SFA
Physics, Astronomy and Engineering News
May 4, 2005

Seminar Returns

Title: "Schlepping with Schlieren Optics"

With an ALL STAR CAST: TOM BUNCH, ALBERT KOETHER, BRYAN MCLANE, LAURENCE MILLER, MIGUEL MOLINA, ANDY WAGERS, LUKE WHITTLESEY (Dr. Trikosko's Phy440 Optics Class)

Time: 3:00 PM on Thursday, April 21, 2005
Place: Science Room 334

All students and faculty are welcome to attend.

Summer Internships and Jobs
See Dr. B about any of these if you are interested.

Lockheed Martin Corporation - Defense - Aerospace Manufacturing - Electronics Factory in Lufkin - Internship Description (Click On "Apply Now")

MTS Global is looking to hire 2-3 people in the near future in the Houston area. Please see Dr. B or contact Joshua Arceneaux at (281)461-3700 (arceneaux@mtsglobalinc.com) if you are interested. Joshua Arceneaux is a 2001 SFA physics graduate. This is a great opportunity for a physics graduate or soon-to-be graduate. MTS Global is a product oriented company serving NASA, NASA Contractors, and International Partners.
http://www.mtsglobalinc.com/

Picnic this Friday

Please come join the faculty and staff of the Physics and Astronomy Department to celebrate the season of spring and end of the spring semester.

Date: May 6 - Friday
Time: 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm
Place: Pecan Acres Park on Starr Ave.

We will provide barbeque beef and sausage, beans, rolls, and potato salad. Faculty and staff are requested to bring covered dishes such as salads, vegetables and desserts. Students are requested to bring soft drinks, chips, napkins or plastic eating utensils. Please let us know if you will join us and what you would like to bring. Sign up list in Room 322 or just call Trina at 468-3001.

Congratulations

Congratulations are in order for the following Student Life Awards given today by the Office of Student Affairs at SFA: Ali A. Piran was recognized as the Advisor of the Year. Ali is well deserving of this award. Kris Byboth received a Leadership Commendation. Kris is also very deserving of this award.

The Society of Physics Students organization was a runner-up for the Service Project of the Year for the Physics Olympics project.

Kellie Fletcher has been awarded a scholarship to attend the Gravitational Wave Astronomy Summer School, taking place at South Padre Island, Texas this summer.

Congratulations to SPS, its advisor, and its officers.

Advising and Registration

In our department all students must be advised to remove registration holds. Our goal is to make sure that our students are aware of the pre-requisites, course availabilities, transfer credits, etc. We always try to advise student in advance of the day on which registration begins. Feel free to drop by this week for advising.

Embarrassing Moment

I tell my AST105 class about the time I was in the 18" dome as an undergraduate student at SFA and said something really wrong. I was gazing at M31 and having cosmic thoughts about M31's approach. Then I said out loud: "I wonder how close we would have to be to a galaxy before we would suffer from the radiation from it?" My classmate Rolando said, "What!?" I tell my students that that was my "most embarrassing academic moment". We're in a galaxy. Anyway, one of my AST105 students just emailed me a cartoon that he created that describes the event: http://www.physics.sfasu.edu/astro/img/Cartoon20050418.jpg

Contributors' Links
More news from newsletter recipients

Interesting: A piece of paper with all the zeros in a googol plex, 10100, would not fit in the known universe.

The Interactive Color Test
http://www.njagyouth.org/colortest.swf

A Martian Dust Devil Passes By Rover Camera!
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap050426.html

Live SFA Web Cams
http://www.osa.sfasu.edu/construction/

Solar Death Ray - see the awesome power of the sun
http://www.solardeathray.com

MIT students pull prank on conference (See scientific paper generator below if you want to try it.)
http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/science/04/14/mit.prank.reut/index.html

An Automatic Scientific Paper Generator - Wow!
http://www.pdos.lcs.mit.edu/scigen/

Superlens breakthrough
http://physicsweb.org/articles/news/9/4/12/1

Scientists Solve Riddle of Unpopped Popcorn
http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/science/04/21/popcorn.secret.ap/index.html

NASA Prepares for Possible Shuttle Mission to Save Hubble
http://www.space.com/news/050429_hubble_griffin.html

Human Hibernation
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=23290

The First Detailed Full Sky Picture of the Oldest Light in the Universe
http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/m_mm.html

ATOM SMASHER SHEDS LIGHT ON SUPERNOVAE, BIG BANG
http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/article_1502_1.asp

AN EXO-ASTEROID BELT
http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/article_1501_1.asp

Many Optical Illusions
http://www.michaelbach.de/ot/mot_mib/index.html

Suborbital Vehicle Design
http://www.xprizefoundation.com/education/sv_design.asp

The Green Flash
http://astrocultura.uai.it/avvenimenti/raggioverde.htm

You are Texan if you have ever heard this conversation:
"You wanna coke?" "Yeah." "What kind?" "Dr. Pepper."
http://www.womansday.com/idealbb/view.asp?topicID=81026

Click on "Game" to the left here:
http://www.gone2thedogs.com/

Seiko T392001 LCD Screen
http://www.numeric-lcd-lcds.shopeio.com/inventory/details.asp?id=450&cat=Lcds&sub=Numeric%20Lcd

NASA's 17th Annual Planetary Science Summer School
http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/pscischool/

The Life of George Gamow
http://www.gamow.com/igor/ - Movie
http://medlem.spray.se/gamow/georgegamow.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7546975/print/1/displaymode/1098/

Want To Earn $35?

Be part of the new GRE Redesign. Thinking of going to Graduate School? Would you like to practice the GRE? SFA is recruiting students to participate in a pilot study for the new GRE Redesign Verbal Assessment.
  • Every student that completes the test will receive $35
  • Three hour ETS computer-based test
  • March 28-May 6, 2005
  • No scores reported back to you or your school

    Stephen F. Austin State University
    Student Employment Center
    3rd Floor Rusk Building
    936-468-6637

    Scholarships and Employment Opportunities

    We learn 10% of what we read, 20% of what we hear, 30% of what we see and 95% of what we teach. Consider teaching labs for our department or teaching at the high school or college level in your future. For more info see your professors and http://www.aapt.org/

    SFA Opportunities

    Other Opportunities

    Thanks to Dave Deming, Kris Byboth, Nathan Ryan, Chris Pierce, Marco Meniero, Ryan Williams and others for the links and information above. Feel free to send any interesting links that you find. This email message is sent to students, alumni, faculty, staff and friends of the department. If you would like to be removed from the emailing list or are getting multiple copies of these newsletters, then feel free to reply to this message with your request.

    Clear skies,
    Dan Bruton
    astro@sfasu.edu