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Thursday, August 13, 1998
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Erie County FairAs one of nine "outstanding Canadian researchers" selected from 115 applicants for this year's Killam Research Fellowships, Bernath will have the luxury of pondering the astrochemistry of cool stars and the interstellar medium for the next two years.
An expert in interpreting the spectra of molecules, Bernath is finding himself drawn increasingly from chemistry into the new field of astrochemistry as astronomers realize that "we live in a molecular universe."
Recent advances in astronomical spectroscopy have opened up regions of the electromagnetic spectrum, including the infrared region, and have led to the discovery of the existence of molecules on cool stars, he explains. Astronomers using this technology have consulted with Bernath in the analysis of the infrared data to determine the molecular composition of stars.
"Surface temperature is important in interpreting stellar spectra." On normal (hot stars), with a temperature as high as about 50,000 degrees Celsius, molecules can't exist. Everything is broken into atoms. However on cool stars (about 2,000-3,000C), carbon monoxide molecules have been identified, and on brown dwarfs -- objects with temperatures somewhere between cool stars and planets -- methane molecules exist.
For the next two years, working at UW, Bernath will record new laboratory spectra, many with astronomical applications. As well, he plans to spend time at telescopes near Tuscon, Arizona, collecting and analyzing his own infrared recordings of astronomical spectra.
One of the areas on which he will be training his telescope is the interstellar medium, which consists of dark clouds of cool matter objects (about -250C). "They're a kind of nursery. Out of these dark clouds -- the most famous of which is in the belt of Orion -- new stars form." The problem with this area is the clouds are so dark we can't see them. However, it is possible to record the infrared spectra of dark clouds using embedded young stars as a source of infrared radiation.
In his spare time, Bernath will also be working with an international team of atmospheric scientists and spectroscopists -- including UW chemistry professor Jim Sloan, an expert in the spectra of particles -- on a proposal for the Canadian Space Agency to launch a satellite which could examine ozone depletion over Canada using an infrared spectrometer. As well, the project studying hot water on the sun -- for which Bernath gained notoriety in 1995 -- is continuing.
Bernath sees the Killam Fellowship as continuing recognition of the strength of the UW chemistry department. Just two years ago, a Killam was awarded to another chemistry faculty member, John Hepburn.
The Society for Personality and Social Psychology is honouring UW psychology department chair Mark Zanna for his "sustained and current research in social psychology." Zanna will receive the Donald T. Campbell Award on Saturday, August 15, at the annual conference of the American Psychological Association in San Francisco.
As winner of the award, he will give the Campbell Award address on his current research concerning attitude ambivalence. Zanna's work has focused mainly on the study of attitudes -- the nature of attitudes, how they change, and when they actually influence people's behavior. He has also studied attitudes in the context of health issues, especially in connection with smoking. For the past 10 years, Zanna's research has focused on prejudice.
A member of UW's psychology department since 1975, Zanna has previously received an award from the American Psychological Association for his "outstanding contribution to the professional development of graduate students."
Starting tomorrow, the large and small gym and dance studios (rooms 2024 and 2022) in the Physical Activities Complex will be closed to allow floors to be refinished. Work will take place between August 14 and September 6.
Volunteer opportunities currently available in Kitchener-Waterloo include:
And Esther Pinnock is back at work in the UW library after taking some time off to celebrate her Encore 6/49 win last month. Although she's $250,000 richer now, Pinnock has no plans to retire from her job as records clerk, which she's held for the past 23 years. She has made some savvy investments, however, bought a car for her daughter, helped out her son, and has been spotted driving a new red Honda Civic.
How many people are left-handed? Do right-handers live longer than left-handers? And what causes left-handedness anyway? Lorin Elias has the answers -- well, some of the answers -- and here they are on a web page divided into such categories as Myths, Trivia, Causes and Genetics. It's "definitely the pinnacle of websites, interesting and a great source of info", one fan wrote to tell me.
Elias is a graduate student in UW's psychology department, working on a thesis in the area of brain laterality. "I'm supposed to be working on my PhD," the web page says. "However, my supervisors Dr. Bulman-Fleming and Dr. McManus are not looking, so I might as well waste my time on my homepage or Left-handedness Site "
The left-handedness site is a big one. "I have been fortunate enough," Elias notes in one section, "to receive the following awards for my hours of struggle." The list includes Cool Canadian Site of the Day, Yahoo Pick of the Week, the Great Northern Website Award and a few others.
"The site," he says, "is meant to provide left-handers and right-handers alike with a general review of the handedness literature. Although I think its design is rather unremarkable (a couple little bits of eye-candy aside), the response has been tremendous, with approximately 100 visitors each day to the site." And maybe the number will jump today, since it's International Lefthanders Day (see the "Trivia" section).
Among other features of the site: a list of "on-line left-handedness shops", a huge biblography drawn from journals such as Studia Psychologica and the International Journal of Neuroscience, and a note that a group of researchers in Maryland is in search of "families with one right-handed parent and two left-handed children (16 or older)".
Barbara Elve
bmelve@nh4.adm.uwaterloo.ca
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