The space shuttle Atlantis is scheduled to launch July 8. It will be the final mission for NASA’s shuttle program. The shuttle will be carrying an experiment into orbit for North Carolina State University researchers. Reporters can contact these NC State experts for more information about the experiment, the role that the shuttle program and the International Space Station have played in scientific research, the history of the shuttle program and the future of space exploration. Continue Reading »
Designing fiber optic networks involves finding the most efficient way to connect phones and computers that are in different places – a costly and time-consuming process. Now researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a model that can find optimal connections 10,000 times more quickly, using less computing power to solve the problem. Continue Reading »
Most parents are unaware of the risks their teenagers face in the workplace and could do more to help them understand and prepare for those hazards, according to a new study. Continue Reading »
Researchers from North Carolina State University have designed a sensor that can measure strain in structural materials and is capable of healing itself – an important advance for collecting data to help us make informed decisions about structural safety in the wake of earthquakes, explosions or other unexpected events. Continue Reading »
Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a new method that can accurately predict the behavior of players in online role-playing games. The tool could be used by the game industry to develop new game content, or to help steer players to the parts of a game they will enjoy most. Continue Reading »
A North Carolina State University astrophysicist hopes to gain better understanding of one of nature’s most elusive particles – neutrinos – as well as the supernovae that spawn them.
Dr. James Kneller, professor of physics at NC State, has received a five-year, $750,000 Early Career Research Program grant from the Department of Energy to study how neutrinos interact with one another in extremely hot and dense environments, such as those found in galactic supernovae.
Neutrinos come in one of three types which scientists refer to as “flavors.” Over the past decade, physicists have found that a neutrino’s flavor is not fixed at the moment it is created; rather neutrinos can change from one flavor to another as they move along. By determining how and why this flavor mixing occurs, scientists will be able to gain a better understanding of the forces at work inside galactic supernovae, and will also be able to fill in some of the blanks concerning the properties of neutrinos.
Kneller’s project involves improving the way scientists detect neutrino signals. This could help researchers analyze the particles more accurately and gain critical insight into both the particles themselves and what happens in the core of a star during a supernova explosion.
The Department of Physics is part of North Carolina State University’s College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences.
-peake-