Radiations Newsletter

Volume 20, Issue 23

Come view a total lunar eclipse at Goodsell Observatory or watch it at home! The observatory will be open (if it’s clear) Tuesday morning, April 15th, from 1-3:30 AM (that’s TONIGHT, for you night owls!). Totality, when the moon usually turns a beautiful red, is from 2:06 to 3:25. The Earth’s shadow takes its first real bite out of the Moon at 12:58. We will have the 16″ telescope open in the dome and several other telescopes and binoculars available on the pad outside. If you don’t want to come all the way here in the middle of the night, binoculars at home will do quite well!

Cindy Blaha and Joel Weisberg, Physics and Astronomy  

From the St. Olaf calendar: 

Tuesday, April 15 at 7:00 pm in the Viking Theater, St. Olaf campus

Physics: Film “Copenhagen”
A 2002 PBS adaptation of the play by Michael Frayn, staring Stephen Rae as Neils Bohr, Daniel Craig as Werner Heisenberg and Francesca Annis as Margrethe Bohr.

Inspired by actual events, Copenhagen revolves around a 1941 meeting between Niels Bohr of Denmark and Werner Heisenberg of Germany. Long ago, Heisenberg had been Bohr’s student and the two had developed some of the key insights of modern physics together. Now, they find themselves on opposite sides of World War II, with Heisenberg in charge of the German atomic program. Heisenberg makes a secret trip to see the Bohr’s but the details of their discussions are unclear. What were the reasons for the trip, what did they discuss and what conclusions, if any did they reach.

Thursday, April 17th (week 3) 12:00 noon in Olin 141

All students, faculty, and staff are invited to attend Patricia’s presentation about the nature of lipid rafts.

Environment Minnesota will be working this summer with with the Fund for the Public Interest, a national non-profit that runs campaigns on environmental and social justice issues for groups like Environment America, U.S. PIRG and the Human Rights Campaign. We’re gearing up for our summer campaign and hiring students for jobs on our campaign to protect the Boundary Waters from toxic sulfide mining.  Follow the link below for more information!