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A less weighty post...
May. 8th, 2013 11:29 amNo politics this time around, nor did I have to move any lead bricks the past couple of days at work. We did manage to ready a third detector layer (out of six) for shipping this morning before the heavy duty metal working started (forklifts, and pneumatic wrenches, and huge sledge hammers, and safety harnesses... and no, I did none of that, we've got the pros doing that sort of thing). The CRIPT tower will be mostly pulled down tomorrow and Thursday (maybe, it's slow going), so there isn't very much we can work on while that's going on (it's quite a dangerous area while it's being done). Over the next couple of days, I will probably work on the EUDET Pixel Telescope web site (again, more later, but that will be the next project I work on), the prototype for the satellite payload I proposed and designed (it's nearly complete), and finally knuckling under and learning ROOT (the analysis software used by CERN and the researchers at the Large Hadron Collider).
I also need to read the first two chapters of the textbook in my feminist studies class... that I can't afford to buy because Carleton messed up OSAP again by changing the way it's done for summer and not really telling anyone (I have $3.06 in my account until it comes in). I have one chapter available online through the library, so hopefully I'll be able to get access to the "on reserve" copy in the library to read the other. I am going to be doing an experiment with electronic and nuclear spin resonance later today (yes, the same basic technique used for MRIs, but at a really raw, atoms and oscilloscopes, level). We have six days to complete the lab writeups, which I have decided to do using LaTeX and ROOT (I am an old hand at LaTeX, but it's been decades since I've done anything with it; however, it's the standard package for all real science writing... ROOT sucks festering donkey balls, but it's the de-facto package for high energy physics analysis these days, and I'll need it for my work over the summer with the EUDET thang). I will be doing three other labs as well: superconductivity (soooweeeet), "Experiments in Health Physics", and Gamma Ray Spectroscopy (determining the energy of gamma rays from a radioactive source). The "health physics" one is actually working with another radio-isotope that emits "beta" particles (basically highly energetic electrons or positrons), and we will do various calculations on the effect it will have on tissues, how much energy is deposited where by the radiation (in aluminum), and will also use spectrographic techniques to determine the initial energy of the beta particles. Oh, this is the first time that particular lab has been offered and I (and my randomly assigned lab partner) will be the guinea pigs for seeing how well or if it works at all.
I also need to read the first two chapters of the textbook in my feminist studies class... that I can't afford to buy because Carleton messed up OSAP again by changing the way it's done for summer and not really telling anyone (I have $3.06 in my account until it comes in). I have one chapter available online through the library, so hopefully I'll be able to get access to the "on reserve" copy in the library to read the other. I am going to be doing an experiment with electronic and nuclear spin resonance later today (yes, the same basic technique used for MRIs, but at a really raw, atoms and oscilloscopes, level). We have six days to complete the lab writeups, which I have decided to do using LaTeX and ROOT (I am an old hand at LaTeX, but it's been decades since I've done anything with it; however, it's the standard package for all real science writing... ROOT sucks festering donkey balls, but it's the de-facto package for high energy physics analysis these days, and I'll need it for my work over the summer with the EUDET thang). I will be doing three other labs as well: superconductivity (soooweeeet), "Experiments in Health Physics", and Gamma Ray Spectroscopy (determining the energy of gamma rays from a radioactive source). The "health physics" one is actually working with another radio-isotope that emits "beta" particles (basically highly energetic electrons or positrons), and we will do various calculations on the effect it will have on tissues, how much energy is deposited where by the radiation (in aluminum), and will also use spectrographic techniques to determine the initial energy of the beta particles. Oh, this is the first time that particular lab has been offered and I (and my randomly assigned lab partner) will be the guinea pigs for seeing how well or if it works at all.
