Physics

Talking to the Elephant in the Room—The Importance of Scientific Communication & Why We Should Care

1Dec

By andoverscienceandtechreviewNo Comments

Commentary, Physics

Talking to the Elephant in the Room—The Importance of Scientific Communication & Why We Should Care

By Cleo Xu '26 Sitting on the chairs in upper left Commons, hand poised above my keyboard, I realized that I had no idea how to write a scientific article. With a background in writing fiction, I was drawn to journalism because it would be an opportunity to interact with the people whose human emotions, motives, and conditions are central to my imaginative plots. From the beginning, I found interviewing a more appealing process than typing the words. I wanted to meet people with novel thoughts, interesting takes, and equal if not more passion for the same thing I do: science and technology. Writing for Andover Science & Tech Review was everything I had expected and everything I hadn’t. I was qualified enough to understand a student’s research even if some difficult mathe...

Conor Scheidt ‘25’s Simulations of Diffusions and Interactions between Molecules Within a Lattice Structure

1Dec

By andoverscienceandtechreviewNo Comments

Chemistry, Physics

Conor Scheidt ‘25’s Simulations of Diffusions and Interactions between Molecules Within a Lattice Structure

By Cleo Xu '26 In the summer of 2024 and continuing into the school year of 2024-2025, Conor Scheidt ‘25 worked on ways to model the diffusion and interaction of molecules with mentor Todd Gingrich. Traditionally, this is done by considering molarity—the moles of molecules per liter of volume. However, Scheidt realized that sometimes interesting chemical reactions are “averaged” out using this method, which results in a smooth curve. To avoid getting an averaged function, he considered analyzing individual molecules, or more specifically, the different states in which a given number of molecules can be. This method is not restricted to just microscopic particles, the generalization can also be used in modeling the number within a species in biology or even the cells within our body.&nbs...

Astronomy Club Launches Build a CubeSat Challenge

1Dec

By andoverscienceandtechreviewNo Comments

Physics

Astronomy Club Launches Build a CubeSat Challenge

By Niki Tavakoli '27 Astronomy Club has an ambitious schedule planned for the 2024-2025 school year. Aiming for frequent meetings, they plan to host a mixture of meetings for experienced astronomers, lectures on cool astronomy topics, casual meetings for interested beginners, get-togethers using Andover’s small telescopes, and meetings where club members can compete in the MIT BeaverWorks Build a CubeSat Challenge. The ultimate goal of the Build a CubeSat Challenge is to build a fully functioning satellite as a team. The board of astronomy club has begun working on the project: the first step is to participate in a course to learn the coding and software-related skills necessary to construct a satellite, hardware skills like learning about the cameras necessary to observe the stars, ...

1Dec

By andoverscienceandtechreviewNo Comments

Physics

A Life Destined For Teaching: Tracey Golini, Instructor in Physics

By Zachary Yuan '27 Since arriving at Andover in 2016, Tracey Golini has held many roles: teaching physics, working in admissions, and serving as a complimentary house counselor at Eaton Cottage until last year. Her contribution to education is built on a foundation of hands-on learning; Golini has worked in laboratories as a laboratory engineer, as well as publishing papers with graduate students before switching to an educational career. Raised in Rochester, New York, also known as the ‘World Capital of Imaging’, Golini initially pursued a medical career at the University of Rochester before switching to a career in engineering and optics. “There were a lot of jobs in optics in lots of industries… My future boss called during the summer before my senior year and offered me a...

18Jun

By andoverscienceandtechreviewNo Comments

Physics, Technology

“Between the Heat Death of the Universe and Tomorrow” —An Intro to Conor Scheidt’s Post-Quantum Cryptography Project

By: Cleo Xu ‘26 CSC 600 is an independent study course offered at Phillips Academy Andover. This course allows students to design their own project by drawing skills learned from previous courses in both computer science and mathematics. Students spend a significant amount of time self-studying and reading through papers and documentations. At the end of the course, students turn in their final product either by making a presentation or writing a paper or blog, some of these papers have been published in scientific journals and presented at conferences. Have you ever thought about who or what might be looking at your personal information while you stare at the screen? Or what might be protecting you from those dangerous leaks? Probably not that often–to use Conor’s words: “We take secu...

18Jun

By andoverscienceandtechreviewNo Comments

Physics, Technology

The Future of Plasma Physics and Quantum Computing: An Interview with Michael May ‘11 (PAA)

By: Niki Tavakoli ‘27 Michael May ‘11 is a physicist currently working at the Plasma Physics Program in Princeton. He specializes in the use of quantum computers to simulate plasma behavior, and is currently working on a project aimed at rewriting fundamental equations in order to make quantum computer simulations of plasma more accurate in the hopes that they’d be an alternative to our current solutions. May joined Andover as a new upper from a rural town. Though he wasn’t able to take many higher-level math classes, he did take the Physics 400 sequence. However, it wasn’t until college that physics truly began to interest him. May elaborated further on his physics journey. “I was not particularly excited by [Physics 400], but I guess I was hoping that when I went to college that...

NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART): Hitting the Bullseye in Planetary Defense Development

1Jun

By andoverscienceandtechreviewNo Comments

Physics, Technology

NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART): Hitting the Bullseye in Planetary Defense Development

By Logan Eskildsen In an age of rapid, multifaceted technological development, aerospace organizations continue to investigate practical solutions to issues that the cosmos, specifically asteroids, may impose on our planet. Among these fascinating developments, a collection of scientists from NASA and John Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory made a headlining breakthrough with their Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), surfacing global news in September 2022. Tasked with creating a device to mitigate the paths of near-Earth objects (NEOs) in November 2021, the team devised a plan to collide a human-made spacecraft into a nearby asteroid and observe if the impact yielded significant changes. Didymos, meaning “twin” in Greek and hence the derivation of “double” within t...

Op-Ed: Is it Time to Give Up on Nuclear?

9Feb

By johnmoran0No Comments

Physics, Technology

Op-Ed: Is it Time to Give Up on Nuclear?

By John Moran For nearly seventy years, the prospect of a nuclear world has existed. The experiments with Chicago Pile-1, the first functioning nuclear reactor, displayed the near limitless power that can be produced through nuclear means. Yet, after all these years, the world is still extremely limited in its use of nuclear energy. Nuclear energy throughout history has been shown to be efficient, powerful, and relatively clean. However, due to fears that it is more dangerous and dirty than already established fossil fuels, nuclear power is largely ignored and therefore underdeveloped. Now, what is the validity of these fears, and what could come of the nuclear energy industry if we committed to investing more into the field? Nuclear energy often evokes images of public health ...