To make up for that massive off-topic post below, here is an astronomy XKCD comic.
http://xkcd.com/1071/
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
The Perfect College App
College, as everyone knows, is both exciting and chaotic. Many people drop out, either from poor time management (attending too many parties or not attending enough class) or spreading themselves too thin (trying to be an active member of too many clubs and activities). Since most students have some kind of smartphone on them at nearly all times, a mobile app is one of the best options for helping someone survive college. One of the first things anyone notices when they step on campus is that they have nearly everything they need for the next 4 years (6 for Master's and 8 for Doctorate) within walking/biking distance. The sheer amount of variety in terms of ways a student might need help during their college years means that the Perfect College App (PCA) needs to have several different functions.
Few first-time college students have ever had to cook their own meals or share a bedroom with anyone else. In response, the PCA would come preloaded with a large index of cooking recipes (and could download more), and would have the ability to sync with other students' apps in order to help roommates keep out of each other's way (letting them divide up chores, compare classes, and even send notifications to roommates if you "do not want to be disturbed").
Moving away from the social scene, remembering a complex class schedule and finding your way around campus can be difficult. The PCA would anticipate this problem by integrating a day planner with a map of the campus and the local area, allowing the phone to be automatically muted during class times, give alerts if a student's GPS signal is not near the classroom as the appointed time draws near, and can show the student a map with the shortest safe route (no cutting through back alleys after dark, no running through restricted areas, etc.) to their current scheduled destination. A student's calendar would be part of the information synced up between roommates' apps, although it would be a "read-only" file for the roommates and would automatically update with any changes the next time the two synced phones get within 50 feet of each other.
Finally, the PCA would help students keep on their teachers good sides with proper research and good contact. The research function would help anyone writing a paper by searching academic sites (JSTOR, LexisNexis, etc.) for relevant articles, and then would properly cite the page at the push of a button. The contact function would allow students to enter in their teachers' e-mail addresses (and phone numbers when applicable), and then ask them questions or alert them if you are sick throughout the semester by simply selecting their name from a list and typing out your message (or calling them).
The PCA, while not removing all of the stress from college, would do its best to make college life manageable.
This scholarship is sponsored by ATTSavings.com
Few first-time college students have ever had to cook their own meals or share a bedroom with anyone else. In response, the PCA would come preloaded with a large index of cooking recipes (and could download more), and would have the ability to sync with other students' apps in order to help roommates keep out of each other's way (letting them divide up chores, compare classes, and even send notifications to roommates if you "do not want to be disturbed").
Moving away from the social scene, remembering a complex class schedule and finding your way around campus can be difficult. The PCA would anticipate this problem by integrating a day planner with a map of the campus and the local area, allowing the phone to be automatically muted during class times, give alerts if a student's GPS signal is not near the classroom as the appointed time draws near, and can show the student a map with the shortest safe route (no cutting through back alleys after dark, no running through restricted areas, etc.) to their current scheduled destination. A student's calendar would be part of the information synced up between roommates' apps, although it would be a "read-only" file for the roommates and would automatically update with any changes the next time the two synced phones get within 50 feet of each other.
Finally, the PCA would help students keep on their teachers good sides with proper research and good contact. The research function would help anyone writing a paper by searching academic sites (JSTOR, LexisNexis, etc.) for relevant articles, and then would properly cite the page at the push of a button. The contact function would allow students to enter in their teachers' e-mail addresses (and phone numbers when applicable), and then ask them questions or alert them if you are sick throughout the semester by simply selecting their name from a list and typing out your message (or calling them).
The PCA, while not removing all of the stress from college, would do its best to make college life manageable.
This scholarship is sponsored by ATTSavings.com
Monday, May 16, 2011
APOD 4.8 (Time Lapse Clouds and Sky Over the Canary Islands)
I chose this one because clouds behaving like water is a very rare and surreal phenomenon, partially because clouds are so high above the ground that we are rarely at a good height for this to happen, and partially because we tend to think of clouds as amorphous gases instead of low density water. The clouds on mountaintops behave just like water on beaches, ocean floors, or even the tops of waterfalls!
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Astrocast 214 (Space Tourism)
Worth two hours of observation.
As NASA's Orion project fell to pieces, most scientific missions use robotic drones, and the Space Shuttles approach their date with decommission, it seems that the Astronaut generation has ended, but the next generation has already begun. Thousands of rich entrepreneurs have already paid for tickets to outer space, some even paying $200,000 to go through a few weeks of training before going up in space for up to 10 days, even staying on the International Space Station! As time goes on, technology advances, and initial costs are paid off by early sponsors, space tourism could be the next big thing, even helping make space travel profitable, although we would first have to get it mainstream enough that it wouldn't require any more training than sitting in the emergency exit row of an airplane.
As NASA's Orion project fell to pieces, most scientific missions use robotic drones, and the Space Shuttles approach their date with decommission, it seems that the Astronaut generation has ended, but the next generation has already begun. Thousands of rich entrepreneurs have already paid for tickets to outer space, some even paying $200,000 to go through a few weeks of training before going up in space for up to 10 days, even staying on the International Space Station! As time goes on, technology advances, and initial costs are paid off by early sponsors, space tourism could be the next big thing, even helping make space travel profitable, although we would first have to get it mainstream enough that it wouldn't require any more training than sitting in the emergency exit row of an airplane.
Astrocast 213 (Supermassive Black Holes)
Counts as two hours of Observations.
Many scientists agree that almost all large galaxies have a supermassive black hole, but they only recently figured out how they were created. They know that supermassive black holes probably couldn't form the same way that stars are formed because there would be too many circumstances required every time.
However, one thing they forgot to figure in was that, back near the beginning of the universe, many small galaxies collided with many other small galaxies, forcing a mass of dust the size of thousands of stars toward the massive center while also sending some stars out at extremely high angular velocities. The absolute chaos at the center prevented star formation long enough for the mass to collapse into a supermassive black hole. After that point, the black hole's massive gravity pulled in all the surrounding matter in order to make the surrounding galaxy's shape.
Many scientists agree that almost all large galaxies have a supermassive black hole, but they only recently figured out how they were created. They know that supermassive black holes probably couldn't form the same way that stars are formed because there would be too many circumstances required every time.
However, one thing they forgot to figure in was that, back near the beginning of the universe, many small galaxies collided with many other small galaxies, forcing a mass of dust the size of thousands of stars toward the massive center while also sending some stars out at extremely high angular velocities. The absolute chaos at the center prevented star formation long enough for the mass to collapse into a supermassive black hole. After that point, the black hole's massive gravity pulled in all the surrounding matter in order to make the surrounding galaxy's shape.
Friday, May 13, 2011
Riccardo Giacconi Biography
Riccardo was born in Genoa, Italy, on October 6, 1931. He spent most of his life in Milano until 1956, then sailed for the U.S., where he has lived for the rest of his life (save a seven year period he spent in Munich, Germany from 1992-1999). He was the only child to Elsa Canni Giacconi, a high school teacher of math and physics, and Antonio Giacconi, a small business owner. His parents were legally separated when he was eight years old. He later married his high school sweetheart Mirella and fathered three children with her, his two daughters Guia and Anna, and his only son Marc.
Riccardo was a young teenager when WWII broke out. His parents sent him to live with his aunts, Giulia and Elisa Canni, in Cremona after Milona was bombed in 1942. He thought of his cousin Giovanni Benini, the son of Giulia, as his brother. He was able to return home two years later.
Riccardo did not have a very solid education. He bounced around between schools almost every year, he frequently cut class, and had a discipline problem. He skipped his last year of high school to go straight to the University of Milano. Once there, he stayed long enough to finish his thesis on the development of nuclear interactions by protons in the lead plates of a cloud chamber, then immediately left for a real job in science.
He worked with R.W. Thompson, an expert in cloud chamber research, from 1956-1959. In that time, Riccardo and his colleagues worked hard trying to find new uses for cloud chambers, but ultimately failing: cloud chambers were a dead end. Soon after Riccardo fellowship to Princeton expired, he joined American Science and Engineering (AS&E) to initiate a program of space sciences for the 28-man company.
The three-year period from 1959-1962 were among the most productive years of Riccardo's life, despite it starting off with his department consisting of only him and two technicians. He was heavily involved in classified research: 19 rocket payloads, six satellite payloads, one entire satellite, and an aircraft payload. He also started development on the x-ray telescope and the first few flights of rocket payloads for x-ray astronomy. However, Riccardo was seriously annoyed with the excessive amount of time between x-ray astronomy's conception and its execution, specifically that of the space telescope known at the time as AXAF, but currently known as Chandra.
When Riccardo and eight members of his group were commissioned by NASA to build "Einstein", they wanted to operate "Einstein" as a national observatory open to astronomers of all disciplines, but thought that AS&E was not the place to do it from, so they decided to go to the Center for Astrophysics (CfA). However, once there, they found that they got even less support than at AS&E. It then took an additional 20 years to turn Chandra into a reality.
Riccardo was a young teenager when WWII broke out. His parents sent him to live with his aunts, Giulia and Elisa Canni, in Cremona after Milona was bombed in 1942. He thought of his cousin Giovanni Benini, the son of Giulia, as his brother. He was able to return home two years later.
Riccardo did not have a very solid education. He bounced around between schools almost every year, he frequently cut class, and had a discipline problem. He skipped his last year of high school to go straight to the University of Milano. Once there, he stayed long enough to finish his thesis on the development of nuclear interactions by protons in the lead plates of a cloud chamber, then immediately left for a real job in science.
He worked with R.W. Thompson, an expert in cloud chamber research, from 1956-1959. In that time, Riccardo and his colleagues worked hard trying to find new uses for cloud chambers, but ultimately failing: cloud chambers were a dead end. Soon after Riccardo fellowship to Princeton expired, he joined American Science and Engineering (AS&E) to initiate a program of space sciences for the 28-man company.
The three-year period from 1959-1962 were among the most productive years of Riccardo's life, despite it starting off with his department consisting of only him and two technicians. He was heavily involved in classified research: 19 rocket payloads, six satellite payloads, one entire satellite, and an aircraft payload. He also started development on the x-ray telescope and the first few flights of rocket payloads for x-ray astronomy. However, Riccardo was seriously annoyed with the excessive amount of time between x-ray astronomy's conception and its execution, specifically that of the space telescope known at the time as AXAF, but currently known as Chandra.
When Riccardo and eight members of his group were commissioned by NASA to build "Einstein", they wanted to operate "Einstein" as a national observatory open to astronomers of all disciplines, but thought that AS&E was not the place to do it from, so they decided to go to the Center for Astrophysics (CfA). However, once there, they found that they got even less support than at AS&E. It then took an additional 20 years to turn Chandra into a reality.
After Chandra’s completion, Riccardo and a few members of his Chandra team joined the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) worked on the Hubble Space Telescope, which was in serious disarray when they got on the development team. It couldn’t find guide stars as quickly and easily as had been planned, it couldn’t point to planets, and it lacked the tools to schedule its own complex operations, just to name a few of the biggest problems. Despite all this, Riccardo and his team were able to use their problem-solving abilities to save the failing program and make it the famous success we know today. However, his son, Marc, died in an auto accident around this time, so Riccardo and Mirella immediately left in search of other places that didn’t bring up such bad memories.
He eventually joined the European Southern Observatory (ESO), and helped them out with the Very Large Telescope (VLT) program. It was difficult because the project was so large that it cost more than the observatory’s yearly budget, and it was 30 times larger than their previous telescope, the New Technology Telescope. However, this was easily overcome by simply shifting the management style to one suitable for large projects, using a few systems that had been recently proven on Hubble, and getting the astronomers to accept the idea of a single observatory where quality was much more important than quantity.
In 2002, he won the Nobel Prize for Physics for his work inventing the field of x-ray astronomy.
Riccardo Giacconi Biography Bibliography
Giacconi, Riccardo. "Riccardo Giacconi - Autobiography." Nobelprize.org. The Nobel Foundation, 2002. Web. 13 May 2011. <http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2002/giacconi-autobio.html>.
"Riccardo Giacconi." NNDB: Tracking the Entire World. Soylent Communications. Web. 13 May 2011. <http://www.nndb.com/people/031/000027947/>.
"Riccardo Giacconi, Noble Laureate - Biography & Achievements." Italy Travel Guide, About Italy Tourism & Tourist Information. Ultimate Italy. Web. 13 May 2011. <http://www.ultimateitaly.com/peoples/noble-laureate-riccardo-giacconi.html>.
"Riccardo Giacconi." NNDB: Tracking the Entire World. Soylent Communications. Web. 13 May 2011. <http://www.nndb.com/people/031/000027947/>.
"Riccardo Giacconi, Noble Laureate - Biography & Achievements." Italy Travel Guide, About Italy Tourism & Tourist Information. Ultimate Italy. Web. 13 May 2011. <http://www.ultimateitaly.com/peoples/noble-laureate-riccardo-giacconi.html>.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)