Session B: Saturday March 10, 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm, Room 130, Nicholson Hall
BATSE GRB or V395 Car Compact Object Black Hole or Neutron Star
Teresa Ashcraft, Louisiana State University
Training Physics Students for Space Careers: Introduction to the Balloon Payload Projects at UL Lafayette
Ross Fontenot, University of Louisiana – Lafayette
Review of UL Lafayette’s participation in LaACES I, HASP 2006, and current work on HASP 2007.
Demonstration of Electrostatic Orbits in Weightlessness
John Janeski, K. Andring, S. Banerjee, D. Campbell, D. Keedy, B. Hoffmeister, S. Quinn
Rhodes College
In August 2006, a team of students from Rhodes College performed an experiment in microgravity aboard NASA's specialized C-9B aircraft known as the "Weightless Wonder." The goal of the experiment was to establish an orbit between two electrically charged spheres. The similar forms of Newton's Law of Gravitation and Coulomb's Law suggest that such electrostatic orbits are possible. However, to our knowledge, an electrostatic orbit has not previously been demonstrated. This presentation will describe our experiment and show video footage of the electrostatic orbits that we achieved in weightlessness.
Discovering New Dwarf Galaxies using Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS)
Paul Mayeur, Louisiana Tech
Electrokinetic Nanoparticles in Concrete
Rebecca Aymond, Louisiana Tech
The Effects of Neutrons in Calorinetors for Hydro-Physics
Christopher Galyean, Charles Olson, Jason Rollins, Louisiana Tech
Session C: Sunday, March 11 9:00 am to 10:30 am, Room 130, Nicholson Hall
Carbon Nanotubes
Richard Chevious, Louisiana Tech
L.D.C.
Joshua Hignight, Louisiana Tech
Adeno-Associated and Lentivirus-Based Genetic Manipulations of Hippocampal CA1 Neurons In Vivo
John Gehrig, Rhodes College
Individual neurons in the brain may play important roles in signal processing. Although recent studies have shown lentiviruses can be used to genetically modify individual neurons in the mouse somatosensory cortex, it is not known whether these lentiviruses or other adeno-associated viruses (AAV) are capable of modifying mouse hippocampal CA1 neurons in a similar manner. In this study, adeno-associated and lentiviral vectors were used for neuron-specific gene delivery of the marker molecule GFP driven by either the a-calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II or Synapsin I promoters. Six-eight week old wildtype mice (>25g) were anesthetized and injections of virus were made into the CA1 region of hippocampus. Animals were allowed to recover, and following a period of 2-8 weeks, animals were killed. Coronal brain slices were made and two-photon laser microscopy was used to acquire high resolution images of CA1 neurons expressing GFP. We found lentiviral expression to be more robust overall. Future studies will involve determining the optimal expression density, then using the lentiviral vectors to deliver additional genes into CA1 neurons for studying their electrophysiological properties.
2006 SPS Summer Internship
Katherine Zaunbrecher, University of Louisiana – Lafayette
“Absolute Zero” outreach activities
Dwana King, University of Southern Mississippi
Our chapter will present outreach activities performed in conjunction with the “Absolute Zero”, a nationwide outreach campaign designed to promote the low-temperature physics.
Chapter Reports: Sunday, March 11 10:45 am to 11:30 am, Room 130, Nicholson Hall
Louisiana Tech SPS Chapter Report
TBA, Louisiana Tech
McNeese University SPS Chapter Report
TBA, McNeese University
Arkansas State University SPS Chapter Report
TBA, Arkansas State University
University of Louisiana at Lafayette SPS Chapter Report
Jared LeBlanc, University of Louisiana – Lafayette
Rhodes College SPS Chapter Report
Jenna Smith, Rhodes College
Louisiana State University SPS Chapter Report
Rachel Mannino, Louisiana State University
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