Silver Screen, Hasidic Jews: The Story of An Image

This is a book review of Shaina Hammerman, Silver Screen, Hasidic Jews: The Story of An Image (Indiana University Press, 2018)

Confessions of a converted lecturer *

The introductory physics course often is one of the biggest hurdles in the academic career of a student. For a sizable number of students, the course leaves a permanent sense of frustration. I have only to tell people I am a physicist to hear grumblings about high school or college physics. This general sense of frustration with introductory physics is widespread among non-physics majors required to take physics courses. Even physics majors are frequently dissatisfied with their introductory courses, and a large fraction of students initially interested in physics end up majoring in a different field. What have we done to make it that way, and can we do something about it? Or should we just ignore this phenomenon and concentrate on teaching the successful student who is going on to a career in science? An eye opener Frustration with introductory physics courses has been commented on since the days of Maxwell and has recently been widely publicized by Sheila Tobias, who asked a number of graduate students in the humanities and social sciences to audit introductory science courses and describe their impressions. [1] The result of this survey is a book that paints a bleak picture of introductory science education. One may be tempted to brush off This paper, which accompanies a lecture delivered in May 2007 in Oporto, Portugal, is adapte

Near-Zero Index Photonic Crystals with Directive Bound States in the Continuum

Near-zero-index platforms arise as a new opportunity for light manipulation with boosting of optical nonlinearities, transmission properties in waveguides and constant phase distribution. In addition, they represent a solution to impedance mismatch faced in photonic circuitry offering several applications in quantum photonics, communication and sensing. However, their realization is limited to availability of materials that could exhibit such low-index. For materials used in the visible and near-infrared wavelengths, the intrinsic losses annihilate most of near-zero index properties. The design of all-dielectric photonic crystals with specific electromagnetic modes overcame the issue of intrinsic losses while showing effective mode index near-zero. Nonetheless, these modes strongly radiate to the surrounding environment, greatly limiting the devices applications. Here, we explore a novel all-dielectric photonic crystal structure that is able to sustain effective near-zero-index modes coupled to directive bound-states in the continuum in order to decrease radiative losses, opening extraordinary opportunities for radiation manipulation in nanophotonic circuits. Moreover, its relatively simple design and phase stability facilitates integration and reproducibility with other photonic components

Intracellular Cargo Delivery Induced by Irradiating Polymer Substrates with Nanosecond-Pulsed Lasers

There is a great need in the biomedical field to efficiently, and cost-effectively, deliver membrane-impermeable molecules into the cellular cytoplasm. However, the cell membrane is a selectively permeable barrier, and large molecules often cannot pass through the phospholipid bilayer. We show that nanosecond laser-activated polymer surfaces of commercial polyvinyl tape and black polystyrene Petri dishes can transiently permeabilize cells for high-throughput, diverse cargo delivery of sizes of up to 150 kDa. The polymer surfaces are biocompatible and support normal cell growth of adherent cells. We determine the optimal irradiation conditions for poration, influx of fluorescent molecules into the cell, and post-treatment viability of the cells. The simple and low-cost substrates we use have no thin-metal structures, do not require cleanroom fabrication, and provide spatial selectivity and scalability for biomedical applications

Peut-on apprendre sans désapprendre?

L’un des principaux objectifs de l’enseignement des sciences est d’aider les étudiants à modifier leur vision du monde. Cela est particulièrement important en physique, car les étudiants ont souvent des idées préconçues qui vont à l’encontre de ce qu’on tente de leur enseigner, précisément en ce qui concerne les concepts newtoniens. Parmi ces «  conceptions erronées  » documentées depuis des décennies, on estime qu’un grand nombre sont profondément ancrées dans leur esprit et difficiles à modifier. Les auteurs de cet article présentent quelques résultats issus d’une recherche qu’ils ont menée, découvertes qui ont transformé leur propre perception de la façon dont les étudiants apprennent la physique. Plusieurs des idées soumises ici pourraient aussi s’appliquer à d’autres disciplines, que ce soit dans un programme préuniversitaire ou technique