One example of 'basement science' going wrong!

A humorous example of 'basement science' going wrong happened in Australia, where an astrophysicist, stuck in isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, had an idea to make a device that would warn someone when they were about to touch their face. He was using small, strong magnets that would be both on one's wrists and in one's nose, and the magnetic forces when close together would sound an alarm.

Trouble is, multiple magnets got stuck in his nose, and he was unable to get them out - a trip to the hospital was in order!

On that note, happy researching to all at home during these trying times!! I do wish good health and safety - physically, mentally, and emotionally - to everyone, while we continue to be in isolation.

Former CABS student modeling the COVID-19 virus spread in Europe

A former student and CABS researcher, Seth Flaxman (Class of 2004), is lead author from Imperial College on predictions of COVID-19 in the coming weeks in 11 European countries. Check out their report, and see what a technical, scientific paper on this type of problem looks like. He made the code available, which is on GitHub, as well, if you want to see what this looks like for a complex system to model. Within the next week, most of the growth charts should start to turn over and begin the flattening of the curve...hopefully Europe is moving past the inflection point. Note that they do show the range of uncertainties, as all good studies should, because of limitations in data and testing, statistical effects and fluctuations it creates in the modeling, and so on. I have not found a similar, up to date report for the US yet. This is the type of research one can do with a good background and expertise in computer programming.

Thanks, Seth!! Seth did some really cool CABS research on periodic heat flow while in high school, and actually went to London to represent the US through the JSHS contest (which he won at regionals, and then did well at nationals to advance as one of six US students to the International fair). He built the experiment in his bedroom, and also modeled the heat flow using a free version of FlexPDE.

Student Research Publishing Options

With the unfortunate circumstances of COVID-19, all student events and competitions around the country have been cancelled, including the International Science and Engineering Fair, or ISEF. Many students who have done wonderful research and qualified at their regional and state fairs will not have the chance to present their work. Those students may want to consider trying to publish their papers in some of the following student journals, listed below. 

Of course, for students who work in university labs, if you get good results, your professor may very well want to publish. Students can and have be first or second author on such papers, and this is a rarity for high school students - it is worth asking a professor if results might be publishable.

A third option is for teachers and schools to have a website or page dedicated to posting student reports. This is a good idea so they are at least online, and can be used as good examples of high school work for future students. Here is one example, with dozens of papers from former students (with their permission) that are often used by current students to get ideas, see what research looks like for a high school student, and also are used as a template when a current student is writing up his/her research. 

Students can submit their research papers to the following journals for publication:

• Sigma Xi, Chronicle of the New Researcher
• The Columbia Junior Science Journal
• Journal of Emerging Investigators (all papers accepted, grad student review)
• National High School Research Journal of Science (student-reviewed)

Journal of Experimental Secondary Science (peer reviewed)

• *Note that many CABS projects can be used by other teachers as lab demos, students labs, or inquiry projects for their students. You might consider writing a paper, co-authored between student and teacher, and submit to teacher professional journals, such as The Physics Teacher or The Science Teacher.

Why the rush to Shut Schools and Large Public Spaces and Events down???

We are in an unprecedented time of shutting many aspects of civilization down around the world, because of the COVID-19 pandemic. But why the rush and urgency???

It is the math and science behind how a disease spreads, which is referred to as exponential growth. Please check out a really well done explanation of what this means, how it works, and how experts use a mathematical model to simulate the spread of a disease. It uses actual data from China to make its point, and you will get the gist of why social distancing and washing hands make such a BIG DIFFERENCE in the number of people who might become infected. For anyone who does math modeling, it also explains sensitivity testing really well.

Please check it out, and gain new appreciation for some of the math you learn in school but might not know how it is applied to the world!

Patterns formed by evaporating fluids

Some really beautiful patterns have been observed through evaporative processes of droplets of fluids, especially when the droplets contain a mixture of different fluids. This type of work could be done in a high school laboratory or at home. Check out the video.

Two hydraulic jumps on an incline

One way professors run their research programs, and as they go from year to year and have new graduate students joining their team while older ones graduate and leave the team, is to have extension on earlier projects and studies. Good research projects are those that have interesting questions studied, but when answers are found there are even more new questions developed because of the study.

Hence, something like hydraulic jump continuously provides new, original research options. For example, one option is to have multiple streams of water forming multiple jumps, that can interfere with each other. Another option is to study jumps on inclined surfaces. But what about combining those studies into one? This is an option a student recently has done, as a preliminary project. Check out the video for some pointers about how ANYONE can do this at a school or at home, and how there are so many more questions that can come from this preliminary one: from the fits of these data, can someone take existing theoretical math models for single jumps and modify it, at least as an empirical formula, to make a math model for interfering jumps? For jumps on an angle, where a component of gravity enters the model? And then for the combination of the two? What about interference patterns one can see in the video for this project? All of those flow details are not yet studied and documented! Numerous more projects can be developed just from this one study. Be creative, explore, ask questions, and the build an experiment to look into your questions - this is science research at its finest!

Check out Ulo Freitas's video for how he did a preliminary study of interfering hydraulic jumps on an incline.

Initial study of interfering dual hydraulic jumps on incline

A good example of an original basement science research project is setting up an apparatus to create and study the interference of two hydraulic jumps on an inclined surface. There was a study done by a student at his house for two interfering hydraulic jumps on a flat surface some years ago at Evanston, but now a student was interested in taking that type of study and tilt the surface through a range of angles. Preliminary results are in a paper the student wrote.

There is an extension that can be done on this experiment. One possibility is to try even larger angles, as well as vary the flow rates of one or both of the jets. For any of these studies, one could also take the best-fit functions of these data and modify existing theoretical equations for jump radii - an empirical formula at the very least could be developed to explain this phenomenon.