Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Spinning the history of spacecraft (ARC Physics/Astronomy Lectures)


Dr. Lewis Mingori from UCLA talked about spinning satellites for the Physics/Astronomy lunch lecture series.



Prof. Mingori is also Megan Prout's uncle! Megan is an officer in the ARC Research Club, which sponsored this talk.

 Prof. Mingori discussed a remarkable time in U.S. space history that resulted from the successful 1957 launch of Sputnik 1. The U.S. needed to respond to the USSR space technology success, so the Explorer 1 spacecraft was rushed to the launch pad.

The Explorer 1 satellite successfully launched into Earth orbit on January 31, 1958.

Source: JPL photo number 293-3466 

Source JPL photo number P-8485 



But once in Earth orbit, Explorer 1 didn't behave as expected. In NASA's history of Explorer 1:
The satellite's spin-stabilized attitude transitioned into a minimum kinetic energy state, that of a flat spin about its transverse axis. This was deduced from the modulation of the received signal, which produced periodic fade-outs of the signal.
This is another explanation of what happened from The Village Elliot:
They wanted the satellite to be cigar shaped to fit on the rocket, but in earth orbit they wanted to stabilize it by letting it rotate like a spinning top.  But once they launched the satellite, it didn't rotate like they wanted it to, and within hours it was in a flat spin. 
Why didn't Explorer I stabilize properly?  Well the mathematicians went back and reviewed what they were doing.  It's sort of like the kid's trick, of spinning an egg like a top.  If you have a hard boiled egg, it behaves like a rigid body, and you can stabilize it by spinning it on the pointy end.  But an uncooked egg cannot be spun this way, not at all.  It winds up lying on its "side" which is the most stable configuration  (i.e., it can not fall over once it is lying on its side.  The mathematicians had treated Explorer I as if it were a perfectly rigid body, suitable to be stabilized around its "minor axis" or the centerline as it sat on the launch pad
 A spinning stick demonstrates the windmill spin that Explorer 1 exhibited.


Since I'm a biotechnology instructor, this is how I visualize the Explorer 1 flat spin in lab.


Prof Mingori shows how a spacecraft can spin by using a book. 




In 1997 NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) created an animation showing Explorer 1 in Earth orbit. Do you see the Explorer 1 windmill spin?


The JPL has more Explorer 1 videos.

With more knowledge and math (see below), NASA, newly formed at the time, launched a better designed spinning spacecraft, Pioneer 1, in October 1958.


During the talk, Prof Mingori shared a large dose of math to explain the dynamics of spinning spacecraft. 

















Euler's Equations

  



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Monday, October 7, 2013

A post in progress: The glowing plant debate


In the BIOT 307 Biotechnology and Society online course, we are studying the science and controversy about GMOs or genetically modified organisms. An example is the Glowing Plant project, funded by Kickstarter, that is genetically engineering the thale cress Arabidopsis thaliana by introducing firefly bioluminescence genes into the Arabidopsis plant DNA. Arabidopsis is a small flowering plant related to mustard and cabbage.

 The Glowing Plant Kickstarter campaign video explains the value of its project and how glowing plants get made. 

This project has sparked controversy about GMOs or genetically modified organisms, in particular because the Glowing Plant project will distribute to the public the seed for these genetically engineered plants

As a result, Kickstarter revised its guidelines to prohibit GMOs.
Projects cannot offer genetically modified organisms as a reward. (Updated 7/31/2013)

 Anthony Evans, who directs the Glowing Plant project, also offered his perspective on the Kickstarter GMO ban.
This past week the Washington Post published another article on the Kickstarter Glowing Plant debate.
So what do you think? Should the Glowing Plant project be allowed to sell its genetically engineered plants to the public?
The BIOT 307 Biotechnology and Society students will give their perspectives on this issue, and I will post some of their responses here (to be continued)...
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Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Biotech FUN at CareerGPS 2013 - Cal Expo

The North Valley Biotechnology Center (NVBC) and ARC Biotechnology program was at the Next-Ed CareerGPS at Cal Expo.



 We had a Biotechnology table waiting for students to explore, along with some new items for our display. 




 Students love to precipitate DNA.

















And the NVBC student interns did a great job engaging middle and high school students with biotechnology.

















Madame Lynda was telling students their Biotechnology future.



And there were other examples of STEM in action at CareerGPS. 

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Sunday, September 29, 2013

The Honors Reads on Steinbeck's Log from the Sea of Cortez (with Prof. Michael Sweet)


The Honors Program at American River Program is doing an Honors Reads, in which the Honors students and faculty explore one book together. This semester's book is John Steinbeck's The Log from the Sea of Cortez.

The journey of John Steinbeck and Ed Ricketts in the Sea of Cortez makes a great interdisciplinary read. In this perspective from James Kingland in The Guardian:
If you think you might like your science mixed with beer, seafood and philosophy, read John Steinbeck's The Log from the Sea of Cortez, an account of a six-week collecting expedition in the Gulf of California with his friend, marine biologist Ed Ricketts (who should really be credited as the co-author) and a small crew.
You might want to know not only about the taxonomy and ecology of the marine invertebrates they found in the intertidal zone, but also the sensory experience of collecting them from their natural environment. You might want to know about the personalities of the writers' fellow crew members, or even the temperament of the outboard motor that seemed to rouse itself only when there wasn't too far to go.
Prof. Michael Sweet (Biology, ARC), who teaches marine biology, gave a talk on the science perspective about the Sea of Cortez
Michael described some of the marine life that Steinbeck and Ricketts would find on their journey in the Sea of Cortez.



During his talk Michael included some excerpts from the Sea of Cortez.

More fun marine life shared by Michael:

The feared pistol shrimp
And the Cormorants trained to go fishing

 Michael mentioned that he wants to infuse his Monterey Bay field trips with Steinbeck and Ricketts. He shared a photo from one of his marine biology field trips with his students.
Source: Michael Sweet

Michael also plans to take his students on a tour of the Ricketts lab near the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
Source: Michael Sweet

An audio segment from NPR on Ed Ricketts and his biology lab:




Michael also engaged our group with a marine biology classification game to give us a feel for the field work thinking that Ricketts and his team would carry out. Which group does this specimen belong to?


Michael discussed the results of our marine biology classification game. Some of our picks were correct; some were not. 


With this introduction to the marine biology that flows through the Sea of Cortez, why would Steinbeck and Ricketts spend their time doing "basic science" work?



The Honors Reads conversation continues in October with Prof. Christian Kiefer (English, ARC).

 Updates:

 Michael's talk sparked Joan Brenchley-Jackson (Biology, ARC) to share another expedition by the California Academy of Sciences to the Galapagos Islands in 1905-1906. The specimens collected from this journey are still valuable for evolutionary biology research today. 
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Monday, September 23, 2013

Get your ARC Science fix! The Physics/Astronomy lecture lunch series is back

The ARC Physics/Astronomy Lunch Lecture Series is back in session, and the first speaker was Astronomy Prof. Paulo Afonso, who described his work last summer with NASA's GAVRT (Goldstone Apple Valley Radio Telescope). GAVRT is one of several radio antennas in the Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex (GDSCC).

 Source: GAVRT images

The Lewis Center for Educational Research (LCER) provides professional development for educators so that their students can remotely operate the GAVRT 34 meter radio antenna and learn how to analyze the astronomical data stream. GAVRT has been used to investigate planets, such as Jupiter and Uranus, and distant space objects, such as quasars and pulsars. Educators and students get the opportunity to do hands-on, authentic science!




Paulo mentioned Jupiter Quest, one of the long-lived curriculum campaigns by GAVRT, in which students investigate the radio antenna data from Jupiter to learn more about this large mysterious planet. 

 
Source: Jupiter Quest Lessons

A current Jupiter Quest curriculum project involves student collaboration with the NASA Juno spacecraft, scheduled to arrive at Jupiter in 2016.


Another program involving GAVRT is SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence), in which the radio telescope scans for extraterrestrial radio signals. GAVRT provides an overview of the SETI project and lessons on how to use GAVRT for detecting radio signals that may be of extraterrestrial origin.

Paulo described another radio astronomy project done on a global scope, Hands-On Universe, which engages teachers and students with hands-on operation of radio telescopes and analysis of radio antenna data.


Don't miss the lunchtime science fun! You can view the Physics/Astronomy lecture schedule - Wednesdays at noon in Room 307.

Other notes:
1. Paulo also mentioned the larger 70 meter Goldstone radio antenna in the GDSCC that has served as the workhorse for important space missions, including Voyager and Mars Curiosity.
The Goldstone antenna also tracked the asteroid 1998 QE2, which passed by close to earth this past May. 


2. W00t! FOOD IS WELCOME in the Physics classroom during lecture :)


By contrast, Biology classrooms have "NO FOOD ALLOWED" signs :(

Here's another picture of Paulo Afonso w/ some members of the Biology Gang. Thanks, Paulo!

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Thursday, September 19, 2013

Wacky student stories that turn out to be true

Sometimes the wacky stories that students share turn out to be still crazy but also true. A biotech student shared this with me:

Source: did you know?

 Really?

 I did some Google searching, and traced the story to the High Plains Reader, which reported this strange incident from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

 Then I found the story in the local newspaper the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, in which Dr. Andrew Goldberg shares the story of a middle-aged man who cured himself of his chronic ear infection by taking the earwax from his good ear and transferring it to his infected ear. The earwax transplant cured him.

 Dr. Goldberg didn't believe the man back then, but now he thinks the patient may have been correct. From the news story:
By putting earwax from one ear into the other, he was also transferring the bacterial colonies from the healthy ear into the sick one, and that probably cured his persistent infections.
So after finding this information, I replied to the student...on Facebook (#OMG), since she posted the story there and tagged me:
The earwax story at first seemed too crazy to be true, but I was able to track it down to the Univ. Pittsburgh. Apparently, this could be an example of the microbiome cure - using bacteria from the earwax to treat an infection. Gross, but less so than fecal transplants, which are all the rage.


Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
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College Hour with artist Josie Iselin: An Ocean Garden

American River College had a wonderful College Hour talk by artist Josie Iselin, who beautifully blends art and science in her work. Josie presented her latest collection, An Ocean Garden, which highlights the delicate elegance of seaweed.
September 12, 2013 - College Hour | Raef Hall 160
An Ocean Garden: Science in Art
Josie Iselin is the photographer, author and designer of seven books, with new projects in development in her San Francisco studio, Loving Blind Productions. Her books focus on those forms in nature we find at hand and in particular, at the beach. Her mission is to produce enticing, original and well-designed books that combine art and science, leaving the reader with new information about, and an appreciation for, the world around them.

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Background
 
In 2012 Rick Topinka (Biology, ARC) and Josie both attended Jepson Herbarium workshop Seaweeds of Central California, and Rick gave a Biology department talk last year about his experience at the four-day workshop.




























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Artist Josie Iselin's talk

 At the College Hour talk Rick introduced Josie. 

Josie was trained in photography, with a BA in Visual and Environmental Studies from Harvard and an MFA from San Francisco State University. Her current artistic work uses a flatbed scanner and computer to create her imagery.



 Josie gave us a behind-the-scenes look at her artist studio. 

 Her work table...

 And her flatbed scanner and computer...

 Josie showed us some of her captivating seaweed images from her upcoming book An Ocean Garden.













Bonnemaisonia californica



Smithora naiadum & Gregia menziesii














Ulva lobata















Nereocystis luetkeana


You can view more of her portfolio at josieiselin.com.
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 Rick Topinka and Josie Iselin


Josie does a book signing for College Hour!


Her forthcoming book An Ocean Garden will be ready in February/March 2014.
Update: The ARC Current (the college newspaper) published an article on Josie Iselin's talk
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