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“Open Data” Policy a Cause for Optimism and Concern Supernova Explosions Now in 3D

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“Open Data” Policy a Cause for Optimism and Concern Supernova Explosions Now in 3D July 2014 • Vol. 23, No. 7 Q & A with A PUBLICATION OF THE AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY New Director of National Science Foundation WWW.APS.ORG/PUBLICATIONS/APSNEWS See page 3 “Open Data” Policy a Cause for Optimism and Concern Physical Review Letters Publishes BICEP2 Paper on Possible Evidence for Cosmic Inflation By Michael Lucibella mons’ Science Commons project. questions about the policy, includ- Plans are moving ahead slowly In March 2014, OSTP collected, ing what kind of data is covered and On March 17, 2014, researchers from the Background Imaging of for making public the raw data ob- reviewed and returned proposals where it will be stored. Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization (BICEP2) experiment announced tained by federally funded scien- from 23 agencies. The proposals The memorandum defines data that they had obtained evidence of cosmic inflation–the theory that tists, though how that ultimately haven’t been released to the public. generally as “digital recorded fac- after the big bang, the universe expanded by 60 orders of magnitude might take shape is still unclear. Over the next several months, OSTP tual material commonly accepted in about 10-35 second. In a paper published on June 19 in Physical Experts expressed both excitement will meet with agency representa- in the scientific community” and goes on to say that items like note- Review Letters (http://journals.aps.org/prl), the BICEP2 team presents and apprehension about the final tives to continue to refine proposals. books, physical objects, peer review their data and analysis in a peer-reviewed venue. form the new policy might take. “I certainly expect that by the On February 22, 2013, the ad- end of this year we’ll see the plans,” reports and preliminary drafts and analyses wouldn’t be included. In addition to the BICEP2 paper, Physical Review Letters has pub- ministration’s Office of Science and Wilbanks said. More than a year after the memo However, pinning down precisely lished several theoretical analyses and a special editorial comment. Technology Policy (OSTP) released was first issued, there has been no what might be included and what Accompanying the research papers, Physics features a Viewpoint a memorandum stipulating that all official word as to how the federal might not be could prove to be commentary (http://physics.aps.org/articles/v7/64) by Lawrence federal agencies that fund more than agencies plan on implementing the tricky. Krauss and a Focus article (http://physics.aps.org/articles/v7/65) by $100 million in research come up opening of scientists’ datasets. “The agencies are struggling David Lindley. with a plan to open up peer re- viewed results and raw data to the However, data experts are not wor- with how to deal with datasets,” public. ried and have applauded the admin- said Bonnie Carroll, CEO of Infor- If the inflationary origin of the signal is confirmed by upcoming stud- “Most of the noise has been istration for its deliberative pace. mation International Associates. ies, the result will be a “milestone in the history of cosmology,” the around the literature, not the data, “They recognize that this is a “The problem with datasets is peo- editors note. The next chapter of the story will be written when other but the data is likely going to have very difficult problem, far more dif- ple don’t really have a good defini- experiments, such as the European Space Agency’s Planck satellite, the longest term impact,” said John ficult even than open access [for tion of what is included and what release their results later this year. Wilbanks, the chief commons of- publications],” said Michael Lubell, isn’t.” ficer at Sage Bionetworks, and who director of public affairs for APS. Carroll added that because there had previously run Creative Com- There are several outstanding DATA continued on page 6 Keen Minds Prep for the International Physics Olympiad Supernova Explosions Now in 3D By Jessica Orwig By Calla Cofield By itself, a flexible, plastic “Hot At the 2014 APS April Meeting Wheels” toy car track is pretty mun- in Savannah, Caltech theoretical dane. Add a can of racket balls and astrophysicist Christian Ott pre- a team of the top high-school phys- sented the first 3D computer simu- ics students in the country, and you lation of a rapidly rotating, highly have the makings of an intriguing magnetized core-collapse super- science experiment. nova. The new work reveals a much Each year, the American Asso- more asymmetric picture of these ciation of Physics Teachers and a monsters than previous 2D models, number of member societies of the and may also provide insight into American Institute of Physics spon- how the collapsing matter becomes sor a two-week competitive training a black hole. camp held on the University of The simulations by Ott and col- Maryland campus at the end of May. leagues look specifically at a so- Moesta/Ott/Richers, California Institute of Technology The purpose is to select five high Michael Lucibella called “engine driven” core-col- school students, from a pool of about lapse supernova, which is SImulation of a rapidly rotating and highly magnetized supernova 20, who will represent the US in the Rohan Kodialam, a junior from High Technology High School, Lincroft, NJ, characterized as hyperenergetic, International Physics Olympiad is one of the students who participated in the training camp for the Interna- even by supernova standards. These The asymmetry appears to arise (IPhO) annual competition. This tional Physics Olympiad. supernovae eject material into space from a “kink instability” which de- year, the Olympiad will take place “What you get out of it is actu- a free-response, calculus-based at nearly the speed of light and pro- velops in the 3D model, and cannot in Astana, Kazakhstan from July ally interesting,” said assistant exam and from that pool, the 19 duce gamma ray bursts in the pro- emerge in models with only two 13-21. coach, Andrew Lin, who has been students with the highest exam cess. dimensions. This type of instabil- ity is also seen in tokamak reactors, It’s essentially physics boot part of the coaching team for 14 scores packed their suitcases for Previous models of rapidly rotat- ing and highly magnetized super- which use magnetic fields to confine camp, but instead of climbing walls years, and was a member of the U.S. Maryland. and jumping hurdles, the students novae assumed symmetry around plasma and control its shape. Physics Olympiad team in 1998 and Most of these students just com- take on obstacle courses that chal- the vertical axis of the star, thus “So this is physics we’re famil- 1999. “You can tell how hollow the pleted their junior or senior year in lenge their intellectual capacities. showing changes in only two di- iar with,” he said. “It’s just the first racket ball is.” By timing how long high school. For the graduating Each day, students attend lectures mensions. The ejected plasma forms time that we actually see that in a the ball takes to roll down the track, seniors, this boot camp is one of the covering topics like optics and spe- two symmetric jets along the verti- supernova.” students can calculate its moment last steps before they enter college. cial relativity, take written exams, cal axis–blossoming out along the Running on the Blue Waters su- of inertia and from that estimate the Many of them will be attending and conduct laboratory experiments. MIT, Stanford, or the California pole lines, reaching the same height percomputer at the University of Although the complex problem volume of empty space inside. and forming the same shape. Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the Two weeks of non-stop physics Institute of Technology this fall. sets and activities are akin to what Some of the younger students, “Our simulation…looks funda- simulation requires 6 terabytes of would be a daunting prospect for first and second-year college stu- who are still in high school, have mentally different,” said Ott at a memory to run, with a total simula- many high school students, but dents see, the experiments can be yet to take a class in physics, but press conference in Savannah. The tion output of 500 terabytes of data. these young adults are unique. This surprisingly simple and easy for any that does not stop them from seek- new model shows a notably asym- The model also differs from pre- past January 4,277 students took physics teacher to coordinate. One ing out physics topics on their own. metric explosion: The plasma ap- vious 2D models by showing that the “F=ma” exam, which consists of this year’s eight lab activities Such is the case for the youngest pears to emerge along the axis once as the explosion takes place, matter involved no more than a Hot Wheels of multiple choice physics-based member of this year’s boot camp again, but rather than forming jets, may still accrete onto the central race track, racket balls and a stop- questions. The students with the top it spreads out into two lumpy, asym- neutron star that forms when the watch. 300 to 400 scores then completed OLYMPIAD continued on page 6 metric lobes. SUPERNOVA continued on page 7 2 • July 2014 Members This Month in Physics History in the Media July 19, 1595: Kepler’s Insight Leading to Mysterium Cosmographicum oday, we think of physics and astronomy as because the astronomer was so poor, but eventu- being inexorably linked, but this was not the ally relented. Kepler married Müller in April, 1597. “If the world wants to do this Museum of Natural History, on T case in the 16th century, when the former was The marriage was not a particularly happy one, science, then the world should or- alien invasions, The Washington deemed natural philosophy, while the latter was and Müller died of spotted fever in 1611.
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