On Monday, Nov. 11, 2019, the planet Mercury will pass across the disk of the sun. The rare celestial event can be viewed with the eye-safe telescopes of the Georgia Tech Observatory. This planetary transit is rare, occurring only around 13 times each century. “This will be the last such event visible from Georgia Tech until 2049,” says James Sowell, director of the Georgia Tech Observatory.

The transit begins at 7:36 AM and ends at 1:04 PM. The observatory will have eye-safe telescopes available during the entirety of the transit.

Contact jim.sowell@physics.gatech.edu if you have questions.

Nicole Danos, Ph.D.
Department of Biology
University of San Diego

ABSTRACT
Although live bearing is a defining feature of all eutherian mammals we know surprisingly little about the effects of pregnancy on skeletal muscle. We used the gastrocnemius muscle of rats as a model system to examine the organ and whole animal level effects of pregnancy, by comparing animals that had never been pregnant, primiparous animals, and postpartum animals. We predict that the effects of certain hormones, especially relaxin, would lead to increased muscle vascularization, new muscle cell formation and reduction in the stiffness of connective tissues such as tendons and aponeuroses. We examine the effects of these morphological changes on whole organism locomotion and in situ muscle performance.

SPEAKER BIO:
Dr. Nicole Danos is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at the University of San Diego. She is a broadly trained Vertebrate Comparative Anatomist who uses both model and non-model organisms to study the relationship between form and function. Her studies focus on the anatomy and mechanical properties of soft tissues, including muscle, and how these might contribute to critical organismal functions such as walking and eating. Current projects include the Biomechanics of Breastfeeding, the Effects of Pregnancy on Muscle Function, and Sexual Dimorphism in Feeding Chameleons.

Host: Greg Sawicki, Ph.D.

The Institute for Data Engineering and Science presents the 2019 IDEaS Distinguished Lecture on Wednesday, November 6. Peter S. Dodds, the Flint Professor of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Vermont, will deliver “The Science of Stories: Measuring and Exploring the Ecology of Human Stories with Lexical Instruments.” The event will be held in the Marcus Nanotechnology Building, Rooms 1116-1118, from 3:00-4:00 p.m.

Abstract

I will survey our efforts at the Computational Story Lab to measure and study a wide array of social and cultural phenomena using “lexical meters” — online, interactive instruments that use social media and other texts to quantify population dynamics of human behavior. These include happiness, public health, obesity rates, and depression. I will explain how lexical meters work and how we have used them to uncover natural language encodings of positivity biases across cultures, universal emotional arcs of stories, links between social media posts and health, measures of fame and ultra-fame, and time compression for news. I will offer some thoughts on how fully developing a post-disciplinary, collaborative science of human stories is vital in our efforts to understand the evolution, stability, and fracturing of social systems. 

Bio

Peter S. Dodds is the Flint Professor of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Vermont. His research focuses on system-level big data problems in many areas, including language and stories, sociotechnical systems, contagion, and ecology. He is the director of UVM’s Complex Systems Center, co-director of UVM’s Computational Story Lab, and a visiting faculty fellow at the Vermont Advanced Computing Core. Dodds is the recipient of an NSF Career Award and has received funding from NSF, NASA, ONR, and the MITRE Corporation, among others. 

Peter S. Dodds, Flint Professor
Department of Mathematics and Statistics
University of Vermont

ABSTRACT
Complex systems often comprise many kinds of components which vary dramatically in size: numbers of organisms in species in ecologies, populations of cities and towns in countries, individual and corporate wealth in economies, and word frequency in natural language. Comparisons of component size distributions for two complex systems, or a system with itself at different time points, generally employ information-theoretic instruments, such as the Jensen-Shannon divergence. We argue that these methods are poorly motivated for many complex systems, lack transparency and adjustability, and should not be applied when component probabilities are non-sensible or are problematic to estimate. Here, we introduce rank turbulence divergence, a tunable instrument for comparing any two (Zipfian) ranked lists of components. We analytically develop our rank-based divergence in a series of steps, and realize the divergence as a 'rank turbulence divergence graph' which pairs a map-like histogram for rank-rank pairs with an ordered list of components according to divergence contribution. We explore the performance of rank turbulence divergence for four distinct settings: day-scale language use on Twitter; US baby names from 1880 to 2018; market cap US corporations from 1979 to 2018; and n-gram frequencies from the Google Books corpus. We provide a series of supplementary flip books' which demonstrate the tunability and storytelling power of our divergence. For systems where probabilities (or rates) are partially available, we put forward an analogous probability turbulence divergence. Finally, we compare our rank-based divergence to a family of generalized entropy divergences which includes the Jenson-Shannon Divergence.

Host: Joshua Weitz, Ph.D.

The College of Sciences; the School of Literature, Media, and Communication; and the Georgia Tech Library invite all to the grand opening of the exhibit ASTOUNDING ELEMENTS: Celebrating the Periodic Table.

Since January, the College of Sciences has been hosting lectures, events, and activities to acknowledge the 150-year-long contribution of the periodic table to science. In collaboration with campus partners, the College of Sciences has brought the periodic table and chemical elements to the attention of the Georgia Tech community and the public through arts, athletics, academics, and fun. ASTOUNDING ELEMENTS brings many of these pieces together, including:

• Elements in science fiction, in collaboration with the School of Literature, Media, and Communication
• Periodic table makeover: design and prototypes, in collaboration with the School of Industrial Design, College of Design
• Art inspired by the periodic table and chemical elements, in collaboration with the Georgia Tech Office of the Arts
• Scavenger Hunt: buildings and element partners, in collaboration with various building managers on campus
• Favorite elements of Georgia Tech students, faculty, and staff

The exhibit will formally open with remarks from Ameet Doshi, Library Director of Service Experience and Program Design; Karen Head, associate chair of the School of Literature, Media, and Communication; and Susan Lozier, Dean of the College of Sciences.

Immediately following the opening remarks is a panel discussion: From Myth to Marvel: The Role of Elements in Science, Fiction, and Culture

The International Year of the Periodic Table has brought well-deserved attention to the periodic table and the chemical elements. As the world celebrates 2019 the 150th anniversary of the periodic table, chemical elements have never been so central to the global imagination. Just look at recent blockbuster films revolving around vibranium and infinity stones.

But did chemical elements really ever go out of style?

Moderated by Georgia Tech librarian and North Avenue Lounge radio host Charlie Bennett, this panel discussion brings two scientists and  two science fiction authors together to explore how science and art have long influenced one other while shaping public understanding of the periodic table and chemical elements and their role in our everyday lives.

Georgia Tech physicist Deirdre Shoemaker and chemist M.G. Finn will have a conversation with Milton Davis, chemist and award-winning author of nineteen novels and editor of nine anthologies, and Amanda Weiss, an up-and-coming science fiction and fantasy author who teaches Japanese at Georgia Tech. Through their conversation, we hope to get a closer look at how new — and sometimes very old! — ideas about how the world works circulate through science, fiction, and culture at large.

About the Discussants

Charlie Bennett is the public engagement librarian and economics specialist at Georgia Tech. He holds a Master’s in Library and Information Science from Valdosta State University, and a B.S. in Economics and in Science, Technology, and Culture from Georgia Tech. His research interests include the role of the library in civic life and scholarly communication to the general public. Bennett produces and co-hosts the rock’n’roll library show "Lost in the Stacks" and the talk show "The North Avenue Lounge," both on WREK Atlanta, as well as the media podcast "Supercontext." The first science fiction he can remember reading is the Tripods trilogy by John Christopher, and he’s been fascinated by the genre ever since.

Milton J. Davis is a black speculative fiction writer. He is the author of 17 novels and editor or co-editor of seven anthologies. He owns MVmedia, LLC , a small publishing company specializing in science fiction, fantasy, and "Sword and Soul." Davies is also the technical director of Hill Manufacturing, a company specializing in maintenance chemicals and products. As a research chemist, he has developed polymers for the textile, janitorial, and computer industries. In 2004, he received a U.S. patent for a cleaning solvent and dispenser pen designed to remove conformal coatings and adhesives from circuit boards and other electrical equipment.

M.G. Finn is a professor and chair of Georgia Tech’s School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, a faculty member in the School of Biological Sciences, and the James A. Carlos Family Chair for Pediatric Technology. In his research, his laboratory develops new vaccines, ways to find and kill cancer cells, new materials for drug delivery and membrane-based separations, and ways to evolve molecules with desired functions. He is the editor-in-chief of the journal ACS Combinatorial Science. His science fiction inspirations are decidedly old-school, ranging from Ray Bradbury to Ursula K. Le Guin to Dan Simmons. 

Deirdre Shoemaker is the Dunn Family Professor of Physics in Georgia Tech’s School of Physics. She is the director of the Georgia Tech Center for Relativistic Astrophysics and associate director of the Institute for Data Engineering and Sciences. Black holes, spacetime wrinkles and gravitational waves — understanding these and other aspects of gravity drives Shoemaker’s research. She is a member of the Astronomy and Astrophysics Advisory Council and the NASA LISA Study Team. She is also a member of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, which detected gravitational waves for the first time on September 14 2015, ushering in the era of gravitational wave astronomy. The strange and wondrous predictions of Einstein’s theory  are playing out in the universe, and Shoemaker is watching.

Amanda Weiss is an assistant professor of Japanese in the Georgia Tech School of Modern Languages. Prior to her work at Georgia Tech, she taught courses on East Asian media and society at Earlham College, Emory University, and Rikkyo University in Tokyo. She is completing her first book, "Han Heroes and Yamato Warriors: Competing Masculinities in East Asian War Cinema," based on her doctoral research in the University of Tokyo. She has started a second project, on the contemporary Japanese remembrance of Manchukuo, the puppet state of the Empire of Japan from 1932 until 1945.

DUE TO ANTICIPATED BAD WEATHER, THIS EVENT IS RESCHEDULED FOR NOV. 1.

The Society of Physics Students and the Society of Women in Physics invite all to the 2019 Pumpkin Drop. The event aims to raise funds to support student travel to conferences.

Pumpkins can be carved or dropped from the top of the Howey Building. For the drop, pumpkins are first frozen in liquid nitrogen.

It's fun and messy, all for a good cause.

The College of Sciences; the School of Literature, Media, and Communication; and the Georgia Tech Library invite all to preview the exhibit ASTOUNDING ELEMENTS: Celebrating the Periodic Table.

Since January, the College of Sciences has been hosting lectures, events, and activities to acknowledge the 150-year-long contribution of the periodic table to science. In collaboration with campus partners, the College of Sciences has brought the periodic table and chemical elements to the attention of the Georgia Tech community and the public through arts, athletics, academics, and fun. ASTOUNDING ELEMENTS brings many of these pieces together, including:

• Elements in science fiction, in collaboration with the School of Literature, Media, and Communication and the Georgia Tech Library
• Periodic table makeover: design and prototypes, in collaboration with the School of Industrial Design, College of Design
• Art inspired by the periodic table and chemical elements, in collaboration with the Georgia Tech Office of the Arts
• Scavenger Hunt: buildings and element partners, in collaboration with various building managers on campus
• Favorite elements of Georgia Tech students, faculty, and staff

Please join the formal opening on Nov. 7, 2019, 11 AM.

The College of Sciences; the School of Literature, Media, and Communication; and the Georgia Tech Library invite all to the exhibit ASTOUNDING ELEMENTS: Celebrating the Periodic Table.

Since January, the College of Sciences has been hosting lectures, events, and activities to acknowledge the 150-year-long contribution of the periodic table to science. In collaboration with campus partners, the College of Sciences has brought the periodic table and chemical elements to the attention of the Georgia Tech community and the public through arts, athletics, academics, and fun. ASTOUNDING ELEMENTS brings many of these pieces together, including:

• Elements in science fiction, in collaboration with the School of Literature, Media, and Communication
• Periodic table makeover: design and prototypes, in collaboration with the School of Industrial Design, College of Design
• Art inspired by the periodic table and chemical elements, in collaboration with the Georgia Tech Office of the Arts
• Scavenger Hunt: buildings and element partners, in collaboration with various building managers on campus
• Favorite elements of Georgia Tech students, faculty, and staff

The College of Sciences; the School of Literature, Media, and Communication; and the Georgia Tech Library invite all to a conversation among science fiction authors and scientists, as part of Georgia Tech's celebration of the International Year of the Periodic Table (IYPT).

IYPT has brought well-deserved attention to the periodic table and the chemical elements. As the world celebrates the 150th anniversary of the periodic table, chemical elements have never been so central to the global imagination. Just look at recent blockbuster films revolving around vibranium and infinity stones.

But did chemical elements really ever go out of style?

Moderated by Charlie Bennett, this panel discussion brings two scientists and two science fiction writers together to explore how science and art have long influenced each other while shaping public understanding of the periodic table and chemical elements and their role in our everyday lives.

Georgia Tech scientists Deirdre Shoemaker and M.G. Finn will have a conversation with Milton J. Davis, science fiction writer and chemist, and Amanda Weiss, an up-and-coming science fiction author who teaches Japanese at Georgia Tech. Through their conversation, we hope to get a closer look at how new — and sometimes very old! — ideas about how the world works circulate through science, fiction, and culture at large.

About the Discussants

Charlie Bennett is the public engagement librarian and economics specialist at Georgia Tech. He holds a Master’s in Library and Information Science from Valdosta State University, and a B.S. in Economics and in Science, Technology, and Culture from Georgia Tech. His research interests include the role of the library in civic life and scholarly communication to the general public. Bennett produces and co-hosts the rock’n’roll library show "Lost in the Stacks" and the talk show "The North Avenue Lounge," both on WREK Atlanta, as well as the media podcast "Supercontext." The first science fiction he can remember reading is the Tripods trilogy by John Christopher, and he’s been fascinated by the genre ever since.

Milton J. Davis is a black speculative fiction writer. He is the author of 17 novels and editor or co-editor of seven anthologies. He owns MVmedia, LLC , a small publishing company specializing in science fiction, fantasy, and "Sword and Soul." Davies is also the technical director of Hill Manufacturing, a company specializing in maintenance chemicals and products. As a research chemist, he has developed polymers for the textile, janitorial, and computer industries. In 2004, he received a U.S. patent for a cleaning solvent and dispenser pen designed to remove conformal coatings and adhesives from circuit boards and other electrical equipment.

M.G. Finn is a professor and chair of Georgia Tech’s School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, a faculty member in the School of Biological Sciences, and the James A. Carlos Family Chair for Pediatric Technology. In his research, his laboratory develops new vaccines, ways to find and kill cancer cells, new materials for drug delivery and membrane-based separations, and ways to evolve molecules with desired functions. He is the editor-in-chief of the journal ACS Combinatorial Science. His science fiction inspirations are decidedly old-school, ranging from Ray Bradbury to Ursula K. Le Guin to Dan Simmons. 

Deirdre Shoemaker is the Dunn Family Professor of Physics in Georgia Tech’s School of Physics. She is the director of the Georgia Tech Center for Relativistic Astrophysics and associate director of the Institute for Data Engineering and Sciences. Black holes, spacetime wrinkles and gravitational waves — understanding these and other aspects of gravity drives Shoemaker’s research. She is a member of the Astronomy and Astrophysics Advisory Council and the NASA LISA Study Team. She is also a member of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, which detected gravitational waves for the first time on September 14 2015, ushering in the era of gravitational wave astronomy. The strange and wondrous predictions of Einstein’s theory  are playing out in the universe, and Shoemaker is watching.

Amanda Weiss is an assistant professor of Japanese in the Georgia Tech School of Modern Languages. Prior to her work at Georgia Tech, she taught courses on East Asian media and society at Earlham College, Emory University, and Rikkyo University in Tokyo. She is completing her first book, "Han Heroes and Yamato Warriors: Competing Masculinities in East Asian War Cinema," based on her doctoral research in the University of Tokyo. She has started a second project, on the contemporary Japanese remembrance of Manchukuo, the puppet state of the Empire of Japan from 1932 until 1945.