Spectrum Newsletter - 2015

theSpectr m UNIVERSITY OF UTAH: Department of Physics & Astronomy

VOLUME 6, ISSUE 01 / 2015

Achieving A New Global Ranking

of High-Quality Science Output

2015 Graduates Awards & Scholarships

Dr. James Slater

Cancer Treatment Pioneer Alumni Spotlight

Diffraction For The Record

Ebola Virus

May Replicate in an Exotic Way

Earthlike ‘Star Wars’ Tatooines May Be Common A New Telescope

for Better Research

COSMIC RAY OBSERVATORY EXPANSION • PLUTO REVEALED • NEW PROGRAM: INSPIRE •& MORE!

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Awards, Grants, & Appointments 2015 Graduates 2015 Student Awards & Scholarships Ebola Virus May Replicate in an Exotic Way

Study Indicates Target for Future Drugs for Measles, Ebola, RSV

12. Earthlike ‘Star Wars’ Tatooines May Be Common

Simulations dispute dogma: rocky planets may orbit many double stars

14. Field-Effect Transistors Made From Hybrid Perovskites

Bonnie Davis, Wake Forest University

15. University of Utah Ascending in a

New Global Ranking of High-Quality Science Output

Measured by publication count in top science journals, the U is in the global top 100

22. Diffraction: For the Record

By Adam Beehler, Dept. of Physics & Astronomy

24. Professor Talks About Pluto at Science Event

25. Frontiers of Science: Pluto Revealed

Tales from the Frontier of Solar System Exploration, with Dr. John Spencer (Southwest Research Institute)

26. Cosmic Ray Observatory to Expand

Seeks source of most energetic particles in the universe

28. Moving On: Adam Bolton

Astrophysicist begins new position at national observatory

29. New U Program INSPIRE

Strives to Introduce Science, Conservation to Prison Inmates Carolyn Webber, Utah Daily Chronicle

30. Undergrads Share their Research at Optics Meeting

Emily Conover & the American Physical Society

16. Alumni Spotlight: Dr. James M. Slater

32. Science Night Live

20. Live from the Space Station with

33. A New Telescope for Better Research

By James DeGooyer, College of Science

Commander Scott Kelly

By Colleen McLaughlin, NHMU

21. Frontiers of Science: Mars

Curiosity’s Mission to Gale Crater, Mars

Mapping Cosmic History 1,000 Galaxies at a Time Dave Kieda, Cherenkov Telescope Array consortium

34. Department “Quarks”

UM

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CHAIRMAN’S

Editor

WELCOME

Kathrine Skollingsberg kathrine@physics.utah.edu

Hello Friends, Welcome to the new year, and welcome to the latest issue of the Spectrum. We hope you enjoy reading about the developments in and around the department and the remarkable research advances by our faculty members. For instance, Professor Valy Vardeny’s group has made significant progress in understanding the basic physics of a new type of hybrid organic/inorganic material that could lead to significant improvements in the efficiency of solar (photovoltaic) panels. Through some remarkably powerful microscopic techniques, Professor Saveez Saffarian has been observing how a class of viruses, including HIV, hijacks the machinery of a cell to repackage their progeny after infection. Knowledge of the physical mechanisms could lead to new and powerful interventions. An international collaboration of physicists led by our cosmic ray group have found strong evidence for a cosmic ray “hot spot” in the northern galactic hemisphere. They did this with the huge ground-based detector located in Millard County, Utah. This discovery brings us closer to answering the longstanding question, “Where do the highest energy cosmic rays come from?”. Professor Benjamin Bromley and collaborators overturned a long-standing belief that binary star systems could not support the growth of large planets using computer simulations; they showed that it was entirely possible. Maybe Tattooine was not so farfetched after all! This is only a small sampling of the superb science being conducted in our department.

During the past year, the Utah State Legislature agreed to provide funding to nearly complete the Gary and Ann Crocker Science Center. The Crocker Science Center is to be housed in the vastly remodeled George Thomas Building on President’s Circle, the former home of the Utah Museum of Natural History. The Crocker Science Center is dedicated to undergraduate science education, housing instructional laboratories, classrooms, tutoring and advising centers. It will also house the Center for Cellular and Genomic Research. This will significantly improve the undergraduate science experience at the U. Nevertheless, the Crocker Science Center will not solve the department’s urgent need for adequate research space. We are optimistic that the University can now turn more of its attention to our needs. However, new buildings are expensive - easily costing $100 million. Such an endeavor takes a mix of private and public support to achieve. We will be working with the University as well as the commitment and generosity of our donors, over the next few years to make this a reality.

We are excited about these developments and encourage you to stop by for a visit to hear about them for yourself.

Best wishes

Carleton DeTar

detar@physics.utah.edu

The Spectrum is the official newsletter of the Department of Physics & Astronomy at the University of Utah. The Spectrum seeks to provide friends, students, alumni, and the community at large with a broad spectrum of up-to-date information on news, events, achievements, and scientific education relating to the department.

Story suggestions, upcoming events, and comments are always welcome. Contact us at newsletter@physics.utah.edu SPECIAL NOTE: Some people may be receiving this newsletter in error. If you would like to be taken off the mailing list for this newsletter, please send an email to newsletter@physics.utah.edu and include the full name listed on the mailing label.

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We will never sell, share, or distribute your personal information to any third party. © 2016 University of Utah

AWARDS, GRANTS, & APPOINTMENTS

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Our world-class faculty are renowned scholars, recognized both nationally & internationally for their research achievements.

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Promotion to Associate Professor with Tenure

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Spring 2015 Student’s Choice Award

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KYLE DAWSON

ANIL SETH

3

Promotion to Associate Professor

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Fall 2014 Student’s Choice Award

SHANTI DEEMYAD

OREST SYMKO

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LDSSA Teaching Award, 2015

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2014-15 Global Professor University of Bath, UK

BEN BROMLEY

RICHARD INGEBRETSEN

VALY VARDENY

2

Promotion to Research Assistant Professor

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Promotion to Associate Professor

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Promotion to Associate Professor with Tenure

MOURAD BENDJENNAT

SAVEEZ SAFFARIAN

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Appointed to Associate Chairman

ZHENG ZHENG

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2015 GRADUATES General commencement ceremonies took place May 7, 2015. The College of Science convocation and reception took place the following day, May 8, 2015. This year’s graduating class is the largest in the university’s history with 8,363 students, representing 24 Utah counties, 50 U.S. states, and 77 countries. The Department of Physics & Astronomy graduated 42 undergraduates and 18 graduate students. The Department of Physics & Astronomy congratulates all of its graduates and welcomes them to our alumni family!

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BACCALAUREATES

Amr Abd-Al-Ghaffar Shannon Adams Brandon Barrows Trevor Brunnenmeyer David Cavaness Kevin Corelli Christian Cox Nathan Dansie Trent Eason Luis Arturo Garcia Remes Ulrich Garn Nancy Granda-Duarte Christopher Harker Joshua Harmer Paul Harrie Pyone Hlaing Grey Hugentobler Brandon Hullinger Steven Hurst David Kane Spencer Knight

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Jordan Krebs Ryan Le Von Charles Lee - Honors Sophia Mahoney Adam Millington Shane Patterson Rachel Petragallo Sipha Phaophongsavath Robert Rawson Jaclyn Ray Tim Riley Nickolas Rollins Lance Stalker David Stephens - Honors Garrett Stevens Derek Strasters Thomas Stucky Chris Walthers Bingran Wang Kenneth Williams Zhouheng Xu

MASTERS OF SCIENCE

Kevin Davenport Barun Gupta Jeremy Jorgensen Henrik Odeen Jonathan Richards Bijaya Thapa Edward Thenell Zachary Zundel

PhD’s

Kapildeb Ambal Carl Ebeling Anil Ghimire David Harris Uyen Huynh Josh Kaggie Henrick Odeen Adam Payne Anne Marie Schaeffer Ruiyao Wang Peng Yang

Permalink: http://unews.utah.edu/news_releases/university-of-utah-to-graduate-8363-students-may-7/

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AWARDS & SCHOLARSHIPS Student & Postdoctoral Awards April 29, 2015

Outstanding Postdoctoral Research Award

Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant Award

Outstanding Graduate Students Award

Hong Guo* Charlie Zhang

Adam Payne* Mei Hui Teh

Hassan Allami* Kevin Davenport

Swigart Scholarship for Outstanding Graduate Students

Marzieh Kavand

Eddie Thenell

Yaxin Zhai

College of Science Awards 2015 COS Research Scholar

Crocker Science House Scholars

Joseph Blanton James Ellis Barry M. Goldwater - Honorable Colby Judd Mention (National Award) Ian Sohl Ethan Lake

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Drew Ellingson

COS Dean’s Scholarship

Trey Jensen

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Joseph T. Crockett Scholarship

Trey Jensen

* Not in attendance.

Freshman Scholarship

Gabrielle Zweifel Michael Olsen

ACCESS Students intending to major in physics

Lauren Hansen Julie Tang Gabrielle Zweifel

Paul Gilbert Outstanding Undergraduate Research Award

Outstanding Sophomore Award

Matthew Dutson (soph)

Trey Jensen

Martin Hiatt Outstanding Undergraduate Research Award & Thomas Parmley Award

Jasmine Bishop

Cedric Wilson

Outstanding Junior Award

Stephen Farrell (jr)

Walter Wada Memorial Award

Derek Sessions

Department Scholarships

Not in Attendance Tyler Soelberg Memorial Award

Sydney Duncan* Outstanding Senior Award

Rachel Petragallo* Ethan Lake

Ian Sohl

Caleb Webb

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Mark Hayward

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EBOLA VIRUS MAY REPLICATE IN STUDY INDICATES TARGET FOR FUTURE DRUGS FOR MEASLES, EBOLA, RSV

U

niversity of Utah researchers ran biochemical analysis and computer simulations of a livestock virus to discover a likely and exotic mechanism to explain the replication of related viruses such as Ebola, measles, and rabies.

The mechanism may be a possible target for new treatments within a decade.

“This is fundamental science. It creates new targets for potential antiviral drugs in the next five to ten years, but unfortunately would not have an impact on the current Ebola epidemic” in West Africa, says Saveez Saffarian, senior author of a new study published today by the Public Library of Science journal PLOS Computational Biology.

Saffarian (a virologist and assistant professor of physics and astronomy), and his colleagues studied a horse, cattle, and pig virus named VSV - vesicular stomatitis virus - which is a member of family called NNS RNA viruses. That family also includes closely related viruses responsible for Ebola, measles, rabies, and the common childhood respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV. The genetic blueprint in these viruses is an RNA strand that is covered by protein-like beads on a necklace.

By conducting 20,000 computer simulations of the VSV starting to replicate in different possible ways, the study found a “fundamental mechanism” used by VSV and related viruses like Ebola to make copies of themselves or replicate, Saffarian says.

The mechanism: once the virus infects a cell, enzymes called polymerases literally slide along the protein “bead”-covered viral RNA strand until they reach the correct end of the strand.

Then the polymerases can read and “transcribe” the RNA code to synthesize messenger RNA, or mRNA. Once one polymerase starts doing that, it collides with other sliding polymerases, kicking them loose within the cell until they, too, attach to the correct end of the RNA and start making copies. That lets the virus replicate and take over the infected host cell.

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“The proposed sliding mechanism is a fundamental new mechanism specific to the NNS RNA viruses that can be a target for antiviral drugs in the future,” Saffarian says - something he hopes pharmaceutical scientists will pursue.

The sliding contrasts with replication in many other viruses, in which the polymerases easily detach from the virus inside an infected cell and then find the right end of the RNA so replication begins.

The mechanism was discovered by computer simulations, so “we are working now on demonstrating evidence of the sliding mechanism in VSV,” Saffarian says.

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AN EXOTIC WAY

He believes the discovery is “as fundamental as understanding the workings of HIV protease” - an enzyme essential for replication of the AIDS virus and that became a target of protease inhibitors, which first made it possible for AIDS patients to live with AIDS as a chronic rather than deadly disease.

Saffarian conducted the study University of Utah physics doctoral student Xiaolin with first author and Tang and virologist Saveez Saffarian in the lab where they identified an exotic mechanism that may explain physics doctoral student Xiaolin Tang, how a group of viruses that includes Ebola replicate or make copies of themselves to make people sick. and with research Photo Credit: Lee J. Siegel, University of Utah scientist Mourad Bendjennat. The National Science Foundation funded the study.

Why Antivirals Could Be Better than Vaccines Many viruses have their genome or genetic blueprint hidden within an envelope of fat or lipid. The only parts of the virus that are exposed are some envelope proteins, and about ten percent of those proteins are used by the virus to play a direct role in entering and infecting a target cell. Antibodies in vaccines target the proteins to attack and block viral infection.

But viruses quickly mutate different exposed proteins, making vaccines less than ideal - as demonstrated by the discovery that this year’s influenza vaccine does not closely match the viruses circulating this flu season.

Some viruses, known as RNA viruses, have genetic blueprints made of RNA instead of DNA. Creating vaccines is particularly difficult for many RNA viruses - which include HIV, influenza, and the group with VSV and Ebola - because RNA viruses are adept at mutating and changing their envelope proteins to evade vaccines, Saffarian says, adding that the Ebola virus now in Africa “is mutating extremely fast.”

So while promising vaccine candidates against Ebola now are being developed, Saffarian says, “vaccines are not the most potent way to fight these RNA viruses.”

“The only way to create stable antiviral therapies against RNA

Permalink: http://unews.utah.edu/news_releases/ebola-virus-may-replicate-in-an-exotic-way

viruses is to target multiple sites within the replication machinery,” he adds.

The Mystery of Ebola Replication Some RNA viruses are known as “nonsegmented negative sense” or NNS RNA viruses, including Ebola, rabies, measles, the VSV livestock virus, and RSV. “The replication machinery of the Ebola virus is not fully understood because it has not been possible to reconstitute replication of Ebola in the lab,” Saffarian says. “It’s biochemically difficult, but the fundamental mechanism of replication has been shown to be almost identical to a well-studied animal virus, VSV,” which infects and causes bleeding mouth and udder ulcers in cattle, horses, and pigs.

But in the NNS RNA viruses, the RNA strand is covered by bead-like proteins, preventing polymerases from reading the RNA and starting the replication process. Yet the viral polymerases somehow evolved to read, transcribe and replicate the RNA genome hidden beneath the protein beads.

What the Study Found Researchers previously thought viral polymerases worked similar to the polymerases inside our cells, which move freely inside the cell and find the proper end of DNA to begin replication.

But in an initial phase of the study conducted with real VSV, the livestock virus, Bendjennat showed that the polymerases attached to the bead-covered RNA of the livestock virus VSV were so tightly bound that they could not float off into the cell to find the correct end of the RNA to start reading it.

This illustration depicts an exotic mechanism by which a family of viruses named NNS RNA viruses may replicate to make copies of themselves, according to a University of Utah study. The family includes a livestock virus named VSV as well as viruses responsible for Ebola, measles, rabies and a common respiratory virus, RSV. The mechanism may serve as a target for new drugs against Ebola in five to ten years. The yellowish strand is a viral genetic blueprint made of RNA and covered by bead-like proteins. The orange, ball-shaped objects are enzymes called polymerases, which normally read and copy the RNA to make new virus particles. That process can begin only when some polymerases attach to the correct end of the RNA and start reading it, which the two polymerases on the left are doing. The other polymerases (the four on the right side) are attached to the protein-covered RNA but slide along it until they collide with the polymerases that already are reading the RNA. Those collisions kick sliding polymerases loose (top center) so they can float to the proper end of the RNA and start reading it. Researchers hope future drugs can be developed to target this sliding mechanism as a new treatment for Ebola.

Photo Credit: Dave Meikle, University of Utah

“Our team was puzzled by, how do these polymerases find where they are supposed to start working if they are stuck to the beads on the RNA so tightly most can’t even come off?” Saffarian says.

So Tang used computer simulation to test 20,000 different conditions that could possibly occur as the livestock virus RNA was read and transcribed into mRNA in the first steps of viral replication. The simulations were based on current knowledge of how much work polymerases do during the first hour after VSV infects a cell, and that each virus carries about 50 identical polymerase molecules to use for reading and copying the virus’ RNA into mRNA. Tang looked for the mechanism - a set of conditions - that best fit the speed of a real VSV infection.

Tang “found that no matter what she tried, these viral polymerases have to be able to slide on their bead-covered RNA genomes rather fast in order to get any meaningful work done” toward replication, Saffarian says. “They can’t dissociate [separate from the RNA], but they can slide. That helps the polymerases find where they have to start work at the end of the RNA.” The study also indicates that as a polymerase reads and transcribes the beaded RNA strand, it collides with sliding polymerases and kicks them into solution inside the cell, which allows them to eventually bind to the correct end of the RNA, where they also start transcribing it to mRNA for replication. •

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When an NNS RNA virus infects a cell, its RNA genetic blueprint enters the cell along with a set of polymerases, which are enzymes essential for a virus to replicate. Polymerases normally “read” the RNA genetic blueprint to synthesize mRNA, which then leads to formation of viral proteins and viral replication: more viral particles.

EARTHLIKE “STAR WARS” TATOOINES MAY BE COMMON Ben Bromley Professor

SIMULATIONS DISPUTE DOGMA: ROCKY PLANETS MAY ORBIT MANY DOUBLE STARS

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uke Skywalker’s home in “Star Wars” is the desert planet, Tatooine, with twin sunsets because it orbits two stars.

So far, only uninhabitable gas-giant planets have been identified circling such binary stars, and many researchers believe rocky planets cannot form there. Now, mathematical simulations show that Earthlike, solid planets such as Tatooine likely exist and may be widespread.

“Tatooine sunsets may be common after all,” concludes the study by astrophysicists Ben Bromley of the University of Utah and Scott Kenyon of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory.

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“Our main result is that outside a small region near a binary star, [either rocky or gas-giant] planet formation can proceed in much the same way as around a single star,” they write. “In our scenario, planets are as prevalent around binaries as around single stars.”

The study has been submitted to Astrophysical Journal for review, but as is the custom in the field, the authors have posted the unreviewed paper on the scientific preprint website ArXiv (pronounced archive).

With “Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens” due to hit movie screens Dec. 18, 2015 fans of the epic series may be cheered at the possible reality of planets like Tatooine, home

planet of both Luke and Anakin Skywalker, meeting place of Obi Wan Kenobi and Han Solo, and the domain ruled (until his death in battle) by crime lord Jabba the Hutt. Luke stares at Tatooine’s double suns setting in a classic film moment.

The title of the new study is “Planet formation around binary stars: Tatooine made easy,” but the paper looks anything but easy. It is filled with mathematical formulas describing how binary stars can be orbited by planetesimals, which are asteroidsized rocks that clump together to form planets.

“We took our sweet numerical time to show that the ride around a pair of stars can be just as smooth as around one,” when it comes to the early steps of planet formation, Bromley says. “The ‘made easy’ part is really saying the same recipe that works around the sun will work around Tatooine’s host stars.”

The study was funded by NASA’s Outer Planets Program and was a spinoff of Bromley’s and Kenyon’s research into how dwarf planet Pluto and its major moon, Charon, act like a binary system. Both are orbited by four other moons.

Planets form like dust bunnies From a swirling disk of gas and dust surrounding a young star, “planets form like dust bunnies under your bed, glomming

University of Utah astrophysicist Ben Bromley used acrylics to paint this depiction of a double sunset from an inhabited Earthlike planet orbiting a pair of binary stars.

To date, only gas-giant planets like Saturn have been found orbiting binaries. But in a new study, Bromley and Scott Kenyon of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory performed mathematical analysis and simulations showing that, contrary to scientific doubts, it is possible for a rocky planet to form around binary stars, like Luke Skywalker’s home planet Tatooine in the “Star Wars” films.

Photo Credit: Ben Bromley, University of Utah

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Permalink: http://unews.utah.edu/news_releases/earthlike-star-wars-tatooines-may-be-common

Scientists call that a “most circular orbit,” which in reality is a not-quite-circular, oval-shaped orbit in which the entire oval has numerous little waves in it, Bromley says.

“It’s an oval with ripples,” which are caused by the cyclic tugging of the two central stars, he adds.

“For over a decade, astrophysicists believed that planets like Earth could not form around most binary stars, at least not close enough to support life,” he says. “The problem is that planetesimals need to merge gently together to grow. Around a single star, planetesimals tend to follow circular paths - concentric rings that do not cross. If planetesimals do approach each other, they can merge together gently.”

But if planetesimals orbit a pair of stars, “their paths get mixed up by the to-andfro pull of the binary stars,” Bromley says.

“Their orbits can get so tangled that they cross each other’s paths at high speeds, dooming them to destructive collisions, not growth.”

“...an Earthlike Tatooine would have no problem forming right where it needs to be to host life” Previous research started with circular orbits when pondering planet formation around binary stars, Bromley says, while the new study shows that “planets, when they are small, will naturally seek these oval orbits and never start off on circular ones…If the planetesimals are in an oval-shaped orbit instead of a circle, their orbits can be nested and they won’t bash into each other. They can find orbits where planets can form.”

In their study, Bromley and Kenyon showed mathematically and by simple

computer simulations that rocky, Earth-sized planets can form around binary stars if they have the oval “most circular” orbit. They didn’t conduct their simulations to the point of planet formation, but showed that planetesimals could survive without collisions for tens of thousands of years in concentric, oval-shaped orbits around binary stars.

“We are saying you can set the stage to make these things,” Bromley says. “It is just as easy to make an Earthlike planet around a binary star as it is around a single star like our sun. So we think that Tatooines may be common in the universe.”

In this acrylic painting, astrophysicist Ben Bromley envisions the view of a double sunset from an uninhabited Earthlike planet orbiting a pair of binary stars.

In a new study, Bromley and Scott Kenyon of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory performed mathematical analysis and simulations showing that it is possible for a rocky planet to form around binary stars, like Luke Skywalker’s home planet Tatooine in the “Star Wars” films. So far, NASA’s Kepler space telescope has found only gas-giant planets like Saturn orbiting binary stars.

Credit: Ben Bromley, University of Utah

Kepler & worlds discovered NASA’s Kepler space telescope has discovered more than 1,000 planets orbiting other stars, including some rocky planets in the so-called habitable zone neither too near and hot, nor too far and cold from the star they each orbit.

So far, Kepler has found seven planets orbiting within or near the habitable zone around binary stars, but all of them are giant gaseous planets, Bromley says.

“The planets that Kepler has discovered so far around binary stars are larger, Neptune- or Jupiter-sized gas giants,” he says.

“None of those found so far are small and rocky like our Earth - or like Tatooine in ‘Star Wars.’”

Bromley believes Kepler hasn’t yet spotted Earthlike planets around binary stars because they are small compared with gas giants, “so it’s a hard measurement.”

While Kepler has found other gas giants farther from binary stars, there has been debate about how the seven in or near the habitable zone got where they are.

The new study shows it is possible they formed in place from gas and dust something “everyone else says is impossible,” Bromley says. He also doubts it because there doesn’t appear to have been enough gas and dust for gas giants Kepler has spotted near binaries to have formed in place. The study also showed that the gas and dust could have moved in from elsewhere so the gas giants could form where they now are seen.

The prevailing theories contend the gas giants discovered by the Kepler spacecraft must have formed farther out in a cooler, calmer part of space and then migrated closer to the binary stars, either by spiraling inward though a disk of gas surrounding the binary pair, or by being hurled in by the gravity of another more distant gas-giant planet.

But “an Earthlike Tatooine would have no problem forming right where it needs to be to host life,” Bromley says.

The study may be found at: http://arxiv.org/abs/1503.03876Research •

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together to make larger and larger objects,” says Kenyon, whose observatory is part of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. “When planets form around a binary, the binary scrambles up the dust bunnies unless they are on just the right orbit.”

FIELD-EFFECT TRANSISTORS MADE FROM

HYBRID PEROVSKITES

THE REMARKABLE CRYSTALLINE MATERIALS MAY PROVE USEFUL IN MANY APPLICATIONS BEYOND SOLAR CELLS

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he best hope for cheap, super-efficient solar power is a remarkable group of crystalline materials called hybrid perovskites. In just five years of development, organicinorganic perovskite solar cells have attained power conversion efficiencies that took decades to achieve with the topperforming conventional materials used to generate electricity from sunlight.

In a scientific first, researchers at the University of Utah and Wake Forest University now have demonstrated that the materials can be used to make field-effect transistors operating at room temperature. The feat shows that hybrid perovskites have potential to be used in a great many optoelectronic applications beyond solar cells. Find out more in this news release from Wake Forest University:

First field-effect transistors on hybrid perovskites fabricated for first time

By Bonnie Davis, Office of Communications and External Relations

May 5, 2015 - Researchers from Wake Forest University and the University of Utah are the first to successfully fabricate halide organic-inorganic hybrid perovskite field-effect transistors and measure their electrical characteristics at room temperature.

“We designed the structure of these field-effect transistors that allowed us to achieve electrostatic gating of these materials and determine directly their electrical properties,” said lead author, Oana Jurchescu, an assistant professor of physics at Wake Forest. “Then we fabricated these transistors with the Utah team and we measured them here in our lab.”

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Hybrid perovskites are a family of crystalline materials that hold great promise in the clean energy world.

Until now, researchers have not been able to fabricate fieldeffect transistors to measure the charge transport of the materials. Necessary prerequisites for a material that forms an efficient solar cell are strong optical absorption and efficient charge carrier transport, Jurchescu said. With these first generation transistors, the Wake Forest researchers were able for the first time to directly measure and calculate the electrical properties, eliminating indirect approximations.

“This is exciting because hybrid perovskites could be the next generation of solar cells,” she said. “The solar cells convert solar

energy into electrical energy so it’s a sustainable and environmentally friendly energy source, giving high performance at a low cost.”

Zeev “Valy” Vardeny, co-author and distinguished professor of physValy Vardeny (Left) & Charlie Zheng (right) ics and astronomy, University of Utah, agrees. “This work shows that in addition to solar cell technologies, the hybrid perovskites have potential to be used in a variety of optoelectronic applications.”

This next step in the development of these materials as the possible next generation of solar cell components is detailed in a study published online by the two research teams in the journal MRS Communications which also published a news release.

Jurchescu said hybrid perovskites have taken the solar cell field by storm since 2009, when they were first introduced. The power conversion efficiencies have grown from around four percent to 20 percent in just five years. By comparison, other conventional materials used to generate electricity from sunlight have taken decades to achieve high performance levels.

Jurchescu and graduate student Yaochuan “Josh” Mei, who has worked in her lab for almost five years, said this research builds on what they have learned in their previous work. “This work is based on the knowledge and infrastructure learned from our organic electronics work over the years,” Mei said. “This material is pretty new for us and we learned a lot in just a few months.”

“We will learn from these first lessons and try to make them better,” Jurchescu said. “Really, this is just the first step. Next we will look into the spin manipulation of the injected carriers in these devices and other electrical, optical and magnetic field applications.”

Co-authors from the University of Utah are Z. Valentine Vardeny and C. Zhang. •

Permalink: http://unews.utah.edu/news_releases/field-effect-perovskites/ http://news.wfu.edu/2015/05/05/media-advisory-first-field-effect-transistors-on-hybrid-perovskites-fabricated-for-first-time-2

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University of Utah

Ascending in a New Global Ranking of High-Quality Science Output

MEASURED BY PUBLICATION COUNT IN TOP SCIENCE JOURNALS, THE U IS IN THE GLOBAL TOP 100 The University of Utah ranks among the top 100 for high-quality science in a new index of the world’s leading research centers.

The rankings are based on the number of original scientific papers published in 68 journals chosen by two independent panels of active scientists as those where they would choose to publish their best work. Nature adjusted the numbers to account for each institution’s share of papers with authors from more than one research entity, and also to account for the over-representation of astronomy articles.

An open-access website, nature INDEX (www.natureindex.com), provides a one-year window of data updated monthly. Users can compare their institutions to other research organizations across the world or within a particular region or field. Nature said it is releasing the index in beta to gather feedback. •

Permalink: http://unews.utah.edu/news_releases/university-of-utah-ascending-in-a-new-global-ranking-of-high-quality-science-output

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Among 20,000 institutions worldwide, the U stands at number 90 in the new index developed by Nature Publishing Group. In life sciences, the U ranks 77th among institutions worldwide in the index’s overall measure of productivity. The U’s total output of high-value research in 2013 rose by 3 percent from the previous calendar year.

ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT DR. JAMES MUNRO SLATER B.S.‘55 Dr. James Slater

View inside one of the three gantries at Loma Linda. The proton beam and patient table can be aligned within 1 mm between each treatment session.

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D

by James DeGooyer.

r. James Munro Slater is a pioneer in radiation oncology. By developing proton radiation therapy (PRT) in hospitals, Dr. Slater helped revolutionize the treatment of cancer for hundreds of thousands of people. Proton therapy is more accurate than traditional radiation treatments, allowing for non-invasive, pain-free treatments leading to quicker recovery for patients. Dr. Slater and his team at Loma Linda University Medical Center are now thinking beyond cancer treatments, taking PRT into new areas such as the central nervous system and traumatic brain injury treatment. By applying physics in new and unprecedented ways, Dr. Slater has provided a “beam of hope” to millions of people around the world.

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Beginning Dr. James M. Slater was born and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah, near the University of Utah campus. His parents had both attended the U, and his mother had earned a degree in Elementary Education in 1927. Dr. Slater attended East High School and was then attracted to the University of Utah and to physics in particular because of its emerging importance in society. He earned a bachelor’s degree in physics in 1955 under the tutelage of professors Thomas Parmley and Irvin Swigart.

Dr. Slater recalled, “Swigart taught students how to logically work a problem, so that we could think critically and formulate a practical solution. This particular skill would serve me well throughout my subsequent career.”

Dr. Slater received his medical training from Loma Linda University School of Medicine, graduating in 1963 with a doctorate in Medicine. He completed his residency at both LDS Hospital in Utah and White Memorial Medical Center in California. He then worked at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas with a National Institutes of Health Fellowship.

In 1996, he received an honorary PhD from Andrews University for his work in proton radiation therapy. To date, Dr. Slater has 187 publications in peer-reviewed journals and 44 published abstracts. He has presented nearly 100 invited lectures around the world.

Thinking Like A Proton - Staying Positive During his residency training at Loma Linda University, Dr. Slater became appalled at the side effects and suffering many patients experienced during courses of traditional radiation treatments. He knew that side effects arose because too much healthy tissue received too much radiation. His dismay was so great, he considered switching careers. Instead, he resolved to change the character of radiation oncology. His decision was based on patients’ needs for effective radiation treatment without being made to suffer debilitating side effects.

As Dr. Slater explains it, “There were two aspects to solving the problem: plan treatments more accurately, and use an accelerated heavy-charged-particle beam that could be conformed into a three-dimensional volume with more accuracy and precision than was possible with X-rays. From my physics studies, I knew of publications, notably those of Dr. Robert R. Wilson, a physicist at the University of California at Berkeley, to use protons to accomplish the latter. Heavy charged particles such as protons provided the attributes of clinically needed precision.

Some medical studies with protons were being done at a few

Dr. James M. Slater began a research program at Loma Linda in 1970 that would eventually become a world-class clinical proton treatment center. Since 1990, the center has treated tens of thousands of patients.

high-energy physics facilities around the world without the benefit of computer-driven planning systems. First, however, therapy planning in a three-dimensional volume needed to be made available through computer-assisted treatment planning. During my residency, I began to plan my own treatments rather than assign the tasks to medical physicists; I concentrated on improving shielding, coning down fields so as to provide smaller margins, and thereby reducing normal-tissue injury. I also began discussing computerized planning, using digitized data from actual patients, rather than images from X-ray films and/or textbooks.”

“With the further passage of time, it also became apparent that engineering advances, notably in computer competence and advancing digital imaging capabilities, were making it more feasible to develop a sophisticated proton treatment system for use in a hospital environment.”1 “January, 1985 can be regarded as a defining date in the history of hospital-based proton treatment. Dr. Slater and other Loma Linda University investigators participated in a symposium held at Fermilab. The meeting revealed much enthusiasm among international investigators for the concept of a medically dedicated proton accelerator and facility.“1 Dr. Slater’s two-fold approach of developing a series of different patient immobilization systems and beam-shaping devices was designed to help limit the damage to a patient’s healthy surrounding tissues. Using his strong physics background, Dr. 1

Used with permission from the Loma Linda University Medical Center.

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Dr. Slater met his wife, Mary JoAnn Strout, at the University of Utah and they were married at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Salt Lake City, in 1947. They have five children, 16 grandchildren, and 16 great-grandchildren. His second-eldest son, Jerry, is currently a radiation oncologist, professor, and chair of the Department of Radiation Medicine at Loma Linda University.

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Slater turned his attention to protons. The first proton treatments were being performed with national laboratory particle accelerators. Working with Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and the Proton Therapy Co-operative Group, Loma Linda University University Medical Center opened the worlds’ first hospital-based proton therapy center in 1990.

On The Right Wavelength Loma Linda University Medical Center explains it as such:

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“Conventional radiation therapy uses photons (X-rays) to attack cancerous and noncancerous tumors. Much of a photon beam’s energy is deposited in the healthy tissue surrounding a tumor, causing side effects and unnecessary tissue damage, and sometimes not even reaching the tumor with an adequate dose of radiation. By regulating the energy of the protons the physician can design the proton radiation treatment so it occurs at the precise site of the cancer or benign tumor, minimizing damage to healthy tissue.”

This diagram depicts the process of the Proton Beam Therapy as laid out in the Loma Linda University Medical Center.

Photo Credit: Loma Linda University Medical Center.

From Loma Linda University Medical Center, “The accelerator itself, weighing 50 tons, is a ring of eight electromagnets, 60 feet in circumference and 20 feet in diameter. These electromagnets bend and focus the beam around a closed path within a vacuum tube.

Protons are accelerated up to half the speed of light by applying a radio-frequency voltage in synchronization with the circulating beam.

Thus the machine is called a synchrotron. An extraction system removes protons as needed and carries them into the beam-transport system. The beam-transport system takes the Beam of Hope into one of five rooms: three having three-story-high rotating gantries, designed to aim the beam at the patient from any angle; one containing two fixed, horizontal beams; and a calibration/research room with three beams.”

Fundamental Physics Dr. Slater’s physics education was paramount to his success in building the first hospitalbased proton radiation therapy center in the United States.

As noted, Dr. Slater credits his physics training with teaching critical thinking and problem solving. It also provided a tool for understanding the fundamental nature of the world; as he remarks, “Physics is the basis for all science. All that I learned at the University of Utah directed my search for an area of medicine I could go into that would make use of my physics background.” Physics gave him knowledge to understand the medical advantages of proton beams, knowledge that physicians without physics training often did not have. This knowledge enabled him to visualize, from the point of view of the proton, how protons would interact with atoms in cancer cells.

Focused On the Future Dr. Slater’s plans from this point forward include developing a guidance system for very small (sub-millimeter) targets that are functioning abnormally in the central nervous system (CNS).

The aim will be to make proton treatment more precise within the CNS. Plans for this are underway. Increasing the precision of proton delivery throughout the CNS will enable corrections so that function can be improved in many of the common disorders such as Alzheimers, Parkinson’s, and Traumatic brain injury. As part of this work, Dr. Slater plans to collaborate with an advanced department of physics to develop a new device for delivering protons. •

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Traditional radiation therapy (external beam radiotherapy) uses X-rays to destroy cancerous tumors from the outside by damaging the DNA within cells. The cancer cells are then unable to repair, and they die. While the overall goal is to destroy the cancer while leaving healthy cells unharmed, there is no way to prevent all damage. This may cause problems such as excess scar tissue, skin irritations, burns, pain, and hair loss, leaving patients feeling miserable, and thinking that the cure is worse than the disease. Fortunately, such side effects are greatly reduced in proton radiation therapy because the proton beam does not diffuse or scatter. Therefore, any radiation that hits surrounding tissue is minimal and of very low dosage.

LIVE FROM THE SPACE STATION WITH COMMANDER

SCOTT KELLY

Photo Credit: Natural History Museum of Utah

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This article originally published on December 3, 2015. Reprinted with permission from Colleen McLaughlin & the NHMU

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n December 3, 2015, the Natural History Museum of Utah provided 120 students from Glendale Middle School in Salt Lake City an opportunity to speak live via satellite feed with Commander Scott Kelly who is currently serving on board the International Space Station. Students throughout Utah, and the public as a whole, could listen in on this 30 minute conversation as their fellow students asked Commander Kelly questions about his experience as an astronaut living in space.

Commander Kelly’s year-long mission on the International Space Station, which will wrap up in early 2016, is recordbreaking. Until now, no American has spent a full year in space. An important part of Commander Kelly’s mission is to study the effects of zero gravity as NASA prepares for a possible mission to Mars. During his year-long mission, Scott and his identical twin brother Mark Kelly, a retired astronaut, are participating in a detailed study of long-duration space flight.

NASA’s one-of-a-kind Twin Study will examine many effects of space travel ranging from how gut bacteria is impacted to the effects on eyesight.

On February 10, 2016, Commander Scott Kelly’s brother, Captain Mark Kelly will appear as the keynote speaker at the Natural History Museum of Utah’s annual Lecture Series.

Captain Kelly will speak at Kingsbury Hall on the campus of

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the University of Utah and describe his experience as a highly decorated astronaut. Video footage from the conversation with his twin brother Scott will be incorporated into the program, providing a unique glimpse into the experiences of these two remarkable brothers. •

2016 NHMU lecture series:

Unraveling the Unknown - 21st Century Explorers: Darwin’s voyage on the HMS Beagle, Magellan’s circumnavigation of the earth, Amelia Earhart’s solo flight across the Atlantic. The discoveries of these and countless other bold explorers transformed the way we think and led to monumental achievements. In 2016 there remain vast scientific questions yet to be answered. Meet 21st century adventurers who are destined to expand our understanding of the world as they push the boundaries of science.

2016 Speakers: • Capt. Mark Kelly, retired NASA astronaut. Feb. 10, 2016.

• Dr. Phyllis Coley, Dist. Biology Professor. Feb. 25, 2016.

• Dr. Zoltán Takács, toxinologist. March 7-8, 2016.

• Dr. David Gallo, oceanographer. March 29 Learn more about the 2016 NHMU lecture series, including talk locations and tickets at https://nhmu.utah.edu/lectureseries •

Video of Commander Scott Kelly’s talk available here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tbl_IbW7qes Secial thanks to James Hodges & the Utah Education Network (UEN).

Curiosity’s Mission to Gale Crater, Mars

Frontiers of Science lecture Title: Curiosity’s Mission to Gale Crater, Mars, Featuring: Dr. John Grotzinger - Professor of Geology, Divison of Geological and Planetary Science, Caltech

mudstones preserve evidence of an aqueous paleoenvironment that would have been suited to support a Martian biosphere founded on chemolithoautotrophy and characterized by neutral pH, low salinity, and variable redox states of both iron and sulfur species. The environment likely had a minimum duration of hundreds to tens of thousands of years. In the past year simple chlorobenzene and chloroalkane molecules were confirmed to exist within the mudstone. These results highlight the biological viability of fluvial-lacustrine environments in the ancient history of Mars and the value of robots in geologic exploration.

Frontiers of Science lecture series The Frontiers of Science lecture series brings eminent scientists from around the world to the University of Utah and the Salt Lake City community. Lectures start at 6 p.m. and are free and open to the public.

Location: Aline Wilmot Skaggs Building, Room 220 Tickets are not required for these events. Seating is available on a first come, first served basis.

All Frontiers of Science Lectures are recorded. View them on the College of Science’s YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/user/uofucos Learn more about the Frontier’s of Science at www.science.utah.edu/events/frontiers.php •

Permalink: http://science.utah.edu/events/frontiers.php Video of this talk available here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaBB_9talDU

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he Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover, Curiosity, touched down on the surface of Mars on August 5, 2012.

Curiosity was built to search and explore for habitable environments and has a lifetime of at least one Mars year (~23 months), and drive capability of at least 20 km. The MSL science payload can assess ancient habitability which requires the detection of former water, as well as a source of energy to fuel microbial metabolism, and key elements such carbon, sulfur, nitrogen, and phosphorous. The search for complex organic molecules is an additional goal and our general approach applies some of the practices that have functioned well in exploration for hydrocarbons on Earth. The selection of the Gale Crater exploration region was based on the recognition that it contained multiple and diverse objectives, ranked with different priorities, and thus increasing the chances of success that one of these might provide the correct combination of environmental factors to define a potentially habitable paleoenvironment. Another important factor in exploration risk reduction included mapping the landing ellipse ahead of landing so that no matter where the rover touched down, our first drive would take us in the direction of a science target deemed to have the greatest value as weighed against longer term objectives, and the risk of mobility failure. Within 8 months of landing we were able to confirm full mission success. This was based on the discovery of fine-grained sedimentary rocks, inferred to represent an ancient lake. These Fe-Mg-rich smectitic

Adam Beehler’s Demolicious Physics presents:

DIFFRACTION: FOR THE RECORD

Lecture Demonstration Specialist beehler@physics.utah.edu A closeup image of the grooves on an LP record.

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Diffraction can be demonstrated by using the minute pit and groove spacing of different recording media. Since the spacing varies, the amount of diffraction does as well. This can be an indicator of the storage capacity of these media. Diffraction can help us shed some light on something we normally cannot see.

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iffraction is the “bending” of waves as they pass the edge of an object. The waves end up spreading out from the edge or opening. For light waves, instructors typically desire to show this by setting up a big laser on an optical rail (for alignment) and mounting a slide with various slits in front of the laser beam. Then as the light passes through the slits, the light is diffracted. The interference pattern can then be observed on a distant screen where the interfering light waves superimpose (constructively and destructively). This is a good, effective, and traditional demonstration to discuss this phenomenon.

Several years ago, I was interested in seeing the laser beam throughout its journey, rather than simply seeing the end result on the screen. People have been shining light through various media for years in order to reveal the light’s path. A few types of media used are chalk dust, fog, steam, and water.

I ended up simply shining a laser pointer’s light into a fish tank full of water. At the bottom of the tank, the light reflected (and diffracted) off the surface of a CD. One could now see the incident beam going to the CD and different diffracted beams being reflected back up. The spacing between the diffracted beams revealed the amount of diffraction (spreading), and thus the relative size and spacing of the pits and grooves in the CD.

Well, if it worked for a CD, then why not try a DVD. How about a Blu-ray disc? Hey, how about an LP vinyl record?

Sure enough, they all have pits and grooves that sufficiently diffract the laser beam enough to visualize their relative sizes and spacing. An LP record’s groove spacing is much larger, so it does not diffract (spread out) the beams very much, but it does work. Since a DVD has smaller pits and grooves than a CD (thus improving the storage space), a DVD diffracts light even more than a CD. Likewise, a Blu-ray disc improved upon a DVD by about the same amount. This can be seen in the laser beam’s diffracted rays in the water.

One nice feature that I did not think about beforehand, was the inconsistent spacing (spreading out) of the diffracted rays coming off of the LP record. Since record’s are analog storage units (as opposed to digital), the groove spacing varies at different locations on the record; thus, the amount of diffraction varies with that spacing. So, even though new technology (CDs, DVDs, and Blu-ray discs) has its definite advantages, old school technology is not worth forgetting. •

Get your groove on at: http://www.physics.utah.edu/spectrum

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I have been reflecting laser light off of CDs for some time now, to show this same thing. The microscopic pits and grooves in a CD act as a grating (a bunch of slits) that diffract the light. This is one reason why we see different colors when we view a CD’s reflective surface. The white light (containing all the colors of the rainbow) diffracts off the CD. Since different colors have different wavelengths, those colors are diffracted (or spread out) by different amounts. This allows us to see those colors in different spots, as opposed to all overlapping and combining to form white light.

PROFESSOR TALKS ABOUT

PLUTO at Science Event

Astrophysicist Ben Bromley at the College of Science’s Science at Breakfast event that took place on Thursday, February 19, 2015 Photo Credit: Dane Goodwin, U Student Media This article originally published on February 19, 2015 in the Daily Utah Chronicle. Reprinted with permission from Carolyn Webber & the Daily Utah Chronicle.

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en Bromley, a professor in physics and astronomy, knows a lot about Pluto.

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Speaking at the Science at Breakfast event, sponsored by the U’s College of Science, Bromley talked about how things have changed since 2006 when scientists declared that Pluto was not technically a planet. He called it a “trans-Neptunian object,” a minor planet that orbits the Sun at a greater average distance than Neptune.

for future space travel.

Bromley said the research furthers the knowledge and abilities of space exploration and provides more details on how planets are formed. Jared Frandsen, a U alumnus in chemistry and health physics, came to the event for a chance to learn more.

“It was terribly interesting,” he said. “It gives answers to some of the questions I’ve had.”

Trans-Neptunian objects orbit around the sun, are spherical, and have some moons themselves. However, they do not meet all of the requisites set by the International Astronomical Union to qualify as a planet.

Bromley is supportive of informing the public more about science topics. “Science is what we do,” he said. “And we all do it at one level or another, so it’s our job as scientists to share our work.”

Bromley’s humor and fun explanations helped attendees understand the research he presented, which is one of the purposes of the science and breakfast events. Tim Ward, who works for Manufacturing Consulting Services, enjoys attending these lectures because it takes him away from his typical routine.

c.webber@chronicle.utah.edu, @carolyn_webber

“I come to these events because they twist my mind,” he said.

“What I hear here is different from my day-to-day existence job.”

The research Bromley presented is current and evolving.

Similar research includes images released this week from the NASA New Horizon Probe, launched in 2006, of Pluto’s numerous moons. The probe is scheduled to reach the dwarf planet in July. Success in the nine-year journey could mean big things

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Abstract: The Revenge of Pluto & Other Stories from the Outer Solar System Dr. Ben Bromley, Professor of Physics & Astronomy

Pluto, after being demoted from planet-hood, struck back by revealing itself within Hubble Space Telescope observations to have its own system of 4 satellites in addition to its binary partner, Charon. We will talk about the formation of these satellites and relate what we can learn from them to models of planet formation. We will also discuss other recent outer solar system discoveries, including dwarf planet 2012 VP113, and “Peggy,” a new moon in Saturn’s ring system. •

Permalink: http://dailyutahchronicle.com/professor-talks-about-pluto-at-science-at-breakfast-event

Pluto Revealed: Tales from

the Frontier of Solar System Exploration Frontiers of Science lecture Title: Pluto Revealed: Tales from the Frontier of Solar System Exploration. Presented by Dr. John Spencer (Southwest Research Institute)

Biography John Spencer is an Institute Scientist at Southwest Research Institute’s Department of Space Studies in Boulder, Colorado. A native of England, he obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Geology from the University of Cambridge in 1978, and a PhD in Planetary Sciences from the University of Arizona in 1987. He then worked at the University of Hawaii before joining Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, in 1991, and moving to Southwest Research Institute in 2004.

He is a science team member on the New Horizons mission to Pluto, and deputy leader of the mission’s geology and geophysics team. He led the successful search for Kuiper Belt flyby targets for the mission beyond Pluto, and the search for potentially hazardous debris in the Pluto system. He specializes in the moons of the outer planets and other small distant worlds, using Earth-based telescopes, close-up spacecraft observations, and the Hubble Space Telescope. He was responsible for temperature mapping of Jupiter’s moons with the Jupiterorbiting Galileo spacecraft, and is still mapping temperatures on Saturn’s moons using an instrument on the Cassini Saturn orbiter. He is also member of the science team on NASA’s planned new mission to Jupiter’s moon Europa. He led the Giant Planet Satellites panel of NASA’s 2009-2011 Planetary Decadal Survey, which plotted strategy for future solar system exploration.

His observational work has included the first observations and chemical analysis of the volcanic plumes of Jupiter’s moon Io with the Hubble Space Telescope; discovery, with others, of ice volcanic activity on Saturn’s moon Enceladus; co-discovery of oxygen on the surface of Jupiter’s moons; and co-discovery of oxygen in the atmosphere of Jupiter’s moon Callisto. itasim.

Frontiers of Science lecture series The Frontiers of Science lecture series brings eminent scientists from around the world to the University of Utah and the Salt Lake City community. Lectures start at 6 p.m. and are free and open to the public.

Location: Aline Wilmot Skaggs Building, Room 220 Tickets are not required for these events. Seating is available on a first come, first served basis.

All Frontiers of Science Lectures are recorded. View them on the College of Science’s YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/user/uofucos Learn more about the Frontier’s of Science at www.science.utah.edu/events/frontiers.php •

Permalink: http://science.utah.edu/events/frontiers.php Video of this talk available here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaBB_9talDU

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he New Horizons spacecraft flew past Pluto on July 14th this year, revolutionizing our understanding of this remarkable distant dwarf planet and its moons. The flyby was the culmination of over two decades of effort, including a journey from Earth that lasted more than nine years. Pluto has emerged as a world of spectacular variety. It has some of the brightest and darkest surfaces in the solar system, including exotic ices such as frozen nitrogen and carbon monoxide; landscapes that are ancient and landscapes that are still being renewed; and a flowing icecap that sits, bizarrely, astride its equator. Its tenuous hazy atmosphere extends so high above Pluto’s surface that it leaks constantly into space. Pluto’s family of moons have surprises of their own, including worldencircling fractures and a dark red polar cap on the giant moon Charon, and four small moons with strange shapes and mysterious orbits and rotations. Though the New Horizons spacecraft has now left Pluto far behind, its mission continues deeper into the Kuiper Belt, the vast region beyond Neptune occupied by hundreds of thousands of small worlds left over from the formation of the solar system. If an extended mission is approved by NASA, the spacecraft plans to visit one of these worlds in 2018 or 2019, carrying the tradition of human exploration even further into the unknown.

COSMIC RAY OBSERVATORY TO EXPAND

SEEKS SOURCE OF MOST ENERGETIC PARTICLES IN THE UNIVERSE

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hysicists plan a $6.4 million expansion of the $25 million Telescope Array observatory in Utah so they can zero in on a “hotspot” that seems to be a source of the most powerful particles in the universe: ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays.

Japan will contribute $4.6 million and University of Utah scientists will seek another $1.8 million to nearly quadruple the size of the existing 300-square-mile cosmic ray observatory in the desert west of Delta, Utah.

The expansion will allow the next step aimed at identifying what objects in space produce ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays subatomic particles so energetic that just one would feel like a lead brick if it hit your foot or a fast-pitched baseball to the skull. Luckily, they do not get through Earth’s atmosphere.

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“The question has been staring us in the face for 40 years,” says Pierre Sokolsky, a University of Utah distinguished professor of physics and astronomy and principal investigator on the Telescope Array’s current National Science Foundation grant.

“We know these particles exist, we know that they are coming from outside our galaxy and we really don’t have a clue as to how nature pumps that much energy into them,” Sokolsky adds. “In order to have a clue, we need to know where they are

coming from. This hotspot is our first hint. We need to work with astronomers and find out what galaxies or black holes are in this hotspot.”

The planned expansion would make the Telescope Array almost as large and sensitive as the rival Pierre Auger cosmic ray observatory in Argentina. Together, they cover both the northern and southern skies.

Cosmic rays, discovered in 1912, aren’t really rays, but are subatomic particles, including bare protons and nuclei of atoms such as helium, oxygen, nitrogen, carbon and iron, many of which carry relatively low energies and come from within our galaxy from exploding stars, other stars and the sun. But the source of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays - which are mostly bare protons - is a mystery.

Many astrophysicists suspect they come from active galactic nuclei, in which matter is sucked into supermassive black holes, a process that spews jets of matter and energy outward. Other hypothesized sources of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays include gamma ray bursts from exploding stars, noisy radio galaxies, shock waves from colliding galaxies and exotic sources such as the decay of “cosmic strings” or of massive particles left over from the Big Bang that formed the universe 13.8 billion years ago.

This time-lapse photo shows the Middle Drum fluorescence detector station at the sprawling $25 million Telescope Array cosmic ray observatory near Delta, Utah. The current observatory includes three such telescope stations, which contain mirrors to detect faint blue flashes in the sky when an incoming cosmic ray hits gas in the atmosphere. Under a proposed $6.4 million expansion, two more such stations would be added, and the observatory’s existing array of 507 table-like scintilation counters (not shown) would be increased to 967 and spread over almost 1,000 square miles, compared with the present 300 square miles. The instruments are used by scientists from Japan, the University of Utah, and several other nations to determine the mysterious source of the most powerful particles in the universe, ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays.

Photo Credit: Ben Stokes, University of Utah

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Permalink: http://unews.utah.edu/cosmic-ray-observatory-to-expand

Sokolsky outlined these details of the Telescope Array expansion, which team members refer to as “TAx4” for the nearquadrupling of the area covered: Japan, which paid for about two-thirds of the existing $25 million observatory, will spend another 450 million yen (currently $3.6 million) to expand the existing array of table-like scintillation detectors that measure “air shower” particles produced when incoming cosmic rays hit nitrogen and other gases in the atmosphere.

The array now has 507 detectors spaced in a grid over 300 square miles of desert west of Delta. The expansion will see two lobes containing 400 more detectors added to the array’s footprint, so it will expand to almost 1,000 square miles.

One lobe will extend north-northeast from the existing array; the other southsoutheast.

In addition, Japan will kick in another 125 million yen ($1 million) for an “infill” array of another 60, much more closely spaced, scintillation detectors to better measure air showers generated by lower-energy cosmic rays.

While the observatory is focused largely on the mystery of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays from far beyond our Milky Way galaxy, physicists also want to collect more information on lower-energy cosmic rays produced by exploding stars in our own galaxy.

The University of Utah will apply this fall for a $1.8 million grant from the NSF to add two fluorescence detectors to the three existing ones at the Telescope Array. Each fluorescence detector is a building containing many mirrors that detect faint blue flashes in the sky created when incoming cosmic rays hit gases.

The fluorescence detectors are used both to determine the composition of incoming cosmic rays and to calibrate the scintillation detectors’ measurements of how much energy each particle carries.

The two new fluorescence detectors would serve both functions for the new lobes with the 400 additional scintillation detectors.

Japan’s funding is approved and a decision on the University of Utah’s grant request is expected early in 2016, Sokolsky says.

He says the researchers also must gain approval to expand onto more public lands owned by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and Utah’s School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration.

The existing observatory sits mostly on land owned by those two agencies and on some private land.

Expansion will delve into cosmic ray hotspot Discovery of the hotspot was the impetus for the planned expansion, Sokolsky says. The discovery was announced by an international team of 125 scientists including 32 from the University of Utah - in July 2014 when their findings were accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal Letters.

During a five-year period, the Telescope Array detected 72 of the highest, ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays - those with energies above 57 billion billion electron volts (5.7 times 10 to the 19th power).

Of the 72 superenergetic particles, 19 came from the direction of the hotspot a 40-degree-diameter circle representing 6 percent of the northern sky and located a couple hand widths below the Big Dipper. (The hotspot is centered at right ascension 146.6 degrees and declination 43.2 degrees.) Only 4.5 ultrahigh-energy particles would have been expected from that area if cosmic rays came randomly from all over the sky.

Astrophysicists say odds that the hotspot is a statistical fluke and not real are 1.4 in 10,000. But they want a much higher level of confidence. The hotspot’s existence “is at the statistical level where it could go either way,” Sokolsky says, adding that without the expansion, “we won’t know if it’s real unless you want to stick around

for 40 years.”

“We see this intriguing clustering of the highest-energy cosmic rays coming from one area of the sky,” he explains. “But the rate at which we detect them is very low. We get at most 20 events a year at the highest energies. To get to a point where we can really study this with good sensitivity, we need to increase that rate by at least a factor of four.”

That can be done by nearly quadrupling the ground area covered by the scintillation detectors and adding two more fluorescence detectors, he adds.

The proposed expansion plan was discussed June 8-10 when the Telescope Array collaboration met at the University of Utah for its twice-a-year meeting.

Sokolsky says the visitors included about 20 researchers from Japan and several more from Russia and Belgium. South Korea is also part of the collaboration.

Cosmic ray facilities in Utah The highest-energy cosmic ray ever measured was detected over Utah in 1991 by the University of Utah’s Fly’s Eye observatory at the U.S. Army’s Dugway Proving Ground - a predecessor to the Telescope Array. That cosmic ray particle carried energy of 300 billion billion electron volts (3 times 10 to the 20th power).

Cosmic ray research in Utah dates to the 1950s, when University of Utah researcher Jack Keuffel conducted studies in a Park City silver mine. In 1976, University of Utah physicists built a prototype cosmic ray observatory in New Mexico, followed in 1980-1981 by construction of the Fly’s Eye, which was improved in 1986 and then, during 1994-1999, upgraded and renamed the High-Resolution Fly’s Eye. The Telescope Array, built for $17 million, started operations in 2008 and later was upgraded, bringing the cost to about $25 million, of which Japan financed about two-thirds and the United States about one-third, mainly through the NSF and University of Utah. •

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How the observatory will expand

Moving on:

Adam Bolton ASTROPHYSICIST BEGINS NEW POSITION AT NATIONAL OBSERVATORY

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n December 1, 2015, Associate Professor Adam Bolton, astronomer and physicist, took up an appointment as Associate Director at the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO), in Tucson, AZ. Dr. Bolton joined the faculty in the Department of Physics & Astronomy in August 2009, along with three others: Inese Ivans, Doug Bergman, and Gordon Thomson. Dr. Bolton was promoted from Assistant Professor to Associate Professor with tenure in 2014. In his time at the university, he received a Department of Energy Early Career Research award, published multiple papers, organized several international conferences, and gave many invited talks.

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Prior to that, Adam Bolton was employed as a Beatrice Watson Parrent Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute for Astronomy of the University of Hawaii. His main interests were in observational cosmology; formation, structure, and evolution of galaxies; and innovative methods of astronomical spectroscopy. Before taking up the position in Hawaii, Dr. Bolton was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. He obtained his Ph.D. in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2005.

Much of his research uses the phenomenon of strong gravitational lensing - the dramatic distortion of distant galaxy images by the gravity of intervening objects - to obtain uniquely precise information about the internal workings of the most massive galaxies in the universe. He is a founding member of the Sloan Lens Advanced Camera for Surveys (SLACS) Survey

collaboration, which has combined Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) spectra with Hubble Space Telescope images to nearly double the number of known “gravitational lens” galaxies.

At the university, Dr. Bolton continued his gravitational lensing research program, and pursued extensive involvement in the SDSS-III and SDSS-IV surveys, as well as other massive astronomical spectroscopic surveys. After his departure, the University of Utah will continue to be a major center of activity for the SDSS. Research Assistant Professor Joel Brownstein will lead the ongoing operation of the SDSS Science Archive Server system, hosted by the University’s Center for High-Performance Computing. Kyle Dawson will continue to serve as Survey Scientist for the Extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS) cosmological project within the SDSS program.

NOAO is the U.S. national center for ground-based optical, ultraviolet, and infrared astronomy. NOAO has recently expanded its mission to support the production and analysis of massive and open astronomical data sets. As head of the NOAO System Science and Data Center, Dr. Bolton will be leading this effort, with a team of about 30 scientists and technical and administrative staff. This is a natural extension of the work that he has been doing at the University of Utah with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. In the new position, he will be working to bring “big surveys, big data” to the entire astronomical community.

Dr. Bolton will retain an appointment and multiple collaborations at the University of Utah for the foreseeable future.•

Adam Bolton, in front of equipment managed by the university’s Center for High Performance Computing - which hosts the data archive for the fourth Sloan Digital Sky Survey, or SDSS-IV, which runs from 2014 to 2020.

Photo Credit: Samuel T. Liston, University of Utah

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This article originally published on October 9, 2015 in the Daily Utah Chronicle. Reprinted with permission from Matt Bateman & the Daily Utah Chronicle.

NEW U PROGRAM

INSPIRE

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hile “maternal” is not generally a word used to describe several jail inmates crowding around a bucket of baby fish, gazing tenderly at the little creatures, it was the only word Celeste Henrickson could think of.

Henrickson, a program coordinator for the Initiative to Bring Science Programs to the Incarcerated (INSPIRE), is involved with conservation projects recently introduced to the state prison. This summer, INSPIRE constructed a pond where inmates are nurturing the least chub, a state sensitive species of fish.

Launched by Nalini Nadkarni, a professor of biology, INSPIRE came to Utah in March 2014 after Nadkarni began a sustainability project in Washington prison in 2005. When she came to the U, Nadkarni worked with the center for science and mathematics to bring science professors inside Utah corrective facilities.

The program has sponsored 17 lectures in the county jail and 11 lectures in the state prison, said Jeremy Morris, a biology graduate student and program coordinator.

Lectures are held monthly and have an average attendance of 50 people. Morris said they gather data from inmates before and after each session, and though it’s difficult to measure the exact impact, Morris said “results are encouraging.”

“We were at a prison lecture, and we had a guy who ran in at the end, and he was so sad because he had taken a nap and his buddy was supposed to wake him up,” Morris said.

“He said this was the first one he had missed since we’ve been coming there.”

The new conservation pond at the Salt Lake County Jail has also changed the inmates, Henrickson said. Eight inmates go out each day to monitor the water quality

and maintain the least chub population. They feed the fish, scare away birds, check the water temperature and remove algae.

inmates choose to study the topic once they are released, something Henrickson, Morris and Nadkarni hope will be a result of the program.

“At this kind of facility, traditionally there is no nature involved,” Hendrickson said.

“Having a focus on conservation and nature has changed everyone in subtle ways.”

“It’s one thing to serve time and regret what you did. It’s another to get out and start your life again,” Henrickson said.

Adam Beehler, a lecture demonstration specialist of physics, taught a lesson about how vocal cords work.

Initially, he didn’t know what to expect, but in the end, Beehler had 40 interested individuals ready to learn. He said he was surprised to see how engaged the audience was.

“They were respectful, and they had a lot of good, appropriate questions. Better than a lot of my students in class ask,” Beehler said.

Beehler said he would not be surprised if some of the

The ultimate goal is to tackle a national problem of correcting criminal behavior and preparing inmates to enter the workforce upon release. Seventy-six percent of inmates, according to the National Institute of Justice, are re-arrested within five years, Henrickson said. Most of them leave with a label that is almost impossible to remove, and they are aware of that.

To counter these issues, the program hopes to develop a post-release program for inmates interested in STEM fields to receive field training. •

Permalink: http://dailyutahchronicle.com/2015/11/18/u-program-inspire-strives-to-introduce-science-conservation-to-prison-inmates

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STRIVES TO INTRODUCE SCIENCE, CONSERVATION TO PRISON INMATES

Undergraduate Cedric Wilson chats with conference attendees in front of his poster.

Credit: Emily Conover

UNDERGRADS SHARE THEIR RESEARCH AT

OPTICS MEETING

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This article originally published on November 2015 in the APS News. Reprinted with permission from Emily Conover & the American Physical Society.

he poster session at the Frontiers in Optics/Laser Science (FiO/LS) meeting buzzed with chatter, animated gestures, and explanations of original optics research. Attendees peppered the presenters with questions, but one came up with particular frequency: “Are you a master’s student?” The answer was always negative - they were all undergraduates.

The presenters were participants in the meeting’s symposium on undergraduate research, yet their work belied their level of education, rivaling that of more advanced students.

mer at Fermilab, as part of the Summer Internships in Science and Technology program. She worked on the superconducting electron linear accelerator at the Fermilab Accelerator Science and Technology (FAST) facility, a proving ground for accelerator technology. The FAST accelerator relies on a drive laser system that produces electrons when the laser strikes a photocathode. Gillis optimized one of the amplifiers for the laser system. “ I had a fantastic team that I worked with,” Gillis says “They wanted me to experience as much as I could.”

FiO/LS, a joint meeting of The Optical Society and the APS Division of Laser Science (DLS), took place in San Jose this October. The Symposium on Undergraduate Research, a tradition at FiO/LS meetings, is hosted by DLS, which provides some funding for students to attend, with additional funding coming from sources like the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the students’ home institutions. Since the symposium began in 2001, hundreds of students have taken the opportunity to present their work.

The driving force behind the session is Harold Metcalf of Stony Brook University, who shepherded the students throughout the day, pushed them to ask questions, and encouraged them to get to know each other and other scientists at the event.

“I love getting to be somewhere where I can just talk about physics and other people are really excited about it too,” says Julie Gillis, a senior at Duquesne University. She spent her sum-

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“They learn they’re not the only ones” interested in this type of research, Metcalf said. “All of a sudden they’re in a community.”

The symposium fulfills an important need for opportunities for the young scientists to present their work, Metcalf says.

“They’re undergrads - they have no other way to get their stuff out there.”

Metcalf also founded the Laser Teaching Center at Stony Brook,

Permalink: www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/201511/undergrads.cfm

Rachel Sampson, a senior at Stony Brook, got her start at the Laser Teaching Center, and went on to participate in the NSF’s Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program. She spent this summer doing an REU at the University of Arizona.

She worked on creating a diffraction-based optical switch for communications. Data traffic and flow is rapidly changing, Sampson says. “It’s important that our technology can keep up with that.” Sampson enjoys the chance to interact with scientists attending the FiO/LS meeting, she says, especially the possibility that other scientists may offer her ideas to improve her work, or that she could contribute to theirs. “There’s definitely a good sense of collaboration at this meeting,” she says.

Faculty mentor Hong Lin, of Bates College, has sent her students to the symposium for ten years. “It provides a very good opportunity for undergrads to share their research experience,” she says. “Not only can students talk to their peer students, but also they can talk to professional scientists.” Interest in the symposium has grown since Lin began sending her students here, she says. The first symposium had ten presenters, but

has grown to host 40 or 50 students. “It grew and grew,” says Metcalf, and now it’s “an institution.”

Many of the students plan to attend graduate school after college. Cedric Wilson, a student at the University of Utah, is applying to graduate programs in atomic, molecular, and optical physics and cold atoms. This summer, he participated in an REU at the University of Rochester, where he worked on modeling and improving an atomic trap for making a Bose-Einstein condensate. “The research was right up my alley,” he says. It was harder for him to find opportunities that fit his interests at his home institution, he says.

Ahmad Azim, a senior at the University of Central Florida, is working on construction of an ultrafast laser system. He says the meeting is a great experience for aspiring researchers like him. “I want to go to grad school, get my Ph.D., become a research scientist, and do that for the rest of my life,” he says.

“There’s a lot of great scientists here who inspire me to do that.”

At a lunch during the symposium, faculty mentors spoke about their experiences in optics research, advising students on how to get a job in industry, and describing their career arcs. The lunch was followed by two sessions, in which students gave short talks on their research. When one mentor asked the students how many of them had never attended a scientific conference before, hands shot up in the air. “This is their launching into what it’s like to go to a big meeting,” Metcalf says. •

STAR PARTIES

Every clear Wednesday night at dusk Free & open to the public of all ages Learn more about the South Physics Observatory: www.physics.utah.edu/observatory 31

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which provides opportunities for undergraduates to get their first taste of laser research. John Noé, who organized the undergraduate symposium along with Metcalf, serves as the center’s executive director. Of his work with students, Metcalf says, “I don’t get anything tangible out of it, but there are a lot of intangibles...I feel that as an educator I should give back.”

This article originally published on October 9, 2015 in the Daily Utah Chronicle. Reprinted with permission from Matt Bateman & the Daily Utah Chronicle.

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he U’s College of Science hosts “Science Night Live” at Keys on Main, a bar in downtown Salt Lake City.

The event is an opportunity for students and the public to learn about science in a casual environment. Participants socialize on different topics before listening to a brief lecture by an expert in the field.

“Science Night Live” is free and open to anyone over 21 years old.

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“Science literacy and science education are our main goals,” said Jim DeGooyer, spokesperson for the College of Science.

“It’s part of our everyday lives - it does affect us.”

“Science Night Live” began several years ago as part of the College of Science’s public outreach program. The series was created by former dean Pierre Sokolsky and other faculty. Their goal was to create a lecture series that would be held off campus to attract the general public and business professionals. They hoped that a less formal event would bring in a more diverse audience. And, so far, the series has been successful.

“We generally fill Keys on Main,” DeGooyer said. “We probably turn out 100 people, depending on the topic.”

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Jacob Kramer, a sophomore in computer science, had never heard of the event, but said he might go, depending on the topic. “I’m interested in science’s applications to developing society as a whole,” he said, “advancing technology, improving life through those advances.”

Kaitlyn Fox, a freshman in nursing, is interested in the medical side of science and thinks the event is a great idea.

“Learn and never stop learning because there’s always more to learn,” she said.

The next “Science Night Live” will be held at Keys on Main (242 South Main Street, Salt Lake City). The social is at 5:30 p.m., and the lecture begins at 6 p.m.

Previous lectures have covered topics such as the Hubble Telescope, urban legends about drug testing, the influence of odor on behavior, and the mathematics of bacteria.

•••

On October 21, 2015, Assistant Professor Kyle Dawson presented his talk “Mapping Cosmic History 1,000 Galaxies at a Time.”

Abstract: In the early moments following the Big Bang, a sea of particles and fields permeated the universe. This sea

was nearly uniform, with only the tiniest fluctuations toward higher or lower density. Over the course of 14 billion Assistant Professor Kyle Dawson years, these tiny fluctuations grew into vast filaments of matter spanning hundreds of millions of years and littered with galaxies. The exact way in which those structures grow is dependent on the lightest of particles and the most expansive fields, most of which we do not understand. By studying the nearest and most distant of those galaxies, we can map the course of cosmic history and gain insight into the nature of the Universe. We are now building that atlas of the Universe with a telescope in New Mexico that was designed to observe millions of galaxies and quasars over a decade. In this talk, I will describe what we don’t know about particles and fields and how we hope to use these new measurements to better understand our Universe.

For a full list of this year’s scheduled “Science Night Live” events, visit http://science.utah.edu/events/sciencenight.php •

Permalink: http://dailyutahchronicle.com/2015/10/09/live-from-salt-lake-city-its-science-night-live

The future future Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) Observatory Credit: CTA consortium

Design of SchwartzschildCouder Telescope.

NEW TELESCOPE, BETTER RESEARCH

THE NEXT GENERATION OF VERY HIGH-ENERGY GAMMA-RAY PHOTON DETECTION IS JUST OVER THE HORIZON

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he University of Utah is a collaborator on the design and construction of a next-generation Imaging Air Cherenkov Telescope (IACT) for the future Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) Observatory. The CTA observatory will be located in two countries. The nothern obersvatory site will be in La Palma, Canary Islands, and the southern site will be Paranal, Chile. The location of the Schwartzschild-Couder Telescope (SCT) (shown above) is yet to be announced, but will feature a 9.6 m diameter primary mirror and excellent timing and angular resolution (0.04-0.08°) over the full telescope field of view (8°).

The CTA itself is an observatory for ground-based very high-energy gamma-ray astronomy. The CTA project will serve as an open observatory to the astrophysics community and provide a deep insight into the non-thermal high-energy universe.

Professor Dave Kieda, in the Department of Physics & Astronomy, leads the University of Utah participation on the new telescope system design and integration, including fabrication of many elements of the telescope with the department’s CNC (Computer Numerical Control) Machine Shop facilities. Groundbreaking for the telescope design began September 2015, with telescope completion scheduled for mid-2016. The SCT project is funded by a Collaborative Major Research Instrumentation grant between Argonne National Labs, Columbia University, Georgia Tech, University of California Los Angeles, University of California Santa Cruz, University of Chicago, Washington University in St. Louis, and the University of Utah. •

Permalink: www.cta-observatory.org

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Besides anticipating high-energy astrophysics results, the CTA will have a large discovery potential in key areas of astronomy, astrophysics, and fundamental physics research. These include the study of the origin of cosmic rays and their impact on the constituents of the universe, the investigation of the nature and variety of black hole particle accelerators, and the inquiry into the ultimate nature of matter and physics beyond the Standard Model, searching for dark matter and effects of quantum gravity.

The completed student computer lab in 205 South Physics Building.

DEPARTMENT

“Quarks”

The Ups, Downs, Tops, Bottoms, Charms, & Strangeness of the Department Special thanks to Carleton DeTar, Dave Kieda, Vicki Nielsen, & Harold Simpson

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n April 14, 2015, the department’s outreach team received a generous gift of $50,000 from the Larry H. & Gail Miller Family Foundation to help meet the growing demand for science-based public outreach events. The Department of Physics & Astronomy runs one of the largest public outreach programs at the University of Utah, reaching more than 45,000 people annually.

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On July 1, 2015, senior Accountant Kathy Blair, retired after more than 30 years of service to the University. Kathy began her career at the U in the Division of Epidemiology.

She has held a number of positions in different departments since then, including the Office of Development and Income Accounting. Kathy worked in the Department of Physics & Astronomy since 2007. Kathy’s expert management of our accounting Kathy Blair operations and great sense of humor will be immensely missed.

The department welcomes Marcia Cook, from the Center for Science and Mathematics Education. She replaced Kathy Blair, as Senior Accountant for the department, effective July 1, 2015.

Marcia has been employed in various departments around campus since 2001, doing accounting and administrative management.

Marcia Cook

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The Northwest Garage (Lot 34) parking structure opened on August 24, 2015, after nearly a year under construction. The structure features four floors of covered parking with 350 total stalls. The garage, located east of the nearby Naval Sciences building, will help provide parking for weekly star parties.

The renovation of the South Physics student computer lab finished and officially opened on August 24, 2015. Construction began at the end of the previous spring semester. The space is a fully functional computer lab with more computers, a new digital AV system, LED lighting, new seating, new desks with computer “garages” for room flexibility, new window shades for light control, new A/C system, and improved ADA access. The University’s classroom improvement committee paid for most of the more than $100,000 renovation. The renovations were long overdue in keeping up with the department’s growing enrollments, and now provide an updated and improved classroom environment.

Permalink: http://attheu.utah.edu/facultystaff/new-parking-garages

The Department of Physics & Astronomy is deeply saddened to announce the loss of two important members. Academic Advisor and Instructor Lecturer Lynn Higgs, and Professor Emeritus Owen W. Johnson. The department extends its deepest sympathies to their families.

Lynn Higgs, a member of the staff for many years, passed away on Sunday, March 1, 2015. Lynn received both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in physics at the University of Utah (BS physics 1968, MS physics 1975). Lynn worked as the Department of Physics & Astronomy’s undergraduate physics advisor for more than thirty years.

Lynn Higgs During this time he assisted hundreds of students in pursuing careers in physics, law, medicine, finance, etc. He loved physics and was passionate about recruiting the next generation of physics students.

Lynn enjoyed working with students and was looking forward to spending more time recruiting, especially minority and underrepresented students. His wish was to see more young women go into the physics program.

Owen W. Johnson, Professor Emeritus, passed away on June 19, 2015 after a

long illness. He was a University of Utah alumnus, receiving his Bachelor’s degree in physics 1957, and his PhD in physics in 1962. He Owen Johnson was a faculty member in the Department of Physics & Astronomy. His research interests were in experimental condensed matter physics.

Dr. Owen Johnson retired in 1998.

Graduate student, Marzieh Kavand, was admitted to the “7th Summer School on Advanced EPR (Einstein-PodolskyRosen) of the European Federation of EPR Groups” in August and won a travel award to this event sponsored by the “NSF Shared EPR Network.”

Student, Nolan Matthews, won the Graduate Student Talk award at the Annual Meeting of the American Physical Society (APS) Four Corners Section in Tempe, Arizona for his talk “Development of a modern Stellar Intensity Interferometer “.

The Department of Physics & Astronomy participated in the 27th Annual Science Day at the U, hosted by the College of Science and the College of Mines and Earth Sciences at the University of Utah.

Held on Saturday, November 7, 2015. High school students from around the intermountain west were invited to attend

a day of science-related workshops taught by U faculty and local STEM-related business leaders. These interactive workshops give high school students a great look at laboratory research and career opportunities in science, math, and engineering.

“The University of Utah is a leader in cutting-edge research and science education,” says Lisa Batchelder, academic program manager for the College of Science. “We hope Science Day will give a sense of this excitement and will encourage students to take part in the countless opportunities we have to offer.”

Department personnel hosted four different workshops: How to Use a Telescope: Paul Ricketts Out of this World Physics: Tabitha Buehler We are all Made of Stardust: Inese Ivans Telescope Array x4: Cosmic Rays in the Desert: Charlie Jui Glenda Woods, Administrative Manager in the College of Science, retired on December 15, after nearly 40 years of service to the University of Utah. In the eighties, Glenda worked as an administrative assistant in the Glenda Woods Department of Physics & Astronomy before moving to the College of Science. She has remained a close friend of the department ever since. Her dedication, sweet nature and vast knowledge of all things related to the university will be greatly missed. •

Images from Science Day 2015. Photo Credit: Mike Schmidt

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Graduate student, Shirin Jamali, has won the “Best Poster Award” of the International EPR Society at the Rocky Mountain Conference for Magnetic Resonance in July.

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115 South 1400 East, 201 JFB Salt Lake City, UT 84112-0830 www.physics.utah.edu

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