An example of using drones to help study coastal changes - citizen science at MSU

 This article outlines a citizen science study at Michigan State University. Since a majority of Michigan citizens live in coastal areas, there is deep interest in understanding any coastal changes around the Great Lakes or other major water regions. This could be things like coastal erosion, changes in water coverage from the lakes and shifts in vegetation or animal densities as climate change consequences are realized, and so on. If you live in areas like this, drones are an interesting way to conduct research in a number of areas! If there is a local college or government agency that has interests in this type of work, one may be able to coordinate a research effort. 

A Book on Quantum Computing for students

 If interested in modern topics, such as quantum mechanics and applications to the world, check out the book Quantum Computing for the Quantum Curious. It is a good introduction for students to begin learning the quantum fundamentals that are relevant to the next generation of computing, which is quantum computing. 

Cool effect (actually, it's hot!): Leidenfrost effect

 The Leidenfrost effect is one where water droplets on a hot plate float and move around spontaneously. It is an interesting fluids phenomenon, where the droplet hovers on a thin layer of vapor due to the hot surface. There are numerous experiments that can be done with this type of phenomenon, and it is a wonderful example of something that can be done in a school or home lab setting! Think of ways to vary the experiments you find in articles, to make them unique and your own - this is a way to develop your own original studies and investigations into everyday phenomena. 

Check out this article that presents a 'triple Leidenfrost' example. 

Credit: Nature Physics (2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41567-018-0275-9

Use of Artificial Intelligence in Cancer Research

 There are a few articles linked here that get into the use of artificial intelligence in cancer research. AI is revolutionizing many areas of study in all fields of STEM, and of course will only get better and more effective as these technologies continue to advance. 

For those interested in STEM, this will be something you will almost certainly learn more about in your studies as you get older and into college. For those interested in things like computer science, computer and electrical engineering, and applied mathematics, this is certainly one of the growth areas in those fields and will only expand. 

A HUGE field of scientific study: Complex Systems

 The 2021 Nobel Prize in Physics has been given to three scientists who work in complex systems science. This has been a rapidly growing field of study ever since computers began to be invented and applied to science research. Many of you may be interested in complexity science, emergent properties of systems, self-organization, and many other pieces of this field - it is fascinating, and complex systems are found in nearly all parts of life! 

A wonderful resource for learning about complex systems science is the series of modules put out on the Systems Innovation YouTube channel. They have a number of learning modules that introduce us to this type of science; check out one of their videos below. 

I recommend checking out the first one defining what a complex system is. One other resource to really learn about and actually work with complex systems computationally, is to use Netlogo (can either download it or run it on the web) and its library of simulations of systems - Netlogo is an agent-based coding platform that is ideal for numerous complex systems problems and simulations! With hundreds of existing programs to run and to modify to make your own while learning how to code, Netlogo is actually used by professors to do computational research!! 

Another wonderful resource is the Santa Fe Institute website. This is a leading research institution dedicated to complex systems science, and there are many resources and publications to see what this type of science and research looks like. 

Nobel Prize Week!! October, 2021

  It is Nobel week! 

Physiology: Two Americans won, David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian, for determining how the body takes physical sensations and turn them into electrochemical signals within the body so the brain can interpret them as changes in temperature and touch. See the announcement and some details here. 

Physics: Three split the Prize for their work in understanding the science behind complex systems. One of the best examples of how others apply their work is in climate science, and how one begins to understand one of the most complex systems there is, global climate, that has countless of thousands of parameters and variables that interact in so many ways. How does one approach complexity? How does one go about trying to calculate and simulate such a system? How can we possibly understand how to take microscopic processes and figure out how those affect a macrocosmic system? Well, the work of Giorgio Parisi (Italy), Syukuro Manabe (Japan/Princeton), and Klaus Hasselmann (Germany) created the means to do this. 

Global Student Prize - find inspiring stories!

 The Varkey Foundation, which has run the Global Teacher Prize Program since 2015, has now started the Global Student Prize, where a student (high school through college) can win up to $100,000 as a top award. If you want to learn of some AMAZING impacts students have had all around the world, and on national and global scales, check out the Top 50 Finalist students! This is not necessarily STEM related, but reading some of the stories could be fun for you. 

Particle Detectors: How we figure out what the universe if made of!

 A good Science News article about particle detectors, which allow us to figure out what we are all made of! There are hundreds of particles, most of which are combinations of the six quarks! We'll get into this a bit in classes!! Here is the CDF detector from Fermilab; in an earlier life, I helped build, maintain and run this thing. I'm still impressed these most complicated machines and experiments even work! If you are interested in some of the most fundamental questions humans can ask in science, check out particle physics and the Standard Model. 

Wanting to learn to Code and do Computational Research? Give NetLogo a try

 NetLogo is an agent-based programming language developed at Northwestern University, near Chicago and also my high school. This is meant to be an educational language, relatively easy to learn and free for anyone (you can download NetLogo, or you can run on a Web-based platform if you have something like a Chromebook). 

There is a large library of existing models in a variety of disciplines, ranging from physics, biology and chemistry to social science, political and financial applications. This video begins to explain what agent-based refers to, and how a NetLogo program operates in concept. Check it out!

Public Science - The Zooniverse

You may have heard of public science, or maybe not. In most fields of science, there are datasets that are SO LARGE that there are not enough actual scientists in those fields to look at it all. And there are some things that people are still better at seeing and identifying or classifying from a dataset than computers are. How do scientists handle the analysis of such large datasets? 

Bring in the global public! 

Some non-professionals are even getting their names on published papers for their contributions to new discoveries, such as new exoplanets.

Check out the Zooniverse website - there are over 80 big data projects that you can participate in, no experience required. Check out all the options, in dozens of different fields! 

See the 2021 Project Descriptions of the Top 40 STS Finalists

 Check out the Top 40 Finalists of the 2021 Regeneron Science Talent Search. This booklet has descriptions of these top projects. Enjoy, get ideas of your own to research, and be inspired at what teens are capable of when they are passionate about science research!! 

Find links to a number of years worth of Science Talent Search Semifinalist project titles and Finalist project descriptions on this Student Resources Page. 

UNESCO Science Report 2021

 Here's some motivation for tomorrow's scientists, engineers, and researchers in whatever technical field you are interested in. Most of the big global problems we face will require STEM to help find viable solutions. Get a sense of where the world is in the short video below, coming from UNESCO, the UN branch for science and education. There is a great need for more research and work into sustainability topics that matter for literally billions of people, but so much effort and resources (both human and financial) goes into things like artificial intelligence and robotics, sustainability and other global issues are often forgotten, and little funding exists for them. This is especially true in poorer countries, of course, but those are often the same countries that suffer from poverty and lack of STEM talent or resources. 

The full Report is here. It will take a minute to download, it is over 750 pages long, but check it out by sections that interest you. 

Climate Modeling for Students: EdGCM

A former professional level climate modeling package has been turned into an educational modeling example and option to do climate modeling research for students. Called the Educational Global Climate  Model, EdGCM, it is a user-friendly, open-source program students can use and work with. We recently had a student figure out how to run the program, and this is a sample video presentation of what he did. 

For computer savvy students wanting to pursue climate science and modeling, where they can control and change numerous environmental parameters and then run simulations to determine predicted outcomes from the science mathematical models within EdGCM, they can actually do the research! 

Science History - The 'creation' of the western science spirit

 Check out this truly interesting article outlining the start of the modern science approach, coming from Greece some 2500 years ago. Anaxagoras, whom I cannot recall ever reading about, came to Athens, Greece, and may have interacted with Socrates, who of course had the pupil Plato and then Aristotle, to develop the philosophical foundation of Western society. Anaxagoras was a prominent figure in having an off-shoot or purely philosophical reasoning to natural philosophy, which is a term that lasted millennia until we changed it to science! 

Let's appreciate the geniuses from SO long ago. I wonder how many of our names will still be remembered in the year 4521! That's wild to think about!

Possible deviation from the Standard Model - some new Physics???

 From my old stomping grounds of Fermilab, about an hour outside Chicago and Evanston, comes measurements of muon magnetic properties that deviate significantly from the Standard Model, the theory we have that explains everything we know about the particles and forces of Nature, with the exception of gravity. 

Muons are in the electron family (200 times more massive...a heavy electron, basically, but it also decays with a lifetime of around 2.2 microseconds), and therefore 'spin' like the electron does. When you put spinning charged particles in a magnetic field, they precess...like a spinning top does if it is slightly tilted while spinning, and its whole axis rotates in a cone shape. By measuring these gyrations of muons as they spin in magnetic fields, precise measurements of their behavior are made. And these behaviors differ from what is predicted in the Standard Model. Some of the only theoretical explanations for such a difference involves new types of particles/matter. 

Check out this article if interested. This is also a good example of how discovery claims need to hold up to standards in a field built around error analysis! There needs to be a large enough gap between the predicted and lab results, but also a large enough gap between their error bars, of 5 sigma (5 standard deviations). The experiments still need more data to shrink these error bars a little smaller before they can claim discovery of some new physics, but it is getting close, and therefore more and more convincing that something new is out there!! 

Appreciating the little, simple things in science - to make BIGGER connections

 One of the points of "basement science" is the notion that the everyday world is still a fascinating place, and that there are a million things still to be discovered using simple equipment and materials. We have been brainwashed into thinking that everyday things have all been figured out - that is far from the truth, and hopefully this site and the research questions it provides can help convince us that there is always something new to learn. 

Here is one other way of thinking about this. This is based on a lab I have all my physics classes do during mechanics, in order to help them see how little things we can do with household materials can connect to MUCH BIGGER things the average person would never realize. 

How can we use a piece of string to determine the mass of the planet?!?!?!? Sounds ridiculous, right?! 

For a physics class studying anything about gravity, this is a simple and quick experiment that will allow students to determine the acceleration of gravity, g, which is typically 9.8 m/s^2, and is actually the measure of the strength of the gravitational field of the earth, using nothing but a simple pendulum! 

What's more, if you know g, then you can also calculate the mass of the entire planet!! With a piece of string and a little weight tied to the end that can swing! 

Check out this lab. The only materials includes a piece of string and something to tie at the end, perhaps a small stick, or paperclips or a washer. Also a ruler and a way to measure the time it takes the pendulum to swing once back and forth. That time is called the period of the pendulum. The lab gives the formula for the period of the pendulum, and by inserting the length and period time, one can calculate the acceleration due to gravity, g. 

But then we can use the notion from Newton's law of gravity, that g = GM/R^2, where G is the gravitational constant and R is the radius of the earth (given in the lab), and M is the mass of the earth that a student can solve for. Students can get good results to within a few percent if they are careful with their time measurement of the period.

Think about this sort of approach. Think about something from one of your science classes, and can you find something easily done in the lab that has dependencies on something out of the ordinary? This can open the door to really interesting experiments and research questions, all the while we use really simple equipment and materials! 

Example of modeling/computational research: Making predictions from data and trends

 On a practical side of research, something like water supplies in the next decade are truly important studies to try and do. Water supplies obviously are among the very most important pieces of civilization, and can affect tens of millions of people very easily should something like severe drought hit densely populated regions. 

An example of such a study is being done for the American southwest and southeast. While the southwest has been in drought for years, they are better prepared to handle the consequences because their water storage is robust. It turns out that some number of studies predict that the southeast is likely to suffer sever drought due to climate change trends over several decades, and the infrastructure and ability to handle this, especially with the large population growth over that period of time, could lead to serious water shortages. 

This is fascinating, and absolutely vital, research. It is challenging since climate models are generally made to look at long-term changes, rather than what might happen in the short term. Policymakers must take this short-term information and plan for what to do in the next 10 years. Think about projects like this, where you can get at datasets related to some issue of interest and importance. Look for trends in those data, and see if you can make any reasonable predictions for the future! This is another avenue to find and create research questions and projects. 

The Essence of Calculus channel

 For those who are curious about and starting to learn about calculus, or for those who know some calculus but would enjoy seeing a more visual way of thinking about it, check out 12 nicely done videos on this most important topic and tool needed for more advanced science and problem solving. Calculus is the mathematics of change, which is why it is vital in any dynamic field. Check it out! 

NASA Perseverance site

 For all things Perseverance on Mars, check out this comprehensive site. And of course, there are countless other sites that have covered this mission. Here's a photo of the rover being lowered towards Mars. 

NASA Perseverance Landing

 Mark your calendars for Thursday, February 18, at 1:15 pm Central/2:15 pm Eastern time, for the landing of NASA's Perseverance lander on Mars! 

There is an entire toolkit for this event, so check it out. Think about all the areas of STEM that come together to make this ridiculously complex mission take place...this is part of the set of opportunities that are out there for today's students. SO exciting!! 

STEM Writing Contest with New York Times

 For the writers out there: 

New Student Opportunity: 2nd NYTimes/Science News STEM Writing Contest!

Science News in High Schools and The New York Times Learning Network together invite students to participate in the 2nd annual STEM Writing Contest. Students will choose an issue or question in STEM that interests them and then write a 500-word explanation that will engage and enlighten readers. Here is a rubric for the contest, which is open to students                   ages 11–19. 

Student submissions are due on Tuesday, March 2, 2021 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern time. Winning entries will be published on The New York Times Learning Network. You can read last year’s winning essays  here.

Have the Scientist Mindset - Seemingly "Simple" things are typically Complex!!

 One of the constant reminders I tell my students is that "reality is always more complex than the textbook problem." And our goal is to dig into things and events that we all take for granted every day, and try to find the complexities in the seemingly simple. Here's one example of what we mean by this: 

You have a superball, hold it some height above the floor, and then drop it. That's it, seems incredibly simple! And we all have done this, and know what happens. It hits the floor, and bounces back up to nearly the same height from which we dropped it. 

What's the key word in this description???? What indicates within our observation that this is trickier than we tend to think????

"Nearly." The best superball in the world cannot make it back to its original height. The world's best pendulum or swing or roller coaster can never make it back to their original heights. The scientist's question is, of course, why is this the case with everything we can think of that starts high, goes down and tries to return to the same height? 

When the superball falls, it is moving through air. There is air friction acting on it, and that interaction, that rubbing and collisions with air molecules, creates heat, which means there is a loss in kinetic energy. The ball then collides with the ground. ANY material in a collision get partially deformed during the collision. The two surfaces produce forces on each other and bend/deform/compress each other. The atoms and molecules in the two surfaces have their bonds disturbed, and are vibrating faster in their lattice positions...basically a shock wave goes through the materials. This is all internal heat and movements of atoms and molecules...it is taking more kinetic energy away from the ball during its journey. We hear the superball hit the ground - sound energy is produced during collisions, and that is a small loss of energy from the ball. It starts moving back up, through air, and more heat is released due to air friction. 

All of this complexity, usually at small distances where the atoms and molecules themselves are being affected drastically, all requires energy of the system, and it is impossible for any object to bounce back to its original height. 

If you can start to think about reality differently than the general conceptual approach of most textbooks, then you are thinking like the scientist. And this opens the door to all sorts of research questions, as we can then investigate how significant a specific parameter or effect has on a system! This is the CABS approach, and is why we can always find good, original research questions in everyday things, and don't always need the million dollar laboratory to do real, good research!! 

HAPPY 2021!!! Let the exploring and curiosity begin!!!!