Outreach at the match: a cautionary tale

John Baruch, Ulrich Kolb, Helen Fraser and Jen Heyes share some of the pitfalls they encountered when combining outreach with football; they advocate a different sort of wow factor

Observation of a quenched moment of inertia in a rotating strongly interacting Fermi gas

We make a model-independent measurement of the moment of inertia of a rotating, expanding strongly-interacting Fermi gas. Quenching of the moment of inertia is observed for energies both below and above the superfluid transition. This shows that a strongly interacting Fermi gas with angular momentum can support irrotational flow in both the superfluid and collisional normal fluid regimes.Comment: 4 pages 5 figure

Baryogenesis in extended inflation. 2: Baryogenesis via primordial black holes

Baryogenesis at the end of extended inflation is studied. Extended inflation is brought to an end by the collisions of bubble walls surrounding regions of true vacuum, a process which produces particles well out of thermal equilibrium. The possibility that the wall collisions may provide a significant density of primordial black holes is considered and their possible role in generating a baryon asymmetry is examined

Mechanical spinal cord transection in larval zebrafish and subsequent whole-mount histological processing

Zebrafish regenerate their spinal cord after injury, both at larval and adult stages. Larval zebrafish have emerged as a powerful model system to study spinal cord injury and regeneration due to their high optical transparency for in vivo imaging, amenability to high-throughput analysis, and rapid regeneration time. Here, we describe a protocol for the mechanical transection of the larval zebrafish spinal cord, followed by whole-mount tissue processing for in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry to elucidate principles of regeneration

Teaching silvics: Student performance and evaluations in web-based and traditional classroom courses

There is interest in Web delivery of lower-division forestry courses at Northern Arizona University to accommodate transfer students and scheduling conflicts. We have taught “Trees and Forests of North America,” a sophomore-level required course for forestry majors, for five years with good results as measured by student performance on exams and student evaluations. Fall semester 2001 marks our first completely Web- based version of the course; 25 students enrolled with 30% of the class residing outside of the Flagstaff area. Students covered the course material using a combination of linked Web sites and a commercially available dendrology CD set following a weekly schedule based on the classroom course. We used student evaluations and identical test questions to compare student performance in the Web-based and classroom courses. These data provide a preliminary indication of the feasibility of using a self-directed, Web-based approach to teaching silvics in forestry curricula

Mass accommodation coefficient measurements for HNO3, HCl and N2O5 on water, ice and aqueous sulfuric acid droplet surfaces

Preliminary results are reported of the direct measurement of accommodation coefficients for HNO3, N2O5 and HCl on water drops, aqueous sulfuric acid drops and ice particles. The heterogeneous chemistry of these species together with ClONO2 has been implicated in the ozone depletion observed in the Antarctic stratosphere during the spring in the last eight years. The most plausible chemical mechanism involves the removal of nitrogen oxide species via condensation on ice particles in polar stratospheric clouds resulting in a increase in the active chlorine species responsible for the ozone depletion. The observation of low NO2 and high ClO densities in the Antarctic stratosphere last summer appear to be consistent with such a mechanism

Vaccine efficacy in swine challenged with a highly virulent S. typhimurium

Vaccination is one of several options to reduce the impact of Salmonella infections in pork. To demonstrate cross protection against infection with S. typhimurium, pigs were vaccinated with a live vaccine (Enterisol SC-54, Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica, Inc.), left as positive challenge controls or negative, non challenged controls