Monte Carlo Simulations

A Monte Carlo (MC) simulation is a method commonly used in thermodynamics and statistical mechanics.  While in general MC is just a sampling scheme, it is normally used for importance sampling.  The MC method starts from a given 'position' and takes a random walk, returning information from wherever it travels.  With importance sampling, MC does not take a purely random walk, but instead will take a random step and then check the final position against some requirement. If the final position meets the requirements, the information for that position is recorded as data and a new step is tried. Otherwise, the simulation goes back and takes a new random step.

Pontification, Pondering, and Some Things to Read

Hello,
I know I usually write about science. But today I spent a long lunch break discussing religion with one of my colleagues. And one reason she kept bringing up for her faith in God guiding her actions in life is the desire to work towards God's good, because what He considers good may not make sense to us flawed humans.

Janus Particles and Spheres

So, posting about the project right away didn't happen because deciding on the project didn't happen and then coding didn't happen. But now it all has!

I'm working in theoretical statistical mechanics with Professor Jim Gunton at Lehigh. More specifically, this summer the research group is studying anisotropic (orientation-dependent) Janus particles.

Lehigh Physics REU Day 1

Hi all,
Sorry I haven't posted in a while, but finals happened. Now I have moved in to my dorm at Lehigh for the summer REU program. While I haven't actually met my adviser yet, I have found relevant offices, buildings, shops, etc. I also got an ID and met most of the other students in the program. It looks, oddly enough, like we have more women than men. Which is not good in terms of showering, but is good in terms of the future of physics (at least in my mind).
Anyway, I will actually get started tomorrow. Hopefully tomorrow night I will describe my project (aka after I figure out what I'm doing I'll put it here so I don't forget the end goals).
I hope everyone out there is managing the summer job thing alright.

Consider Quebec

Having returned from l'Universite de Sherbrooke in Quebec province in Canada and visited my friends at a couple of American schools, I have a few things to say about the education system. Primarily that I like Quebec's better.

That Whole Internet Thing

I got another notice from Academia.edu that someone was searching for me in Google. Now, I have no idea how they track these things, and I'm not interested in learning (yes, I bet all my compsci friends would leap at the chance to consider the problem), but it does mean I think I'd like to link up my various websites as much as possible. In other words, this post won't say much. But, in case you were interested:
I'm at Academia.edu. I'm also on Facebook.

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