Biography of Rosalind Franklin, hart to put down.

This interesting biography of Rosalind Franklin is very hard to put down.

Lots of physics concepts set in the drama of a one woman's life. Her famous x-ray image of the DNA molecule is one of the most famous scientific images ever. But she died young and was not given the Nobel Prize with the others, Wilkins, Crick, Watson.

Interesting gamma ray burst during finals week, GRB 130427A

An interesting gamma ray burst happened during finals week, GRB 130427A

Back in the early 1960s, the United States launched a few satellites, the Vela satellites, to detect secret nuclear weapons testing by the Soviet Union. By treaty between the US and USSR, no one was to test nuclear weapons above ground; underground testing was permitted. To monitor the Russians, US scientists at Los Alamos developed the Vela platform.

Nobody ever saw the Russkies nuking off any above ground tests, but while the detectors were not over Siberia, they could definitely see bursts of high energy gamma rays from sources outside the solar system.

Excellent.

In the 1970s, they began publishing scientific studies of these gamma ray bursters. The image below is an animation of the April 27 burst. Click the image to see the animation.

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There is still a lot of study going on as to why these GRBs happen all over the universe. We do not know for sure, and neither do the Russians. This GRB was so close and so well-imaged, that maybe someone will now crack the puzzle, using F = ma, quantum physics and all the concepts we study in PSC1121.

Final exam is ready.

Final examination today.

80 points, 76 questions

This exam is mandatory, and there are no makeups, no early or late exams. You get exactly one attempt, so do not blow it. You must make sure you internet connection is working flawlessly.

Bonus points opportunity for everyone

I just activated a bonus points activity in Discussions, creating a question for the final exam on Saturday.

Go for it!

All but the final

I just updated all points from mini-quiz participation, making 52 possible based on 13 mini-quizzes, 4 points each.

You now have all regular points for the semester other than the final examination.

You can now estimate can now estimate your grade going into the final:

1. Add up the midterm exam subtotal and the mini-quiz participation subtotal, then
2. divide that sum by 132. That gives you your percentage going into the final exam.
3. Look up that percentage on the red grade scale table on the syllabus page.
4. Note: You cannot use the points values in the grade scale yet, because the final exam is not on the books yet.

And I apologize that the gradebook inside Webcourses is somewhat incomprehensible. I just cannot get it to do what I want, and I cannot turn off all its loathesome percentages! BAH!

GO

Learning module O for Oceans is now ready. It requires some online journal reading, which is linked to the concept guide. There will be questions on the mini-quiz about this reading, and on the final exam!