Category: Research

Jaszczak Publishes on Star Diamonds

Star DiamondsProfessor John Jaszczak (Physics and A. E. Seaman Mineral Museum) published an article “Optically sector zoned (star) diamonds from Zimbabwe,” with co-authors J. Rakovan (Miami Univ.), E. Gaillou (Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County), J. E. Post (Smithsonian Institution) and J. Betts in the latest issue of Rocks and Minerals vol. 89 173-178 (2014).

DOI:10.1080/00357529.2014.842844

From Tech Today.

Physisorption of Nucleobases on Graphene Paper Cited

Physisorption of Nucleobases on GrapheneThe 2007 research paper entitled “Physisorption of nucleobases on graphene: Density-functional calculations” has been cited 124 times. The work is from Phys. Rev. B 76, 033401 – published 2 July 2007, by S. Gowtham, Ralph H. Scheicher, Rajeev Ahuja, Ravindra Pandey, and Shashi P. Karna.

 

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.76.033401

The research concerns first-principles investigation on the relative interaction strengths of the nucleobases with a graphene sheet. The study relates to how the base sequence of DNA can affect its interaction with carbon nanotubes, as observed experimentally.

Physics at Graduate Research Colloquium 2014

GRC2014 Graduate Research Colloquium
Memorial Union Building Ballroom

Wednesday, February 19th
Human Impact (A2)
Timing Sunsets with Smartphones: Proof of Concept for a Citizen Science Project that Quantifies the Atmosphere and Supports Astronomical Observations – Teresa Wilson, Physics
Measurement Techniques and Analysis Methodology (A3)
Minimum Principles in Electromagnetic Scattering by Small Aspherical Particles – Ajaree Mongkolsittisilp, Physics

Thursday, February 20th
12:00 PM – 2:00 PM: Measurement Techniques and Analysis Methodologies (B1)
12:00 PM – 12:20 PM: Electric Field Manipulation of Magnetoresistance in a Single Molecular Spin-Valve Device – Kamal Dhungana, Physics

View the Abstract Book | View the Photo Gallery | View the Results Page

Teresa Wilson Poster 2014
Teresa Wilson
Ajaree Mongkolsittisilp Poster 2014
Ajaree Mongkolsittisilp
Kamal Dhungana Presentation 2014
Kamal Dhungana

View more photos in the GSG Facebook page.

David Ciochetto and Great Lakes Research

Dave Ciochetto GLR
David Ciochetto (left) and Audrey Barnett (right)

Research Engineer in Physics David Ciochetto is shown in the slideshow gallery of the recent Michigan Tech News article “One-Celled Plants Key to Understanding Changes in the Great Lakes.” The article is about Colleen Mouw’s research as an assistant professor in Michigan Technological University’s Department of Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences and the University’s Great Lakes Research Center.

Ciochetto, who is working with the atmospheric sciences group, has an oceanography background.

Read more at Michigan Tech News, by Jennifer Donovan.

2014 Undergraduate Research Expo Call for Abstracts

URE PosterThe Michigan Tech Honors Institute would like to invite all undergraduate researchers from every department to submit an abstract for research to be presented at the 2014 Undergraduate Research Expo. This expo will give researchers a chance to present posters describing completed or ongoing research and receive feedback from faculty judges.

Presenter Information and Poster Guidelines

Submission until January 31, 2014, 11:59 pm

News About Time Travel

A paper by Professor Robert Nemiroff (Physics) and graduate student Teresa Wilson on their study designed to find time travelers on the Internet has garnered plenty of media attention. Hits include the following and many more:

The Huffington Post

The Telegraph

NBCNews

Slate

Popular Science

From Tech Today.

See also:

ABC News

Guardian Liberty Voice

CNN Tech

In the News

Professor Robert Nemiroff’s (Physics) paper describing his team’s unsuccessful search for time travelers attracted the attention of columnist Scott McLemee. The article, “In Search of Chrononauts,” appears in Inside Higher Ed.

From Tech Today.

In the News

An article by Tom Siegfried, “Google Search Fails to Find Any Sign of Time Travelers,” features Professor Robert Nemiroff and Teresa Wilson’s (Physics) recent paper on the topic and throws Stephen Hawking, Edgar Allen Poe and a few other luminaries into the mix.

From Tech Today.

Google search fails to find any sign of time travelers

On the other hand, perhaps time travelers just want to keep their existence a secret. But even highly trained supersecret time travel agents might slip up occasionally and accidentally reveal their future origins. Like for instance, by typing Comet ISON into Google before that comet had even been discovered. But even if they did, who would ever know?

Well, Robert Nemiroff and Teresa Wilson of the Michigan Technological University physics department might. Comet ISON was discovered in 2012, so it is very unlikely that anyone from the present would have searched online for it, or tweeted about it, before then. Nemiroff and Wilson reasoned that searching the Internet for pre-2012 mentions of Comet ISON might turn up evidence of a time traveler.

Read more at Science News, by Tom Siegfried.