Another Chance?

Today I called Dr. Kryemadhi, as I was in the area, and we had lunch together.  We talked about how things have been going; I told him about the trials I have been going through as well as the latest good news, and he told me about some of his latest exploits.  He mentioned that he was working with someone  on an idea to use balloons to take measurements at high altitudes.  I didn’t ask, but I think it is a cosmic-ray study of some sort.  Once again, talk about using cell phones to transmit data wirelessly came up, and Dr. Kryemadhi has asked for my help.  I think there is a way to do what he was describing, and I think it can be done with a Python extension on an S60 smartphone.

Perhaps this is another chance for me to work in physics again.  Have I got it in me to pull off one more attempt at physics research?  I sure hope so, and I’m going to find out.  I will be meeting with Dr. Kryemadhi some time in the next week or two to discuss the details.  I will also be looking for an S60 Python SDK, probably through Nokia.  I am quite excited to try my hand at physics research yet again, and hopefully I will be successful this time around.  Perhaps there is hope for me after all…

A Moderate Showing at AAPT-CPS

So, it wasn’t the greatest showing I’ve had at a conference, but it was decent.  My physics research on Rishon Theory was not understood by many, and not accepted well by those who seemed to understand.  Those who did not understand it well seemed to think it was interesting, but I fear that if I measure by that yardstick it would be a bit superficial.  I get the impression that my modified Rishon model is not very acceptable, nor did I have the knowledge to explain it very well in any case.  Overall, I think I have a failure on my hands.

Going to AAPT-CPS 2009

Well, I submitted my abstract on my research into Rishon Theory and my own modified Rishon model, and it has been accepted for presentation at the AAPT-CPS 2009 Spring Meeting at Penn State Mont Alto on March 27th and 28th.  I am looking forward to presenting my physics research again this year.  This is my third year in a row presenting, and my fourth year in total.  I have been preparing feverishly in just the last four weeks, when I decided I would seriously attempt this.  My wife new this is what was in my heart, and when I had days that I felt like giving up, she really helped to inspire me to push for it.  I have less than a week left to finish the PowerPoint presentation, but I am close enough that I am confident I can finish it.

I haven’t talked to Abaz Kryemadhi in a while, and it has been even longer since I talked to Abul Hasan.  I ought to get back in touch with them soon.  I talked to Bob McCarthy more recently, and heard from him about how the library in Columbia is doing since I was there last.

Well, time to go again.  I must get ready for my day job…

MARIACHI Technique in Doubt

Dr. Kryemadhi and I met over lunch last week to discuss the outcome of my feasibility study on using cellular phones to wirelessly transmit detector data from the detectors to a remote server.  I had to show him how and why the entire idea is simply not realistic, which is a bummer because it is a darn cool idea, and why using smartphones to do the job would be more expensive than all the coax and other cables that have to be dealt with now.

So after I laid that on him thoroughly, he dealt me a real kick in the teeth.  It turns out that MARIACHI’s struggles to get data are not due to interference, but rather due to doppler shifts!  The entire MARIACHI technique is in doubt, and seriously in jeopardy of never working due to the fact that particles in the cosmic-ray-induced plasma trails, which reflect VHF signals, are moving so fast that they impart extra energy to the scattered photons, causing a severe doppler shift in the frequency of skipped transmissions.  This means that tuning in is impossible!  Any one of us could have, should have, thought of this; it is so obvious!  But nobody figured it out until now, and the entire collaboration will have to rethink its experimental technique or face the real possibility of calling it quits.

Well, this is, afterall, part of the scientific process, Dr. Kryemadhi reminded me.  It hurts sometimes, but that is science.  To succeed, one must first fail many times over.  So, I will be going back to our outreach high school with a modified idea for using their antenna to study meteor skip.  This should make good use of their hardware as currently installed, and give them something to work towards, rather than having them wait for MARIACHI to get it together.

As for Christmas, my wife gave me a fabulous book on the life and times of Albert Einstein, who still fascinates me to this day.  The book is entitled, “Einstein; His Life and Universe” by Walter Isaacson.  I have also lately been studying Quantum Loop Gravity, Rishon models, and Doubly Special Relativity, all based on my readings in Lee Smolin’s fascinating book “The Trouble with Physics”.  Together, these two books are filling my spare time, along with internet searches and other textbook reading supplements.

Preliminary results… already?

Strangely enough, our little group down at Columbia High School has their preliminary result for the lightning study.  I should have seen it coming, and I shouldn’t have been surprised, but I was…

Lightning doesn’t make enough noise in the 65 to 72 MHz channel to even crackle above background!  The disturbance can be seen on TV, and can faintly be heard on FM radio, but does not show up on any trigger on our oscilloscope with our little antenna array.  It would have to be really really close to show up, and we just haven’t had a storm produce a really close bolt of lightning.  Now, after researching this further, I found out that the signal would be much stronger in the 500 kHz to 2 MHz (AM radio) channel, but is fairly quiet at distance in the range we are looking at.  This means there won’t be much compensation needed to rule out lightning signals when using our RADAR method for cosmic ray detection.  If anything, a simple solution should do.  Lightning just isn’t “loud” enough to be a huge problem where we’ll be listening.  Amazing… and if I had researched this a little more earlier, I might have expected this result, too.

Now we must wait for the possibility of next year’s grant, and find other projects to use for the antenna array.

Outreach Training Session

This was just as much training for me as it was for the Physics Instructor.  Without the students around, we figured out how to operate the trigger selection today (Thursday, July 3).  We rigged up the antenna line to the oscilloscope, set the trigger above the noise, and we are crossing our fingers that tonight’s predicted thunderstorms pass close by.  Hopefully we will capture a few hundred nanoseconds of the night’s first lightning bolt.  I hope to check back during the next week to see if it captured anything in the onboard memory.  We are going to attempt applying for a Toshiba Grant as well to cover the comm port and the extra coax we need.

Continuing Outreach Progress

On Wednesday, June 18th, we carried out our third session of the program.  The students, all four of whom attended, worked on the roof to find a suitable location in which to pass a coax line from the roof to the science classroom below.  A member of the office staff from the local state representative’s office was in attendance for the beginning of the proceedings as two students worked to complete the remaining antenna components.  Two other students worked on the roof with the faculty advisor.  A suitable vent was found, and the remaining components to build the other two antennae were completed.

On Thursday, June 19th, our fourth session involved assembling the last two antennae and mounting the first unit on the roof.  Again with all four students in attendance, we were able to lower the coax line through the vent and, by drilling a side hole, we were able to work the coax into a side room where the oscilloscope is kept.  The assembly was mounted on a fan hood above the roof, and the coax channel was set up for resistance to weather conditions.  The coax is now successfully connecting the first antenna from the roof to the oscilloscope in the science classroom.  Further discussions have pointed out that we require only a trigger to be able to record sufficient data on lightning-induced EM waves, so that we can successfully record the data inside the 1.5 kB on board the oscilloscope.  We only need an additional 100 feet of coax to mount the remaining two antennae, and perhaps also the comm port for the oscilloscope in the slightly more distant future.

Outreach Program is Under Way!

On May 30th, the first session of the outreach program took place with one student and one faculty advisor in attendance.  Planning was carried out for how to obtain the materials needed to carry out the first antenna design attempt.  Measurements and calculations were made for the pole-length, and the dipole layout was discussed.  Plans were made to obtain the appropriate coax couplings to link the antenna into an oscilloscope.

On June 2nd, we held our second session, where we had three other students and two faculty advisors in attendance.  Our local state senator was invited to attend as well, but could not due to a busy schedule.  The design of the first dipole antenna was carried out, with construction and testing successful.  The antenna was paired to our Tektronix four-channel oscilloscope, and was able to detect the EM signature created by a spark generator.  Plans were discussed for mounting the antennae on the roof for use in the lightning study portion which will be carried out this summer, as well as plans for building the additional antennae.  Some materials are needed yet for a complete experimental setup, including a communications port for pairing the oscilloscope to a computer, and we discussed plans for obtaining these components.