Wednesday, June 18, 1997
New class of stars described during conference
The international conference on stellar pulsation continued Tuesday in the Study Center. Over 150 participants from 27 countries are attending. Highlights of the day included a presentation by Robert Stobie, director of the South African Astronomical Observatory in Capetown, on the discovery of a new class of pulsating stars.
There are 14 known classes or types of pulsating stars, said Stobie, and 10 stars make up the 15th. They are extremely compact stars; all that is left are the helium cores.
"These are stars that pulsate with a period of about 150 seconds, which tells you right away that they are very small and compact," said Stobie. "And it was complete serendipity that they were discovered, because they were not predicted to pulsate."
These stars, now at an advanced stage of stellar evolution, are going to become white dwarf stars, "the graveyard of stars," said Stobie.
The conference, a tribute to retired Los Alamos Fellow Art Cox, includes 11 review talks, 55 other talks and 85 posters in two sessions. The conference continues through Friday.
Audio clip:
During a press conference held Tuesday morning, Doug Welch, McMaster
University, Ontario, Canada, describes the difference for astronomers between
regular and variable stars. (To download the basic free software, "RealAudio
Player," go to http://www.real.com)
UIUC professor to speak at Director's Colloquium
Physics Professor David Pines of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, will speak on "Understanding High Temperature Superconductivity: Progress and Prospects" at a Director's Colloquium at 1:10 p.m. Tuesday in the Physics Building Auditorium. The talk is open to the public.
Internationally recognized for his contributions to the theory of many-body systems and to theoretical astrophysics, Pines currently is a Stanislaw Ulam Scholar at the Lab's Center for Nonlinear Studies (CNLS). He has carried out pioneering studies of classical and quantum plasmas, electrons in metals, collective excitations in solids, superconductivity, superfluidity, nuclear structure, compact X-ray sources, elementary excitations and transport in helium liquids, superfluidity in neutron stars, heavy fermion systems, and, most recently, high-temperature superconductors.
Pine, a member of the National Academy of Sciences, is a co-founder and external professor of the Santa Fe Institute. He also is a former editor of Reviews of Modern Physics and founder and editor of the series Frontiers in Physics. An important contributor to the National Research Council, and the author of four books, Pines has been influential as an organizer of international symposia, workshops and scientific exchange programs.
Apple evangelist offers 10 rules for revolutionaries
Revolutions don't come along very often, so people should take advantage of opportunities to introduce innovative new products and not be afraid of change, according to Guy Kawasaki of Apple Computer.
Apple Computer wasn't worried that their first Macintosh computer wasn't good back in the early 1980s, or that it wasn't everything to everybody. Apple believed it was the best computer and others believed. Today, Kawasaki said, Apple has "hundreds of thousands of unpaid evangelists" who swear by the Mac and won't use any other computer.
Kawasaki spoke Tuesday in the Laboratory's Administration Building Auditorium about his 10 rules for revolutionaries. The talk was sponsored by Desktop (CIC-2).
Kawasaki, the 42-year-old Apple fellow and chief evangelist for Apple Computer said his rules are rather simple. Some are unorthodox. Kawasaki said, for example, that revolutionaries have to need, want and aspire to change the rules of the game.
He said Apple changed the rules of the game when it put out its first computer in the early 1980s and boldly declared it would increase the knowledge of whoever used it.
It's first computer, an Apple Macintosh 128, wasn't fast, didn't have enough memory, wasn't color, Kawasaki said. "It had nothing. It was crap," he said. But it was of adequate value and Apple shipped it for consumer use, he said.
After it was being used, Apple refined it, Kawasaki said, offering another of his rules for revolutionaries.
One area where Apple Computer failed, said Kawasaki, is in his "divide and prosper" rule. He said Apple thought market share was more important than providing a product of unique value for potential users.
Another rule for revolutionaries is "not to suck up" to people with titles. "People without titles are most likely to be revolutionary," said Kawasaki.
Kawasaki's 10th rule for revolutionaries captures the spirit of Apple Computer, he said. "Don't let the bozos grind you down," he said.
"Christopher Columbus; they said he'd never make it," said Kawasaki. "Disneyland; they said no one would go there."
Kawasaki quoted IBM founder Tom Watson to illustrate his point. He said in 1943 Watson said there would never be a mass market for computers. "I think there's a world market for five computers," Kawasaki quoted Watson.
He also cited an 1876 Western Union internal memo that said telephones would never have any useful value.
Other speakers Tuesday included Ed Gomez of Walter Reed Army Medical Center who spoke about telemedicine (see accompanying story) and Scott Jenkins also of Apple Computer who spoke about new scientific applications for Macintosh users.
--Steve Sandoval
Robert Stine, right, of the Nuclear Materials and Stockpile Management (NMSM-PO) Program Office, writes his electronic mail address on a sheet of paper for Guy Kawasaki of Apple Computer after Kawasaki's talk Tuesday in the Administration Building Auditorium. Photo by Fred Rick |
Medical information in seconds with telemedicine Dr. Ed Gomez of Walter Reed Army Medical Center knows what he's talking about when he says minutes or even seconds can make a difference between life and death. Gomez uses telemedicine to treat patients and help other doctors treat their patients. He also said it's a practice that is underused. Gomez spoke about telemedicine Tuesday in the Laboratory's Administration Building Auditorium. The talk was sponsored by Desktop (CIC-2). As an Army doctor who has treated U.S. soldiers and other patients in the Middle East, Gomez said telemedicine allowed doctors to receive medical information on patients in a matter of seconds that otherwise would have been impossible to obtain. "We're talking distance and time when we talk about telemedicine," Gomez said, noting that he helped set up a "virtual hospital" in Somalia and Bosnia where doctors used telemedicine to have patient records tranferred electronically from the states to those countries. "We've been very pleased with our Bosnia experience," said Gomez. Yet, telemedicine isn't widely practiced, said Gomez. He said that only 6 percent of the hospitals in the U.S. have their own home page on the World Wide Web. And many of the medical trainees he mentors at Walter Reed Hospital don't know how to use the Web, he said. "Access to information isn't there," said Gomez. Telemedicine makes it possible for doctors to exchange patient information, discuss x-rays, consult, seek second opinions and talk hundreds and thousands of miles apart. Closer to home, Gomez said Walter Reed Hospital uses telemedicine capabilities to treat neonatal infants at a hospital in Washington, D.C. In the time it takes for the child's doctor to drive across town to Walter Reed or vice-versa, "a number of things can occur," said Gomez. "With telemedicine, we can begin to manage that child's care." Telemedicine is only this decade beginning to mushroom, Gomez said -- the first uses of telemedicine occurred in 1959 in Nebraska. He said in 1995 the federal government funded some $100 million worth of telemedicine research projects. --Steve Sandoval |
A reception for the Laboratory's new Diversity (DV) Office Director Marion Timm, scheduled for next Tuesday has been postponed. The reception was to be held at the Diversity Office, Room 201 of the Civilian Industrial Technology Programs building (formerly the Industrial Partnership Office (IPO) building) on Trinity Drive. The Diversity Office will announce a new date for the reception. For more information, call 7-8695. Laboratory Director Sig Hecker last December named Timm as the Lab's new Diversity Office director. She joined the Lab fulltime last month. |
CST to hold poster session Thursday
The annual Chemical Science and Technology (CST) Division Review meeting and poster session will be from 2:45 to 5:15 p.m. Thursday at the Los Alamos Community Building on 20th Street near Ashley Pond. There will be more than 120 technical posters presented to show the broad scope of technical work in progress in CST.
Some of the scientific areas include bioscience and biotechnology; environmental and waste management science; integrated analytical chemistry; facilities, safety and support; materials chemistry; nuclear and radiochemistry; and physical chemistry and applied spectroscopy.
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Reception for Marion Timm postponed