Volume II Issue 12
December 2006 |
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 Visualize
Science & Engineering
 Sometimes
the best way to express a scientific idea is through an image that grabs
the eye and invites viewers to wonder what they're seeing. Fourteen
images and multimedia presentations, each using innovative approaches to
encapsulate a scientific story, have won the 2006 Science and
Engineering Visualization Challenge, a competition sponsored jointly by
the National Science Foundation and the journal Science, which is
published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Currently in its fourth year, the contest recognizes outstanding
achievement in the use of visual media to promote understanding of
research results and scientific phenomena. The judges' criteria for
evaluating the entries included visual impact, innovation and accuracy,
among others.
Winning entries communicate
information about complex mathematical concepts, the intricacies of the
human body, air-flight patterns, the latest scientific imaging
technologies to analyze Leonardo da Vinci's art, and more.
Find out
more...
Careers
in Medicine
 The
Sloan Career Cornerstone Center (SCCC) is a continually expanding
resource for exploring careers in science, technology, engineering,
mathematics, computing -- and now medicine too!
Find out about what it is like to be a
dentist,
physician/surgeon,
nurse, or
veterinarian.
Explore how to earn a degree in medicine, and why an accredited program
is so important. Learn about salary and employment options. And, explore
professional associations linking members of the medical community. SCCC
also provides links to all accredited medical schools, and to programs
in nursing, dentistry, and veterinary science.
Find out more...
Tree
Rings Provide Hurricane Record
 New
research by two University of Tennessee professors could help us better
understand hurricanes by looking to an unusual source: tree rings.
UT professors Claudia Mora and Henri Grissino-Mayer have found that an
age-old "database" -- tree rings -- contains surprisingly accurate
information about hurricane activity that occurred hundreds of years
ago. By measuring different chemical forms of oxygen present in the
rings, researchers identified periods when hurricanes hit areas of the
Southeast more than 100 years before modern records were kept.
The technique allows
scientists to extend from decades to centuries the time-frames of
intense hurricane cycles and may help determine if the increase in the
number of hurricanes hitting the Southeast since the mid-1990s is part
of a regularly occurring cycle or due to causes such as global climate
change.
Find out more about the research
and the science of dendrochronology...
Degree
Profile: Mechanical Engineering
 Mechanical
engineers use the principles of energy, materials, and mechanics to
design and manufacture machines and devices of all types. They create
the processes and systems that drive technology and industry.
The career paths of
mechanical engineers are largely determined by individual choices, a
decided advantage in a changing world. Mechanics, energy and heat,
mathematics, engineering sciences, design and manufacturing form the
foundation of mechanical engineering. Mechanics includes fluids, ranging
from still water to hypersonic gases flowing around a space vehicle; it
involves the motion of anything from a particle to a machine or complex
structure.
Mechanical engineers
research, develop, design, manufacture, and test tools, engines,
machines, and other mechanical devices. They work on power-producing
machines such as electric generators, internal combustion engines, and
steam and gas turbines, as well as power-using machines such as
refrigeration and air-conditioning equipment, machine tools, material
handling systems, elevators and escalators, industrial production
equipment, and robots used in manufacturing.
Mechanical engineers also
design tools that other engineers need for their work. Mechanical
engineering is one of the broadest engineering disciplines. Mechanical
engineers may work in production operations in manufacturing or
agriculture, maintenance, or technical sales; many are administrators or
managers.
Find out more about careers in
mechanical engineering.
Mathematical
Tools Predict Surgery Results
 Cranio-maxillofacial
surgery is a medical specialty focusing on facial and skull
reconstruction. This surgery can help patients with such disorders as
cleft palate, malformations of the upper or lower jaw, and problems with
the facial skeleton due to injury. Intensive pre-operative planning is
needed to ensure that the medical purposes of the surgery are achieved.
In their article
"Mathematics in Facial Surgery," Peter Deuflhard, Martin Weiser, and
Stefan Zachow (of the Konrad Zuse Zentrum, Berlin) describe the
mathematical techniques they have used to assist cranio-maxillofacial
surgeons to predict the outcomes of surgery. The first step in the
planning paradigm for such surgery is to use medical imaging data of the
patient to construct a 3-dimensional computer model, called the "virtual
patient." The second step, uses the data to create a "virtual lab" in
which various operative strategies can be tested. The last step is to
play back to the patient the outcomes of the various strategies.
The second step in the
paradigm requires modeling and solving partial differential equations (PDEs),
which are equations that represent changing physical systems. One must
identify which PDEs are appropriate for biomechanical modeling of soft
facial tissue and bone. Standard methods for handling the equations need
to be adapted for this particular application. One must also formulate
ways to represent the interface between tissue and bone, as well as
their interactions. Generally such PDEs cannot be solved exactly in
closed form, so mathematics enters the picture once again to provide
numerical techniques for producing approximate solutions.
With the "virtual patient"
data as input, one can use the approximate solutions to generate an
individualized model for that particular patient. The surgeons can then
use the model as a "virtual lab" to predict the effects of surgical
procedures and options, and patients can get a picture of approximately
how they will look after the surgery.
Find out more...
Square
Kilometer Array Telescope
 Australia
and South Africa have been short-listed as the countries to host the
Square Kilometer Array (SKA), a giant next-generation radio telescope
being developed by scientists in 17 countries. The SKA will use its
million square metres of collecting area to gather weak radio waves from
the far reaches of the early Universe. This huge surface will give the
telescope the sensitivity it will need to see far back in time – to the
point, astronomers hope, where it can detect the conditions that existed
during the 'dark ages,' before the first stars burst into life.
SKA observations will
also lead to new understanding of the nature of '"dark energy" and "dark
matter" -- both still mysterious. Astronomers will be able to test
radical theories of gravity, map magnetic fields in space, see planets
forming around other stars, and perhaps detect transmissions from
extraterrestrial intelligence.
The SKA will be a set of thousands of antennas spread over 3000km, with
half the antennas located in a 'core' site of 5km x 5km. The proposed
core site in Australia is Mileura station, 100km west of Meekathara in
Western Australia. Other antennas would be distributed over the
continent; still more might be placed in New Zealand.
A key requirement of the core site is very low levels of man-made radio
signals, which could mask the faint cosmic radio waves the telescope is
designed to detect. Both the Australian and South African sites can see
much of the same sky as the world's other major telescopes. Both have a
good view of the southern sky, which is where the centre of our Galaxy
goes overhead. And both have stable ionospheric conditions, important
for low-frequency observations.
The project, currently
being developed by an international SKA consortium of countries, is
expected to cost about US$1 billion and be built during the second
decade of this century. This cost will be shared among the participating
countries: currently, these are Australia, Canada, China, Europe
(France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Spain, Sweden,
and the UK), India, South Africa and the USA.
Find out more...
Silent,
Eco-friendly Plane
 MIT and Cambridge University researchers have unveiled the conceptual
design for a silent, environmentally friendly passenger plane, which is
part of the Silent Aircraft Initiative. "Public concern about noise is a
major constraint on expansion of aircraft operations. The 'silent
aircraft' can help address this concern and thus aid in meeting the
increasing passenger demand for air transport," said Edward M. Greitzer,
the H.N. Slater Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT. While
originally conceived to make a huge reduction in airplane noise, the
team's ultimate design also has the potential to be more fuel-efficient.
In a typical flight, the proposed plane, which is designed to carry 215
passengers, is predicted to achieve 124 passenger-miles per gallon,
almost 25 percent more than current aircraft. The conceptual design
addresses both the engines and the structure, or airframe, of a plane.
Half of the noise from a landing plane comes from the airframe.
Find out more...
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