James Webb Telescope nearing operational phase

 The Webb space telescope, a marvel of modern science, technology, and engineering, has reached its home for years to come, orbiting the sun at a point known as L2, one of the Lagrange points of the Sun-Earth system. This is around 1 million miles from earth (4x's the distance to the moon). See this article for more information about Lagrange points in a 2-body gravitational systems, which are points of balance between the two gravitational forces on a small object at the Lagrange point and the 'centrifugal' force on the object at the Lagrange point (since objects moving in orbits want to be flung outward if they had their way due to their inertia). 

This is the next-generation telescope for astronomers around the world, and soon the Webb team will begin to focus this unique telescope and begin to calibrate its various detection systems to do highly anticipated science! 

Our World in Data - Amazing site!

  Looking for data and trends in countless areas of life? The Our World in Data site, run through the University of Oxford, is amazing! It has thousands of interactive graphs on everything from world hunger to electricity accessibility to education to war to agriculture...

It is also a site used in teaching for the world's best universities and sponsored by the top scientific and media-based organizations on the planet. Use it when writing papers for school or doing your own research. 

It is difficult to solve the world's big problems if one does not know the extent of the problems, and this site helps address that issue! 

Get beyond the politics of big problems, and go after the actual data to help figure it out!

TED Talk: Reshma Saujani and Teaching Girls Bravery, Not Perfection

 The founder of Girls Who Code, Reshma Saujani discusses the difference between how many boys and girls are raised differently in terms of who is encouraged to take risks (boys) and who is encouraged to be perfect in all they do (girls). This is an interesting presentation that needs to be heard and addressed if we ever want to see greater numbers of women as leaders in science, business, and other fields where the are historically underrepresented, there is a strong argument to be made that this is the way to approach rising girls when young - risk taking is necessary for become a leader in anything, and could be something adults can have some influence on when girls are young.

Can the laws of Physics change over time?

 There is a published study that finds evidence something called the fine-structure constant has changed ever so slightly over the evolution of our universe. This, if true, will make us re-think a lot about our understanding and assumptions about 'universal constants' such as the speed of light, Planck's constant, the gravitational constant, and several others that are believed to be unchanging since the beginning of time. 

We can't know with any certainty if this new study is the final, accepted word on this topic, as many other groups will be going out to verify the results independently (which is how science is supposed to work). But over the years, we have wondered in class whether G, Newton's universal gravitational constant, could change over time? The reason we wonder is because Einstein says gravity is the consequence of curvatures in space and time. Well, since the universe is expanding and space and time can change and vary a lot locally, around big objects such as stars and galaxies, why would we expect G to be a universal constant since the stuff that allows for what we 'feel' as gravity is dynamic and changing?! 

We'll need to find out how this one goes when there are more studies into it! 

Meteorite has building blocks of life

 In a recent study published in the journal Science shows how a meteorite found in Costa Rica has organic molecules, as complex as amino acids, the building blocks of life (proteins). Many scientists have wondered if life was given a 'nudge' by molecules coming to earth from outer space, and this finding would suggest that was a real possibility. It also suggests there could be primitive life on other worlds since these organic molecules are found widespread in space, as well as water molecules. With trillions and trillions of other planets and galaxies out there, most scientists would find it difficult to Believe there isn't at least primitive single-celled or bacterial life out there! The chemistry is just too common and basic not to produce the pieces needed for simple life. Now intelligent life, who knows about that! 

Interesting Book on Quantum Computing - learn the basics

 Check out this book, titled Quantum Computing for the Quantum Curious. It is a good introduction for students into the quantum mechanics concepts and ideas, using minimal math, to understand what the next generation of quantum computers and other technologies are, how they work, and how they will be used in the world. 

What one of our students was working on this past summer - fast radio bursts

 Here is a short review article about a topic one of our seniors helped work on this past summer in the CIERA astrophysics summer program - fast radio bursts. These are star events that are not well-understood, and astronomers are trying to find characteristics of the environments and sources for these energetic bursts. We found this on a good site, phys.org. 

College admissions diversity quotas - students for them...but not for football

 This is an interesting video where some students at the U. of Florida are asked if they support diversity quotas in college admissions. Here what they say for general admissions, and what happens when it is asked if the same thing should apply to the football team. 

Use of AI in Cancer Research

 There are a few articles linked here that get into the use of artificial intelligence in cancer research. AI is revolutionizing many areas of study in all fields of STEM, and of course will only get better and more effective as these technologies continue to advance. 

Wave functions - A good introductory video

 This is one of the better videos I've seen trying to get basic concepts about 'wave functions' across in as clear a way as possible. In your chemistry classes, this term comes up, but you don't ever really go into much detail about what the term means or suggests - it is a really difficult, abstract critter that is necessary to understand how the quantum world behaves! Good luck!