Physical Sciences
Dr Lian-Ping Wang – Understanding Particle-Fluid Interaction Dynamics in Turbulent Flow
Almost every aspect of the global water cycle involves a mixture of fluids and particles – raindrop formation, ocean currents and water percolation through the soil. This mixture of gas and liquid or liquid and solid causes behaviour that is important to understand,...
Professor Lisa Dierker – Falling in Love with Statistics: Shaping Students’ Relationships with Data
Statistical data analysis is a cornerstone of the sciences and operates as a shared language across disparate fields, from neuroscience to astronomy. However, current curricula often result in disengaged and stressed students who struggle to connect the concepts of...
The RAPP Center: Searching for Answers in Plasma-Astroparticle Physics
The Ruhr Astroparticle and Plasma Physics (RAPP) Center was established in 2015 by Professor Julia Tjus and her colleagues within the University Alliance Ruhr – a collaboration between the three universities of the Ruhr area: Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Technische...
Professor Thomas Albrecht-Schmitt – The Exotic Chemistry of the Heaviest Elements
Relatively little is known about the chemical reactivity of radioactive elements, as using them in the lab requires heroic efforts. However, Professor Thomas Albrecht-Schmitt and his group at Florida State University have successfully been able to investigate the...
Professor Paul Lecoq – TICAL Aims for Paradigm Shift in PET Imaging
In an ongoing effort to increase the accuracy and sensitivity of current PET (positron emission tomography) scanners, Prof Paul Lecoq and his team at CERN research various elements of this particular imaging technique. Inspired by particle physics detectors, the team...
Dr François Robert – Understanding the Early Solar System Through Isotopic Fingerprints
During the early stages of the solar system formation, the development of molecular organic and inorganic structures occurred through poorly documented mechanisms such as photochemistry or nuclear reactions. Directly probing such phenomena in the laboratory is almost...
Dr Lisa Burden | Dr Daniel Burden – Monitoring and Controlling the Delivery of Single Molecules through Nanopores
Monitoring and controlling molecules as they are transported in and out of nanometre-sized compartments is no easy task. Dr Lisa Burden, Dr Daniel Burden and their colleagues at Wheaton College have made significant contributions to understanding these processes by...
The National Science Teachers Association
Founded in 1944, the Virginia-based National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) is the largest organisation in the world promoting excellence and innovation in science teaching and learning for all. In this exclusive interview, we talk to Executive Director of...
Dr Romeel Davé – Putting the Universe in a Computer
Galaxy formation theorist Dr Romeel Davé and his team at the University of the Western Cape use high-performance supercomputer simulations to answer basic questions about the evolution of galaxies and our visible Universe. Humans have always been mesmerised by the...
Professor Richard Miles – Hypersonic Laser Tagging: A New Way of Understanding Fluid Mechanics
Fluid mechanics is the study of the flows within liquids, gases and plasmas, and the forces that act upon them. Applications involving fluid mechanics are vast, ranging from chemical engineering to astrophysics, and so an accurate understanding is essential for future...
Count Down To The Future
At the NASA Ames Research Center in California, the next generation of space biologists are working to understand the effects of long duration space flight on model organisms, and are developing ways to protect the health of future astronauts. The human body has...
Professor Amnon Besser – Mapping P-adic Spaces with Height Pairings
Professor Amnon Besser of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and his colleagues are exploring p-adic numbers – one of the most difficult areas of number theory – in order to solve long-standing open problems bridging several fields of mathematics. Solving Unsolvable...
Professor Peter Santschi – Cleaning Up a Catastrophe
Professor Peter Santschi and his team at Texas A&M University are dedicated to investigating the consequences of the release of radioactive substances into the environment. Incorrect storage of nuclear waste or power plant accidents can cause radioactive material...
Dr Kirk Peterson – In Silico Chemistry: Modelling the Reactions of Heavy Elements
Is it possible for computational modelling to become sufficiently accurate as to replace experiments? This is one of the many questions that Dr Kirk Peterson and his team at Washington State University are working towards answering. As a world-leader in developing...
The Highest Energy Li-ion Battery: Unlocking the Potential of the Silicon Anode and Nickel-rich NMC Cathode
Over the past decade, lithium-ion batteries have become essential to the portable electronics industry, and more recently have been championed as the transportation power source of the future. However, if electric vehicles are to gain widespread commercial success,...
Outcomes of the 2017 Global Research Council meeting co-hosted by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
Comprising the heads of research funding agencies worldwide, the Global Research Council (GRC) is an organisation dedicated to fostering multilateral research and collaboration across continents to benefit both developing and developed nations. The GRC holds annual...
The STEM Education Coalition
The STEM Education Coalition was founded more than 15 years ago with a mission to raise awareness in the U.S. Congress, the administration, and on the state level about the critical role that STEM education plays in enabling the U.S. to remain the economic and...
Dr William Ray – Using Computer Graphics to Visualise the Invisible
Biophysicist Dr William Ray and colleagues at The Ohio State University and the Battelle Center for Mathematical Medicine at The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, develop novel approaches to graphically visualise what happens to...
Smartnanotox
Dr Robert Mutel – Creating Radio Maps of the Universe
For thousands of years, humans have been fascinated by what lies beyond our own planet. One of the ways to study the most distant objects in our universe is using radio telescopes. By studying radiation emitted in the radio band of the electromagnetic spectrum,...
Professor Ning Pan – The Scientific and Mathematical World of Textiles
Textiles, including rope and yarn, are often thought of as functional and convenient materials for us to dress in, suspend swings from (in our more youthful days), or to safely secure items during transport. However, behind such critical applications is a complex...
Professor Jeffrey Forbes – Exploring How the Lower Atmosphere Influences Space Weather
Professor Jeffrey Forbes and his team at the University of Colorado use data from multiple satellites and global modelling to determine how terrestrial weather affects the near-Earth space environment. When we think of the weather, we think of the wind and rain and...
Professor Jim Kasting – Pinning Down the Habitable Zones of Different Stars
One of life’s greatest mysteries is whether or not we are alone in the Universe. One way to find planets that could support life is by working out whether they lie in the ‘habitable zone’ of their parent star – a distance at which liquid water might exist on the...
Five New Particles Discovered at CERN
CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the largest and most powerful particle accelerator ever constructed. Featuring a 27-kilometre ring containing superconducting magnets, the LHC can accelerate protons to almost the speed of light, forcing proton beams travelling in...
Professor Darryn W. Waugh – The Polar Vortex: Meshing and Stripping the Gears of the Atmosphere
Earth’s atmosphere is composed of multiple interlocked rotating parcels of air. At the poles, rotating vortices form an important part of this system. Climate scientist Professor Darryn Waugh of Johns Hopkins University investigates how polar vortices interact with...
Dr Jekan Thangavelautham – Designing Devices for Exploring Space and Investigating Climate Change
Dr Jekan Thanga and his team at Arizona State University are developing new and sustainable solutions for low-cost space and extreme environment exploration. His team operates robots and sensor-networks for quantifying the effects of global warming on the Greenland...
Dr Bart Wakker – Using the Hubble Telescope to Investigate the Universe’s Hidden Baryons
Astronomer Dr Bart Wakker and his colleagues use the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) to gather data on hidden baryonic matter and the composition of the Universe. Getting Closer to Far, Far Away From the era of Galileo and Copernicus up until now, our knowledge of...
Professor Vassilis Angelopoulos – From THEMIS to ELFIN: Exploring Near Earth Space
Dr Vassilis Angelopoulos and his colleagues at the UCLA Earth Planetary and Space Sciences Department in California study the interaction of solar radiation with the Earth’s magnetosphere using multiple NASA research satellites. Their aim is to protect our...
Dr Jian Du-Caines – Protecting the Earth by Predicting Space Weather
Atmospheric physicist Dr Jian Du-Caines at the University of Louisville and her colleagues explore the interactions between Earth’s atmosphere and near Earth space to better predict space weather that can adversely affect life on Earth. Everyone Talks About the...
Sigma Xi: The Scientific Research Honor Society
Founded in 1886 at Cornell University, Sigma Xi is an international community of scientists and engineers dedicated to promoting excellence in research, enhancing public engagement with science, and fostering the next generation of researchers. Here, we have had the...