physics and Astronomy.

This is why we study physics!

If you want to understand why we study physics...here it is:

How many tries did this take?

This is addictive...

Cargo Bridge. Design bridges so they support the load.

What do physics majors do when they graduate?

Anything they want to!

Perhaps a more complete and useful answer is found in lots of places on the web. For example, WorldWideLearn has a nice discussion of physics and notes that

[W]hile some physics majors go on to become professional physicists, the majority pursue careers in fields where they can put their knowledge to more practical applications. Nearly 90 percent of all "physicists" are working in medicine, education, industry, or other professions.

With their skills in problem-solving, mathematical reasoning, computer programming, and organizing and interpreting scientific data, physics grads can move into government and industrial jobs that require an ability to think logically and creatively. Physics majors are well-suited to jobs that require step-by-step problem solving using math skills and good observational and communicational skills.

Some of the better-known careers for physics majors include academic and industrial research, electronics, alternative energy development, communications or the vital area of medical physics. Physicists are in demand for their analytical skills in many financial, fund management and research roles, in law, as weather forecasters, computer programmers, and as physics and science teachers.

The Canadian Association of Physicists notes that

Despite popular belief, physics graduates are actually highly sought after employees. A physics education emphasizes problem solving and abstract thinking and this training makes physics graduates very desirable employees in a wide variety of areas including education, finance, and journalism. These fundamental skills as well as training in practical subjects such as optics, lasers, computer interfacing, image processing and electronics also make them very desirable employees in high tech companies.

and the American Physical Society offers guidance for deciding what is the right career choice for you along with advise on how to get there. Included in the advice on how to maximize your undergraduate experience is the following points.

• Take lots of science and math courses
• Get involved in research as early as possible
• Get to know your professors
• Join the Society of Physics Students

PandA@JMU is ideally suited to pursuing these goals:

• As a large undergraduate department, we can offer a wide variety of courses for our students. There are several courses that we take turns teaching with the math department.
• Our students commonly get involved in research in the summer after their freshman year and some even start in their second semester.
• All your physics (and astronomy) classes at JMU are taught by full-time faculty. You will get to know them (and they will get to know you) very well. Perhaps better than you wish!
• We have an active SPS chapter that engages our students in lots of fun activities.

Bottom line...a physics major can be anything you want to be and JMU is ideally suited to getting you there.

Liquid Hydrogen at JMU

In the process of preparing high purity Hydrogen Deuteride (HD) for the production of frozen spin-polarized targets for the study of the nucleon (protons and neutrons), the gas is liquified and distilled in a unique low temperature distillery.

What you see in the photo above is a webcam view of the liquid hydrogen in the distillery. The still is equipped with narrow windows on either side for viewing the liquid. The webcam comes with with a fixed focus lens so an additional lens is added and held at the right distance with a cardboard tube...hence the circular vignette. This permits a close focus on the boiling liquid. On either side of the window is a frame held in place with bolts. The liquid is seen boiling away between the middle two pairs of bolts.

The top of the distillation column is held at 17K at the moment and the bottom of the still, near where this photo is taken is near 25K. The liquid is being caused to boil by the application of heat by passing a current through a resistor on the bottom of the still. The heater power is set at about 1 W. Liquid hydrogen appears to have a viscosity close to that of water and is colorless.

Just not something you see every day.

People are Beginning to Notice...

Every so often, PandA must go through an extensive self-study process and review by an external comittee. The external review happened in the spring of 2009. As a direct result, some good things are beginning to happen.

One of the external reviewers was Dr. Ruth Howes. She is one of the PI's on the SPIN-UP project. The Strategic Programs for Innovations in Undergraduate Physics (SPIN-UP) is organized by the National Task Force on Undergraduate Physics. The Task Force received support for SPIN-UP from the American Association of Physics Teachers, the American Physical Society, the American Institute of Physics, and a generous grant from the ExxonMobil Foundation. Between 2000 and 2002, visits were made to 20-odd physics departments that were deemed to be "thriving" to try to learn about what makes them so. Now the SPIN-UP folks are trying to use what they learned to help others departments also thrive.

One of the observations in the initial study was that the number of graduates (and total number of students) and their increase is a pretty good surrogate for other less easily measured characteristics of a thriving department. Given that our number of majors has grown from a bit over 60 in 2001 to about 110 now, we are identified as a thriving department.

As a result of Dr. Howes' visit to learn about our department, Dr. Whisnant was invited to discuss our program at a SPIN-UP workshop in Raleigh, NC, September 11-13, 2009. This went very well. This all leads to the current news...

On February 15th, Our department will once again be showcased as an example of a thriving department. This time it is at the joint meeting of the American Association of Physics Teachers and the American Physical Society in Washington, DC. This gives us a national forum to tell everyone about the good things that are going on here.

So, we've arrived on a national stage as an example of what a vibrant undergraduate department can be. To give just a flavor of the progress we've made in the last decade:

• Since 2000, the number of majors has doubled.
  
• Since 2000, the number of graduates/year has tripled.
• Since 2000, the number of faculty has doubled.
  
• In 2008, our faculty brought in over $3.3M in external grants to support research with our undergraduates.
• We've added an astronomy park, the planetarium underwent a major upgrade, added astronomy to the department name, moved to a new building, and we're about to initiate a major new track in applied nuclear physics.
  
• According to the number of graduates, the 2008 AIP report places JMU ranked 9th (13 departments larger) among undergraduate only institutions and 30th (70 departments larger) among all physics departments in the US.

There's no telling what might happen as a result of this new opportunity to tell everyone about our department.

Alumni Update: New Astronomy Research at JMU

Many of you may have seen me looming around the department and might know I am currently working with Dr. Anca Constantin. What have I been doing, you ask? Well, I have been doing data analysis on spectra from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) towards a paper on the aperture dependence of the nuclear galactic nebular line emission. This week, I will be starting on data from the Multi-Mirror Telescope. Now, that’s a good sound byte, but what does that even mean? You’ll say, “come on -- what have you really been up to? And why is it that, if you’re doing research, every time I pass by, you’re just staring at that 27-inch iMac screen?”

The project is centered on Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). An AGN is black hole sitting in the center of a galaxy and actively accreting matter. We know these super-massive beasts must be accreting matter because we see emission lines in the spectra coming from the very central regions of galaxies, and those emission lines are consistent with matter being accelerated to relativistic speeds. Keep in mind, spectra are our only tool to probe Astronomical objects; they tell us what they’re made of, how fast they’re moving, how big they are, how far away they are – the list goes on. Those amazing emission-line spectra are what I play with all day. This would be a jump back to Physics 270 -- remember the Balmer series for the Hydrogen atom and all that? “Of course I remember the Balmer series. Pish-posh! What I want to know is, how do you play with spectra?”

Well, when I first started I downloaded a bunch of 2-D spectra from the HST archives. (Warning: begin “slight lie”) Remember that to get a spectrum, I hold a prism up to a light source and break the light into its components. So you can think of a 2-D spectrum as being “wavelength” along the x-axis, “physical horizontal distance” along the y-axis, and “flux” as the z-axis – graphed as color scale. (End “slight lie”) First, I had to extract a 1-D spectrum from the 2-D spectrum using this technical software called IRAF. IRAF is all text based, most astronomers use it, and a few months passed before I built up any kind of intuition with it. My previous computer know-how was mostly GUI-based with a few exceptions for programming (shout out to Dr. Ingham’s Matlab topics course, circa 2006). Once I have all my spectra extracted, I have to clean them.

You see, the crazy thing about space-based detectors is, you have much better resolution but you get so much space-noise. High-energy particles (alpha, electrons, etc) are flying around everywhere, zapping your detector. They show up as huge spikes on my spectrum. So to get rid of them, I take two images of the same region, overlay them, and get rid of any signal that’s not on both. I do this, again, with IRAF.

You know, it turns out IRAF will do just about anything you want it to – extract, reduce, plot, clean, cook, etc -- as long as you scream obscenities and throw enough things around the room. Luckily, I’m very good at both of these things, so my IRAF does whatever I want it to. I say jump, IRAF says “ERROR: floating point invalid operation.” …. doh.

Moving into a more recent timeline, I just spent the last week, give or take, carefully plotting fits to the extracted, cleaned, Doppler-corrected spectra. The normal emission lines I would expect to see are narrow. In other words, when I look at a graph of Flux versus Wavelength, I expect a slim peak at some wavelength that is indicative of a specific atom, ion or molecule. I spent a long time making sure I had the best fits I could obtain using 5 narrow Gaussians -- representing a doublet for singly ionized Sulfur [SII], Hydrogen-alpha [Ha], and a doublet for singly ionized Nitrogen [NII]. (This is a slight lie for brevity. I also had a 6^th, linear component that I used to fit the background from just the galaxy.) When my fits just didn’t seem to work and I felt like giving up, I introduced a broad Gaussian for [Ha]. “Wait, wait. What? You just told me that emission lines were narrow. Why would you fit a broad Gaussian to something that’s supposed to be narrow?”

It turns out that when matter is pretty close to the super-massive black hole in the center of a galaxy, it orbits at incredible speeds. This means that the narrow line I expect is actually Doppler shifted – both into the blue (coming towards me) and the red (going away from me). I still see a narrow line from Hydrogen that is further from the AGN, and as I look at Hydrogen that is closer and closer to the nucleus, I see more and more Doppler shifted lines. Of course, I see all of these “individual lines” at the same time; so add all these up and I get one big, broad “hump” where I’d normally expect a thin line. This is what I fit with the broad Gaussian component.

Let’s take a break from technical mumbo-jumbo. We’ve just reached the exciting part! The broad component is what I want; that’s where the science really starts for me! Doing analysis on the broad component is what tells me about the region closest to the black hole. I can recover the mass of the black hole and a swarm of other properties. I am probing the centers of galaxies from my lab in the JMU Physics and Chemistry building!

“… well … what do you expect to find?” If you find yourself asking that question, then my sinister plan has worked and I should tell you that Dr. Anca Constantin is actively looking for people to come join her team! You can come see her in office hours or stop by the lab and ask some questions. She has lots of other projects for people interested in Active Galactic Nuclei or other extra-galactic Astronomy research. Also, if you’re interested from that teaser, members of Dr. Constantin’s research team, including myself, will be presenting in the JMU Research Symposium that is coming up.

This is where I, foregoing transition, should say that I have been given a unique opportunity to be a paid Astronomy researcher (with a BS in Physics), paid for by NASA grant, at a University that does not have post-docs. Letting the Physics majors get a better glimpse of this position is what inspired a Blog update -- specifically because in the future, more of these opportunities might exist. This opportunity has been a great learning experience, resume builder, and an amazing preparation for graduate study. I think it would be well worthwhile for any graduating or rising seniors to keep eyes out for opportunities such as these in the future.

JMU Science Radio on WXJM

Yes, you read that correctly.

WXJM 88.7, JMU’s own student-run radio show now features a weekly science talk radio show on Wednesdays from 8-9 PM that focuses on issues related to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). The show, “STEM Sell,” includes interviews with JMU students and faculty involved in STEM education and research, current science news, and features on science in everyday life.

Two JMU Physics faculty members host the show – Mark Mattson, the creator of STEM Sell, and Brian Utter – which has been on the air since October (with a steep learning curve on the workings of amateur radio, I assure you). Guests have so far included students and faculty from biology, chemistry, mathematics, and integrated science and technology, with guests from a variety of STEM fields lined up for the spring semester. Tonight, the show features JMU Physics Professor Chris Hughes.

Podcasts of the show are available at www.jmu.edu/stem/outreach/stemsell.html and can be streamed live from WXJM every Wednesday at 8PM. Comments, questions, or suggestions for topics and guests are always welcome at JMUScienceRadio@gmail.com.

Quoting Mark's traditional sign off and our mantra for the show: Remember, you have a brain. Don't be afraid to use it.

Web page updates coming

The department is in the process of updating the web site. We should soon have a new look and a more organized web site for you to navigate. The faculty is busy updating research pages. Good things are coming!

Spring Semester 2010

Who would have thought that we'd all make it to a time like 2010?

Last fall was a busy time and postings were few. This semester we promise to do better. We are currently in the throws of several faculty searches. One of these is in applied nuclear physics, one in soft materials/non-linear dynamics and a third is for a non-tenure track, two-year position.

These vacancies come about for several reasons. first, Dr. Ingham is retiring at the end of the year. While this has been expected for some time, we also were surprised to learn that Dr. Rudmin will retire at the end of the year. In addition, Alexandra Landsman, hired in 2007, decided to leave in 2008 and we are now searching to fill her position.

In the spring of of 2009, Dr. Mark Mattson became full-time in the department to help us deal with the initiation of the engineering program and there is now a search in progress for a new person (non-tenure-track) to be half-time physics/half-time learning center to man that position.

Lots of changes and lots of excitement as the department continues to move forward and grow.

One of the items that occupied our time in the fall was the completion of a strategic plan for the department. This is our "five year plan" and a big deal for helping us move forward in a productive way in these tight budgetary times.

Once again, Dr. Staib is the point man for our student recruiting. Latest word is that there are 75 or more applications for the coming fall. We expect to pass 100 as we have in recent years. There is a good number of these candidates that are truly outstanding and we are aiming go get as many as possible of these to join us in the fall.

We have several irons in the fire, and as the semester unfolds, more information will be forthcoming. Stay tuned.

Chris Carlson Chimes in with a few thoughts

We continue to get feedback from out graduates. This week, Chris Carlson (2005) chimes in with his take on life with a physics degree from JMU. If you have things to share with use, drop us a line.

Chris writes:

Studying physics at James Madison University is an excellent path for any student interested in science and mathematics. While the coursework is challenging, the rewards can be great. Many classmates from my year (2005) finished JMU and moved directly into first-rate graduate programs at schools like UNC, Duke, and Boston University. Others (myself included), pursued jobs in a wide variety of areas such as scientific consulting, web design, and even specialty foods (one classmate started out as the world’s youngest organic, free-trade cacao bean roaster and has since moved into flavor development). Studying physics at JMU opens doors.

Here are some of the best aspects of the department:
· Strong faculty. The professors make themselves available whenever possible to answer questions. Students are the first priority.
· Great research opportunities. Many of the professors have collaborations with external laboratories (CERN, Brookhaven National Lab, Jefferson Lab) that provide opportunities to travel in the summer for internships. Some of the key research areas include Particle and Nuclear Physics, Materials Science, and Astrophysics.
· Small class sizes. It’s very easy to get to know one’s peers in the major. Upper-level classes tend to be 10-20 students maximum. This is extremely beneficial for study groups, office hour sessions, etc.
· Physics major ≈ Physics major + Mathematics minor. The math minor is embedded within the physics degree requirements. Just fill out a form to make it official before graduation. This bonus makes you more marketable.
· Close knit community. Some of the best memories of my time at JMU include the fall/spring department picnics at Purcell Park and wild science demos for Harrisonburg schools. These events are great opportunities to get to know the professors and other students better – and to see/make things explode.
· Eccentric people. Physics majors (and faculty) tend to be a bit odd. One of my
classmates rode a giant unicycle to class and owned a pet flying squirrel (no joke).

For these reasons and many others, Physics at JMU is a great choice of major.