Channel 1 Networks
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Not your mother’s math prof to speak at #CU
Mar 8th
Offbeat math professor Edward Burger to speak at CU-Boulder March 15 If you despise math and the sight of an equation makes you physically ill, Professor Edward Burger of Baylor University and Williams College may be able to heal you during a talk at the University of Colorado Boulder on Thursday, March 15. Burger’s talk, titled “Zero to Infinity: Great Moments in the History of Numbers,” will be held at 6 p.m. in the Mathematics Building room 100. The talk is free and open to the public and pizza and refreshments will be served afterward. Burger plans to answer a number of questions in his lecture, including whether humans are the only animals that can count, how the desire to count made it possible for William Shakespeare to write his plays, and whether negative numbers were invented to explain Burger’s own checking account balance.
Burger, who is on the record as saying “no one in their right mind would ever go to a math talk,” is not your run-of-the mill math educator. He has worked as a stand-up comedian, wrote jokes for Jay Leno in the late 1980s, starred in an episode of NBC’s “Science of the Winter Olympics” in 2010 that won him a prestigious Telly Award, and most recently is being featured in “The Science of NHL Hockey” on NBC News. “The talk is intended as whirlwind tour of the history of numbers and watch them grow from practical tools used by ancient shepherds to practical tools used to drive the digital age,” said Burger, who was named was named Vice-Provost of Strategic Educational Initiatives at Baylor University in 2011. “If you love the humanities, sciences, social sciences, medical science, business, engineering or anything involving human thought, this talk is for you.” Burger is considered by many to be the nation’s leader in math education. In 2006 Reader’s Digest named him “America’s Best Math Teacher.” In 2010 he was named the winner of the Robert Foster Cherry Award for Great Teaching by Baylor University, an award that carried a $250,000 prize and is believed to be the largest and most prestigious award in higher education teaching in the nation across all disciplines. 
In 2010 the Huffington Post named Burger as one of the world’s 100 “Game-Changers,” a list that included “innovators, visionaries, mavericks and leaders who are re-shaping their fields and changing the world.” He also is an associate editor of the American Mathematical Monthly and of Math Horizons Magazine. In a 2005 Boston Public Library lecture on topology — the study of the properties of geometric figures or solids that remain unchanged during stretching or bending — he demonstrated that it was possible to tie a six-foot rope snugly around his right ankle and then his left ankle, take off his pants, turn them inside out and put them back on without ever cutting the rope. He once had 600 beach balls poured from the balcony of a packed auditorium at Williams College in Williamstown, Mass. onto the heads of audience members to demonstrate a math principle. Burger’s deep passion for math is founded on the premise that it should be made lively, fun and educational. “The idea is to entertain and enlighten,” he said. “My goal is get people to have fun thinking, have a better feeling about math, and to look at things in a slightly different way.” Burger is the author of more than 35 research articles, 12 books and 15 video series. He has delivered more than 400 lectures and appeared on more than 40 radio and TV programs, including ABC News Now and National Public Radio. He has been a visiting mathematics professor at CU-Boulder three times. His upcoming book, “The 5 Elements of Effective Thinking,” offers students, teachers, business people and life-long learners ways of being more creative and innovative. It is being published this summer by Princeton University Press.
Boulder police: Bedroom sneak snatched laptop
Mar 6th
Sketch of burglary suspect released; police caution residents about computer thefts
Boulder police are looking for a male suspect who entered a residence in the 1200 block of College Avenue and reportedly stole a laptop computer and jewelry from the residence. A composite sketch of the suspect is attached.
The burglary took place on Sunday, Feb. 26. A female victim told police she awoke to find an unknown male standing in her bedroom. When she asked him what he was doing there, he claimed that one of her roommates had told him he could stay there because he had been drinking. None of the victim’s roommates knew the suspect, who left the residence as the victim was attempting to find out who had allowed him to enter.
The suspect is a black male who is described as:
- In his early 20s
- 5’07” tall
- 160 pounds, medium build
- Clean shaven
- Shaved head
It appears the residence had been left unlocked.
Boulder police are investigating a number of burglaries in which residents have left their homes unlocked. Police remind residents to lock their doors, even if they’re only going to be gone for a little while. It’s also a good idea to keep curtains closed, so that prospective thieves can’t see into the home. There are a number of computer applications available that allow a laptop to be located through a GPS system, and police encourage laptop owners to sign up for or purchase this type of program.
The case number is 12-2647.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Kristin Weisbach at 303-441-4474.Those who have information but wish to remain anonymous may contact the Northern Colorado Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477) or 1-800-444-3776. Tips can also be submitted through the Crime Stoppers website at www.crimeshurt.com. Those submitting tips through Crime Stoppers that lead to the arrest and filing of charges on a suspect(s) may be eligible for a cash reward of up to $1,000 from Crime Stoppers.
CU Boulder — LA air pollution has a surprise problem
Mar 2nd
Gasoline worse than diesel when it
comes to some types of air pollution
comes to some types of air pollution
The exhaust fumes from gasoline vehicles contribute more to the production of a specific type of air pollution — secondary organic aerosols — than those from diesel vehicles, according to a new study by scientists from the University of Colorado Boulder’s Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, or CIRES, NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory and other colleagues.
“The surprising result we found was that it wasn’t diesel engines that were contributing the most to the organic aerosols in L.A.,” said CIRES research scientist Roya Bahreini who led the study and also works at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s ESRL. “This was contrary to what the scientific community expected.”
SOAs are tiny particles that are formed in air and make up typically 40-60 percent of the aerosol mass in urban environments. This is important because fine-particle pollution can cause human health effects, such as heart or respiratory problems.
Due to the harmful nature of these particles and the fact that they can also impact the climate and can reduce visibility, scientists want to understand how they form, Bahreini said. Researchers had already established that SOAs could be formed from gases released by gasoline engines, diesel engines and natural sources — biogenic agents from plants and trees — but they had not determined which of these sources were the most important, she said.
“We needed to do the study in a location where we could separate the contribution from vehicles from that of natural emissions from vegetation,” Bahreini said.
Los Angeles proved to be an ideal location. Flanked by an ocean on one side and by mountains to the north and the east, it is, in terms of air circulation, relatively isolated, Bahreini said. At this location, the scientists made three weekday and three weekend flights with the NOAA P3 research aircraft, which hosted an arsenal of instruments designed to measure different aspects of air pollution.
“Each instrument tells a story about one piece of the puzzle,” Bahreini said. “Where do the particles come from? How are they different from weekday to weekend, and are the sources of vehicle emissions different from weekday to weekend?”
From their measurements, the scientists were able to confirm, as expected, that diesel trucks were used less during weekends, while the use of gasoline vehicles remained nearly constant throughout the week. The team then expected that the weekend levels of SOAs would take a dive from their weekday levels, Bahreini said.
But that was not what they found.
Instead, the levels of SOA particles remained relatively unchanged from their weekday levels. Because the scientists knew that the only two sources for SOA production in this location were gasoline and diesel fumes, the study’s result pointed directly to gasoline as the key source.
“The contribution of diesel to SOA is almost negligible,” Bahreini said. “Even being conservative, we could deduce from our results that the maximum upper limit of contribution to SOA would be 20 percent.”
That leaves gasoline contributing the other 80 percent or more of the SOA, Bahreini said. The finding was published online March 1 in Geophysical Research Letters. “While diesel engines emit other pollutants such as soot and nitrogen oxides, for organic aerosol pollution they are not the primary culprit,” Bahreini said.
If the scientists were to apply their findings from the L.A. study to the rest of the world, a decrease in the emission of organic species from gasoline engines may significantly reduce SOA concentrations on a global scale as well. This suggests future research aimed at understanding ways to reduce gasoline emissions would be valuable.
The study was funded by NOAA’s Climate Change and Air Quality Programs, the California Air Resources Board and the National Science Foundation.
CIRES coauthors on the team include Joost de Gouw, Carsten Warneke, Harald Stark, William Dube, Jessica Gilman, Katherine Hall, John Holloway, Anne Perring, Joshua Schwarz, Ryan Spackman and Nicholas Wagner.
