Superheroes of Science

Before x-rays were used for medical purposes, they were used for entertainment. X-rays are part of the electromagnetic spectrum and are utilized in a variety of radiography procedures that are currently taught to aspiring veterinary students. Liane Shaw, Diagnostic Imaging Senior Instructional Veterinary Nurse at the Purdue University College of Veterinary Medicine, describes the use of x-rays within these procedures and gives us a crash course in the history and properties of x-ray waves.

We all take medicine at some time or another, but what do we know about how these medicines are made? We asked Joe Topczewski, a chemist who has been part of both academia and industry, about pharmaceuticals: how they are made, how they become available, and how they are regulated. We learned that there is a lot of freely available information on federal government pages regarding most pharmaceuticals that are accessible to the general public.

How is a research program chosen for funding by NASA? As various scientific field campaigns are implemented, some of the campaigns reach the scientific research community and program scientists like Ken Jucks, Program Scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. Programs selected through peer-review for funding by NASA focus on answering science questions that are important to society, and that include the development of a solid, scientific approach toward answering these questions. The role of a NASA Program Scientist is to discover appropriate field campaigns from the research community that are happening during a time when NASA can organize funding to support the campaigns.

NASA is divided into a number of different Mission Directorates. The DCOTSS Campaign was funded as part of the Science Directorate (earth science division) to provide an opportunity that might enhance the capability of scientists to better understand the current state of the Earth system and to enable continual improvement in the prediction of future changes.

The Sun is both a natural laboratory for plasma physics and the focus of the field of study known as Heliophysics. Heliophysics involves the physics of how the Sun actually works. Dr. Michael Kirk, P.I. of the NASA Heliophysics Education Activation Team, defines the state of matter known as plasma, and explains how studying the Sun helps us better understand satellites, radio signals, GPS signals, and many other technologies that affect our life every day. Solar eclipses, including the upcoming annular solar eclipse (October 2023) and total solar eclipse (April 2024), are also discussed.

NASA HEAT Homepage

https://science.nasa.gov/science-activation-team/nasa-heliophysics-education-activation-team

NASA Eclipses Home

https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/eclipses/home/

There are many variables that play a role in understanding the impacts of water as it relates to the development of different environments. Kayla Cotterman is an Environmental Scientist with the Lochmueller Group who studies the impact to wetlands for groups wanting to develop. Cotterman discusses variables such as water usage, storm water, runoff, and historic rain events. Factors such as these are taken into consideration when advising engineering firms about the construction of buildings, so that they will be able to withstand the environment in which they are being built.

When you look at a leaf, what color do you see? While a leaf may appear green, it is not necessarily producing green light. The leaf absorbs wavelengths of red light, and reflects the green light that we see. Professor Alexander Wei's research group synthesizes molecules and nanomaterials, and studies how these materials interact with light. Wei discusses luminescence, fluorescence, phosphorescence, and where we can observe these light-related properties in our everyday life. Wei's group is currently focused on designing and developing new materials that produce blue light. There is a current need for blue-light producing materials that can be used with an exciting new technology related to the next generation of flat panel television displays: Organic Light-Emitting Diodes (OLEDs).

Special thanks for support from NSF grant CHE-2204206

Mike Hoffman is the former 16 First Alert Chief Meteorologist of 27 years. Recently retired, he had enough time to sit down with us and discuss chaos as it relates to the weather. Hoffman recalls his years at Purdue, learning about the delay between performing calculations for upcoming weather with a computer model and using the results of those calculations to actually make weather predictions. While computer models today are much better than they used to be, Hoffman comments on the importance of using experience and intuition to determine how correct a computer model might be.

Brad Garczynski, PhD Candidate in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences at Purdue University, researches Martian rocks with the Perseverance Rover.

Brad and others are using the natural environment we have access to on Earth to make connections and gain a better understanding of observations being made at Jezero Crater on Mars.

Dr. Doug Schmitt is the Professor and Stephen and Karen Brand Endowed Chair of Unconventional Energy at Purdue University. Dr. Schmitt provides insight on growing energy consumption, the increased demand for products made with fewer (or no) greenhouse gas emissions, and challenges associated with the realities surrounding unconventional energy product development.

Dr. Tommy Sors, Assistant Director of the Purdue Institute of Inflammation, Immunology and Infectious Disease (PI4D), explains the role that STEM professionals in all fields play in sequencing genes to understand the instructions for life found in every cell. This field of study is known as genomics, but within this field, there are many other "-omics." How about the field of study involving RNA copied from DNA made within the cell? Transcriptomics. The field of instructions on how to make proteins? Proteomics. The study of proteins metabolizing within the cell? Metabolomics. Each of these fields creates a flood of information that requires computational science to help scientists better understand the data.