Volume II Issue 1
January 2006 |
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 Einstein
Was Right (again): NIST and MIT Confirm E=mc2
 Albert
Einstein was correct in his prediction that E=mc2, according
to scientists at the U.S. Department of Commerce's National Institute of
Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT) who conducted the most precise direct test ever of what
is perhaps the most famous formula in science. In experiments described
in a recent issue of Nature, the researchers added to a catalog of
confirmations that matter and energy are related in a precise way.
Specifically, energy (E) equals mass (m) times the square of the speed
of light (c2), a prediction of Einstein's theory of special
relativity.
By comparing NIST measurements of energy emitted by silicon and sulfur
atoms and MIT measurements of the mass of the same atoms, the scientists
found that E differs from mc2 by at most 0.0000004, or
four-tenths of 1 part in 1 million. This result is "consistent
with equality" and is 55 times more accurate than the previous best
direct test of Einstein's formula, according to the scientists.
Such tests are important because special relativity is a central
principle of modern physics and the basis for many scientific
experiments as well as common instruments like the global positioning
system. According to the basic laws of physics, every wavelength of
electromagnetic radiation corresponds to a specific amount of energy.
The NIST team determined the value for energy in the Einstein equation,
E=mc2, by carefully measuring the wavelength of gamma rays
emitted by silicon and sulfur atoms.
Click here for more details.
National
Engineers Week 2006
 Engineers
Week, a formal coalition of more than seventy engineering, education,
and cultural societies, and more than fifty corporations and government
agencies, is dedicated to raising public awareness of engineers'
positive contributions to our quality of life. Engineers Week promotes
recognition among parents, teachers and students of the importance of a
technical education and a high level of math, science, and technology
literacy.
The event motivates youths to pursue engineering careers in order to
provide a diverse, vigorous and informed engineering workforce. Each
year, Engineers Week reaches thousands of schools, businesses, and
community groups across the U.S.
Engineers Week 2006 (February 19-25) is co-chaired by the Society of
Women Engineers and Northrop Grumman Corporation.
Find out more...
Physicists
Describe "Fluid" State of Matter
 Using
nothing more than a container of loosely packed sand and a falling
marble, a research team led by University of Chicago physicist Heinrich
Jaeger has discovered a new state of fluid matter. This new matter takes
the form of a large, sharply focused jet of sand shooting upward from
the impact point. It looks much like the vertical jets that form when a
marble falls into a pool of water, or some other liquid - except that in
those jets, the rising column is held together by the liquid's surface
tension. In loose-packed sand, notes Jaeger, there is no surface
tension. Instead, he says, the granular jet seems to behave more like
ultra-cold matter at temperatures near absolute zero (-497.6 degrees
Fahrenheit).
Although the sand grains are at room temperature, says Jaeger, "the jet
acts like an ultra-cold, ultra-dense gas, in terms of how we define
temperature via the random motion of particles. Inside the jet there is
very, very little random motion." To observe the basic effect at home,
Jaeger says, take a cup of powdered sugar, pour it into another
container to ensure that it is loosely packed, and then drop in a
marble. "Once you drop that marble in there you see that jet emerging,"
he says, "but you have to look fast."
Find out more...
Degree
Profile: Aerospace Engineering
 Aerospace
engineers create machines, from airplanes that weigh over a half a
million pounds to spacecraft that travel over 17,000 miles an hour. They
design, develop, and test aircraft, spacecraft, and missiles and
supervise the manufacture of these products. Aerospace engineers who
work with aircraft are called aeronautical engineers, and those working
specifically with spacecraft are astronautical engineers. They develop
new technologies for use in aviation, defense systems, and space
exploration, often specializing in areas such as structural design,
guidance, navigation and control, instrumentation and communication, or
production methods.
They often use
computer-aided design (CAD) software, robotics, and lasers and advanced
electronic optics. They also may specialize in a particular type of
aerospace product, such as commercial transports, military fighter jets,
helicopters, spacecraft, or missiles and rockets. Aerospace engineers
may be experts in aerodynamics, thermodynamics, celestial mechanics,
propulsion, acoustics, or guidance and control systems.
 Aerospace
engineers typically are employed in the aerospace product and parts
industry, although their skills are becoming increasingly valuable in
other fields. For example, in the motor vehicles manufacturing industry,
aerospace engineers design vehicles that have lower air resistance and,
thus, increased fuel efficiency. Find out more about
careers in aerospace engineering.
Engineer
Salaries Remain High Despite Concern Over Shortages
Despite
recent concerns about a potential shortage of engineering graduates and
the outlook for future engineering jobs, The Engineering Income & Salary
Survey, sponsored by the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE)
shows entry-level engineers commanding salaries above many of their
peers in other professions.
"We've heard the horror
stories about a potential shortage of U.S. engineering graduates due in
part to a perceived decline of job opportunities for engineers," said NSPE Executive Director Al Gray. "But the truth is that engineering
continues to be a viable and in-demand profession, and engineering
graduates can expect good starting salaries and job opportunities well
into the future."
According to the survey,
the average salary for an engineer with less than one year of experience
is $46,059. Engineers with one to two years of experience averaged
$48,451. Other
factors, such as engineering discipline, geographic location, education,
and licensure status can also affect entry-level salaries. Licensed
engineers with less than one year of experience make an average salary
of $51,383 while those licensed with one to two years of experience had
starting salaries averaging $55,878.
Entry-level engineers
are not the only ones enjoying stable salary numbers. A matched sample
of over 3,000 engineers was compared from 2004 to 2005. This group
experienced a 6.5 percent increase in average base salaries from $72,779
to $78,211. Total annual income figures (including bonuses and
incentives) for the matched sample showed a 7.6 percent increase from
$78,211 in 2004 to $84,130 in 2005. For the over 50 years in which NSPE
has been conducting the salary survey, there has been a consistent
increase in engineering salaries from year to year - a clear indication
that engineering is indeed a viable and sustainable profession. Other
findings:
- Engineers in
South Central (TX, OK, AR, and LA) and Pacific Southwest (CA,
NV, and HI) U.S. regions earn more than engineers in other U.S.
areas.
- Nuclear
engineers have the highest average annual salary at $119,643,
followed by petroleum engineers at $117,004 and fire protection
engineers at $93,343.
- The average
salary of executive-level engineers declined from $134,194 in
2004 to $129,724 in 2005.
Mathematics
and Genetics Research Win Top Honors in National Competition
 Genetics
and mathematics research won top honors in the
2005-06 Siemens
Westinghouse Competition in Math, Science and Technology. Michael
Viscardi, a senior who is home schooled, won the $100,000 Grand Prize
scholarship in the individual category for mathematics research with
real-world engineering implications. His project, entitled "On the
Solution of the Dirichlet Problem with Rational Boundary Data," develops
exciting new approaches to a mathematical problem first formulated in
the 19th century by the French mathematician, Lejeune Dirichlet.
Viscardi's research, in an area of mathematics called complex analysis,
shows solutions to the Dirichlet problem which are, in many important
cases, what mathematicians call "rational functions." Elegant, simple
and useful, "rational functions" are particularly amenable to computer
implementation.
Anne Lee, a senior at Phoenix Country Day School in Paradise Valley, AZ,
and Albert Shieh, a junior at Chaparral High School in Scottsdale, AZ,
won the $100,000 prize in the team category, which they will share
equally, for developing new software that more accurately analyzes
genetic data. While interning at the Translational Genomics Research
Institute in Phoenix, AZ, the students identified an opportunity to
improve on a commercially developed software package designed to analyze
high volume genetic data. They developed improved genetic analysis
software – which their genomics lab now uses – that enables more
accurate and efficient identification of the genes underlying inherited
disorders in humans. The team then used their software to pinpoint the
mutated gene that causes a childhood degenerative disorder.
Explore many other pre-college science, technology, engineering, and
math programs and projects on
the Sloan Career Cornerstone Center.
Mathematics
Helps Discern Immune Response to
Infectious Diseases
 The
U.S. National Institutes of Health has awarded the University of
Pittsburgh School of Medicine a five-year, $9.1 million, contract to
develop sophisticated mathematical models for investigating how the
immune system responds to the pathogens that cause flu, tuberculosis,
and tularemia, an especially dangerous infection that some authorities
believe could be used as a biological weapon.
Such models should help expedite the development of vaccines and
therapies against these and other infectious agents and help researchers
and public health officials to predict or prevent disease outbreaks as
well as determine the best courses of treatment. "Mathematical modeling
has tremendous potential to help improve the safety and efficacy of
vaccines," explained Dr. Penelope Morel, principal investigator of the
Pitt-based Immune Modeling Center.
Career Cornerstone News is a publication of the
Sloan Career Cornerstone Center. Click here
to subscribe.
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