July 2007 Archives

With the Lindsay Lohans and Paris Hiltons of this world grabbing the limelight with their antics, it's a wonder girls have any good role models these days.

Thankfully, there are people like Danica McKellar (at right, better known as Winnie from the '90s TV show The Wonder Years) who bring a positive message. "Being good at math is cool," she says in the latest Newsweek. "And not only that, it can help [girls] get what they want out of life."

McKellar is the author of a new book, Math Doesn't Suck, which resonates with the same message our faculty are trying to communicate through summer programs like It's a Girl Thing. The book, according to Newsweek, "contains syrupy dollops of just-between-us-girls encouragement, three miniprofiles of drop-dead-gorgeous mathematicians, as well as practical tips for avoiding sloppy mistakes on homework, overcoming test-day brain freeze and suggestions on what to do when algebra gets you down. (Hint: don't be afraid to sound dumb in class. Go ahead and ask.)" Not necessarily our type of book (then again, neither is the Harry Potter series), but if it gets more girls more interested in math, then we're all for it.

Legendary Queen guitarist Brian May, 60, is completing a Ph.D. in astrophysics. His doctoral thesis/dissertation is called "Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud." Kinda makes you wonder what Tom Shipley would call his dissertation -- but we digress. Mindy Limback will give ten bucks to the first person who can explain what "Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud" means in three clear sentences or less. Leave comments.

A couple of days ago I mentioned I had the chance to watch UMR researchers use high explosives to demolish a test structure they had built. I promised to share more at later date. Well, the time is now. If you want to read about how their new retrofitting technique can improve the blast resistance of bridges, check this out. But if you just want to see some high-explosive action, watch this (WMV).

A rig carrying an 85-ton contraption arrived in Rolla today. The "superload" delivery was made to the mining engineering department, which plans to use the cargo shown here for explosives testing. The explosives will be placed inside this huge chamber. UMR experts will monitor the explosions and conduct studies. The testing chamber wasn't being used at a Utah location and the Air Force provided a grant to cover its transporation to Rolla.

P.S. That rig has a lot more than 18-wheels on it, doesn't it?

If my high school science class took field trips like the one I went on yesterday afternoon, I might have enjoyed class a bit more.

Yesterday Genda Chen and Jason Baird (experts in structures and explosives, respectively) invited me to join them for a trip out to a range at Fort Leonard Wood. I'll share more details about the research in another post, but suffice it to say, it's hard to beat an afternoon spent blowing things up.

Here's what I learned:

1. There's a lot of paperwork involved with transporting explosives.
2. C4 sort of smells like Play-Doh and motor oil.
3. Using "det cords" instead of detonators helps make the explosives fire all at once.
4. A sheet of fiber-reinforced polymer and a layer of rubber-like material can help strengthen and confine concrete columns so they don't disintegrate.
5. Blowing stuff up is fun (but really, I already knew that).

Making a balloon out of glass might not seem like such a great idea on the surface – but Hank Rawlins, a graduate student in metallurgical engineering at UMR, thinks glass balloons might turn out to be the best way to put monitoring equipment in the upper atmosphere. It's an idea worth considering, and, for now, it's an idea that's worth at least $5,000.

Electric motors are cool. Unlike their gas-powered cousins, electric motors have fewer emissions. But sometimes, well, they're just plain noisy. And they vibrate.

Enter Daniel Stutts and his colleagues. They've received a patent for a system can mitigate the torque ripple -- which contributes to noise and vibration -- that is found in many electric motors and generators.

As a new soy-diesel plant prepares to begin production next month In Vernon County, a UMR researcher is developing a set of recommendations the Missouri Department of Transportation can follow to improve its biodiesel consumption.

A state mandate, revised last August, requires the Missouri Department of Transportation to fuel at least 75 percent of its diesel fleet with biodiesel. Last year, biodiesel accounted for 51 percent of the department’s consumption. Scott Grasman, associate professor of engineering management and systems engineering at UMR, says one of the easiest ways the department can meet the mandate is by buying biodiesel that meets ASTM standards.

A team of UMR researchers led by Craig Adams, the John and Susan Mathes Chair of Environmental Engineering, have discovered concentrations of leachable arsenic and lead in excess of drinking water standards in a number of sediment and soil samples it collected from New Orleans parishes in October 2005, less than 2 months after Hurricane Katrina devastated that area of the Gulf Coast. The research, published recently in the journal Environmental Science and Technology (full article, news release), detailed the researchers' analysis of 46 of the 238 samples the team gathered. “The highest leachable concentrations of lead and arsenic in sediment were observed in the Broadmoor District in Orleans Parish,” Adams says. “These levels could potentially pose a health issue if significant exposure occurred.”

... doesn't mean mainstream media will stop talking about UMR's Explosives Camp.

Come September, there are likely to be some raised eyebrows among the nation's schoolteachers when they hear some of the answers to the question, "What did you do this summer?" ... "I blew up some stuff."

John Schwartz of the New York Times says Camp Winnigootchee was never like this.

Elsewhere:

The Associated Press covered UMR's It's a Girl's Thing camp.

And:

The Springfield News-Leader has the story about a UMR student who proposed marriage at Bass Pro.

Today's Springfield News-Leader asks whether Missouri will be ready when "the New Madrid earthquake fault in southeast Missouri suddenly rips itself apart." Had the reporter checked with UMR's David Rogers, he would have explained that New Madrid Seismic Zone quakes pack quite a whallop.

Rogers suggests officials focus on preparing for a magnitude 6.6 to 6.8 quake -- not the 8.0 "big one" series of temblors in 1811-1812 that shook the Midwest and rang church bells in Boston. A 6.6- to 6.8-magnitude quake, similar to what took place in 1895 (illustrated at right and compared to the 6.7 earthquake in L.A. a decade ago), is more likely and could do significant damage, Rogers says.

"It's in our face here and now, not 200 or 300 years from now. This one could happen tomorrow." Rogers and several graduate students have been modeling fictional seismic events of approximately the size of an1895 quake that registered 6.6 on the Richter Scale. As part of their research, they have tried to estimate the impact such a quake would have on long-span bridges across the Missouri River. The preliminary results are sobering, Rogers says. Data indicates ground shaking would be magnified about 600 percent within the flood plain of the Missouri River, a development that would predict soil liquefaction and cause most of Missouri's existing long-span bridges to collapse. "You don't need a big earthquake to do significant damage in Missouri," Rogers says.