This program was started during the 2000-2001 school year to introduce FHS students to exciting new developments in physics and engineering, and to give them an idea of what some working scientists and engineers in our area do. All of the lectures were voluntary, and open to all faculty, staff, and students. We didn't record accurate attendance figures, but it's likely that several hundred members of the FHS community attended these talks.
14 September 2000 Professor
Ken Vickers
University of Arkansas Dept.
of Physics
"Living Life in the Boundary
Zone (where micro and nanoelectronics bridge science and engineering)".
Ken talked about the science behind nanotechnology, based on his years of experience working at Texas Instruments. He had some cool digital imaging technology samples and some pure silicon wafers from TI. He broke the silicon wafers to show that they break along molecular lines. Very cool.
4 October 2000 Professor Reeta
Vyas
University of Arkansas Dept.
of Physics
"Colors in the Sky."
Reeta discussed interesting atmospheric phenomena like rainbows, sun dogs, and solar halos. She had several demonstrations and lots of beautiful slides.
16 November 2000 Professor Art
Hobson
University of Arkansas Dept.
of Physics
"Strange Realities:
the Big Bang, and Quantum Interconnectedness."
Art tried to expand our minds with a talk about the very strange ideas behind a modern scientific view of the origin of the cosmos. There were a lot of questions about black holes and other puzzling phenomena.
10 January 2001 Professor William
Harter
University of Arkansas Dept.
of Physics
"Nothing Getting Nowhere
Fast: Faster than light signals."
We had to go to the U of A for this one, because Bill used computer simulations that he had written to make his points. He explained some basic relativity and then showed us how some "galloping" waves can travel faster than the speed of light. A real treat for visual learners.
5 April 2001 Noel Napieralski
and Ronnie Toland
(Students) University of Arkansas
"Working with NASA while
still in school."
Noel worked on a low gravity experiment that was actually performed on board the "Vomit Comet" (the same plane used to film Apollo 13). They looked at sediment sorting in low gravity, a topic that has been little studied but would apply to such interesting phenomena as comets and asteroids. Ronnie is doing a coop with the NASA Goddard Space-Flight Center. That means he alternates school and work and gets a job at NASA when he graduates. He described how he worked on testing mirrors for the next space telescope.