from the nserc newsletter:

Evaluation planned for Discovery Grants Program

Planning for the formal evaluation of the Discovery Grants Program is currently under way. NSERC will conduct the evaluation in 2013, drawing on multiple sources of information. Those will include surveys of applicants, scientific societies and institutions, with the goal of assessing the continuing performance and delivery of the program. Details about the research community’s participation in the evaluation process will be provided as they become available.

Quantum confinement in Si and Ge nanostructures

E. G. Barbagiovanni, D. J. Lockwood, P. J. Simpson, and L. V. Goncharova

Poster: http://www.physics.uwo.ca/colloquia/Colloquia%20Notices/2011_2012/LEVESQUE%20Research%20Talk.pdf

Western University
DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY

PHYSICS & ASTRONOMY COLLOQUIUM

Date:          Monday, 5^th March 2012
Time:          1:30 p.m.
Location:    Physics & Astronomy Seminar Room 22

Dr. Ives Levesque
Magnetic Resonance Systems Research Laboratory

Department of Electrical Engineering

Stanford University

“Quantitative mapping of brain tissue properties in vivo by magnetic resonance”

ABSTRACT

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) provides exquisite sensitivity to subtle variations in biological tissue structure, molecular composition, and physiological processes. Imaging data can be analyzed with biophysical models, resulting in a wide range of quantitative techniques to map fundamental parameters that relate, directly or indirectly, to tissue properties. Examples include relaxation times, water diffusion, and metabolic information. Quantitative MRI (QMRI) measurements can be validated directly in the laboratory, and facilitate inter-site comparisons and longitudinal studies. Validated metrics can become biomarkers, providing increased specificity for research and clinical use.

QMRI faces a number of challenges, notably the reproducibility and accuracy of methods, exam duration, and interpretation of observations. Acquisition sequences must be optimized for the desired measurement. Signal modeling must be realistic and reliable, and should seek a straightforward interpretation of the observations. Examples will be drawn from the study of multiple sclerosis (MS)—a neurological disease characterized by inflammation and neurodegeneration in the brain and spine—where methods based on magnetization transfer and T2 relaxation have been proposed to characterize myelin content and disease progression. Compensation of static and transmission field inhomogeneity and parallel transmit technology improve data quality and measurement accuracy, in particular for high field imaging (3 Tesla and up). Recent advances in image reconstruction, such as parallel imaging and compressed sensing, open new possibilities for faster data acquisition. These technological advances provide new avenues for the development and application of QMRI.

A short video by Christoph Malin shows an evening on Cerro Paranal.

It's a really nice clip and it's amazing how spectacular the sky is without light pollution.

Nomad planets (planets without a parent star) may outnumber the stars in our galaxy by quite a lot (100,000:1) according to a recent study.

Not only that, but some of these nomadic planets may be captured by stars (or black holes) and enter wide, eccentric orbits around their newfound stars.

If you want more information, click here and here for the full papers.

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day (sponsored by NASA, see http://apod.nasa.gov/) held a bit of a surprise: the ever photogenic galaxy group Stephan's Quintet imaged by the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) and Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) onboard the Hubble Space Telescope. The Quintet is part of the research of UWO professor Dr. Sarah Gallagher and her graduate students Konstantin Fedotov, who uses Hubble to study the star cluster population in the galaxy group, and Tyler Desjardins (that is to say myself), who uses X-ray observations from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory to examine hot gas in a sample of galaxy groups including the Quintet.

Pictured: Stephan's Quintet (Hubble Legacy Archive; NASA; ESA; Al Kelly)

Undergraduate students here in the department have banded together into the Physics and Astronomy Student Association (PASA) to help their members with their studies, organize social events for themselves and the department at-large, and promote physics and astronomy outside of the department among other activities. To get to know PASA a little better, see their website at http://www.pasa-uwo.com/index.php which includes interesting features such as montly interviews with department faculty and grad students.

How do astronomers serve their communities? One example is through outreach programs designed to increase the scientific awareness of the general public. Here at The University of Western Ontario, our department runs one such program called Exploring the Stars. We invite any group interested in learning more about astronomy to join us for a lecture on a topic of their choice, and a chance to look through our historic 25.4 cm refractor telescope at the Cronyn Observatory on campus. The program instructors also host open houses at the observatory on the last Saturday of each month (tonight from 7pm-9pm!) during the school year and every Saturday from 8:30pm-11pm during the summer. More information can be found at these links:

http://www.astro.uwo.ca/exploringthestars/

http://physics.uwo.ca/outreach/public_nights.html

Free public observatory night, tonight at 7:00pm. More info: http://www.physics.uwo.ca/outreach/public_nights.html

The Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX), an orbital ultaviolet telescope, was recently placed in standby mode as teams prepare to end the 9 year old mission. Its mission was originally to determine distances to galaxies in the nearby and distant Universe and measure how quickly they are forming stars. However, among the mission's many scientific discoveries are things like the image below, an ultraviolet tail and a bow shock between the stellar wind of the star Mira and the surrounding interstellar medium as it plows through our own home galaxy The Milky Way.

Photo: GALEX view of Mira (NASA/JPL-Caltech/C. Martin (Caltech)/M. Seibert(OCIW))