ACHIEVING THE DREAM IN SCIENCE
Math and Engineering
Professional Development
Stan Bumble, Ph. D.
sbumble@ccp.edu
August 26, 2008
This talk contains my own views and not those of
my division, department or any other employees
of the school.
Some of it will be autobiographical and the goals
and views are mine.
MY ORIGINS AND MENTORS
High school
College
Industrial and Governmental Work
Volunteer
Teaching
MYSTERY MAN
WHO WAS HE?
N2H4+N2O4 AND A WALK ON THE MOON
MODELS APPLIED TO DISASTER PLANNING
GARRETT LISI
MULTIVERSE
LARGE HADRON COLLIDER (LHC)
DUNE (Dark UNiverse Explorer)
SPACE (SPectroscopic All-sky Cosmic Explorer)
MY GOALS
Beautiful theories
It is
1. The beauty of simplicity and inevitability
2. The beauty of perfect structure
3. The beauty of everything fitting together
4. The beauty of nothing being changeable
5. The beauty of being spare and classic
The application of pure mathematics to physics
To be driven by the wish to construct formalisms
that are conceptually beautiful
G. H. Hardy: “Mathematical patterns
must be beautiful. They must fit
together in a harmonious way. Beauty
is the first test.There is no permanent
place for ugly mathematics”
We expect to find compelling beautiful
answers for truly fundamental problems
Plato: The beauty we see in nature is a
reflection of the beauty of the ultimate.
Euclid’s geometry is a nearly perfect example of
abstract deductive reasoning. Now we know from
general relativity that it works so well because the
gravitational field on the surface of the earth is
rather weak so that the space in which we live has
no noticeable curvature. The Lucasian Chair at
Cambridge was held by Newton and Dirac,
officially a professorship in mathematics, not
physics. The development of a rigorous and
abstract style by Cauchy in the early nineteenth
century led mathematicians in their work to be
more independent of experience and common
sense.
Transformations like rotations or the mixing of
electrons and neutrinos in the electroweak theory
are called Lie groups.Gell-Mann and Yuval
Ne’eman found that SU(3) Lie groups imposed a
family structure on elementary particles found
experimentally and called this symmetry
principle the eightfold way because they fell into
families with eight members like the neutron,
proton, and their six siblings.
Critical exponents are good examples in physics
of smooth phase transitions like the spontaneous
disappearance of magnetism when an iron
permanent magnet is heated above a certain
temperature. I have conducted experiments like
this that led to the strength of skyscrapers and
made chemical plants work and make some
people very rich.
Kepler in his Mysterium Cosmographicum
proposed that the existence of only five Platonic
solids explained why there were (apart from
earth) only five planets: Mercury, Venus, Mars,
Jupiter, Saturn. He thought each of the radii of
each planet’s orbit was in proportion to the
radius of the corresponding Platonic solid when
the solids are nested within each other in the right
order. This was fanciful. It reminds us of the sort
of theorizing that elementary physicists do today.
In some cases the initial hopes of scientists for a
beautiful theory have turned out to be misplaced.
A good example is provided by the genetic code.
The genetic code is pretty much a mess. The
reason of course is that the genetic code was not
designed; it developed through a series of
accidents at the beginning of life on earth and has
been inherited in more or less this form by all
subsequent organisms. It has been somewhat
improved.
SCIENCE OPPORTUNITIES
SCIENCE IS A WAY OF LIFE, A
PERSPECTIVE, A PROCESS
STEMCELL, GENOMIC SEQUENCING,
PERSONALIZED MEDICINE, LONGEVITY
RESEARCH, NANOSCIENCE, BRAINMACHINE INTERFACE, QUANTUM
COMPUTERS, SPACE TECHNOLOGY
GENES, PROTEINS, MOLECULES
EVERYTHING IS NOW ‘OME-SIZED.’
SCIENTISTS DO THINGS WHEN THEY ARE
YOUNG
Isaac Newton-early twenties
Albert Einstein-26
James Clerk Maxwell-retired by 35
Since Newton
Einstein-time is relative
De Broglie, Heisenberg,Schrodinger-particles
behave as waves
Watson and Crick-blueprint for reproducing life
Computers
Men landed on the moon
COMMUNITY COLLEGES (CCs)
TEN MILLION STUDENTS PER YEAR
1000 CCs IN U.S., ONE LOCATED WITHIN DRIVING DISTANCE
ENROLLMENT INCREASE 20% FROM 2000 TO 2003 (600,000 MORE)
ASSOC. DEGREE HOLDERS EARN 20-30% MORE THAN H.S. GRADS
TUITION 39% OF PUBLIC INSTITUTION FOUR-YEAR COLLEGES
MORE THAN HALF OF ENTRANTS UNPREPARED FOR COLLEGE
FOUR-FIFTHS OF ENTRANTS LONG TIME GOAL IS A BACHELOR’S
DEGREE BUT ONLY EIGHTEEN PERCENT ACTUALLY OBTAIN THIS
DEGREE WITHIN EIGHT YEARS OF INITIAL ENROLLMENT.
White students:
3.3 times the opportunity of Black and Hispanic
students to be in Gifted/Talented programs
4.1 times the opportunity of Black and Hispanic
students to be in math AP courses
2.1 times the opportunity of Black and Hispanic
students to be in science AP courses
High-poverty schools have a 50% higher rate of
low-scoring teachers (bottom SAT/ACT scores).
Minority students are twice as likely to be taught
by inexperienced (less than 3 Years)
teachers.
GATEKEEPER COURSES ARE CHARACTERIZED
BY HIGH-ENROLLMENT AND HIGH
UNSUCCESSFUL COMPLETION RATES.
TEACH FACULTY TO UNDERSTAND AND ADDRESS
DIVERSE LEARNING STYLES.
OFFER SUPPLEMENTAL INSTRUCTION, SUCCESS
WORKSHOPS, TUTORING AND STUDY GROUPS.
CREATE LEARNING COMMUNITIES
EARLY ALERT SYSTEM TO ENSURE THAT
STRUGGLING STUDENTS GET HELP.
MY AIM IS FOR EACH STUDENT TO ACTUALIZE
HIMSELF, TO BECOME HIS POTENTIALITIES.
TEACH FOR AMERICA
TO MAINTAIN ITS STANDING AS AN ECONOMIC POWER,
THE U.S. MUST ENCOURAGE PROGRAMS THAT HELP
STUDENTS ACHIEVE THE HIGHEST LEVELS IN MATH AND
SCIENCE, ESPECIALLY IN POOR COMMUNITIES WHERE
THE TEACHER CORPS IS TYPICALLY WEAK
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES WANTED TO RETAIN
TEACHERS IN THESE DISIPLINES AND ATTRACT 10,000 NEW
ONES EACH YEAR.
TEACH FOR AMERICA TEACHERS WORKED IN SCHOOLS
WITH THE NEEDIEST STUDENTS. RECRUITMENT SHOULD
FOCUS ON MORE SELECTIVE COLLEGES INSTEAD OF ON
TRADITIONAL TEACHER EDUCATION PROGRAMS, WHICH
ARE MORE OFTEN LITTLE MORE THAN DIPLOMA MILLS
FORGET OLD-FASHIONED “VOCATIONAL
ED” CLASSES (NONCOLLEGE TRACK).
PRODUCTION WORKER CLASS O. K.
CAREER ACADEMY
EIGHT YEARS AFTER HIGH SCHOOL $2,088 A
YEAR HIGHER.
INCREASE IN EARNINGS FOR MEN $3,731 PER
YEAR HIGHER.
CAPSTONE SEMESTER AT PSU NANOFAB
16 CCP STUDENTS HAVE ATTENDED
WE ARE LOOKING FOR MORE
OPPORTUNITIES FOR INDUSTRIAL JOBS
ARE THE LIKELY RESULTS FOR OUR GRADS
CCP STUDENTS ATTEND 3 SEMESTERS AT CCP AND THE 4TH
SEMESTER AT PSU
PSU HAS MUCH LAB EQUIPMENT WITH THE HELP OF A GRANT
AND INSTRUCTOR EXPERTISE IN NANOFABRICATION
THE STUDENTS HAVE FREE ROOM AND BOARD AT PSU AND PAY
CCP RATE TUITION FOR CAPSTONE SEMESTER
PLEASE HELP US RECRUIT MORE CCP STUDENTS FOR THIS
OPPORTUNITY
SOLID STATE PHYSICS AT PURDUE
UNIVERSITY
Purdue university students invented the
transistor on a signal corps grant
They were my lab teachers
THE WHOLE DEPARTMENT WAS GEARED
TOWARDS THAT FIELD
After graduation there were many job offerings
in the field
FOCUS ON STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT AS
WELL AS ENROLLMENT AND ACCESS.
BEYOND ENROLLMENT-BASED FUNDING
AND ACCOUNTABILITY
CREDENTIALS FOR THE WORKPLACE
PROGRAMS OF VALUE IN THE JOB
MARKET
Transfer from CC to Four Year-Colleges
SOCIAL BACKGROUND, PRECOLLEGE
ACADEMIC
CHARACTERISTICS, EXTERNAL DEMANDS AT
COLLEGE ENTRANCE, EXPERIENCES DURING
COLLEGE AFFECT TRANSFER LIKELIHOOD
OLDER COLLEGE ENTRANTS ARE MUCH LESS
LIKELYTO TRANSFER
Blacks tend to have higher educational
aspirations than whites of the same socioeconomic background
ENDOWMENTS: IN BILLION $, HARVARD-35,
YALE-23, STANFORD-17, PRINCETON-16.
CORNELL AND STANFORD HAD CAPITAL
CAMPAIGNS OF AT LEAST $4 BILLION EACH BUT
TWO YEAR COLLEGES THAT MEASURE THEIR
FUND-RAISING IN THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS ARE
ATTRACTING MORE PHILANTHROPISTS
THE HOWARD HUGHES MEDICAL INSTITUTE HAS
GIVEN NUMEROUS GRANTS TO IMPROVE
SCIENCE TEACHING
THE ALFRED P. SLOAN FOUNDATION HAS
WORKED TO TO INCREASE THE NUMBER OF
MINORITIES AND WOMEN IN SCIENCE,
ENGINEERING AND MATHEMATICS
ACADEMIC SCIENCE VS COMMERCIAL SCIENCE
THE GOAL OF COMMERCIAL SCIENCE IS
PROFITABLE PRODUCT.
INDUSTRIAL SCIENTISTS DO NOT HAVE THE
LUXURY OF TIME TO PRODUCE RESULTS.
SAFETY IS HIGHLY REGULATED IN INDUSTRY.
INDUSTRIAL SCIENTISTS’ ACTIVITIES MUST
MEET COMPANY GOALS AND NEEDS.
THE CO. OWNS ALL WORK DONE BY ITS
SCIENTISTS WHEREAS ACADEMIC SCIENTISTS
OWN THEIRS.
CONCLUSION: SCIENCE CURRICULUM SHOULD
COVER BOTH TRADITIONAL AND INDUSTRIAL
SCIENCE PROFICIENCIES.
RESEARCH POLICIES
‘TRANSLATIONAL
RESEARCH’:SHORTER TERM WORK
FOCUSED ON COMING UP WITH NEW
PRODUCTS.
‘TRANSFORMATIVE RESEARCH’:
LONGER-TERM WORK AIMED AT
COMING UP WITH NEW IDEAS
THINK TANKS
MY EXPERIENCE WITH THINK TANKS
THEY NORMALLY SERVE AS DEFENSE AGENCIES
MY PRACTICE OF “BLUE SKY” SESSIONS WITH
MY ENGINEERS IN INDUSTRY
MY EXPERIENCE WITH GROUPS SUCH AS THE
RAND CORP. AND ARTHUR D. LITTLE.
TEACHING STUDENTS EINSTEIN’S METHOD OF
“GEDANKEN” THEORETICALLY
PRESIDENCY OF Robert M. Hutchins
at the University of Chicago
Innovation at the common core
Educational strategy: students read original
source materials rather than textbooks and
discussed them in small groups using the Socratic
method rather than a lecture approach.
Teaching everyone to think, and to think well.
The great books of the western world and the arts
of reading, writing, thinking and speaking
together with mathematics.
Hutchins’ vision argued for life-long learning for
everyone.
The New Curriculum outlined four sequences of three
courses each in the Humanities, the Social Sciences, the
Physical sciences and the Natural Sciences.
My college (Brooklyn College) adopted some of these
measures. Although I was officially a Chemistry Major, I
actually took more courses in Physics than Chemistry.
My Ph. D. from Purdue University was in three
departments: Physics, Chemistry & Math.
Fifty years later I studied selected Biology courses by
myself and published papers and books in all these
specialties.
Testimonials
J. W. Cronin, Nobel, Physics, 1980: “my real education
began when I entered U. of Chicago in 1951”
Carl Sagan: “An Intellectual Feast-A Royal Road to
Truth-An integral part of the gorgeous tapestry of human
knowledge”
J. L. Friedman, Nobel, Physics, 1990: “Excitement
pervaded the department of physics”
F. S. Rowland: “Fermi was brilliant, Crystal clear
Lectures, Physical Chemistry taught by Harold Urey and
–Edward Teller-Mentor was Willard F. Libby”
ENVIRONMENT
CHINA
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PITTSBURGH
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S. PHILADELPHIA
LOVE CANAL
WILKES-BARRE
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HARRISBURG | KATRINA
|
PHILADELPHIA
|
THE WORLD
NANOTECHNOLOGY
ENGINEERING THE VACUUM
VACUUM FLUCTUATIONS
QUANTUM FLUCTUATIONS
PLANCK DIMENSIONS
CASIMIR EFFECT
MICROELECTROMECHANICAL DEVICES (MEMs)
TUNNELING-QUANTUM CASCADE LASER (QCL)
QUANTUM DOTS
QUANTUM COMPUTERS
ADVANCED MATERIALS-FABRICATION-MOLECULAR BEAM
EPITAXY (MBE)
BIOLOGICAL INTERFACE
MICROFLUIDIC SYSTEM ON A SILICON INTEGRATED
CIRCUIT (IC)
FLAGELLAR NANOMOTOR-E. COLI
LIQUID LIGHT CHANNELS-LIGHT-BASED LITHOGRAPHY
Nanotechnology systems for our graduates.
1. Mono terpenoid biosynthesis to synthesize
hydrocarbons to replace oil for fuel
production. J. Craig Ventner Institute has
contacted me with interest.
2. Nanovents embedded in plastics for car
bodies to furnish wind energy to drive
autos.
3. Nano motors using biomolecules to rotate
nanotubes to furnish energy
Several years ago I became interested in the possibility of microbes producing a
substitute for oil. I did study many microbial metabolic cycles in medical and
biochemistry books. One cycle in particular interested me. In that cycle
terpenoids were
made. One such terpene is isoprene, (CH(CH3)=CH-CH=CH2 (ISOPRENE, C5H8)).
Five molecules can kinetically combine to form squalene in that cycle C25H32.
Now
both of these compounds may not have the best physical properties to replace
gasoline for
autos but if two isoprene molecules combine to form limonene (which has both a
d and l
form and the formula C10H16), then that product may have the proper physicals
(boiling
point, melting point, viscosity, etc.) to replace gasoline. A compound,
dicyclopentadiene
is now a propellant in the cruise missile and limonene is very similar to those now
used in
the so called JP fuels. Isoprene is the same compound that forms a polymer
called rubber.
In one of my requested calculations for EPA, (using a program of mine called
Envirochemkin), I found that it can lead to biogenic pollution when emitted by
trees. I
ay menu ]
ent selection
Otegui is in the process of designing a living skin which will not only
be green in terms of its function but also in terms of its components.
The Nano Vent Skin (NVS) features a living mesh of engineered
planting which will be suitable for distribution over and inside many
structures to channel wind power in different ways.
It is easy to be sceptical that Nano technology will ever go ahead. To
this Otegui responds: "Definitely Nano-manufacturing is going
ahead. As you know there is a lot of research right now in order to
generate faster and more accurate means of production for
computer components (chips, circuits, etc). This industry is then
giving more access to small companies to start developing materials
and components in a smaller scale for less investment.
"In the meantime people like Dr J Craig Venter and Nosang V.
Myung are using living organisms as production methods to
generate new cells and nanotubes.These are some of the people that
have shown their work to the public. Many others like MIT don't
show what they are working on, but we could expect something in
the near future."
A molecular motor in which multiple concentric cylinders
(or nested cones) rotate around a common longitudinal
axis. Opposing complementary surfaces of the cylinders or
cones are coated with complementary motor protein pairs
(such as actin and myosin). The actin and myosin interact
with one another in the presence of ATP to rotate the
cylinders or cones relative to one another, and this
rotational energy is harnessed to produce work. The
concentration of ATP and the number of nested cylinders
or cones can be used to control the rotational speed of the
motor. The length of the cylinders can also be used to
control the power generated by the motor.
Research at the interface between biology and electrical
engineering(ultra-fast genome sequencing; direct conversion
of molecular recognition and binding events to electrical
signals; using bio-molecules for self-assembling engineered
structures; hybrid microorganism/solid-state devices and
systems; developing tools for the study of biology at the
single cell level; ultra-low cost diagnostic tools).
Engineered Self-assembly(design and construction of selfassembled structures and devices in the micro- and nanoscales; self-assembly as an engineering concept; selfassembly across the size-scale; developing self-assembly as a
method for mass manufacturing; self-assembly for
heterogeneous system integration).
A paper that will appear in 2009
Massive parallel processing nano brain operating
1011molecular neurons simultaneously.
Nanofactories composed of molecular machines (MM)
alleviating the energy crisis.
Computers made by MM mimicking creativity and
intelligence.
Consciousness translated from proteins to cells to tissue.
Interstellar travel is more likely to planets in the habitable
zone as warp drive is the subject of theoretical papers.
Five years ago my professional development talk was on
NETWORKS
It has graduated into ORGANIZATIONS and
EMERGENCE
Theoretical physics has transitioned from reductionism to
complex adaptive matter
There is now hope for providing a jumping-off point for
new discoveries, new concepts, and new wisdom.