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In conversation with: Hee Oh, professor of mathematics

By Guest PostDecember 13, 2013Scienceabsolute abstraction, beautiful structure, brown, cal tech, christian faith, college in korea, complex problem, dramatic moment, false sense, female students, geometry, god, hee oh, homogeneous space, in conversation with, joy of walking, lots of symmetries, mathematics problem, number theory, princeton, professor of mathematics, rigidity phenomenon, superiority

Hee Oh joined Yale’s math department this year from Brown. Here she talks about absolute abstraction, the joy of walking — and missing math during her years as a social activist.

You received your doctorate in mathematics from Yale in 1997, then served on the faculties of Princeton, Cal Tech, and Brown, among others. What drew you back to Yale?

The math department at Yale has been well known for its strength in Lie groups, geometry, and dynamics for a long time. It was an honor and in itself a big draw for me to be asked to participate in continuing this tradition. In the end, however, I felt in my Christian faith that God was leading me this way, and I made the final decision accordingly. (more…)

Astronomers discover first noble gas molecules in space

By Guest PostDecember 13, 2013Science19th century, alison loll, argon 40, argon hydride ions, arh, astronomers, atom like argon, bruce swinyard, crab nebula, different molecules, energy, esa space, ghz, gigahertz, harsh environment, herschel space observatory, infrared light, isotopes, jeff hester, mike barlow, neutron star, noble gas molecules, potassium in rocks, properties, radioactive decay, Space, spectroscopic observations, supernova, supernova remnant, university of arizona, wavelengths, william ramsay

Noble gas molecules have been detected in space for the first time in the Crab Nebula, a supernova remnant, by astronomers at UCL.

Led by Professor Mike Barlow (UCL Physics & Astronomy) the team used ESA’s Herschel Space Observatory to observe the Crab Nebula in far infrared light. (more…)

Hubble Sees Evidence of Water Vapor at Jupiter Moon

By Guest PostDecember 12, 2013Scienceauroral glow, europa, europa plumes, hubble measurements, jupiter moon, magnetic field lines, polar region, water vapor

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has observed water vapor above the frigid south polar region of Jupiter’s moon Europa, providing the first strong evidence of water plumes erupting off the moon’s surface. (more…)

Ancient crater may be clue to Moon’s mantle

By Guest PostDecember 12, 2013Scienceaitken basin, ancient crater, brown university, carle pieters, chandrayaan, dan moriarty, giant spa impact, India, laser program, lower crust, lunar orbiter, lunar science institute, mantle, mantle materials, mapper data, mineralogical surprises, mineralogy, moon, moon mineralogy, NASA, nlsi, peter isaacson, solar system, south pole, spa basin, spa subsurface, subsurface, university of hawaii, upper

A massive impact on the Moon about 4 billion years ago left a 2,500-mile crater, among the largest known craters in the solar system. Smaller subsequent impacts left craters within that crater. Comparing the spectra of light reflected from the peaks of those craters may yield clues to the composition of the Moon’s lower crust and mantle — and would have implications for models of how the Moon formed.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Researchers from Brown University and the University of Hawaii have found some mineralogical surprises in the Moon’s largest impact crater. (more…)

Model Suggests Ocean Currents Shape Europa’s Icy Shell in Ways Critical for Potential Habitats

By Guest PostDecember 11, 2013Scienceaustin, biological life, britney schmidt, chaos terrains, circulation patterns, current patterns model, europa, galileo spacecraft, georgia institute, icy shell, juice mission, jupiter, krista soderlund, magnetometer readings, max planck institute, model, moon europa, ocean currents, potential habitats, solar system, solar system research, subsurface ocean, Technology, three dimensional convection, university of texas

AUSTIN, Texas — In a finding of relevance to the search for life in our solar system, researchers at The University of Texas at Austin’s Institute for Geophysics, the Georgia Institute of Technology, and the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research have shown that the subsurface ocean on Jupiter’s moon Europa may have deep currents and circulation patterns with heat and energy transfers capable of sustaining biological life.

Scientists believe Europa is one of the planetary bodies in our solar system most likely to have conditions that could sustain life, an idea reinforced by magnetometer readings from the Galileo spacecraft detecting signs of a salty, global ocean below the moon’s icy shell. (more…)

IBM Scientists Demonstrate Quantum Phenomenon for the First Time Using a Plastic Film

By Guest PostDecember 10, 2013Science, Technologyalbert einstein, bec, big data, bose einstein condensation, bosons, computer systems, energy efficient lasers, exabytes, Germany, ibm research, johannes d plumhof, lijian mai, luminescent polymer, macroscopic quantum phenomena, macroscopic scale, nanometers, non crystalline, optical switches, particles, petabytes, picoseconds, plastic, polymer film, polymeric layer, quantum mechanical phenomenon, quantum simulations, quantum world, rainer f mahrt, satyendranath bose, smartphones, thilo stoferle, ullrich scherf, university of wuppertal

Originally predicted in the 1920s by Satyendranath Bose and Albert Einstein, applications could include energy-efficient lasers and optical switches, critical components for future computer systems processing Big Data

ZURICH – 10 Dec 2013: For the first time, scientists at IBM Research have demonstrated a complex quantum mechanical phenomenon known as Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC), using a luminescent polymer (plastic) similar to the materials in light emitting displays used in many of today’s smartphones.

This discovery has potential applications in developing novel optoelectronic devices including energy-efficient lasers and ultra-fast optical switches — critical components for powering future computer systems to process massive Big Data workloads. The use of a polymer material and the observation of BEC at room temperature provides substantial advantages in terms of applicability and cost. (more…)

How living cells solved a needle in a haystack problem to generate electrical signals

By Guest PostDecember 10, 2013Sciencecalcium channels, calcium ions, cardiac muscle cells, cardiovascular physiology, cell membrane, cell physiology, concentration, electrical signals, endocrinology, extracellular fluid, hormone secretion, lin tang, living cells, needle in haystack, ning zheng, pathway, problem, sodium ions, structural data, tamer gamal eldin, william catterall, xray crystallographer

Scientists have figured out how calcium channels – the infinitesimal cell membrane pores that generate electrical signals by gating a charged-particle influx – have solved a “needle in a haystack” problem.

The solution to the longstanding riddle is reported in the Nov. 24 advanced online edition of Nature by UW and Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigators. Dr. Ning Zheng, a noted X-ray crystallographer, and Dr. William Catterall, a pioneer in ion channel research, were the senior researchers, and Dr. Lin Tang and Dr. Tamer Gamal El-Din headed the project. (more…)

Ancient Minerals: Which Gave Rise to Life?

By Guest PostDecember 9, 2013Scienceancient minerals, beryllium, clay minerals, curiosity rover, earth surface, hadean eon, hadean mineralogy, hydrothermal areas, life, lithium, magnesium silicate forsterite, mars today, metabolic energy, molecular building blocks, molybdenum, most abundant minerals, paleomineralogy, rare elements, rise to life, robert downs, robert hazen, ruff project, scientific models, synthesis, university of arizona

Washington, D.C.— Life originated as a result of natural processes that exploited early Earth’s raw materials. Scientific models of life’s origins almost always look to minerals for such essential tasks as the synthesis of life’s molecular building blocks or the supply of metabolic energy. But this assumes that the mineral species found on Earth today are much the same as they were during Earth’s first 550 million years—the Hadean Eon—when life emerged. A new analysis of Hadean mineralogy challenges that assumption. It is published in American Journal of Science.

Carnegie’s Robert Hazen compiled a list of every plausible mineral species on the Hadean Earth and concludes that no more than 420 different minerals—about 8 percent of the nearly 5,000 species found on Earth today—would have been present at or near Earth’s surface. (more…)

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