The Synthesis of a π-Extended Tetrathiafulvalene Porphyrin for MOF Formation and Use in Solar Cells

With the purpose of creating a conjugated system for potential experiments in solar cell applications, the first π-extended TTF (ExTTF) porphyrin with a functionalizable handle (carboxylic ester) was synthesized. The overall yield was 0.249%. This compound will then be incorporated into a 2-D metalorganic framework using zinc and bispyridine as the linkers. Assuming the synthesis of this sheet will later be successful, it can be tested for its redox properties using CV and its absorption properties to assess its feasibility in a solar cell. It is believed that these sheets of ExTTF porphyrin and zinc will have long-lived charge separated states when paired with C60 and will improve the efficiency of solar cells.Chemistr

SNEWS: A Neutrino Early Warning System for Galactic SN II

The detection of neutrinos from SN1987A confirmed the core-collapse nature of SN II, but the neutrinos were not noticed until after the optical discovery. The current generation of neutrino experiments are both much larger and actively looking for SN neutrinos in real time. Since neutrinos escape a new SN promptly while the first photons are not produced until the photospheric shock breakout hours later, these experiments can provide an early warning of a coming galactic SN II. A coincidence network between neutrino experiments has been established to minimize response time, eliminate experimental false alarms, and possibly provide some pointing to the impending event from neutrino wave-front timing.Comment: 4 pages, to appear in the proceedings for the October 1999 Maryland Astrophysics Conference, "Cosmic Explosions!

“And it’s just when I think I’ve won the staring contest”: Viewing the World through Science and Poetry with Madhur Anand

In this interview, poet and ecologist Madhur Anand discusses her collection of poetry, A New Index for Predicting Catastrophes, with Alec Follett. She considers the poetic potential of scientific language as well as other topics related to her poetry and her research including field guides, biodiversity, and socio-ecological relationships

The autoconjugacy of a generalized Collatz map

Many of the 2-adic properties of the 3x+1 map generalize to the analogous mx+r map, where m and r are odd integers. We introduce the corresponding autoconjugacy map, prove some simple properties of it and make some further conjectures in the general setting, including weak versions of the periodicity and divergent trajectories conjectures