First batch of scientific papers; Insulin Particle Formation

[This post will be edited as I read.]

So, I am going to try to work my way through the 4 papers I have been sent so far by my summer internship. Now, I should be writing essays so I can finish the term, but I'm not having any luck. At least this is more productive than watching tv.
I will give the abstract and journal for each of these papers (one here, then more posts), and then I will be adding definitions to terms that I had to look up, plus my summary of each part of the paper. These are my notes, so that I have a working base of knowledge when I read more papers in the future, but maybe they will be of use to someone.

Insulin Particle Formation in Supersaturated Aqueous Solutions of Poly(Ethylene Glycol)

Lev Bromberg, Julia Rashba-Step and Terrence Scott

Epic Therapeutics, Inc., Norwood, Massachusetts 02062

Biophysical Journal, Volume 89, Issue 5, 3424-3433, 1 November 2005

My Summer Plans and Advice on Your Summer Plans

Hi all.
I am very excited to be able to say that I have my summer plans set. I will be taking part in Lehigh's REU in physics. I will be working with Professor Gunton on modeling proteins self-assembling from solution. I know next to nothing about the topic, but I have a couple of Professor Gunton's recent papers, so I will read them and know slightly more soon.

Khan Academy

My father actually introduced me to this site, http://www.khanacademy.org/. It claims to be the beginning of an educational revolution (though maybe not in those words). There seem to be two goals, the first being to make education accessible to all people, and the second being to allow the possibility of "flipping the classroom". A good introduction talk is the video on their main page, Salman Khan talk at TED 2011 (from ted.com), which is also on youtube. 

Really awesome physics simulator

I was sent this link last summer, and the videos blew my mind. In case the link's not working for you, it goes to an article about Lagoa Multiphysics, a 3D graphics program. Now, I know next to nothing about how physics simulations are done for videos (video games, movies, and all that), but based on how complicated physics is for a two-body system, it blows my mind that people are able to get such realistic models for such complicated motions. I'd love to see the approximations used for all this stuff. Oh, and if you're the type who wants to do this kind of work, friends of mine at RPI have complained enough about programing the physics for a computer game that I'm pretty sure studying there would be a good first step.

Calculus of Variations

     I am currently taking a class in the calculus of variations.  I find it an odd course, since it is taught in French, each class is almost entirely lecture, and we have neither a textbook nor any graded homework.  Regardless of my personal confusion as to the pedagogic methods (well, except the French- that's because I'm at a French-speaking university), I have learned quite a bit about the calculus of variations. My first introduction was in my mechanics class, through Taylor's Classical Mechanics, and while I found the Euler-Lagrange equation as covered in my class useful, the generalizations I have learned this term could have been and could continue to be useful.

Coulomb Pucks Introduction

My part of the first research project I have been part of was called “Electric charge memory design using finite element methods in Java”.  I worked on this during the summer of 2010 and continued work during that fall term, until I got too busy with my coursework (around the end of October).  This project is led by Professor Andrew Skinner and has involved other students in previous years (currently, spring 2011, my friend Lyle is working on another piece).  I was examining the electric field of a conducting cylindrical disk with rounded edges and a cylindrical central opening.  The majority of the research involved programming and evaluating a numerical model of the electrical potential and electric field in order to gain an understanding of the relationship between the radius of curvature and electric field at the edges of the conductor.  Several particular designs of these disks, “Coulomb Pucks”, were also evaluated.  The goal is for the disks to hold charge as steadily and long as possible when chemically coated with an insulating layer on the exterior surfaces.  The intended application of the final product is to demonstrate and examine electrical properties in physics courses.  An additional product is the program which calculates the fields of the puck which can be re-purposed for a charged conductor of any shape, and can then be applied to future research in the field.

More information on this product will be put on another page, accessible from the right panel; from there, click on "Home" in that panel to get back to the main page (yes, that may seem obvious, but one of these days my grandmother may want to read this, or yours).

Physics and Philosophy Review

Modern physics, the realm of physics containing relativity and quantum theory, set the scientific world buzzing during the first half of the 20th century.  Since it also allowed the creation of the atomic bomb, the entire world became concerned with the matter.  Werner Heisenberg, who played an important role in the development of modern physics (you know- the Heisenberg uncertainty principle) and won a Nobel Prize for his work, considers the philosophical impact of modern physics in Physics and Philosophy: The Revolution in Modern Science.  This book compares the conceptual understanding of reality through the lenses of quantum physics and major philosophers’ formulations.