Acronym in experimental physics: MINOS for Main Injector Neutrino Oscillation Search

Neutrinos are subatomic particles (leptons) with half-integer spin and without electric charge. They come in three types or flavors: electron-neutrino, muon-neutrino and tau-neutrino. The flavor of a neutrino oscillates, while the neutrino is flying through space—for example, after being generated by beta-decay of a radioactive atom. Different neutrino flavors have slightly different masses [1].

Neutrino oscillation has been observed by different experiments.  The oscillation probability of  neutrinos and the exact tiny neutrino masses have not yet been measured with the desired accuracy. The MINOS experiment has the aim to do this: the abbreviation MINOS stands for Main Injector Neutrino Oscillation Search [1-3] .

MINOS is based on two detectors: the first being stationed at the neutrino source at the Fermilab and the second being located 450 miles (735 km) away at the Soudan Underground Mine, a former iron mining site, in norther Minnesota. Frank Close explains the MINOS design in his acclaimed “neutrino cracker” [3]:

A huge 5000 tonne detector was built in a new, bigger, cavern in the Soudan mine. This utises yet another detection method. Charged particles passing through plastic, which had been loaded with small quantities of special chemicals, emit flashes of light (scintillate). These scintillations can be collected and delivered to phototubes which are similar in principle to those used to detect the Cerenkov light in the water detectors. By forming the plastic into narrow strips, sandwiched between plates of steel, the path of the charged particles through the detector can be followed, and by magnetising the steel plates, the curvature of the paths and thus the energy of the produced particles can be measured. From all this information, the details of the neutrino interaction, and in particular its energy, can be reconstructed. Then both the distance travelled (the 735 km from Fermilab) and the neutrino energy are known. A very similar (but smaller) detector was also built at Fermilab, so that by comparing the energy distribution of the neutrinos measured at Fermilab with that measured at Soudan, they could measure how any deficit depended on the energy of the neutrinos. If, as expected, this showed an oscillatory pattern, it would measure the difference in mass between the produced and oscillated neutrino.

What are the special chemicals loaded into the steel-plate-sandwiched plastic strips?

Neutrino mass is not included in the Standard Model of particle physics: neutrinos are assumed to have zero mass. But the phenomenon of neutrino oscillation suggests non-zero masses. MINOS is expected to clarify the neutrino mass conundrum and, thus, add new insight to particle physics and beyond.

Keywords:  elementary particles, Cerenkov radiation, oscillation pattern, nuclear physics, cosmology.

References and more to explore
[1] Cambridge MINOS Group: www.hep.phy.cam.ac.uk/minos.
[2] Fermilab: The MINOS Experiment and NuMI Beamline: www-numi.fnal.gov.
[3] Frank Close: Neutrino. Oxford University Press, Oxford, U.K., 2010.

Labeling exoworlds: Name an exosolar planet! Try CosmoBlue!

If you want to get involved in naming well-characterized planets that were discovered in exoplanetary systems prior to December 31, 2008, here is your gateway: www.nameexoworlds.org. You may just want to sign up and cast a vote on suggested names as an individual. Community-based, your astronomy-interested club or a public astronomical organization, including planetariums and amateur astronomy groups, will be admitted to submit a naming proposal [1]— ganz offiziell! [2]. The results will be announced in August during a meeting of the IAU (International Astronomical Union) in Honolulu, Hawaii. Daniel Stone writes [3]:

If you've ever wanted to name a planet, now's your chance. The International Astronomical Union (IAU) wants help naming 32 exoplanets—planets that orbit a star other than our sun. Scientific and cultural organizations were asked to submit potential names. The public can rank finalists at nameexoworlds.org until July 15.

The winning public names will not replace scientific designations (usually consisting of a proper noun or abbreviation, sometimes followed by numbers and always followed by a lowercase letter [4]); but will be IAU-recognized  “with due credit to the organization that proposed it” [1].

What names can we expect, or should we not expect, to win?
Names that are trademark-protected or of a principally commercial nature will not be considered. Also excluded are names of living individuals and pets. Offensive words and terms with politically sensitive associations won't have a chance either. Proposed names should be 16 characters or less in length, preferably one word, pronounceable and “not too similar to an existing name of an astronomical object.”

I guess, CosmoBlue would be a name that fits the above criteria. I know a cat named Cosmo, but she is not blue—so, the pet name violation is circumvented. Further, we need to search—at least—trademark databases and astronomical databases such as the IAU's Minor Planet Center. The latter tells me that it does not have any matching documents for CosmoBlue. The name “CosmoBlue” sounds like a distinctive candidate. Yet, I am not sure if such a promising name should be wasted for a non-habitable planet.

Keywords: astronomy, astronomical nomenclature, exoplanet designation, public naming campaign, Zooniverse.

Rules and references
[1] Name exoworlds: Rules and Privacy. [www.nameexoworlds.org/the_process]. 
[2] Jan Hattenbach (Spektrum.de): Benennen Sie einen Exoplaneten und das offiziell! [www.spektrum.de/news/benennen-sie-einen-exoplaneten-und-das-offiziell/1300440].
[3] Daniel Stone: What should the name be? You Decide. National Geography July 2015, 228 (1), no page number. 
[4] International Astronomical Union: Naming of exoplanets [www.iau.org/public/themes/naming_exoplanets/].

A main-belt asteroid named after forest-canopy scientist Margaret D. Lowman

A Mont-Blanc-size main-belt asteroid, orbiting near Jupiter and discovered by astronomer couple Carolyn S. and Eugene M. Shoemaker at Palomar in 1988, is named after American canopy ecologist Margaret D. Lowman: 10739 Lowman (1988 JB1) [1,2].

The orbit of botanist Margaret Lowman (b. 1953, New York)—known as Canopy Meg—includes Australia, Africa, Peru, Panama, Belize and Florida, where she explores and studies what is happening at the tops of trees [3]. As a pioneer of the science of canopy ecology, Meg is also nicknamed the “real-life Lorax” by National Geographic and “Einstein of the treetops” by Wall Street Journal [4].

Richard Preston writes in his canopy-guided nonfiction page turner The Wild Trees [3]:

In 1978, Margaret D. Lowman, a young American graduate student in botany at the University of Sydney, in Australia, decided to write her dissertation on treetops. She had been anxious about choosing a topic, and she thought that at least nobody had tried this one. Lowman wanted to climb the trees, but she had no idea how to do that. She joined a caving club in Sydney, and the other members taught her how to climb a rope using Jumar ascenders. Lowman sewed a climbing harness for herself made out of seat-belt straps, and welded some pieces of iron together to make a slingshot. She then went into a forest near Sydney and used the slingshot to shoot a fishing line over the branch of a tree, after which she attached a thin nylon cord to the fishing line and dragged the cord over the branch. Then she attached a rope to the nylon cord and pulled it over. Lowman began making solo ascents into the rain-forest canopy of eastern Australia. “When I first started out climbing trees, I had no idea that they held fifty percent of the life on the planet,” Lowman said to me. “We had no clue that the forest canopy is this amazing hot spot for biodiversity.” 

[Richard Preston, 2007]

During an evening tree climb in New South Wales, “Treetop Meg” once slipped and fell off a branch; fifteen feet to the ground in free fall. She got badly bruised, but without suffering any broken bones [2]. It was time to design smart devices and structures that support safe canopy access and observation.

How did the canopy-asteroid connection arise?
Margaret Lowman has designed hot-air balloons for over 30 years.  The balloons advanced the exploration of canopy worlds, but not asteroid belts. This was the realm of planetary scientist Carolyn Shoemaker (b.  1929, Gallup, New Mexico), a leading discoverer of comets and asteroids and co-discoverer of  the to-be-named asteroid. Shoemaker, who “loves to name real estate in outer space after woman whose work I admire” [2], honored Canopy Meg by coining one of “her” asteroids Lowman,  Thus, an outer-space object got named for a woman dedicated to understand life at the delicate interface between outer space and the human landscape—at Earth's fragile and fractal arboreta branching out into the universe.

Keywords: Minor Planet Lowman, astronomy, planetary science, terminology, honoring female scientists, name giving.

References and more to explore
[1] Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Small-Body Database Browser: 10739 Lowman (1988 JB1) [ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=10739+Lowman].
[2] Richard Preston: The Wild Trees. Random House Trade Paperbacks, New York, 2008; pp. 53-55.
[3] The Official Web Site Of Margaret D. Lowman, Ph.D., aka: Canopy Meg [canopymeg.com/].
[4] Oxford Centre for Tropical Forest: Margaret D Lowman, Ph.D. [www.tropicalforests.ox.ac.uk/people/269].

More on naming and classifying orbiting objects in planetary science:

• Official labeling scheme for newly discovered minor planets
• A new verb is making its orbit: to pluto
• Two Pluto moons discovered in June 2005 named Nix and Hydra by IAU
• Acronym in astronomy: TNO for trans-Neptunian object
• Europe versus Europa
• Jupiter moon Europa named after Jupiter's mythological “irregular loves”
• Dysnomia, a moon of the Kuiper belt object Eris, named after the spirit of lawlessness
• Uranus moons named after characters in Shakespearean plays
• Mars moons Deimos and Phobos named after the Greek god of fear and his twin-brother

The IUPAC color books: terminology, nomenclature and ontology in chemistry, biochemistry and materials science

Here is a brief overview—hyperlinks included—of those color books by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) that have accessible online versions [1-3]:

The interactive Gold Book at goldbook.iupac.org, and the PDF version Compendium of Chemical Terminology at goldbook.iupac.org/PDF/goldbook.pdf. It is not named for the color or chemical element gold, but to honor the chemist Victor Gold (1922-1985), who initiated its first edition [4,5].

The Green Book: Quantities, Units and Symbols in Physical Chemistry [http://www.iupac.org/fileadmin/user_upload/publications/e-resources/ONLINE-IUPAC-GB3-2ndPrinting-Online-Sep2012.pdf]

The Blue Book: Nomenclature of Organic Chemistry by Advanced Chemistry Development (ACD) [acdlabs.com/iupac/nomenclature]

The Purple Book: Compendium of Polymer Terminology and Nomenclature [www.iupac.org/fileadmin/user_upload/publications/e-resources/ONLINE-IUPAC-PB2-Online-June2014.pdf]

The Orange Book: Compendium of Analytical Nomenclature (website by David S. Moore) [http://iupac.org/publications/analytical_compendium/]

The Red Book: Nomenclature of Inorganic Chemistry [www.iupac.org/fileadmin/user_upload/databases/Red_Book_2005.pdf]

The “White Book”: Biochemical Nomenclature and Related Documents [www.chem.qmul.ac.uk/iupac/bibliog/white.html]

The Silver Book: Clinical Chemistry is currently under revision (future status of Web availability unknown) [www.iupac.org/nc/home/projects/project-db/project-details.html?tx_wfqbe_pi1[project_nr]=2007-033-3-700]

Organizationally, the color code gold (in memory of Victor Gold) stands for the combined glossary. As you may have realized by reading the compendium titles, the other colors refer to sub-disciplines or branches of chemistry: green for physical, blue for organic, purple for macromolecular, orange for analytical, red for inorganic, “white” for “biochemical” and silver for clinical [6].

Mark Borkum and Jeremy Frey argue the case for Web-based, machine-accessible representations of these and other IUPAC publications to make them available for reuse by software developers [1]. Further, they urge IUPAC to take immediate measures in promoting a “cohesive vision of chemical terminology, nomenclature and ontology on the Web” by acknowledging and visionarily involving interdisciplinary chemists and software engineers:

There are many fine examples of “chemist-ware” on the Web, but their developers represent an absolutely tiny fraction of the world's chemists, who are presently unable to fully express themselves.

[Mark Borkum and Jeremy Frey, 2015]

Keyterms: cheminformatics, polymer informatics, computer science, e-science infrastructure, standardization, chemical compendia, online resources, open software architecture, open-source mantra.

References
[1] Mark I. Borkum and Jeremy G. Frey: What's in a Name? Quite a Lot, as it Happens! Chemistry International March-April 2015, pp. 7-9 [www.degruyter.com/view/j/ci.2015.37.issue-2/ci-2015-0231/ci-2015-0231.xml].
[2] IUPAC: Nomenclature and Terminology (including IUPAC color books) [www.iupac.org/home/publications/e-resources/nomenclature-and-terminology.html].
[3] Wikipedia: IUPAC book [en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IUPAC_book].
[4] W. J. Albery: Victor Gold, 29 June 1922 - 29 September 1985. Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society December 1987, 33, 263 ff. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbm.1987.0010.
[5] Hawaii Book Library: Victor Gold (Chemist) [www.hawaiilibrary.net/article/whebn0022605991/victor%20gold%20%28chemist%29].
[6] International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry: Nomenclature Books [www.chem.qmul.ac.uk/iupac/bibliog/books.html].

New Harmony—a small southwestern Indiana town first named Harmonie—considered the birthplace of North American geology

Which small town can say of itself that it is today a scientific center of national significance?  If you can't find a current one, what about one in the past—let's say, in the early nineteenth century. Simon Winchester introduces us to such a community:  New Harmony, now a historic town on the Wabash River in Posey County, Indiana, which was founded in 1814 by a religious group of immigrants from Germany. Beginning as an utopian community and sold to a wealthy industrialist and idealist from Scotland in 1825, this tiny, spiritually minded town—a “Community of Equality”—soon attracted intellectuals, philosophers and naturalists [1-4].

New Harmony's original name is Harmonie, the German-spelled word for harmony. Winchester describes its early development [1]:

The town, first simply named Harmonie, was settled initially by early-nineteenth-century Germans, men and women fleeing to America much as the Pilgrim Fathers had fled two centuries before, to escape religious restrictions back home. Their piety and hard work paid off quickly, and they eventually moved on to larger quarters, selling their tiny settlement to another idealist adventurer, the campaigning Welsh socialist Robert Owen. He, flushed with the success of a millworkers' commune that he had organized outside Edinburgh, planned to establish a utopian beachhead in America, based on socialist ideals. He renamed the former German village New Harmony; and once he had settled during the winter of 1825, he invited like-minded idealists to join him.  

What led to New Harmony's scientific distinction?
Among its inhabitants were no fewer than seven geologists of later fame. Geology played an important role in exploring the American West and in unifying the States. According to Winchester, New Harmony was the place where this realization of geology's importance was born. It is the birthplace of North American geology.

Keywords: geography, history, place name, European immigrants, European American settlement, socialists.

References and more to explore
[1] Simon Winchester: The Men Who United The States. First Harper Perennial edition published 2014.
[2] Country Homes of America: City Data for New Harmony, Indiana [www.countryhomesofamerica.com/city/detail/?id=18652].
[3] Historic New Harmony Newsletter: New Harmony a Magnet for Geologists Past and Present. Fall 2007 [www.usi.edu/media/3118577/07-5092-In-Harmony-F07-Web.pdf].
[4] Indiana State Museum: Historic New Harmony [www.indianamuseum.org/explore/new-harmony].

Microscopic silica structures in plant tissue: phytoliths and their other names

Phytoliths develop in the tissue of various plant species after take-up of monosilicic-acid-containing groundwater from soil. Silicon dioxide (silica) concretions are then deposited in those plant structures—both intracellular and extracellular structures—through which the water circulates. These plant stones are commonly called phytoliths, but are known under other names as well [1]:

The term is Greek (phyto means plant, lith means stone). Other names that have been used in the past include opaline silica, plant opal, and opal phytoliths, but the most common is simply phytoliths.

Silica phytoliths are a subgroup of biogenic opal [2]. This explains why some synonyms associate phytoliths with opal, a hydrated amorphous form of silica. Phytoliths are composed of mainly noncrystalline silica, enriched in terrigenous metals and other chemical elements such as carbon permitting radiometric dating.

Arguably, the most interesting aspect of phytolithic mineral secretions is their long-time persistence as siliceous plant remains, such as the brown-colored fine dust that Charles Darwin observed at Porto Praya during his voyage on the Beagle [1].

Phytoliths are now systematically studied by multidisciplinary research communities [3-6]. Forensics, archaeology and paleobotany are disciplines naturally interested in the phytolithic fingerprint structures to identify the past occurrences and associations of plant species. Phytolith analysis, including phytolith dating, helps to reconstruct past macro- end microenvironments. The understanding of agricultural development and evolving human dietary patterns based on phytolith tracking is shaping current decisions in health care and nutrition.

Phytolith properties such as mechanical strength, heat absorbability and fungal defense activity makes the broadly accessible phytoliths promising constituents for micro- and nanotechnology applications.

Keyterms: inorganic biochemistry, archaeobotany, biogenic silica, ecofact, microfossil, plant opal, opaline silica, [SiO_x(OH)_4-2x]_n.

References and more to explore
[1] Thomas C. Hart: Phytoliths: The Storytelling Stones Inside Plants. American Scientist March April 2015, 103 (2), pp. 136-143 [www.americanscientist.org/issues/feature/2015/2/silicon-plant-fossils].
[2] J. Kamenik, J. Mizera and Z. Řanda: Chemical composition of plant silica phytoliths. Environmental Chemistry Letters 2013. 11 (2), pp. 189-195. doi.: 10.1007/10311-012-0396-9.
[3] Irwin Rovner: Plant Opal Phytolith Analysis: Major Advances in Archaeobotanical Research. Advances in Archaeological Method and Theory 1983, 6, pp. 225-266.
[4] C.A.E. Strömberg et al.: Decoupling the spread of grassland from the evolution of grazer-type herbivores in South America. Nature Communications 2012, 4, article number: 1478. doi: 10.1038/ncomms2508.
[5] Soumya Jain: Biogenic Silica: An Inspiration to Nanotechnology. December 30, 2013 [blogrootid.blogspot.com/2013/12/biogenic-silica-inspiration-to.html].
[6] J. Mazumdar and R. Mukhopadhyay: Phytoliths of fern IV: In some aquatic ferns and Chinese Brake fern. Bioresearch Bulletin 2013, 2 (2) [bioresonline.org/article/phytoliths-of-ferns-iv-in-some-aquatic-ferns-and-chinese-brake-fern-2/].

Weston Beach in the Point Lobos Reserve named in memory of photographer Edward Weston

Weston Beach, south shore in Point Lobos Reserve

Weston Beach in the Point Lobos State Natural Reserve is an inspiring place for family fun activities as well as for exploring intertidal biology and aspects of California geology. Maybe you did come here to take pictures on some of your precious days by the shore. Edward Weston did so for 20 years.

Edward Henry Weston (1886-1958) photographed life, forms and textures around Point Lobos. After him, Weston Beach is named since the United States Board on Geographic Names made this name official in October 1979. Nobody less than the American environmentalist and photographer Ansel Easton Adams (1902-1984) had proposed that this small pebble beach be named in Weston's memory. Adams said that this beach “is sort of synonymous with him” [1].

Edward Weston was born on March 24, 1886, in Highland Park, Illinois, and died on January 1, 1958, in Carmel—just a few miles north of what is now the Point Lobos Reserve. Weston's photography work ranges from natural forms and landscapes to portraits, nudes and close-ups, created in Mexico and California [2,3]. Weston was inducted into the International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum in 1984 [4].

Spontaneous rock art, found at Weston Beach (January 25, 2015)

References and more to explore
[1] How did Weston Beach get its name? Section in the Brochure Weston Beach Tide Pools by Mary Conway, Melissa Gobell and Marie Murphy. California State Parks, Monterey District, 2211 Garden Road, Monterey, CA 93940, USA
[http://www.pointlobos.org/sites/default/files/u924/PL%20Tidepool%20Brochure%20for%20Website.pdf].
[2] Edward Weston Biography [www.biography.com/people/edward-weston-9528521#synopsis].
[3] Encyclopaedia Britannica: Edward Weston. American photographer [www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/641137/Edward-Weston].
[4] International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum: Edward Weston [www.iphf.org/hall-of-fame/edward-weston/].