PHYSICS&ASTRONOMY NEWS VOLUME 8 • ISSUE 1

Message from the HeadSince this is my first “Message from theHead” I would like to start by thankingJeff Young for his outstanding leadershipover the past six years. Jeff guided thedepartment through a period of consider-able change and growth that saw manynew members joining the department. Atthe same time undergraduate enrolment hasrisen, our graduate student numbers haveroughly doubled, and funding opportunitiessuch as grants from the Canada Foundationfor Innovation have fuelled growth in our re-search activities.

We are now entering what will surely be achallenging decade that is starting out withall levels of government as well as the uni-versity facing financial challenges. The taskat hand for all of us is to nevertheless con-tinue to innovate and excel in our researchand teaching. There are many reasons to beoptimistic about the department’s future de-spite the pressures that we face, and thesecan be readily seen in the pages of thisnewsletter. For instance, there is currentlya renaissance under way in the department’steaching activity. Funding from the CarlWieman Science Education Initiative andother sources within the university have en-abled us to bring the findings of modern re-search on physics education to our under-graduate courses. A key resource for thisis a group of ‘Science Teaching and Learn-ing Fellows’ (STLFs) who work alongsidefaculty members to develop new teachingmethods and to assess their impact on stu-dent learning. An example appears here inan interview with Peter Newbury, an STLFworking with several faculty members to de-

velop ways to get students in our large as-tronomy courses to engage more actively intheir own learning. Many other courses areundergoing similar changes, from our firstyear service courses all the way to our se-nior classes. Our commitment to innovativeteaching is being recognized and supportedin very concrete ways. The renovation of afloor of our Hebb teaching laboratories wasfunded jointly by the Faculty of Science andthe UBC central administration and the suc-cess that we are already having with thismodern space makes a good start towardsthe case for future infrastructure needs.

Another reason for optimism that can begleaned from these pages is the incredibledepth of talent that we have here. We arean unusually broad department with pro-grams in physics, astronomy and engineer-ing physics, coupled to research activityacross this wide spectrum. This ranges fromthe highly applied work on microfluidics forbiomedical research described in the articleon Carl Hansen’s laboratory to far-flung as-tronomical research such as Ingrid Stairs’swork on pulsars. Our faculty members, post-doctoral fellows, staff and students are in-volved in everything from low temperatureexperiments on ultracold gases and quantumdots to the high-energy frontier that is aboutto open up at the Large Hadron Collider atCERN. They are involved in satellites be-ing launched for astronomical observationsand earthbound facilities such as beamlinesat the Canadian Light Source and at TRI-UMF. This diverse activity displays the ca-pacity and commitment everyone in the de-partment has to tackle the challenges that lieahead.

Doug Bonn, Professor and Head

A Celebration of Ed Auld’s LifeProfessor Emeritus Edward Auld passedaway on November 22. Ed will be sorelymissed in the Department of Physics and As-tronomy. Acting Head of Department andformer Director of Engineering Physics JeffYoung delivered this tribute at Ed’s Celebra-tion of Life on 18 December 2009.

I don’t take a lot of photographs or keepmany mementos, I never have. Yet everyday, I look up from my computer screenand see a faded image of Ed surroundedby “the class of ’97”. Until one year ago,it was a subconscious decision that keptthat photo from enjoying a longer life deepwithin some drawer; it just happened to be

there.

But when I moved offices, it certainly was aconscious decision to place this image frontand centre. The reasons why are what Iwould like to share with you on this day ofremembrance.

First, because it shows off the spontaneous,natural smile that always appeared on Ed’sface while he enjoyed the company of stu-dents. The same smile, I might add, thatyou can see hanging on the third floor wallin Hennings, in his graduation photograph.I mention this because Ed was a staunchdefender of having class photos displayedprominently in the department. Any sugges-

INSIDE

Message from the Head 2Edward Auld 2Pulsar Missing Link 3The Human Orrery 4Hebb Renovation 5Microfluidics 6Physics of Toys 8Physics Camp 8Undergraduate Update 9Graduate Update 9Black-Hole Experiments 9Thirty-Meter Telescope 10Transitions 11Faculty and Staff Awards 11Quick News 11Back Page 12

CONTACT USDept. of Physics and Astronomy6224 Agricultural RoadUniversity of British ColumbiaVancouver V6T 1Z1604-822-3853www.phas.ubc.ca

EDITORIAL INFORMATIONEditors:Jeremy Heylheyl@phas.ubc.caTheresa Liaocommunications@phas.ubc.ca

The Physics and Astronomy News ispublished once each year. The dead-line for submissions to the January2011 issue is 1 December 2010.

The newsletter is also available atour website, http://www.phas.ubc.ca;if you would like to receive your copyelectronically, please let us know.

You are receiving this newsletter be-cause you are an alumnus or alumnaof the department, or because you sub-scribed to the newsletter. If you wouldlike to be removed from the subscrip-tion list, please contact us atcommunications@phas.ubc.ca.

tion that photographic records of our alumnimight be better placed elsewhere, were imme-diately mercilessly quashed by ‘Doc Auld’.

Ed was utterly committed to the well beingof all past, present and future engineeringphysics students. Second, because the photoshows a group of students who are clearly

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VOLUME 8 • ISSUE 1 PHYSICS&ASTRONOMY NEWS

enjoying their evening with Ed as much ashe is! The love affair was most definitelymutual, because students could not help butappreciate the care and attention lavishedupon them. What was best for the students’academic, social, leadership, or creative de-velopment came first; rules and regulationsnotwithstanding.

The outpouring of emotion from the studentsat the ceremony celebrating Ed’s 18 years asDirector of Engineering Physics will alwaysstick in my mind.

Third, although the photograph was taken ata downtown restaurant at the end of term,it reminds me of the annual open house thatthe Aulds hosted for the engineering physicscommunity during the term. Those werevery special evenings, with every nook andcranny of their home filled with people talk-ing or playing a variety of games, treats andbeverages in hand.

The entire Auld family is an important part

of the Engineering Physics community.

In reviewing these individual reasons whyI keep this photo prominent, the commondenominator is obvious. From most of mymentors and colleagues, I have learned howto do various things. While knowing how todo things well is important, many of us, andeven some computers, can be easily trainedto do things.

Ed was different, he taught me to understandthe real reason why we do the things wedo: to aid, in every way possible, the devel-opment of bright young students into well-rounded contributors to our society.

It is, in my experience, a small subset of peo-ple who have a powerful, altruistic purposethat drives everything they do. Ed was mostcertainly a member of this elite group.

To finish, I would like to share somethingI found on the internet. If you Google ’EdAuld’, the first page of hits has a link to

the blog of an Engineering Physics alumnus,who states simply,

“Ed Auld made a big difference in my life.I’m gonna miss him”,

and I hear hundreds of echoes.

Ed Auld is holding a photograph of Canadianastronaut Bjarni Tryggvason Photo Credit:Stephen Forgacs; UBC Archives

Pulsar Missing LinkIn a June 12, 2009 Science article, scien-tists including UBC PHAS’s Ingrid Stairsdescribe a double star system in which thereis one “normal” (though low-mass) Sun-likestar and one rapidly-spinning millisecondpulsar (a neutron star emitting beams of ra-dio waves). Accretion of material onto theneutron star is thought to be the origin of therapid rate of spin.

The upper panel depicts the system in 2000while it was accreting. The lower panel showsafter the accretion had ceased in 2009; the mil-lisecond pulsar has turned on, connecting themillisecond pulsar to an x-ray binary. Credit:Anne Archibald and Joeri van Leeuwen

The millisecond pulsar, called PSRJ1023+0038, or J1023 for short, was dis-covered in a 2007 survey by the NationalScience Foundation’s (NSF) Robert C. ByrdGreen Bank Telescope (GBT) in West Vir-ginia. The astronomers retroactively foundthat the object had been detected by NSF’sVery Large Array (VLA) radio telescopeduring a large sky survey in 1998, and hadbeen observed in visible light by the SloanDigital Sky Survey in 1999, revealing a Sun-like star. However when observed again in2000, the object had changed dramatically,showing evidence for a rotating disk of ma-terial, called an accretion disk, surroundingthe neutron star. By May of 2002, the evi-dence for this disk had disappeared.

“This strange behavior puzzled astronomers,and there were several different theories forwhat the object could be,” said Stairs. Asimilar type of binary system, with a nor-mal star accreting matter onto a fast spin-ning neutron star, but not emitting radiowaves, is known as Low-Mass X-Ray Bi-nary (LMXB). J1023 appears to be the’missing link’ connecting LMXBs and mil-lisecond pulsars: “. . . this thing has flippedfrom looking like an LMXB to looking likea pulsar, as it experienced an episode dur-ing which material pulled from the com-panion star formed an accretion disk aroundthe neutron star. Later, that mass trans-

fer stopped, the disk disappeared, and thepulsar emerged” explained Scott Ransom ofthe National Radio Astronomy Observatory(NRAO). The theory of binary stellar evolu-tion predicts that the companion star shouldeventually turn into a white dwarf.

This collaborative research was accom-plished by a large team which was ledby Anne Archibald, a graduate student atMcGill University, and included Ingrid H.Stairs (UBC), Scott M. Ransom (NRAO),Victoria M. Kaspi (McGill), Duncan R.Lorimer (West Virginia/NRAO), Maura A.McLaughlin (West Virginia/NRAO), andothers.

Ingrid leads a team at UBC dedicated tofinding and understanding pulsars and theircompanions. Current pulsar search workincludes a large-scale survey at the 300-mArecibo telescope in Puerto Rico, the drift-scan survey at the 100-m Green Bank Tele-scope that discovered J1023 and a new large-scale survey of the Northern sky, also withthe Green Bank Telescope. Much of In-grid’s follow-up work involves pulsars in bi-nary systems. Ingrid was on sabbatical leaveat the Australia Telescope National Facilityand the Centre for Astrophysics & Super-computing, Swinburne University of Tech-nology when J1023 was identified and fol-lowed up.

Source: NRAO Press Release.

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Made You ThinkEngaging Students in Their Learning Aninterview by Alice Cassidy, Editor, Tapestry

This is a story connecting events that tookplace in 1609 and in 2009 and connect-ing typical activities faculty members do.In this case, attending a conference andreading a journal article and connectingwhat more and more of us are doing: de-vising innovative, yet simple, ways to en-gage our student for enhanced learning.I asked Peter to explain.

As I walked through the Irving K. Bar-ber lobby the week of January 19, 2009, Isaw a sign “Astronomy class underway”.What course was it and who takes it?It was the tutorial component of Astronomy310, a course for non-science majors. Thereare 280 students in total, with about twothirds of them from the Arts, a quarter fromCommerce, and the remainder from a vari-ety of other disciplines. We have four teach-ing assistants and three weekly 50-minutelectures. Every two weeks, groups of 40 stu-dents attend a 50-minute tutorial.

There were bright colours on the floorin concentric circles, and lots and lots ofpeople gathered around. It looked prettylively. What were they doing?Students were building a human orrery. Anorrery is a mechanical model where theplanets orbit the sun when you turn a crank.In our version, students walking around thesun play the role of the planets in the so-lar system. Or, more accurately, the solarsystem as Galileo knew it. In commemo-ration of Galileo’s first use of a telescopeto explore the sky in 1609, the project ispart of worldwide celebrations of 2009 asthe United Nations-designated InternationalYear of Astronomy.

We wanted to replicate what he saw, so ourorrery includes only the planets visible tothe naked eye, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars,Jupiter, and Saturn.

Has this course always included such ac-tivities?No. For the fairly long time it has been of-fered, the tutorials involved worksheets andcomputer work. Students followed along ontheir own, filled out the worksheet, and left itto be marked. Recently, in my work as a Sci-

ence Teaching and Learning Fellow (STLF),we started to think of more interesting tuto-rials that were also based on clearly definedlearning goals. There is a grade associatedwith the tutorial and we want them to be asactive and engaging as possible.

This course and Peter’s position aresupported by the Carl Wieman Sci-ence Education Initiative (CWSEI;http://www.cwsei.ubc.ca), a $12 millioninitiative headed by Nobel Laureate CarlWieman aimed at systematically im-proving and scientifically measuring theeffectiveness of undergraduate scienceeducation. Peter, who has been a STLFsince April 2008, is no stranger to thecourse, having taught it at UBC as alecturer in the past.

How did you first conceive of this activity?The Armagh Observatory in NorthernIreland designed an orrery as an out-door exhibit on the observatory grounds.I have never been there, but I readabout it in Astronomy Education Reviewhttp://aer.noao.edu/cgi-bin/new.pl. Oper-ated by the American Astronomical Societyand fairly new (the first issues were pub-lished in 2002), this is one of the only jour-nals dedicated to astronomy education re-search. And I figured there must be a wayto use it in our course, so students could actout the roles of the planets.

What exactly were the students doing inthe 50-minute tutorial?First they built the orrery. The TAs, RonaldGagne, Melanie Gendre, Martha Milkeraitis,and Thomas Pfrommer, gave a three-minuteintroduction on how to do it, then turned itover to the students. Once it was built, weasked for volunteers. So, one student mightbe a planet and hold up a stick with a pictureof Saturn. The coloured markers on the floorare numbered to show how far each planetmoves - every 16 days for the inner plan-ets and 10 times slower, every 160 days forthe outer planets. When the student steppedfrom marker to marker, they were acting outboth speed and distance.

And how else were they actively engaged?We designed it so that during constructioneveryone had a specific job. Once actingout the roles of planets, some participatedand the rest watched, laughing at poor Mer-cury flying around the sun and at Saturn and

Jupiter who barely moved at all. Later, whenwe explored the solar system beyond Saturn,everyone walked past Uranus, Neptune, andPluto and right out of the building past theclock tower to reach the spacecraft, Voyager.Many students were amazed how far they’dwalked.

Also, assessment was a critical componentof their involvement. After they exploredthe solar system as a group, each studentfilled in a worksheet. The questions weredesigned such that they had to go back andinteract with the orrery model to answer thequestions. And though they filled it in indi-vidually, they could work together. And theyknow they get marks for their work.

There seemed to be a lot more than the 40students in the general area. What do youmake of that?Over the course of the week we ran it, wehad the students and TAs from our course,plus about 100 spectators who were walkingthrough, going up or down the stairs, andstopping to watch. They were accidentallyengaged! As I said to myself, and wouldhave liked to have said to them, “Aha, madeyou think!”

At our recent annual Learning Confer-ence on the 4th floor of the Irving K. Bar-ber Learning Centre, another open space,I noticed the same sort of effect. Peoplewere coming to the top of the stairs ontheir way somewhere else, but stoppingfor a bit to see what was happening on thestage.In fact, it was my attendance at that con-ference and associated Celebrate LearningWeek that planted the seed of the idea to runthe orrery tutorial in a public space. WhenGary Poole, Director of TAG, introducedspecial guest speaker Lee Shulman, he com-mented on the crowd forming at the edges.

Can you say a bit about how your work asan STLF connects research, teaching, andlearning?Science educators, in astronomy and else-where, are continually reminding us that it’snot what the instructor does that matters - it’swhat the students do for themselves. Withthat in mind, I designed the orrery activityand the other tutorial activities so that theTAs guide and prompt, but the students doall the exploration and discovery for them-selves. In addition to working with thecourse instructor, Harvey Richer, to create

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learning goals for the course and these tu-torial activities, I am involved in a researchproject that is part of the CWSEI work. Tosee if the students learn anything from theseactivities, we ask them to answer questionsabout astronomy both before and after theydo these new tutorial activities. Early find-ings are very positive, with up to a 50% in-crease in correct answers about the size ofthe solar system and motion of the planetsafter students have done the human orrerytutorial.

Thanks Peter. And I am certain your 280students thank you too.The complete article was originally pub-lished as Cassidy, Alice. 2009. Peter New-bury - "Made you Think: Engaging Studentsin Their Learning. An interview by AliceCassidy. First published in Special FacultySharing Issue of Tapestry. 2009. Issue 54.Page 16. University of British Columbia;http://www.lead.ubc.ca/newbury.

Students revolving about the orrery.

Renovated Hebb laboratories bring student learning experience to the next level

After several months of renovation, thenew Hebb laboratories welcomed their firstgroup of student users in September, 2009.With evidence-based pedagogical techniqueof Peer Instruction built into the lab layout,new Hebb labs are our latest tools to encour-age student thinking and learning.

“The main idea is to have the students de-cide for themselves how to approach an ex-periment,” said Dr. Georg Rieger, coursecoordinator for Physics 100. The new labbenches (or “islands”), which accommodate6 students in 3 groups of two, facilitate dis-cussions not only between lab partners, butalso between groups. “Students can freelyexchange ideas with one another about theconcept under study, and help each otherlearn about how science is done (collabora-tively) and how conclusions are reached andcome to be accepted (through peer review),”said Dr. James Day, course coordinator forPhysics 107. With the new layout, TAs and

instructors will be able to address the threegroups at the same table simultaneously, aswell as easily walk around to listen in on stu-dent discussions.

Physics laboratory in 1947

Other than the layout, the upgraded audio-visual equipments also enhance teachingand learning. Overhead cameras allow forsmall demos at the front to be projectedonto two screens for all the class to see. Inaddition, the two projector screens can be

used independently, giving instructors addi-tional flexibilities in the materials presented(for example, one screen can be showinginstructions and the other can be showingthe spreadsheet students are to do analysiswith). Access to wireless internet in theroom enables students to bring their ownlaptops to the lab and run analysis using soft-ware that they are familiar with.

This renovation project was funded by theUniversity Investment Fund and the Teach-ing and Learning Fund. A number ofPHAS faculty and staff were involved inplanning and supervising the constructionand completion of the labs: Jeff Young,Doug Bonn, Jon Nakane, Fran Bates, An-drzej Kotlicki, Joseph O’Connor, DomenicDi Tomaso, Sing Chow. Many others con-tributed comments and ideas.

Acknowledgement: We would like to thankDrs. Georg Rieger, James Day, and AndrzejKotlicki for contributing to this article.

Hebb laboratory just before the renovation Hebb laboratory after the recent renovation.

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Mastering Microfluidics: Small, Powerful, Precise Tools for Biomedical Research

by Mari-Lou Rowley

Biophysicist Carl Hansen develops mi-crofluidic technology to help biomedicalresearchers study the complex moleculardynamics in cellular networks and cell-to-cell variations in cellular response.These tiny but powerful tools can mon-itor and modulate single cells en masse— eventually leading to advanced diag-nostics and treatment.

Recognizing and understanding the inter-play of environmental influences with an or-ganism’s genome and development is a crit-ical aspect of systems biology. Another iscoming to terms with heterogeneity. Notwo cells are the same. Even if they areidentical genetically under the same condi-tions, they behave differently, and traditionalchemical screening techniques cannot detectthese cell-to-cell differences.

Some Biomolecular BasicsGenomics: The study of genes and theirfunction in an organism’s entire genome,or all the hereditary information encodedin deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA).Proteomics:The study of the structureand function of all proteins encoded bythe genome of an organism.Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR): Apowerful technique in which DNA poly-merase is used to amplify a piece of DNAby in vitro (test tube) enzymatic replica-tion. PCR is used in molecular biologyto generate millions of copies of a DNApiece in order to decipher the sequence,analyze the function of genes, and per-form genetic manipulations for the studyof genomics and proteomics.

Biological systems are very different fromphysical systems, explains Carl Hansen,UBC assistant professor in biophysics andbiotechnology. The heterogeneity, or vari-ability, of cells makes them very difficult tomeasure and analyze. If you look at an av-erage of cells in a sample, you don’t capturewhat is happening in small but often criti-cal populations of cells, which may have acritical effect on the whole system. “It is be-coming increasingly clear that reductionismdoesn’t work. Understanding gene functionrequires us to address the surrounding net-work architecture,” he says.

To help biomedical researchers decode thecomplex interaction of genes and pro-teins that create and sustain living systems,Hansen has to think big and work small.Big, in terms of being at the forefront of sys-tems biology, an emerging research field thatstudies the interacting networks of genes andproteins comprising all organisms, from ayeast cell to a human being. Small, in termsof developing microfluidic tools that allowresearchers to isolate and study the reac-tions and interactions of single cells in dif-ferent biochemical environments simultane-ously (see text box).

“Soft” Plumbing Yields Firm ResultsThe field of microfluidics was spawned bythe integrated circuit (IC) industry, usingthe same micromachining tools that createmicrochips in the production of miniaturefluid channelling devices. The most com-mon application of this technology is inkjetprinting. Since its emergence, the field haspromised to revolutionize molecular biol-ogy, DNA analysis and proteomics.

However, hard materials such as siliconand glass used to build microchips are notwell-suited for making hermetically sealedvalves required for manipulating the nano-litre volumes of solution needed for analyz-ing cells. “Electronics is all about mov-ing charge around, so a transistor is thefundamental technology,” Hansen explains.“Molecular biology is about moving fluidsaround, so a valve, or fluid switch, is afundamental component from which largerfunctionality can be built.”

Hansen and his lab are developing multi-layer soft lithography (MSL) which usesreplica moulding of non-traditional “soft”materials to create highly integrated net-works with thousands of active valves,pumps and logic gates. “The reason MSL isso robust and reliable is because the wholedevice is soft – about 100,000 times softerthan silicon. Even if I had an imperfectionnearly the size of the channel itself, I justclose the valve and it deforms around it tomake a seal.”

Not only is it reliable, but MSL is cheapand fast — from computer design of a de-vice to working prototype takes a few days.“Once we have a valve, or fluid switch, wecan put three of them together and make a

pump to move fluids along a channel. Oncewe have a pump, we can make a mixer,” saysHansen. “We can also make valves in bi-nary structures, so we can control a largenumber of channels with a small number ofvalves to allow fluidics multiplexing. Thisis similar to addressing one of 6 milliontransistors in a Pentium chip with only 64pins.” MSL is the technology platform be-hind all of the research projects in Hansen’slab. Their work exploits new capabilities inmicrofluidics to further a broad range of bi-ological and biomedical research, includingstem cell science, medical diagnostics, pro-teomics, single cell analysis, and genomics.

High-Throughput Single Cell Analysisof Protein SignallingUnderstanding how cells interact andcommunicate with each other (cell sig-nalling) is one of the most complexproblems in molecular biology. Particu-larly challenging for signalling studies isthe ever-present cell-to-cell heterogene-ity, which cannot be captured in genomicanalysis, where typically a large (> 106)number of cells are observed simultane-ously. Multilayer soft lithography (MSL)is poised to revolutionize next-generationDNA sequencing and analysis – toolscrucial for genomics and proteomics.UBC biophysicist Carl Hansen is de-veloping technologies that couple live-cell microscopy with microfluidic con-trol over the chemical environment. Hisgroup’s current device can monitor eightstrains, or genetic mutations, simultane-ously in 32 different chemical environ-ments. “We can do 256 live-cell imag-ing experiments and generate millions ofdata points in a day, and that allows us toask new and quantitative questions abouthow gene knock-outs affect cellular re-sponse and variability under conditionsof time-variant stimulus.”

Through joint funding of Western EconomicDiversification Canada, Genome BC, andUBC, the Hansen lab is currently buildinga dedicated nanofabrication facility that willallow for both the prototyping and produc-tion of microfluidic devices. This lab willbe the only facility of its kind in Canada,and, along with Stanford, one of only twoin North America.

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Digital PCR for Advanced DiagnosticsAccurate clinical diagnosis and prognosis ofdisease such as cancer requires the abilityto detect and measure the abundance of cer-tain strains of nucleic acid – either DNAor RNA – in cellular tissues. Digital poly-merase chain reaction (PCR) is the currentgold standard technology in molecular bi-ology. “PCR is a very powerful tool butlimited in its ability to detect rare muta-tions or resolve small differences betweenmolecules because it picks up backgroundnoise or sample contamination,” explainsHansen. “You have to be a wizard to reliablyamplify a single molecule in a conventionalformat in a macroscopic volume.”

For Hansen, a macroscopic amount of liquidis much smaller than test-tube sized. Con-ventional PCR uses 96 wellplates, in whichevery reaction is around 50 microlitres.Even so, it is extremely difficult to amplifya single molecule, and conventional reagentsat that small volume are expensive – roughly$1.00 per assay.

Hansen and his lab are developing digitalPCR technology that that uses microfluidicsto reduce sample volumes exponentially,and thereby improve accuracy. The state-of-the-art in digital PCR is a device sold byFluidigm, which uses soft valve technologyto allow for reactions in ten nanolitre vol-umes at a density of approximately 10,000reactions per chip.

In terms of many diagnostic problems, how-ever, this is not enough. Hansen’s group isworking with industry partner Fluidigm toimprove the economy, precision and sensi-tivity of digital PCR by going 1,000 timessmaller – to ten picolitre volumes, or thevolume of roughly ten cells – with 1 mil-lion “wells” on a single chip. Compart-mentalization of a single molecule in a 10-picolitre well results in a highly effectiveconcentration, which facilitates amplifica-tion and detection of each molecule. “Con-ventional PCR can detect a 30 percent dif-ference in molecules of a sample. With digi-tal PCR at ten-picolitre volumes, we can un-

ambiguously detect a 1-percent difference,”says Hansen. “In areas of cancer research,metagenomics, pathogen detection, and pre-natal diagnostics, this precision translatesinto early detection and the ability to seevery rare molecules.”

Hansen’s research has applications in sev-eral fields, including biomarker discovery,drug development, environmental genomics,personalized medicine, and stem cell re-search. “One thing I like to stress is thatwe are working on applications, so we knowmost of our projects will work in principlebefore we start,” he says. “We have beenvery fortunate at UBC to have access to agroup of outstanding life science researcherswho see the potential of this technology. Inmy mind, this is the most important ingredi-ent for success.”

Reprinted with permission from an articleby science writer and poet Mari-Lou Rowley(Pro-Textual Communications), published inIssue 2, 2008 of Synergy, Journal of UBCScience.

Safe Detection of Down’s SyndromeDown’s syndrome is one example of a di-agnostic application for digital PCR. Chil-dren with Down’s syndrome have an ex-tra copy of chromosome 21, resulting inimpaired cognitive ability, physical growthand development. Depending upon the ageof the mother, between one in 100 to onein 1,000 fetuses will test genetically posi-tive for Down’s syndrome. In amniocente-sis, currently the definitive test for Down’ssyndrome, fetal cells are collected from theamniotic sac inside the uterus. It is an in-

vasive and dangerous procedure for bothmother and child.Clinicians and researchers have discoveredthat during the first trimester of pregnancy,between 2 to 6 percent of DNA cells fromthe developing fetus end up in the mother’sblood stream. The ability to detect smallimbalances in chromosome number withina large background of maternal DNA raisesthe possibility of non-invasive testing. Veryrecently, two strategies have been advancedfor this purpose. The first is based on shot-gun sequencing of DNA, which is expen-

sive. The second is based on detectingunique sequences of RNA arising from ge-netic variability between the mother andthe fetus, which is difficult to generally ap-ply and requires more complex biochem-istry. “In principal, by performing mil-lions of reactions in pL volumes, digi-tal PCR provides an economical test todirectly measure DNA differences in theabundance of less than 1 percent,” saysHansen. Ultimately, this work could leadto a simple, economical, and highly accu-rate blood test for Down’s syndrome.

Quick News continues here from page 11.

MOST NASA Guest ObserverThe MOST (Microvariability & Oscillationsof STars) microsatellite recently finished ob-serving a target proposed by astrophysicistDr. John Monnier of the University ofMichigan. Monnier, the first NASA “GuestObserver” to use MOST, is an expert in tak-ing ’pictures’ of stars through a techniqueknown as interferometry.

NASA, the operator of a number of spacetelescopes, all of which are larger thanMOST, recognised that MOST’s uniqueabilities would be of benefit to Ameri-can astronomers. Thus a collaboration be-tween the MOST teams, the Canadian Space

Agency, and NASA was established to al-lowed NASA guest observers use of theTelescope.

Bruskiwich recognizedGraduate student Patrick Bruskiewich hasbeen awarded a Certificate of Recognitionfrom Federal Member of Parliament MarcGarneau. M. Garneau you may remem-ber is a former astronaut and head of theCanadain Space Agency. The award recog-nizes Patrick’s many contributions to gov-ernment debate and public issues, includingthe recent controversy surrounding our satel-lite program and Radarsat-2.

Alumni awardedFrans Pretorius (a student of Matt Choptuik)

has won the APS Aneesure Rahman Prizefor Computational Physics for his work onthe collision of two black holes.

Helge Seetzen (a student who worked withLorne Whitehead) was awarded NSERC’s2009 Innovation Challenge grand prize.

Unruh named Perimeter ChairBill Unruh, has joined Stephen Hawking andother eminent physicists as a DistinguishedResearch Chair at the Perimeter Institute.The citation points to Bill’s “seminal con-tributions to our understanding of gravity,black holes, cosmology, quantum fields incurved spaces, and the foundations of quan-tum mechanics, including the discovery ofthe Unruh effect.”

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Faraday 2009: Toys

Winter is a season of celebration — cele-brating the coming of a new year, the endof exams, and the time to spend with familyand friends. Once every year, the Physics& Astronomy Outreach program puts on theyear-end Faraday Science Show - foundedin the spirit of physicist Michael Faraday’s“Children’s Christmas Lectures” at Lon-don’s Royal Institution. In this we celebratescientific discoveries, and share the excite-ment of physics phenomena through simpleexplanations and fun demonstrations.

This year, on a cold but sunny afternoon,more than 320 children and parents showedup for the Faraday Show. The theme surely

got many kids excited - the Physics of Toys.The show started with Dr. Rachel Moll dis-cussing how Newton’s cradle works throughthe transfer of energy. Dr. Andrzej Kotlickithen followed with many cool remote con-trol toys, such as the car that climbs walls, ahuge helium filled silver blimp, and a hov-ercraft. Dr. Chris Waltham together witha volunteer from the audience demonstratedhow a toy like “speak and spell” can pro-nounce letters from the alphabet. The showended with Dr. Janis McKenna talking aboutbubbles — their shapes, sizes, and colours.Prompted by our questions, many kids gavegood explanations on how their favouritetoys work. Of course, we had some wonder-ful graduate student volunteers helping outas well, setting up many hands on activities

for those who arrived early.

The Faraday Science Show is an annualevent, and we look forward to sharingour excitement for physics with more chil-dren in the coming years! For more in-formation about the Faraday Show, visithttp://www.phas.ubc.ca/outreach.

Janis McKenna launches some bubbles into theaudience.

Learn Science in a Social and Fun Environment – Phenomenal Physics Summer Camp

Children are born with a sense of awe andwonder about the world around them. Handson science activities and learning sciencein a social and fun environment are power-ful ways to foster their natural curiosity andstimulate their interests in science.

This year, 120 children from Grades 2 to10 participated in the annual PhenomenalPhysics Summer Camps, organized by thePhysics & Astronomy Outreach Program.Students engaged in fun scientific activitiesdesigned to encourage thinking and experi-menting. They experimented with electric-ity, designed hovercrafts, constructed Mar-tian habitats, conducted chemistry experi-ments and played with tornado tubes andmusical instruments. We didn’t forget to en-sure everyone had the opportunity to enjoysome physical activities, such as pool ses-

sions (some with scuba diving) and outdoorgames. All camps concluded with a physicsscience show and liquid nitrogen ice creamparty.

The Phenomenal Physics Summer Campsteam includes certified teachers, physicsfaculty, graduate students and high schoolvolunteers. Camps are run annually dur-ing July and August. To learn moreabout the summer camp program, or otherevents and programs run by the Physics& Astronomy Outreach Program, visithttp://www.phas.ubc.ca/outreach. Registra-tion for 2010 camps will open in March2010. Sign up for the Outreach ProgramNewsletter on our website to receive the lat-est information about the summer camp pro-gram.

We would like to thank Rachel Moll, Sum-mer Camp Coordinator 2006-2008, for con-tributing to this article.

Launch a bottle rocket on a sunny day.

Learn about fluids by building tornado tubes. Make liquid nitrogen ice cream.

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VOLUME 8 • ISSUE 1 PHYSICS&ASTRONOMY NEWS

Undergraduate Studies

At this year’s CAP University Prize Exam-ination two Physics & Astronomy studentsfared exceedingly well. Placing first, na-tionwide was Cedric Lin a 3rd year Hon-ours Computer Science and Physics Pro-gram student. Alan Robinson (BSC (Hon-ours Physics), Year 4) placed 5th overall.

Cedric Lin was also the UBC high scoreron the 2008 Putnam exam for the third yearin a row, this time placing in the top 15 inthe entire competition (out of a total of 3,627participants).

Some other honours garnered by our under-graduate students are:

Faculty of Science Achievement AwardAlan Robinson

Wesbrook ScholarFarzin Barekat

Thomas and Evelyn Hebb MemorialScholarshipDavid Macneill and Oren Rippel

Dorothy Gladys Studer Memorial Schol-arshipFarzin Barekat

Gordon Merritt Shrum Memorial Schol-arshipCedric Lin

Physics and Astronomy UndergraduateScholarshipMohammad Bavarian

W.H. Macinnes Scholarship in Physicsand MathematicsDennis Huang

Paul Sykes Scholarship in AstronomyWilliam Gunton (2008W)Chenchong Zhu (2009W)

Bruce Marshall PrizeSi Fang Chen

Arthur Crooker PrizeChenchong Zhu

Canadian Undergraduate Physics Con-ference - First Prize TalkAshley Cook

Canadian Undergraduate Physics Con-ference - Second Prize PosterRonald Gagne

Engineering PhysicsAt last year’s Christmas party faculty, staffand grad. students volunteered to honourand thank Jeff Young for his years of ser-vice as the director of engineering physicsand then as the head of department. Thetwenty-minute skit took hours of planningand rehearsals. We would like to recog-nize Bryce Burger, Doug Bonn, Francis-Yan

Cyr-Racine, Stephanie Flynn, Charles Foell,Kim Tkaczuk Fugate, Derek Gagnier, Brid-get Hamilton, Javed Iqbal, Salena Li, JanieMcCallum, Jon Nakane, Hailong Ning, RonParachoniak, Mary Ann Potts,Philip Stamp,Mya Warren, and Bernhard Zender for alltheir hard work.

We would also like to recognize the awardwinners for the Engineer Physics ProjectFair 2009.

Roy Nodwell PrizeWalker Eagleston, Christopher Eaglestonand Will Motz

Edward G. Auld PrizeMilenko Despotovic, Dorian Gangloff andW. Lloyd Ung

Eric Roenitz PrizeShawn Hanna and Kenneth Ng

Graduate StudiesSome honours garnered by our graduate stu-dents are:

Faculty of Science Achievement AwardMya Warren

Dante Ciccone Memorial Scholarship inAstronomyThomas Pfrommer

NSERC Vanier ScholarshipStephan Ettenauer

NSERC Canada Graduate Scholarship

(Doctoral)Erika Chin, Ramandeep Gill, Mark Ku,Sergey Zhdanovic

NSERC Postgraduate Scholarship (Doc-toral)Thomas Hammond, Nahid Jetha, Eric Mills,Alexander Morriss-Andrews

NSERC Canada Graduate Scholarship(Masters)Charles Clements, Natasha Holmes, LiamHuber, Todd Mackenzie, Wai-Hin Ngan,Alan Robinson, Bretta Russell-Schulz, JaredStang, Andrew Wilson

NSERC Postgraduate Scholarship (Mas-ters) Barry Chai, Jacob Cosman, RyanMcKenzie, Warren Ung,

UBC’s Pacific Century Graduate Fellow-ship Matthew Hasselfield, Gilad Rosenberg

UGF/Four Year Fellowship Si Chen,Joshua Grimes, Tyler Hughes, RaveenKumaran, Chang Wei Loh, Chloe Mal-brunot, Dominic Marchand, Ali Mohazab,Brad Ramshaw, Jonathan Rosen, StephenSwedish, Zhihuai Zhu

UGF Martha Milkeraitis, Sanaz Vafaei

Black-Hole Experiments

by Silke Weinfurtner

In 1981 Bill Unruh showed that the equationof motion for sound waves in a convergentfluid flow is given by the same mathematicalexpression as for a wave equation in an met-ric spacetime geometry. It is possible to setup sonic horizons in transsonic flows, and

thus in principle to mimic experimentallythe black-hole evaporation process. Almost30 years later we (Bill Unruh, Matt Penrice,Mauricio Richartz and Silke Weinfurtner)have started a joint project with the Civil En-gineering Department (Greg Lawrence andTed Tedford) to set up an experiment at theUniversity of British Columbia to find outif indeed it is possible to detect (traces) of

black hole radiation.

Instead of looking at sound waves we focuson surface waves on water flowing over anobstacle. The flow velocity increases as thewater flows over the top of the obstacle thepropagation speed of the surface waves de-creases as the depth of the fluid decreases,and we are able to set up a region of super-critical flow in which the fluid flows faster

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PHYSICS&ASTRONOMY NEWS VOLUME 8 • ISSUE 1

than the velocity of those surface waves.The region of supercritical flow is boundedby an analogue of black and white-hole hori-zons. Surface waves inside the critical re-gion are dragged downstream even if theyare trying to move upstream, and thereforesurface waves can only enter the supercrit-ical region from the black hole horizon. Awave propagating upstream in the region be-yond the “white-hole” horizon” cannot passthe white-hole horizon. For our experimentwe generate shallow-water waves or long-wavelength surface waves, and send themupstream toward the white-hole horizon.

Waves travel from the right to the left and thenbounce off the white-hole horizon.

They slow down, and are compressed as theytravel toward that horizon, until their wave-length becomes so short that the upstreamvelocity of the waves is less than the fluidflow velocity. These short wavelength wavesthen are swept away from the that horizon bythe fluid flow. There turn out to be two pos-sible such short wavelength waves — calledpositive and negative norm waves, whichroughly correspond in this case to waveswith positive or negative phase velocity. Thecreation of the negative norm waves is the

classical counterpart to the quantum Hawk-ing radiation one would expect to be emittedby a black hole.

The main purpose of our experiment is tocheck the robustness of Hawking radiationagainst the model dependent deviations asthey arise in our water analogues. The ef-fective field theory for surface waves is anexample of how quantum field theory aris-ing from the full theory of quantum gravitycould change at small scales. While it is veryunlikely that our toymodel is teaching us de-tails of how actual field theories might looklike at small scales, the robustness of theblack hole evaporation process against themodel specific deviations would ensure ourtrust in effective field theories around blackholes.

Thirty-Meter TelescopeUBC Professor Paul Hickson is the projectscientist for the NFIRAOS facility adap-tive optics system for the Thirty-Meter Tele-scope (or TMT). TMT will employ an ac-tively controlled segmented primary mirrorand laser adaptive optics to achieve a resolu-tion ten times greater than that of the Hub-ble Space Telescope. Its combination of a30 meter aperture and adaptive optics willmake it 100 times more sensitive than thelargest current telescopes, opening new sci-entific frontiers. The TMT is expected todetect and study the first luminous objectsin the Universe, follow the history of galaxyevolution over all of cosmic time, probe thedense cores of star forming regions, andstudy planets orbiting nearby stars.

At UBC research for the TMT not only fo-cuses on the far reaches of space but alsoon the far reaches of Earth’s atmosphere.Graduate student Thomas Pfrommer underProfessor Hickson’s supervision has built asodium lidar to study the sodium layer in theupper atmosphere 74 to 120 km above sealevel at the edge of space, the most powerfulsystem of its kind. Lidar probes the extent

The development and dissipation of a turbulenteddy in the sodium layer (85-87km) over thecourse of five minutes.

of the sodium layer in the upper atmosphereby bouncing a powerful laser and measuringthe time for the signal to return.

The properties of the sodium layer are socrucial for the TMT because most adaptiveoptics systems (including that planned forTMT) rely on an artificial star created by alaser that excites atoms in the sodium layerto correct for the effects of the Earth’s turbu-lent atmosphere. By adjusting a deformablemirror in the telescope, the adaptive opticssystem tries to bring the artificial star to thetightest possible focus, but it needs to makea correction for the distance to the artifi-cial star; hence, lidar is crucial to character-ize the variability in the sodium layer andgain the best possible performance from theTMT.

An artist’s impression of the Thirty Metre Tele-scope. Notice the truck and person at the baseof the dome. Credit: Thirty Metre TelescopeProject

Waves travel leftward along the surface of the water. The water flows toward the right. The critical region is the slight dimple in the surface abovethe top of the obstacle. The black-hole horizon lies at the left edge of the dimple (essentially at the left-edge of the image); the white-hole horizonlies at the right edge of the dimple.

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VOLUME 8 • ISSUE 1 PHYSICS&ASTRONOMY NEWS

TransitionsDerek Gagnier was promoted to HumanResources Manager.

Salena Li began her new role in the depart-ment as the Undergraduate Coordinator.

Theresa Liao joined the department as ournew Communications Coordinator.

Steve Carey joined Physics and Astronomyin the position of Engineering Technician inour machine shop.

Pavel Trochtchanovitch took over as ournew Electronics-Lab Manager.

Dave Muhlert started with us as as an Engi-neering Technician in the electronics lab.

Tyrone Strugnell started with the depart-ment in June as our new Storeperson.

Faculty and Staff AwardsDouglas Scott has been recognized by theAPS has an Outstanding Referee.

Steven Plotkin and Andrea Damascelliwere honoured as Killam Faculty ResearchJunior Fellows.

Congratulations to Derek Gagnier, whowas awarded the 2008 Physics & Astron-omy Staff Service Award at the department’sChristmas party on December 16, 2008.

Congratulations to Robert Raussendorf,who has been awarded an Alfred P. SloanResearch Fellowship.

Shaun Woodruff was awarded a Faculty ofScience Achievement Awards for his Her-culean efforts in the Hebb Demo room.

Jeff Young was awarded a Faculty of Sci-ence Achievement Award for five years oftireless service as department head.

Quick NewsWMAP papers get cited & cited . . .SPIRES publishes a list each year of themost highly cited articles in high energyphysics and related fields. This year thereare three papers by the WMAP team (whichincludes Mark Halpern, UBC) in the top tenand six WMAP papers in the top 50. Thisis the 5th year in a row with at least twoWMAP papers in the top 10.

SPIRES is a searchable online database ofparticle physics literature run by the Stan-

ford Linear Accelerator Center.

WMAP, the Wilkinson MicrowaveAnisotropy Probe, is a NASA Explorer mis-sion. WMAP produced the first full-skymap of the microwave sky with a resolu-tion of under a degree, about the angularsize of the moon. The patterns in the mapresult from well-understood physical pro-cesses that happened when the universe wasyoung. By matching the patterns in themap to the physics we know, WMAP hasproduced a convincing consensus on thecontents of the universe, erasing lingeringdoubts about the existence of dark energy,and severely limiting the density of hot darkmatter.

Paving stone makes it as a “Cover Stone”A representation of a Feynman diagramcarved into stone is featured on the coverof the latest issue of Electronic Journal ofTheoretical Physics. This stone is one of thespecially carved pavers that grace the frontentrance of the Hennings Building. Each ofthe six pavers depict some important aspectof Physics & Astronomy.

Lorne Whitehead’s “bright” idea getsfundingA University of British Columbia inventionthat brings natural sunlight into multi-flooroffice buildings will receive up to $2.1 mil-lion in funding from Sustainable Develop-ment Technology Canada (SDTC).

Lorne Whitehead and colleagues in theStructured Surface Physics Laboratory de-veloped the patented Solar Canopy Illumi-nation System. The system consists of ex-terior facades with specially designed arraysof mirrors to track and collect the sunlight;and customizable light guides to bring thelight into the building replacing traditionallight fixtures. Dimmable flourescent lightswithin these guides provide the illuminationwhen there is no sun.

A UBC spin-off company, SunCentral Inc.,has recently been established to carry out sixdemonstration projects in Canada, includinga prototype system that has already been in-stalled in a building on the British ColumbiaInstitute of Technology campus.

CFI funds Superconducting Electron Ac-celeratorCFI has funded the new “SuperconductingElectron Accelerator at TRIUMF” with an

award of $17,761,281 (99.7% of requestedfunds!) to build the new $52M high in-tensity electron accelerator at TRIUMF. Thedevelopment of this accelerator plays a cen-tral role in TRIUMF’s next five year plan re-leased in July 2008.

The superconducting RF accelerator tech-nology at the heart of this accelerator is keyto many research programs, from the ra-dioactive beam expansion program at ISAC,to the International Linear Collider, as wellas research in medical imaging, particle as-trophysics and materials science. Many re-search programs will be centered upon thisnew accelerator technology being developedby our researchers here on the UBC campus.

In the Physics and Astronomy Department,Rob Kiefl, Jens Dilling, Chris Hearty, An-drew MacFarlane, Tom Mattison, JanisMcKenna, and Lia Merminga are among the19 co-applicants on this new CFI project.

NWAPSIn May the Department of Physics and As-tronomy hosted nearly three hundred physi-cists from throughout the Pacific North-west at the Eleventh Annual Meeting ofthe American Physical Society’s NorthwestSection. Janis McKenna spearheaded thelocal effort with lots of help from PHASand TRIUMF faculty, staff and students.The program covered everything from dis-tant galaxies to the potential discoveries atthe LHC and lots in between.

New technique improves extraction ofDNA from highly contaminated samplesThe research team led by Dr. Andre Marzialirecently developed a method, co-inventedwith Lorne Whitehead, to purify DNA fromhighly contaminated samples while mini-mizing the risk of unnecessary loss. Thistechnique utilizes the physical characteris-tics of DNA (electric charge, length and flex-ibility) to extract DNA from samples thatnormally would not withstand conventionalextraction methods to yield clean DNA foranalysis. This method is now being com-mercialized and expected to have a greatimpact on various fields including foren-sic analysis, disease/pathogen identification,fossil testing, and so on. Original researcharticle was published in the November 3rdissue of the Proceedings of the NationalAcademy of Sciences (PNAS).

Quick News continues on page 7.

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PHYSICS&ASTRONOMY NEWS VOLUME 8 • ISSUE 1

Back Page: Erich Vogt’s Last Classby Jess Brewer

On Friday 4 December 2009, Erich Vogt gave his last lectureto his last class of Physics 107 students. The lecture was alsoattended by many generations of previous recipients of the fa-mous Vogt didactic magic in first-year Honours Physics at UBC,as well as many of his colleagues, including most of those whotaught beside him in the forty-five years he served as the launch-ing pad for innumerable Physics careers. To learn more aboutErich please consult the feature article in last year’s newsletter(http://www.phas.ubc.ca/∼heyl/newsletterJan09.pdf)

We would like to encourage you to visithttp://musr.physics.ubc.ca/∼jess/Vogt/ to learn more.

A plaque was presented to Erich by the Department of Physics & As-tronomy as a token of appreciation for forty-five years of teaching FirstYear Physics at UBC.

Erich’s colleagues (David Measday and Jess Brewer) congratulate him.

Erich Vogt is surrounded by the beloved students that he has served fornearly half a century.

Department of Physics and AstronomyUniversity of British Columbia6224 Agricultural RoadVancouver BC V6T 1Z1 Canada