SP3: Space, Sports, Spectroscopy

Things have been busy lately! JWST has launched and is making its way to L2 and I successfully presented and defended my qualifying exam to become a PhD candidate officially! Also, new records have been set in terms of amount of extractable energy from a fusion reaction. Let's talk about the materials and materials science need to achieve this goal. Image of the ITER fusion reactor in Europe from Nature.

Let's face it, Hubble won't be around forever. There needs to be another space observatory launched soon so that it can replace Hubble. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) may be just the candidate. As it will mostly operate in the infrared region of light, JWST is set to look at extremely old objects and light from potentially the first stars and galaxies to form. Getting closer to the Big Bang and learning about the very early days may soon be in our grasp. Let's talk about JWST, where it's going to be, what it's going to look for, and how it will collect the data. Image of the JWST gold-coated beryllium mirror from NASA.

The New York Yankees mission statement every year. And that is to win the World Series. But to do that, you have to make the playoffs. It wasn't looking good back in July. But let's talk about what happened and how the Yankees clinched that second wild card spot. Plus. let's talk about the Wild Card game against Boston and what the Yankees could do to improve the team for next season. Image from Getty Images.

Are you a civilian? Would you like a chance to go to space? That might just be a reality for you in the not too distant future. The Inspiration 4 mission just completed and it was crewed by all civilians. The first all-civilian orbital spaceflight! No governmentally trained astronauts on this SpaceX spacecraft. Plus, this mission is really doing a great job fundraising for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Tennessee. Let's talk about the entire mission from the crew, to the spacecraft, to the science, to the cause they are raising money for. Image of the Inspiration 4 flight path from the US Space Force.

Are you concerned about contamination in your drinking water? I think everyone feels that their water should be clean and free of pollutants. One of the common pollutants is a class of compounds that simply do not break down. These are per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as PFAS compounds. Let's talk about PFAS compounds. Specifically, what they are, why are they trouble, and what is being done to address the contamination. Image of some PFAS contaminated sites from Northeastern University.

The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a report this month outlining how bad climate change is, how bad it will be, and what will happen if we don't make drastic changes in the way we address the crisis. But that doesn't mean we will not be able to come up with clever solutions to help prevent some of the most extreme and dire consequences of climate change. Let's talk about the what the IPCC report states and one potential solution we could utilize, metal organic frameworks (MOFs) and carbon capture. Plus a brief update on the FDA fully approving the Pfizer vaccine for those 16 and older. Image from NOAA.

We have sent so many rovers, landers, and orbiters to Mars over the past few decades, including the Perseverance rover. So surely we know just about everything we need to know about the red planet, right? Absolutely not! We don't even really know what underneath the surface of the crust or how Mars evolved to the point it's at now. It's thought that Mars once had conditions that were beneficial to life, instead of being the desolate wasteland it is today. Luckily, the InSight Mars lander is firmly planted on the surface finding out some critical information that can help scientists learn more about Mars and its evolution. Three new papers, just recently published in Science, shed some light on the composition of the interior of Mars. Let's talk about these pretty interesting results! Image from the journal Science.

Is the planet's most famous and arguably most successful telescope on the brink of total failure? Luckily, no. The Hubble Space Telescope is still working just fine and producing all kinds of stunning images and valuable data. But the latest problem with the telescope over the past month was not the first problem that Hubble has worked through to become one of the most successful missions NASA has ever launched. Let's talk about Hubble, some of the problems it has overcome, and just a small selection of some of the most important discoveries it has made. Image of the Hubble Space Telescope as seen from the Discovery space shuttle during the second servicing mission from NASA.

It's been tough to be a Yankees fan in 2021. The team was billed as being reloaded for another run at the World Series as recent failures against the Astros and Rays occurred. But things seem to not be going according to plan. Is it the hitting, the defense, the pitching, the manager, or the front office? Let's talk about these aspects and see why it might be a struggle for the Yankees to make the playoffs. Image from the New York Post.

Why is carbon such an interesting element? It can take so many forms such as diamonds, coal, graphite, carbon black, carbon nanotubes, and buckyballs, just to name a few. But today, let's talk about graphene and why it could lead a revolution into the next technological age. Plus, let's discuss some interesting new research into graphene's superconducting properties and how it can be produced cheaply and efficiently using an ingenious new method. And all this falls under the umbrella of materials science so we have to understand where society has come from so we can understand how we move forward in terms of understanding and studying materials. Image of the structure of graphene from Caltech.