Physics and Astronomy in the news

Wednesday, September 2, 2009 – Ann Claycombe

The Department of Physics and Astronomy was all over the airwaves this week, with two of its professors featured in separate, nationally-broadcast stories on National Public Radio. Both stories highlighted the cutting-edge research done at Georgia State University, though in very different ways.

Professor Mark Stockman was interviewed about his theoretical work on a new breed of lasers. Essentially, Stockman figured out that a single vibrating electron, sitting on the surface of a tiny piece of metal – a “nanopendulum,” as he calls it – could produce a laser beam.

Now, three separate teams of researchers have used Stockman’s theories to build actual working lasers – lasers that are a thousand times smaller than existing technologies would allow.

The NPR story, broadcast on August 31, covered the theory, the real-world engineering, and possible future applications. To listen to the story or to read a transcript, click here.

Professor Hal McAlister, the director of the Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy (CHARA), was interviewed the next day about the wildfires threatening the Mount Wilson Observatory in California.

McAlister is the director of Mt. Wilson, which houses the CHARA array as well as several other multi-million dollar facilities. He has been blogging about the progress of firefighters in protecting the observatory.

“I feel a lot better now than I did yesterday,” he told the interviewer, saying that firefighters had been evacuated from the mountain but had later been able to go back in.

To listen to the NPR story or to read the transcript, click here. You can also follow McAlister’s blog at http://www.chara.gsu.edu/CHARA/fire.php.